Millionaire’s life now comes with 2.6m pounds price tag

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London, June 20: A millionaire’s lifestyle now costs 2.6 million pounds, as 1 million pounds is no longer a life-changing sum for many after the inflation over the past 20 years, it has been revealed.

In fact, three in ten people take the view that 1 million pounds is not really much money at all – and certainly not enough to change their lives.

According to calculations made by First Direct bank, a “basket” of luxuries, including a good home, Rolls-Royce, yacht and all the golden trimmings that would have cost 1 million pounds in 1992, now comes with a price tag of 2.6 million pounds, the Daily Mail reported.

It is also suggested that someone with 1 million pounds today would be more likely to be living somewhere like the London borough of Hounslow – convenient for Heathrow – than fashionable Kensington and Chelsea.

“Over the past two decades inflation has downgraded the lifestyle that 1 million pounds can buy from extravagant to affluent,” First Direct bank said.

“In 1992, 1 million pounds could buy a basket of goods including the average house in Kensington and Chelsea, a Rolls-Royce, a seagoing luxury yacht and holiday homes in Tuscany and Cornwall, whereas nowadays it can buy the average house in Hounslow, an Aston Martin and a river cruiser,” the firm added.

First Direct said that ten years ago almost everyone – 94 per cent – saw 1 million pounds as a large or iconic sum of money. However, this has fallen to 71 per cent today.

Of the 29 per cent who do not see 1 million pounds as a “large” amount, almost half only view sums above 5 million pounds as truly putting them among the rich, while 15 per cent consider only 10 million pounds-plus would put them in that category.

This mirrors research around the National Lottery where one in five – 20 per cent – take the view that a win would only be large and meaningful if it was more than 1 million pounds.

One reason for the shift in perceptions is the fact that rising house prices in recent decades have created as many as 185,000 bricks and mortar millionaires.

In many cases even modest family homes in nice parts of London are now worth more than 1 million pounds, even if their occupants do not feel particularly wealthy and even struggle with bills.

In 1992 it was possible to buy an average house in Kensington and Chelsea for around 345,000 pounds, however that figure has soared to 1,362,930 pounds today. A Rolls-Royce Phantom would have cost 111,894 pounds versus 285,200 pounds today, while a luxury seagoing yacht would have been 301,360 pounds compared to 509,000 pounds today. (ANI)