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Australia's new breed of millionaires
There are now more millionaires in Australia than before the crisis, with many newcomers taking the plunge on a business idea mid-GFC and striking gold.
While Europe and the US still struggle, Australia's economy has evolved into a rolled-gold millionaires factory, churning out 15 new millionaires a day during the past two years.
More than 180,000 Australians can now count seven digits in their personal fortunes, a 7 per cent increase on the 168,700 recorded millionaires at the start of the GFC in the summer of 2008, according to Capgemini and Merrill Lynch wealth figures.
At the height of the GFC, more than 40,000 Australians officially lost their vaunted status of millionaire, downgraded to mere hundred-thousand-aires as sharemarkets were hacked down. Now they are back - with friends.
But where the sharemarket was the great wealth creator during the resource boom from 2002-2006, property and entrepreneurship has become the chief avenue to riches since the onset of the GFC.
Capital city property prices rose upwards of 20 per cent in the 12 months to April 2009, elevating many Australians to millionaire status on their bricks and mortar alone.
But according to self-made millionaire and Australian Businesswomen's Network director Suzi Dafnis, business and entrepreneurship has risen to the fore in recent years.
"Even in a downward cycle, there are always people making money," Ms Dafnis said.
One of those serial entrepreneurs is publishing and marketing executive Lisa Messenger, whose business and property portfolio recently gave her millionaire status.
"When I was growing up, the word millionaire seemed synonymous with having made it," Ms Messenger said.
"However, 20 years on, take the rise of entrepreneurship, a global economy, throw in a dose of tenacity, calculated risk and a whole lot of fun, and becoming a millionaire is a playground now open to anyone."
- By Andrew Carswell
- From: The Daily Telegraph
- September 18, 2010 12:00AM
- More millionaires than before GFC
- Entrepreneurs taking risks again
- Fifteen new millionaires a day
There are now more millionaires in Australia than before the crisis, with many newcomers taking the plunge on a business idea mid-GFC and striking gold.
While Europe and the US still struggle, Australia's economy has evolved into a rolled-gold millionaires factory, churning out 15 new millionaires a day during the past two years.
More than 180,000 Australians can now count seven digits in their personal fortunes, a 7 per cent increase on the 168,700 recorded millionaires at the start of the GFC in the summer of 2008, according to Capgemini and Merrill Lynch wealth figures.
At the height of the GFC, more than 40,000 Australians officially lost their vaunted status of millionaire, downgraded to mere hundred-thousand-aires as sharemarkets were hacked down. Now they are back - with friends.
But where the sharemarket was the great wealth creator during the resource boom from 2002-2006, property and entrepreneurship has become the chief avenue to riches since the onset of the GFC.
Capital city property prices rose upwards of 20 per cent in the 12 months to April 2009, elevating many Australians to millionaire status on their bricks and mortar alone.
But according to self-made millionaire and Australian Businesswomen's Network director Suzi Dafnis, business and entrepreneurship has risen to the fore in recent years.
"Even in a downward cycle, there are always people making money," Ms Dafnis said.
One of those serial entrepreneurs is publishing and marketing executive Lisa Messenger, whose business and property portfolio recently gave her millionaire status.
"When I was growing up, the word millionaire seemed synonymous with having made it," Ms Messenger said.
"However, 20 years on, take the rise of entrepreneurship, a global economy, throw in a dose of tenacity, calculated risk and a whole lot of fun, and becoming a millionaire is a playground now open to anyone."
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