#101 – Wealthiest Cities & History

Good morning everyone,

Hope you’re having a great week!

Let’s jump in.

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read time 3 minutes 

#101 at a Glance:

• Quote: The shortest and best way to make your fortune.

• Podcast: Tucker Carlson x Conor McGregor.

• Deep Dive: The World’s Wealthiest Cities Report 2025.

• Interesting Phenomenon: Why you shouldn’t be intimidated by history.

• Tweet: The Lindy Effect.

Quote I’ve been thinking about:

Podcast I listened to:

The Tucker Carlson Show: Conor McGregor

I thoroughly enjoyed this.

Such a thoughtful window into the mind of one of the most prolific athletes of our time.

It was quite concerning to hear about the fall of Irish society and the way that the people of such a proud and history-rich country are being so poorly represented by their own government.

Can Conor McGregor be the one to take over as President?

I’m not sure.

But I do know one thing.

His ability to approach issues of public policy through such a pragmatic and patriotic lens is something that we should demand of every politician, everywhere.

Listening to Conor discuss the legitimacy of his presidential run reaffirmed my belief that former athletes are among the most capable individuals when it comes to effecting meaningful change and progress in society.

This mostly comes down to the virtues they attain in the pursuit of greatness in their respective careers: discipline, sacrifice, tenacity, resilience, focus, courage, and accountability—to name just a few.

Are those not the very qualities we’d expect from any politician or business leader entrusted with significant power and influence?

I would certainly think so.

What are your thoughts?

Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.

[Podcast Length: 55 minutes]

Deep Dive:

The World’s Wealthiest Cities Report 2025 

The World's Wealthiest Cities Report is the definitive guide to city wealth, published annually by Henley & Partners, the global leader in residence and citizenship by investment, in partnership with wealth intelligence firm New World Wealth.

The report provides a comprehensive review of the 50 wealthiest cities in the world, with expert insights on economic mobility, prime property, the investment migration sector, and wealth management.

The world’s wealthiest individuals shape our cities as much as cities shape wealth creation. This symbiotic relationship drives a clear pattern: capital follows talent, talent follows opportunity, and opportunity clusters in urban centres that understand this dynamic.

‘Wealth’ in a city is measured by the number of individuals in a given area who are:

• Millionaires (liquid investable wealth of US$1 million or more).

• Centi-millionaires (liquid investable wealth of US$100 million or more).

• Billionaires (liquid investable wealth of US$1 billion or more).

The Top 10 Cities for Millionaires (no. of millionaires):

1. New York City, USA (384,500)

2. The Bay Area, USA (342,400)

3. Tokyo, Japan (292,300)

4. Singapore, Singapore (242,400)

5. Los Angeles, USA (220,600)

6. London, UK (215,700)

7. Paris, France (160,100)

8. Hong Kong, Hong Kong (SAR China) (154,900)

9. Sydney, Australia (152,900)

10. Chicago, USA (127,100)

The Top 10 Cities for Centi-Millionaires (no. of centi-millionaires):

1. New York City, USA (818)

2. The Bay Area, USA (756)

3. Los Angeles, USA (516)

4. London, UK (352)

5. Hong Kong, Hong Kong (SAR China) (346)

6. Singapore, Singapore (333)

7. Beijing, China (316)

8. Chicago, USA (295)

9. Shanghai, China (293)

10. Paris, France (277)

The Top 10 Cities for Billionaires (no. of billionaires):

1. The Bay Area, USA (82)

2. New York City, USA (66)

3. Los Angeles, USA (45)

4. Hong Kong, Hong Kong (SAR China) (40)

5. Beijing, China (38)

6. Shanghai, China (35)

7. London, UK (33)

8. Singapore, Singapore (30)

9. Chicago, USA (25)

10. Mumbai, India (25)

The Top 10 Fastest Growing Wealth Hubs (millionaire growth % from 2014–2024):

1. Shenzhen, China (142%)

2. Scottsdale, USA (125%)

3. Bengaluru, India (120%)

4. West Palm Beach, USA (112%)

5. Hangzhou, China (108%)

6. Dubai, UAE (102%)

7. The Bay Area, USA (98%)

8. Miami, USA (94%)

9. Washington DC, USA (92%)

10. Austin, USA (90%)

Here were some of the most notable insights that I extracted from the report:

• The USA dominates the Top 50 list with 11 cities, led by New York City with 384,500 millionaires, though the Bay Area which includes the city of San Francisco and Silicon Valley now hosts more billionaires and continues to thrive as the epicentre of technological wealth creation.

