Bill Gates and Warren Buffett aren't as rich as you might think...

Sure, with fortunes in excess of $50 billion each, Gates and Buffett are the richest Americans today... by far. But a new book about the rich shows their wealth doesn't stack up to the greatest fortunes in American history.

In fact, John D. Rockefeller tops the "All-Time Richest Americans" list. (This list appears in a new book called All the Money in the World, edited by Peter Bernstein and Annalyn Swan.) At his peak, in today's dollars, Rockefeller's oil fortune would have been worth more than $300 billion.

Next on the list is steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, at $280 billion, followed by Cornelius Vanderbilt, at $168 billion. While a true apples-to-apples comparison is difficult, it's clear these industrialists were far richer back then than the richest men today.

One big difference between now and back then is, today you can live very much like the ultra-rich, without actually being ultra-rich.

Back in the 19th century, a flush toilet or a daily hot bath might be an unimaginable luxury, available only to the super wealthy. But today, the "regular" rich can live very much like billionaires...

For example, the ultra-rich might take a private jet to their Caribbean vacation villas. The regular rich can fly first-class, stay in a five-star resort, and have a similar experience.

But can money buy you happiness? And if you're ultra-rich, can you make yourself happier than everyone else? Daniel Gilbert, a Harvard University professor, actually tried to figure this out.

He concluded: "Wealth increases human happiness when it lifts people out of abject poverty and into the middle class. But it does little to increase happiness thereafter."

He said, "Americans who earn $50,000 per year are much happier than Americans who earn $10,000 per year. But Americans who earn $5 million per year are not much happier than those who earn $100,000 per year."

You may find it hard to believe. Or not. Ross Perot found this out firsthand. "Right after my company got successful, as a young man I met some of the wealthiest people in the world. I found that they were such unhappy, lonely people... I learned that money and happiness are unrelated."

You may think that reading about making money is crass. I personally find it interesting...

I've learned about making money in school (I took education as far as you can). And I've learned about making money from reading and meeting with extremely wealthy people. I can tell you, I've learned far more from the stories of people who made it on their own than I have from any finance textbook.

From All the Money In the World, I learned Bill Gates and Warren Buffett aren't the richest Americans in history... living rich is more in reach than it's ever been... and lastly, being rich won't necessarily make you happy.

If you're looking to increase your wealth, I've found the best way is to learn from those who have done it themselves. Check out All the Money in The World... and other books on investors and entrepreneurs who made it on their own.

Those books are better than textbooks on how to safely grow your wealth.

Good investing (and reading),

P.S. You can find more stories like these in our DailyWealth recommended reading list.

Editor's note: Steve Sjuggerud is a regular contributor to DailyWealth, a free investment newsletter focused on the world's best contrarian opportunities. We write with a simple belief in mind: You don't have to take big risks to make big money with your investments.