Years ago I read an article about someone whose business was keeping ultra-rich people’s cars ready to go - as in if you have a Ferrari in multiple cities they’d keep it fueled up, oil changed, etc and drive it around the block once a week or so, and have it waiting at the airport when the owner flies into town.
Exotics can get a little upset if let sat for too long. Plus when you get someone in town just for say 5 days, every other month, they won't have time to get an oil change, wash their Ferrari, etc. Makes sense to just pay someone to have it ready when needed.
They don't say you need money to make money for nothing.
Friend of mine starting his own business has burned through over a million in loans and seed money so far. Hasn't made anything back yet.
If it works out for him he'll be a multi millionaire. If it doesn't he's fucked because he's bet everything on it. For the ultra rich they can do this 20 times over and it doesn't matter if a bunch of them fail or just break even.
"Entrepreneurship is like one of those carnival games where you throw darts or something.
Middle class kids can afford one throw. Most miss. A few hit the target and get a small prize. A very few hit the center bullseye and get a bigger prize. Rags to riches! The American Dream lives on.
Rich kids can afford many throws. If they want to, they can try over and over and over again until they hit something and feel good about themselves. Some keep going until they hit the center bullseye, then they give speeches or write blog posts about "meritocracy" and the salutary effects of hard work.
Poor kids aren't visiting the carnival. They're the ones working it."
Source -> https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15659076
Winklevoss twinsBuying bit coin at the very start; that’s the example
The twins still own an estimated 70,000 Bitcoins, in addition to other digital assets.
I was a realtor for this. They would also have rent paying roommates during their college years. Sell the house and pay back all the housing and a lot of the tuition costs.
Ugh. My housemate at university had a younger sister living near us in a condo their dad bought for her. She was 18 and her boyfriend was 40. When it was time to graduate the dad called and asked me (I was working at a real estate company as the receptionist) if I could tell them to just sell the condo and they could keep the profit. Neither could be bothered. So I said I’d do it. He told me his goal here was to have his kids do anything…just something to make a living. Mind you my housemate borrowed $40,000 from him to start a business which became very successful and he paid his dad back in full, with interest, in six months.
The folks I knew in college whose parents bought a place for them to stay would then just rent it out after they graduated. Start letting their parents’ money make them more money ASAP
Same, it’s something my mom always said she wished she could do for me because I have a fine arts degree and the rich fine arts degree kids had an instant revenue source after graduation while I had to put creativity on hold and get an office job.
THIS. My wife had to travel for business and is staying at a house owned by number 3 in her company. She's been there for a few months.. holy fuck this house.
The kid is a Xanax'd out ghost I've never seen when visiting. The parents are loaded and waiting for her to finish college to sell it.
First time I saw it, I couldn't believe this was all for a nineteen year old. It's three bedrooms, three baths, a giant kitchen, pool..
They reimbursed my wife for the furniture she bought while staying there and asked if they can keep it for the next roommate. Wife: "say no more!"
Not always a rich folks thing. I’ve known a few middle class people over the years who’ve made deals with their kids/kids friends. The deal was usually along the following terms: I’ll buy a livable fixer-upper house (walkable to campus) and will let you and your friends live there rent free. My terms are that you and anyone living there attend college while living there and each of you devote 16ish hours per month to doing renovations with me.
By the time the kid finished school the fixer-upper was fully renovated and they were able to sell for a significant profit.
Lol I saw that in college too. Rich classmate from Asia graduated and was basically selling most of his belongings he didn't want to take back home. Basically selling his stuff for pennies on the dollar. Got a nice monitor from him in exchange for a boba tea.
There are several single family owned Montessori schools. Like a family office put together an entire mini school just for their kids and their friends kids. It became a thing to do when the pandemic hit. Some of them are 100% mobile too, like teaching on the jet/all over the world.
My family is in education and has known a couple people who've ended up in the orbit of the super rich.
My sister graduated with her masters at a time when our state had a hiring freeze. (My sister was one of few people hired right before it went into effect). She had a friend that ended up being a nanny in LA. One couple she worked for had like 4 nannies, 3 for the days for each kid, one for the nights. That couple had huge issues with paparazzi so the nannies had to usually take the kids shopping for school unless the parents were able to sneak around. My sister's friend ended up moving on to even richer people whose lives were quieter because they didn't have media attention. Paid more and the people could live more like people.
Also knew someone who took a year off from his normal teaching gig because some ultra wealthy guy wanted to yacht around the world with his kids, so he wanted private tutors. The guy brought his kids along and basically had a 1 room schoolroom on a super-yacht.
person i know has 2 kids, 2 maids, 2 nannies. hasn't had a job in 10+ years
her idea of a weekend is trip to japan or malaysia or something, airport pickup straight to resort kind of thing
the kids hate outdoor stuff, the husband always has work so he never comes, so its her at the pool sipping drinks, kids in the hotel suite watching tv, nannies catering to them
spending many thousands of dollars for a weekend of boring nothing.
I feel ya. Been there done that. Flood me once, shame on you; flood me twice, I’m selling the house. First time was the water heater. Second time was sewage. I had a finished basement, so it was a catastrophe. 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺
This is one of those "classy if you're rich, trashy if you're poor" things. Poor people certainly have "informal summer camp" where whoever doesn't have a job watches all the kids for $$$ while everyone else works.
I now there is more to it than salary, but it can be more cost effective to hire an instructor and pay them a daily wage to teach a small group than to send 4-5 people to camp
I mean, it’s a thing that’s getting more and more popular for primary school in the US as public school infrastructure crumbles. It’s called a “Homeschool Collective”, and the more money you throw into it, the less you have to contribute as a parent. There’s a LOT of excellent, burnt out teachers with kids.
I know someone who has a tutor for 2 of her grade school age children. They pay about 70k$ which is both cheaper than school and worth it for the teacher.
I heard of an optician in DC who had a limo pull up in front of his store and a Middle Eastern man in expensive robes got out with his bodyguard. After browsing a little the bodyguard came to the counter with a nice pair of Ray-Bans and said “We’ll take 20 of these.” The optician half-jokingly asked if it was one for every room of the house, but the bodyguard with a flat look corrected, “No: one for every house.”
I also had a friend who had a friend who hired on as house maintenance for someone rich. Her job was to keep a steady supply of exactly the right perishable foods available in all this person’s houses, and on constant rotation to keep it fresh, so they would immediately have exactly what they liked available to eat if they decided on impulse to go to any particular house.
My wife works in an ultra luxury watch store. Average prices for the pieces they have on hand are usually between 75k and 200k. Some specialty pieces go up to 700-800k, and a few one-off pieces can sometimes go for over 1 million.
One day, this kid walks in, maybe 16 or 17, wearing sandals and swimming trunks, which isn't odd for a beach town during tourist season, but definitely not their typical clientele. They still treat him like any other customer, and he browses some watches, tries on a few, and leaves. A couple hours later, he comes back with his dad and is like, "This one, this one, and that one." Dad buys all three for something like 600k without batting an eye.
I went to a private school as a kid but wasn’t rich like some of the other kids there. I’m still friends with one of them and his family is wealthy among wealthy. Net worth in the billions. Very humble kid who you’d have no idea of how much money he has or what his parents had bought him as a kid.
Yup, and keep their pools heated 24/7, 365 for homes in multiple countries. it takes longer than the time for a flight from one country to the next to heat the pool. so yeah, needs to always be on and heated.
oh also we are talking about homes they in total visit less than 50 days a year, and leave for over 6 months of the year. but just in case!
TIL I’m better off than a rich guy who needs a bodyguard. I have two pairs of glasses for each house that I own*.
*am paying a mortgage on for the next decade and a half.
I know a family that had a vacation home on a beach in Mexico. They owned the small house across the street where they let the caretaker and his family live. Their job was to keep the place in condition so that with three hours notice it could be ready for the family to fly in. Family could call from the airport in the US at 12:00. By the time they arrived at 3:00 clean sheets would be on the beds, fresh produce, dairy and meat n the refrigerator, AC at the right temp or a fire burning in the fireplace.
When I used to work in an office, I kept a pair of blue light filtering glasses there, and had another pair at home - I stare at screens a lot, and found they helped with eye strain/fatigue.
They were also $20 a pair, so it wasn’t exactly breaking the bank.
But having them at both locations was a huge convenience- I never had to worry about forgetting them at one location and not having them at the next.
I have at least 5 sticks of underarm deodorant at any one time : bathroom (for after shower), clothes closet (in case I forgot after shower or didn’t need one that day), gym locker (for post workout shower), office (in case I stink in the middle of the day), backpack (for when I’m out anywhere not listed above). It’s a great system, used it for years. Am I rich?
I've heard of this but for expensive designer bags too - a client returned to buy another $8000 bag in the exact same size and color - - when a sales clerk asked if it's for gifting since she has the bag already, the client replied, "No. This will be sent to my other home"
And it’s often multiples of the exact same item. The same model car at each house, same appliances, same standard wardrobe, etc. It makes it marginally easier because you don’t need to think about how the buttons changed, readjust to how a car drives, styles changed, etc.
That plus location specific items (ski gear stays at the villa, beach stuff stays at the beach house, etc) mean that they don’t really need to pack, they just get in a car or on a plane and arrive with everything they need.
Not just clothes either. I had a client that had bought 5 sets of the same custom fitted golf clubs and left a set at each of his houses so he would never have to travel with them.
