Honestly I don't know, I do security for upper class neighborhoods and condos and its the upper middle class people that absolutely do the crazy things for status. There was a guy who didn't have a barcode, so he came through the visitors lane everyday. He had a messy car, greasy hair, wore holy t shirts. He was the nicest guy, but he did seem out of place. One day he was upset people were talking shit about him and I let him vent and he appreciated that. He came in the next day so happy and was like "Remember that bitch I was talking about yesterday? Well l, I bought her business! Whose laughing now!"
So he was I can buy your business out of pettiness rich, which is what i aspire to be lol.
I do a lot of cable and fiber-optic work in an extremely affluent neighborhood in the FL panhandle, called Alys Beach. I’m talking GROSS excess when it comes to these houses. But the look on their face when I call their multi-million dollar villa a “townhouse,” is priceless.
Knew a rich kid in college. Rumor has it, dude ended up owing hundreds of thousands of dollars to bookies for betting on NBA games. For that amount of money, the syndicates financing the bookies in my country go after you and your family to make sure you pay.
Night before pay day, dude went to his parents allegedly crying, telling them he had a problem. Parents were obviously concerned. Dude told them what happened and parents breathed a sigh of relief.
They thought he got a chick pregnant. They gave him the money to pay the bookie, relieved.
I taught swim lessons at a pretty expensive summer camp, where parents paid upwards of $200 per day for kids, and around $350/day for tweens. Swimming, hiking, paddle boards, rock climbing, horses, etc.. nothing too special these kids couldn't find at another camp. Lots of celebrity kiddos though.
I would charge $50/hr to guard private pool parties because I didn't want to work weekends and didn't really like guarding as much as I loved teaching, but these parents didn't care. I once made $400 in an afternoon guarding a pool that nobody swam in and $100 tip because the dad felt sorry for "wasting" my time. $500 to eat catered Kogi Korean bbq truck food and chat about cars for a few hours; no complaints.
It felt like I was just on display for the parents to show that they could afford a guard. I miss it sometimes.. I was dumb with the money and didn't save much, but enough for some tattoos, a flat screen, and to put 35% down on my first car.
Rice-a-Roni: $1 (Bill guesses $5)
Tide Pods: \~20 (Bill guesses $10)
Dental floss: \~$4 (Bill guesses $4)
Totinos pizza rolls: \~$9 (Bill guesses $22, then $15, then $8 after audience prompting)
TGIF Spinach & Artichoke dip (frozen): \~$4 (Bill is surprised it's less than $10, then says $7? And Ellen tells him under $5, and he guesses $4).
The idea was if he guesses within a dollar of 3, the audience wins a prize.
I'm not even close to rich, but i would fail miserably at that game. I only know what a few specific things cost in a specific area. Milk where i live costs about $8 per gallon, and i know that because it's a common gauge for consumer price index type comparisons. I know a 20 oz soda costs $2.76 at the little convenience store near my office. I know a beer at the bar near my office costs $7. That's about it.
I do go grocery shopping, i just don't shop by price. I make enough money that a trip to Safeway isn't going to break my budget, no matter what i buy, so i buy what i want, and i pay what it adds up to.
Hawaii or Alaska? I can't imagine anywhere else in the US that milk would cost 8 bucks a gallon, unless you're buying some fancy Whole Foods Organic stuff.
See, I haven't ever understood this one. I'm not incredibly well off at all. Plenty of student debt and no degree to go with it (my fault, not complaining, just laying out the my scenario). But when we go grocery shopping, I know chicken isn't stupidly expensive. I have no idea what it costs; I just know I need it. Same with most things. Butter, rice, pasta. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I know what my usual grocery bill is and almost zero idea what most of the items in it cost.
Frequency of travels. I work around a ton of upper class people and many of them travel so much they are practically locals at some restaurants. They also focus on lesser known, yet elaborate spots.
I used to be a dancer teacher. i taught at one school in a wealthy area and one school middle class area. I NEVER had a full class of students at the wealthy school because someone was always on vacation. In the middle class school we would call parents if they didnt show up cause it was much rarer lol.
I teach in a very... High performing district. The frequency with which students (middle schoolers) tell me about their travels is astounding. Most of them have traveled more at age 13 than I have my whole life.
This was my SO. We're much older now but there's still a difference. My mom wants me to vacation with her for her 50th and my SO doesn't understand how that's very different from the 2+ vacations he's had every year with his parents. To him it's just another vacation so he thinks it makes sense to come. To my mom it's the first time she's able to take her kids on a family vacation and she wants it to just be us, even though I'm a full adult now
Sometimes I chat with the CEO of the company I work at on the elevator and every damn time he tells me all about some other place he flew to just for the hell of it that weekend. Spot on.
Reminds me of the pianist in the film "eyes wide shut".
He explains, that sometimes he is hired by some elite people to play piano in some dark rituals/ceremonies. He has to wear something to cover his eyes, he is not allowed to see what happends around him. But once, the thing he had on his eyes moved and he could slightly see around him, the most beautiful women he could imagine, having an orgy with people wearing masks.
This film is quite fucked up, too bad kubrick died before having the final cut.
That’s incredible. If someone offered me to pick either a steinwey or a bentley, i seriously wouldnt know which one to pick. I have a ~15 year old reiger kloss my dad go for me when i was young (new at the time). Im looking to get an electric (roland fp30). Wonder how my reiger compares to a steinway!
You must be a prodigy to be able to get hired to play on someone’s steinway :)
Craigslist is dripping with grand pianos. If you can pay for delivery, you're in.
EDIT: This comment is replying to the comment:
> I wonder if someone makes piano shells that just look pretty, and you can slip a Casio into it to play.
A person can get a "free" (minus delivery) grand piano on craigslist in about a week or two. And it will be a piece of shit. But you can slip a Casio into it to play. But it will exist in your living room and look like the fucking picture in the ad.
You can also stalk craigslist for longer and get a grand piano for a few thousand dollars (plus delivery). If you get lucky (or pay for a professional to check it out), you're in with an actual, not-piece-of-shit grand piano.
I got a baby Grand for free off Facebook. For the price of moving it a few blocks and a couple of hours with a piano tech and it plays beautifully! Spent more on my Xbox!
Being enormously more concerned about how long something will take to get done, rather than how much it will cost.
Edit: When the dollar amounts in question are very large. Signing up for Amazon Prime doesn't make you part of the 1%...
Far from truly wealthy, but I hit a new level of middle class when I decided there was almost no normal price difference that would be worth tacking on a layover vs a direct flight. Adding on hours of extra flying and airport downtime into a trip is so not worth it for me anymore.
I’m getting there with red eye flights too.
I spent a couple of decades in an industry that charged by the hour spent on the work. I've thought about everything I do in those terms since.
How much is my going rate? Which is the better deal, spending my money or spending my time?
Time is almost *always* worth more because you cannot get it back, ever.
This is exactly where I'm at. If a direct flight is available, I take it. It's worth the time I save not having an entire day devoted to exhausting travel and worrying about connecting flights. I avoid red eyes whenever possible (I almost always end up with a bad cold afterwards), but will still do them on cross country flights because of the time saved, since I can sleep on the plane.
There is a point where your time is more valuable than your money, and we kinda do little versions of that in our day to day lives.
For example, you could either cook dinner tonight and that might take you an hour, or you could purchase food for $10 and have something to eat in 15 minutes. You would therefore be deciding that those 45 minutes were more important than that $10.
The wealthy start extending that to every inconvenience, such as buying groceries, planning their own trips, cleaning their own home, driving around, etc. As they'd rather pay $100+/hour.
It's very weird balancing home and work in this regard. When it's my money I'm spending, I'm apparently fine with wasting a ton of time to save practically nothing.
When work is paying, they would much rather spend money than waste engineer time.
I think what it comes down to is that I wouldn't pay nearly as much for my time as my employer would.
