Shortly after Microsoft went public in 1986, Bill Gates became the youngest billionaire in the world at age 31. Since the tech legend doesn't have too many "extravagant tastes," he told Ellen DeGeneres on The Ellen Show, his spending habits didn't change much when he started making big money.
He did, however, splurge on a luxury car: a used Porsche 911 supercar. "That was an indulgence," Gates told DeGeneres.
The car, which he bought when Microsoft was based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, wasn't just for show: Gates loved to put its speed to the test and race it in the desert. His partner Paul Allen once had to bail him out of jail after one particularly reckless ride, according to a Time profile from 1997.
Gates has since sold the Porsche 911, but he's added a few more fast cars to his collection, including a Porsche 930 Turbo, a Jaguar XJ6 and a Ferrari 348.
As for his second big ticket item, "eventually, for my travel, I got a plane," he told DeGeneres, "which is a huge indulgence."
He's not the only billionaire who has splurged on a private plane. Mark Cuban, John Paul DeJoria and Tilman Fertitta have all made the same investment. At the end of the day, "time is the one asset we simply don't own," Cuban told Men's Fitness. That's why a "brutally expensive" private plane that "saves me hours and hours" is completely worth the price, he says.
What Gates has that the other billionaires may not also have, though, is "a trampoline room," he told DeGeneres. It has, he assured her, "a very high ceiling."
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