Where Millionaires Live and How They Invest

I have been reading The Age of Millionaires and here is some interesting stuff I have learned about millionaires or high-net-worth individuals.

This site was written in 2005, which is three years ago, so global economic conditions have changed a little since then.

Most millionaires are located in America, Europe, and Asia.

According to the latest figures, the number of high-net-worth individuals included 2.7 million in North America with a total of $9.3 trillion in assets; 2.6 million in Europe with $8.9 trillion; 2.3 million in the Asia-Pacific region with $7.2 trillion; 300,000 in Latin America, including Mexico, with $3.7 trillion; 300,000 in the Middle East with $1 trillion; and 100,000 in Africa with $700 billion.

What I find amazing is how conservative millionaires seem to be collectively. They hold only 34 per cent of their wealth in stocks. This may be because many of them are old and don't like their returns to fluctuate too much.

The wealthy decreased their stock holdings to 34 percent last year from 35 percent in 2003 and increased their fixed-income investments to 27 percent last year from 25 percent the year before. Their other holdings in 2004 were 12 percent in cash and other liquid investments, 13 percent in real estate and 14 percent in "alternative" investments such as hedge funds and commodities.