What is wealth? And how many Australians are wealthy?

Well…the answer may surprise you.

However, in today’s challenging environment brought about by the coronavirus, we are all probably reevaluating what true wealth is to us.

If you followed my writings or podcasts you’ll know that I I’ve always thought that true wealth has nothing to do with how many properties you own or the size of your bank account.

To be truly wealthy you need a lot more than money.

You need money plus your health, somebody to love and somebody who loves you, family and friends, the ability to contribute back to society, time, the ability to grow, spirituality plus much much more.

But if we talk about the wealth side of money, leading demographer Bernard Salt wrote an insightful article in The Australian last year breaking down wealth distribution in Australia.

The following chart shows the number of Australians ranked by net wealth in 2017-18, from the ABS estimates of household wealth taking into account housing, superannuation and other sources of stored wealth.

This report for the 2018 financial year estimates about one household in three ( 2.9 million) households in Australia have at least $1m in stored wealth.

Now there’s nothing really new about this…

Australians have always been very wealthy because so many of us own home (or are paying it off) and also because of our superannuation system which is a form of forced storage of wealth.

How much  do we earn?

According to the ATO, in 2017, about 14 million Australians reported a taxable income of some sort, including 428,000 in the uppermost bracket earning $180,000 and over.

Bernard Salt suggests that based on the rate of bracket creep over previous years it’s possible that in this financial year there will be close to 500,000 Australians in the top income bracket.

That’s about 3 per cent of all income tax payers.

Peak earning years

Not surprisingly Salt explains that, iIn terms of high-income earners ($100,000 and above in 2016), the peak earning years are 38-48 with the actual peak being 45.

Other characteristics of high-income earners are also revealing:

36 per cent are atheist,
75 per cent are male,
900,000 are highly skilled.
On a nationality basis, 20 per cent of South Africans in the workforce fall into the category of high-income earners, whereas for Australians this proportion is 9 per cent.

Now is the time to take action and set yourself for the opportunities that will present themselves as the market moves on

If you’re wondering what will happen to property in 2020–2021 you are not alone.

You can trust the team at Metropole to provide you with direction, guidance and results.

In challenging times like we are currently experiencing you need an advisor who takes a holistic approach to your wealth creation and that’s what you exactly what you get from the multi award winning team at Metropole.

If you’re looking at buying your next home or investment property here’s 4 ways we can help you:

Strategic property advice. – Allow us to build a Strategic Property Plan for you and your family.  Planning is bringing the future into the present so you can do something about it now!  This will give you direction, results and more certainty. Click here to learn more
Buyer’s agency – As Australia’s most trusted buyers’ agents we’ve been involved in over $3Billion worth of transactions creating wealth for our clients and we can do the same for you. Our on the ground teams in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane bring you years of experience and perspective – that’s something money just can’t buy. We’ll help you find your next home or an investment grade property.  Click here to learn how we can help you.
Wealth Advisory – We can provide you with strategic tailored financial planning and wealth advice. Click here to learn more about we can help you.
Property Management – Our stress free property management services help you maximise your property returns. Click here to find out why our clients enjoy a vacancy rate considerably below the market average, our tenants stay an average of 3 years and our properties lease 10 days faster than the market average.

Read more: propertyupdate.com.au