Hello Crabbe, continuing our watch and brief on freedom Message 22140183 , as in liberty, as opposed to carrying guns, and happiness, as in purchasing power and ease of mind, as opposed to bearing arms, and longevity, as in living longer because of happiness:
scmp.com
<<Friday, February 24, 2006
1 in 7 a millionaire on Hong Kong Island
RAVINA SHAMDASANI
Hong Kong Island is teeming with the well-heeled, a survey shows. One in every seven adults on the island has enough in liquid assets to qualify as a millionaire - and they are as likely to be women as men.
Kowloon lags far behind, with one in 35 people a millionaire, while the New Territories fares marginally better with one in 28.
There are about 274,000 millionaires in Hong Kong - people with more than $1 million in liquid assets - according to the Citibank-commissioned survey. That is 5.3 per cent of the city's adult population.
The millionaires have on average about $4 million in liquid assets, up from the $3.4 million in 2004.
About one-third of those assets are deposited with banks, 32 per cent in stocks, 16 per cent in mutual funds and 8 per cent in bonds.
Of the liquid-asset millionaires, 82 per cent also own properties, 46 per cent of these with mortgages. About 41 per cent have cars.
The phone survey of 3,000 people, aged 21 to 79, in November also found remarkable parity in wealth between men and women who are millionaires.
Women in the 2004 survey made up 44 per cent of the city's millionaires, but rose last year to take 49 per cent of the pie.
In all, 49 per cent of the city's millionaires live on Hong Kong Island, 35 per cent in the New Territories and 16 per cent in Kowloon.
Weber Lo Wai-pak, Citibank's chief operating officer and director of retail banking, said most of Hong Kong's rich believed investment was necessary to increase wealth and the vast majority chose investments with steady returns.
"Only 26 per cent indicated that they would take a risk in investment if presented with a good opportunity," Mr Lo said. "But this is up from 20 per cent in 2004 - this means maybe people are becoming a bit more adventurous with their money."
About 72 per cent of the millionaires said they would need less than $5 million for retirement.
The good news for the economy is that more than half of Hong Kong's millionaires voted the city as the ideal place to retire.
"The more people we have retiring here, the more people will be spending that money locally," Mr Lo said.
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