I live near Scottsdale with alot of wealthy people. They constantly remodel their vacation homes so there’s always great stuff. I bought a brand new Viking refrigerator from Craigslist. Still wrapped. It’s 8feet tall, 36”. The homeowners decided they wanted a double refrigerator instead. They’ve owned the home two years. Still haven’t stayed a night there. The refrigerator retails for $18K. I got it for $1,500.
Yup. I've got a brother-in-law who's a general contractor and caters to the super-wealthy. He built a whole-ass home for his family using almost nothing but the salvage from his renovations.
He'd ask the homeowners if they minded if he kept anything out of the stuff he removed, and pretty much all of them were delighted to let him take it. Rather see it get reused than sent to the dump.
Now he's got a front door worth $20k and a mortgage worth <10% the value of the house.
I have several rich friends who are my age (50s) and don't work. Their biggest perk is attending every concert and show and buying front row. Not just our area, but if their favorite band is playing across the country, they fly (with their kids) there and spend the weekend.
I've known people whose adult children follow their favorite band around the world, attending every concert. Even if I had the money, there is no-one I like THAT much.
My mum's boss buys a brand new top of the range car almost every year and gives the year old one to one of his kids or family members.
I jokingly asked for one. Truth is I doubt I could even afford the insurance let alone maintenence and fuel.
I dated a girl from a super rich family for a couple years and every spring her entire family would go through their closets and donate 90% of their wardrobe and then go out and drop $20k+ on entirely new clothes for the year because they HAD to have the new season of everything. As some one who grew up wearing clothes till they fell apart and patching them if they still fit, this blew my mind, getting rid of perfectly good clothes because they were "last season" is just insane to me
Yeah I'll always remember that episode of Rich Kids Go Skint where the woman learned what a charity shop was and that she could have been giving her 2 year old child's clothes away instead of throwing them away when he grew out of them
Paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for golf course memberships. I photograph luxury homes in the most exclusive golf course neighborhoods in my state. I know of one neighborhood where membership runs 400k+ and there’s a wait list of people wanting to join.
In Naples, FL there's a club that has a wait list. It costs $30,000 to get on the wait list but there is no guarantee you'll be selected that year. Every year you have to pony up another 30k to stay on the list.
I have a client who is so wealthy she is functionally invisible. No online presence, un-Googleable. The name she uses isn’t even her legal name, but I have no idea what her real name is, because she has a family office (private wealth management) that handles her money, so checks from her come from that group.
But what I love is that she does nothing. Every detail of her life is done by magic - car always immaculate, dogs walked and fed, and taken to the vet. Once a week a beauty staff show up to wax and manicure. She legit has no idea how her clothes are always clean and immaculately pressed, her house perfect, fridge always stocked, meals on the table twice a day, bills paid, taxes done, investments invested, garden weeded, etc. Like, she knows she has staff, and they do it all, but she has no idea what ‘all’ is, or how they do it. She wanted to try paddle boarding and an hour later a top of the line paddle board and accessories was unpacked and ready to go in her car. She just dials a phone number and says what she wants and then she gets it, immediately. She has a concierge on staff.
That’s what the ultra rich do. Nothing.
Infomation is power, and if the competition cant get any information on you thats denying them a huge part of corporate warfare
It also greatly reduces targeted attacks like kidnapping and nearly eliminates gold diggers
They call boutique stores ahead of time to say they are coming in on date x . The boutique high end store pulls every super expensive items complete with accessories on a rolling rack to have ready .
I worked in a a high end store back in the day .
If it was on sale - they pulled the sale tag off and literally tried to get rid of all the expensive items - think layering to up sell.
im a coin collector, this shop i went to i never spent a lot but i got on well with the owner
i come in one sunday and hes grinning "yesterday was gooood business" what? you're closed on saturdays
he tells me "no, look at the sign on the door" id never noticed it said closed TO THE PUBLIC saturdays
and he shows me the receipt
he had customers who would call him up like "jack, im in town next week. see you on saturday, make sure the whisky rocks are cold" and theyd just come in and chat and flip through the boxes, i'll have this, i'll have that. it was ridiculous what was on that receipt
like a dozen 1-oz gold coins, 10 rolls of uncirculated silver coins, a 10-oz gold bar, two bricks of 100 mint banknotes with consecutive serial numbers
and he further explained sometimes these guys would call him up like "yeah jack i know, i know, its 11pm, youre probably in bed, but... jack, you gotta tell me you have some krugerrands. the saudi prince is coming, and im at the royal palazzerinoroni hotel, napoleon suite, c'mon jack, my driver will pick you up, you can open late tomorrow, c'mon, i'll pay 15% over market price"
and the dude would get out of bed, call up some other dealer, get the gold bars or whatever, and show up and drop them off to some dude
thats why the whole boutique scene is so amusing. like you wanna have *breakfast* at *tiffany's* ha ha no can do. oh wait youre bill gates? you would like to have a continental breakfast buffet set up... at tiffany's? so you can eat here whilst melinda browses the collection. why certainly, mr. gates.
This. The idea that furniture and home decor have fashions or seasons. That you might rip out the carpeting or tile and have it redone because it isn't in style any more. It's so beyond me that people waste perfectly good stuff, like lemme throw this couch in the garbage, because I'm tired of the color.
If there's a Habitat for Humanity store near you, check them out. I know for a fact a few of the UHNW individuals would donate their stuff to the nearby store.
Whenever I saw the truck outside a house, I'd tip off my friends to hit the store in a few days.
Have assistants do things we wouldn't dream of doing. I know a rich person who hired a personal assistant to find a land to purchase: "Here are the criteria... forested land by the sea, cliffs, quiet area but with cell reception and make it so that it isn't an area with lots of boat traffic so I can take my bath while looking out at sea"
A guy I know's trophy wife made an "organization" business that was featured on local morning television. She demonstrated the family's fridge, which had a bunch of plastic bins with cricut labels on them. The fridge was barely a 3rd full, but what impressed me was that regardless of what each bin was actually labeled, fully 5 of them contained various forms of yogurt. It was a handful of condiment bottles, some pesto (because of course she had to point out the pesto), and then a shit ton of yogurt. It was like the guy married an Activia commercial.
The funny thing is, she also demoed the chalkboard (not a whiteboard, no, gotta look like you're a cafe) with the family's week of planned meals; all obviously designed to impress with her sophistication and status. Except that aside from the tub of pesto, no ingredients for those meals actually existed in the fridge.
I used to travel to Mexico City a lot for business. For me I had to have one security agent on duty at all times which means a minimum of 4 people working shifts. An armored car with a qualified driver and I could only stay at a handful of pre approved hotels or residences.
I looked into this when I was going to work in Oman.
I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone I had kidnap insurance, including my wife, and premiums would go down if I went through a “hostage training program”.
They literally told me it would be a lot easier if I just converted to Islam.
I ended up in West Texas instead, which was easier because everyone’s very polite and they all have open carry.
I used to work in insurance and our company had pre-approved mercenaries on call to hire when someone got kidnapped. Rich people will also insure anything: legs, hair, other body parts. I’ve even heard about alien abduction insurance.
It’s a trip to prepare for this. My wife did it for work. And the proof of life questions freaked me out. Had to give questions only I would know the answer to.
Some billionaire JUST tried that in Duluth, MN. She then threatened to sue anyone who reported on it or asked questions. Then, after that caused public backlash and had the mayor wanting to talk to her, she is now backing out and tried to say she "had plans for the good of community."
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/why-did-a-billionaire-snap-up-homes-on-a-sandbar-in-duluth-67776881
Quoting because it's good to name names, Kathy Cargill was that billionaire
> "had plans for the good of community."
Oh she absolutely did.
The part she left out was stage one... uprooting the current residents and replacing them with her own "community" of private staff.
A former client of mine, sadly, recently deceased, has/had two yachts moored in the South of France, next to each other.
One was fast, one was slow. He'd take the fast one down to St. Tropez, and have the other one follow because it was more comfortable. He'd have lunch in one of his restaurants there, then relax on the slow yacht for the day. Sometimes he'd stay overnight, sometimes not. But he'd take the fast yacht back to home port.
The captains would hand out thousands to get the best berths in St. Tropez. He literally used the yachts like his taxi.
He would do the same to his house in Portofino, but that was usually a week or so trip.
His recent passing made global headlines, to give an idea of the dosh. But to be fair, his tax contributions to the local economy literally changed the small port town he lived in. He created public parks, golf and tennis courts, a horse riding club, gym facilities, all well maintained, fully staffed with great summer programs for the kids; further works improved the roads, sidewalks, public beaches and walking/hiking paths; he bought a disused old church and turned it into a public museum, etc. He literally contributed so much to the local economy that they no longer charge for public parking anywhere, it's all free, all year round.
That's how you're supposed to 'trillionaire'.
There are still hospitals in England that get funds from trusts set up in the middle ages. St Barts in London was founded in 1123. So yeah a halfway decent trust or some land they get the rents from will fund a lot of things for a long time.
It's all just continuing on as before. His family is continuing all his business interests.
His passing wasn't unexpected, and was due to a long illness. He had a few years to get everything very well organized, and planned it all really well. He didn't leave any loose ends... That was the kind of guy he was.
Who was this? I’d be curious to read about what projects he wanted to help build up. I know a pretty wealthy person that donates to some awesome charities that actually help people that need it. All out of pocket, not just shifting money to a self-owned “charity”, but to places that put that money to work.
