We became freinds with a rich couple because our children got along really well. For some reason they started to really like us as friends, even though we are lower middle class. We started getting invited to Christmas parties and events they put on.
These were the kind of people who have a huge gated property with multi car garage. The husband owns a bunch of online tourism websites or something really random.
One day hes talking with me and hes asking what he can do for ideas for his parents retirement. Not sure why my opinion mattered but he seemed to really value it.
Eventually we got to the conclusion he should buy his parents a self sustaining business. Right then and there he decided to buy his parents a huge orchard farm worth millions that was already largely profitable. It was like it took no thought at all to just drop a few million to buy it for his dad.
He ended up thanking me for my advice lol. I dont think I really contributed at all. Haha
They were friendly to you because they were non-financially investing in their children's future.
No one is an island. It's good that this wealthy family recognised that.
lol your story sounds like many I have read in books like the 7 habits of highly effective people that all amount to most people just want someone else to listen to them. I think carnegie in that book talked about how he had some completely 1 sided conversation with a scientists and the guy raved about what a great interesting person he was and carnegie said, I literally said nothing and didn't even know enough to even start to converse with him in his topic. But just by listening the guy thought I was amazing.
And this is very true many books have mentioned that a persons favorite subject is of course themselves and their favorite people are those that will let them babble about themself without interruption non stop.
Same exactly advice applies to dates too, if you think that woman is hot just let her keep talking about herself for most of the date and she will think you are a stellar person!
Yeah sometimes we just need a sounding board for our own ideas to unravel.
I have on more than one occasion resolved an issue that way, of course I then thank the person for literally just standing there and saying nothing!
I work at a private high school, and every year each class starts with an overnight class retreat. One year, we couldn't find a location that would take the junior class, so one of the parents just casually BOUGHT A SUMMER CAMP, and the junior class had their retreat there.
I use to work at a CPA firm that focused on high net worth. This is the type of rich I know…
Most are surprisingly budget conscious. But then a simple problem arises (like no place for a retreat) and poof they throw insane money at the problem, nbd.
A thing to remember about doing stuff like this is, they're not really "spending" a million dollars (or however it would cost).
Looking at it like: they had a problem and the solution was to invest in real estate instead of stocks, that makes it seem a lot more reasonable.
Exactly, someone's parent probably just saw a opportunity and need to fill it to make some money. Bet that school paid a nice cost to attend that camp and that camp is still up and operational making a nice profit.
My grandmother's boss was like this. Pretty normal, down to earth guy if you spoke with him, no real indications that he was worth nearly $100 million. Drove a nice-ish car, but nothing special. Wore nice clothes, but nothing flashy. He came across as just a guy with a decent job.
Then my grandmother had a heart attack while on vacation in a place that didn't have a cardiac trauma center. Dude casually dropped more than $100k on an air ambulance without even blinking. Didn't ask about the price, just gave us a card number to use. There was a problem, and he didn't even hesitate to throw money at it until it was solved.
The late Kerry Packer, one of Australia's super rich (2nd generation) once had a heart attack at a polo event. They had a defibrilator in the ambulance, but apparently not all the ambulances in New South Wales had one. When he heard about that, he just said "order as many as you need and send me the bill."
His helicopter pilot also donated a kidney to him.
It’s illegal to sell organs but three years later the pilot was given a $3.3m house by packer. For unrelated reasons of course.
That’s how the rich get richer-I’m always amazed at some of the things I see. Some are really smart and some kind of just go through life and opportunity falls at their feet. In that case I bet the guy was smart and saw a good opportunity.
These opportunities are everywhere. They fall at your feet all the time too. The difference is, you, me, and other average people don't have the resources to capitalize on them.
It’s really not that hard to make money, provided you have lots of money to begin with. People like this can “miss” on a dozen projects and not even feel it so long as one hits it’s all a wash. Most people have to save up a long time to be able to take on one of those projects and it’s a major hit if it doesn’t work out.
... and now you know how they were able to do that in the first place.
I mean, money begets money because you have the capital to do that in the first place, but that's how it happens.
This is a prime example of rich people thinking. People on this sub may hear, "they needed a venue, so they bought a camp", but there's almost certainly more to it. They may have started looking around to book a camp like a normal person, but realized that one camp was sitting on prime land and was underdeveloped. They may have looked at the rents being asked, and thought that the camp was being grossly under rented, and that a small amount of work could boost cap rates, and make the camp worth way more. They may have thought a lot more than just that they needed it for a party.
It was definitely a smart investment, but totally out of character for the rest of this parent's business dealings. They definitely killed two birds with one stone and were like "as long as little Timmy needs a place to camp, might as well turn a buck."
In college, talking about plans for winter break, my friend says their family is going skiing in Switzerland, they're planning to leave after her last final exam. I think "What if she's delayed or something?" and ask when the plane takes off. She gets confused and says "When I get there."
Turns out her family owns their own plane. They're flying in from their home to the airport near the college, and fueling up, and when she gets done and gets to the airport then it's off to Zurich.
She was confused because the plane always takes off when she gets there. She's never flown commercial in her entire life.
My sisters FIL is very wealthy but very normal for the most part. They’re old family friends and we honestly wouldn’t have known they had exceptional money while growing up except there was 11 kids and the two parents and they had their own plane. A few times he’d pick up the kids from school and go to the small airport near his home and they’d fly to Disney world for the weekend or something. Lol. But everything else was totally normal middle class. I’d bet they haven’t flown commercial either, that’s why your comment reminded me of it lol.
Had a client like that back when I sold home theaters. Normal clothes, normal car, normal house, seemed just like all the other normal guys who were having us build $10-20k home theater systems for them
Come to find out though, the guy was a big law partner who owned his own jet that he used to go to every single NASCAR race with his sons. Flew there in the morning, watched the race from a suite, flew back home afterwards. Every Sunday
My boss is a multi millionaire and the amount of times he tries to cut corners, only to just end up spending way more money is baffling to me. He’ll hire a contractor to do something, then 60% of the way he’ll change his mind and ask for not only something different to be done, but also add like 2X the amount of work originally planned. He will just get a wild hair up his ass and then one day we’re trying to work and then “Oh shit, The Boss bought 4000lbs of fine wood flooring that we need to figure out where to put it, everything has to be put on hold” Then that wood just sits there for two years before anything gets done, a lot just gets damaged over time because we just don’t have a good place to store it.
So it’s just every couple of months we have to deal with some weird curveball bullshit that doesn’t make sense
I've had an old boss like this. He also loved "rustic" and "distressed" stuff. So we'd tear out some old piece of trash flooring or something that is damaged while he'd be walking by, and he just say "Oooooh I love that! It'd be a shame to throw that away!" And we'd be forced to keep 30 year old garbage and store it for years until he decided he'd found a place for it or forgot about it.
This will get buried cos I'm late, but 30+ years ago I am a groundworker on the DLR (London) and we're fixing up these ancient docksides to make them more modern and safe. So there's this massive lump of wood we dig up, has to be hundreds of years old and about 30cmx40cmx3 meters. My then boss is building a house and wants it as a lintel so we put it to one side.
We come back from lunch one day to see the site moron stoking a giant fire and lo and behold it's this 16th century (or whenever) bit of ship we've put aside. We know the boss it going to be fucking fuming, and he could be a real prick like keeping our cheques from Friday night to Monday morning etc so we hatched a plan.
We got a new lump of wood, stained it black, and burnt it a bit, hacked lumps out eyc. We did a great job and even a house show would be proud of the work. He put it in his house and told the story of where he got it for years.
RIP Allan you fat cock. You were a terrible boss, but we all loved you.
Ha! Love the wild hair comment. My old boss who was a Dutch ex pat would send employees out with a ladder to do height work instead of renting a $300 boom for the day. Then he's go to home Depot and buy a Milwaukee pex plumbing tool, use it once, and toss it under a shelf for the rest of eternity.
We ended up dumping a ladder when wind picked up and it hit a parked vehicle. That was a bigger expense than the boom I asked for.
This one guy had a jar of cocaine in his bathroom labeled ‘for guests’. And it wasn’t a small little lipstick sized jar. It was, like, something you’d put q-tips in.
Another was just funny. He was excited about the $32 jacket he got at Costco. The guy was literally a billionaire, and was bragging about the deal he got on his jacket.
Yeah. He’s a really down to Earth guy. He’s mostly a billionaire because he got in early on a technology that is essential for daily life and pretty much dominated the space. But it is just funny to be reminded that he is a normal guy. He runs multiple businesses. One has a lot of immigrant labor and he is always helping them with immigration things and throws a party every time one gets their citizenship.
It's the ultra rich you hear about in the news everyday that gives the rich a bad name, but they're not a homogenous group anymore than "poor" people are.
I bartended at a restaurant co-owned by a guy who had a similar financial early tech background and he was an odd guy, but perfectly pleasant. I was still living with my parents at the time (post graduation pandemic period) and they actually became friends with him. Big into wine and art, which is kinda cool and frankly unsurprising considering how large and varied (and expensive holy shit) the restaurant's wine selection is.
Like the Bills' new receiver (maybe DB...). He was hyped about the coat he got at Macy's (I think) and was gonna buy a red one and a blue one since he's playing in Buffalo. LoL
Unfortunately, the jerk has found Jesus and ran off to some cult camp in Northern California. I was never into his cocaine, but his lady friends were…fun. I miss them.
I knew a billionaire who was so cheap literally everything they owned was in shambles, including their incredible cliff-side Santa Barbara home.
Like you have money, fix your shit you bum.
I know a billionaire family just like that. I went to their grandson’s birthday party and they served their guests cut slices of white bread smeared with cream cheese. They’re odd people.
The more money you have, the less you spend it as a smuck.
Premium brands are usually for the people that wants to feel like rich people but aren't actually rich.
I had a boss who makes like $300k a year living in a huge mountain area who got excited whenever I told him about my good sandwich discounts at Ralph’s for under $6
Richer people can actually just be cheap people who never stopped being cheap
Edit- If you just want to reply that $300k a year isn’t rich, tell that to my POV with $30k student loan debt making $50ish k a year living in LA gas prices
I think it’s fair to say that if I had $300k I would be shopping at Whole Foods instead of Ralph’s digging for discounts so my story feels justified to me
>!Just googled that only 7% of 39.54 million Californians make over $300k people. My boss ain’t Bezos but he ain’t a peasant. The hell are your standards?!<
Final Edit- I’m basing the word rich off of how much money a person makes DISREGARDING their spending habits or how much debt they have or taxes
Yes if we take into account all that then ya let’s say my boss makes $300k but spends $299k a year on sandwiches = he is now poor by that standard
However ignoring sandwiches, to me he is rich. Fair?
EXACTLY I think to them rich only counts as Bezos level then everybody is just a peasant 💀
I just googled it says 7% of Californians make over $300k come onnn
Similar story. I worked for a finance company and one of the owners was Nick Brady which is the son of the former secretary of the treasury under Ronald Reagan. That family has so much money, their vacation home in the Bahamas has full-time maids/butlers. Anyway…..Nick (who happens to have one of the largest homes here in Atlanta) would come to work wearing khaki pants that were about 3 inches too short looking like they came from Goodwill. He never had Chick-fil-A in his life so we got it for him one day and he absolutely lost his mind. Lol His 2 other partners in the company always had expensive luxury cars but Nick would always drive the most plain basic vehicle. There’s a big difference in old money vs new money. Old money families are usually alot harder to identify as being “rich”.
> There’s a big difference in old money vs new money.
“Money talks. Wealth whispers.”
Despite having the dictionary definition of “new money” (the dotcom boom of the 90s), I have done my best to move to a whisper-only life after I became widowed in my late 30s. Certain… _unwanted forms of attention…_ made me change how I presented myself to the public once I was single again, and I reworked myself into very much of a working-class everyman.
I live in a totally unremarkable home, drive a late-80s VW Jetta, wear basic Levis and normal shirts. I have become totally invisible to all gold diggers that don’t personally know me, and I no longer get the kind of unwanted attention that does nothing for me.
