45 Times Rich People Were Completely Blind To Their Privilege

My wife once got stuck overseas during the pandemic. Her covid test came back 'inconclusive' at the airport and there wasn't time to retest before her flight. The airline refused to let her fly and wouldn't refund her flight. My rich aunt happens to live in that city and heard what was going on. She offered to let my wife spend the night at her house and to pay for a new flight (she is an amazing lady). My aunt was out of town at the time, so she had her driver show up at the airport and drive my wife to the house. The driver had been told to give her 'pocket money' for the evening. I then got a call from my aunt. She was all embarrassed and wanted to know if we always fly first class or if business class would be okay. Apparently there were no more first class tickets available for a few days and she didn't know what to do. It literally never occured to her that economy was an option or that her nephew and his wife might never have flown business class, let alone first class.

Summering and Wintering.

Starting off with help from Mom and Dad that allows them more flexibility in maneuvering their life than everyone else has.

I've seen it a lot of times. Usually lovely, kind, caring people who certainly don't think of themselves as rich, aren't over the top about spending, live in the suburbs and have 2.3 kids and a dog, think they are where they are because they work just as hard as everyone else, think they have similar life problems to everyone else. And they may well work just as hard as everyone else and have any number of life problems...but because of the push they got at the beginning, usually in the form of downpayment assistance on a house, their life is VERY different than many others. They don't see it that way. But, the difference in having a $100,000 mortgage and a $200,000 mortgage is hugely enormous to what your monthly budget can look like, and truly rich enough parents can and do make that change happen for their kid(s). AND then usually Mom and Dad (or their financial advisors, whose contact info they pass on) know the best ways to use extra money to make more extra money, whereas people who aren't in that position don't know or find out anything about these topics.

Source: grew up in a town and went to a university that were each quite financially diverse. I'm definitely not from the top or bottom ends of that diversity, but have seen many things since college that make it clear that the "parents helping out" thing is something that if it happens is a rich person thing that the kids don't realize fully is a game-changer.

The people in those Rocket Money ads that don't realize they have multiple subscriptions coming out of their account that they don't know about. How?????????

Edit: Based on replies, anyone not noticing charges on their account is not living paycheck to paycheck. If you are well-off enough to not live paycheck to paycheck, you are richer than you think.

I had a GF end the relationship because I couldn't go to Monaco on a whim for breakfast. She went alone.

Had a super wealthy boss that refused to give me a raise. Just outright wouldn’t pay me more. He’s turn around and spend hundreds of dollars on dinners. Dude was always wearing $500 plus shoes.

He once offered me a piece of furniture. I loved it and thought it was simple so he let me have it. His wife had ordered it from Europe and they decided it didn’t fit in their decor. I looked it up after I got home. It was worth as much as they paid me in a year.

They’re all nuts.

I always told myself when I was younger that I would know when I "made" it when I could fill up my car without caring about how much it costs. Filling up was such an unobtainable luxury for me until my mid to late 20s.

Destination weddings, and destination bachelor/bachelorette parties.

Access to quality healthcare is definitely one of the most important ones.

My company introduced 'unlimited PTO' (AKA a tool to deny workers vacations) a few years back with some blurb about a higher-up who thought it was a wonderful idea because a year ago he had a chance to go on a $99k (my estimate) 5-week safari in Tanzania but the poor sap only had 3 weeks vacation available and had to make compromises to go....

Yeah. I'm sure that happens to factory workers, secretaries and junior engineer ALL THE TIME and we can all totally relate!

Viewing politics strictly from the lens of their investments.

Nannies. When a rich woman has a baby the talk is "who is your nanny", not "did you find a daycare with decent hours that doesn't suck away your whole paycheck?".

I was shocked when hearing about a young couple's trip to Europe and how they had to pass on their first choice flat because they needed more space for the nanny. They bring the nanny on the trip - to care for the child while they do all the fun stuff. Legit thought I might switch careers and become a nanny when I heard that.

Just paying to fix all of life's problems, big and small.

Nail in the tire? My old boss would go get it patched. I would take my tire off and plug it myself.
Painting the house? He hired painters. I bought paint and brushes.
Cleaning the house? That's what cleaners are for! No, that's what a swiffer and a vacuum are for!
No time to cook tonight? Takeout! Not me, meal prepped last night instead!

And he never understood why I didn't just PAY for this stuff. Probably could've figured it out if he looked at my pay check once when he signed it...

Edit: Holy f*****g s**t you people that took this to mean "you're rich if you can't plug a tire" are f*****g idiots. The point is my old boss solved EVERY problem with the "throw money at it" solution and wondered why I didn't solve ALL my problems the same way. Not EVERY example above applies to EVERY person or situation. F**k I can't believe I need to explain this.

Being pretty and well kept. Having health care and resources impacts the way you look so much.

I find most the rich people I meet are aware of the money advantages they have, but they often still underestimate the compounding effects that access to all kinds of experiences and opportunities has had on them. Not that they don't appreciate them, but they're not fully aware of the scope of the advantages.

I mean, it's one banana, how much can it be? 10 dollars?

I once met a dear old lady at a gas station, we were both filling up our cars.
I just threw the petrol nozzle in and let it fill up - probably $100 worth in those days.
She commented in a quavery voice: "I can always tell when people are wealthy, they can afford to fill their cars up right to the brim! I just put in $5 at a time when I can afford it."
She wasn't expressing jealousy or animosity in the slightest, in fact she was quite cheery about it.
Bless her soul, I hope she's doing well.

Easy networking. Rich people tend to know a lot of other rich people, and rich people are connected. References for elite colleges, internships, jobs, etc are all circulated through roughly the same group. Someone’s parent or brother in law or best friend definitely knows someone.

This is the biggest blind spot, in my experience. Rich people understand that they have more money; they do not understand that they also have far, far fewer consequences if for any reason their money runs out or falls short.

It’s that, and not checking prices at the grocery store. Those are the two biggest rich people things.

Flying business/first class (apparently).