The world's millionaires club is getting bigger -- and its members decidedly richer

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chicago-world-wealth-rich-got-richer-jun24,0,339581.story

The Associated Press
8:47 AM CDT, June 24, 2008

The world's millionaires club is getting bigger -- and its members decidedly richer.

The number of people around the globe with at least $1 million in assets swelled by 6 percent last year to 10.1 million, according to the 12th annual World Wealth Report released Tuesday by Merrill Lynch & Co. and Capgemini Group, a consulting firm.

That means an additional 600,000 people became millionaires or richer even as problems tied to the U.S. credit crisis spread in the second half of the year.

The combined wealth of the millionaires' club meanwhile grew 9.4 percent to $40.7 trillion. Their average wealth, which didn't include primary homes, surpassed $4 million for the first time.

[Stinky The Clown]

1. Being a millionaire is sorta meaningless

NOBODY worth .... I dunno ..... even ten million gets to sit at the adult table when the truly rich get together. I think a net worth of 1 billion is a more meaningful break point.

Mere millionaires just ain't jack shit.

Do we wanna be as comfortable as a millionaire might be? Sure. Of course.

Do mere millionaires have any particular power or influence? Hahahahahaha. Not hardly.

[NNN0LHI]

2. Every millionaire I knows spends more time trying to hold onto it than enjoy it

A guy at a small factory where my daughter works hit a 13 million dollar lottery 4 or 5 years ago and is still working at the factory.

Don

[Nye Bevan]

6. A $13 million prize sounds like a lot, but

assume he picked the lump sum instead of the annuity- that cuts it down to $6.5mm.

Taxes then reduce this to about $3.9mm.

Invested at 4% per year this would yield $156,000 per year.

But then this is taxed- he will end up with about $94,000 per year of income. Which isn't bad, but may not be enough to retire for the rest of his life with- especially if he had to pay for his own medical insurance (which he would if he quit his job). And a pre-existing medical condition might make insurance impossible to get.

[NNN0LHI]

7. I think that is just about exactly what he did and ended up with

I know he took the lump sump for sure.

Don

[Hydra]

4. Well said

Inflation/devaluation is rapidly eroding the status of "Millionaire"- it's over half a million to buy a house in my area.

After all your expenses, you can certainly play a bit, but it's not enough to buy influence with.

On top of that, the REALLY rich act like you crashed their party.

[raccoon]

5. Agree--a million now is nothing to write home about.

Not that I'd mind being a millionaire, of course.

[The2ndWheel]

3. We keep playing their game, so, I don't see why they wouldn't win

They're only wealthy because, for some reason, we all seem to agree that what they have that makes them millionaires/whatever is worth something. We don't seem to want something else, we just want what they have. Then we seem to be shocked when we're still fighting the same class wars, poverty wars, tax wars, etc, over and over and over again, year after year, decade after decade, century after century. We just keep adding more people into the same set of rules.

[conspirator]

8. Wise words. The sun that shines in the sky is the same for rich and poor.

We are all in the same journey.
I once saw a bum in the street. He was sitting in a sofa someone threw away.
He was sitting and smoking a cigarrete in a stylish way, like a philosopher medidating.
He was smilling like he was the owner of the world. His smile was contagious.
People stopped puzzled, how could a homeless be so happy sitting there in an old sofa.
And no, he didn't look drunk or high.
A tourist even took a picture of him.
I thought, well, at this minute, this must me the happiest man in the whole world.

[Blue_Tires]

9. sometimes it feels like i'm the only one NOT making money

i know that perceptions isn't truth, but still.....