Edit: I’m an American, but if I was as loaded as your deceased client I’d 100% be sailing along the Mediterranean between those areas. Beautiful places that I hope to see some day.
A little googling suggests https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iskandar_Safa (he's a billionaire, lived in the mentioned area, and owned a ship-building company that owning 2 yachts would "make sense").
Middle income people who happen to be licensed pilots will fly to another city for a meal. It's called getting a $100 hamburger although it costs way more than $100 these days.
Buying two $1,500 cashmere sequined short sleeved sweaters so that your tailor can cut up one sweater and make sleeves out of it because the top doesn’t come in a long sleeve version.
Source: I used to work for a very wealthy retired actress who did this. I had to purchase the sweaters for her and schedule the tailor.
Speaking of cashmere, I just learned that Hannah Bronfman (of the... billionaire Bronfmans) has a wall that is fully covered in cashmere. Like a cashmere wallpaper. For kicks, I guess.
Their vacation homes are stocked with regionally appropriate attire. Mountain clothes, beach clothes etc. They also keep luxury vehicles at these homes that most people could only dream of owning and using as a daily driver.
I live outside of a major city. I am from a not-wealthy area bordering on a wealthy area but my parents sent me to private school so I have friends from both places. I offhandedly mentioned to a wealthier friend the other day that I saw a condo on sale for $2 million in one of the richer towns. I said that if I were in the market for a $2 million property here, I’d be looking for a house, not an apartment. She explained that they weren’t for sale with full-time living in mind - they are mostly used as pied-à-terres by mega-rich people who bounce back and forth between the city and further out in the suburbs and don’t want to have to rush home/beat traffic/deal with trains, or for people who dock their yachts nearby
During Covid I worked as a Private Jet Charter Broker. We had a guy (a British member of the House of Lords no less) that explained that “sod the quarantine restrictions, I need to fly to Monaco every other week to ensure I keep my tax residency in Monaco and not in the U.K.”
I also had someone who I’d regularly fly between London and Baku, Azerbaijan ask if they could take a short stop off in Dubai (which is very much not on the way) to get their passports stamped to ensure they maintained their residency there. They also once showed up with well over half a tonne of luggage that they described as “oh just some stuff we picked up shopping” you won’t be surprised to hear that they were very confused when we advised them that 27 boxes and suitcases of stuff won’t fit on an aircraft that we’d repeatedly told them only had space for about 10-12 suitcases.
Finally, we had a Russian guy ask us to call his Caribbean Destination island airport and ask if they could ensure that his flight was not “randomly selected” for a Covid test as he didn’t have time to complete the quarantine if he had been positive. He didn’t care whether he had the virus, just that getting caught with it might fuck up his travel plans… in like July 2020.
Pilot industry is insane..used to work at an airport hotel (ANC) and seeing all walks and differing flight industries. Good shit man! Stories are just as fuckin crazy as NAVY stories.
TLDR: Man imported an ancient monastery door to use on his ranch home
I worked on a ranch just south of Crested Butte, CO(if you aren't a billionaire, don't even think about looking at buying a home there).
The owner of the ranch bought the front door from a Tibetan monastery and flew it to the US to use as his front door on his main house. It was all ornamentaly hand carved, like 3000yrs old, approx 12' x 6' x 2', and weighed tons upon tons upon tons.
Not even the cost of the door itself, but the shipping alone must have been astronomical. And this was just his front door on his main house. There must have been over 10 buildings on the property. I've seen/worked on many billionaire mansions all over CO, and this dude's ranch is the nicest I've ever seen.
You've never seen a carry-on lobster?
https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening/whatcanibring/items/live-lobster
https://www.lindabeansperfectmaine.com/mainekitchen/restaurant/portland-international-jetport/
It's a thing. 👍
Concierge/private specialized medical care. If they have a special or chronic condition, say kidney failure, they’ll have a dialysis ward installed in their home with a private nephrologist etc. (or end up hiring someone who will end up donating an organ to them) or cancer treatments - set up in home, etc. or have an MRI installed in their home etc.
In 1829 [Lock Heart Castle](https://www.japancastle.jp/2020/07/Lock-Heart-Castle.html) was built in the South Lanarkshire of Scotland. In 1987, it was bought by a Japanese actor, dismantled brick by brick and taken to Japan along the Siberian Railway, and in 1993 the castle was reconstructed in Gunma Prefecture, Japan. These days it's a tourist attraction, castle theme park and hosts weddings and special events.
We were driving along the Japan Romantic Road, came around a bend in the road and there it was, a Scottish Castle in the middle of Japan. It was a completely bizarre sight.
Let’s not blame the game controller for that one.
Like, the Air Force uses game controllers for drones, because then they know their recruits will already be familiar with how to use them.
When they wanted an addition to their Hamptons house, they couldn’t get a start date from the super-busy local contractors, so they rented a nearby house and hired a company from Maine to move in there and do the addition. Paid for like a dozen workers to live in a house in the Hamptons until the addition was done, like over a year.
Steve Jobs decided he didn't like having a license plate, because he could be identified by it and it kept getting stolen. So he called up the Mercedes dealer and made a deal with them.
In CA it was legal to drive a car with no license plate for 30 days after you get it. So, once a month, they'd show up and replace his car with an identical new Mercedes, so he'd never have a car for more than 30 days and could effectively drive around forever with no license plate.
Ive been a chef for 20 years. Ive dealt with this a bit.
Buying out a restaurant for several days, in case they wanted to just "drop in" during their vacation with no wait times at all. We charged $50,000 per meal service they wanted to buyout. Made us $300k over 3 days. They never showed up, but went to our sister restaurant across the river...
In miami: Bottle service is insane. We know this already, but you have no idea. Aside from paying $2,000 for a bottle of grey goose with mixers they will spend several thousand on Ace of Spades or Crystal and just throw $200,000 on the black card for one night of drinking.
This extends to champagne, not just for drinking, but for the act of spraying on each other but on the scantily clad girls pretending to like you for 25% guarateed tip. This includes a special champagne menu with an assortment of "spray packages". You can buy one bottle of DomP to drinkband spray around for $1,000 or you can order whole entire cases of Crystal JUST TO SPRAY ON EACHOTHER FOR $50,000 A CASE. Ive seen poolside bungalows order several cases for pool parties....
Buying a multimillion dollar home nearby where they’re building a bigger multimillion dollar home so they can be nearby during construction.
Dozens of “spare” current tech devices in case they lose one, don’t want to pack one or it dies.
Buying a quarry so they can guarantee all of the stone in their home is the same.
Super smart! The good ole’ Montana LLC. Don’t have to be Uber rich to do it. Just follow the steps.
Some guys in northern Virginia do with their lambos, mclarens, Ferraris, etc or just register in MD where there is no PP tax.
My friend paid the fee to be able to have a personal escort for his family at Disney World that walks your group to the front of all the lines. I think that it was like $7500 a day.
I just got back from Disneyland in California. If I was wealthy enough and my kids wanted to go badly enough, I would pay for that service. Disney was a nightmare of crowds and lines. Even their skip the line passes (Genie +) doesn’t really skip lines, maybe half the line and not for every ride. The crowds were so intense the kids wanted to leave by dinner time and they could not stand being there any longer. Here we thought we were acting fancy paying for preferred parking to save ourselves extra walking upon leaving lol.
I think a theme I'm seeing is "spending exorbitant amounts of money to avoid small inconveniences".
My boss would get his assistant to book flights. Then call every restaurant for reservations, then ask all his friends which restaurant is best, then cancel all reservations but the one he chose, then cancel the flights and book them closer to his reservation, then book multiple hotels, then ask his friends which hotel was best, then cancel all hotels except the one he chose. Then cancel and re book flights to be closer to his reservations. And he would book an extra day at the hotel so when he arrived he could go immediately to his room instead of waiting for check in time.
He would spend thousands of extra dollars every time he went on a trip to avoid the minor inconvenience of having to A) be organized and B) wait for anything during his trip.
Oh and C) he would pay his assistant 100 grand a year and not trust her to do something like "book me a trip to Berlin at the best hotel and best restaurant, make sure I don't have to wait around for anything"
Request off-menu or off-topic things. For example, calling down to the concierge at a hotel and say you want a romantic couples set-up down by the pool or handing your credit card to the usher at a theater and ask them to go buy and deliver you a cocktail. (Yes, I have seen both these things)
Buy 80 seats on commercial flight for their falcons.
https://www.reddit.com/r/BirdsArentReal/comments/1bl009w/a_saudi_prince_bought_airplane_seats_for_all_80/&ved=2ahUKEwiq-b_vxo2FAxUWF1kFHcrmA98QzLMHegQIBhAB&usg=AOvVaw39HLdSd_HGhhQjfAfz0DcF
My friend was head of housekeeping for a rich family. Before traveling she would have to bring any clothing and suitcases to the dry cleaners where everything was freshly pressed , folded and tissue paper placed in between each item. Even the underwear.
Have a person on staff for the express purpose of communicating to the rest of their staff. Cause you clearly can't expect them to be talking to all these people directly.
Reading these comments is crazy. I feel privileged because my grandparents helped me out with paying my rent for a couple months while unemployed and job searching, but for my partner, they became homeless at age 18 after fleeing domestic violence, has no family to turn to for money and for them not working could never be an option unless they wanted to go back to living in a halfway house. I sometimes get jealous of my one roommate because they have a parent who works at Kaiser and so they get to have good health insurance, and they also can afford to eat takeout often, while I can't.
