The 1% : Wealth in Monaco and Germany

Wealthy people of the world also referred to as “the 1%” have a growing influence on society and the economy. The wealthy can be divided into three major categories, the rich, the super-rich and the ultra-rich, which gives a basis to examine the influence of the wealthy. The aim of this study is to understand wealthy individuals and their investing behaviour on a general level and to examine Germany and Monaco on a deeper level. Wealthy individuals in Germany and Monaco include Christoph Gröner, Dieter Schwarz, Dirk Rossmann, Michael Otto, Monika Bacardi, Tatiana Casiraghi, Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, and Stefano Pessina. The 1% equals 45 million adults globally whereas the 0,1% of the people equals to 4.5 million adults globally. The main investment categories of the wealthy include passion investments, real estate investments and mobility investments. Cultural capital theory and its three forms, embodied, objectified, and institutionalized states, are used to study and analyse the behaviour of the differences between the wealthy in Germany and Monaco. The data collection of this literature review consists of academic literature and articles on luxury, geographies of the super-rich, elite mobilities, wealth, and the super-rich, as well as, documentaries on the lifestyle of the wealthy in Germany and Monaco. The findings of this study suggest how the main categories of the wealthy have diverse investing and lifestyle behaviour. Strategies to increase or maintain an individual’s wealth includes tax havens, offshores, charitable organisations and investments. Bourdieu’s theory on cultural capital indicates how an individual’s background influences a person’s future but does not prevent people from lower-class backgrounds to achieve the same things as the people from upper classes