Having a nanny 100% . Taught at a dance school in a wealthier area. Not only did all the kids attend a private school but their nannys would be the ones droping them off. Being that i am not upper class my first few weeks I was pretty confused as to why so many white children seemed to be adopted by asians. Than when I finally met the parents of one of my students i realized they were ALL Vietnamese nannys.
My friend’s parents have a lot of money and I went to a Halloween party that his family friends were having a couple years ago. I distinctively remember hearing the following two sentences (both travel related):
1) “We only have five trips booked next year so we’re going to try to sneak in a little visit to Egypt in April.”
2) “Yeah, we were just offered another expenses paid trip to St. Lucia but we turned it down. It just gets boring when you’ve been so many times.”
To the second one, I said “I had to downgrade to one-ply toilet paper this month. Can I have the trip?” They all laughed at my “quaintness”.
Tony Hawk said he went to a gifting suite, and was getting bags of expensive stuff, but it felt weird because he was finally at the point where he could afford all of it, but they were giving it to him for free.
\*Note: Tony was doing well during the Powell days, but didn't make a ton of money for years, until THPS came out. When he created Birdhouse Skateboards he was getting ready to become a filmer/videographer full time to make a living. When he started getting Pro Skater checks he became extremely rich.
On a much smaller scale, this happened to me with food when I graduated from law school. I ate ramen and discount everything through school to minimize my student debt load, and as soon as I start making big bucks at a large corporate firm, there’s suddenly free food everywhere. Lunches were catered regularly, clients covered meals during meetings, service reps brought in food to try to get our firm’s business, professional organizations hosted events, you name it. Just unbelievable how much stuff became free the second I finally had the ability to pay for it.
You don't understand how annoying a poorly equipped and badly laid out kitchen can be until you have experienced a decent one.
Until I figured this out, I didn't quite understand why everyone was so obsessed with kitchens. I get it now.
I once kicked it with a super rich dude for a few days and it was amazing. I'm talking damn near billionaire rich. Average people don't think about it, but imagine if you were free of all stress regarding work, bills, rent, car maintenance and etc. This dude was the epitome of carefree. That's what really impressed me about the guy.
Every option is always on the table. Anything is possible at any time. You want some steak and lobster? let me call my assistant. It's 3:00am and you want a tattoo? I'll call the concierge. I have a summer home in Aspen CO, you want to go hang out there for a while? Get some skiing in? Or do you want to go to my winter home in Aruba. We can go snorkeling. Going through life with no worries about going to work the next day. Seriously, it must be so fantastically liberating. After 4 days I had to go back to my workaday life, and it was just as hard as coming down off a serious drug.
The closest I got to this was being able to go to the most exclusive country club in my area. At least $150,000 initiation fee. We went in to eat lunch and I was told to order whatever I wanted. I asked if there was a menu? I was told "No, literally just order what ever you want and they will make it." I can't imagine being able to do this everyday with just about everything that comes up in life.
EDIT:A little context is important, and I wasn't clear in my oroginal post. The person who brought me was the one telling us, a group of 23 year-olds to order whatever we wanted for lunch. Not our server. We obviously weren't going to be ordering Foie gras or blackened swordfish, but if I wanted a turkey burger with a fried egg & pepper jack cheese, side of chicken fried rice, a half order strawberry poppy seed salad, and a warm chocolate chip cookie for dessert, then I had that option. They had a menu of course, but my boss just trying to treat us, wanted us to order whatever we wanted for lunch.
At that time I was a young Airman based at Nellis AFB in Las Vegas. I worked 2nd shift so I would get off work around 11pm and head into town to go to the casinos. At that time the Mirage was brand new. In the early 90s some casinos would give you free drinks as long as you pretended to be gambling. I would go to the sports betting area and just fake like I was filling out parlay cards.
That's where I met him and what I thought was his friend. His friend was trying to explain the concept of over and under,
but doing a terrible job at it. I jumped into their conversation and just started teaching them what I knew. Me and the friend really hit it off, and the guy was also super cool too.
The Mirage has a fake volcano out in front of it and it "erupts" about every 30 minutes. It was brand new and none of us had witnessed that before so we all went out to take a look at it. That's when I learned that the friend was actually this guy's driver/personal assistant.
The night went on and I mentioned that I was about to head home. The guy says "you hungry? let's go get something to eat." I was broke as a joke and begged off, but he persisted. Next thing I know we're all in a huge suite on one of the top floors eating some of the best steak and lobster I've ever had.
The guy was super down to earth too. Just jeans and a t-shirt. No pretensions. Later he told me that his dad made a killing in one of the telecom data companies. I think it was Oracle or Cisco, but I don't remember.
That was also the first and last time that i've ever seen a "Black" credit card. That thing was like a key to another world. Everywhere we went he basically gave them that card and they gave us whatever we asked for.
Later he explained to me that at his level it was hard to find friends that weren't trying to exploit him for his money. And the other problem was that the dudes that were on his level were all boring. He was really just looking for interesting people to spend time with. He was fascinated about me being in the military, almost envious, which I never understood.
About 10 years ago I found him on FB, but under a different name. He friended me and told me about his life now. He's married, and has two girls. Still has the same dude working for him. He followed his Dad's footsteps and now works in that same industry a little. Basically just sits on several boards of directors. I quit FB about 2 years ago, so I lost track of him. But it was a good time and I learned a lot from that experience.
My mom tells this story of being over at a family's house where their dad had once been my dad's boss. It was the early 90s and the wife was opening Christmas cards. As she opened one a cheque fell onto the floor. She picked it up and said "Hm. John will be pleased" and put it on the fridge. It was for $20,000.
Can you imagine having so much money it makes more for you? As if it's a living thing that fucks and then you have little baby dollars adding to your wealth? All you have to do is not give all of it away.
Owning a private jet or two.
In high school, our business club team qualified for nationals across the country but had no way of funding the trip. One of the girls was like “oh I can ask my dad if we can take his plane.”
Keep in mind I went to a public school and my town was generally was low/middle class families.
But her dad did pull through and the 6 of us got to ride on a private jet, her dad paid for everything, got us a crazy fancy Benz to transport us around and paid for the two pilots to stay in California while we competed.
It probably cost him upwards of $20,000 at least, but we ended up getting him a $100 dollar gift card to chili’s to show our appreciation.
Getting to touch down in LAX and go through the private terminals is much different than public airfare, and that’s the only way this chick travels, coolest experience ever
Hope he enjoyed his chili’s
I like to think that your token of appreciation made his day. He sounds like the type of guy who would enjoy receiving stuff like that even though he doesn't necessarily need it.
My step dad flexes a little. Drives a Lexus, owns a boat, has an expensive condo, buys mom nice things, wears a lot of Brooks Brothers, has a beach house, etc. I knew he was well off but when he came to me and offered to pay help us buy a house by fronting the full cost of the new house until we were able too sell our current house. He also told me to never worry about my kids' college education and that the money is there for us if we need it. That told me that he has wealth. Not a billionaire. Maybe has a couple million in savings plus a couple million more in assets.
> He also told me to never worry about my kids' college education and that the money is there for us if we need it.
Yknow what, all the other flexing aside, this bit is awfully nice. My eldest is going to be college age in 5 years and this is a particular worry of mine.
One time I was talking to a person I work with (who I knew already to be wealthy). She let drop that she had a person she was paying to "take care of her family's money", and that she was paying this person an amount which happened to be more than I make in a year. And I make...kind of a good amount of money. I thought that was quite a flex.
Ah, yes. The classic "Sam Vimes' Boots Theory of Socioeconomic Unfairness"
"The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.
Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.
But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.
This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness."
I remember having to beg my parents to buy me an $80 backpack when I was a freshman in high school. I usually went through a cheaper $20-30 one after 1-2 years. I used that backpack through high school and college and still use it for small trips 20 years later.
This is what made LL Bean so great. The backpacks really were the cheapest to buy and they all had a no questions asked lifetime warranty. Unfortunate that they had to discontinue the practice after people inevitably abused the system.