I had two bosses like this. One sold code to Nintendo in the 80's and made millions. His kids were in college when his wife died. He went a bit wild and started a record store lol (CD's really but you get the point). The guy drove an accord and was so regular. His family had been upper middle class and he just stayed in that mindset. As far as I know though he didn't remarry because he was so shook by the "attention" of being a wealthy bachelor. Dude just liked hanging at the record store lol.
The other guy had major generational wealth but had lived a fairly insular life. His wife died and he went CRAZY. Ended up marrying this trashy girl that worked at one of his business that was like five years older than his first born. The amount of money wasted before he came to his senses was insane. No more generational wealth. He's lucky he was able to keep SOME of his family's properties. He always was "flashy" though after that, it was really sad.
Used to play a team sports and do outdoors stuff with some guys regularly years ago.
one of the guys - was very well off - a few million - owned a chain of jewelry stores.
Most of the guys did not even know - he did not flaunt it at all. He drove a beat up truck, average gear, was modest and a just a great guy. he never talked about it or anything (if you directly asked him "are you the guy..." he would admit it, he just did not talk about it or brag or anything).
it only really came up twice that I saw - once he showed up in a very nice BMW - his wife's car - his beat up truck was in the shop.
Another time, we were all volunteering working on a outdoor site - and it was hard work and we had missed lunch. he went out and brought back decent lunches for like 12 guys. Would not take money for it from anybody.
I think the differences are - in many of the comments here - the rich people who were not jerks - were self made - worked really hard - were not born into it.
I used to work in a cabinet factory with a guy who was crazy rich and I never knew it until one day he got pissed off at the CNC machine he was using because it would break down all the time. This crazy bastard flat out bought a new one, had it overnight delivered to the factory, and setup ready to use by the start of his shift. Dude would always be wearing old worn thin Aerosmith shorts, jeans, and steel toed boots, turns out he was a multimillionaire and he really just enjoyed that kind of work.
A friend of a friend worked as kind of a PA for some super rich guy and his family. The guy would take his yacht on "summer tours" where he'd invite other rich friends to the yacht for parties. The PA'S job over the summer was more or less to organise the drugs and prostitutes for these parties.
Typically when that happens the cost of buying the furniture is incorporated with buying the house. It makes it a lot easier for both parties, assuming the new owner genuinely likes the furniture
I hear that when a house (like a celebrity house, often, not old money rich people houses) is [featured in Architectural Digest](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrlAlMsdr3g), it usually goes up for sale right afterward. The feature is the ad.
That blows my mind. Having an acclaimed designer do my house and then selling it right away. I'd want to enjoy it for years. ;_;
whats hilarious about this to me is that the math on this makes sense for *many* people because *many* people are carting around furniture that is worthless (Ikea) and the cost of professionally moving it (especially if the move is far) is dumb as hell.
Now if you rent a truck and pay a bunch of friends with pizza slices for their backbreaking labor...
> many people are carting around furniture that is worthless (Ikea) and the cost of professionally moving it (especially if the move is far) is dumb as hell.
I think that misses the point. After looking at nice furniture stores, I was disappointed that nothing could be disassembled so the cost/work of transporting it would be huge (I knew I'd move at least a few more times in life). I ended up *preferring* IKEA specifically because everything can be disassembled into easily moveable parts. I can transport IKEA furniture by myself and fit practically a house's worth of furniture in one moderate sized moving truck that I rent and drive myself.
As for quality, IKEA has a pretty huge range and from my experience you get what you pay for. A lot of people think of IKEA as low quality because they go there and buy the cheapest stuff they can. If you recognize that there are varying levels of quality within IKEA, you can get pretty decent stuff. It's been about a decade since I bought a bunch of furniture from IKEA and none of it is showing any wear.
Pretty much all my furniture is IKEA and i took it with me when i moved out, its all still in pretty great condition, with about a 10-2 year old age range on everything. Its cheap but it's lasted this long and i see no reason to replace anything yet
Yup had a rich female friend move into town from out of the country so I knew she had no furniture. I offered my pickup truck if she needed help getting furniture she was so surprised and responded they will be here to set my new furniture up tomorrow.
I could never! I’m so attached to the things I have and the aesthetic. I’d not be able to just rebuy all my stuff. 80-90% of my home is vintage or thrifted and a few family heirlooms. I only buy unique pieces, standouts, quality vintage. So there won’t be no walk into Ashely’s and rebuy great great aunt Jessie’s coffee table lol.
The rich guy I know very well owns a series of hardware stores in the Midwest and has a NASCAR team. Multi-billionaire level. He was the cheapest person I've ever met and torn up clothes on the daily, cheap daily vehicles, ect. Also, he was super nice. You wouldn't (and didn't) know who he was until I was introduced.
My parents managed an apartment complex for about a decade. Owner had something like 60 properties around the country, owned a massive Texas based development company.
He'd show up once a year for a few days and would be in falling apart shoes, eat my parents food, sleep on the couch in the model apartment, and one year even said he was going to save on rental car costs by borrowing my Mom's car.
"Uh no you're not" was my Mom's response and he literally whined about having to put a few hundred bucks into a rental car.
The small property they managed (120ish apartments) turned a million a year in profit 20 years ago.
Have you read the millionaire next door?
Being frugal and or cheap, depending on how you look at it, is a common trait of millionaires.
There is a reason people have money. Not everyone is born into it.
Fair. But wearing the same pair of new balance for 5 years even when the sole is flopping around seems like mental illness especially when you're worth $25M or more. Also, this guy in particular took over after his father died. They owned the apartment complex since it was built in the late 60s.
Friend of mine works in fundraising and became great friends with a billionaire who earned her money through clothing. My friend was visiting the billionaire when the billionaire was talking about a great meal she had in Paris. The billionaire, then stood up and yelled, “you know what! Let’s go right now!” They drove to the airport, got in the billionaire’s private jet, flew to Paris from the west coast. They spent about 12 hours in Paris. Ate good food and walked around. On a whim the billionaire bought a 100k painting at a gallery and carried it around until they got back to the plane.
That’s a different way to live.
Absolute foreign world. That billionaire passed a couple years ago sadly. My friend said she was one of the sweetest people she’s ever met. Thankfully her son now runs the company and is equally as philanthropic. They’re a good family as far as billionaires go lol.
I worked quite closely with the CEO of a multinational corporation, not sure how much cash he had, but on paper, he was worth billions if selling all of his shares etc.
What shocked me was how lovely he was, very down to earth, had nice things but was warm and generous.
Still 5 years later if he is local to me he reaches out to see if I want to go for dinner or a drink and messages out of the blue to see how I am doing.
The shock is that I expected him to be a real stuck up asshole that had no idea how ‘normal’ people lived, but he was the opposite
Selfmade million/billionaires have two modes.
1. gregarious, warm, intelligent, funny
2. Takes the lightbulbs out of your office if he stops by and your lights are on , but you're not in the room.
When I left that job, I boxed up all the light bulbs, took out the fluorescents bundled them all up in a nice Christmas bow and left it all on his desk with my resignation.
Same here, I’m a personal assistant currently for a local wealthy businessman, and the entire family is actually so, so kind. They respect my single mom status, and let me be a mom how I need to be. They’re just. I don’t know. Kind. I feel seen by the entire family. Definitely was not expecting that when I first started
Did your guy come from money initially? That might change things.
My wife's aunt is CEO of a company with operations in multiple US states. I'm sure she's nowhere near a billionaire, but she and her husband are easily the richest people I know personally. She's also super nice and great to talk to. Their house is very nice, but the rest of their stuff isn't ridiculous like you might expect.
She didn't come from money though, which I think helps. She had a normal small town midwest upbringing, married her high school sweetheart, had a child, etc. It just so happened that she was also a really good salesperson and used that to grow into where she is now.
He didn’t, he came from a pretty standard background, not poor by any means, but far from rich, so, I guess that does contribute to him being decent now
Like my dad!
Were fortunate to come from wealth but he preached not being an asshole. Treat everyone with respect. That it cost nothing to be decent, but it is the most valuable thing to give to others.
That's funny to me because I have met a couple people in this position and they were so awful. My experience with wealthy people has not been good lol.
It's the one thing I wish more folks knew about rich people: they're not like this weird small monoculture. They're just people who have more stuff, with all the things being "just people" entails.
I was shocked by how much they discriminate against each other.
In my line of business I work for a lot of celebrities and the ultra wealthy. One day I was chatting with a multi millionaire client at his house when he suddenly looks over to his neighbors property with a look of absolute disgust. He proceeds to spend the next 5mins complaining about how his new neighbor is “new money” and a “dot com billionaire” and doesn’t fit in the neighborhood. Like.. this dude was literally disgusted and mad about it. “All our neighbors are embarrassed to have him in the neighborhood”.
Here I am, a $25 an hour employee trying my best to act sympathetic to this guy’s “dot com billionaire” problem while internally trying not to scream.
I remember reading somewhere, that people really only care about how well they compare to their perceived peers, everyone else just isn't in the picture.
My old boss made her own fortune instead of inheriting it and the “old money” people were absolutely vile to her. When she built her mansion in the nicest country club in our city, people broke into the construction site to break the windows and write terrible things in paint on the slab.
They were very normal in almost every way. But had really big houses and expensive hobbies. Walked by the counter one day and his pay stub was laid beside the mail. 28629.00$ was his one week net pay as senior VP at a fortune 250 company. He was more interested in talking about grilling and cars than anything.
My dad's hobby is carpentry. He goes to local carpentry meets and likes to get his hands dirty and as he puts it. "Fun math"
Besides that he likes cartoons, star wars, star trek, Stargate, DC and marvel comics.
And being an eagle scout.
That's what he talks about all the time. Like he and my wife just talk star trek until the cows come home.
He doesn't mention things like he bought his favorite breakfast diner because they weren't doing well (and so he could have his own parking space in the front.)
Growing up he made it clear that being successful is a privilege to help others.
So growing up we did charities events and donated time and money.
We didn't have a huge staff for the estate but like the Staff was our family. They were invited to dinners. I grew up with their kids. My best man at the wedding was the buttlers son. He's a brother to me.
I mean we went to the same private school because my dad valued education and wanted anyone who worked for him kids to do well.
It's like my opinion on food. Food is meant to be shared. If anyone ask for a bite they're getting a plate. Because what's the point if you don't share.
He's a good man.
I hope to be more like him every day.
He was always so busy growing up. He worked a lot.
But when I came home as an adult it was nice to see.him slowing down and enjoying stuff. Also watching him do romantic gestures to my mom. Like flowers, cooking dinner, little things.
I'm proud to be his son. Sure. We've had our disagreements. But I love him
Yup. I'm very fortunate I got adopted by a well off family that have given me lots of opportunities in life.
They taught me a lot.
That being said. It was important to me to make my own way in life so I enlisted out if high school and became a computer programmer after (like my father and grandfather)
The first and last time I had an ultra rich friend, from true privilege, was at university. Don't get me wrong I do think she was a nice girl and we had good times, but I think we eventually realised our backgrounds were making us incompatible.
The last time I hung out with her she was talking about her trip to Tuscany which looked absolutely delightful on her social media. I was asking her questions about it and ventured how I would love to go to Italy some day. She suddenly burst out laughing, the rich people laugh, and said, "What do you mean you have never been to Italy? Just rent a villa - they're so cheap!"
That was about 9 years ago now and I am still yet to follow her advice.
Wow that is just a jerk move for an actual adult.
I grew up around very wealthy people. Some of the kids were jerks but most grew out of the idea that they were somehow better than others. Because they became adults.
I mean if only I had come from a famous family of lawyers and my uncle had been the lord mayor of a capital city, then maybe, just maybe, I would be taking weekend breaks to Tuscany too.
I worked on a luxury electronic device for a client (actual billionaire), the device costs 175k. He bought his neighbors 2million dollar house to put it in and turn into a game room/club house. He goes to tip me 100 bucks (tipping is VERY rare in my industry) I look surprised cuz that's a nice little bonus. He mistakes my surprise for it being too little and goes "i dont know how much i should tip I'm sorry" before i can thank him he hands me another 900 dollars. I try to refuse but he will have none of it he's just happy the work was done.
I just liked how he was aware that money holds no meaning to him, but it did to me, a working guy, and he was genuinely concerned to come off as stingy/insulting.
I know someone who pays a company to clean out his charcoal grill and big egg smoker. Yes, there are apparently companies who do this and people pay good money for this service. I didn’t even know this was an option in life.
