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Being a billionaire sometimes means losing billions

Don't feel bad for Jack Ma. To be sure, the Chinese entrepreneur had a rough week in the stock market, watching his holdings drop $1.4 billion.

Jack Ma: When you have $1 billion, that's not your money, that's trust society gives you 04:03

It's likely that despite the loss he'll still be able to go out to eat, avoid laying off personal servants, and perhaps still have enough left to buy a small country. Ma's stake in the e-commerce company Alibaba (BABA) might have taken a blow, but he is still worth more than $26 billion.

And he has hardly had the worst luck among billionaires who ran into some bad fortune on Wall Street.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos (AMZN) lost an estimated $8 billion in the market in 2014, according to Bloomberg, which keeps track of that sort of thing. And casino mogul Sheldon Adelson lost even more last year -- about $9 billion.

China's richest man Jack Ma isn't scared of his country's slowing economy 01:03

Being a billionaire and losing billions requires some perspective.

You might feel bad if the $20 bill you just got out of the ATM fell out of your hand and got carried away in the wind. But you'd likely carry on.

While a billion or two or five disappearing might seem mind-blowing, it is paper wealth -- a number that rises and falls with the market, some days more sharply than others.

It's hard to say exactly how bad Facebook (FB) founder Mark Zuckerberg felt in 2012 when he watched the value of his stake in his company drop by more than $7 billion in the two months after it went public.

Chance are he understood the flows follow the ebbs. The stock market gives, takes, and then, gives some more.

Zuckerberg's billions have more than doubled since then with the rise in value of Facebook stock.

Perhaps the plight of wrestling mogul Vince McMahon is a bit more sympathetic. One day he was a billionaire. And then, just like the rest of us, he wasn't.

In one day in May, the value of his shares in his WWE wrestling empire dropped by $350 million into the $750 million range. And just like that, McMahon was no longer a billionaire. Still rich, mind you, just not a billionaire.

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