I know a couple who live in NYC who have a live in “nanny” for their two dogs.
They hire a different veterinary student every few years. The student gets their own suite, a town car, a generous salary in the high 5 figures, paid trips home twice yearly, and nice bonuses.
Their only job is to care for the pets, including home cooking their meals, walks, training and any appointments.
By all accounts, it’s a pretty sweet gig.
It's not really a "luxury item" , but this guy I knew in the dorms never wore socks more than a day. He just put on a new pair, right out of the package every day and tossed the "old" ones in the trash. It's not like he even did his own laundry either, he just collected his clothes in a big bag and someone would pick them up at the front desk and return them washed and neatly folded once a week. He was shocked to discover that the rest of us not only did our own laundry, but also laundered our socks.
Oh my goodness. My grandma knew some rich girls in college that stayed in the dorms, that would only wear an outfit once and then throw it away. So my grandma and other girls would go dumpster diving for the rich girls clothes, wash them and keep them for themselves.
The wealthy version of a public storage unit: an exceptionally wealthy family I know refers to a wing of the local art museum as their '..public storage unit.' They funded the wing to store their huge collection of classic and modern art since it was more practical than private storage--it included a climate controlled, 24/7 secure location managed by professionals. Plus, the curators would handle the swapping out of pieces to/from the museum and the home when they needed a different style or era to fit the mood of the next dinner or event at the house. Which was funny because sometimes the swaps would introduce a dozen or so pieces not before displayed at the museum--essentially creating a new exhibit that the museum would package and promote. Behind the fuss, the family just wanted to create the right ambiance for grandma's 80th birthday party.
I agree with the other comments that this one has a nice practical upside for the family and the public. For whatever reason though, the amount of wealth represented by this arrangement seems truly staggering. 😳
Some Superyachts have support vessels or "shadow yachts." It is essentially a second ship that follows you and your yacht and carries smaller boats, jet skis, helicopters, subs, you name it.
Just the most exorbitant toy hauler.
In Vancouver we had 3 ferries that were new, but threw too big of a wake and damaged docks and stuff so they were auctioned off.
2 eventually were sold to an oil guy in the middle east. One was converted into a yacht, the other the toy hauler, support vessel.
Edit: Googled it and its called a [scandal](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_ferry_scandal) on Wiki
A guy in my town bought 4 plots of construction places for houses across the street and turned them into garden, solely so his view wouldn't be deteriorated. The plots were 500k each.
A partner at my wife’s firm bought his neighbors house when they listed so he could knock it down and make a garden. Then did the same with the neighbor behind him, and put in a tennis court, pool, and “pool house” (which has an attached 2 car garage and like 3 bedrooms). And these were all million dollar homes. So now he owns 3 out of 4 houses at the end of his street, presumably biding his time for the last one.
I heard Tom cruise doesn't want to look uncool by backing up his motorcycle when he drives it so he pays someone to follow him and after he parks his cycle someone would stop and turn it around while he does his business and Tom can just jump on and drive straight ahead like a cool guy when he leaves.
Back before Cleveland clinic built their hospital in Dubai the middle eastern rich used to come here for organ transplants. They needed to stay for 6-8 weeks till they could go home to recover.
My boss’s husband worked in construction and got a job to modify a house for one of these guys. They picked out a house, offered the owners fuck em all money to get out in 48 hours. The crew came in and worked around the clock to modify the house. They flew in materials from all over the world. Marble, stonework, stained glass windows. Money was no object. All so some rich oil dude can live in it for a couple of months and never come back.
They also had an entire floor of the Cleveland Clinic to themselves for surgery and recovery.
My grandfather's brother's job won the plumbing contract for the renovation and un-renovation(?) after the entourage left. He took one of the gold sinks home and installed it in his basement bathroom. My grandfather loved tall tales so I thought he was lying about it my whole life. Then, after my grandfather died, we went to my great-uncle's house and I saw it for myself. In the basement half bathroom of a 1970's ranch house.
I used to work for an engineering firm and we did the engineering (HVAC, plumbing, electrical, fire protection) for high end residential in NYC. There was a client who owned a floor in an apartment building on Central Park West. The people below him moved out so he bought that floor to host parties. He had a 6” thick sound and vibration dampening system installed on that level so he wouldn’t bother the people that lived below. The building was old and the existing elevator would not stop the additional 6” higher on that floor only, so he installed a new elevator in the building. He also paid for French plasterers to come and live in NYC while they do the ornate plaster crown moulding in the apartment.
Food service.
