What Does a Billion Dollars Look Like?

How many times have you heard someone reference a large amount of money and imagine it to be a huge pile of cash sitting in an abandoned storage container? Truth is, we imagine huge sums of money to take up a lot of space but it doesn’t.

So, what does a billion dollars look like?

A Breakdown of What a Billion Dollars Looks Like

To fully understand what a million, billion or even a trillion dollars looks like you have to understand each bill, starting with the $100 bill.

$100

Everyone has seen a $100 bill at some point in their lives. Most large-sum transactions are dealt in $100 bills. They are fairly common and are the same thickness, size and shape as a $1 bill. $100 doesn’t have much pull in society today but it can make a difference financially.

For $100 you can usually purchase a substantial amount of groceries. You could also have a nice steak dinner out (with adult beverages). $100 is also the average monthly cell phone bill in the U.S. We spend 100s daily.

$10,000

Now that you have a good sense of the $100 bill, think about a stack of $100 bills an inch high. This is what $10,000 looks like. $10,000 isn’t as easy to come by either. The average American has to work at least three months to earn $10,000 (some have to work practically an entire year).

With $10,000 you can buy a used car and most used forms of transportation period (motorcycles, small boats, jet skis, etc). $10,000 can also be used as a substantial down payment on big purchases, like a house.

$1,000,000

A million dollars doesn’t look as impressive as you think it would. In fact, $1 million (in $100 bills) wouldn’t even fill up a steel briefcase (like the movies). A sad fact is most Americans won’t make $1 million in their lifetime. However, if you received $1 million you may be a bit disappointed by how it looked it a briefcase.

Many people strive for a net worth of $1 million. With $1 million you could get a really nice car (like the new Tesla) or buy a beautiful home. You could also make a substantial investment with $1 million.

$1,000,000,000

Ten crates (48x48x48) of $100 bills is the answer to “what does a billion dollars look like?” Remember the dock scene in your favorite mafia movie? They are usually wheeling around those square boxes. Ten of those boxes full of $100 bills is what $1 billion looks like.

To put $1 billion into perspective, think about the Trump Administration’s cumulative net worth of $11 billion. That is equal to 110 48x48x48 crates of $100 bills. An even more shocking fact is that Bill Gates is worth about 80 crates by himself.

$1,000,000,000,000

If you were wondering about what $1 billion looks like you may also wonder about $1 trillion. You don’t hear about trillions of dollars often (usually when they are talking about the national debt or the budget). To visualize $1 trillion you have to think crates again. Think of $100,000,000 (which is just one crate) and picture 100 rows of these crates. That is what $1 trillion looks like.

Apple is worth about 70 percent of the pile that is $1 trillion. The U.S. national debt is about $18 trillion (that’s 100 rows of $100,000,000 18 times). That is mind blowing!

Movies often portray large sums of money (ransoms, etc) to be a lot more than they actually are. Meanwhile, our national debt is made to seem like a manageable amount of money. Next time someone starts throwing around statistics about cash remember what they actually look like.

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