Almost anyone can join the Millionaire Club. All you need is a ticket to Vietnam and about $40 in cash.

You then 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.

Hold on! You're thinking, that's not what I had in mind. I meant being a millionaire in my currency: dollars, euros, Swiss francs – you know, "real" money.

Millionaire Club

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

You see, it's not so easy to find an exact definition. When are you a millionaire in terms of wealth? The following definition circulates among the snooty members of the Millionaire Club: on a Sunday morning, within an hour, you're able 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 requested sum personally and right away...)

Millionaire Club is not the same as Millionaire Club

Even in this exclusive club, though, there are big differences (or rather, snobbery) 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 in net worth
  • Ultra High Net Worth Individuals = filthy-rich millionaires with a net worth of over 30 million USD
Millionaire Club

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. Among the club members, in turn, around one percent belong to the richest people in the world. A comfort if you're not a member of this "club": the billionaires on this list also started out as ordinary millionaires in the club.

"I'm very rich! I just have no money!" The Millionaire Club

There are roughly a million millionaires in China. Yet the Chinese know this great saying: whoever has a great deal of money is rich – but whoever has no illness is happy.

So is membership in the Millionaire Club really something to aspire to? Nobody will tell you what "admission fee" the members had to pay. Nor how long the pride in membership lasts.

Millionaire Club member or not. One thing holds for everyone: the really important things in this world can't be bought with money.