US households with a net worth of $5 million or more, not including primary residence, generally have a very high savings and investment rat...

US households with a net worth of $5 million or more, not including primary residence, generally have a very high savings and investment rate, attribute their wealth to "hard work," and like to spend their leisure time travelling, reading, playing golf, exercising and gardening, according to a new report by strategic consulting firm, Spectrem Group.

These high net worth households tend to own vacation homes and some have third homes and beyond, according to the Spectrem "Lifestyles of the Rich" report. Most chose their second and third homes for quite ordinary reasons: recreational opportunities, better climate and to be closer to their families.

"Images of the ultra-wealthy jetting around in private planes, sipping champagne on gigantic yachts and driving bright-red Ferraris turn out to be quite overdone. In fact, those with $5 million or more in net worth generally do not spend it on ostentatious items. Only about 1 in 7 has spent more than $50,000 on automobiles in the past 12 months, and just 2 in 100 have spent any money on private aircraft. And nearly one-quarter of this group spent nothing on jewelry," said Catherine McBreen, managing director of Spectrem Group.

More than half of high net worth households believe "making charitable contributions is very important to me." The largest percentage of those contributions over the past three years were directed toward organisations that are: religious (30 per cent); college/school (17 per cent); social service (17 per cent); hospital, healthcare, curative (10 per cent); and arts, cultural, humanities (9 per cent).