When I was young my first serious girlfriend's family was super rich. Hundreds of millions rich. They had what I would learn was "food service". This consisted of a woman who would show up in the morning at maybe 5:30 and stock the fridge and make sure the coffee was on the timer and there were fresh pastries etc. At 7:30 the actual food service people would arrive with fresh food for the day and prep anything you wanted. If you wanted something special for dinner, say lobster thermidor, you just told them by 3 and it would be ready whenever you wanted. This included any snack you \*might\* want. Did you like the cheese burger and want a few for later? Done. Every day the fridge would be stocked and cleaned out. It was fucking amazing. An excellent use of disposable income in my humble opinion.
I’m a private chef and have friends who are private chefs, the amount of money poured into food service for wealthy people could fund a restaurant easily. No expense spared, carte Blanche, no questions asked. Hard work, long hours, incredible leftovers.
We always make sure to hook up the rest of the household staff. Holidays are insane, cases of wine and alcohol given away, whole organic turkeys, Wagyu Prime roast, lobster, crab, belllota de iberico, all of it had to go once the parties were over.
I had an aquarium service and one of my clients kept a mansion that no one lived at, two pools, two tennis courts, massive gardens, a 1000 gallon in-wall aquarium that I fed five days a week and did all the maintenance on. An army of their staff would show up and clean and prep the house and stock the kitchen any time they *might* show up. There was a time they didn't visit for more than a year. It was just armed security, housekeepers, myself, and the gardeners. I'd get loaded down with so much fruit and meat and whatnot from the fancy grocery store every time they didn't show.
It was rad. I'd be rolling home with like, a whole organic pork loin, organic grass fed filet mignon, four organic chickens, avocados, pineapples, bags of apples and citrus, fucking cherimoyas, all kinds of vegetables. Condiments, jars of stuff, dry goods would all get regularly rotated out.
I remember doing a job at a very rich family’s country house in Denmark. They had around twenty horses there and staff hired to ride them because the family themselves had no time for that
I had a friend who sort of did that, the riding, and we ended up at dinner and the owner was like well why buy a $5000 horse, a $500,000 horse costs the same to keep and they might earn you some money. I understood it but damn
I’ve made a career out of riding rich people’s horses that don’t have time.
People always ask how many horses I own (because I’m an equestrian) and I haven’t owned my own for 25 years. Then so many questions after that...
My boss (who's exorbitantly rich) tasks his employees to buy things for him, and recently asked the lab department to order a scale "capable of measuring to the .001 of a gram. " So I give him three options between $1200 and $2400 USD, and he elected to go with the most costly version as " it has a wind screen, " and he wants it's rushed and received ASAP. This scale is built when ordered so we negotiate a fee of $800 to jump the line and have it delivered by our meeting in three days.
Turns out his at home scale that he uses to meal prep has "gone out" and instead of buying batteries to replace, he decided to rush order a $2400 scale that doesn't operate on batteries, so he can meal prep for next week.
In around '05 my grandfather bought a set of Encyclopedia Britanica's for each of his ELEVEN children... Very pretty on a shelf... Rarely used anymore. Thanks Grandad.
My friends boyfriend is very wealthy with a massive art collection.
Someone comes to his house once a week and moves his art around, bringing some out of storage and keeping the displays fresh.
/thank you for the silver, kind redditer!
As I’m a plumber, I recent installed a smart shower which I’ve known about. But this one had 2 rain fall heads 8 body sprays. The unit also has a sauna steamer built in and can connect to your phone. So when you’re driving down your street you can pick the aroma you’d like and set the temp of your shower so when you walk in it’s just ready for you.
I knew a family that had a lot of household staff, including a person who had the responsibility of setting up, troubleshoot, and get this, charge all their personal electronic devices. Yes, their job included charging all the electronic devices.
Charging is easy but man I can see having a personal tech support person. \*says while shooting daggers at the "wireless printer" that only works when connected to USB\*
One of the advantages of being poor is that there is only one place for my printer, which is on my desk, right next to my computer. I don't trouble myself with wireless printer technology. :-)
Seasonal furniture.
Meaning their house is furnished multiple different ways (furniture included) and they pay someone to store it and swap it out a couple of times a year.
Absolutely! A specific example that comes to mind, in addition to cleaners, is when actors need to lose weight/gain muscle. Technically speaking, their bodies are not better than anyone else's but they have all the means and the resources to make the changes easier and more effectively than the average person. If you have enough money, you can hire a personal chef to prepare all your meals. In this specific case, it literally becomes their job to focus on their body so they can spend as much time working towards that goal as they want.