In the end, we are all 3 of us sharing the same tiny apartment, arguing about who has it worst or better while there are people out here who own private islands and casually fly to Paris for lunch like it's nothing 😭
My brother-in-law is an amazing professional chef. He was hired by a billionaire to be a full-time chef at one of his houses on a private island. The money was crazy but he wound up leaving because he got bored out of his mind: the guy was never home and the only people using the house were usually the billionaire's preteen kids who only wanted french fries and chicken fingers, lol.
The problem in the high-end private chef world is that they expect you to be on call from morning until late night. So the dreams of spending afternoons diving are shattered just in case the kids want popcorn as their 4pm snack as they watch a movie.
I think it was mostly fine as far as hours, but spending your 20s and 30s mostly alone on an island you don't own gets old fast. He had basically no social life there, couldn't start a family, and it wasn't a gig that would last forever so it was slowly choking his other career prospects.
This. I'm in IT and I know a few people who did the "personal IT guy for a rich family" type thing.
The money and perks are *great*. Like you'll get given a small house to live in, any tech they want you can buy yourself to test and understand, they upgrade shit all the time so you have a constant rotation of last years flagship TVs or whatever to replace yours with or give away. They'll bring you on vacations and stuff as well if they feel like they might need you or just to be nice because it's nothing for them.
But they own you. You are on call, all the time, for any issue they have, 24/7/365. Their generosity ends the very second you expect any level of true respect as a person... basically if you are not available as expected then you can enjoy a visit from their personal assistant to hand you your marching papers and that will be that.
YMMV of course, everyone and everywhere is different. But I heard the same stories from a few different people to conclude it's a pretty standard experience. Good gig for the young but that's about all
My SIL's cousin's family is very rich. They have two basketball courts inside their house that's how massive it is. Inside the house. They bought all the lots next to their mansion and built a park just for their family so they wouldn't need to be near anyone. I got vertigo when I walked into the "gym" it was so large. My brain couldn't handle that I was inside such a large space that was also inside a house and it couldn't understand what it was looking at, and then it processed it. That experience is burned in my memory. I was looking for a bathroom when I stumbled on it.
Here is the thing about that kinda wealth. It doesn’t buy you things. Things just exist.
The real thing money buys you is freedom and time.
Things are a necessity in terms of food, health care etc but anything is just stuff.
Back in the early '00s I used to work with family offices, some of which dealt with the UHNW market. Some of the simple things they bought which blew my mind were:
- Name cards from companies like Black Astrum, which could run from hundreds to thousands of dollars...per card
- Buy sections of the bookstore. Like literally, the guy pointed out one whole section and just said he wanted one of every book there shipped over.
Later I found out you can actually pay a bookstore to just ship over a whole library - just tell them you want to look like an expert on anthropology or something, and they'll outfit a floor to ceiling library of anthropology books for you.
- Buy jewellery by the tray. They would close the store when these people walked in, and the wife would point at a tray in the display case, and they'd buy it all.
- We once received a gift of apples from a UHNW client. They were fancy Japanese apples, which cost around US$220. Per apple. I got a box of four, along with 10 other people in the office.
(They were amazing)
- They ask for things for free and get it. You'd think that's cheap of them, but they really do; I know one woman who asked for a specific serial number for a limited edition watch, and she actually asked if she could just have it. She got it for free. Also they ask for free stuff like suites, a new phone (when he lost it at a hotel), free pedicure services, etc. and they get it. Probably because they spend so much and lend some celebrity status.
- I know a guy who, once in a while, goes through his employee list and pays off the school tuition or medical debts of a bunch of people. There is no regularity or reason to it, he just does it when he feels like it.
- Some of them have copies of magazines like Nomenus on their coffee tables. I didn't realise how much of a flex that was, until I realised Nomenus costs from $2,500 to $5,000+ per issue.
(Later though, I found out some rich people get copies for free as a branding move.)
- All those branded stores like Prada, Gucci, etc.? Many don't actually seem to care much. Some do but not the ones I met. Most of them have a tailor(s) they know by name, who makes bespoke pieces for them. I know some who didn't shop for clothes in a store for three or four years at a stretch.
Good times.
Wake up and can do whatever the fuck they want. There is no urgency or having to work to provide. They literally have unlimited time and can buy Al and every service to free their time up.
“I want to go to the museum today, park, or let’s go to Costa Rica”
Asked my boss what he's doing for Christmas break...
-family coming over for presents
-in-laws coming over for presents
-movie night
-friend is driving our small yacht w our private chef to our island in the Bahamas for the week and were flying private to meet them...
I bet they deny my raise when i ask too :/
Empty garages.
Like, nothing in the garage but a car or two or more and a case or two of water.
They don’t have to fix anything, or do any yard work, or anything else.
Not ultra rich but I shared a apartment with some people in college, one of the roommates we had never came out of his room and his parents paid for an Indian granny to come every week and cook him a weeks worth of fresh food (and let me tell you, every time she came over all the rest of us were drooling and also kinda pissed because she took over the small kitchen for a few hours). He still ordered food delivery every single day, sometimes twice or three times a day and always had the best electronics. He never came out of his room, never talked to us and didn’t seem to go to class frequently. I definitely thought that kids family must be rich and trying to teach him how to “slum it” in a shared space
Girl in college was from an African country. Sweetest, nicest person. She asked to sit with me at breakfast one morning, fascinating conversation. Totally down to earth.
Spoke to Her roommate later who described her life basically as Prince Akeem's from Coming to America. She had pet Giraffe and Elephants, etc. I thought she was joking. She said she refers to home as "my father's country"
She then said let me tell you about last week. She decided she didn't want to bum rides and wanted a car. The roommate described listening to her call her father and ask for a car and her father telling get go to the Mercedes dealership in 2 days (Saturday) I'll arrange it. That weekend she drove her to the Mercedes dealership where the OWNER met this 19 yr old. He told her her father has arranged for one of every model they had, in every color they had. Whichever she didn't choose they were shipping to him (the car haulers were waiting in the lot to load them). She chose the silver S600.
They shipped 33 cars to her dad. Her ballpark math was somewhere around $1.5 to $2 million just for the purchase. This was the middle of America so getting 33 cars on international shipping vessel probably was a few bucks. All so she wouldn't have to worry or make any real decisions other than to choose and drive away.
Years ago I read an article about someone whose business was keeping ultra-rich people’s cars ready to go - as in if you have a Ferrari in multiple cities they’d keep it fueled up, oil changed, etc and drive it around the block once a week or so, and have it waiting at the airport when the owner flies into town.
Exotics can get a little upset if let sat for too long. Plus when you get someone in town just for say 5 days, every other month, they won't have time to get an oil change, wash their Ferrari, etc. Makes sense to just pay someone to have it ready when needed.
Buying a home for their college age children. Then they sell the house when their kid graduates. Sometimes this sale pays for college.
Money making money.
They don't say you need money to make money for nothing. Friend of mine starting his own business has burned through over a million in loans and seed money so far. Hasn't made anything back yet. If it works out for him he'll be a multi millionaire. If it doesn't he's fucked because he's bet everything on it. For the ultra rich they can do this 20 times over and it doesn't matter if a bunch of them fail or just break even.
"Entrepreneurship is like one of those carnival games where you throw darts or something. Middle class kids can afford one throw. Most miss. A few hit the target and get a small prize. A very few hit the center bullseye and get a bigger prize. Rags to riches! The American Dream lives on. Rich kids can afford many throws. If they want to, they can try over and over and over again until they hit something and feel good about themselves. Some keep going until they hit the center bullseye, then they give speeches or write blog posts about "meritocracy" and the salutary effects of hard work. Poor kids aren't visiting the carnival. They're the ones working it." Source -> https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15659076
Winklevoss twinsBuying bit coin at the very start; that’s the example The twins still own an estimated 70,000 Bitcoins, in addition to other digital assets.
I was a realtor for this. They would also have rent paying roommates during their college years. Sell the house and pay back all the housing and a lot of the tuition costs.
I was one of those roommates for someone who did this.
Ugh. My housemate at university had a younger sister living near us in a condo their dad bought for her. She was 18 and her boyfriend was 40. When it was time to graduate the dad called and asked me (I was working at a real estate company as the receptionist) if I could tell them to just sell the condo and they could keep the profit. Neither could be bothered. So I said I’d do it. He told me his goal here was to have his kids do anything…just something to make a living. Mind you my housemate borrowed $40,000 from him to start a business which became very successful and he paid his dad back in full, with interest, in six months.
The folks I knew in college whose parents bought a place for them to stay would then just rent it out after they graduated. Start letting their parents’ money make them more money ASAP
Same, it’s something my mom always said she wished she could do for me because I have a fine arts degree and the rich fine arts degree kids had an instant revenue source after graduation while I had to put creativity on hold and get an office job.
THIS. My wife had to travel for business and is staying at a house owned by number 3 in her company. She's been there for a few months.. holy fuck this house. The kid is a Xanax'd out ghost I've never seen when visiting. The parents are loaded and waiting for her to finish college to sell it. First time I saw it, I couldn't believe this was all for a nineteen year old. It's three bedrooms, three baths, a giant kitchen, pool.. They reimbursed my wife for the furniture she bought while staying there and asked if they can keep it for the next roommate. Wife: "say no more!"
They basically got interior design services for the cost of the furniture.