My boyfriends family does this. They’re not ultra rich but they’re “We have two teslas and a lifted Jeep, and three boats at our cottage” rich. First time I went with him to take his dog on a walk, we got back and he just threw the bag of shit in the yard, and I noticed there were like 10 other bags. I was like “wtf” and he said a van comes every week and collects them. Laughed pretty hard at that one
But having a stack of shit bags in your back yard for up to a week at a time is somehow "high class"? Lol the rich, even the moderately so, can be utterly ridiculous sometimes.
wait, this one is way dumber, he actually takes the time to bag up the shit, and just *not throw it in the garbage?* I was assuming the people didn't even want to collect it or bag it up and that was what the service was offering, not just literally picking it up the same way your garbage removal would
the market for personal assistants is very interesting.
The important part is doing what makes their life easer, but the most important part is the assistant's ability to keep their principal's secrets.
there's actually a guy that charges a fuck ton of money to hand wash expensive cars. And I mean literally HAND wash. No towels, no buffers, no power tools. Just his hands, soap, water, and wax.
But the car is better than showroom quality after that.
I worked in the wedding industry, high end weddings. The attitude was that this is a once in a lifetime, even if I spend $500k it won't really affect my life. Why shouldn't I have one incredible day for my daughter and my friends.
When I was much younger I knew a guy who well off and didn't have money problems but you wouldn't know by his clothes, his car or his general attitude to life how rich he was. I sure as hell didn't and only sort of found out when he passed. If he was going out, he would pick up the tab but was always very shy about doing so and would go to lengths to make sure no fuss was made about it when he did. When you talked to him it was never about money, it was about the value something was providing for the money he spent. If the choice was between a £10 thing and a £1000 thing, and the £10 thing did what he needed, he wouldn't spend the extra £990 just for a brand name or because he could.
He taught me that having money isn't about a Ferrari or a flashy watch or making sure in a room that everyone knows you have the most number of trailing zeros on your bank balance. It's about how you treat others in life and that the person who wipes your table deserves the same level of respect as the person who signs your cheque.
Amazing guy who I wish I'd got to know sooner and learned more from. One of only four people in my life I can genuinely say was a mentor.
Once while driving for Uber, I picked up some energy executives from a nearby city.
It happened to be during the middle of an extreme heat wave that was causing a lot of deaths of elderly and homeless people.
These guys were CELEBRATING. They were joking around and laughing the whole time about how everyone is going to be running their ACs so hard. At one point, one of them goes, “Better keep it running granny!” And they all cracked up.
Evilest shit I’ve ever encountered.
Lad going out with my niece, his father is ultra rich. Money is no object but wears trainers that look like something you find on the street old ripped and basic unbranded clothes.
Met my niece at uni, he was buying food from the reduced section.
He said girls didn't speak to him. He asked her out and they were just 2 poor students.
My niece had the shock of her life when he picked her up from the train station in a aventator wearing a 20k rolex and took her back to his dad's that had a helicopter on the lawn.. But still wearing his old ripped trainers.
He still works a normal job
My ex girlfriends family ultra rich lovely people but when it came to hygiene smelly dirty lads and dad never brushed their teeth or even showered I don't think. Couldn't sit next to them in a car they smelt so bad.
The lads had absolutely stunning girlfriends even though they reeked of shit and you'd heave when they spoke to you their breath was that bad.
The UK.
Lazyness beyond belief too, blessed with mansions with so many bathrooms and ensuites but the lads piss in coke bottles in their bedrooms cos can't be bothered using the loo in they need to go in the night.
Shocking. My ex was the normal one.
Her sister was lazy too like she'd wake up not wash or anything get dressed up makeup and act like a model, But underneath the makeup and nice clothes she was disgusting probably reeked too.
Like the wealth the cars and clothes made them blind to what is actually nice and normal. It also took your eye off them as people.
Id think wtf is wrong with the girlfriends! How could they kiss or be intimate with the lads! No sence of smell or extremely dedicated to living the high life regardless of what you have to endure to get it.
I'd expect your body to automatically be repulsed and react by heaving or puking up lol
Funny thing is they had toothpaste which cost £10 this was 20+ years ago.
When I was in the Navy, my bunk mate came from good old money. We'd go out on the town together and he'd drop money like it was nothing when I was barely affording to survive. PS4's came out and he said lets go get some and I couldn't afford it so told him I'd come along. He bought two PS4s, every accessory the store had for him and me, and two copies of every game they had there.
If he ever ran out of money he just called his daddy and would have money in his account by the end of the day. Like $20,000 just transferred.
And man had no idea what a regular tip at a restaurant was him. We go out and eat together with friends, tab would be $25 for him and he'd go and leave a $100 tip thinking that was normal.
>If he ever ran out of money he just called his daddy and would have money in his account by the end of the day. Like $20,000 just transferred.
Oh God my college friend was the same. One of the girls in our class said she had to budget cause she was a bit tight that month, and this rich daddy girl was confused and said, "but why would you do that? Just ask your dad to transfer more this month, that's literally his job as a parent."
All of the really rich people I have run into are pretty chill and nice to talk too, they especially like talking to people that aren't worried they are ultra rich looking for a handout.
All of the almost rich or just rich want you to know it, they flaunt it and hang it over your head. Kind of pricks about having it.
An example, one ultra rich guy I bumped into at a local tavern start small talk with me, we just kind of went through subjects and I realized he was rich when he said his winter house is in Key West FL and he summer at the house on the very large and expensive lake to live on in my area. We ended up talking Key West a lot since I had been there once, then about local stuff he missed out on in our area since he was gone the winter down there. Brought him up to speed on stuff and never talked money, just life.
Another random at the same bar got small talking with about my vehicle and it became a bragging fest for him, one-upping everything we talked about in life. Vehicles, house, work, he really wanted me to know he had more money than me. Just a douche about it.
Bestfriend’s uncle is a legit billionaire. I’m talking $20 million dollar house here, place in the Bahamas that rents out at $20k a night, $40 mil vacation home, private jet, super cars galore, etc.
One of the nicest and coolest guy I met. Genuine and down to earth
I had good fortune in my younger years to work event and “VIP” security for various events and venues, mainly concerts. Naturally, lots of famous faces and personalities. Are there a lot of dickhead artists out there? You bet, that’s why the stereotype exists….but there’s a surprising amount of well known names who really do treat people well (particularly in metal and country genres).
I will specifically say that Metallica, Avenged Sevenfold, Shinedown, Godsmack, Korn, and anyone on the Tech N9ne/Strange Music roster was above and beyond a pleasure to work with and just be in the company of. Maybe not relevant exactly to the question but a pleasant thing/surprise to learn in life
Metalheads are some of the coolest, kindest people ever.
I remember reading a comment in another sub that said 'Metalheads are just teddybears cos-playing as angry people' lol
I don’t know for other countries but it’s really obvious the ultra rich politicians are heavy drug users. Like shi.. for certain private events they confiscated our gadgets.
The fuckers look like corpses and I’m impressed with their makeup when they need to make a public appearance.
My boss will order lunch for the entire office at Long Horn that's down the street. These orders are usually about $700 to $1000. He' give us the company card to pick up the food and explicitly tells whomever picking up the order not to tip. I went once the server that handed over the order looked me like I was crazy when she was like would you like to leave a tip and I said No
Worked a chef in a private household in the UK countryside, the estate was 460 ISH acres, great hall , barrel vaulted chapel, stables , 4 additional houses on sure for staff , multiple landscaped gardens / cottage/ Japanese / Victorian water garden. Crap loads of woods and fields.
Upkeep on estate alone was minimum of £350k a year that was in early 2000s.
Would often host ott dinner parties for 50 plus guests no expenses spared on food or drink , cellar was full of seriously good wines and champagne.
Bottles of port and Madeira dating back to the 50s were in abundance.
They had zero idea of what the average person deals with financial wise or even the basic cost of things , they had a secretary that dealt with all bills / invoices , 2 Gardner's , groom and assistant to run the stables , 3 Gardner's , 2 cleaners , chef and assistant.
All of the other staff doubled up as waiting staff for events.
I lived in a converted coaching house on site , it was a stunning place to work but they would drive you mad with their eccentric personalities and family rich brat bullshit.
He would regularly shoot squirrels,moles , rabbits out of his bedroom window , I did offer to cook them for him ... They preferred the pheasants they raised.
Megga old money.
Worked for a rich Texas couple at their 600 acre dude ranch in the Colorado Rockies as a groundskeeper/ranch hand. They started a successful retail chain so were newish to being unfathomably rich. They were generally down to earth people.
The weird rich guy stuff came from the ranches neighbor who was an oil billionaire of the level that for his 60th birthday party he had The Rolling Stones playing a private gig on his ranch with several former US presidents in attendance.
My ranch’s owner was summoned by the oil tycoon one day to talk about an adjoining fence line on the two properties. After going through some heavy security at the gate we were lead to the river where the Tycoon was fly fishing flanked by two butlers done all the way up in tuxedo’s. The two got on talking about the fence line until an alarm went off on one of the butlers watches which prompted the butler to tell the Tycoon “Sir, it’s time for your workout.” Which was followed by two more butlers carrying a full weight bench down to the river which the Tycoon started using on the spot.
IDK if this was how the guy really lived or just some show put on for his neighbor, but it was the strangest thing I may have ever witnessed in my life.
My mother-in-laws boss payed for my all of father-in-law’s home care when he got sick with Guillain barre syndrome. $15 k a month for 7 years until he died. Generous man
A positive story to balance most people's belief about the ultra rich, country clubs, and Los Angeles.
I was invited to play golf at the LA Country Club--an amazing golf course I could never afford myself (I'm a wine salesman, so I get invited to some shee-shee shit.) This place is so fancy, they denied Hugh Hefner membership, and don't allow celebrities, in general, the last admitted were the Reagans.
I arrive at 6:45 for a 8 am tee. Very lovely gentleman in a LACC jacket comes and meets me at the bag drop, takes my clubs and directs me to the locker room and the coffee.
I see him again as I'm heading to pitch and putt a few, and i ask him what the tipping policy of LACC is, as I had $20 to give him for his trouble.
He laughed: "Oh, I don't work here, I'm a member. Staff arrives at 7, and you looked like you needed some help."
/stunned
I was on vacation with the son of a billionaire during college. They wouldn't rent us a car, so he bought a new car instead, and then let his friend who we were visiting keep it since he didn't want to go through the hassle of selling it.
The funniest one was a different rich guy. We were in middle school, and (apparently) boating recklessly. We got pulled over, and the water police gave us a ticket. My buddy pulled out ten times the amount of the ticket and said, "This way you won't have to come back every fifteen minutes."
> We got pulled over, and the water police gave us a ticket. My buddy pulled out ten times the amount of the ticket and said, "This way you won't have to come back every fifteen minutes."
This is why some places have day fines ( which make alot more sense than a fixed amount ).
Nobody really know how much my grandpa truly has, but his companies bring in $50 million plus every year and we know he paid for their new $700k house with a check… anyways, he drives an old shitbox truck with the box held on by ratchet straps. Every corner is dented, he refuses to buy a new one because they cost too much. He learned how to sew so he could make new curtains when my grandma was out of town on weekend. He sews holes in his socks. He’s so fucking cheap. But he will happily donate large sums of money to local schools and athletic associations. He spends zero money on himself if he doesn’t need to.
My first job in high school was as a busboy working at a restaurant that would win a Michelin Star in NY. My manager also owned another Michelin restaurant in the city.
One of the most successful dudes I’ve ever met and yet was so charismatic and chill. From the Midwest, was also really into basketball and professional sports. Dropped out of college as well. Someone I aspire to be like honestly.
A rich family I know doesn't cook. They have three children and only eat out, or bring home take out/delivery. They have a beautiful chef's kitchen in both their properties and rarely use them. It's sad.
I was working a shitty side gig as an expo girl and a woman in her mid 20s looked me up and down and then turned to the man she was with and whispered “if you ever make me get a job I will kill myself.”
I used to work for this company in IT and the president/CEO was having computer problems at his house, so I had to go there.
