Mexican businessman, Carlos Slim, was announced the richest man in the world, by Forbes magazine, today.

He has half a billion more dollars than Bill Gates and a staggering 6.5 billion more than Warren Buffett.

When the prestigious American business magazine released its 2010 list, the Mexican telecoms tycoon became the first person from a developing country to be the world's richest.

Slim's holdings in cellphone businesses recovered value recently, lifting his estimated fortune to $53.5 billion, said Forbes. This moved him past Microsoft founder Bill Gates and investor Warren Buffett.

The world's richest man first showed an interest in business ventures when he was just 10 years old. The young Slim would sell drinks and snacks to his family to earn a few pesos profit when he could.

As a child, he even used to keep accounts of what he earned and spent, and invested in government bonds.

At 70 years old, more than 50 years later, Slim has built a wealth of a guesstimated $53.5 billion and his widespread business empire boasts a massive range of top Mexican department stores, telecoms operators, hotels, restaurants, oil services, construction and banking. He also has investments internationally with retailer Saks and the New York Times Co.

Some have said that he has used monopolistic control to build his fortune, but Slim himself has a simple view on wealth:

"Wealth is like an orchard," he said to a reporter in 2007, "with the orchard, what you have to do is make it grow, reinvest to make it bigger, or diversify into other areas."

This wise advice from Slim should be followed, along with his recommendations recently that now is "the moment to invest" in Mexico.

He praised the Mexican government's economic policies and said the favorable exchange rate, low interest rates and promotion of fiscal stability, all add up to make for a great opportunity to invest in Mexico.