How many millionaires in Georgia?
The list below (Source: WSJ / Phoenix Marketing International) shows the number of households with at least $1 million to invest per state. According to the table there are 163,144 millionaires in Georgia, which is down some 7,000 millionaires from 2012.
How could we lose 7,000 millionaires when 2013 was clearly a winner for the stock market? Plus Georgia had successful company sales like Vonage buying Vocalocity for $130 million dollars and Greenway Medical getting gobbled up by Vista Equity partners for $644 million. And these are just two of the many transactions that took place last year. Georgia should have created more millionaires – not lost them!
A quick search in the SEC database reveals another interesting fact. There are more than 1,000 firms in a 25 mile radius of Atlanta helping people manage their money. Clearly there is a lot of choice, which is a good thing. But it would also seem that the plethora of financial advice should be helping people stay wealthy and yet we are still losing millionaires. Is the advice bad or are people not listening?
I guess it only makes the point for the title of my book: “You Should Only Have to Get Rich Once”. Joining the millionaire ranks takes a lot of work – staying there is even harder. That’s why we spend so much time with our clients determining their Point of Independence (POI) – where work becomes optional, forever. Once you become a millionaire, there is never a good reason to lose the title.