tough times for australian millionaires, page-11

I would submit the way you are calculating this wealth is flawed. Firstly....a million dollars is not a lot of money these days, however, it all depends on the way you perceive what you are getting for this value.

for example, a typical house in Sydney in a reasonably nice middle class suburb would cost about a million dollars lets say....now if you owe 100% of this then you don't really have anything and can't be classified as a millionaire (more likely to be classified as a fool), assuming you are paying 7% mortgage, then you are paying around $70,000 just on interest per annum, and a loan taken over 25 years would add another say $30,000 onto the $70,000 which means you would be paying around $100,000 per year over the next 25 years to pay that $1M loan for that house ......however, if you own it 100%, then that situation is totally different, firstly you are living in your own home where you wish to be, you are not paying rent or mortgage which means you are saving in real terms those amounts each year, and you are hedging your wealth against inflation and have an asset you can sell at anytime in the future if need be and still have plenty of money. On top of this...the family home is not subject to Capital Gains tax and not counted when claiming the aged pension....so in real terms a pensioner who owns the abovementioned home is on par financially with a person earning $200,000 per annum