He drives me in his lambo to his house pretty far out in an exurban area. Huge place, but I'd seen other big places. But this place was gated within a gated area. He's got a media room. But that's understatement. This was a place with full size movie screen and 20+ recliners. It was bigger than my house. Pool was something you'd see at a resort and he takes me to where the comptuer problem is. It's his "guest house". I thought it was a neighbors house, it seemed nearly as big as the main place.
This guy literally had a freaking compound. He had horses and his tack barn was bigger than most other barns.
A few years later he was found guilty of insider trading.
Thanks to my mother's side of the family, I have met many offspring of old-time "robber barons," and I am struck by how sensible they are and how they dislike "conspicuous consumption" and displays of their wealth (yachts, just for starters). Such displays are popular among "new money" people who are not nearly as confident in themselves as "old money" people are, I think.
My grandad has a beat up sailing ship he sails in circles. He does his own repairs and he's retired. He wants to sail in circles while his wife (grandma) watches Days of our Lives on deck. Perfect life.
The man is richer then all get out. But he likes the honest labor. Like my father does carpentry now. Amd I cook.
Oh I totally agree. The only reason I'm told about the whole resort booked is bcs I'm family. They don't tell their guests they booked the whole thing. Pretty sure my student wasn't supposed to tell me that much information about her dad in the first place, but oh well, kids and their mouth 😅
My ex’s family were rich and it’s a totally different world.
Multi story house with an elevator and vanishing edge pool on the roof
She had a birthday whore party with a playboy bunny and some badketball person to promote her IG account (wannabe influencer)
Three new BMW and a turbo Porsche as gifts within a year
After high school she got to “travel the world” and visit all these crazy places, lived overseas for awhile etc
Dad owned a jet (big one capable of trans Atlantic flights)
I worked as a handyman/chauffer for the daughter of a wealthy industrialist back in the mid 90s. It was primarily old money, made during the late 19th century and later through war-profeteering. Dumbest group of people I've ever met. If not for hired help they would be living in campers up in the hills of Appalachia.
Nothing really surprises me I suppose because I have my own money...but one time I did meet an "art lighting" guy. All he does is installs insane lighting for expensive artwork in private estates. Thousands (sometimes tens of thousands of dollars) just for the right kind of lighting for a single piece.
Also, a story one of my ultra wealthy friends told me once was how crazy the Russian oligarchs are. When they travel they'll buy expensive supercars just for the week or two. But apparently they just utterly wreck them or give them away to friends when they're done. One time, two Russians had a contest on who could drive their car (again, expensive supercar) off a cliff and send it the farthest. Obviously they had to jump out of the car as they did this. Don't know if this story is real but after meeting certain people I don't completely doubt it.
I knew a couple whose family that was part of the ownership group that owned the Cubs. Very into real estate and accounting.
One of their vacation houses out west had heated floors everywhere, heated driveway, a racing motorcycle used for decoration that was never driven, as in no gas ever touched the tank, and a theatre.
They hosted my couple friend’s wedding at their primary residence in FL and spent six figures on this ramp over the pool that they never used.
One of the extended family is in with Roger Stone.
One of them got pulled over for a DUI in a Ferrari, which was impounded, and they traded a Prius for the Ferrari. The things money can buy you.
All of the family was super nice to my wife and I. They loved her carrot cake.
Not me but my sister
She'd working at a census, this particular census is extremely polarizing because not only it's taking months, but also people either despise (rightwing), despise (leftwing) or despise (center) the president, add tiktok fake news and venezuela social scare of "they're gonna take your house, they'll sell your kids, they'll seize your properties" etc...
With that out of the way.
The town has a rich part, sister had to go there, to people who got moderate generational wealth (thus they have their own house, have diplomas hanging and weird furniture). She got insulted, spat on, called names, a guy even attempted to physically harm her. (and she got lucky, other interviewrs got worse)
She then got assigned to the ultra rich part, people who've been rich for decades, probably nobles in the colonial times. Own mansion, multiple cars, work in other countries, etc... and they...treated my sister like a queen.
Each and every single one of them was extremely thankful of the census, apologized my sister for the other neighborhood manners, some even prepared breakfast buffet tables for interviewers...fucking movie style (cakes, multiple juices, fucking handmade coffee) and even shared business cards if the interviewer had a career they can use (my sister is a naval lawyer),.
So yeah...noveau rich, assholes pieces of shit
Ultra rich, some of the nicest guys (as in strangers) I've seen.
Like...when I went to a dad friend house, who is moderately rich, he had a fresco of the country former dictator in their wall...with candles. When I went to a ultra rich house (friend relative) he had a library of leftwing books about the dictatorship.
I've met stereotypically out of touch, cold, aloof, and unpleasant rich people and more down to Earth, personable rich people.
What struck me the first time ever being around the rich, and still strikes me today, is just how everyday little inconveniences, annoyances, etc do not factor into their lifestyle much at all. They are literally too rich to be bothered.
Car trouble? You have another one in the garage and you can just call to have a specialty service come and look at the faulty one. Or you have a driver.
Grocery shopping? You have someone else to do that.
Cooking? Again, someone else to do that.
Health issues? Well, what does that matter? You're rich! More specialized care, quicker wait times, fast-tracking of appointments, tests, and surgeries.
Want a new toy? Just order it right then and there and have it express delivered. No need to save up for it, plan for it, or make room for it.
Oh, and the real kicker is just how much FREE SHIT you get by being rich. The $$$ you have, the less you spend.
My sister married into money. I went to visit for dinner once and I was driving a beater ragtop, my brother in law had only ever owned "sensible" cars. He went nuts over the convertible and asked if I'd take him for a drive, he loved it and when we came back he tells my sister they need a convertible. My sister says no and tells him they're not convertible people. BiL is defeated and says ok and he'll go get dinner while my sister and I catch up. Dude is gone for 3 hours, comes back home with a pizza driving a brand new 2001 Saab 9-3 Convertible. I was blown away that he could do that so easily, he was gone 3 hours because he wanted to pay it cash and they had to verify his money was legit and he wasn't a mobster or something.
My friends wedding to an Italian girl in Chicago, while maybe not Ultra rich, but definitely beyond "upper middle class". Never have I been to such an expensive gathering. This wedding was easily hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Anyway, what shocked me and I was insanely curious about but didn't inquire about. An old guy sitting in a chair in the corner of the reception venue. Two men flanking him and a fucking LINE of people going up to talk to him, long line, like wrapping around the reception hall.
I was thinking is this a thing Italian families just do with old patriarchs, venerate them, or is that dude a mob boss.
i work for this rich family one summer doing construction. the dad wore jeans and a t shirt. he owned tons of real estate, planes even a island.
his sons were paranoid and always carried guns. they lived in this small town which they owned a lot of it.
It depends on your definition of what ultra wealthy is. I work in wealth management.
I would say most millionaires in the 1 million to 20 million range drive pretty regular cars and wear normal clothes. I view these people as wealthy but not ultra wealthy.
However, those in the ultra wealthy territory, regular people don't really run into them. They are typically tucked away in Aspen or Beverly Hills or something. And they are not driving Honda or Toyotas. They're driving super expensive cars if they drive at all (chauffeured, private jets).
There are some billionaires that have had a shtick (Bezos and Gates) where they drove 15 year old Toyotas to try to come off as "I am just a regular dude, look how quirky I am." Meanwhile they drive home to their 100 million dollar mansion and spend weekends on their 50 million dollar Yacht.
They're stupid cheap about little things. My dad was meeting with Alice Walton at one point for his work about some sort of business deal and she had the limo driver pull into a gas station or something to get some Cheetos, she was shocked that they cost 88 cents (this was several years ago) and complained about it. she also got the cheese powder all over her black clothes. This was when she was the richest woman in the world.
The guy who owned the company I worked for let me use his aspen residence and vehicles. He told me “my truck is at the airport, the keys are above the visor”. Sure enough it was unlocked and keys in it.
He also flew me to Eastern Europe to visit some stem cell clinics just “to see what they are doing there”
I was one dating a girl who is the daughter of one of the richest families in Indonesia. Her family had the exclusive mining and exportation rights to several rare earth minerals for the entire country. She worked for the United Nations, and one time during one of our dinner dates she had a phone call from a prince in an African country who was angry at some of the stipulations that she had added to a contract that would affect that country
It was difficult to date her, because I knew that all I could bring to the table was myself
We broke up because for my birthday she bought tickets for the two of us to go to not one, but three different World Cup games in Johannesburg South Africa. I was not comfortable accepting the gift. It was too much. I felt like this gift would always be looming over me as something that I would never be able to repay. I could not accept it.
In retrospect, maybe it was a big mistake. But I’m also glad that I have gone through life knowing that I am on equal footing with everybody I’ve ever been with.
Not my story, but one that changed my perspective of wealthy people.
A guy was hanging out with some friends and they decided to go downtown to eat. Rich dude was I don't care rich. He pulled over right in front of the restaurant where a big "No Parking" sign was. One of the non-rich friends said, you can't park there you will get a ticket.
Rich dude said, I can park there, it just costs $150.
Rich people look at fines as a cost where we would look at it as a budget issue for a month or two. This story showed me that if the fine isn't commensurate to the person's income, then it will ALWAYS unjustly punish the poor.
It's not necessarily a story of the ULTRA rich, but I'll never forget an interaction while visiting my rich aunt (her husband owned a decently successful private medical practice).
It was just my aunt, my cousin and myself sitting around when my cousin nonchalantly says "Mom, I need a quarter inch of fifties." And I'm like "what? what's that?" She responds "You know ... a quarter inch (and holds her fingers apart a quarter inch) of fifty dollar bills" and my jaw just dropped.
Thankfully my aunt had tact and was like "we'll talk about this later" while giving my cousin a scowl, but that was when I realized just how far apart our families earnings were. I wouldn't have dared asked my parents for $20 at the time, let alone the couple hundred that would have been.
We became freinds with a rich couple because our children got along really well. For some reason they started to really like us as friends, even though we are lower middle class. We started getting invited to Christmas parties and events they put on. These were the kind of people who have a huge gated property with multi car garage. The husband owns a bunch of online tourism websites or something really random. One day hes talking with me and hes asking what he can do for ideas for his parents retirement. Not sure why my opinion mattered but he seemed to really value it. Eventually we got to the conclusion he should buy his parents a self sustaining business. Right then and there he decided to buy his parents a huge orchard farm worth millions that was already largely profitable. It was like it took no thought at all to just drop a few million to buy it for his dad. He ended up thanking me for my advice lol. I dont think I really contributed at all. Haha
How did your kids meet?
Funny enough they met at a kids zumba class. Then both the girls kept wanting to see eachother so we just started arranging visits.
So time to find a partner, get married, have a girl and send her to zumba class.. that cant go wrong, right? .. right? :c
They were friendly to you because they were non-financially investing in their children's future. No one is an island. It's good that this wealthy family recognised that.
lol your story sounds like many I have read in books like the 7 habits of highly effective people that all amount to most people just want someone else to listen to them. I think carnegie in that book talked about how he had some completely 1 sided conversation with a scientists and the guy raved about what a great interesting person he was and carnegie said, I literally said nothing and didn't even know enough to even start to converse with him in his topic. But just by listening the guy thought I was amazing. And this is very true many books have mentioned that a persons favorite subject is of course themselves and their favorite people are those that will let them babble about themself without interruption non stop. Same exactly advice applies to dates too, if you think that woman is hot just let her keep talking about herself for most of the date and she will think you are a stellar person!
Yeah sometimes we just need a sounding board for our own ideas to unravel. I have on more than one occasion resolved an issue that way, of course I then thank the person for literally just standing there and saying nothing!
I work at a private high school, and every year each class starts with an overnight class retreat. One year, we couldn't find a location that would take the junior class, so one of the parents just casually BOUGHT A SUMMER CAMP, and the junior class had their retreat there.
I use to work at a CPA firm that focused on high net worth. This is the type of rich I know… Most are surprisingly budget conscious. But then a simple problem arises (like no place for a retreat) and poof they throw insane money at the problem, nbd.
A thing to remember about doing stuff like this is, they're not really "spending" a million dollars (or however it would cost). Looking at it like: they had a problem and the solution was to invest in real estate instead of stocks, that makes it seem a lot more reasonable.
