“Shadow Jets”: 50 Things Poor People Probably Don’t Know Exist

Not my story but I hitchhiked with friends once & we met a driver who works for a company that makes impossible stuff possible for rich ppl.
Example he gave was planning a wedding - client wanted an old church in a park with very limited access (like natural conservation stuff) - then they wanted a priest from Argentinia, cause that’s where the bride came from. Then the church needed to be consecrated bc the priest wouldn’t do it in a non consecrated church. Then they wanted their guests to arrive by train, which not also had them renovate old rails in the park, but also public transportation was paid (a lot) for rescheduling their normal plan, so the special trains could use the rails… and so on… it always ended with the guy we hitchhiked with imitating a phone call with different people
: sir, I’m sorry it’s not possible
Our dude: no, you didn’t understand - how much does it cost?
: sir, we really can’t…
Our dude: yes, yes, but how much would it cost?
To the point where the person on the other end realized they could name any price & would just get it…
It was fascinating. Yet I hate every last piece of it. :D

A guy I went to college with was employed for a number of years in Dubai as an automotive caretaker. His whole gig was to wash, drive, and maintain the billionaires collection of super exotic cars, motorcycles and other toys.

I do criminal defence, had a client who told me it was very important that he avoid a criminal record for a minor offence (a stupid fight) so that he could travel.

He was paid by a rich guy to fly to locations in advance and try out restaurants so that the rich guy (who was a picky eater) would know where he might like to eat and what dishes. So he'd walk into restaurants in strange cities, order eight dishes and eat a couple bites of everything, and then do this at another dozen restaurants.

I was actually getting pretty pissed off with the file, because the rich guy was super particular about who could do this for him, and had his personal assistant calling me every other day demanding an update (with client consent). The pissed off went away when I told them I'd need to charge extra if they were going to keep riding me like that--and they just sent a "now you can't complain" amount of money without blinking an eye.

Dude was making more money (not counting free air travel) than I was.

Some celebrities will charge the Uber rich a fee to make an appearance at their parties and pretend to know them. I knew the talent agent who booked Henry Kissinger and Whitney Houston, but only for their “personal appearances”. He mentioned Whitney got 250k to attend a party, stay for a minimum one hour, and in her contract the host must not ask her to sing.

There's brands of food that you don't know exist, because they're not sold to you. Because they're not sold to anyone. Rich people have their own drinks, snack foods, candy, et all, that were made *just for them*. It's actually not even that expensive. For about $15k (starting) you can work with a drink lab who will make you the actual chemical formula for the drink you want, copyright it, and send it to their manufacturing partners, who will send you a pallet of your drink every month. In bottles you designed. With professional labels designed by a marketing team. For literally one customer. They even help you incorporate. Nobody can use that formula, logo, tagline, design, etc. Even though it'll never be up for sale. It's a flex. They can hand out bottles of "FizzyBi**ch!" soda to friends and family that you literally cannot get anywhere else.

I know a family who bought a mansion… For their yacht.

They didn’t like docking their yacht in public.

So they bought it a mansion.

Nobody lives there. It’s just their private port. A couple of times per year they actually board the yacht there. Usually the crew boards there and they meet it somewhere.

I wish I had a house for my boat… Or a boat…

People in the wealthier neighborhoods here pay professionals to set up their Christmas decorations.

Yard vacuuming service.

The billionaire owners of the company I worked for hired the most expensive landscapers in town to vacuum the yard on the day they let go an entire department of the company a few years ago.

So as people literally bawling their eyes out carried their s**t out to their cars, they had to walk past the people literally vacuuming the lawn.

We knew a guy with a big lot of land with its own vineyard. He bought it with the vineyard and had no plans for it. Someone comes regularly to collect the grapes and turn them into wine. He gets a cut of the sales and doesn’t have to do anything.

Used to work as a roadie for a labour hire company (we’d get hired to move heavy things during set up/pack down for large festivals and concerts). One time i was part of a crew hired to set up for a bank ceo’s annual christmas party (one of the big 4 australian banks), we built a whole goddamn temporary restaurant on his tennis court. Floating wooden floors, timber framed ‘tent’, the lot. With enough money you can have the party you want.

My horse had a passport, acupuncturist, and massage therapist. The horse world is so crazy yall it's unimaginable sometimes.

I am an architect and I have designed a couple of prime properties. They all had a WC, which was bigger than a normal family bathroom and could only be accessed from outside (no door from inside the house). This was to be used by the gardeners and/or delivery drivers. They also have a chef's or dirty kitchen. This is a second kitchen (usually with no windows) where all the actual cooking is done. The other kitchen is functional, but just to show off, not to be used.

Electrician based in Noosa, Australia.

Elevators (or multiple) in 2 or 3 story houses.

F*****g elevators.

Yes, I know this is a common piece of equipment but in a house is wild.

Until I met my wife, I didn’t know that rich people pay others to shop for fashion goods abroad. They get to travel, all expenses paid, to basically spend other people’s money at some of the most prestigious fashion brands.

I once did some work for a couple who own a yacht building company. In their master bathroom there was a closet with seven shelves, one for each day of the week. On each shelf there was a pair of pajamas and a matching set of towels and a washcloth for each of them. It was something my middle class self would never have thought of.This was years ago and I have never forgotten it. A small example of having exactly what you want, perfectly organized by someone else.

Ultra-wealthy families have a family office that takes care of everything across the globe. At the bottom end this may be a single full time person who supervises part-timers and contractors. The larger offices have multiple full-time staff who handle finances, real estate management, travel, social obligations, charitable giving, etc. There are actually trade association conferences for the people who work in this field. Wild, isn’t it?

Bespoke eye glasses that are completely custom crafted to suit your face and comfort level.
It actually sounds amazing as a person who wears very strong prescription glasses that get kind of heavy ( even with thinned lenses). However aside from the cost, I change scripts too often to be worthwhile.

Ransom insurance.

My uncle was a corporate pilot for most of his career. When he was a few years shy of retirement, the company axed their in house pilots and everything related to them as a cost savings. However, one of the owners(I think, might have just been a rich guy) hired him and one of the other pilots to be his personal on call crew for his personal jet.

For the next few years, he would fly for him pretty regularly to various places that were usually fairly exotic. Most of the flights were actually for the rich guys adult son and his family. The son was a "professional" sailboat racer... of some sort and my uncle would fly him to some tropical island and then get put up in a nice hotel with the copilot for a couple weeks with all expenses paid and he'd just hang out while this dude raced boats. It paid well enough he was able to retire earlier than expected.

I'm sure many people expect some rich people to have private pilots but the job always sounded ridiculously laid back and lucrative for bringing some guy to the Bahamas/wherever to play with his boats... which I'm sure had even more staff.

A concierge who moves absent residents' local cars to higher ground when hurricanes strike for rich snow birds.