Why am I writing about this? Well, first of all, it’s a fact that I find really interesting and second, to motivate you to become one yourself.
How many millionaires are there in the world? According to the Credit Suisse report, there were 46.8 million USD millionaires worldwide in mid-2019 or 0.92% of the world’s adults.
46, almost 47 million millionaires! Wow, did you think that there were so many millionaires in the world? I certainly didn’t.
“There is nothing around me but money, money, money.”
― Stephen Richards
Sixteen percent of millionaires inherited their fortunes. Forty-seven percent of millionaires are business owners. Twenty-three percent of the world’s millionaires got that way through paid work, consisting mostly of skilled professionals or managers.
When you picture a millionaire, you probably think of a bank or investment manager or a company CEO or a business owner. And most of the millionaires fall into one of these categories and business owners top the list at 47%. That means that your best shot at becoming a millionaire is to become an entrepreneur.
And there are more and more entrepreneurs. Young people are more entrepreneurial than ever, starting twice as many businesses as the baby boomer generation according to recent data.
In my opinion, the number one reason there are many more entrepreneurs is that internet and smart technology makes running a business easier. Virtual business is simple and cost-effective to set up and almost anyone can do it with a really minimal budget.
I want to motivate you to become a millionaire as well. That is the reason I showed you these statistics. To motivate you to work first of all smart and second of all hard. If nearly 47 million people could do it, there is no reason why you shouldn’t. The millions of folks that already did it are not some superhuman people and are not smarter than you and me (well at least not all of them 😉 ).
How Many Billionaires Are There In The World?
How many billionaires are there in the world? In 2019, there were 2153 billionaires with a total net wealth of $8.7 trillion, according to Forbes magazine. This excludes royalty and dictators whose wealth comes from their positions.
Number Of Millionaires Per Country
This is a list of countries by the number of millionaires by net worth (USD) based on an annual assessment of wealth and assets compiled and published by the Swiss bank Credit Suisse.
| 1 | United States | 18,614,000 | 40% |
| 2 | China | 4,447,000 | 10% |
| 3 | Japan | 3,025,000 | 6% |
| 4 | United Kingdom | 2,460,000 | 5% |
| 5 | Germany | 2,187,000 | 5% |
| 6 | France | 2,071,000 | 4% |
| 7 | Italy | 1,496,000 | 3% |
| 8 | Canada | 1,322,000 | 3% |
| 9 | Australia | 1,180,000 | 3% |
| 10 | Spain | 979,000 | 2% |
| 11 | Netherlands | 832,000 | 2% |
| 12 | Switzerland | 810,000 | 2% |
| 13 | India | 759,000 | 2% |
| 14 | South Korea | 741,000 | 2% |
| 15 | Taiwan | 528,000 | 1% |
Number Of Millionaires Per City
How Much Wealth Is In The World?
Overall, global wealth grew in 2019, over the past year, by 2.6%, reaching the new high of $360 trillion. That is a lot of money! There’s enough opportunity out there for everyone and you might already be in the world’s top 1%!
Americans do not have to be extremely wealthy, in order to claim a spot among that 1%. According to the Global Rich List, a $32,400 annual income will easily place American school teachers, registered nurses, and other modestly-salaried individuals, among the global 1% of earners – Investopedia
How To Become A Millionaire?
“Become a millionaire not for the million dollars, but for what it will make of you to achieve it.”
― Jim Rohn
You have to believe you can become one. If you look around you, you can see others who did it. People like to assume that rich people didn’t do their honest day’s work and that they were born with a silver spoon in their mouth, but from the stats above, that is simply not the truth. For most of them, it was hard work, sacrifice and sticking to the plan.
If you liked this post, you’ll also like reading 7 Highly Effective Ways I Broaden My Horizons
Author Chris Hogan and his research team interviewed 10,000 American millionaires about their habits, beliefs, and strategies. 95% of millionaires took more than ten years to become one and most hadn’t earned their first million before they were 49! Those are the hard-working folks that put most of their money in the company’s 401k. There is nothing wrong with that as long as you’re not working for a company like Enron!
