Poll Results

After much anticipation, we will finally announce the results of the poll...(drum roll)

 Although the poll is still open to votes, we are excited to announce that majority of the votes counted to investment with a million dollars. Followed close by pursuing dreams, holiday, charity, splurge, purchasing expensive vehicles and property. Surprisingly, we had the less votes for diamonds/golds. Is that hard to believe ? I guess there weren't so much female voters. 

There is still time to vote. If you want to change the results, please vote and give your input on how to spend a $1,000,000.


 

How many millionaires?

Wealth experts all agree that the world is creating more millionaires. Just how many? It all depends on who's measuring—and who defines "millionaire."
Capgemini and RBC Wealth Management released their World Wealth Report measuring the world's millionaires. The report said there were 920,000 new millionaires created in 2014, bringing the global total to 14.6 million[CNBC].

How many millionaires are there really? 

It turns out, the numbers depend largely on definitions of "millionaire." Specifically, while some studies measure people, others measure households. And while some only count "investible assets" as wealth, others include homes. 

Credit Suisse, for instance, says it defines millionaires as those with total wealth of $1 million or more. It says it measures both "financial" and "nonfinancial" wealth, in other words anyone with net assets of more than $1 million, i.e. your house, art collection and other assets.Capgemini, however, restricts its definition to those with more than $1 million in investible assets, which doesn't including primary residences. So if you have a house worth $1 million and an art collection worth $5 million, but investible assets of only $500,000, you don't make the cut. That results in a much lower count. 

This is not to say the methodologies are faulty. It's just that we don't have much visibility into exactly how the results are derived. Like estimates of billionaire net worth, the studies are useful as general guidelines. But when it comes to estimating individual wealth, whether for millionaires or billionaires, no study or list can be exact. 

This much we know for sure: The rich are not only getting richer, they're getting far more numerous.

- Don

Nouveau Riche

You will frequently see people mocking the nouveau riche, i.e., people who have recently acquired wealth, typically those perceived as ostentatious or lacking in good taste. (source: encyclopedia.com)

It's pretty easy to spot someone who has recently acquired wealth, especially if they were not previously wealthy. There are certain, dead giveaways because almost every nouveau riche does the same things. They splurge. They indulge. They flaunt their wealth. Usually, this involves spending money on things typically associated with 'being rich': expensive race cars, luxury designer clothing and accessories, property, artworks.

There's another similar term -"fashion victim", which refers to someone who is obsessed with wearing the latest trends, lacks any personal style and ends up looking like walking billboard. They're very easy to spot as they wearing a lot of the items which are "in" or popular this season, and more often than not they look extremely tacky wearing them. Fashion victims also usually buys only luxury goods like handbags, jewellery, watches, etc. An example of this would be the recent case of Christine Jiaxin Lee, a 21 year old Sydney student who is charged with fraud after a bank accidentally put $4.6 million in her account. Read more about this at: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-05/woman-arrested-at-sydney-airport-over-alleged-fraud/7385482

It's undeniable that suddenly coming into a large sum of wealth can be a very exhilarating experience. Sure, you could argue that maybe those people are just envious and you wouldn't be completely wrong. But, envious of what exactly? Their wealth? Both people of wealth and of lesser wealth engage in this, so there's an issue with your argument. Maybe it's an issue with society that we place so much importance on wealth and socioeconomic status.

 

- Anthony