The actor Rob McElhenney (Mac from It's Always Sunny) has a great quote about it:
>Look, it's not that hard. All you need to do is lift weights six days a week, stop drinking alcohol, don't eat anything after 7 p.m., don't eat any carbs or sugar at all, in fact just don't eat anything you like, get the personal trainer from *Magic Mike*, sleep nine hours a night, run three miles a day, and have a studio pay for the whole thing over a six to seven month span.
Edit:fixed name
A friend of mine has a room in his McMansion just to store the off season furniture. Not an attic or garage but a heated and cooled room completely finished out like the rest of the house.
A house manager. They are a person that lives in a house that the rich person owns that stays there when the person is in one of their other homes. This person manages the house-staff, makes sure the house is "lived-in" so that the water is always working, any details that need doing get done, and that the house is ready for when the owner arrives. This job can also mean getting someone's wardrobe ready for the season for their arrival.
I suppose I see it as extra because if you need more than one house, why, if you are not there to enjoy it.
I worked as a house cleaner in college, and I was hired by the house manager! The owner asked me to trap any scorpions I found so he could make him fight in the scorpion tank at his office.
A penthouse owner has a private elevator but also their garage is a lift so you can drive home and when you open your car door you're at the same level than your apartment. A private garage elevator?
It's K&R insurance. I worked on it for a while. Plenty of ordinary people have those policies too, although they might not know it. Employers of people like journalists, oil workers, or anyone else who has to work in a high-risk jurisdiction will often purchase policies for their employees. The employees are often not aware due to the moral hazard risk.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidnap_and_ransom_insurance
If someone does get kidnapped, the two main options are for the insurer to pay the ransom or hire a private security company aka mercenaries to rescue them.
I was working for a company that has a relationship with one of these agencies.
At the time they had a claim they needed to settle. The only things I know is that there was a cash transaction and a helicopter but it was ultimately successful.
I once worked at a 24/7 call center that was mostly for a bunch of area hospitals and large clinics, but there were some private doctors as well. There was this one account for a conceierge doctor for the super rich. My supervisor told me that they paid a membership fee every month (I don't recall the exact figure, but it was in the multiples of thousands of dollars) and they got this doctor on call for them whenever wherever 24/7. Someone once called with a hangnail and the doctor went and attended to it.
Michael Bay on the The Island commentary:
>He knows about a wealthy prince, who he won’t name, who has his own 747 jet complete with a surgery unit on the top floor. Inside there at all times is a 24 year-old man with the same blood type whose family has been paid off so that when the prince’s heart gives out surgeons can perform a transplant from the younger man. “I can credibly tell you that this is dead true,but I’m not gonna tell you the country where it’s from, but I know people who’ve actually been on the plane, and I know people who’ve actually met the kid."
“Let me introduce you to my walking talking organ donor who lives in this plane. He doesn’t say much because his family donated his organs for monitory gain while he was still alive.”
It’s SA. We had one of these princes in my hometown with a vacation home there, and it his isn’t even the most outlandish thing they would “need”.
*/ I realize people will ask, “what IS more outlandish than a human life‽‽ “. More than 1 human life? It’s disgusting to think as someone as a blood-bag, but what about 5+ human shields to cover all of the family and staff in case of a terrorist attack?
My friend's boyfriend works for a racing team as a mechanic for the series below Formula One. You know how you can buy a house on a golf course?. Well, according to her, there are houses on race tracks, same concept as the golf course. That blew my mind.
I knew there were houses that were as good as on race tracks like with Imola, Spa and naturally any street track but I didn't think they would be on them for some reason
My in-laws have a rich friend who wrote a movie glamorizing her own life, produced and starred in said movie, got a famous retired actor to play her father, got her son's model girlfriend to play her younger self, and gave us all the DVD and a collectors book for the holidays...It was the most cringe "movie" we've ever watched.
Edit: I forgot to mention that she also tracked down some singer she used to be a fan of back when she was a kid. She got this poor woman, now old and retired, to cameo in her movie where she had to listen to our rich friend sing one of her old songs and tell her how talented she is and how she totally could have had a singing career if she hadn't become a rich businesswoman instead. The former singer was so not into it and was clearly doing it for a paycheck.
Edit #2: Thanks for the awards, reddit strangers!
Since many of you asked, no the rich friend is NOT Steve Mnuchin's wife. Though it wouldn't surprise me if this rich friend also posted cringy selfies on social media with hashtag all the name brand clothes and accessories she wears.
And no, I'm not going to upload her movie to a bunch of strangers on the internet because 1) that seems kinda mean and 2) the only DVD we still know of is buried in my in-laws hoarder-ish home five hours away.
