Why Donald Trump would still be a billionaire even if he never worked a day of his life

According to a lengthy analysis by a correspondent for The National Journal, real estate mogul turned Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was always going to be a billionaire - whether he worked for it or not.

As reporter S.V. Dáte notes, Trump took over his father Fred's $200 million real estate development business in 1974. Date estimates that Trump's share of the empire (he has three siblings) was $40 million.

"Had the celebrity busi­ness­man and Re­pub­lic­an pres­id­en­tial can­did­ate in­ves­ted his even­tu­al share of his fath­er's real-es­tate com­pany in­to a mu­tu­al fund of S&P 500 stocks in 1974, it would be worth nearly $3 bil­lion today," writes Date.

Though Trump says his net worth is $8.7 billion, Forbes puts it at $4 billion.

In 1988, however, Forbes estimated Trump's net worth to be $200 million, an amount which Date says could've grown to more than $8 billion by now had Trump dropped his fortune into an index fund.