Bank calculates the price of happiness today ... and it's £2.6m
Tuesday 18 October 2005
Latest in This Britain
On Facebook
From the blogs
More than half of Afghanistan’s families live in extreme poverty
Leila is watching her baby intently, as his mouth moves trying to swallow the small blob of yellow p...
Time for a new approach to alcohol
Ambulances were called and three drunk teenagers were brought to my care. One was so drunk we had to...
Bahrain: One year on
I am used to endless lies and criticism from the BNP and its favourite blogster, as well as Islamist...
Paul Volcker stands tall against the banking lobby
Why is Europe, which likes to present itself as an opponent of speculative "Anglo-Saxon" finance, li...
Cancel the order for the Rolls-Royce, ease the champagne cork back into the bottle. Winning £1m no longer buys a life of luxury, according to new research that may make us rethink our financial dreams.
Inflation has eroded the value of £1m so much that it no longer warrants life membership of the high-rollers' club, according to Coutts Bank.
After years of people trying to put a price on happiness, the private bank has stepped in with the precise figure of £2.6m.
That, according the experts, is what you need to tell the boss to stick the job and take off into the sunset for a life of leisure.
The sum would allow for a five-bedroom house with two staff (a maid and a butler, perhaps), two luxury cars, an apartment and a yacht in the south of France. It would also stretch to two luxury holidays a year.
Across England and Wales, that lifestyle costs £2,540,000 - but there are regional variations. In London, a "millionaire" needs £3.4m, and in Yorkshire £2.2m.
Sarah Deaves, chief executive of Coutts, said: "A millionaire used to be someone who was seen as super-wealthy - a person who didn't have to work if they chose not to, and who was able to live a life of luxury simply by having £1m in cash or assets.
"One million pounds is obviously still a sizable amount of money, which can afford a high standard of living and provide financial security in later life.
"However, while 25 years ago £1m would have been more than enough to comfortably live the 'millionaire's lifestyle' a few times over, today it will only afford a small portion of the trappings," she added.
Coutts says the property boom is partly to blame for shrinking the value of £1m. House prices have jumped by 575 per cent since 1980 and many four-bedroom houses in London now sell for £1m.
Meanwhile, 21st-century Britain is awash with millionaires. Thanks to a booming stock market, an influx of wealthy Russians and a surge in sports salaries, the number of people with £5m has surged by a fifth in a year. Almost 9,000 people can lay their hands on £5m without selling any property, according to researchers Datamonitor.
If you include homes, there are about 425,000 people with £1m - almost twice as many as five years ago. For a population of 59 million, that means almost one in 100 people is technically already a millionaire.
In old black-and-white films, millionaires lived in mansions, dressed in dinner jackets and played in Monte Carlo casinos.
The bank believes we should now aspire to being a "thrillionaire" - having assets of £3m.
However, even that falls short of some people's idea of true wealth. Bob Cooke, a self-made multimillionaire who retired eight years ago, has five homes - in London, Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Portugal and the United States. The 51-year-old owns eight Mercedes, two Bentleys and a yacht, and employs a housekeeper and gardener at his main residence. Mr Cooke, who recently bought a £33,000 watch for his wife, Alison, said: "To live a millionaire's lifestyle with several homes and cars and boats, then you would really need more than £2.6m.
"I wouldn't consider myself wealthy. To be wealthy, you probably have to have £40m. To be comfortable, you need £10m."
Big money can sometimes cause big problems, though. Viv Nicholson, a Yorkshire housewife was the first massive pools winner of postwar Britain when she scooped £152,000 in 1961, becoming a "thrillionaire" in today's money. When asked what she would do with her win, she replied: "I'm going to spend, spend, spend!" She went through five husbands and a large amount of alcohol before she was declared bankrupt.
Camelot, the National Lottery operator, which has created more than 1,800 millionaires, gives its winners financial advice.
"One million pounds means different things to different people," said Dot Renshaw, the head of player services. "If you have someone who is in their 60s and their house is paid for and they are coming up to retirement, £1m is a lot to live on.
"If they are a 20-year-old, they have got a lot more to think about."
So will the word "thrillionaire" enter popular culture?
Yesterday, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, the television quiz hosted by Chris Tarrant, said it had no plans to change its prize.
"Never say never, but the feeling is that £1m is still an awful lot of money by any standards," said a spokeswoman for its makers, Celador.
"No winner has ever said to Chris: 'Is that all?'"
- 1 Ninety gaffes in ninety years
- 2 Cameron's 'drunk tanks' are dangerous, say police
- 3 Can you master a language in a weekend?
- 4 Rothschild loses libel case, and reveals secret world of money and politics
- 5 No secularism please, we're British
- 6 Apple admits it has a human rights problem
- 7 You couldn't make it up: Sun staff hope Strasbourg can save them from Murdoch
- 1 Ninety gaffes in ninety years
- 2 Spotify: 1 million plays, £108 return
- 3 Apple admits it has a human rights problem
- 4 Rangers future could be bright says administrator
- 5 Rothschild loses libel case, and reveals secret world of money and politics
- 6 MP faces charges over Nazi stag night
- 7 Six Grammys, five years off: Adele puts love before career
- 8 No secularism please, we're British
- 9 Mark Steel: If religion is 'marginal', I'm the Pope
- 10 Lightning kills an entire football team
Free trial of new Independent iPad app
Get your daily dose of the best of British journalism, sponsored by American Airlines
Win a three-week coastal jaunt
Spend three weeks exploring every nook and cranny of gorgeous Atlantic Canada.
Amazing restaurant offers
Three glasses of free champagne and a special menu at 46 top London restaurants.
Latest Independent competitions
Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page.
Commercial thought leaders
Watch the best in the business world give their insights into the world of business.
Career Services
Day In a Page
How an abortion divided America
Did they all live happily ever after? That's up to you...




Comments