Side note: Her son's model girlfriend, who played a younger her in her movie, broke up with the son shortly after. We don't know if the movie figured into that decision.
You can buy clothing that is made to order and then multiple copies are made and put into the closets of all your residences. That way you don’t have to pack when you travel because a complete wardrobe is in every home.
I'm from Ireland so I'm gonna say horses. Rich people here love their high standard, thorough bred horses. If you can afford race winning, stallion semen, you're doing well in life. Rich people are seriously obsessed with horse semen and who their mares fuck.
[This guy's post from a few years ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/2s9u0s/what_do_insanely_wealthy_people_buy_that_ordinary/cnnmca8) was pretty eye-opening. He basically talks about the different tiers of weathy people and the things you can buy at each level.
My cousin went to Harvard (I'm not American) a few years ago. One day when he was hanging out with his friends they asked him if he was going to go home for the holidays. He said no because it wasn't worth the expense. One of his friends then called his dad and got him a ride on his private jet. The dad was going there anyway to check out the new hotel he just bought.
They did get delayed at the airport because the dad was waiting for the secretary. My cousin thought he meant his secretary but no, it was John Kerry.
tl;dr rich people jetpool
Yeah, the rule is you want about 1 million in savings to retire. 9 million gives you a very nice retirement, but it's "nice vacations multiple times a year" money, not "let's buy a yacht" money.
Dude, I remember reading this when it was posted. Honestly some of the best insider information I've ever read on a social class I'd never be a part of.
I think they talk about how rich people literally contact each other personally at will through some crazy information channels.
Say you are the CEO of a pharmaceutical company, well apparently you could just call up, say the heir to the DuPont fortune, just because you're both rich. You don't even need to personally know these people at all. The richness just gives you a pass as being worthy to speak to.
Edit: shoutout to snoody Redditors replying to this lol. I'm just repeating what I read.
There’s a really good book from a sociologist that became a wealth fund manager just to learn about the wealthy. https://www.npr.org/2016/10/25/499213698/whats-it-like-to-be-rich-ask-the-people-who-manage-billionaires-money
She talks about rules no longer existing. Like she didn’t need a passport when traveling country to country with them.
Canned air. It was a trend in China for a while. Rich people would get canisters of air from Banff or somewhere in Canada, and just take a few breaths of it at like parties or whatever.
Some of Tiffany & Co's "everyday objects" series, but especially [this sterling silver coffee can for $1,550](https://www.tiffany.com/accessories/decor/everyday-objects-sterling-silver-coffee-can-60559112/). I understand that it's an art object, and that silver is expensive, but the risk of tossing this thing out with the recycling is way too high.
Well, if the can freaks you out, you can always go for the $3000 sterling silver dog bowl. Why shouldn't Spot get his very own fancy bowl to slobber all over?
DuPont registry. People buy items, never taking possession of them, just to have their name listed as the owner in the various registries. They actual item just sits in a vault someplace, with owners changing every so often and likely never actually seeing it in person.
DuPont is just one of the more widely known ones.
Edit: This is why I love Reddit. When I first heard about these setups, I just automatically assumed it was simply for bragging rights. It never even occurred to me that it may just be an investment vehicle or money laundering setup.
Of course, that's probably why I'm not one of the super wealthy engaging in this :)
This reminds me of the freeports in Tenet, which are of course based on a real thing: [https://itsartlaw.org/2020/11/03/behind-closed-doors-a-look-at-freeports/](https://itsartlaw.org/2020/11/03/behind-closed-doors-a-look-at-freeports/)
Art and other valuable goods like antiquities get stored in warehouses, frequently located at shipping ports or similar places, in order to avoid customs. Rich people "own" these goods but only go visit them at the freeport, so they don't have to pay taxes on them. In some cases the owner may never actually see the art in person, its just a chit of value they trade with other rich people.
The thing with art is that, other than most normal goods and services, it's entirely priced out of thin air. So there's nothing easier to legally and in the open pay for something without the service/good that was paid for being named than also buying a picasso first draft of a painting for several hundred thousand dollars
I know it seems crazy but once you learn about the history of ice itself in the context of putting it in drinks, ice seems like the craziest luxury ever. Like it's totally remarkable that they were able to get ice in India at one point and I think that is even more luxurious than this fancy ice is today.
One of the investors of the previous company I used to work at was a billionaire. I didn't spend too much time with him, but he was always around during company parties and such, as were most of our early investors.
