Apparently there are more millianaires in the UK than ever before and the number grew by 7.9 % last year. There are now said to be over 300,000 people worth over a million. And yet we remain convinced these people are actually RICH.
In fact they are not. That million would be equivalent to £67,000 or so in 1962. In fact the first £200,000 football pool pay out was in 1957 and to match that today you would need to win £3.6 million. Oddly of course on the lottery today you win even more than that.
So what's in a million and why do we continue to rate it so highly? After all London is full of houses worth far more than a million and even Manchester, Birmingham - indeed almost any city will have some. And to get a significant pension you need a pension pot over a million pounds. That will earn up to £50,000 a year so it can be seen that even pensioners with half that have a big pot. A couple both with decent pension may well have a million pound pot.
The average price of a house today is £160,000 but double that in London and the south east. My first house was bought in 1968 and cost us £3,675 (we even borrowed the deposit so it was a 100 per cent mortgage!). That amount of money is today equivalent to £44,000 or so.
But a similar house last changed hands a few years ago for £250,000! Which makes a mockery of our passion for the millionaire.
Back in 1967 a millionaire could have bought the best house in Tonbridge, Kent - probably for £50k, chosen a Rolls Royce for each foot and still had more than enough left to get the local boatbuilders Tylers to hand create a 60 foot yacht!.
Today our millionaire would have to be content with my semi, one Roller at about £250k and something off the shelf from the boat yard.
Taking the 60s as a benchmark, ordinary inflation means the 1960s £1 is worth about 5p today. In fact a newspaper was less than 1p back then and today is anything from 70p up today. Beer was about two bob a pint and is now about £3 (bargain?). Petrol was about 13 shillings (65p) a gallon - which is about 15p a litre!
But using house price inflation the figure is terrifyingly higher. In London and the south-east an ordinary semi will have gone up by a factor of 60 or 70 times.
On that basis I think we all need to calm down about millionaires. I know, I know it means we cannot hate the cabinet anything like as much but that's real life. Anyway, people are not what they own; they are what they do so just carry on hating! This lot deserve it.
I would like everyone to use the lottery top prize as their new "Gosh Wow" factor - if it ain't at least £10MILL it ain't nothing. Mind you, we do have an awful lot of billionaires around now and that is, even today, an obscene amount of *spodoolicks!
*sadly obsolete for money or pounds.
In fact they are not. That million would be equivalent to £67,000 or so in 1962. In fact the first £200,000 football pool pay out was in 1957 and to match that today you would need to win £3.6 million. Oddly of course on the lottery today you win even more than that.
So what's in a million and why do we continue to rate it so highly? After all London is full of houses worth far more than a million and even Manchester, Birmingham - indeed almost any city will have some. And to get a significant pension you need a pension pot over a million pounds. That will earn up to £50,000 a year so it can be seen that even pensioners with half that have a big pot. A couple both with decent pension may well have a million pound pot.
The average price of a house today is £160,000 but double that in London and the south east. My first house was bought in 1968 and cost us £3,675 (we even borrowed the deposit so it was a 100 per cent mortgage!). That amount of money is today equivalent to £44,000 or so.
But a similar house last changed hands a few years ago for £250,000! Which makes a mockery of our passion for the millionaire.
Back in 1967 a millionaire could have bought the best house in Tonbridge, Kent - probably for £50k, chosen a Rolls Royce for each foot and still had more than enough left to get the local boatbuilders Tylers to hand create a 60 foot yacht!.
Today our millionaire would have to be content with my semi, one Roller at about £250k and something off the shelf from the boat yard.
Taking the 60s as a benchmark, ordinary inflation means the 1960s £1 is worth about 5p today. In fact a newspaper was less than 1p back then and today is anything from 70p up today. Beer was about two bob a pint and is now about £3 (bargain?). Petrol was about 13 shillings (65p) a gallon - which is about 15p a litre!
But using house price inflation the figure is terrifyingly higher. In London and the south-east an ordinary semi will have gone up by a factor of 60 or 70 times.
On that basis I think we all need to calm down about millionaires. I know, I know it means we cannot hate the cabinet anything like as much but that's real life. Anyway, people are not what they own; they are what they do so just carry on hating! This lot deserve it.
I would like everyone to use the lottery top prize as their new "Gosh Wow" factor - if it ain't at least £10MILL it ain't nothing. Mind you, we do have an awful lot of billionaires around now and that is, even today, an obscene amount of *spodoolicks!
*sadly obsolete for money or pounds.