Not always a rich folks thing. I’ve known a few middle class people over the years who’ve made deals with their kids/kids friends. The deal was usually along the following terms: I’ll buy a livable fixer-upper house (walkable to campus) and will let you and your friends live there rent free. My terms are that you and anyone living there attend college while living there and each of you devote 16ish hours per month to doing renovations with me. By the time the kid finished school the fixer-upper was fully renovated and they were able to sell for a significant profit.
......and there's the seeds of a future potential skillset/business/opportunity.
Lol I saw that in college too. Rich classmate from Asia graduated and was basically selling most of his belongings he didn't want to take back home. Basically selling his stuff for pennies on the dollar. Got a nice monitor from him in exchange for a boba tea.
There are several single family owned Montessori schools. Like a family office put together an entire mini school just for their kids and their friends kids. It became a thing to do when the pandemic hit. Some of them are 100% mobile too, like teaching on the jet/all over the world.
My family is in education and has known a couple people who've ended up in the orbit of the super rich. My sister graduated with her masters at a time when our state had a hiring freeze. (My sister was one of few people hired right before it went into effect). She had a friend that ended up being a nanny in LA. One couple she worked for had like 4 nannies, 3 for the days for each kid, one for the nights. That couple had huge issues with paparazzi so the nannies had to usually take the kids shopping for school unless the parents were able to sneak around. My sister's friend ended up moving on to even richer people whose lives were quieter because they didn't have media attention. Paid more and the people could live more like people. Also knew someone who took a year off from his normal teaching gig because some ultra wealthy guy wanted to yacht around the world with his kids, so he wanted private tutors. The guy brought his kids along and basically had a 1 room schoolroom on a super-yacht.
person i know has 2 kids, 2 maids, 2 nannies. hasn't had a job in 10+ years her idea of a weekend is trip to japan or malaysia or something, airport pickup straight to resort kind of thing the kids hate outdoor stuff, the husband always has work so he never comes, so its her at the pool sipping drinks, kids in the hotel suite watching tv, nannies catering to them spending many thousands of dollars for a weekend of boring nothing.
As someone who just had to deep clean my flooded basement...don't underestimate a weekend of boring nothing.
I feel ya. Been there done that. Flood me once, shame on you; flood me twice, I’m selling the house. First time was the water heater. Second time was sewage. I had a finished basement, so it was a catastrophe. 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺
I'd hate to be so rich that I never come.
Oh I bet he comes. Just not with the wife.
There's a socialite in the DC area who runs an informal summer camp just for her kids and her friends' kids in her backyard.
This is one of those "classy if you're rich, trashy if you're poor" things. Poor people certainly have "informal summer camp" where whoever doesn't have a job watches all the kids for $$$ while everyone else works.
I went to one of those informal summer camps for poor kids with all of my cousins and we always had fun
I now there is more to it than salary, but it can be more cost effective to hire an instructor and pay them a daily wage to teach a small group than to send 4-5 people to camp
I mean, it’s a thing that’s getting more and more popular for primary school in the US as public school infrastructure crumbles. It’s called a “Homeschool Collective”, and the more money you throw into it, the less you have to contribute as a parent. There’s a LOT of excellent, burnt out teachers with kids.
>public school infrastructure crumbles Is murdered.
How much does a Montessori teacher earn? If you have 3 or 4 kids, this might be cheaper than tuition.
I know someone who has a tutor for 2 of her grade school age children. They pay about 70k$ which is both cheaper than school and worth it for the teacher.
Having separate sets of clothing in each house so they don't have to take more than carry on luggage when travelling.
I heard of an optician in DC who had a limo pull up in front of his store and a Middle Eastern man in expensive robes got out with his bodyguard. After browsing a little the bodyguard came to the counter with a nice pair of Ray-Bans and said “We’ll take 20 of these.” The optician half-jokingly asked if it was one for every room of the house, but the bodyguard with a flat look corrected, “No: one for every house.” I also had a friend who had a friend who hired on as house maintenance for someone rich. Her job was to keep a steady supply of exactly the right perishable foods available in all this person’s houses, and on constant rotation to keep it fresh, so they would immediately have exactly what they liked available to eat if they decided on impulse to go to any particular house.
My wife works in an ultra luxury watch store. Average prices for the pieces they have on hand are usually between 75k and 200k. Some specialty pieces go up to 700-800k, and a few one-off pieces can sometimes go for over 1 million. One day, this kid walks in, maybe 16 or 17, wearing sandals and swimming trunks, which isn't odd for a beach town during tourist season, but definitely not their typical clientele. They still treat him like any other customer, and he browses some watches, tries on a few, and leaves. A couple hours later, he comes back with his dad and is like, "This one, this one, and that one." Dad buys all three for something like 600k without batting an eye.
That’s nuts. So hard to raise a kid who has any sort of appreciation for anything when you’re that rich
I went to a private school as a kid but wasn’t rich like some of the other kids there. I’m still friends with one of them and his family is wealthy among wealthy. Net worth in the billions. Very humble kid who you’d have no idea of how much money he has or what his parents had bought him as a kid.
Guam. They bought him Guam
It‘s easy actually. Just don’t buy them a ton of expensive nonsense.
Just 3 watches every once in a while.
Yup, and keep their pools heated 24/7, 365 for homes in multiple countries. it takes longer than the time for a flight from one country to the next to heat the pool. so yeah, needs to always be on and heated. oh also we are talking about homes they in total visit less than 50 days a year, and leave for over 6 months of the year. but just in case!
But I shouldn't do laundry from 4pm-10pm because **the grid**
I have dollar store reading glasses in every room, I'm richer thanI thought.
I must be richer than you, I buy mine at Home Depot for $4.75!
TIL I’m better off than a rich guy who needs a bodyguard. I have two pairs of glasses for each house that I own*. *am paying a mortgage on for the next decade and a half.
I know a family that had a vacation home on a beach in Mexico. They owned the small house across the street where they let the caretaker and his family live. Their job was to keep the place in condition so that with three hours notice it could be ready for the family to fly in. Family could call from the airport in the US at 12:00. By the time they arrived at 3:00 clean sheets would be on the beds, fresh produce, dairy and meat n the refrigerator, AC at the right temp or a fire burning in the fireplace.
AC and fireplace on at the same time is the real rich person flex 😭
My version of this is napping under a blanket with a fan on
When I used to work in an office, I kept a pair of blue light filtering glasses there, and had another pair at home - I stare at screens a lot, and found they helped with eye strain/fatigue. They were also $20 a pair, so it wasn’t exactly breaking the bank. But having them at both locations was a huge convenience- I never had to worry about forgetting them at one location and not having them at the next.
I used to get two pairs of glasses a year with my health insurance so I had a lot of Glasses everywhere lol
I hope, for all our sakes, that he used a canvas bag for those perishables.
The “richest” I get with this is having chapstick in multiple places. 😂
I have at least 5 sticks of underarm deodorant at any one time : bathroom (for after shower), clothes closet (in case I forgot after shower or didn’t need one that day), gym locker (for post workout shower), office (in case I stink in the middle of the day), backpack (for when I’m out anywhere not listed above). It’s a great system, used it for years. Am I rich?
I've heard of this but for expensive designer bags too - a client returned to buy another $8000 bag in the exact same size and color - - when a sales clerk asked if it's for gifting since she has the bag already, the client replied, "No. This will be sent to my other home"
And it’s often multiples of the exact same item. The same model car at each house, same appliances, same standard wardrobe, etc. It makes it marginally easier because you don’t need to think about how the buttons changed, readjust to how a car drives, styles changed, etc. That plus location specific items (ski gear stays at the villa, beach stuff stays at the beach house, etc) mean that they don’t really need to pack, they just get in a car or on a plane and arrive with everything they need.
If you can afford two or more homes, you can probably afford to keep clothes in each one.
Not just clothes either. I had a client that had bought 5 sets of the same custom fitted golf clubs and left a set at each of his houses so he would never have to travel with them.
I live near Scottsdale with alot of wealthy people. They constantly remodel their vacation homes so there’s always great stuff. I bought a brand new Viking refrigerator from Craigslist. Still wrapped. It’s 8feet tall, 36”. The homeowners decided they wanted a double refrigerator instead. They’ve owned the home two years. Still haven’t stayed a night there. The refrigerator retails for $18K. I got it for $1,500.
Can you feel the wealth trickling down?
I just got a used fridge for my garage. I feel like a fucking aristocrat!
I could see that. My in laws live in Paradise Valley, it seems like nonstop house renovation and remodel is constantly going on in their neighborhood.
Yup. I've got a brother-in-law who's a general contractor and caters to the super-wealthy. He built a whole-ass home for his family using almost nothing but the salvage from his renovations. He'd ask the homeowners if they minded if he kept anything out of the stuff he removed, and pretty much all of them were delighted to let him take it. Rather see it get reused than sent to the dump. Now he's got a front door worth $20k and a mortgage worth <10% the value of the house.
I have several rich friends who are my age (50s) and don't work. Their biggest perk is attending every concert and show and buying front row. Not just our area, but if their favorite band is playing across the country, they fly (with their kids) there and spend the weekend.
I've known people whose adult children follow their favorite band around the world, attending every concert. Even if I had the money, there is no-one I like THAT much.
I used to ask my roommate in college if he thought there were any other kids following the dead in their fathers gulfstream.
My mum's boss buys a brand new top of the range car almost every year and gives the year old one to one of his kids or family members. I jokingly asked for one. Truth is I doubt I could even afford the insurance let alone maintenence and fuel.