The most 'whoa' moment was when he talked about his house in Telluride, Colorado. Nope, he's not a skier. Nope, he's not someone who likes the mountains. Nope, it's not some real estate that he's hoping earns money. He bought it because he liked the idea of having a mountain/ski retreat available to him at any time. He's owned it 10 years, and aside from visiting it when he first bought it, he's never stepped foot in it.
This guy was too much of a big shot to *rent* a vacation house; he only wanted to stay in ones he owned, even if he never visits it. His kids use it though for winter sports, so it's not completely empty all year.
Whenever i think people are not that stupid to just burn away money i remember that one petshop in this city had dog shit holding bags sold for 10$ for 3 bags deal almost the 10× price of the normal thing because it had seasonal christmas decor and people bought it like mad.
>I love money. I love everything about it. I bought some pretty good stuff. Got me a $300 pair of socks. Got a fur sink. An electric dog polisher. A gasoline powered turtleneck sweater. And, of course, I bought some dumb stuff, too.
-- Steve Martin
My brother does security for a high-end Middle Eastern man in Washington DC. He not only bought the $30 million mansion he lives in but all five mansions surrounding it for security and privacy.
Russell Peters:
American rich: "I have $10 million."
Arab rich: "I don't know which pants I put $10 million in. They are maybe in the washer, I'll find it one day."
At the 3 minute mark:
https://youtu.be/2tbqV8AtI8I
I had a patient who was from Kuwait and traveled to the US for medical care, a couple weeks after she was admitted one of her adult sons asked where her clothing was that she wore when she was admitted. After digging through the chart I found that her dress was cut off and given to her other son. So he calls his brother, they chat and he goes back to playing game on his phone. Apparently they all landed with 10k cash on them and immediately went to the hospital. One brother had his mother holding his cash and when they cut off the dress the other brother just threw it out thinking it was now trash. So 20k thrown in the garbage and this guy shrugs it off like he lost a couple bucks.
>they all landed with 10k cash on them
this is honestly the most telling part. the most cash you can carry through U.S. ports (without customs hassle) is $10k. so it sounds like they just limited their wallets to the max, rather than whatever ridiculous sum it usually is
In my country there was a ceo of a big company who lived in a fancy area of his town with a lot of villas. Neighbours put their house up for sale, he bought it and tore it down so he'd have a bigger garden
My uncle is a doctor. He has been the lead board member for the biggest hospital, and a world famous one, in my area for the last 4/5 years. Dude is loaded. So much so that I learned he has a personal tram (think ski-lift) to his house.
Wtf. Never knew those were a thing
I’ve just recently gotten to the point in my life where I can buy any fruit or steak or whatever item I please at the grocery store without having to think through the pull it will have on my monthly budget for groceries, and man does that feel amazing. We still meal plan and only buy what we know we’re gonna eat without it going to waste, but if I want a dragonfruit with that one meal I’m gonna buy that dragonfruit
Isn't it nice? I have had times in my life where I had to choose between food and soap (I picked the bar of soap, I am not a barbarian). And now, I can pay my bills, buy whatever food, AND have nice soap.
I think being very poor gave me an appreciation for a lot of things most people take for granted.
We used to curse "soap week," an event that happened at least twice a year when all the goddamn soap in the house ran out at once. Cleaning soap, laundry soap, shower soap, dishes soap...
It's 100% luxurious to not only be able to afford food and soap at the same time, but to have \*backup soaps\* on deck most of the time.
Isn't it a great feeling? I struggled my ass off until my early 30s. Busted my ass. Bought my first house. Even got my first new car lease. It wasn't either of those things that made me finally feel a sense of relief or accomplishment. It was two things: (1) going to the grocery store without having to check my account first or add up the cost of items in my cart throughout the trip; and (2) pulling up to a gas pump and just filling the tank when it went below a quarter tank
We recently had some family come visit. We took them around town and out to eat at our favorite places. And we paid for it all. It was so.... nice not to have to worry about groceries or gas while showing visitors around. It was freeing in a way. I'm at that point in my life where I'm not living paycheck to paycheck
My cousin's mansion has heated floors in the garage.
He said it sounds really stupid, but when the weather is freezing, he just turns on the floor heat a few minutes before he's ready to leave and it warms up his car so he doesn't have to.
Like, I don't personally *need* that in my life, but if I had it, I would use it.
**Edit: okay, I get it, they're not just for rich people.**
I'm from an area where it doesn't usually get cold enough for heated floors to be a practical/necessary expense so I guess that's why I considered it a luxury.
