Paula grabs the pile of newspapers. She must surely be one of the 350 richest people in Britain by now! She has made so much money from teaching billionaires to meditate in luxury resorts: £340m to be exact. But as she leafs through the Sunday Times Magazine her hopes fade - and there at the bottom of the list is Lewis Hamilton with £350m. Drat!

At the top of the list are Gopi Hinduja and his family, with £37.196bn. Their interests include oil, chemicals, cars and IT. Next comes Sir Leonard Blavatnik, who has made £29.246bn from companies such as DeezerA French music streaming service. .

Positions three and four are occupied by people involved in football clubs. David and Simon Reuben, worth £24.997bn, own 10% of Newcastle United; Sir Jim Ratcliffe, with £23.519bn, owns 25% of Manchester United. Next comes Sir James Dyson, whose £17.2bn comes mainly from vacuum cleaners.

The Sunday Times adds as a caveatWarning. In Latin it means let him beware. that these are conservative estimates of their minimum wealth.

Many of them have profited from family fortunes built over decades, if not centuries. Barnaby and Merlin Swire, listed at number six with £17.2bn, run a Hong Kong-based company founded by their great-great-great-grandfather. The Duke of Westminster, with £10.127bn, owns most of the super-expensive Belgravia area of London, thanks to a marriage made by one of his ancestors in 1677.

But others on the rich list come from humble backgrounds and have made their money from very unglamorous things. Alfie Best's £947m fortune, which has increased by £202m in the past year, is based on caravan parks. He could soon be the UK's first Romany GypsyA Traveller group. Romany Gypsies have been in Britain from as long ago as 1515, following Roma migration across Europe out of India. billionaire.

John Bloor was a coal miner's son who left school at 15 and trained as a plasterer. He has made £3.396bn from building houses - the first before he was 20 - and Triumph motorbikes.

Sir Anwar Pervez worked seven days a week as a bus driver in Bradford after emigrating from India. He then built up a chain of convenience stores and is now worth £2.599bn.

Geoffrey Warren, owner of Cargiant, has made £2.552bn from used cars. The Shepherd family have made £1.104bn from Portaloos.

Jim and Sandy Easdale started working in their father's scrapyard while they were still at school; the family house was so small that they still shared a bedroom in their 20s.¹ As teenagers they worked for a taxi company which they later bought, before moving into property. Their wealth is put at £1.45bn.

Graham Kirkham began making and selling furniture from a room above a snooker hall. He now owns a large share of Iceland supermarkets, making him worth £1.145bn.  

Mark Dixon's first business was selling peatA dark brown substance made of decayed or decaying plants. It is sometimes used as fuel. from a wheelbarrow when he was a teenager; others have included a burger van and a vineyard, bringing him £923m. Alex Loven was also in his teens when he sold his first football goals and nets; he has now made £200m from them. And Tim Knowles was an 18-year-old shelf-stacker when he bought an old fishmonger's shop as the start of his property empire.

Can anyone be super-rich?    

Yes: Certainly, as long as they are super-focused and hard-working. The list includes many people who have started out with nothing and made a fortune by grasping whatever opportunities came their way.

No: You have to have a business brain, not just to make money but to keep it. People who inherit money or make it through talents like singing can end up with very little if they are badly advised.  

Or... Putting in the work you need to make a lot of money can put pressure on your relationships with friends and family - so it might be better to be poor and spend more time with them.