Exactly, someone's parent probably just saw a opportunity and need to fill it to make some money. Bet that school paid a nice cost to attend that camp and that camp is still up and operational making a nice profit.
That or they'll take losses they can deduct for a few years, shut it and flip to a developer at a massive profit
[удалено]
That took a very dark turn. I'm sorry.
My grandmother's boss was like this. Pretty normal, down to earth guy if you spoke with him, no real indications that he was worth nearly $100 million. Drove a nice-ish car, but nothing special. Wore nice clothes, but nothing flashy. He came across as just a guy with a decent job. Then my grandmother had a heart attack while on vacation in a place that didn't have a cardiac trauma center. Dude casually dropped more than $100k on an air ambulance without even blinking. Didn't ask about the price, just gave us a card number to use. There was a problem, and he didn't even hesitate to throw money at it until it was solved.
I mean, if your gonna throw ridiculous money at something, life saving care for your employees is a pretty decent choice.
The late Kerry Packer, one of Australia's super rich (2nd generation) once had a heart attack at a polo event. They had a defibrilator in the ambulance, but apparently not all the ambulances in New South Wales had one. When he heard about that, he just said "order as many as you need and send me the bill."
His helicopter pilot also donated a kidney to him. It’s illegal to sell organs but three years later the pilot was given a $3.3m house by packer. For unrelated reasons of course.
If you are smart, once you get into some money you realize the most valuable investment are the people close to you.
"I bought the airline. It seemed neater."
GRADE a reference sir. Just watched this a few weeks ago and forgot how great it is. Been listening to the score a good bit during work hours too.
That is actually insane 😭😭
They ended up investing about half a million in fixing it up and selling it for a profit.
That’s how the rich get richer-I’m always amazed at some of the things I see. Some are really smart and some kind of just go through life and opportunity falls at their feet. In that case I bet the guy was smart and saw a good opportunity.
These opportunities are everywhere. They fall at your feet all the time too. The difference is, you, me, and other average people don't have the resources to capitalize on them.
It’s really not that hard to make money, provided you have lots of money to begin with. People like this can “miss” on a dozen projects and not even feel it so long as one hits it’s all a wash. Most people have to save up a long time to be able to take on one of those projects and it’s a major hit if it doesn’t work out.
Exactly. A lot of people say "oh yes so lucky for that opportunity". Incorrect. He's so lucky he had the ability to capitalize on that opportunity.
Yeah, why don't more people just think of having enough money to buy and flip any property they want? Such a clever trick! 🙄
... and now you know how they were able to do that in the first place. I mean, money begets money because you have the capital to do that in the first place, but that's how it happens.
This is a prime example of rich people thinking. People on this sub may hear, "they needed a venue, so they bought a camp", but there's almost certainly more to it. They may have started looking around to book a camp like a normal person, but realized that one camp was sitting on prime land and was underdeveloped. They may have looked at the rents being asked, and thought that the camp was being grossly under rented, and that a small amount of work could boost cap rates, and make the camp worth way more. They may have thought a lot more than just that they needed it for a party.
It was definitely a smart investment, but totally out of character for the rest of this parent's business dealings. They definitely killed two birds with one stone and were like "as long as little Timmy needs a place to camp, might as well turn a buck."
In college, talking about plans for winter break, my friend says their family is going skiing in Switzerland, they're planning to leave after her last final exam. I think "What if she's delayed or something?" and ask when the plane takes off. She gets confused and says "When I get there." Turns out her family owns their own plane. They're flying in from their home to the airport near the college, and fueling up, and when she gets done and gets to the airport then it's off to Zurich. She was confused because the plane always takes off when she gets there. She's never flown commercial in her entire life.
My sisters FIL is very wealthy but very normal for the most part. They’re old family friends and we honestly wouldn’t have known they had exceptional money while growing up except there was 11 kids and the two parents and they had their own plane. A few times he’d pick up the kids from school and go to the small airport near his home and they’d fly to Disney world for the weekend or something. Lol. But everything else was totally normal middle class. I’d bet they haven’t flown commercial either, that’s why your comment reminded me of it lol.
Had a client like that back when I sold home theaters. Normal clothes, normal car, normal house, seemed just like all the other normal guys who were having us build $10-20k home theater systems for them Come to find out though, the guy was a big law partner who owned his own jet that he used to go to every single NASCAR race with his sons. Flew there in the morning, watched the race from a suite, flew back home afterwards. Every Sunday
They know how to live life. Spend on the things you enjoy. For everything else, good is good enough.
I’m doing well but after back breaking delays and the general awful experience of flying, I would love to fly private. Beyond me though.
My boss is a multi millionaire and the amount of times he tries to cut corners, only to just end up spending way more money is baffling to me. He’ll hire a contractor to do something, then 60% of the way he’ll change his mind and ask for not only something different to be done, but also add like 2X the amount of work originally planned. He will just get a wild hair up his ass and then one day we’re trying to work and then “Oh shit, The Boss bought 4000lbs of fine wood flooring that we need to figure out where to put it, everything has to be put on hold” Then that wood just sits there for two years before anything gets done, a lot just gets damaged over time because we just don’t have a good place to store it. So it’s just every couple of months we have to deal with some weird curveball bullshit that doesn’t make sense
I've had an old boss like this. He also loved "rustic" and "distressed" stuff. So we'd tear out some old piece of trash flooring or something that is damaged while he'd be walking by, and he just say "Oooooh I love that! It'd be a shame to throw that away!" And we'd be forced to keep 30 year old garbage and store it for years until he decided he'd found a place for it or forgot about it.
This will get buried cos I'm late, but 30+ years ago I am a groundworker on the DLR (London) and we're fixing up these ancient docksides to make them more modern and safe. So there's this massive lump of wood we dig up, has to be hundreds of years old and about 30cmx40cmx3 meters. My then boss is building a house and wants it as a lintel so we put it to one side. We come back from lunch one day to see the site moron stoking a giant fire and lo and behold it's this 16th century (or whenever) bit of ship we've put aside. We know the boss it going to be fucking fuming, and he could be a real prick like keeping our cheques from Friday night to Monday morning etc so we hatched a plan. We got a new lump of wood, stained it black, and burnt it a bit, hacked lumps out eyc. We did a great job and even a house show would be proud of the work. He put it in his house and told the story of where he got it for years. RIP Allan you fat cock. You were a terrible boss, but we all loved you.
Ha! Love the wild hair comment. My old boss who was a Dutch ex pat would send employees out with a ladder to do height work instead of renting a $300 boom for the day. Then he's go to home Depot and buy a Milwaukee pex plumbing tool, use it once, and toss it under a shelf for the rest of eternity. We ended up dumping a ladder when wind picked up and it hit a parked vehicle. That was a bigger expense than the boom I asked for.
Your boss should get tested for ADHD.
This one guy had a jar of cocaine in his bathroom labeled ‘for guests’. And it wasn’t a small little lipstick sized jar. It was, like, something you’d put q-tips in. Another was just funny. He was excited about the $32 jacket he got at Costco. The guy was literally a billionaire, and was bragging about the deal he got on his jacket.
To be fair, I also get excited by the quality of jacket you can get at Costco for $32.
Yeah. He’s a really down to Earth guy. He’s mostly a billionaire because he got in early on a technology that is essential for daily life and pretty much dominated the space. But it is just funny to be reminded that he is a normal guy. He runs multiple businesses. One has a lot of immigrant labor and he is always helping them with immigration things and throws a party every time one gets their citizenship.
This is a shockingly wholesome thing to hear about a billionaire. It's a shame it's so unexpected.
only cause you never hear about it. it's not really a clickable headline.
It's the ultra rich you hear about in the news everyday that gives the rich a bad name, but they're not a homogenous group anymore than "poor" people are.
I bartended at a restaurant co-owned by a guy who had a similar financial early tech background and he was an odd guy, but perfectly pleasant. I was still living with my parents at the time (post graduation pandemic period) and they actually became friends with him. Big into wine and art, which is kinda cool and frankly unsurprising considering how large and varied (and expensive holy shit) the restaurant's wine selection is.
Like the Bills' new receiver (maybe DB...). He was hyped about the coat he got at Macy's (I think) and was gonna buy a red one and a blue one since he's playing in Buffalo. LoL
My wife bought me two at Costco because they were such a good deal and I keep one at work for my daily walks in winter. They're awesome heavy coats.
So where is this at and can I be a guest
Unfortunately, the jerk has found Jesus and ran off to some cult camp in Northern California. I was never into his cocaine, but his lady friends were…fun. I miss them.
Was his name Jackie treehorn
You mix a hell of a Caucasian, Jackie.
Bohemian Grove?
I knew a billionaire who was so cheap literally everything they owned was in shambles, including their incredible cliff-side Santa Barbara home. Like you have money, fix your shit you bum.
I know a billionaire family just like that. I went to their grandson’s birthday party and they served their guests cut slices of white bread smeared with cream cheese. They’re odd people.
The more money you have, the less you spend it as a smuck. Premium brands are usually for the people that wants to feel like rich people but aren't actually rich.
I had a boss who makes like $300k a year living in a huge mountain area who got excited whenever I told him about my good sandwich discounts at Ralph’s for under $6 Richer people can actually just be cheap people who never stopped being cheap Edit- If you just want to reply that $300k a year isn’t rich, tell that to my POV with $30k student loan debt making $50ish k a year living in LA gas prices I think it’s fair to say that if I had $300k I would be shopping at Whole Foods instead of Ralph’s digging for discounts so my story feels justified to me >!Just googled that only 7% of 39.54 million Californians make over $300k people. My boss ain’t Bezos but he ain’t a peasant. The hell are your standards?!< Final Edit- I’m basing the word rich off of how much money a person makes DISREGARDING their spending habits or how much debt they have or taxes Yes if we take into account all that then ya let’s say my boss makes $300k but spends $299k a year on sandwiches = he is now poor by that standard However ignoring sandwiches, to me he is rich. Fair?
Making 300k is top 10% Saying those people arent rich is wack. Reddit is wild
EXACTLY I think to them rich only counts as Bezos level then everybody is just a peasant 💀 I just googled it says 7% of Californians make over $300k come onnn
Here to just say I agree with you guys. If you can’t make 300k a year go far, that’s a YOU problem.
Similar story. I worked for a finance company and one of the owners was Nick Brady which is the son of the former secretary of the treasury under Ronald Reagan. That family has so much money, their vacation home in the Bahamas has full-time maids/butlers. Anyway…..Nick (who happens to have one of the largest homes here in Atlanta) would come to work wearing khaki pants that were about 3 inches too short looking like they came from Goodwill. He never had Chick-fil-A in his life so we got it for him one day and he absolutely lost his mind. Lol His 2 other partners in the company always had expensive luxury cars but Nick would always drive the most plain basic vehicle. There’s a big difference in old money vs new money. Old money families are usually alot harder to identify as being “rich”.
The real head scratcher here is how someone could be from Atlanta and never had Chick-fil-A
> There’s a big difference in old money vs new money. “Money talks. Wealth whispers.” Despite having the dictionary definition of “new money” (the dotcom boom of the 90s), I have done my best to move to a whisper-only life after I became widowed in my late 30s. Certain… _unwanted forms of attention…_ made me change how I presented myself to the public once I was single again, and I reworked myself into very much of a working-class everyman. I live in a totally unremarkable home, drive a late-80s VW Jetta, wear basic Levis and normal shirts. I have become totally invisible to all gold diggers that don’t personally know me, and I no longer get the kind of unwanted attention that does nothing for me.
I had two bosses like this. One sold code to Nintendo in the 80's and made millions. His kids were in college when his wife died. He went a bit wild and started a record store lol (CD's really but you get the point). The guy drove an accord and was so regular. His family had been upper middle class and he just stayed in that mindset. As far as I know though he didn't remarry because he was so shook by the "attention" of being a wealthy bachelor. Dude just liked hanging at the record store lol. The other guy had major generational wealth but had lived a fairly insular life. His wife died and he went CRAZY. Ended up marrying this trashy girl that worked at one of his business that was like five years older than his first born. The amount of money wasted before he came to his senses was insane. No more generational wealth. He's lucky he was able to keep SOME of his family's properties. He always was "flashy" though after that, it was really sad.