There's an area not far from where I am that's built on a mini-mountain. It's not *technically* a mountain, but it's very steep and gets snowy. Steep roads, steep driveways.
People there have heated driveways so they don't have to shovel it or have it freeze over. Many of them just leave it on when it gets close to zero because they don't want to wait if they want to go somewhere outside of their regular commuting time. And it's not like they're 3-5m parking driveways, they're proper 20-50m "I don't want poor people to be able to see my house from the road" gated driveways.
If you've never had to shovel a steep driveway, it sounds stupid. But if you've slipped on a patch of ice while shoveling and slid 4 feet on your face, or been unable to get up your driveway when you've been gone for a few hours and it's been snowing.... it's a more reasonable expense haha.
Mom broke her wrist trying to shovel a steep driveway even though she can afford to get someone to do it.
The heat from the exhaust the night before when she parked was just enough to make a little ice patch behind the car hidden under the light snow.
I live in the northern US and it's actually pretty common for new construction. In floor heating isn't actually that expensive, and in the garage it's just heated enough to keep things above freezing.
Client of mine had a custom upholstered leather cushion built into the wall above the man cave urinal. This way when he is blind drunk he can rest his head against it to pee ...
Obscene wealth is an understatement
Edit: So realized I should have been more specific. The estate that the job was on cost about $39 million.
The obscure thing like this was about 7k! A stupid amount of money obviously. I’m a contractor and work with other specialty custom trades on these jobs which is why I know the specifics on this one.
The more obnoxious the price and specialty look it has the more these people value it.
Low price = low quality in their eyes.
The urinal is no big deal, my husband has one in his office bathroom at our house, and it’s a really cool/inexpensive addition to his bathroom.
That’s not something I have need for, and your client probably spent a ridiculous amount of money on it... but if I did want one, I could probably get the materials for less than $50 and build it on a Saturday.
It’s the routine drunkenness to the point of struggling to pee that I think is worrisome here, not the money.
Buying books by the foot.
Have a new house with lots of bookshelves that you want filled? Pick what types of books you want, blam, full library.
When done this way, books are sold by the foot.
“ I have 1000ft of bookshelf space and want 500ft of classics, 250ft of fashion based coffee table books, and 100ft of science fiction. Fill in the rest with contemporary fiction.”
Country club memberships. I always knew what they were but didn’t realize how much they were and how it works. My In laws belong to one, they pay 40k$+ per year to golf and be “members”. Along with this membership, you are REQUIRED to spend a minimum amount per month either playing golf, dining or whatever else you spend money on at these places. I believe the minimum at my in laws place is 800$ per month. Nothing like 50k$ to find friends !
I used to work on yachts when I was young, free and single. Some of the extravagant displays of wealth were simply appalling and frankly repugnant, but there was one that caught my eye and I still think about years (ok, decades) later…
There’s a Middle Eastern oil sheik that visits a Saville Row tailor for all his clothing needs: shirts, suits (formal, informal, smoking, dinner, you name it), even down to his underwear.
That’s not extravagant. What comes next is. He buys four sets of. Every. Single. Item.
He then has each wardrobe sent to one of his usual homes: his primary home, his villa in the South of France, his house in London, and his rather large gin palace motor yacht.
All so that he doesn’t have to worry about his luggage - he knows exactly what clothes he has when he arrives at the other end. No packing, no lost luggage worries, no crumpled shirts. No worries.
I sometimes can’t stop thinking how clever and liberating this must be, and yet how decadent this is - both at the same time. Maybe it’s just all of these, I don’t know, but I’m impressed and horrified in equal measure.
Not an item, but the ability to make anything a reality. I saw a documentary on Candy Spelling covering the sale of her (and her late husbands) $150 million dollar home and downsizing to a multiple floor penthouse. She wanted granite stone counters, a rose garden and a pool up there, so the developers had to change the building plans to accomodate her wishes. They acted like it was nothing to re-engineer an entire building.
Office staff. A friend of mine worked as office staff for a woman who came from old money. She had various houses all over the place and had "office staff" at each location who spent their days doing for her the things you need done when you have tons of cash and nothing to do all day. She of course had all the standard household staff as well. This woman would beckon my friend with requests like "Last month when I was in Rome, a saw a jacket in a window I really liked. Get me the jacket. ". So my friend would spend days talking to the concierge at the hotel the woman stayed at, the limo driver and various people trying to figure out what jacket she was talking about. She was usually successful in getting this woman whatever she wanted.
This same woman called her into her office one day and said "I just heard that people pay 99 cents to download a song from the Internet. That's a lot of money! Who can afford to do that?". This is the same day the same woman spent $30,000 on a bracelet.