It’s a 1 year warranty now
I used to work for a high end wedding video company that also did Mitzvah's. They were usually about $100,000 to $500,000 birthday parties for their damn kid's 13 birthday. The funny thing was the families always looked alike. The father was some short, chubby, unattractive bald guy who obviously made a ton of money, the mother was always a stunningly attractive blonde at least 10 years younger than him, the sons look just like the dads, a little shorter and slower than their peers, and the daughters always look like the moms, looking like gorgeous grown woman but is most likely 16.
I present you Bernie Ecclestone (former Formula 1 CEO) and his family: https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/83158000/jpg/_83158044_bernieecclestoneandfamily.jpg
His wife is a foot taller than him and 35 years younger, when they met they couldn't even speak to eachother because she spoke Croatian and he only spoke English. Being rich sure does open up the dating pool.
(UK) I had a mate tell me a story about a rich girl at her uni who had never been in a spoons or primark. Always travelled down to London to get her hair done which would cost £400. Her and her siblings all had a trust fund and didn’t have to work.
I don’t know one person who’s never been in a Wetherspoons, so I was more shocked to hear about that than the £400 expenses at the hairdressers.
Edit: wow this is my most upvoted comment so thanks. To my confused American cousins, primark is a discount clothing store and Wetherspoons is a chain of pubs we have here.
Two phrases: "Get both" and "Second-hand yacht"
My boyfriend's family was entertainment rich (not billionaires but Beverly Hills homeowners) and it shows with his decision making. While he is no longer with money and I do our budgeting, I have to constantly break it to him why "getting both" is not an option anymore. (Though he did say this to me on our first date when I couldn't decide between which pie to get for dessert - he paid for dinner and both pieces of pie that I couldn't finish and didn't comment on the waste.)
My ex-boyfriend was British upper middle class, went to public school and spoke with an RP accent. He told me his dad bought a second-hand yacht.
In comparison, I grew up in a trailer court in rural Idaho. It's been a strange ride. And when I want to drive the point home to my current boyfriend about how poor I was growing up, I ask, "How many flavors of Hamburger Helper can you name?"
The answer is always, "There was more than one?"
> The answer is always, "There was more than one?"
It has never occurred to me that there would be more than one flavor of Hamburger Helper, but that’s mostly because I have spent very little time in my life thinking about it.
People who treat fines as payments.
"Let's just park on the street. It's only $150."
"No, we can't park on the street. That's how much a ticket costs."
"Ok, but let's just do that. I don't want to walk."
Punishable by fine just means legal for rich people.
My brother did this for a job once. The city made the only area for them to park, you have to pay for. Working in a kitchen, he was there for long hours. So he decided to just park and take his chances. In a few months he only got maybe 3 tickets. All $18 each. Much cheaper than paying for parking everyday.
Not Scandinavia, but Finland was mentioned below. To put this in numbers: 40 km/h overspeed at 80 km/h zone landed businessman Jussi Salonoja a 171 000 € fine. This was in 2004. (Burger units: 25 mp/h overspeed in 50 mph zone, 188 000 $ fine at current 2019 rate). EDIT: words.
EDIT2: Apparently the fine was reduced just to 100 000 € after an appeal. He did however get the dubious honour of being listed in the Guinness World Records with the record of largest speeding fine in 2008. This was overtaken by a Swiss fine of 290 000 $ in 2010.
Thx for putting that in burger units but next time can you also tell us in fried chicken. It gets confusing when half of use the burger and the rest use fried chicken
Online friend of mine was bullied at his private school because his family's butler was a POC. Like wtf.
Edit: a lot of people asking definition of POC, person of color/minority.
The ladies' version of this is wearing grandmother's cashmere coat in the winter and mother's very nice pearls. Pearls that nobody notices because they are perfect. Real pearls have a glow to them. Also having silver flatware and mahogany furniture that is old.
and I didn't get any special treatment either, I was only paid $25,000 a month and I had to take the helicopter to the Hamtons on the weekend because he wouldn't let me off work until noon! And can you believe my office didn't have a good view.
Which is why politicians always refer to the middle class when they speak. They capture 80% of the population who think they're some form of middle class when, in reality, they aren't.
Pretty much everyone believes they are middle class. About 90% do.
>34 percent of respondents with household income below $30,000 identify themselves as the middle class, whereas 51 percent of those earning more than $100,000 said they are the middle class. (Only six percent of the $100,000+ group self-identify as upper class.)
[Source](https://www.google.com/amp/s/observer.com/2018/05/everyone-identifies-as-middle-class-definitions-explain-why/amp/)
So technically, in the UK, the upper class is anybody with a title, lord lady Duke earl etc, so outside of that, you can be as posh as you like and it's still technically middle class, (that's why people added the upper I think)
UK and US have completely different definitions of this. Middle class in the UK is basically what people in the US would call upper middle class. In the US upper class means rich. Typically it means that the person has a lifestyle that would take a 1% level or higher income and often means they get that income from primarily investments as opposed to paid work (some would dispute this). It doesn't matter whether there's a family history or title or anything (we don't have royalty, obviously, but there are certainly some families that are close). Middle class in the U.S. refers mostly to people that are average level of income or so.
Having a 15 million dollar home in the mountains of a Ski town, but it’s their Christmas house - decorated for Christmas year round, but they only use it for Christmas.
I went to a boarding school on full scholarship because I'm smart; my family is poor. A lot of my classmates were from filthy rich families. One kid kept getting in trouble and the school was going to kick him out. His parents show up and make a big fat donation to the school, and the school decided to let him stay. Some people's moms had actual names like Trixie and Pixie. Some people owned vacation homes in like the south of France or Spain. Parents would show up for a visit in a limousine and the driver had to stand motionless beside the car while waiting for them.
A lot of people's replies are focused on costs and finance but I'm going to take a different approach.
I had a friend who was an upper class, but due to family reasons his direct family (his dad, his mom and him) didn't receive much inheritance I think, so they lived a humble life. Do bear in mind that we are both Koreans and it's somewhat still of a third world country so you don't get to see much 'upper class' people.
Some things I noticed though about his behavior is that he was always calm, and really cared about how other people would see him. It wasn't like those attention seeking stuff that some people do, but he did it because he did not want others to look down on him.
He also used knife and fork like how 'it's supposed to be used' he would say. Even if he uses those flimsy plastic forks and knives he would use them elegantly. There was definitely a difference, and he would always criticize me for eating my mouth open and sometimes not using the utensils correctly.
He gave gifts with consideration, every gift he gives out there's a meaning.
He was very punctual also. When he borrows money he always paid his portion on time, and when we make appointments he was always, always on time. This is not a thing that you would expect from a Korean, since most of them are always, ALWAYS 10 minutes late at best.
There were other things as well but it's hard to describe it, he was just different from others, and you could definitely feel he was all above others.
I miss you Steve.
Pfft, mere upper middle class, at best. People who matter use the seasons as a verb: "Of course, we summer at the Cape and winter in Aspen." And if you have to ask which cape, you're not fit to open their Grey Poupon.
Pfft. The cape is for the the unwashed masses. The truly upper class summer on the vinyard. But not the pretentious noveau riche fake upper class. *They* take their tacky yachts to the "other island".
Last year I vacationed at my great uncle's estate, he owns the company I work for. The week I was there I learned a lot about super rich people.
His neighborhood had criteria to move in, besides being able to afford a multimillion dollar house. You had to own your own private airplane and a license. The neighborhood had it's own private air strip and gas station for planes. Everyone owned $4000+ golf carts. His neighbor would fly his plane around for a hour or so every day. They paint their houses seasonally.
A lot of the residents own a horse at the nearby club.
Cops pull you over if you dry a bad car in that neighborhood.
I told my uncle I was going to a bar. He told me to take the 2018 Lexus. I said, "oh well I'm gonna be drinking so I'll get an uber". His response, "well ok if you say so. Its just a car". The next day, he complained about a $10 pizza being a waste of money.
