Being a millionaire has always been part of most people’s dreams. I remember back in the university every time my friends and I while sitting at the local campus mess having lunch, we’d discuss money and wealth creation. We saw ourselves either as millionaires and billionaires in the future and how we would be millionaires by the age of 27; we didn’t quite clearly have the picture, but we were determined.
Now, a quick question, who is a millionaire? There is probably a simple answer to that. A millionaire is an individual whose net worth or wealth is equal to or exceeds one million units of currency. While the answer seems pretty obvious, a little look into it can draw out questions which when answered clearly would get you to a better position or rather understand better who really a millionaire is, and that goes down to the currency.
To be a Kenyan millionaire, you need to acquire wealth translating to or worth a million Kenyan shillings and above. The most common form of wealth that constitutes to net assets of a person includes property, liquid cash, savings, equities, business interests less any liabilities, and their primary residences. Whether in employment or business, it’s relatively easy to become a Kenyan millionaire over time.
Now let’s shift gears away from Kenya a bit.
Generally, due to instances like inflation, many national currencies have different unit values. For example, a South African Rand has a lower value compared to the US Dollar but at the same time higher than the Kenyan Shilling.
With regard to being a millionaire, it is obviously much easier and less significant to be a millionaire in countries with a weak currency unit. That said, for instance, in South Africa, an individual has to put much work in order to attain the millionaire mark than someone living in Kenya or Uganda. Thus a Kenyan millionaire will be less wealthy than the average Rand millionaire when we compare the two using a standard currency.
Because of disparities attributed to different currency values across countries, the United States Dollar (USD) is the most widely used currency standard to compare the wealth of people all over the world. Therefore, a person must have a net worth of at least one million USD to be recognized as a millionaire anywhere in the world.
As of 2020, The 2020 Knight Frank’s Wealth Report classified 2,900 Kenyans among the world’s dollar millionaires. Globally, the number of dollar millionaires stands at 46.8 million according to this year’s “Global wealth report” by the Credit Suisse Research Institute.
It’s astonishing how few the number of dollar millionaires Kenya has with just 1.6% of the possible 18 million working population.
Currently, 1 US dollar costs 109 Kenyan Shillings so, in order to be a dollar millionaire in Kenya, you need to own an accumulated wealth of KSh 109 million and above. Now, this seems pretty tough considering it’s 109 times more than the Kenyan millionaire mark. This clearly explains the low number count. It’s also important to note that million shillings equal around ten thousand US Dollars.
There are several major factors that influence the process of wealth creation. The type of industry you are in serves as the most important. Other factors include commitment to wealth creation investments, investment management skills and traits, management compensation, and a sense of belonging to investment activities.
Also, Jessica Lemmon in her book “The Billionaire Next Door” interviewed over 600 wealthy people and came up with six attributes that high net worth individuals possess. They are frugality, confidence, responsibility, planning, focus, and social indifference.
These two types of millionaires are distinct and unique in their own ways therefore as a dreamer, you need to be certain about the kind of path you would want to follow. To choose whether to be a Kenyan or dollar millionaire.
