If you've noticed a distinct decrease in your own personal wealth as of late, you should take solace in the fact that your money is probably being kept warm by a millionaire – and your money's chances of finding a good, millionaire home are only getting better. According to a recent study by the Boston Consulting Group, the millionaires of the world are expected to control a cool 46% of the estimated wealth of the world in just four years.
Boston Consulting Group's Global Wealth report also estimates that the number of millionaires in the world grew last year from 15 million in 2013 up to 17 million in 2014, and part of the explanation for their increasingly disproportionate holdings is the fact that there are more and more people joining the millionaire's club all the time – as they say, a million bucks isn't what it used to be. Other factors in the rising millionaire tide include well-performing stock markets over the last year, and surges in asset values across the globe. In short, if you had enough money to make significant investments last year, there's a good chance that you came out ahead.
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The Global Wealth report also offers some interesting statistics regarding the country-by-country breakdown of the world's wealth. Readers in the United States may feel a twinge of pride to know that the USA is home to more millionaires than any other country, by a significant margin, with 6.9 million millionaire households. In second place is China, with 3.6 millionaire households, but China does hold the distinction of having the most new millionaires in 2014, with more than half of the year's new millionaires coming from China. However, if you're hoping to become a millionaire this year and you're looking for a country in which to make your fortune, your best bet actually isn't the USA or in China, it's Switzerland, which has the highest proportion of millionaire households in the world at 13.5%. Bahrain, Qatar, Singapore, Kuwait, and Hong Kong are all ahead of the US in terms of millionaire household proportions, with only 5.6% of the households in the US having at least a million dollars in assets.
That brings me to the definition of "millionaire" favored by Boston Consulting Group for their Global Wealth report, which is simple enough, but should be explained here. According to the Boston Consulting Group, you are a millionaire if you have at least $1 million in "easily monetized wealth," which can include cash, stock shares, securities, pension funds, and anything else you could easily turn into cash, should you be kidnapped and need to raise a ransom.
And then there's the report's findings that the ultra-wealthy, including hundred-millionaires and billionaires, are accumulating even more wealth than their relatively hard-up millionaire brethren, with stronger gains in net worth in these households than those enjoyed by the "lower high net worth" income bracket.
To sum it all up, if you're a millionaire, you can expect pretty smooth sailing between now and 2019 – so try and relax and have some fun for a change, OK?
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