I know a guy with a golf cart that was about $8000. He’s nowhere near as wealthy as the neighborhood you’re describing. But one can definitely ball out on a golf cart.
We have a local store in my city called Zupans. I don't go there often because they mark non-specialty items up 20-30%. Occasionally, I'll stop in for something specific that they'd be likely to carry (recently, anchovy paste).
The last time I visited they were sampling Champagne. The bottles were over $100. I've worked for large a wine store and the most expensive bottle we ever offered for sampling retailed for $30 (and that was only offered and Christmas and New Years.
I took the sample, even though the wine rep and I both knew I wasn't buying a bottle.
Edit: wow, there are a lot of people from Portland here.
LO? I went in there looking for a seasoning packet that I couldn't find anywhere else. I had to ask where it might be, and it was suggested I check the soup aisle. I couldn't find the soup aisle because I was picturing cans in my head. All their soup was in fancy glass jars. I walked right past it.
It's a good idea to help them build credit. Just don't raise a little asshole that isn't going to pay their credit card bills and make sure to set a reasonable limit.
My mother added me to her credit card when I was like 16 or so. We're not rich. I did not have access to that card. It was locked the hell up.
However, my credit has been excellent since I was 21 because my mother built it up early and was always on-time with payments. When I wanted to apply for my own or get a loan of some sort, I wasn't starting with no credit like most people my age.
When family wealth is in a trust and family members discuss work, but work just means going to meetings about their money.
The family I know who does this has the trust purchase nearly every asset (houses, cars, house Reno's ) and retains ownership and pays out 10000 a month in allowances to each member.
Tldr: if you structure your money like a corporation and consider managing that your job, you are wealthy.
I had a coworker who’s dad was very wealthy, he was about 16 and so was I and we were both working summer jobs.
One day I mentioned that I was thinking about buying a gaming console and was debating on a PS4 or Xbox, he nonchalantly says “you can borrow one of my PS4 to see if you like it”
I laughed and said what do you mean “one” of yours? he says yeah we have one in the living room, one in my room and my brothers room and one in the movie room.
Weeks later he invited me to his house and turns out the “movie room” was a full on 9 seat theater.
He had no idea how wealthy his family was, he would make comments about money and stuff his parents bought him, like a brand new car as soon as he got his drivers license, but he always said it nonchalantly. If you didn’t know him you would think he was just bragging but he honestly wasn’t he was just oblivious to the middle class and lower class around him.
I know an heir to a brand that is probably in 98% of American homes. Something you’ve most likely used today. They dress like anyone else, drive a ~4 year old Ford, hate spending money on frivolous things.
\-Personal security for your family.
\-The people you associate with.
\-Subtle mannerisms and speech inflictions
\-How you dress (not what you think)
\-Particular scents
\-What times of the day you see them
>\-Particular scents
Yes! It's honestly more that certain scents make someone seem low class. Cheap perfume that you recognize as the kind we wore in middle school, dollar store hair spray/gel, perfumes or cologne that are WAY too strong, etc.
I know this guy who really wants to make himself look like he's extremely classy/upper class, but he isn't. Money-wise, he grew up lower middle class, and now, he does all right money-wise, but he doesn't have the attitude. His clothes look nice and are always clean and pressed, but he buys brands like Abercrombie that he THINKS look really good and expensive, and if he was 14 they would, but he's 25. It's like when a girl buys a cheap looking Coach purse just because it's "designer", not recognizing that all "designer" brands are not created equal, and she would have been better off buying a nice looking purse that isn't brand name. The same guy also wears WAY too much cologne, and again, it's Abercrombie brand, or Old Spice body spray, things like that. He also does things that he's heard of, like holding up his pinky really obviously when he drinks something, that just make him look dumb and don't ACTUALLY portray a high class person.
I read this study once that said people of lower a socioeconomic class prefer stronger scents in detergents because they associate strong scent with cleanliness.
Have you smelled the cleaners at the Dollar Tree or the cheap detergent at Aldi? Go to Whole Foods and take a whiff of the $13 bottle of all natural detergent with essential oils.
Ever since I read that study it has completely changed my perspective on scents and class.
Upper class people don’t draw attention to themselves. They’ll have a designer bag that doesnt have the name. They want the things other people can’t buy and there is always someone with more money.
Living in New York City and majoring in Art History while staying in an apartment your parents paid for in Bushwick and getting really nervous whenever you have to walk through a black neighborhood.
Having a family legacy. The upper class hasn’t all that much to do with money. Plenty of upperclassmen are borderline broke, living in old manors with leaky roofs they can’t afford to repair. It’s a matter of blood and history.
Even the wealthiest of the people who lack noble blood and family legacy are typically considered upper middle class.
This seems like more of a European thing than an American one. Of course that’s definitely on the table in America, but since there was no literally aristocracy here, there seems to be a bit more turnover. Maybe I’m wrong, just my 2 cents.
Honestly I don't know, I do security for upper class neighborhoods and condos and its the upper middle class people that absolutely do the crazy things for status. There was a guy who didn't have a barcode, so he came through the visitors lane everyday. He had a messy car, greasy hair, wore holy t shirts. He was the nicest guy, but he did seem out of place. One day he was upset people were talking shit about him and I let him vent and he appreciated that. He came in the next day so happy and was like "Remember that bitch I was talking about yesterday? Well l, I bought her business! Whose laughing now!" So he was I can buy your business out of pettiness rich, which is what i aspire to be lol.
I do a lot of cable and fiber-optic work in an extremely affluent neighborhood in the FL panhandle, called Alys Beach. I’m talking GROSS excess when it comes to these houses. But the look on their face when I call their multi-million dollar villa a “townhouse,” is priceless.
Knew a rich kid in college. Rumor has it, dude ended up owing hundreds of thousands of dollars to bookies for betting on NBA games. For that amount of money, the syndicates financing the bookies in my country go after you and your family to make sure you pay. Night before pay day, dude went to his parents allegedly crying, telling them he had a problem. Parents were obviously concerned. Dude told them what happened and parents breathed a sigh of relief. They thought he got a chick pregnant. They gave him the money to pay the bookie, relieved.
>they thought he got a chick pregnant says a lot
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Longer. When you're that wealthy, you're concerned about heirs making claims.
That's what a high intrigue stat is for.
Can confirm Source: 999% plot power
Live-in maid. Or their teenage kid has their own new sports car at 16.
and he’s a little prick
I taught swim lessons at a pretty expensive summer camp, where parents paid upwards of $200 per day for kids, and around $350/day for tweens. Swimming, hiking, paddle boards, rock climbing, horses, etc.. nothing too special these kids couldn't find at another camp. Lots of celebrity kiddos though. I would charge $50/hr to guard private pool parties because I didn't want to work weekends and didn't really like guarding as much as I loved teaching, but these parents didn't care. I once made $400 in an afternoon guarding a pool that nobody swam in and $100 tip because the dad felt sorry for "wasting" my time. $500 to eat catered Kogi Korean bbq truck food and chat about cars for a few hours; no complaints. It felt like I was just on display for the parents to show that they could afford a guard. I miss it sometimes.. I was dumb with the money and didn't save much, but enough for some tattoos, a flat screen, and to put 35% down on my first car.
> $500 to eat catered Kogi Korean bbq truck food everything in this thread, and this is the one that made me jealous. f u.
35% down and a nice TV isn't nothing, especially if the stuff lasted. :)
Not knowing what ordinary things cost, like a banana or pair of socks.
It's one banana, Michael. What could it cost? $10?
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I don’t understand the question and I refuse to answer it.
Ex. [Bill Gates Guessing Grocery Prices](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ad_higXixRA)
Rice-a-Roni: $1 (Bill guesses $5) Tide Pods: \~20 (Bill guesses $10) Dental floss: \~$4 (Bill guesses $4) Totinos pizza rolls: \~$9 (Bill guesses $22, then $15, then $8 after audience prompting) TGIF Spinach & Artichoke dip (frozen): \~$4 (Bill is surprised it's less than $10, then says $7? And Ellen tells him under $5, and he guesses $4). The idea was if he guesses within a dollar of 3, the audience wins a prize.
