Number of global millionaires grows
JIM KRANE, AP Business Writer
Tue Jun 20, 3:21 PM ET

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - The increasing ease of becoming a millionaire became clear Tuesday, with the announcement that the ranks of world millionaires had swelled to 8.7 million last year — half a million more than the population of New York City.

Millionaires also invested more aggressively, pouring cash into emerging markets and pulling it out of fixed income holdings, as their wealth reached $33.3 trillion, more than double U.S. economic output, a study by Merrill Lynch and consultancy Capgemini found.

The red-hot Middle East saw nearly 10 percent growth in millionaires — the world's fastest rate — with record oil revenues and soaring stock markets pushing 300,000 people over the million-dollar mark.

"This is becoming a very attractive place to invest," said Mones R. Bazzy, Merrill Lynch's head of Middle East private banking, based in the Gulf boomtown of Dubai. Bazzy spoke in a hotel conference room overlooking the world's newest international stock market, the futuristic arch-shaped Dubai International Financial Center.

One factor in the Middle East's growth in millionaires was the stock markets that spiked by more than 100 percent in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates last year. Thus far 2006, those markets have plunged by more than 50 percent, which Bazzy said may have since knocked a few millionaires off the list.

Worldwide, the number of millionaires has nearly doubled since Merrill Lynch found 4.5 million of them in 1996.

Last year's 6.5 percent growth in millionaires slowed slightly over last year's 6.6 percent, with the US and Europe slowing most alongside their cooling economies.

But the ranks of the ultra-rich — those worth more than $30 million — climbed by more than 10 percent to 85,400.

Merrill Lynch said the ultra-rich did better because they found "select pockets" of high-growth investments in Asia, Latin America and the Mideast, while most investors stuck with stodgy earnings in North America and Europe.

North America held a slight edge over Europe in the population of millionaires, with 2.9 million to Europe's 2.8 million. Asia counted 2.4 million, Latin America 300,000 and Africa 100,000.

The world's millionaires are increasingly branching out from their home countries, with 65 percent paying attention to foreign markets and 30 percent buying homes overseas, the study found.

Growth of private equity holdings in 2005 outlined an increasing preference for aggressive assets, with investors funneling cash into emerging markets, while unloading fixed-income bank deposits and bonds.

That phenomenon is only supposed to grow, as some $41 trillion is expected to be passed to heirs over the next four decades, and money managers saying more than 80 percent of inheritors will want to boost their international exposure.

Dubai might be one destination. Bazzy said the ease of investment and galloping economic growth in the mushrooming city was spurring the world's premier companies to set up businesses here.

"There are no unions, no taxes and administration is very easy. Barriers to entry are going lower and lower," Bazzy said. Overall, the UAE counts 59,000 millionaires, while neighboring Saudi Arabia had 80,000, Bazzy said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060620/ap_on_bi_ge/dubai_more_millionaires

The number of millionaires is a bit misleading. My three sons and I, but not my daughter, are all millionaires. When you take our assests and subtract our debits we all have well over a milliion dollars in total worth. That doesn't mean we have a million dollars in spendable cash lying around. The greatest part of our assests consist of real estate. My sons all have homes worth at least three quarters of a milliion dollars and two of them have professional practices worth more than a million each. My two homes are worth well over a million. The problem is, none of that is spendable.

Most millionaires today, at least in The States are people who bought property and saw it greatly increase in value. My house on Long Island has increased in value over 1,000% since I bought it and my condo in Florida went up about $250,000 in two years but unless I sell either or both of them they are just places to live.

Look about as you go to the mall or the supermarket. The person in front of you could well be a millionaire. He is shopping with you in Walmart because most of his million dollars is tied up in his house and perhaps an IRA for retirement.

Being a milliionaire is not all that uncommon in today's world.

Being a milliionaire is not all that uncommon in today's world.

Exactly, and it will only get easier with continued monetary inflation.

