Teenage Son of Billionaire Friedman Shuns Luxurious Lifestyle, Creates Own Business

Alexander Fridman, the 19-year-old son of billionaire Russian investor Mikhail Friedman, rents a $500 a month apartment on the outskirts of Moscow and uses the city’s high tech subway system to get to work, Bloomberg reported.

Alexander decided to try his hand at entrepreneurship over attending college, telling the news outlet that he believes he can “earn more money, and in a more clever way”.

Fridman’s father, Mikhail Fridman, built a $13.7 billion fortune after co-founding investment company Alfa Group.

Despite his father’s fortune, Fridman says he’s financially independent, supporting himself through a hookah distribution business and online marketing companies he founded.

Fridman is still relatively new to this humble lifestyle. He graduated from an English boarding school last year with plans to attend New York University’s Stern School of Business. He later decided that he would rather focus on being an entrepreneur than getting a business degree.

“I have friends who graduated from Yale and are 23 years old now and who earn $80,000 to $100,000 working 16 hours a day,” Fridman says. “You can earn more money, and in a more clever way.”

Fridman’s father, Mikhail, became Russia’s 11th-richest person after co-founding investment company Alfa Group. The company has stakes in supermarket owner X5 Retail Group and Russia’s fifth-biggest bank, according to Bloomberg. Mikhail told his son that he planned to donate his multibillion-dollar fortune to charity after his death instead of keeping it in the family, Alexander says.