Now, I’d like to have some money while I’m still young. And a way to do that is diversification.
Don’t Put All Your Money In One Basket
We’ve all heard that one before. And there’s a reason for that. There’s plenty of people that lost all their life savings and had to start from scratch because they trusted one person or one company.
I’ll only mention the dotcom bubble when people were investing in AoL and similar companies only to lose it all. Enron lost their employees 401k when it went belly up. And who doesn’t remember the Bernie Madoff investment scandal? Scores of famous people lost millions of dollars to Bernie Madoff’s scam.
“Learn to fish (income), share your fish (community service), teach others to fish (multiply yourself). Then find another sidestream, with different fish (diversify income). And before THAT sidestream dries up, plant a garden (manage risk), like Thomas Jefferson (genius) would have done.”
― Jennifer Ritchie Payette
Invest
This one’s pretty straightforward. You should have started investing yesterday and every day that you are postponing investing any money is actually costing you money. An investment left untouched for a period of decades can add up to a large sum, even if you never invest another dime.
Compound interest favors those that start early, which is why it pays to start now. It’s never too late to start — or too early.
To get started, you can:
- Max out your Roth IRA ($6,000 limit in 2019 and $6,500 for age 50 and older)
- Contribute to your employer-sponsored 401(k), especially if there is a match (that’s free money!)
- Contribute to an account like a SEP IRA if you’re self-employed; while you may not get a match from an employer, these contributions are tax-deferred
- If education is your goal, max out a Coverdell IRA ($2,000 limit) or contribute to a 529 plan (limits vary by state but are much higher).
The key is to start now and contribute what you can! It may seem like it’s not worth it, but even small contributions of $25-$100 per month add up over time.
Get Into E-Commerce
The total value of global retail e-commerce sales was $3.45T in 2019 and by 2040, around 95% of all purchases are expected to be via e-commerce. It’s still not too late to get into the game. Competition is fierce already but if you have a product or an idea or a solution to a problem that will differentiate you from your competitors, you should do great.
It is easy to start an e-commerce company these days thanks to Shopify and new models of commerce, dropshipping, which are actually not new at all and some of the biggest brands in the world are doing it.
One of the most famous dropshippers is Kylie Jenner, the world’s youngest “self-made” billionaire.
These days, all you need is an idea and a laptop and you can start a successful e-commerce business.
Open A Distribution Company
Entrepeneur.com says that “put simply, as the owner of a wholesale distributorship, you will be buying goods to sell at a profit, much like a retailer would. The only difference is that you’ll be working in a business-to-business realm by selling to retail companies and other wholesale firms like your own, and not to the buying public.”
Today, total U.S. wholesale distributor sales are approximately $3.2 trillion.
You’ll have to have good negotiation skills as it’s a true buying and selling game. The idea is to buy the product at a low price, then make a profit by tacking on a dollar amount that still makes the deal attractive to your customer.
Start A Software/App/Video Games Company
The richest people of Slovenia, a small country in Central Europe, are spouses Iza Sia Login and Samo Login. They are topping the list for six years straight.
The Logins are the main founders of Outfit7, the company which has developed globally popular apps, which was sold for US$1 billion to China’s United Luck Group in 2017.
Their assets are estimated at $747 million, the same as in 2018. Third on the list is another former owner of Outfit7 as well!
Outfit7 is best known for the creation of the media app and franchise Talking Tom and Friends. Talking Tom and Friends apps have been downloaded over 8 billion times.
Yup, that’s right, a single app or mobile video game can branch out into a whole franchise and make you a billionaire and even make you the richest person of a small country!
If you’re saying that you don’t know anything about apps or video games, the good news is, you don’t have to have any knowledge about software development as there are plenty of developers that will do the heavy lifting for you.
All you need is an idea. And let’s be honest, it doesn’t even have to be a hell-of-a-lot of an idea.
Sources:
- Wikipedia
- Global wealth databook 2019
- The Power Of Compound Interest
- How to Start a Wholesale Distribution Business