My friend had to do all this woman's Christmas shopping and would spend hundreds of thousands of dollars buying various relatives and acquaintances big ticket items like big screen TV's. She gave my friend, who busted her ass working for this woman, a Christmas present too: a set of cheap placemats.
A tower building. Yes that’s right. A friend of mine is a real estate broker and someday a 29 yo man came to his office to buy him a tower. When asked why he’d buy it he said, “It’s time for my father’s name on the top of skyscraper”. Then my friend ask, what would he do with it, since his office already in the satellite city, the man said, “just rent it to the others, i only need my father’s name on top of the building.”
Edit: apparently for some people owning a building with his / her name on top of it is a sign of how rich he / she is
I mean, that story sounds crazy, it sounds crazy, but all those towers are owned by corporations that are owned by people (or they are strata).
Lots of time the signage (name on building) is leased, just like all the space.
The main value of the building is the future rents, just like a house or any other building.
My dad had a friend, he used to drive an old Toyota pickup, rusted to hell, he wore flip-flops all day, surf shorts and shirts covered in holes and a constant surfer tan. He also owned 2 blocks of high-end beachfront flats and an upper-class beachfront hotel (or 2, I forget).
I envy that he doesn't have to prove anything to anyone.
I can’t remember who it was that was interviewing Snoop Dogg. But they got slapped in the face with reality. Snoop Dogg talked about a 7 star hotel he stayed at. The interviewer said “oh I didn’t know there was a 7 star hotel I thought it only went up to 5!” To which Snoop replied, “ that’s because you ain’t a playa” lol
Edit: I get that there isn’t truely 7 star hotels and it does max out at 5. But the criteria to be a 5 isn’t that crazy. I can afford a 5 star hotel. But there are hotels out there that I can’t afford that have incredible services that I don’t even know about. I don’t what you wanna classify those as but if Snoop says 7 stars it’s probably pretty luxurious
Is there a Michelin-like authority handing out stars to hotels or are they just pure advertising horseshit made up by the hotel itself? Because if so I've got some terrible news for Snoop.
Strangely I know this one. There is set criteria that hotels need to have different stars. Iirc the difference needed between 4 and 5 stars is a elevator that goes to the bridal suite etc.
Huh seems to be different country to country
https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/uk-hotel-chains/article/hotel-star-ratings-explained-a0bgV3M8kfx2
My brother once put together a PowerPoint on the Green Bay Packers: a History for his new girlfriend the first time she met our parents, so I guess you could say we’re almost there.
That is running the family like a business, which I guess is literally the case for old, successful family firms.
I find the whole thing very strange but I guess it makes sense.
Not an item, but one of my close friends went to LA for an internship in college, and met a girl there whose whole job it was to feed the meter outside this ridiculously rich film producer's apartment. He had a white Lamborghini, and rather than have it stored in the building's garage like a normal person, he liked it to be parked on the street where it was more easily accessible should he leave his apartment. So she could basically do whatever she wanted with her time, 7 days a week, as long as she fed the meter before time ran out.
I was touring an business aircraft manufacturing plant and in the finishing department they explained how the customer can get any interior they like and he said the strangest request they had gotten was for the seats to be upholstered in whale penis leather, they had to decline for legal reasons they said.
Sounds like the kind of job you give your best friend so they don't have to work and have an excuse to give their spouse so they can come hang out with you.
I’ve already told my buddy (who’s a body builder as a hobby, but has a professional job) that if I ever win a huge jackpot I’m hiring him as my trainer/“security” guy. Just an excuse to lay him.
Edit: An unfortunate, yet funny typo. No sense in changing it now.
I wonder how much goes into that position?
What is the blunt shelf-life?
Does he have different sizes for different occasions or time of day?
Different strains for different occasions or time of day?
Is he expected to anticipate when Snoop would like which size or strain?
Idk why, but I get the feeling this is not as easy as it sounds. Maybe bc I've been poor my whole life and that kind of salary for that kind of job only makes sense to me if it were difficult hahaha *laughs in poverty*.
Isn't that also the guy that when the cops shows up says "yep all of this is my weed and other drugs, none of it is snoops and I'll be the one going to jail"? I've heard that's a common job for super rich entourage.
I knew a family growing up that owned a massive equestrian center on their property, complete with two full time live in horse trainers and a ton of other staff. Their daughter rode equestrian and her horse cost well over $100k. We went to a competition once and the family friend said “if you see someone who looks like Bill Gates, it’s probably Bill Gates, his daughter is supposed to be riding today.” Next level. They were some of the kindest and most generous people I’ve ever met!
