Economy & LaborAPR 5, 2024

30 Of The Wildest Things The Rich Can Purchase That Poor People Probably Don’t Even Know Exist

Viktorija Ošikaitė and Rokas Laurinavičius

According to Charles Schwab's 2023 Modern Wealth Survey, Americans must have at least $2.2 million in assets to be considered rich. However, that's just for the entry to the club. To climb the ladders, they need much more, which is vividly illustrated by a recent thread on Reddit.

It started with platform user InfiniteMirrorss inviting people to share what they believe to be the things the super-wealthy do that the average person doesn't even consider. Immediately, thousands started to send in their answers. Here are some of the most popular ones.

#1

30 Of The Wildest Things The Rich Can Purchase That Poor People Probably Don’t Even Know Exist

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'.

Wwwweeeeeeee, Pixabay / pexels

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86points

#2

Buy out a company just so you can tweet what you want without fear of getting banned.

rjm101, Brett Jordan / pexels

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62points

We got in touch with InfiniteMirrorss and the Redditor agreed to have a chat with us about their now viral post.

"I've been working on my pilot license and was talking about doing a cross-country flight where we'd stop somewhere far away and get dinner, then head back," they explained its origins to Bored Panda.

"In the aviation community it’s called the '$100 hamburger' because flight time is so expensive and it had me thinking about ultra-high-net-worth people and how that might not even be a consideration to them, whereas for me (an ultra-low-net person), becoming a career pilot requires tactically considering every dollar I spend. So I thought, 'wow, I wonder if rich people just fly to Paris for the night to get dinner and then come back,' or something else as jet-setting."

#3

Trying to take a submersible, controlled by a game controller, down to the titanic.

PsychologicalSense41, Pixabay / pexels

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53points

#4

Own a Senator or two.

Sufficient_Pipe_1372, Laura Musikanski / pexels

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51points

After going through the replies, InfiniteMirrorss noticed that most of them were written by folks belonging to one of three categories:

"One: [those who wanted to share] their fantasy or egregiously fabulous things they've seen on TV portraying rich people. Two: people who fundamentally hate the rich because of principle and would say things that inferred Epstein and his Island, and assume all rich people are grotesque humans. And three: a small few people who are rich, or have first hand knowledge of the ultra wealthy, and would say things like, 'rich people have their children taught by private tutors.'"

InfiniteMirrorss added that if you dig deep enough, you will find some responses buried in the discussion that also beautifully describe how leisurely life is for the rich. "Every day, someone takes care of every single want and need that they could possibly think of. As one Redditor put it, 'that's exactly it, they don't do anything.'"

#5

Buying a home for their college-age children. Then they sell the house when their kid graduates. Sometimes this sale pays for college.

AloneWish4895:

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.

NeroBoBero, Pavel Danilyuk / pexels

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49points

#6

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.

TheNightWitch, Pavel Danilyuk / pexels

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49points

#7

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.

Majestic_Winter9951, Mikael Blomkvist / pexels

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49points

So what does all of this tell us? The answer probably depends on the person and the emotions these statements evoke.

"How abhorrent does it feel to someone that there can be such wealth and yet others struggle to find basic needs met daily? There is a distaste for the idea that so few people can have so much and in that sense, most people may dream of being wealthy themselves, yet vilify people who are," InfiniteMirrorss noted.

"It's my understanding that wealthy people do not interact with the average person, and in fact, avoid it. What rich person (broad strokes here) would ride the NYC subway when they have their private driver take them from their home to their private jet to their private island with their private friends?" the Redditor addrd. "Poor people, fetishize, fantasize, and castigate the rich, and the rich..? I don't think we cross their mind."

#8

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.

themcp, Mike Bird / pexels

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49points

#9

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.

Windy_Beard, Alexandra Maria / pexels

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45points

#10

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.

CporCv:

When I was a car mechanic, our shop would do this type of work for the richest clients. I remember doing a $800 oil change on a Maserati that was only driven 7 miles in 6 months. Insane

AtlEngr, Dennis Truong / pexels

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45points

#11

Hosted a dinner at the home of a Noble family in Scotland a few years ago and the Duke was showing me around a few weeks before hand. Told me a story about how depressed he was when an art appraiser, looking at one of his paintings told him the painting was not by a student of Goya, but was in fact by Goya himself. He was unhappy because the €15 million jump in value meant he would have to redo his insurance paperwork. He already had had to use two different insurance companies to cover the total value previously.

Other things I found there: original da Vinci sketches hanging over a toilet under the staircase in a servant’s hallway, a Guttenberg Bible in a stack of books on the floor in a spare room, and on and on it went.

Doohicky_d, Andrew Neel / pexels

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42points

#12

Live above the law.

Fair_Swimmer_7395, Sora Shimazaki / pexels

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41points

#13

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.

Sgt_Booler, cottonbro studio / pexels

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39points

#14

Having someone hired to cook for them.

Yellowbug2001:

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.

AsleepDay_, cottonbro studio / pexels

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39points

#15

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."

xutopia, Alex Green / pexels

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39points

#16

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.

Bear_Facial_Hair, Pixabay / pexels

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38points

#17

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.

cholula_is_good, Pavel Danilyuk / pexels

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36points

#18

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.

Visible_Number, Pixabay / pexels

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36points

#19

I once met a man that bought a $5m+ house about an hour away from his actual house simply because his wife didn't like him smoking cigars at home. He would only use the house to smoke in and have a party or two a year.

cakirby, Soscenic Photography / pexels

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36points

#20

Summer (in the verb form).

Illustrious-Salt-243:

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

FireProps, Michael Block / pexels

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35points

30 Of The Wildest Things The Rich Can Purchase That Poor People Probably Don’t Even Know Exist

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Poll Question

How do you think the extravagant habits of the ultra-rich impact society?

Poll Question

How do you think the extravagant habits of the ultra-rich impact society?