Being a milliionaire is not all that uncommon in today's world.bwwahahhaaaahaaa....what a gross misuse of the english language. Being a millionaire is very very unusual. It just more common then it was before. Don't kid yourself frogger you are upper middle or lower upper class. You have it quite easy compared to a very large majority of the world.

A friend of mine was independently wealthy and hurricain Ivan blew away his $600,000 home. Then some Yankee's bought the empty land for over 3 million dollars. He is a millionaire but his wife is always getting onto him because he wears jeans and a tee shirt to dinner restaurants. I guess that if you are a millionaire, you just do what you want to do. When we eat out he offers to pay and I never say no.

If you want to be really important then be a billionaire.

Oh, I'd settle for being a lowly millionaire.

I agree with Frogger on this one. For example, my grandfather would be considered a millionare. His house alone has to be worth well over a million dollars. Add his stock assets and wealth in the bank, I have no doubt that his value is well over a million. I think has mostly to do with the extremely sharp increase in property value in numerous locations. He bought his house in the late sixties for around $30,000. He owned one buisness that lasted around a year. Mostly though he did what most people don't do, put a lot of his income in savings. He spent most of his working life as an accountant(without a degree) working at a very small trucking company that collapsed into bankruptcy.
Follow his lead instead of my other grandfather's, who owned numerous buisnesses that collapsed, invented a typesetting method but didn't patent it, and spent his life working for himself and never saving a dime, instead living for the now. He had to buy his mother's farm using my parent's as co-signers. Neither of my grandparents were privledged as they grew up and both of them enlisted into the army right out of high school. I find the two of them as excelent lessons.

bwwahahhaaaahaaa....what a gross misuse of the english language. Being a millionaire is very very unusual. It just more common then it was before. Don't kid yourself frogger you are upper middle or lower upper class. You have it quite easy compared to a very large majority of the world.

Frogger is right - being a millionare is 2 a penny.

Of course when you take into account the WHOLE world then sure it isn't, but we are not including them in the analysis

With the power of compounding it is much easier for people to become millionaires. All you have to do is practice good saving habits. There are lots of savings plans offered at work or privately that allow you to put in money pretax. Depending on your tax bracket that can make a big difference in how much you are actually saving.

You save three ways.

1. You are lowering your tax burden. If you are in the 20% bracket and put away $100 per month it is costing you only $80.

2. You are socking away money. Save $100 per month for ten years and you have put away $12,000.

3. The power of compounding. Compounding makes your money work for you. If you put away $1,200 a year for 40 years you would have put away $48,000. It would have cost you only $38,400 though because it was pretax money. With 5% interest you would wind up with $159,818 after 40 years. That is on an investment of $38,400. At this point your savings would be generating $7,611 a year in interest in the 41st year with that amount going up each year. You would actually have more money saved since interest is usually day to day and not just once a year.

Imagine what happens when you save even more.

Because their parents grew up during the depression today's seniors often have good saving habits. They learned the value of always putting away something for the future. That is why so many of them are millionaires today.

The number of millionaires is a bit misleading. My three sons and I, but not my daughter, are all millionaires. When you take our assests and subtract our debits we all have well over a milliion dollars in total worth. That doesn't mean we have a million dollars in spendable cash lying around. The greatest part of our assests consist of real estate. My sons all have homes worth at least three quarters of a milliion dollars and two of them have professional practices worth more than a million each. My two homes are worth well over a million. The problem is, none of that is spendable.

Most millionaires today, at least in The States are people who bought property and saw it greatly increase in value. My house on Long Island has increased in value over 1,000% since I bought it and my condo in Florida went up about $250,000 in two years but unless I sell either or both of them they are just places to live.

Look about as you go to the mall or the supermarket. The person in front of you could well be a millionaire. He is shopping with you in Walmart because most of his million dollars is tied up in his house and perhaps an IRA for retirement.

Being a milliionaire is not all that uncommon in today's world.
Have to agree,I bought two houses 17 years ago,one for 1500pounds and one for 2500pounds,the 2500 one I gave to my son and sold the other for 140,000pounds not bad for doing very little.