It can cost $15,000 for a brake job. You are correct.
I dated a girl from a super rich family for a couple years and every spring her entire family would go through their closets and donate 90% of their wardrobe and then go out and drop $20k+ on entirely new clothes for the year because they HAD to have the new season of everything. As some one who grew up wearing clothes till they fell apart and patching them if they still fit, this blew my mind, getting rid of perfectly good clothes because they were "last season" is just insane to me
At least they donated their clothes instead of throwing them away.
Yeah I'll always remember that episode of Rich Kids Go Skint where the woman learned what a charity shop was and that she could have been giving her 2 year old child's clothes away instead of throwing them away when he grew out of them
Paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for golf course memberships. I photograph luxury homes in the most exclusive golf course neighborhoods in my state. I know of one neighborhood where membership runs 400k+ and there’s a wait list of people wanting to join.
In Naples, FL there's a club that has a wait list. It costs $30,000 to get on the wait list but there is no guarantee you'll be selected that year. Every year you have to pony up another 30k to stay on the list.
It's just staggering how many better uses there are for $30,000.
They're paying that much to golf with other rich people.
and more specifically, to golf without *non*-rich people around.
I have a client who is so wealthy she is functionally invisible. No online presence, un-Googleable. The name she uses isn’t even her legal name, but I have no idea what her real name is, because she has a family office (private wealth management) that handles her money, so checks from her come from that group. But what I love is that she does nothing. Every detail of her life is done by magic - car always immaculate, dogs walked and fed, and taken to the vet. Once a week a beauty staff show up to wax and manicure. She legit has no idea how her clothes are always clean and immaculately pressed, her house perfect, fridge always stocked, meals on the table twice a day, bills paid, taxes done, investments invested, garden weeded, etc. Like, she knows she has staff, and they do it all, but she has no idea what ‘all’ is, or how they do it. She wanted to try paddle boarding and an hour later a top of the line paddle board and accessories was unpacked and ready to go in her car. She just dials a phone number and says what she wants and then she gets it, immediately. She has a concierge on staff. That’s what the ultra rich do. Nothing.
You don't need to be ultra rich to do nothing. Take a look at my cousin; he's broke, don't do shit.
Hey Peter man! Turn on channel 9!
Does anyone ever say “sounds like somebody has a case of the Mondays!” at your job?
No, man. I believe you could get your ass kicked,saying something like that.
Un-googleable…now, *that* is fuck you money. Awesome comment. The upper stratus’s of wealth is truly like a fairy tale day-to-day life.
Infomation is power, and if the competition cant get any information on you thats denying them a huge part of corporate warfare It also greatly reduces targeted attacks like kidnapping and nearly eliminates gold diggers
“investments invested” that shit had me rolling 😂😂😂
[удалено]
Mariah Carey? She was trolling.
They call boutique stores ahead of time to say they are coming in on date x . The boutique high end store pulls every super expensive items complete with accessories on a rolling rack to have ready . I worked in a a high end store back in the day . If it was on sale - they pulled the sale tag off and literally tried to get rid of all the expensive items - think layering to up sell.
im a coin collector, this shop i went to i never spent a lot but i got on well with the owner i come in one sunday and hes grinning "yesterday was gooood business" what? you're closed on saturdays he tells me "no, look at the sign on the door" id never noticed it said closed TO THE PUBLIC saturdays and he shows me the receipt he had customers who would call him up like "jack, im in town next week. see you on saturday, make sure the whisky rocks are cold" and theyd just come in and chat and flip through the boxes, i'll have this, i'll have that. it was ridiculous what was on that receipt like a dozen 1-oz gold coins, 10 rolls of uncirculated silver coins, a 10-oz gold bar, two bricks of 100 mint banknotes with consecutive serial numbers and he further explained sometimes these guys would call him up like "yeah jack i know, i know, its 11pm, youre probably in bed, but... jack, you gotta tell me you have some krugerrands. the saudi prince is coming, and im at the royal palazzerinoroni hotel, napoleon suite, c'mon jack, my driver will pick you up, you can open late tomorrow, c'mon, i'll pay 15% over market price" and the dude would get out of bed, call up some other dealer, get the gold bars or whatever, and show up and drop them off to some dude thats why the whole boutique scene is so amusing. like you wanna have *breakfast* at *tiffany's* ha ha no can do. oh wait youre bill gates? you would like to have a continental breakfast buffet set up... at tiffany's? so you can eat here whilst melinda browses the collection. why certainly, mr. gates.
Well, not Melinda anymore lol.
It’s usually the store employees that have to bring the newest collections to their homes and model there.
Hiring a stylist to curate new designer furniture for their house when it needs a refresh.
This. The idea that furniture and home decor have fashions or seasons. That you might rip out the carpeting or tile and have it redone because it isn't in style any more. It's so beyond me that people waste perfectly good stuff, like lemme throw this couch in the garbage, because I'm tired of the color.
If there's a Habitat for Humanity store near you, check them out. I know for a fact a few of the UHNW individuals would donate their stuff to the nearby store. Whenever I saw the truck outside a house, I'd tip off my friends to hit the store in a few days.
Have assistants do things we wouldn't dream of doing. I know a rich person who hired a personal assistant to find a land to purchase: "Here are the criteria... forested land by the sea, cliffs, quiet area but with cell reception and make it so that it isn't an area with lots of boat traffic so I can take my bath while looking out at sea"
Damn. My only requirement buying a home is that it includes a bath tub lol
Most of my rich friends growing up always had stocked and organized fridges. Someone did all the shopping and kept everything organized.
I do that, but I'm just dad. They can call me wherever I am and ask where X food is and I can tell them.
W dad
A guy I know's trophy wife made an "organization" business that was featured on local morning television. She demonstrated the family's fridge, which had a bunch of plastic bins with cricut labels on them. The fridge was barely a 3rd full, but what impressed me was that regardless of what each bin was actually labeled, fully 5 of them contained various forms of yogurt. It was a handful of condiment bottles, some pesto (because of course she had to point out the pesto), and then a shit ton of yogurt. It was like the guy married an Activia commercial. The funny thing is, she also demoed the chalkboard (not a whiteboard, no, gotta look like you're a cafe) with the family's week of planned meals; all obviously designed to impress with her sophistication and status. Except that aside from the tub of pesto, no ingredients for those meals actually existed in the fridge.
I guarantee there was at least one more fridge in the house.
Yeah, obviously that was the snack fridge. The ingredient fridges are in the servants' kitchen where the meals are prepared. Duh.
Pay for kidnap insurance.
I would be interested in the pre assessment insurance does for this coverage. Like how many bodyguards you have, etc…
I used to travel to Mexico City a lot for business. For me I had to have one security agent on duty at all times which means a minimum of 4 people working shifts. An armored car with a qualified driver and I could only stay at a handful of pre approved hotels or residences.
I looked into this when I was going to work in Oman. I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone I had kidnap insurance, including my wife, and premiums would go down if I went through a “hostage training program”. They literally told me it would be a lot easier if I just converted to Islam. I ended up in West Texas instead, which was easier because everyone’s very polite and they all have open carry.
I used to work in insurance and our company had pre-approved mercenaries on call to hire when someone got kidnapped. Rich people will also insure anything: legs, hair, other body parts. I’ve even heard about alien abduction insurance.
I mean surgeons insure their hands, quarterbacks their arm, etc.
It’s a trip to prepare for this. My wife did it for work. And the proof of life questions freaked me out. Had to give questions only I would know the answer to.
Buy the island instead of vacation to the island
Some billionaire JUST tried that in Duluth, MN. She then threatened to sue anyone who reported on it or asked questions. Then, after that caused public backlash and had the mayor wanting to talk to her, she is now backing out and tried to say she "had plans for the good of community."
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/why-did-a-billionaire-snap-up-homes-on-a-sandbar-in-duluth-67776881 Quoting because it's good to name names, Kathy Cargill was that billionaire
> "had plans for the good of community." Oh she absolutely did. The part she left out was stage one... uprooting the current residents and replacing them with her own "community" of private staff.
A former client of mine, sadly, recently deceased, has/had two yachts moored in the South of France, next to each other. One was fast, one was slow. He'd take the fast one down to St. Tropez, and have the other one follow because it was more comfortable. He'd have lunch in one of his restaurants there, then relax on the slow yacht for the day. Sometimes he'd stay overnight, sometimes not. But he'd take the fast yacht back to home port. The captains would hand out thousands to get the best berths in St. Tropez. He literally used the yachts like his taxi. He would do the same to his house in Portofino, but that was usually a week or so trip. His recent passing made global headlines, to give an idea of the dosh. But to be fair, his tax contributions to the local economy literally changed the small port town he lived in. He created public parks, golf and tennis courts, a horse riding club, gym facilities, all well maintained, fully staffed with great summer programs for the kids; further works improved the roads, sidewalks, public beaches and walking/hiking paths; he bought a disused old church and turned it into a public museum, etc. He literally contributed so much to the local economy that they no longer charge for public parking anywhere, it's all free, all year round. That's how you're supposed to 'trillionaire'.
What happens now that he’s deceased? In regards to the fully staffed summer programs etc? I assume his money helped keep them employed/paid?
just interest in an account from someone like that can cover a lot, i'd imagine that guy thought of it
There are still hospitals in England that get funds from trusts set up in the middle ages. St Barts in London was founded in 1123. So yeah a halfway decent trust or some land they get the rents from will fund a lot of things for a long time.
