According to Fidelity Investments' latest report on millionaires' attitudes towards investing, 26 percent of US millionaire respondents said they did not actually feel rich, and that they would need an average of $US5 million of investable assets to begin to feel wealthy.
The report, which surveyed more than 1,500 respondents, also found that the vast majority of millionaires in the US — 86 percent — are self-made. In Australia, there are 179,500 millionaires.
And millionaires' paths to wealth affect the way they invest. The survey found:
Self-made millionaires said their top sources of assets included investments/capital appreciation, compensation and employee stock options/profit sharing, while those born wealthy were more likely to cite inheritance, entrepreneurship and real estate investment appreciation as key asset sources.
Born-wealthy millionaires were more likely to use financial advisers, especially on issues such as personal trust services and foundation/endowment management.
When it comes to investment strategies, self-made millionaires were more likely to add equity investments, while those who were born wealthy typically had more real estate investments.
Fidelity found that today's millionaire is, on average, 61 years old with $3.05 million in assets. And their outlook is sunny: respondents were more optimistic about the future financial environment than at any other time in the survey's five-year history.