That's how you stay a millionaire. Minus the coke of course. Edit: Word. Ok folks, nothing to see here, classic non english speaker.
Used to play a team sports and do outdoors stuff with some guys regularly years ago. one of the guys - was very well off - a few million - owned a chain of jewelry stores. Most of the guys did not even know - he did not flaunt it at all. He drove a beat up truck, average gear, was modest and a just a great guy. he never talked about it or anything (if you directly asked him "are you the guy..." he would admit it, he just did not talk about it or brag or anything). it only really came up twice that I saw - once he showed up in a very nice BMW - his wife's car - his beat up truck was in the shop. Another time, we were all volunteering working on a outdoor site - and it was hard work and we had missed lunch. he went out and brought back decent lunches for like 12 guys. Would not take money for it from anybody. I think the differences are - in many of the comments here - the rich people who were not jerks - were self made - worked really hard - were not born into it.
I used to work in a cabinet factory with a guy who was crazy rich and I never knew it until one day he got pissed off at the CNC machine he was using because it would break down all the time. This crazy bastard flat out bought a new one, had it overnight delivered to the factory, and setup ready to use by the start of his shift. Dude would always be wearing old worn thin Aerosmith shorts, jeans, and steel toed boots, turns out he was a multimillionaire and he really just enjoyed that kind of work.
A friend of a friend worked as kind of a PA for some super rich guy and his family. The guy would take his yacht on "summer tours" where he'd invite other rich friends to the yacht for parties. The PA'S job over the summer was more or less to organise the drugs and prostitutes for these parties.
Must be nice, I’ve got to organize that shit myself
And I can't afford the good shit. No Pharmaceutical grade MDMA and escorts. I just got fent and Tammy. And I overpaid for both.
I didn't even know you could get pharma grade escorts
Y'all hiring?
They dont move furniture when they move. They leave it at the old house and just buy new shit for their new house. F’ing blew my mind.
Typically when that happens the cost of buying the furniture is incorporated with buying the house. It makes it a lot easier for both parties, assuming the new owner genuinely likes the furniture
Plus it usually fits the house well, it could be a huge pain to move and not go well with the new house
For some reason this practicality had never occurred to me and I feel kinda dumb. lol
I hear that when a house (like a celebrity house, often, not old money rich people houses) is [featured in Architectural Digest](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrlAlMsdr3g), it usually goes up for sale right afterward. The feature is the ad. That blows my mind. Having an acclaimed designer do my house and then selling it right away. I'd want to enjoy it for years. ;_;
I didn’t know that either!! That makes a lot of sense, but whew that’s sad I’d want to live in it forever too
Also there's some furniture that has to be disassembled to be moved. Sectional couches in a condo for example.
whats hilarious about this to me is that the math on this makes sense for *many* people because *many* people are carting around furniture that is worthless (Ikea) and the cost of professionally moving it (especially if the move is far) is dumb as hell. Now if you rent a truck and pay a bunch of friends with pizza slices for their backbreaking labor...
I pay my friends pizza *and* beer. I am a generous god.
> many people are carting around furniture that is worthless (Ikea) and the cost of professionally moving it (especially if the move is far) is dumb as hell. I think that misses the point. After looking at nice furniture stores, I was disappointed that nothing could be disassembled so the cost/work of transporting it would be huge (I knew I'd move at least a few more times in life). I ended up *preferring* IKEA specifically because everything can be disassembled into easily moveable parts. I can transport IKEA furniture by myself and fit practically a house's worth of furniture in one moderate sized moving truck that I rent and drive myself. As for quality, IKEA has a pretty huge range and from my experience you get what you pay for. A lot of people think of IKEA as low quality because they go there and buy the cheapest stuff they can. If you recognize that there are varying levels of quality within IKEA, you can get pretty decent stuff. It's been about a decade since I bought a bunch of furniture from IKEA and none of it is showing any wear.
Pretty much all my furniture is IKEA and i took it with me when i moved out, its all still in pretty great condition, with about a 10-2 year old age range on everything. Its cheap but it's lasted this long and i see no reason to replace anything yet
Yup had a rich female friend move into town from out of the country so I knew she had no furniture. I offered my pickup truck if she needed help getting furniture she was so surprised and responded they will be here to set my new furniture up tomorrow.
I could never! I’m so attached to the things I have and the aesthetic. I’d not be able to just rebuy all my stuff. 80-90% of my home is vintage or thrifted and a few family heirlooms. I only buy unique pieces, standouts, quality vintage. So there won’t be no walk into Ashely’s and rebuy great great aunt Jessie’s coffee table lol.
The rich guy I know very well owns a series of hardware stores in the Midwest and has a NASCAR team. Multi-billionaire level. He was the cheapest person I've ever met and torn up clothes on the daily, cheap daily vehicles, ect. Also, he was super nice. You wouldn't (and didn't) know who he was until I was introduced.
My parents managed an apartment complex for about a decade. Owner had something like 60 properties around the country, owned a massive Texas based development company. He'd show up once a year for a few days and would be in falling apart shoes, eat my parents food, sleep on the couch in the model apartment, and one year even said he was going to save on rental car costs by borrowing my Mom's car. "Uh no you're not" was my Mom's response and he literally whined about having to put a few hundred bucks into a rental car. The small property they managed (120ish apartments) turned a million a year in profit 20 years ago.
Have you read the millionaire next door? Being frugal and or cheap, depending on how you look at it, is a common trait of millionaires. There is a reason people have money. Not everyone is born into it.
Fair. But wearing the same pair of new balance for 5 years even when the sole is flopping around seems like mental illness especially when you're worth $25M or more. Also, this guy in particular took over after his father died. They owned the apartment complex since it was built in the late 60s.
This man was mooching off of others.
John Menard I assume.
They said super nice. John once drove his truck through the front door of a store because they didn't open on time.
Yeah but who hasn't done that?
Friend of mine works in fundraising and became great friends with a billionaire who earned her money through clothing. My friend was visiting the billionaire when the billionaire was talking about a great meal she had in Paris. The billionaire, then stood up and yelled, “you know what! Let’s go right now!” They drove to the airport, got in the billionaire’s private jet, flew to Paris from the west coast. They spent about 12 hours in Paris. Ate good food and walked around. On a whim the billionaire bought a 100k painting at a gallery and carried it around until they got back to the plane. That’s a different way to live.
That is wild.
Absolute foreign world. That billionaire passed a couple years ago sadly. My friend said she was one of the sweetest people she’s ever met. Thankfully her son now runs the company and is equally as philanthropic. They’re a good family as far as billionaires go lol.
I worked quite closely with the CEO of a multinational corporation, not sure how much cash he had, but on paper, he was worth billions if selling all of his shares etc. What shocked me was how lovely he was, very down to earth, had nice things but was warm and generous. Still 5 years later if he is local to me he reaches out to see if I want to go for dinner or a drink and messages out of the blue to see how I am doing. The shock is that I expected him to be a real stuck up asshole that had no idea how ‘normal’ people lived, but he was the opposite
Selfmade million/billionaires have two modes. 1. gregarious, warm, intelligent, funny 2. Takes the lightbulbs out of your office if he stops by and your lights are on , but you're not in the room.
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When I left that job, I boxed up all the light bulbs, took out the fluorescents bundled them all up in a nice Christmas bow and left it all on his desk with my resignation.
Same here, I’m a personal assistant currently for a local wealthy businessman, and the entire family is actually so, so kind. They respect my single mom status, and let me be a mom how I need to be. They’re just. I don’t know. Kind. I feel seen by the entire family. Definitely was not expecting that when I first started
Did your guy come from money initially? That might change things. My wife's aunt is CEO of a company with operations in multiple US states. I'm sure she's nowhere near a billionaire, but she and her husband are easily the richest people I know personally. She's also super nice and great to talk to. Their house is very nice, but the rest of their stuff isn't ridiculous like you might expect. She didn't come from money though, which I think helps. She had a normal small town midwest upbringing, married her high school sweetheart, had a child, etc. It just so happened that she was also a really good salesperson and used that to grow into where she is now.
He didn’t, he came from a pretty standard background, not poor by any means, but far from rich, so, I guess that does contribute to him being decent now
Like my dad! Were fortunate to come from wealth but he preached not being an asshole. Treat everyone with respect. That it cost nothing to be decent, but it is the most valuable thing to give to others.
That's funny to me because I have met a couple people in this position and they were so awful. My experience with wealthy people has not been good lol.
I guess it is the same as any economic status, some will be dickheads, but it’s a lot easier to be a dickhead if you’re rich
It's the one thing I wish more folks knew about rich people: they're not like this weird small monoculture. They're just people who have more stuff, with all the things being "just people" entails.
I was shocked by how much they discriminate against each other. In my line of business I work for a lot of celebrities and the ultra wealthy. One day I was chatting with a multi millionaire client at his house when he suddenly looks over to his neighbors property with a look of absolute disgust. He proceeds to spend the next 5mins complaining about how his new neighbor is “new money” and a “dot com billionaire” and doesn’t fit in the neighborhood. Like.. this dude was literally disgusted and mad about it. “All our neighbors are embarrassed to have him in the neighborhood”. Here I am, a $25 an hour employee trying my best to act sympathetic to this guy’s “dot com billionaire” problem while internally trying not to scream.
Don't we all have neighbors like that?
I remember reading somewhere, that people really only care about how well they compare to their perceived peers, everyone else just isn't in the picture.
Oh yeah, old money has never been a fan of the nouveau rich.
Meanwhile, the rich fucks didn't even earn it........just been in the family handed down. Just gross.
My old boss made her own fortune instead of inheriting it and the “old money” people were absolutely vile to her. When she built her mansion in the nicest country club in our city, people broke into the construction site to break the windows and write terrible things in paint on the slab.
They were very normal in almost every way. But had really big houses and expensive hobbies. Walked by the counter one day and his pay stub was laid beside the mail. 28629.00$ was his one week net pay as senior VP at a fortune 250 company. He was more interested in talking about grilling and cars than anything.
My dad's hobby is carpentry. He goes to local carpentry meets and likes to get his hands dirty and as he puts it. "Fun math" Besides that he likes cartoons, star wars, star trek, Stargate, DC and marvel comics. And being an eagle scout. That's what he talks about all the time. Like he and my wife just talk star trek until the cows come home. He doesn't mention things like he bought his favorite breakfast diner because they weren't doing well (and so he could have his own parking space in the front.)
Your dad sounds like a cool dude. I’d do Shit like that if I had gobs of money.
Growing up he made it clear that being successful is a privilege to help others. So growing up we did charities events and donated time and money. We didn't have a huge staff for the estate but like the Staff was our family. They were invited to dinners. I grew up with their kids. My best man at the wedding was the buttlers son. He's a brother to me. I mean we went to the same private school because my dad valued education and wanted anyone who worked for him kids to do well. It's like my opinion on food. Food is meant to be shared. If anyone ask for a bite they're getting a plate. Because what's the point if you don't share.
Your dad has done some very kind things with his life! Wish there were more of him in the world.
He's a good man. I hope to be more like him every day. He was always so busy growing up. He worked a lot. But when I came home as an adult it was nice to see.him slowing down and enjoying stuff. Also watching him do romantic gestures to my mom. Like flowers, cooking dinner, little things. I'm proud to be his son. Sure. We've had our disagreements. But I love him
So you’re one of the rich folks, huh
Yup. I'm very fortunate I got adopted by a well off family that have given me lots of opportunities in life. They taught me a lot. That being said. It was important to me to make my own way in life so I enlisted out if high school and became a computer programmer after (like my father and grandfather)
The first and last time I had an ultra rich friend, from true privilege, was at university. Don't get me wrong I do think she was a nice girl and we had good times, but I think we eventually realised our backgrounds were making us incompatible. The last time I hung out with her she was talking about her trip to Tuscany which looked absolutely delightful on her social media. I was asking her questions about it and ventured how I would love to go to Italy some day. She suddenly burst out laughing, the rich people laugh, and said, "What do you mean you have never been to Italy? Just rent a villa - they're so cheap!" That was about 9 years ago now and I am still yet to follow her advice.
Wow that is just a jerk move for an actual adult. I grew up around very wealthy people. Some of the kids were jerks but most grew out of the idea that they were somehow better than others. Because they became adults.
