I had a friend come visit me from out of town and was looking to start a new career. When coming over, we chatted a bit about his ideas, what he would do if money were no object, and then asked me how many millionaires there are in the world. Here's what we found:
-According to Credit Suisse there are approximately 35 million millionaires in the world or 0.05% of the worlds population in the end of 2015.
-In the same study according to Credit Suisse there are 15,656,000 millionaires in the United States which is approximately 4.9% of the US population.
-According to Knight Frank, in 2016 there were 339,000 millionaires in NYC; 180,000 millionaire in San Francisco; 173,000 millionaires in Los Angeles; and 135,000 millionaires in Chicago.
-In the Knight Frank study these figures would mean that 4% of the NYC population, 5% of the San Francisco population, 1.7% of the Los Angeles population, and 4.8% of the Chicago population are millionaires.
So what do these statistics mean to you? Why should you care?
A) If financial success and the achievement of being a high net worth individual / millionaire is important to you, then you know that your chances are 1 in 25 in NYC.
B) It's very possible. If you went to Madison Square Garden, there would be about 900 millionaires watching the Knicks. Or about sections 105, 106, and 107.
C) If you commute and work in Midtown Manhattan, you probably walk past, sit next to, talk to, or associate with 35-40 millionaires depending on where you work and the industry you're in.
D) Millionaires are pretty much every day people.
So go out there and be better than the 24 other people in the group. However, be warned, to be financially independent in NYC, $1M doesn't cut it. It is said that with inflation and rising cost of real estate (in NYC) you really need $28M of wealth in 2017 to be a "real millionaire".