These royals sure travel in style. When do they have time to work? It’s the 21st century after all–everybody, even the super rich. work, work, work. It’s part of the capitalist ethos. Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Ballmer, Beyonce and Oprah–they’re all at work early and often. But Prince William and Duchess Kate? Well, think of it this way: they star in the biggest reality TV show of all time, in the sense that their jobs are to be themselves. Sure they have some official duties, but nothing they get a substantial check for. They mostly live off inheritance and investment. Here’s how.
Princess Diana left her sons about $15 million when she died, plus some nice dresses and stuff they occasionally auction off to pay the chef. But the income from that nest egg won’t have you living like a king. Enter this thing called “The Duchy of Cornwall.” This is awesome. It’s a bunch of property and investments that William’s dad Prince Charles controls. The Duchy of Cornwall is his birthright and it’s worth about $1.2 billion, which means it pays a nice little dividend of $35 million a year–depending on the markets, of course. And here’s the awesome: The Duchy of Cornwall was acquired by King Edward III in 1337! The eldest son of the current King or Queen is always–or at least for the past 700 years–given control of the Duchy. And if there’s still trouble making it all work–making sure the whole dozen-strong retinue gets paid at the end of the month–the Queen can slip William a little something the way grandmothers do. She gets an allowance of $60 million a year from the government–and the Duchy of Lancaster.
