34 Wealthy People Share Bizarre Notions They Thought Were Ordinary

I'm embarrassed to admit didn't realize that "not being able to afford college" was a thing until about high school. I thought my family was about average growing up though my family makes over 100k because I went to a private school that was mostly insanely rich people. I also couldn't understand why people didn't shop at Whole Foods.

Many many things.

1. Chandeliers and all marble floors are expensive items. Not common.

2. Chauffeurs and chefs are very useful people.

3. Having an attached bathroom to every bedroom

4. Gated house with 24/7 armed security.

5. 4 lawns

6. Indoor cycling tracks. We had them within our property. Not inside the house. Just inside the gate

7. Personal small zoo. I had deer, monkeys, 30 pairs of pigeons etc

8. Leave the bedroom unclean and come back to find it tidy with laundry done

9. In house intercom in every room.

That's just the top of my head.

I've grown up lower-middle class, but my mom married a rich guy and his daughter is clueless as to how much money she has.

-"I'm not UPPER CLASS, I'm upper-middle!" I don't know why she does this , but it's annoying.

-I had to explain to her that sometimes you have to throw toilet paper in the trash at some places because the water pressure isn't good and she replied with, "But that's...gross and unhygienic." Yeah, and common.

-"Can't your dad just get you a better one?" When I told her I have to use my grandmothers 98 broken down car as my starter. No, I'm poor.

-"Why aren't you buying anything?" When her dad gave me $200 for a shopping trip and I was scared to use it because I knew I couldn't pay it back (even when I didn't need to). I'd never seen that much money before.

-"I'm coming back later, I'll do it then," I had asked why she ate burgers the entire trip (she's very unhealthy) and not tried any of the food from the country we were staying at.

-"Why are you happy about college? It's just more years of school." I didn't have the money for college growing up, now I do and know I'm going to a good college and might get a job in my dream field.

-"Why would they allow that at your school?" After I told her about the time a pregnant seventh grader leapt over a table to slap a girl. Maybe because I went to a trashy school with rough kids??

All I have for now. Hope y'all have a good day.

I didn't know anyone that lived in an apartment until my late teens. I knew apartments existed but I assumed that people owned them like they would own a house.

Traveling abroad on extravagant vacations in only 5 star resorts. By the time I was 5, I had been to 5/7 continents and didn't realize how odd that was.

My son flew coach class for the first time in the fourth grade. He asked why anyone would want to sit back here

A few things only hit me once I was an adult

The reason some of my freinds family's moved house so much was because they rented, and what their parents could afford changed a lot. The concept of someone being a parent and *not* owning their own home just didn't occur to me. (I live in London, so it's not like home ownership is common)

Also, taking education for granted. The Sri Lankan and Ghanian girls in my school got so pissed when I'd mess around with some of the boys in RE... Turned out because they felt lucky to be in education at all, and one had to leave home at 16 to carry on to higher education :(

My parents divorced when I was seven after my Father committed tax fraud (and adultery). Prior to that 'normal' was a few hundred-acre country home and private school. 'Otherwise', turned out to be a council estate home, comprehensive (state) school and jam sandwiches for dinner.

A good friend of mine from college grew up with money. Lots of money. He ended up coming with me to go grocery shopping one time and was horrified that I was getting store brand items. He said that he had never had or heard of such a thing.

We weren't rich in the sense of like, extravagant vacations, 5 star hotels, and big super fancy cars. My parents always taught us and practiced themselves financial security, saving, budgeting, etc. We had s****y 1990 Toyota vans and drove them until pretty much every door except the side left door were broke and miles were maxed out. We always made sure to check for coupons and use them to our full advantage when we went to any story. Always planned out exactly what we were gonna buy and the prices of them. Etc. etc. I will say though, we do make, both parents combined, around 450K per year after taxes, which is way better than the average income.

 

I didnt realize how...unsupportive parents could be. Not in like a cruel sense, but in the sense of they just dont have the resources to support their child sometimes in certain scenarios. If one of my friends goes out to a friend event, they have to drive themselves and aren't spotted any money. When I go out, my parents will offer to drive me (despite having a drivers licence) and usually pay me anywhere from 20 to 60 dollars, saying I should buy some pizzas for my friends. I usually decline, but I sometimes take it and head their advice. I thought parents always gave their children money to help out, up until I was like 14.

 

I also thought parents would be supportive of stuff like hobbies. Granted, its partly due to my more reserved and laid back nature, so I dont ask for much, but when I say, "I wanna do X", whether it be me buying a game, book, etc. They will nearly always say, "Sure!" and then exceed my expectations by doing stuff like "Hey, why not get two or three?" Like (and this is kinda a weird tangent but it relates) I wanted to buy some fabric in secrecy for a fursuit, and when my parents figured out, not only were they happy for me, but they drove me down to Joann's Fabrics to buy me around 100 dollars worth of supplies to make it. My friends are kinda forced to fend for themselves, or get a job, or just take the answer of no. And sure, there have been times where I have to say no, but honestly its not because of money issues, its because they don't want to spoil me, and they tell me that numerous times.

 

I think the prime example of this was when I was asking my mom if I could do a roadtrip for my 18th birthday, and I asked my mom if I could stay in a hotel or something for a night with like two friends. My mom said not only could we do it, but said why not rent out a fancy condo for two nights, and invite five friends, and maybe even rent a car?

Not everyone has a magic debit card that refills itself every other day or so. My parents cut me off when I got married at 22, but thank God my wife was raised 100% different than I was. It was a rough couple of years to start, but we are now solidly upper middle class.

Also whenever I vacationed abroad, my cousins and I had this absolutely obscene fetish of renting out the most expensive luxury cars (Im talking Bentleys and Aston Martins and Rolls Royces and stuff- sorry not a car person), and just go cruising around middle-class neighbourhoods/hang-out spots to pick up girls or revel in the awe of the people passing by. See we came from the 1% kinda elite family in one of the poorest countries in the world- Bangladesh. So for white people in the States, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, etc. to absolutely lose their s**t when we threw hundreds of thousands around like loose change in their country...well, I cant really describe the feeling. Its ridiculous.

Direct deposit. Didn't know what a check-cashing service was.

I thought it was normal to just abandon your car when it runs out of gas....