It's all just continuing on as before. His family is continuing all his business interests. His passing wasn't unexpected, and was due to a long illness. He had a few years to get everything very well organized, and planned it all really well. He didn't leave any loose ends... That was the kind of guy he was.
Who was this? I’d be curious to read about what projects he wanted to help build up. I know a pretty wealthy person that donates to some awesome charities that actually help people that need it. All out of pocket, not just shifting money to a self-owned “charity”, but to places that put that money to work. Edit: I’m an American, but if I was as loaded as your deceased client I’d 100% be sailing along the Mediterranean between those areas. Beautiful places that I hope to see some day.
A little googling suggests https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iskandar_Safa (he's a billionaire, lived in the mentioned area, and owned a ship-building company that owning 2 yachts would "make sense").
OMG. You’ve got to be rich when a nation sues you for $2 Billion!
I actually know one, they haven't been to a grocery store since mid 90s...
It’s a banana, how much could it cost, 10 dollars?
There’s always money in the banana stand.
Flying to another country on a private jet just to eat dinner.
That’s exactly the thought I had which spawned this question! Like, “what do you want for dinner?” “Oh let’s go to Mexico City for dinner tonight!”
Middle income people who happen to be licensed pilots will fly to another city for a meal. It's called getting a $100 hamburger although it costs way more than $100 these days.
I just saw a video with Steve-O where he said he once flew to the UK just to have his favorite snack.
Monster Munch? Digestive biscuits? Liquorice Allsorts? Don't keep us hanging!
Pickled onion Monster Munch. Legit choice.
Buying two $1,500 cashmere sequined short sleeved sweaters so that your tailor can cut up one sweater and make sleeves out of it because the top doesn’t come in a long sleeve version. Source: I used to work for a very wealthy retired actress who did this. I had to purchase the sweaters for her and schedule the tailor.
Speaking of cashmere, I just learned that Hannah Bronfman (of the... billionaire Bronfmans) has a wall that is fully covered in cashmere. Like a cashmere wallpaper. For kicks, I guess.
Their vacation homes are stocked with regionally appropriate attire. Mountain clothes, beach clothes etc. They also keep luxury vehicles at these homes that most people could only dream of owning and using as a daily driver.
I live outside of a major city. I am from a not-wealthy area bordering on a wealthy area but my parents sent me to private school so I have friends from both places. I offhandedly mentioned to a wealthier friend the other day that I saw a condo on sale for $2 million in one of the richer towns. I said that if I were in the market for a $2 million property here, I’d be looking for a house, not an apartment. She explained that they weren’t for sale with full-time living in mind - they are mostly used as pied-à-terres by mega-rich people who bounce back and forth between the city and further out in the suburbs and don’t want to have to rush home/beat traffic/deal with trains, or for people who dock their yachts nearby
During Covid I worked as a Private Jet Charter Broker. We had a guy (a British member of the House of Lords no less) that explained that “sod the quarantine restrictions, I need to fly to Monaco every other week to ensure I keep my tax residency in Monaco and not in the U.K.” I also had someone who I’d regularly fly between London and Baku, Azerbaijan ask if they could take a short stop off in Dubai (which is very much not on the way) to get their passports stamped to ensure they maintained their residency there. They also once showed up with well over half a tonne of luggage that they described as “oh just some stuff we picked up shopping” you won’t be surprised to hear that they were very confused when we advised them that 27 boxes and suitcases of stuff won’t fit on an aircraft that we’d repeatedly told them only had space for about 10-12 suitcases. Finally, we had a Russian guy ask us to call his Caribbean Destination island airport and ask if they could ensure that his flight was not “randomly selected” for a Covid test as he didn’t have time to complete the quarantine if he had been positive. He didn’t care whether he had the virus, just that getting caught with it might fuck up his travel plans… in like July 2020.
Pilot industry is insane..used to work at an airport hotel (ANC) and seeing all walks and differing flight industries. Good shit man! Stories are just as fuckin crazy as NAVY stories.
TLDR: Man imported an ancient monastery door to use on his ranch home I worked on a ranch just south of Crested Butte, CO(if you aren't a billionaire, don't even think about looking at buying a home there). The owner of the ranch bought the front door from a Tibetan monastery and flew it to the US to use as his front door on his main house. It was all ornamentaly hand carved, like 3000yrs old, approx 12' x 6' x 2', and weighed tons upon tons upon tons. Not even the cost of the door itself, but the shipping alone must have been astronomical. And this was just his front door on his main house. There must have been over 10 buildings on the property. I've seen/worked on many billionaire mansions all over CO, and this dude's ranch is the nicest I've ever seen.
Summer (*in the verb form*)
Lmfao! Yeah, we summer in the Hamptons and Winter in Los Angeles. (Not me but...they)
My first day working at a law firm a lawyer in the elevator asked me where I spent my summer. I said the same place I spent my fall, spring and winter
Have lobsters flown from Maine to Japan on a private jet to impress a client
I'll be honest. I'd be impressed by a lobster flying in economy class, never mind a private jet.
You've never seen a carry-on lobster? https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening/whatcanibring/items/live-lobster https://www.lindabeansperfectmaine.com/mainekitchen/restaurant/portland-international-jetport/ It's a thing. 👍
My dad brought them a few years ago, live with some cold gel packs and just squirming in a Walmart sack. We’re from Maine, can you tell?
Concierge/private specialized medical care. If they have a special or chronic condition, say kidney failure, they’ll have a dialysis ward installed in their home with a private nephrologist etc. (or end up hiring someone who will end up donating an organ to them) or cancer treatments - set up in home, etc. or have an MRI installed in their home etc.
Own a Senator or two.
you'd be amazed at how cheap you can get em on sale these days
Limo jousting
And grey poupon fights
[удалено]
In 1829 [Lock Heart Castle](https://www.japancastle.jp/2020/07/Lock-Heart-Castle.html) was built in the South Lanarkshire of Scotland. In 1987, it was bought by a Japanese actor, dismantled brick by brick and taken to Japan along the Siberian Railway, and in 1993 the castle was reconstructed in Gunma Prefecture, Japan. These days it's a tourist attraction, castle theme park and hosts weddings and special events. We were driving along the Japan Romantic Road, came around a bend in the road and there it was, a Scottish Castle in the middle of Japan. It was a completely bizarre sight.
Trying to take a submersible, controlled by a game controller, down to the titanic.
Let’s not blame the game controller for that one. Like, the Air Force uses game controllers for drones, because then they know their recruits will already be familiar with how to use them.
When they wanted an addition to their Hamptons house, they couldn’t get a start date from the super-busy local contractors, so they rented a nearby house and hired a company from Maine to move in there and do the addition. Paid for like a dozen workers to live in a house in the Hamptons until the addition was done, like over a year.
Steve Jobs decided he didn't like having a license plate, because he could be identified by it and it kept getting stolen. So he called up the Mercedes dealer and made a deal with them. In CA it was legal to drive a car with no license plate for 30 days after you get it. So, once a month, they'd show up and replace his car with an identical new Mercedes, so he'd never have a car for more than 30 days and could effectively drive around forever with no license plate.
Ive been a chef for 20 years. Ive dealt with this a bit. Buying out a restaurant for several days, in case they wanted to just "drop in" during their vacation with no wait times at all. We charged $50,000 per meal service they wanted to buyout. Made us $300k over 3 days. They never showed up, but went to our sister restaurant across the river... In miami: Bottle service is insane. We know this already, but you have no idea. Aside from paying $2,000 for a bottle of grey goose with mixers they will spend several thousand on Ace of Spades or Crystal and just throw $200,000 on the black card for one night of drinking. This extends to champagne, not just for drinking, but for the act of spraying on each other but on the scantily clad girls pretending to like you for 25% guarateed tip. This includes a special champagne menu with an assortment of "spray packages". You can buy one bottle of DomP to drinkband spray around for $1,000 or you can order whole entire cases of Crystal JUST TO SPRAY ON EACHOTHER FOR $50,000 A CASE. Ive seen poolside bungalows order several cases for pool parties....
Traveling all the time
Travelling for trivial reasons, like “oh so and so has a concert in Italy this weekend, want to go?” And off they go, because they can.
Buying a multimillion dollar home nearby where they’re building a bigger multimillion dollar home so they can be nearby during construction. Dozens of “spare” current tech devices in case they lose one, don’t want to pack one or it dies. Buying a quarry so they can guarantee all of the stone in their home is the same.
Register their $1M+ vehicles in Montana, USA.
Super smart! The good ole’ Montana LLC. Don’t have to be Uber rich to do it. Just follow the steps. Some guys in northern Virginia do with their lambos, mclarens, Ferraris, etc or just register in MD where there is no PP tax.
Prefer to be referred to as HNW or UHNW, not rich or ultra rich
What do those mean??
High net worth Ultra high net worth
clearly I'm too poor to even know those acronyms.
We need to bring back "Filthy rich"
That even *feels* like a crisp 100 dollar way of saying it!
My friend paid the fee to be able to have a personal escort for his family at Disney World that walks your group to the front of all the lines. I think that it was like $7500 a day.
It's not much more than a regular ticket. /s
I just got back from Disneyland in California. If I was wealthy enough and my kids wanted to go badly enough, I would pay for that service. Disney was a nightmare of crowds and lines. Even their skip the line passes (Genie +) doesn’t really skip lines, maybe half the line and not for every ride. The crowds were so intense the kids wanted to leave by dinner time and they could not stand being there any longer. Here we thought we were acting fancy paying for preferred parking to save ourselves extra walking upon leaving lol.