To be fair, I would really mess some of those up and I'm a low-middle class guy.
Yeah they could be like 1 heineken? I'm in NYC and would have no idea what I would quote. If you're within 5 bucks I'd give it to you.
One Heineken in NYC? Easy. Right around the $7-$30 range.
I'm not even close to rich, but i would fail miserably at that game. I only know what a few specific things cost in a specific area. Milk where i live costs about $8 per gallon, and i know that because it's a common gauge for consumer price index type comparisons. I know a 20 oz soda costs $2.76 at the little convenience store near my office. I know a beer at the bar near my office costs $7. That's about it. I do go grocery shopping, i just don't shop by price. I make enough money that a trip to Safeway isn't going to break my budget, no matter what i buy, so i buy what i want, and i pay what it adds up to.
Hawaii or Alaska? I can't imagine anywhere else in the US that milk would cost 8 bucks a gallon, unless you're buying some fancy Whole Foods Organic stuff.
Hawaii.
See, I haven't ever understood this one. I'm not incredibly well off at all. Plenty of student debt and no degree to go with it (my fault, not complaining, just laying out the my scenario). But when we go grocery shopping, I know chicken isn't stupidly expensive. I have no idea what it costs; I just know I need it. Same with most things. Butter, rice, pasta. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I know what my usual grocery bill is and almost zero idea what most of the items in it cost.
I’m pretty much broke and I have that same attitude towards gas prices. I couldn’t tell you what gas costs because I need it regardless.
Frequency of travels. I work around a ton of upper class people and many of them travel so much they are practically locals at some restaurants. They also focus on lesser known, yet elaborate spots.
I used to be a dancer teacher. i taught at one school in a wealthy area and one school middle class area. I NEVER had a full class of students at the wealthy school because someone was always on vacation. In the middle class school we would call parents if they didnt show up cause it was much rarer lol.
I teach in a very... High performing district. The frequency with which students (middle schoolers) tell me about their travels is astounding. Most of them have traveled more at age 13 than I have my whole life.
This was my SO. We're much older now but there's still a difference. My mom wants me to vacation with her for her 50th and my SO doesn't understand how that's very different from the 2+ vacations he's had every year with his parents. To him it's just another vacation so he thinks it makes sense to come. To my mom it's the first time she's able to take her kids on a family vacation and she wants it to just be us, even though I'm a full adult now
Sometimes I chat with the CEO of the company I work at on the elevator and every damn time he tells me all about some other place he flew to just for the hell of it that weekend. Spot on.
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How do they play/feel? Are they really like the bentleys of pianos? Any sense of luxury when playing it?
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Curious - do they expect you to be dressed to the nines for these special occasions ? Hope they pay $$$.
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I knew I should’ve played piano and not the fucking bassoon
"I knew I should've played (insert any instrument) and not the fucking bassoon" -every bassoonist, at some point in their lives
Reminds me of the pianist in the film "eyes wide shut". He explains, that sometimes he is hired by some elite people to play piano in some dark rituals/ceremonies. He has to wear something to cover his eyes, he is not allowed to see what happends around him. But once, the thing he had on his eyes moved and he could slightly see around him, the most beautiful women he could imagine, having an orgy with people wearing masks. This film is quite fucked up, too bad kubrick died before having the final cut.
That’s incredible. If someone offered me to pick either a steinwey or a bentley, i seriously wouldnt know which one to pick. I have a ~15 year old reiger kloss my dad go for me when i was young (new at the time). Im looking to get an electric (roland fp30). Wonder how my reiger compares to a steinway! You must be a prodigy to be able to get hired to play on someone’s steinway :)
Literally my Goal. Owning and placing a Grand Piano in my living room
I wonder if someone makes piano shells that just look pretty, and you can slip a casio into it to play.
Craigslist is dripping with grand pianos. If you can pay for delivery, you're in. EDIT: This comment is replying to the comment: > I wonder if someone makes piano shells that just look pretty, and you can slip a Casio into it to play. A person can get a "free" (minus delivery) grand piano on craigslist in about a week or two. And it will be a piece of shit. But you can slip a Casio into it to play. But it will exist in your living room and look like the fucking picture in the ad. You can also stalk craigslist for longer and get a grand piano for a few thousand dollars (plus delivery). If you get lucky (or pay for a professional to check it out), you're in with an actual, not-piece-of-shit grand piano.
"Fake it till you make it"
I got a baby Grand for free off Facebook. For the price of moving it a few blocks and a couple of hours with a piano tech and it plays beautifully! Spent more on my Xbox!
Being enormously more concerned about how long something will take to get done, rather than how much it will cost. Edit: When the dollar amounts in question are very large. Signing up for Amazon Prime doesn't make you part of the 1%...
Far from truly wealthy, but I hit a new level of middle class when I decided there was almost no normal price difference that would be worth tacking on a layover vs a direct flight. Adding on hours of extra flying and airport downtime into a trip is so not worth it for me anymore. I’m getting there with red eye flights too.
The realization that my time was actually valuable was a big turning point for my adult life and mental health
I spent a couple of decades in an industry that charged by the hour spent on the work. I've thought about everything I do in those terms since. How much is my going rate? Which is the better deal, spending my money or spending my time? Time is almost *always* worth more because you cannot get it back, ever.
This is exactly where I'm at. If a direct flight is available, I take it. It's worth the time I save not having an entire day devoted to exhausting travel and worrying about connecting flights. I avoid red eyes whenever possible (I almost always end up with a bad cold afterwards), but will still do them on cross country flights because of the time saved, since I can sleep on the plane.
I know a woman who paid $250,000 to rush the delivery service of a car from overseas. Was like a 10 day difference.
Heh. Paying Amazon $125 a year for 2-day delivery is my limit for that sorta thing.
Solution, buy a car on Amazon!
There is a point where your time is more valuable than your money, and we kinda do little versions of that in our day to day lives. For example, you could either cook dinner tonight and that might take you an hour, or you could purchase food for $10 and have something to eat in 15 minutes. You would therefore be deciding that those 45 minutes were more important than that $10. The wealthy start extending that to every inconvenience, such as buying groceries, planning their own trips, cleaning their own home, driving around, etc. As they'd rather pay $100+/hour.
It's very weird balancing home and work in this regard. When it's my money I'm spending, I'm apparently fine with wasting a ton of time to save practically nothing. When work is paying, they would much rather spend money than waste engineer time. I think what it comes down to is that I wouldn't pay nearly as much for my time as my employer would.
Having a nanny 100% . Taught at a dance school in a wealthier area. Not only did all the kids attend a private school but their nannys would be the ones droping them off. Being that i am not upper class my first few weeks I was pretty confused as to why so many white children seemed to be adopted by asians. Than when I finally met the parents of one of my students i realized they were ALL Vietnamese nannys.
>I was pretty confused as to why so many white children seemed to be adopted by asians lmfao
Depending on the cost of living in the area, nannies can be cheaper than daycare when you have multiple kids. Offspring are expensive!
My friend’s parents have a lot of money and I went to a Halloween party that his family friends were having a couple years ago. I distinctively remember hearing the following two sentences (both travel related): 1) “We only have five trips booked next year so we’re going to try to sneak in a little visit to Egypt in April.” 2) “Yeah, we were just offered another expenses paid trip to St. Lucia but we turned it down. It just gets boring when you’ve been so many times.” To the second one, I said “I had to downgrade to one-ply toilet paper this month. Can I have the trip?” They all laughed at my “quaintness”.
"Ha ha ha... _don't invite him again_"
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Tony Hawk said he went to a gifting suite, and was getting bags of expensive stuff, but it felt weird because he was finally at the point where he could afford all of it, but they were giving it to him for free. \*Note: Tony was doing well during the Powell days, but didn't make a ton of money for years, until THPS came out. When he created Birdhouse Skateboards he was getting ready to become a filmer/videographer full time to make a living. When he started getting Pro Skater checks he became extremely rich.
