Thursday, July 16, 2009

The Millionaires are in Hawaii!

Looking for $$? Hawaii continues to lead the nation in the percent of millionaires per overall population. A 'millionaire household' can be defined as one with $1 million or more in investable or liquid assets, excluding sponsored retirement plans and real estate. Phoenix Marketing International, a firm located in New York recently announced the number of millionaires in the U.S. has declined by 14% over the past two years. But... 6.4% of Hawaii’s households (28,363 households!) in fact are millionaires - that’s down from 7.3% in 2008 but still high enough of a percentage to lead the nation for the second year in a row!!

Rounding out the top five states in millionaires per population are:
Maryland (6.3%)
New Jersey (6.2%)
Connecticut (6.2%)
Virginia (5.5%)

There are three things about these figures about Hawaii that amaze me:

1. Hawaii is so small in population size, so how come there are so many millionaires?
2. People in Hawaii typically get paid less than on the mainland, so how can they have more money?
3. It is more expensive to live in Hawaii than most places on the mainland - so why are people wealthier?

2 comments:

Kris Nelson said...

Well, not only are they rich, but they're smart, too. :)

Surprised that CA and NY aren't in the top 5, especially considering every time you hear about wildfires out of control in California, there's always a dozen mansions being threatened.

kris said...

I'd bet that the millionaires from Hawai‘i are those who own second homes in Hawai‘i. Plenty of those. Not so many wealthy folks who are living/working there.