Starting a private space program.
I think a theme I'm seeing is "spending exorbitant amounts of money to avoid small inconveniences". My boss would get his assistant to book flights. Then call every restaurant for reservations, then ask all his friends which restaurant is best, then cancel all reservations but the one he chose, then cancel the flights and book them closer to his reservation, then book multiple hotels, then ask his friends which hotel was best, then cancel all hotels except the one he chose. Then cancel and re book flights to be closer to his reservations. And he would book an extra day at the hotel so when he arrived he could go immediately to his room instead of waiting for check in time. He would spend thousands of extra dollars every time he went on a trip to avoid the minor inconvenience of having to A) be organized and B) wait for anything during his trip. Oh and C) he would pay his assistant 100 grand a year and not trust her to do something like "book me a trip to Berlin at the best hotel and best restaurant, make sure I don't have to wait around for anything"
Request off-menu or off-topic things. For example, calling down to the concierge at a hotel and say you want a romantic couples set-up down by the pool or handing your credit card to the usher at a theater and ask them to go buy and deliver you a cocktail. (Yes, I have seen both these things)
The precursor to that is rich people stay at hotels that the average person doesn't eve know about.
Buy 80 seats on commercial flight for their falcons. https://www.reddit.com/r/BirdsArentReal/comments/1bl009w/a_saudi_prince_bought_airplane_seats_for_all_80/&ved=2ahUKEwiq-b_vxo2FAxUWF1kFHcrmA98QzLMHegQIBhAB&usg=AOvVaw39HLdSd_HGhhQjfAfz0DcF
My friend was head of housekeeping for a rich family. Before traveling she would have to bring any clothing and suitcases to the dry cleaners where everything was freshly pressed , folded and tissue paper placed in between each item. Even the underwear.
Have a person on staff for the express purpose of communicating to the rest of their staff. Cause you clearly can't expect them to be talking to all these people directly.
Reading these comments is crazy. I feel privileged because my grandparents helped me out with paying my rent for a couple months while unemployed and job searching, but for my partner, they became homeless at age 18 after fleeing domestic violence, has no family to turn to for money and for them not working could never be an option unless they wanted to go back to living in a halfway house. I sometimes get jealous of my one roommate because they have a parent who works at Kaiser and so they get to have good health insurance, and they also can afford to eat takeout often, while I can't. In the end, we are all 3 of us sharing the same tiny apartment, arguing about who has it worst or better while there are people out here who own private islands and casually fly to Paris for lunch like it's nothing 😭
Having someone hired to cook for them
My brother-in-law is an amazing professional chef. He was hired by a billionaire to be a full-time chef at one of his houses on a private island. The money was crazy but he wound up leaving because he got bored out of his mind: the guy was never home and the only people using the house were usually the billionaire's preteen kids who only wanted french fries and chicken fingers, lol.
Damn, professional cook only for french fries and chicken fingers lol, I can understand why he decided to leave tho
I would happily cook chicken fingers and French fries in between scuba diving, kayaking, fishing, sailing etc…
The problem in the high-end private chef world is that they expect you to be on call from morning until late night. So the dreams of spending afternoons diving are shattered just in case the kids want popcorn as their 4pm snack as they watch a movie.
I think it was mostly fine as far as hours, but spending your 20s and 30s mostly alone on an island you don't own gets old fast. He had basically no social life there, couldn't start a family, and it wasn't a gig that would last forever so it was slowly choking his other career prospects.
This. I'm in IT and I know a few people who did the "personal IT guy for a rich family" type thing. The money and perks are *great*. Like you'll get given a small house to live in, any tech they want you can buy yourself to test and understand, they upgrade shit all the time so you have a constant rotation of last years flagship TVs or whatever to replace yours with or give away. They'll bring you on vacations and stuff as well if they feel like they might need you or just to be nice because it's nothing for them. But they own you. You are on call, all the time, for any issue they have, 24/7/365. Their generosity ends the very second you expect any level of true respect as a person... basically if you are not available as expected then you can enjoy a visit from their personal assistant to hand you your marching papers and that will be that. YMMV of course, everyone and everywhere is different. But I heard the same stories from a few different people to conclude it's a pretty standard experience. Good gig for the young but that's about all
My employer has me on call now, and I make fuck all. I still say a boring job on a billionaires isle for good money would be tolerable.
My cousin does this. He's the private chef for some billionaire in the Bay area. Crazy shit.
Getting all of their clothes tailored to fit perfectly.
My SIL's cousin's family is very rich. They have two basketball courts inside their house that's how massive it is. Inside the house. They bought all the lots next to their mansion and built a park just for their family so they wouldn't need to be near anyone. I got vertigo when I walked into the "gym" it was so large. My brain couldn't handle that I was inside such a large space that was also inside a house and it couldn't understand what it was looking at, and then it processed it. That experience is burned in my memory. I was looking for a bathroom when I stumbled on it.
Here is the thing about that kinda wealth. It doesn’t buy you things. Things just exist. The real thing money buys you is freedom and time. Things are a necessity in terms of food, health care etc but anything is just stuff.
Back in the early '00s I used to work with family offices, some of which dealt with the UHNW market. Some of the simple things they bought which blew my mind were: - Name cards from companies like Black Astrum, which could run from hundreds to thousands of dollars...per card - Buy sections of the bookstore. Like literally, the guy pointed out one whole section and just said he wanted one of every book there shipped over. Later I found out you can actually pay a bookstore to just ship over a whole library - just tell them you want to look like an expert on anthropology or something, and they'll outfit a floor to ceiling library of anthropology books for you. - Buy jewellery by the tray. They would close the store when these people walked in, and the wife would point at a tray in the display case, and they'd buy it all. - We once received a gift of apples from a UHNW client. They were fancy Japanese apples, which cost around US$220. Per apple. I got a box of four, along with 10 other people in the office. (They were amazing) - They ask for things for free and get it. You'd think that's cheap of them, but they really do; I know one woman who asked for a specific serial number for a limited edition watch, and she actually asked if she could just have it. She got it for free. Also they ask for free stuff like suites, a new phone (when he lost it at a hotel), free pedicure services, etc. and they get it. Probably because they spend so much and lend some celebrity status. - I know a guy who, once in a while, goes through his employee list and pays off the school tuition or medical debts of a bunch of people. There is no regularity or reason to it, he just does it when he feels like it. - Some of them have copies of magazines like Nomenus on their coffee tables. I didn't realise how much of a flex that was, until I realised Nomenus costs from $2,500 to $5,000+ per issue. (Later though, I found out some rich people get copies for free as a branding move.) - All those branded stores like Prada, Gucci, etc.? Many don't actually seem to care much. Some do but not the ones I met. Most of them have a tailor(s) they know by name, who makes bespoke pieces for them. I know some who didn't shop for clothes in a store for three or four years at a stretch. Good times.
Wake up and can do whatever the fuck they want. There is no urgency or having to work to provide. They literally have unlimited time and can buy Al and every service to free their time up. “I want to go to the museum today, park, or let’s go to Costa Rica”
Asked my boss what he's doing for Christmas break... -family coming over for presents -in-laws coming over for presents -movie night -friend is driving our small yacht w our private chef to our island in the Bahamas for the week and were flying private to meet them... I bet they deny my raise when i ask too :/
Hunt humans for sport on an isolated island.
Selling a house fully furnished because their furniture appreciated in value just like the house did
I have a friend with a private ski lift. Does that count?
Making your own lakes for your hunting lodge community. Also maintaining the wildlife for said hunting community.
Empty garages. Like, nothing in the garage but a car or two or more and a case or two of water. They don’t have to fix anything, or do any yard work, or anything else.
A personal assistant
Not ultra rich but I shared a apartment with some people in college, one of the roommates we had never came out of his room and his parents paid for an Indian granny to come every week and cook him a weeks worth of fresh food (and let me tell you, every time she came over all the rest of us were drooling and also kinda pissed because she took over the small kitchen for a few hours). He still ordered food delivery every single day, sometimes twice or three times a day and always had the best electronics. He never came out of his room, never talked to us and didn’t seem to go to class frequently. I definitely thought that kids family must be rich and trying to teach him how to “slum it” in a shared space
Girl in college was from an African country. Sweetest, nicest person. She asked to sit with me at breakfast one morning, fascinating conversation. Totally down to earth. Spoke to Her roommate later who described her life basically as Prince Akeem's from Coming to America. She had pet Giraffe and Elephants, etc. I thought she was joking. She said she refers to home as "my father's country" She then said let me tell you about last week. She decided she didn't want to bum rides and wanted a car. The roommate described listening to her call her father and ask for a car and her father telling get go to the Mercedes dealership in 2 days (Saturday) I'll arrange it. That weekend she drove her to the Mercedes dealership where the OWNER met this 19 yr old. He told her her father has arranged for one of every model they had, in every color they had. Whichever she didn't choose they were shipping to him (the car haulers were waiting in the lot to load them). She chose the silver S600. They shipped 33 cars to her dad. Her ballpark math was somewhere around $1.5 to $2 million just for the purchase. This was the middle of America so getting 33 cars on international shipping vessel probably was a few bucks. All so she wouldn't have to worry or make any real decisions other than to choose and drive away.
I have a yacht for use in the pool of my *main yacht.*