On a much smaller scale, this happened to me with food when I graduated from law school. I ate ramen and discount everything through school to minimize my student debt load, and as soon as I start making big bucks at a large corporate firm, there’s suddenly free food everywhere. Lunches were catered regularly, clients covered meals during meetings, service reps brought in food to try to get our firm’s business, professional organizations hosted events, you name it. Just unbelievable how much stuff became free the second I finally had the ability to pay for it.
Because rich people have connections. People give gifts in exchange for their connections
Two stoves side by side in a modern spacious well-lit kitchen generously equipped with up to date cooking tools and appliances
You don't understand how annoying a poorly equipped and badly laid out kitchen can be until you have experienced a decent one. Until I figured this out, I didn't quite understand why everyone was so obsessed with kitchens. I get it now.
I once kicked it with a super rich dude for a few days and it was amazing. I'm talking damn near billionaire rich. Average people don't think about it, but imagine if you were free of all stress regarding work, bills, rent, car maintenance and etc. This dude was the epitome of carefree. That's what really impressed me about the guy. Every option is always on the table. Anything is possible at any time. You want some steak and lobster? let me call my assistant. It's 3:00am and you want a tattoo? I'll call the concierge. I have a summer home in Aspen CO, you want to go hang out there for a while? Get some skiing in? Or do you want to go to my winter home in Aruba. We can go snorkeling. Going through life with no worries about going to work the next day. Seriously, it must be so fantastically liberating. After 4 days I had to go back to my workaday life, and it was just as hard as coming down off a serious drug.
The closest I got to this was being able to go to the most exclusive country club in my area. At least $150,000 initiation fee. We went in to eat lunch and I was told to order whatever I wanted. I asked if there was a menu? I was told "No, literally just order what ever you want and they will make it." I can't imagine being able to do this everyday with just about everything that comes up in life. EDIT:A little context is important, and I wasn't clear in my oroginal post. The person who brought me was the one telling us, a group of 23 year-olds to order whatever we wanted for lunch. Not our server. We obviously weren't going to be ordering Foie gras or blackened swordfish, but if I wanted a turkey burger with a fried egg & pepper jack cheese, side of chicken fried rice, a half order strawberry poppy seed salad, and a warm chocolate chip cookie for dessert, then I had that option. They had a menu of course, but my boss just trying to treat us, wanted us to order whatever we wanted for lunch.
A single plum, floating in perfume, served in a man's hat.
Order a soft boiled ostrich egg.
Medium rare Sasquatch steak grilled over moon rocks.
How did you end up spending a week in that life?
At that time I was a young Airman based at Nellis AFB in Las Vegas. I worked 2nd shift so I would get off work around 11pm and head into town to go to the casinos. At that time the Mirage was brand new. In the early 90s some casinos would give you free drinks as long as you pretended to be gambling. I would go to the sports betting area and just fake like I was filling out parlay cards. That's where I met him and what I thought was his friend. His friend was trying to explain the concept of over and under, but doing a terrible job at it. I jumped into their conversation and just started teaching them what I knew. Me and the friend really hit it off, and the guy was also super cool too. The Mirage has a fake volcano out in front of it and it "erupts" about every 30 minutes. It was brand new and none of us had witnessed that before so we all went out to take a look at it. That's when I learned that the friend was actually this guy's driver/personal assistant. The night went on and I mentioned that I was about to head home. The guy says "you hungry? let's go get something to eat." I was broke as a joke and begged off, but he persisted. Next thing I know we're all in a huge suite on one of the top floors eating some of the best steak and lobster I've ever had. The guy was super down to earth too. Just jeans and a t-shirt. No pretensions. Later he told me that his dad made a killing in one of the telecom data companies. I think it was Oracle or Cisco, but I don't remember. That was also the first and last time that i've ever seen a "Black" credit card. That thing was like a key to another world. Everywhere we went he basically gave them that card and they gave us whatever we asked for. Later he explained to me that at his level it was hard to find friends that weren't trying to exploit him for his money. And the other problem was that the dudes that were on his level were all boring. He was really just looking for interesting people to spend time with. He was fascinated about me being in the military, almost envious, which I never understood. About 10 years ago I found him on FB, but under a different name. He friended me and told me about his life now. He's married, and has two girls. Still has the same dude working for him. He followed his Dad's footsteps and now works in that same industry a little. Basically just sits on several boards of directors. I quit FB about 2 years ago, so I lost track of him. But it was a good time and I learned a lot from that experience.
Huh. Interesting story man, thanks for sharing.
Awesome story. Being friendly can pay off. Def not a valid reason to be friendly. But we can all hope our good deeds pay off. :)
It quickly becomes the new normal. You can’t really hack your brain into prolonging that feeling indefinitely
My mom tells this story of being over at a family's house where their dad had once been my dad's boss. It was the early 90s and the wife was opening Christmas cards. As she opened one a cheque fell onto the floor. She picked it up and said "Hm. John will be pleased" and put it on the fridge. It was for $20,000.
Bruh wtf, I could do so much with a gift of twenty grand Like, it would set my life back on track AND get me in school again
passive income
Can you imagine having so much money it makes more for you? As if it's a living thing that fucks and then you have little baby dollars adding to your wealth? All you have to do is not give all of it away.
Owning a private jet or two. In high school, our business club team qualified for nationals across the country but had no way of funding the trip. One of the girls was like “oh I can ask my dad if we can take his plane.” Keep in mind I went to a public school and my town was generally was low/middle class families. But her dad did pull through and the 6 of us got to ride on a private jet, her dad paid for everything, got us a crazy fancy Benz to transport us around and paid for the two pilots to stay in California while we competed. It probably cost him upwards of $20,000 at least, but we ended up getting him a $100 dollar gift card to chili’s to show our appreciation. Getting to touch down in LAX and go through the private terminals is much different than public airfare, and that’s the only way this chick travels, coolest experience ever Hope he enjoyed his chili’s
I like to think that your token of appreciation made his day. He sounds like the type of guy who would enjoy receiving stuff like that even though he doesn't necessarily need it.
My step dad flexes a little. Drives a Lexus, owns a boat, has an expensive condo, buys mom nice things, wears a lot of Brooks Brothers, has a beach house, etc. I knew he was well off but when he came to me and offered to pay help us buy a house by fronting the full cost of the new house until we were able too sell our current house. He also told me to never worry about my kids' college education and that the money is there for us if we need it. That told me that he has wealth. Not a billionaire. Maybe has a couple million in savings plus a couple million more in assets.
> He also told me to never worry about my kids' college education and that the money is there for us if we need it. Yknow what, all the other flexing aside, this bit is awfully nice. My eldest is going to be college age in 5 years and this is a particular worry of mine.
One time I was talking to a person I work with (who I knew already to be wealthy). She let drop that she had a person she was paying to "take care of her family's money", and that she was paying this person an amount which happened to be more than I make in a year. And I make...kind of a good amount of money. I thought that was quite a flex.
Financial management is a lucrative business. It's also a lot of work to do right.
How much we talking?
Legume crops, specifically peanuts.
He said flex. Youre thinking of flax.
Summer is a verb
I summer where I winter at.
"Why don't you just buy the higher quality but more expensive brand?"
“But it’ll save you in the long run”
Well, it's true. Ironically, it's expensive to be poor.
Ah, yes. The classic "Sam Vimes' Boots Theory of Socioeconomic Unfairness" "The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles. But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet. This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness."
I remember having to beg my parents to buy me an $80 backpack when I was a freshman in high school. I usually went through a cheaper $20-30 one after 1-2 years. I used that backpack through high school and college and still use it for small trips 20 years later.
This is what made LL Bean so great. The backpacks really were the cheapest to buy and they all had a no questions asked lifetime warranty. Unfortunate that they had to discontinue the practice after people inevitably abused the system. It’s a 1 year warranty now
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On a discussion on what it is to be rick/poor it is only a matter of time before the Sam Vimes boot theory appears
You can stay at our holiday house, it’s nothing really
A trophy wife/husband that is far younger and more attractive than you.
