Pretty much anyone can join the millionaire club. All you need is a plane ticket to Vietnam and $40 in cash. You exchange it in Ho Chi Minh City for the local currency and receive 1,000,000 Đồng. And just like that you're in - in the millionaire club!

Wait! You're thinking, that's not what I had in mind. I meant being a millionaire in my currency: dollars, euros, Swiss francs, "real" money, in other words.

And another question: I only have $40 in my pocket. But three high-rises in downtown Frankfurt. Can I join the club now?

As you can see, it's not so easy to find a precise definition. When are you a millionaire in assets? The following definition circulates among the snooty members of the millionaire club: you are able, on a Sunday morning, within an hour, to put a million dollars or euros in cash on the table. Then you're a "real" millionaire. (Either you have that sum lying around in your safe. Or you call your friend, the director of the bank you trust. And he brings you the sum you need right away, in person...)

A millionaire isn't just a millionaire

Even in this exclusive club, there are big differences (or rather snobbery about rank) between the members. The World Wealth Report reports every year on the situation of millionaires worldwide. The survey divides millionaires into three "classes":

  • Millionaire Next Door = "run-of-the-mill millionaires" with a net worth of 1 to 5 million US dollars.
  • Mid Tier Millionaires = middling millionaires with more than 5 and less than 30 million USD net worth
  • Ultra High Net Worth Individuals = super-rich millionaires with a net worth of over 30 million USD

Members of these three groups make up the millionaire club. According to the report, around 10.2 million people worldwide belong to one of these three categories. That puts roughly 0.14% of the world's population in the millionaire club. Of the club's members, around one percent in turn belong to the richest people in the world. A comforting thought if you're not a member of this "club": the billionaires on that list also started out as ordinary millionaires in the club.

Millionaire club

"I'm very rich! I just don't have any money!"

In China there are roughly a million millionaires. Yet the Chinese know this great saying: whoever owns a lot of money is rich, but whoever is free of illness is happy.

So is membership in the millionaire club really something to strive for? Nobody will tell you what "admission fee" the members had to pay. And nobody can say how long the pride in membership lasts either.

Millionaire club member or not, one thing holds for everyone: the things in this world that truly matter can't be bought with money.