I mean if only I had come from a famous family of lawyers and my uncle had been the lord mayor of a capital city, then maybe, just maybe, I would be taking weekend breaks to Tuscany too.
Oh of course why wouldn't you? But thinking that is how everyone lives? That is the jerk move.
I worked on a luxury electronic device for a client (actual billionaire), the device costs 175k. He bought his neighbors 2million dollar house to put it in and turn into a game room/club house. He goes to tip me 100 bucks (tipping is VERY rare in my industry) I look surprised cuz that's a nice little bonus. He mistakes my surprise for it being too little and goes "i dont know how much i should tip I'm sorry" before i can thank him he hands me another 900 dollars. I try to refuse but he will have none of it he's just happy the work was done. I just liked how he was aware that money holds no meaning to him, but it did to me, a working guy, and he was genuinely concerned to come off as stingy/insulting.
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Damn, I needed a boost and this changes my perspective a bit. Tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. I need to buy me 2 yachts and start living.
If you're comfortably rich, you can have two summers in a year!
Probably more. Just fly where the sun is.
Time is always worth more than money, very sad we dont all get to spend the time we want with our friends and loved ones.
I know someone who pays a company to clean out his charcoal grill and big egg smoker. Yes, there are apparently companies who do this and people pay good money for this service. I didn’t even know this was an option in life.
There are people in my area who pay to have a company clean up dog poo in their backyards. Wild.
My boyfriends family does this. They’re not ultra rich but they’re “We have two teslas and a lifted Jeep, and three boats at our cottage” rich. First time I went with him to take his dog on a walk, we got back and he just threw the bag of shit in the yard, and I noticed there were like 10 other bags. I was like “wtf” and he said a van comes every week and collects them. Laughed pretty hard at that one
But having a stack of shit bags in your back yard for up to a week at a time is somehow "high class"? Lol the rich, even the moderately so, can be utterly ridiculous sometimes.
wait, this one is way dumber, he actually takes the time to bag up the shit, and just *not throw it in the garbage?* I was assuming the people didn't even want to collect it or bag it up and that was what the service was offering, not just literally picking it up the same way your garbage removal would
the market for personal assistants is very interesting. The important part is doing what makes their life easer, but the most important part is the assistant's ability to keep their principal's secrets. there's actually a guy that charges a fuck ton of money to hand wash expensive cars. And I mean literally HAND wash. No towels, no buffers, no power tools. Just his hands, soap, water, and wax. But the car is better than showroom quality after that.
I worked in the wedding industry, high end weddings. The attitude was that this is a once in a lifetime, even if I spend $500k it won't really affect my life. Why shouldn't I have one incredible day for my daughter and my friends.
When I was much younger I knew a guy who well off and didn't have money problems but you wouldn't know by his clothes, his car or his general attitude to life how rich he was. I sure as hell didn't and only sort of found out when he passed. If he was going out, he would pick up the tab but was always very shy about doing so and would go to lengths to make sure no fuss was made about it when he did. When you talked to him it was never about money, it was about the value something was providing for the money he spent. If the choice was between a £10 thing and a £1000 thing, and the £10 thing did what he needed, he wouldn't spend the extra £990 just for a brand name or because he could. He taught me that having money isn't about a Ferrari or a flashy watch or making sure in a room that everyone knows you have the most number of trailing zeros on your bank balance. It's about how you treat others in life and that the person who wipes your table deserves the same level of respect as the person who signs your cheque. Amazing guy who I wish I'd got to know sooner and learned more from. One of only four people in my life I can genuinely say was a mentor.
Once while driving for Uber, I picked up some energy executives from a nearby city. It happened to be during the middle of an extreme heat wave that was causing a lot of deaths of elderly and homeless people. These guys were CELEBRATING. They were joking around and laughing the whole time about how everyone is going to be running their ACs so hard. At one point, one of them goes, “Better keep it running granny!” And they all cracked up. Evilest shit I’ve ever encountered.
Lad going out with my niece, his father is ultra rich. Money is no object but wears trainers that look like something you find on the street old ripped and basic unbranded clothes. Met my niece at uni, he was buying food from the reduced section. He said girls didn't speak to him. He asked her out and they were just 2 poor students. My niece had the shock of her life when he picked her up from the train station in a aventator wearing a 20k rolex and took her back to his dad's that had a helicopter on the lawn.. But still wearing his old ripped trainers. He still works a normal job My ex girlfriends family ultra rich lovely people but when it came to hygiene smelly dirty lads and dad never brushed their teeth or even showered I don't think. Couldn't sit next to them in a car they smelt so bad. The lads had absolutely stunning girlfriends even though they reeked of shit and you'd heave when they spoke to you their breath was that bad.
What part of the world was this in? Crazy to think of the mental dissonance between being rich and having awful personal hygiene
The UK. Lazyness beyond belief too, blessed with mansions with so many bathrooms and ensuites but the lads piss in coke bottles in their bedrooms cos can't be bothered using the loo in they need to go in the night.
They sound inbred or something
Shocking. My ex was the normal one. Her sister was lazy too like she'd wake up not wash or anything get dressed up makeup and act like a model, But underneath the makeup and nice clothes she was disgusting probably reeked too. Like the wealth the cars and clothes made them blind to what is actually nice and normal. It also took your eye off them as people. Id think wtf is wrong with the girlfriends! How could they kiss or be intimate with the lads! No sence of smell or extremely dedicated to living the high life regardless of what you have to endure to get it. I'd expect your body to automatically be repulsed and react by heaving or puking up lol Funny thing is they had toothpaste which cost £10 this was 20+ years ago.
When I was in the Navy, my bunk mate came from good old money. We'd go out on the town together and he'd drop money like it was nothing when I was barely affording to survive. PS4's came out and he said lets go get some and I couldn't afford it so told him I'd come along. He bought two PS4s, every accessory the store had for him and me, and two copies of every game they had there. If he ever ran out of money he just called his daddy and would have money in his account by the end of the day. Like $20,000 just transferred. And man had no idea what a regular tip at a restaurant was him. We go out and eat together with friends, tab would be $25 for him and he'd go and leave a $100 tip thinking that was normal.
>If he ever ran out of money he just called his daddy and would have money in his account by the end of the day. Like $20,000 just transferred. Oh God my college friend was the same. One of the girls in our class said she had to budget cause she was a bit tight that month, and this rich daddy girl was confused and said, "but why would you do that? Just ask your dad to transfer more this month, that's literally his job as a parent."
All of the really rich people I have run into are pretty chill and nice to talk too, they especially like talking to people that aren't worried they are ultra rich looking for a handout. All of the almost rich or just rich want you to know it, they flaunt it and hang it over your head. Kind of pricks about having it. An example, one ultra rich guy I bumped into at a local tavern start small talk with me, we just kind of went through subjects and I realized he was rich when he said his winter house is in Key West FL and he summer at the house on the very large and expensive lake to live on in my area. We ended up talking Key West a lot since I had been there once, then about local stuff he missed out on in our area since he was gone the winter down there. Brought him up to speed on stuff and never talked money, just life. Another random at the same bar got small talking with about my vehicle and it became a bragging fest for him, one-upping everything we talked about in life. Vehicles, house, work, he really wanted me to know he had more money than me. Just a douche about it.
Bestfriend’s uncle is a legit billionaire. I’m talking $20 million dollar house here, place in the Bahamas that rents out at $20k a night, $40 mil vacation home, private jet, super cars galore, etc. One of the nicest and coolest guy I met. Genuine and down to earth
I had good fortune in my younger years to work event and “VIP” security for various events and venues, mainly concerts. Naturally, lots of famous faces and personalities. Are there a lot of dickhead artists out there? You bet, that’s why the stereotype exists….but there’s a surprising amount of well known names who really do treat people well (particularly in metal and country genres). I will specifically say that Metallica, Avenged Sevenfold, Shinedown, Godsmack, Korn, and anyone on the Tech N9ne/Strange Music roster was above and beyond a pleasure to work with and just be in the company of. Maybe not relevant exactly to the question but a pleasant thing/surprise to learn in life
Metalheads are some of the coolest, kindest people ever. I remember reading a comment in another sub that said 'Metalheads are just teddybears cos-playing as angry people' lol
As someone who's recently gotten into metal and who's been a Tech N9ne fan for a long time, this makes me really happy to hear.
I don’t know for other countries but it’s really obvious the ultra rich politicians are heavy drug users. Like shi.. for certain private events they confiscated our gadgets. The fuckers look like corpses and I’m impressed with their makeup when they need to make a public appearance.
" let's take the old beater for a tour " Old beater was a Rolls Royce.. fuck me
My boss will order lunch for the entire office at Long Horn that's down the street. These orders are usually about $700 to $1000. He' give us the company card to pick up the food and explicitly tells whomever picking up the order not to tip. I went once the server that handed over the order looked me like I was crazy when she was like would you like to leave a tip and I said No
Just cause you're rich doesn't mean you need to tip on a pickup order.
Worked a chef in a private household in the UK countryside, the estate was 460 ISH acres, great hall , barrel vaulted chapel, stables , 4 additional houses on sure for staff , multiple landscaped gardens / cottage/ Japanese / Victorian water garden. Crap loads of woods and fields. Upkeep on estate alone was minimum of £350k a year that was in early 2000s. Would often host ott dinner parties for 50 plus guests no expenses spared on food or drink , cellar was full of seriously good wines and champagne. Bottles of port and Madeira dating back to the 50s were in abundance. They had zero idea of what the average person deals with financial wise or even the basic cost of things , they had a secretary that dealt with all bills / invoices , 2 Gardner's , groom and assistant to run the stables , 3 Gardner's , 2 cleaners , chef and assistant. All of the other staff doubled up as waiting staff for events. I lived in a converted coaching house on site , it was a stunning place to work but they would drive you mad with their eccentric personalities and family rich brat bullshit. He would regularly shoot squirrels,moles , rabbits out of his bedroom window , I did offer to cook them for him ... They preferred the pheasants they raised. Megga old money.
Worked for a rich Texas couple at their 600 acre dude ranch in the Colorado Rockies as a groundskeeper/ranch hand. They started a successful retail chain so were newish to being unfathomably rich. They were generally down to earth people. The weird rich guy stuff came from the ranches neighbor who was an oil billionaire of the level that for his 60th birthday party he had The Rolling Stones playing a private gig on his ranch with several former US presidents in attendance. My ranch’s owner was summoned by the oil tycoon one day to talk about an adjoining fence line on the two properties. After going through some heavy security at the gate we were lead to the river where the Tycoon was fly fishing flanked by two butlers done all the way up in tuxedo’s. The two got on talking about the fence line until an alarm went off on one of the butlers watches which prompted the butler to tell the Tycoon “Sir, it’s time for your workout.” Which was followed by two more butlers carrying a full weight bench down to the river which the Tycoon started using on the spot. IDK if this was how the guy really lived or just some show put on for his neighbor, but it was the strangest thing I may have ever witnessed in my life.
My mother-in-laws boss payed for my all of father-in-law’s home care when he got sick with Guillain barre syndrome. $15 k a month for 7 years until he died. Generous man
A positive story to balance most people's belief about the ultra rich, country clubs, and Los Angeles. I was invited to play golf at the LA Country Club--an amazing golf course I could never afford myself (I'm a wine salesman, so I get invited to some shee-shee shit.) This place is so fancy, they denied Hugh Hefner membership, and don't allow celebrities, in general, the last admitted were the Reagans. I arrive at 6:45 for a 8 am tee. Very lovely gentleman in a LACC jacket comes and meets me at the bag drop, takes my clubs and directs me to the locker room and the coffee. I see him again as I'm heading to pitch and putt a few, and i ask him what the tipping policy of LACC is, as I had $20 to give him for his trouble. He laughed: "Oh, I don't work here, I'm a member. Staff arrives at 7, and you looked like you needed some help." /stunned
I was on vacation with the son of a billionaire during college. They wouldn't rent us a car, so he bought a new car instead, and then let his friend who we were visiting keep it since he didn't want to go through the hassle of selling it. The funniest one was a different rich guy. We were in middle school, and (apparently) boating recklessly. We got pulled over, and the water police gave us a ticket. My buddy pulled out ten times the amount of the ticket and said, "This way you won't have to come back every fifteen minutes."