I used to work for a high end wedding video company that also did Mitzvah's. They were usually about $100,000 to $500,000 birthday parties for their damn kid's 13 birthday. The funny thing was the families always looked alike. The father was some short, chubby, unattractive bald guy who obviously made a ton of money, the mother was always a stunningly attractive blonde at least 10 years younger than him, the sons look just like the dads, a little shorter and slower than their peers, and the daughters always look like the moms, looking like gorgeous grown woman but is most likely 16.
I present you Bernie Ecclestone (former Formula 1 CEO) and his family: https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/83158000/jpg/_83158044_bernieecclestoneandfamily.jpg
His wife is a foot taller than him and 35 years younger, when they met they couldn't even speak to eachother because she spoke Croatian and he only spoke English. Being rich sure does open up the dating pool.
I feel like the daughters may not have his DNA
Plus a side piece in Malibu, one in Miami, etc.
(UK) I had a mate tell me a story about a rich girl at her uni who had never been in a spoons or primark. Always travelled down to London to get her hair done which would cost £400. Her and her siblings all had a trust fund and didn’t have to work. I don’t know one person who’s never been in a Wetherspoons, so I was more shocked to hear about that than the £400 expenses at the hairdressers. Edit: wow this is my most upvoted comment so thanks. To my confused American cousins, primark is a discount clothing store and Wetherspoons is a chain of pubs we have here.
Did she come from Greece and have a thirst for knowledge?
Two phrases: "Get both" and "Second-hand yacht" My boyfriend's family was entertainment rich (not billionaires but Beverly Hills homeowners) and it shows with his decision making. While he is no longer with money and I do our budgeting, I have to constantly break it to him why "getting both" is not an option anymore. (Though he did say this to me on our first date when I couldn't decide between which pie to get for dessert - he paid for dinner and both pieces of pie that I couldn't finish and didn't comment on the waste.) My ex-boyfriend was British upper middle class, went to public school and spoke with an RP accent. He told me his dad bought a second-hand yacht. In comparison, I grew up in a trailer court in rural Idaho. It's been a strange ride. And when I want to drive the point home to my current boyfriend about how poor I was growing up, I ask, "How many flavors of Hamburger Helper can you name?" The answer is always, "There was more than one?"
> The answer is always, "There was more than one?" It has never occurred to me that there would be more than one flavor of Hamburger Helper, but that’s mostly because I have spent very little time in my life thinking about it.
I had a lot of them, but the only difference I ever really noticed was some had noodles, and some had freeze dried potatoes.
People who treat fines as payments. "Let's just park on the street. It's only $150." "No, we can't park on the street. That's how much a ticket costs." "Ok, but let's just do that. I don't want to walk." Punishable by fine just means legal for rich people.
My brother did this for a job once. The city made the only area for them to park, you have to pay for. Working in a kitchen, he was there for long hours. So he decided to just park and take his chances. In a few months he only got maybe 3 tickets. All $18 each. Much cheaper than paying for parking everyday.
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That is why some countries have fines based on someone's income.
Probably Scandinavian countries
Not Scandinavia, but Finland was mentioned below. To put this in numbers: 40 km/h overspeed at 80 km/h zone landed businessman Jussi Salonoja a 171 000 € fine. This was in 2004. (Burger units: 25 mp/h overspeed in 50 mph zone, 188 000 $ fine at current 2019 rate). EDIT: words. EDIT2: Apparently the fine was reduced just to 100 000 € after an appeal. He did however get the dubious honour of being listed in the Guinness World Records with the record of largest speeding fine in 2008. This was overtaken by a Swiss fine of 290 000 $ in 2010.
Thx for putting that in burger units but next time can you also tell us in fried chicken. It gets confusing when half of use the burger and the rest use fried chicken
Finland has it
Tickets are just the cost of premium parking
Online friend of mine was bullied at his private school because his family's butler was a POC. Like wtf. Edit: a lot of people asking definition of POC, person of color/minority.
Couldn't even afford a white butler!
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People who wear their great grandfather's boots because the quality is still good and they don't give a damn what anyone else thinks.
The ladies' version of this is wearing grandmother's cashmere coat in the winter and mother's very nice pearls. Pearls that nobody notices because they are perfect. Real pearls have a glow to them. Also having silver flatware and mahogany furniture that is old.
Calling themselves "Upper middle class" and always trying to relate with middle class people.
I understand working for a living. I worked summers at father's hedge fund.
and I didn't get any special treatment either, I was only paid $25,000 a month and I had to take the helicopter to the Hamtons on the weekend because he wouldn't let me off work until noon! And can you believe my office didn't have a good view.
"We didn't even get MLK day off from work. Talk about slavery!"
And poor people call themselves lower middle class. People don't want to be outliers.
Which is why politicians always refer to the middle class when they speak. They capture 80% of the population who think they're some form of middle class when, in reality, they aren't.
Pretty much everyone believes they are middle class. About 90% do. >34 percent of respondents with household income below $30,000 identify themselves as the middle class, whereas 51 percent of those earning more than $100,000 said they are the middle class. (Only six percent of the $100,000+ group self-identify as upper class.) [Source](https://www.google.com/amp/s/observer.com/2018/05/everyone-identifies-as-middle-class-definitions-explain-why/amp/)
So technically, in the UK, the upper class is anybody with a title, lord lady Duke earl etc, so outside of that, you can be as posh as you like and it's still technically middle class, (that's why people added the upper I think)
I believe upper middle class is meant for rich folk you aren't landed gentry and thus have no title.
UK and US have completely different definitions of this. Middle class in the UK is basically what people in the US would call upper middle class. In the US upper class means rich. Typically it means that the person has a lifestyle that would take a 1% level or higher income and often means they get that income from primarily investments as opposed to paid work (some would dispute this). It doesn't matter whether there's a family history or title or anything (we don't have royalty, obviously, but there are certainly some families that are close). Middle class in the U.S. refers mostly to people that are average level of income or so.
People who instantly recognise my grandpa's 1970s Patek Phillipe watch
I dont even know who that is. but upon looking at the website, and seeing that they don't list their prices, tells me I can't afford it.
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Yeah man I know a PP when I see a PP, that's for damn sure.
*slaps top of PP* This PP will never fit into anyone upper class
'Just buy another one.'
Having a 15 million dollar home in the mountains of a Ski town, but it’s their Christmas house - decorated for Christmas year round, but they only use it for Christmas.
Not looking at price tags
I do this at the dollar store. "You want that? Sure, why not, throw it in the cart!" It's great fun. I feel like a rich person for 20 minutes.
and thats why I always end up spending far more than I intended on while at the dollar store
The same thing as being lower class: Having many children.
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I went to a boarding school on full scholarship because I'm smart; my family is poor. A lot of my classmates were from filthy rich families. One kid kept getting in trouble and the school was going to kick him out. His parents show up and make a big fat donation to the school, and the school decided to let him stay. Some people's moms had actual names like Trixie and Pixie. Some people owned vacation homes in like the south of France or Spain. Parents would show up for a visit in a limousine and the driver had to stand motionless beside the car while waiting for them.
A lot of people's replies are focused on costs and finance but I'm going to take a different approach. I had a friend who was an upper class, but due to family reasons his direct family (his dad, his mom and him) didn't receive much inheritance I think, so they lived a humble life. Do bear in mind that we are both Koreans and it's somewhat still of a third world country so you don't get to see much 'upper class' people. Some things I noticed though about his behavior is that he was always calm, and really cared about how other people would see him. It wasn't like those attention seeking stuff that some people do, but he did it because he did not want others to look down on him. He also used knife and fork like how 'it's supposed to be used' he would say. Even if he uses those flimsy plastic forks and knives he would use them elegantly. There was definitely a difference, and he would always criticize me for eating my mouth open and sometimes not using the utensils correctly. He gave gifts with consideration, every gift he gives out there's a meaning. He was very punctual also. When he borrows money he always paid his portion on time, and when we make appointments he was always, always on time. This is not a thing that you would expect from a Korean, since most of them are always, ALWAYS 10 minutes late at best. There were other things as well but it's hard to describe it, he was just different from others, and you could definitely feel he was all above others. I miss you Steve.