• Los Angeles has surpassed London, pushing the UK capital down to 6th place in the rankings. This continues London’s multi-year decline, while Dubai has climbed from 21st to 18th place, confirming its rising status as a wealth magnet.

• China’s wealth landscape reveals a telling shift —⁠ tech hubs Shenzhen and Hangzhou are significantly outperforming traditional centres Beijing and Shanghai in wealth growth.

• In Japan, the Osaka–Kyoto–Kobe region is now the country’s fastest growing wealth centre. This is primarily driven by its technology sector, hosting giants like Kyocera, Nintendo, Panasonic, and Rohm. The area’s beautiful architecture, gardens, and world-class golf courses add to its appeal, demonstrating how secondary urban centres can flourish when they develop distinctive value propositions.

• A clear pattern emerges in 2025: cities that blend investment freedom with lifestyle dividends are winning the competition for mobile capital. These urban centres share common DNA — robust legal frameworks, sophisticated financial infrastructure, and perhaps most critically, investment migration programs that welcome global talent and capital.

• The UAE’s Residence by Investment initiative, which includes a real estate option starting at AED 2 million, provides residence in the country that attracted the most millionaires globally in 2024, with over 6,700 net inflows. Dubai’s 102% growth in millionaires over the past decade showcases its trajectory from regional hub to global wealth centre — it now ranks 18th globally, with 81,200 resident high-net-worth individuals.

• The implications for wealth preservation and growth are profound. The most sophisticated investors now view investment migration not just as a pathway to residence, but as a portfolio diversification strategy. Multiple residence and citizenship rights function as a form of sovereignty arbitrage, providing optionality in an era of increasing global uncertainty.

I absolutely love this stuff.

You can read the full report here.

Interesting Phenomenon I’ve been thinking about:

Why You Shouldn’t Be Intimidated by History

Ancient Rome. Arguably the most revered society in history.

The empire that shaped law, language, warfare, philosophy, architecture—and, if a series of viral articles and social media posts from last year are in fact true, the internal monologue of every man who’s ever stared out a window too long.

It’s easy to romanticise the superiority of this ancient world—I mean, I certainly did during my time there.

But here’s the thing.

Somewhere along the way, we started believing that people from history were fundamentally better than us. Smarter. Stronger. More accomplished. That they lived in some sort of golden age that we, unfortunately, missed out on.

While in some cases, that may be true, let me offer an alternative point of view that may, albeit slightly, shift your perspective:

This week, I came across an article which described how the Ancient Romans used chickens—yes, actual chickens—to predict the future. Believing the chickens to be fortune-telling, they’d watch how the birds pecked at grain to decide whether to go to war.

This was one of the oldest religious practices in Ancient Rome known as augury, or reading signs from the gods through the behaviour of birds, the idea being that the birds were deliberate divine messengers.

Wow.

Still feeling inferior?

Even Marcus Aurelius, the stoic philosopher-emperor himself, famously wrote in Meditations about the temptation to stay in bed of a morning, saying:

“At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: I have to go to work—as a human being.”

The Roman emperor talking about wanting to hit the snooze button. Imagine that.

Note to self: Don’t revere people from history as if they were superhuman. They weren’t. They had fears, doubts, and sluggish mornings, too. The difference is—they didn’t let their circumstances define their outcomes.

They didn’t overanalyse or wait for perfect conditions. They possessed a strong bias towards action. With whatever they had, wherever they were.

And then? They hoped for the best.

And if all hell broke loose, well... there was always the chicken to save the day…

Tweet I liked:

The Lindy Effect

Just start.

It’s never going to be perfect.

Thanks for reading! Grateful for your support.

Stay hungry, stay humble, stay curious. ⚡

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