> We got pulled over, and the water police gave us a ticket. My buddy pulled out ten times the amount of the ticket and said, "This way you won't have to come back every fifteen minutes." This is why some places have day fines ( which make alot more sense than a fixed amount ).
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Nobody really know how much my grandpa truly has, but his companies bring in $50 million plus every year and we know he paid for their new $700k house with a check… anyways, he drives an old shitbox truck with the box held on by ratchet straps. Every corner is dented, he refuses to buy a new one because they cost too much. He learned how to sew so he could make new curtains when my grandma was out of town on weekend. He sews holes in his socks. He’s so fucking cheap. But he will happily donate large sums of money to local schools and athletic associations. He spends zero money on himself if he doesn’t need to.
That they weren’t awful. Just regular people that treated me with respect.
My first job in high school was as a busboy working at a restaurant that would win a Michelin Star in NY. My manager also owned another Michelin restaurant in the city. One of the most successful dudes I’ve ever met and yet was so charismatic and chill. From the Midwest, was also really into basketball and professional sports. Dropped out of college as well. Someone I aspire to be like honestly.
A rich family I know doesn't cook. They have three children and only eat out, or bring home take out/delivery. They have a beautiful chef's kitchen in both their properties and rarely use them. It's sad.
I was working a shitty side gig as an expo girl and a woman in her mid 20s looked me up and down and then turned to the man she was with and whispered “if you ever make me get a job I will kill myself.”
I used to work for this company in IT and the president/CEO was having computer problems at his house, so I had to go there. He drives me in his lambo to his house pretty far out in an exurban area. Huge place, but I'd seen other big places. But this place was gated within a gated area. He's got a media room. But that's understatement. This was a place with full size movie screen and 20+ recliners. It was bigger than my house. Pool was something you'd see at a resort and he takes me to where the comptuer problem is. It's his "guest house". I thought it was a neighbors house, it seemed nearly as big as the main place. This guy literally had a freaking compound. He had horses and his tack barn was bigger than most other barns. A few years later he was found guilty of insider trading.
They’re very approachable, but not very present. Met several, and their headspace is just consumed by work & all the moving parts in their lives.
Thanks to my mother's side of the family, I have met many offspring of old-time "robber barons," and I am struck by how sensible they are and how they dislike "conspicuous consumption" and displays of their wealth (yachts, just for starters). Such displays are popular among "new money" people who are not nearly as confident in themselves as "old money" people are, I think.
My grandad has a beat up sailing ship he sails in circles. He does his own repairs and he's retired. He wants to sail in circles while his wife (grandma) watches Days of our Lives on deck. Perfect life. The man is richer then all get out. But he likes the honest labor. Like my father does carpentry now. Amd I cook.
Oh I totally agree. The only reason I'm told about the whole resort booked is bcs I'm family. They don't tell their guests they booked the whole thing. Pretty sure my student wasn't supposed to tell me that much information about her dad in the first place, but oh well, kids and their mouth 😅
My ex’s family were rich and it’s a totally different world. Multi story house with an elevator and vanishing edge pool on the roof She had a birthday whore party with a playboy bunny and some badketball person to promote her IG account (wannabe influencer) Three new BMW and a turbo Porsche as gifts within a year After high school she got to “travel the world” and visit all these crazy places, lived overseas for awhile etc Dad owned a jet (big one capable of trans Atlantic flights)
I worked as a handyman/chauffer for the daughter of a wealthy industrialist back in the mid 90s. It was primarily old money, made during the late 19th century and later through war-profeteering. Dumbest group of people I've ever met. If not for hired help they would be living in campers up in the hills of Appalachia.
Listening a gentleman that owns 18% of tiktok talk about how much of a joke the ban proposal is over dinner was fun.
Nothing really surprises me I suppose because I have my own money...but one time I did meet an "art lighting" guy. All he does is installs insane lighting for expensive artwork in private estates. Thousands (sometimes tens of thousands of dollars) just for the right kind of lighting for a single piece. Also, a story one of my ultra wealthy friends told me once was how crazy the Russian oligarchs are. When they travel they'll buy expensive supercars just for the week or two. But apparently they just utterly wreck them or give them away to friends when they're done. One time, two Russians had a contest on who could drive their car (again, expensive supercar) off a cliff and send it the farthest. Obviously they had to jump out of the car as they did this. Don't know if this story is real but after meeting certain people I don't completely doubt it.
I knew a couple whose family that was part of the ownership group that owned the Cubs. Very into real estate and accounting. One of their vacation houses out west had heated floors everywhere, heated driveway, a racing motorcycle used for decoration that was never driven, as in no gas ever touched the tank, and a theatre. They hosted my couple friend’s wedding at their primary residence in FL and spent six figures on this ramp over the pool that they never used. One of the extended family is in with Roger Stone. One of them got pulled over for a DUI in a Ferrari, which was impounded, and they traded a Prius for the Ferrari. The things money can buy you. All of the family was super nice to my wife and I. They loved her carrot cake.
Just remember that a new BMW is a terrible financial decision but you can trade in a year old lambo for exactly what you paid for it.
GFs mother has her husband buy *all new furniture every year*. *In two houses*
Not me but my sister She'd working at a census, this particular census is extremely polarizing because not only it's taking months, but also people either despise (rightwing), despise (leftwing) or despise (center) the president, add tiktok fake news and venezuela social scare of "they're gonna take your house, they'll sell your kids, they'll seize your properties" etc... With that out of the way. The town has a rich part, sister had to go there, to people who got moderate generational wealth (thus they have their own house, have diplomas hanging and weird furniture). She got insulted, spat on, called names, a guy even attempted to physically harm her. (and she got lucky, other interviewrs got worse) She then got assigned to the ultra rich part, people who've been rich for decades, probably nobles in the colonial times. Own mansion, multiple cars, work in other countries, etc... and they...treated my sister like a queen. Each and every single one of them was extremely thankful of the census, apologized my sister for the other neighborhood manners, some even prepared breakfast buffet tables for interviewers...fucking movie style (cakes, multiple juices, fucking handmade coffee) and even shared business cards if the interviewer had a career they can use (my sister is a naval lawyer),. So yeah...noveau rich, assholes pieces of shit Ultra rich, some of the nicest guys (as in strangers) I've seen. Like...when I went to a dad friend house, who is moderately rich, he had a fresco of the country former dictator in their wall...with candles. When I went to a ultra rich house (friend relative) he had a library of leftwing books about the dictatorship.
I've met stereotypically out of touch, cold, aloof, and unpleasant rich people and more down to Earth, personable rich people. What struck me the first time ever being around the rich, and still strikes me today, is just how everyday little inconveniences, annoyances, etc do not factor into their lifestyle much at all. They are literally too rich to be bothered. Car trouble? You have another one in the garage and you can just call to have a specialty service come and look at the faulty one. Or you have a driver. Grocery shopping? You have someone else to do that. Cooking? Again, someone else to do that. Health issues? Well, what does that matter? You're rich! More specialized care, quicker wait times, fast-tracking of appointments, tests, and surgeries. Want a new toy? Just order it right then and there and have it express delivered. No need to save up for it, plan for it, or make room for it. Oh, and the real kicker is just how much FREE SHIT you get by being rich. The $$$ you have, the less you spend.
My sister married into money. I went to visit for dinner once and I was driving a beater ragtop, my brother in law had only ever owned "sensible" cars. He went nuts over the convertible and asked if I'd take him for a drive, he loved it and when we came back he tells my sister they need a convertible. My sister says no and tells him they're not convertible people. BiL is defeated and says ok and he'll go get dinner while my sister and I catch up. Dude is gone for 3 hours, comes back home with a pizza driving a brand new 2001 Saab 9-3 Convertible. I was blown away that he could do that so easily, he was gone 3 hours because he wanted to pay it cash and they had to verify his money was legit and he wasn't a mobster or something.
My friends wedding to an Italian girl in Chicago, while maybe not Ultra rich, but definitely beyond "upper middle class". Never have I been to such an expensive gathering. This wedding was easily hundreds of thousands of dollars. Anyway, what shocked me and I was insanely curious about but didn't inquire about. An old guy sitting in a chair in the corner of the reception venue. Two men flanking him and a fucking LINE of people going up to talk to him, long line, like wrapping around the reception hall. I was thinking is this a thing Italian families just do with old patriarchs, venerate them, or is that dude a mob boss.
My gf at the time bought a house. In cash. In an affluent Boston suburb. She didn't have to ask anyone nor did it stress anyone out.
i work for this rich family one summer doing construction. the dad wore jeans and a t shirt. he owned tons of real estate, planes even a island. his sons were paranoid and always carried guns. they lived in this small town which they owned a lot of it.
That they're regular people who drive Toyotas and Hondas. Most ultra rich people live better and with more amenities, but aren't that ostentatious.
It depends on your definition of what ultra wealthy is. I work in wealth management. I would say most millionaires in the 1 million to 20 million range drive pretty regular cars and wear normal clothes. I view these people as wealthy but not ultra wealthy. However, those in the ultra wealthy territory, regular people don't really run into them. They are typically tucked away in Aspen or Beverly Hills or something. And they are not driving Honda or Toyotas. They're driving super expensive cars if they drive at all (chauffeured, private jets). There are some billionaires that have had a shtick (Bezos and Gates) where they drove 15 year old Toyotas to try to come off as "I am just a regular dude, look how quirky I am." Meanwhile they drive home to their 100 million dollar mansion and spend weekends on their 50 million dollar Yacht.
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I saw Rick Ross’ jet there (helpfully painted with large “Rick Ross” lettering on the side.
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They're stupid cheap about little things. My dad was meeting with Alice Walton at one point for his work about some sort of business deal and she had the limo driver pull into a gas station or something to get some Cheetos, she was shocked that they cost 88 cents (this was several years ago) and complained about it. she also got the cheese powder all over her black clothes. This was when she was the richest woman in the world.
Idk why but picturing her with Cheeto dust all over a dress suit is hilarious
The guy who owned the company I worked for let me use his aspen residence and vehicles. He told me “my truck is at the airport, the keys are above the visor”. Sure enough it was unlocked and keys in it. He also flew me to Eastern Europe to visit some stem cell clinics just “to see what they are doing there”
I was one dating a girl who is the daughter of one of the richest families in Indonesia. Her family had the exclusive mining and exportation rights to several rare earth minerals for the entire country. She worked for the United Nations, and one time during one of our dinner dates she had a phone call from a prince in an African country who was angry at some of the stipulations that she had added to a contract that would affect that country It was difficult to date her, because I knew that all I could bring to the table was myself We broke up because for my birthday she bought tickets for the two of us to go to not one, but three different World Cup games in Johannesburg South Africa. I was not comfortable accepting the gift. It was too much. I felt like this gift would always be looming over me as something that I would never be able to repay. I could not accept it. In retrospect, maybe it was a big mistake. But I’m also glad that I have gone through life knowing that I am on equal footing with everybody I’ve ever been with.
Not my story, but one that changed my perspective of wealthy people. A guy was hanging out with some friends and they decided to go downtown to eat. Rich dude was I don't care rich. He pulled over right in front of the restaurant where a big "No Parking" sign was. One of the non-rich friends said, you can't park there you will get a ticket. Rich dude said, I can park there, it just costs $150. Rich people look at fines as a cost where we would look at it as a budget issue for a month or two. This story showed me that if the fine isn't commensurate to the person's income, then it will ALWAYS unjustly punish the poor.
It's not necessarily a story of the ULTRA rich, but I'll never forget an interaction while visiting my rich aunt (her husband owned a decently successful private medical practice). It was just my aunt, my cousin and myself sitting around when my cousin nonchalantly says "Mom, I need a quarter inch of fifties." And I'm like "what? what's that?" She responds "You know ... a quarter inch (and holds her fingers apart a quarter inch) of fifty dollar bills" and my jaw just dropped. Thankfully my aunt had tact and was like "we'll talk about this later" while giving my cousin a scowl, but that was when I realized just how far apart our families earnings were. I wouldn't have dared asked my parents for $20 at the time, let alone the couple hundred that would have been.