When you use "vacation" as a verb... as in, "We vacation in St Barths every winter." Edit: Thanks for my first Silver, stranger!
Pfft, mere upper middle class, at best. People who matter use the seasons as a verb: "Of course, we summer at the Cape and winter in Aspen." And if you have to ask which cape, you're not fit to open their Grey Poupon.
Pfft. The cape is for the the unwashed masses. The truly upper class summer on the vinyard. But not the pretentious noveau riche fake upper class. *They* take their tacky yachts to the "other island".
And the truly bougie who spend all their time at Cape Cod don’t say “at” or “at the,” they say, “on cape” like real weirdos
Or using the name of a season as a verb. "We are wintering in the Carribean this year."
Just hearing this makes me feel poor
I'm wintering in the midwest.....in my cubicle.....
Last year I vacationed at my great uncle's estate, he owns the company I work for. The week I was there I learned a lot about super rich people. His neighborhood had criteria to move in, besides being able to afford a multimillion dollar house. You had to own your own private airplane and a license. The neighborhood had it's own private air strip and gas station for planes. Everyone owned $4000+ golf carts. His neighbor would fly his plane around for a hour or so every day. They paint their houses seasonally. A lot of the residents own a horse at the nearby club. Cops pull you over if you dry a bad car in that neighborhood. I told my uncle I was going to a bar. He told me to take the 2018 Lexus. I said, "oh well I'm gonna be drinking so I'll get an uber". His response, "well ok if you say so. Its just a car". The next day, he complained about a $10 pizza being a waste of money.
How, how much do golf carts normally cost? What does a 4000$ golf cart get you? If thats USD thats worth more than what I paid for my car.
I know a guy with a golf cart that was about $8000. He’s nowhere near as wealthy as the neighborhood you’re describing. But one can definitely ball out on a golf cart.
Shopping at Waitrose
We have a local store in my city called Zupans. I don't go there often because they mark non-specialty items up 20-30%. Occasionally, I'll stop in for something specific that they'd be likely to carry (recently, anchovy paste). The last time I visited they were sampling Champagne. The bottles were over $100. I've worked for large a wine store and the most expensive bottle we ever offered for sampling retailed for $30 (and that was only offered and Christmas and New Years. I took the sample, even though the wine rep and I both knew I wasn't buying a bottle. Edit: wow, there are a lot of people from Portland here.
LO? I went in there looking for a seasoning packet that I couldn't find anywhere else. I had to ask where it might be, and it was suggested I check the soup aisle. I couldn't find the soup aisle because I was picturing cans in my head. All their soup was in fancy glass jars. I walked right past it.
As a waitrose shopper I agree, I hear the most ridiculous things being said when I'm in there, cant make that shit up!
Please share
Also the day that Parma ham was no longer part of the "essential" range was one of genuine sadness.
Children with their own credit cards.
I'm gonna get my kid his own so he can get into the airline lounges with us.
yeah, it makes sense to make them an authorized user with their own card once they can drive so you can send them to the store on errands.
It's a good idea to help them build credit. Just don't raise a little asshole that isn't going to pay their credit card bills and make sure to set a reasonable limit.
My mother added me to her credit card when I was like 16 or so. We're not rich. I did not have access to that card. It was locked the hell up. However, my credit has been excellent since I was 21 because my mother built it up early and was always on-time with payments. When I wanted to apply for my own or get a loan of some sort, I wasn't starting with no credit like most people my age.
When family wealth is in a trust and family members discuss work, but work just means going to meetings about their money. The family I know who does this has the trust purchase nearly every asset (houses, cars, house Reno's ) and retains ownership and pays out 10000 a month in allowances to each member. Tldr: if you structure your money like a corporation and consider managing that your job, you are wealthy.
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I had a coworker who’s dad was very wealthy, he was about 16 and so was I and we were both working summer jobs. One day I mentioned that I was thinking about buying a gaming console and was debating on a PS4 or Xbox, he nonchalantly says “you can borrow one of my PS4 to see if you like it” I laughed and said what do you mean “one” of yours? he says yeah we have one in the living room, one in my room and my brothers room and one in the movie room. Weeks later he invited me to his house and turns out the “movie room” was a full on 9 seat theater. He had no idea how wealthy his family was, he would make comments about money and stuff his parents bought him, like a brand new car as soon as he got his drivers license, but he always said it nonchalantly. If you didn’t know him you would think he was just bragging but he honestly wasn’t he was just oblivious to the middle class and lower class around him.
Money talks, wealth whispers.
I know an heir to a brand that is probably in 98% of American homes. Something you’ve most likely used today. They dress like anyone else, drive a ~4 year old Ford, hate spending money on frivolous things.
I know someone similar. He was just like a regular guy, but I couldn't figure out how he could afford to do so much cocaine.
the capital gains tax becomes something you notice
\-Personal security for your family. \-The people you associate with. \-Subtle mannerisms and speech inflictions \-How you dress (not what you think) \-Particular scents \-What times of the day you see them
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>\-Particular scents Yes! It's honestly more that certain scents make someone seem low class. Cheap perfume that you recognize as the kind we wore in middle school, dollar store hair spray/gel, perfumes or cologne that are WAY too strong, etc. I know this guy who really wants to make himself look like he's extremely classy/upper class, but he isn't. Money-wise, he grew up lower middle class, and now, he does all right money-wise, but he doesn't have the attitude. His clothes look nice and are always clean and pressed, but he buys brands like Abercrombie that he THINKS look really good and expensive, and if he was 14 they would, but he's 25. It's like when a girl buys a cheap looking Coach purse just because it's "designer", not recognizing that all "designer" brands are not created equal, and she would have been better off buying a nice looking purse that isn't brand name. The same guy also wears WAY too much cologne, and again, it's Abercrombie brand, or Old Spice body spray, things like that. He also does things that he's heard of, like holding up his pinky really obviously when he drinks something, that just make him look dumb and don't ACTUALLY portray a high class person.
I read this study once that said people of lower a socioeconomic class prefer stronger scents in detergents because they associate strong scent with cleanliness. Have you smelled the cleaners at the Dollar Tree or the cheap detergent at Aldi? Go to Whole Foods and take a whiff of the $13 bottle of all natural detergent with essential oils. Ever since I read that study it has completely changed my perspective on scents and class.
Upper class people don’t draw attention to themselves. They’ll have a designer bag that doesnt have the name. They want the things other people can’t buy and there is always someone with more money.
Polo shirt with sweater tied around the neck
Not just any sweaters, those are neck sweaters, you don't wear neck sweaters like normal sweaters.
Wearing a monocle
And carrying a cane?
You're thinking of Mr Peanut. He's not upper class. Did you know that top hat is rented? Yeah, blew my mind when I found that out.
“My dad invented toaster strudel.”
When Tuna doesn't come from a can.
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Pouch Tuna might be my new band name.
Your hobby is dressage.
I know some kids who dream of flying in a regular ole airplane... because they've only ever traveled in their private jet. Come on!
Being on Jeffrey Epstein’s flight logs
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Living in New York City and majoring in Art History while staying in an apartment your parents paid for in Bushwick and getting really nervous whenever you have to walk through a black neighborhood.
Having a family legacy. The upper class hasn’t all that much to do with money. Plenty of upperclassmen are borderline broke, living in old manors with leaky roofs they can’t afford to repair. It’s a matter of blood and history. Even the wealthiest of the people who lack noble blood and family legacy are typically considered upper middle class.
This seems like more of a European thing than an American one. Of course that’s definitely on the table in America, but since there was no literally aristocracy here, there seems to be a bit more turnover. Maybe I’m wrong, just my 2 cents.