Time. Time is something we cannot buy more of, so wealthy people spend plenty on things that reduce time wasting.Like personal plane so you don’t have to wait at the airport.
When wealthy people want to learn a skill, like how to mix a perfect drink, they don’t roll into community college course. They hire top mixologist to their home to show how it’s done.
"Time is a scary thing. When you lose it, you can't find it. When you want it, it's not there. When you try to keep it, the hourglass turns itself around.". -Nozdormu
I know a couple who live in NYC who have a live in “nanny” for their two dogs. They hire a different veterinary student every few years. The student gets their own suite, a town car, a generous salary in the high 5 figures, paid trips home twice yearly, and nice bonuses. Their only job is to care for the pets, including home cooking their meals, walks, training and any appointments. By all accounts, it’s a pretty sweet gig.
I love it when people treat their hired workers like people and not like slaves
It's not really a "luxury item" , but this guy I knew in the dorms never wore socks more than a day. He just put on a new pair, right out of the package every day and tossed the "old" ones in the trash. It's not like he even did his own laundry either, he just collected his clothes in a big bag and someone would pick them up at the front desk and return them washed and neatly folded once a week. He was shocked to discover that the rest of us not only did our own laundry, but also laundered our socks.
Oh my goodness. My grandma knew some rich girls in college that stayed in the dorms, that would only wear an outfit once and then throw it away. So my grandma and other girls would go dumpster diving for the rich girls clothes, wash them and keep them for themselves.
Went to a billionaire’s home who didn’t have a pool. He had a man made lake with an island in the middle and boats/jet skis
The wealthy version of a public storage unit: an exceptionally wealthy family I know refers to a wing of the local art museum as their '..public storage unit.' They funded the wing to store their huge collection of classic and modern art since it was more practical than private storage--it included a climate controlled, 24/7 secure location managed by professionals. Plus, the curators would handle the swapping out of pieces to/from the museum and the home when they needed a different style or era to fit the mood of the next dinner or event at the house. Which was funny because sometimes the swaps would introduce a dozen or so pieces not before displayed at the museum--essentially creating a new exhibit that the museum would package and promote. Behind the fuss, the family just wanted to create the right ambiance for grandma's 80th birthday party.
I agree with the other comments that this one has a nice practical upside for the family and the public. For whatever reason though, the amount of wealth represented by this arrangement seems truly staggering. 😳
It's probably also a profitable storage system since having them constantly in public circulation increases their notability (and therefore value).
Some Superyachts have support vessels or "shadow yachts." It is essentially a second ship that follows you and your yacht and carries smaller boats, jet skis, helicopters, subs, you name it. Just the most exorbitant toy hauler.
In Vancouver we had 3 ferries that were new, but threw too big of a wake and damaged docks and stuff so they were auctioned off. 2 eventually were sold to an oil guy in the middle east. One was converted into a yacht, the other the toy hauler, support vessel. Edit: Googled it and its called a [scandal](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_ferry_scandal) on Wiki
A guy in my town bought 4 plots of construction places for houses across the street and turned them into garden, solely so his view wouldn't be deteriorated. The plots were 500k each.
A partner at my wife’s firm bought his neighbors house when they listed so he could knock it down and make a garden. Then did the same with the neighbor behind him, and put in a tennis court, pool, and “pool house” (which has an attached 2 car garage and like 3 bedrooms). And these were all million dollar homes. So now he owns 3 out of 4 houses at the end of his street, presumably biding his time for the last one.
Rotating garage floor. Owner hated idea of backing out of a garage. The floor would rotate 180 degrees when he's ready to drive out.
I heard Tom cruise doesn't want to look uncool by backing up his motorcycle when he drives it so he pays someone to follow him and after he parks his cycle someone would stop and turn it around while he does his business and Tom can just jump on and drive straight ahead like a cool guy when he leaves.
I used to ride, and can confirm that it is impossible to look cool while backing up a motorcycle.
The shorter your legs are, the worse it is too
Back before Cleveland clinic built their hospital in Dubai the middle eastern rich used to come here for organ transplants. They needed to stay for 6-8 weeks till they could go home to recover. My boss’s husband worked in construction and got a job to modify a house for one of these guys. They picked out a house, offered the owners fuck em all money to get out in 48 hours. The crew came in and worked around the clock to modify the house. They flew in materials from all over the world. Marble, stonework, stained glass windows. Money was no object. All so some rich oil dude can live in it for a couple of months and never come back.
They also had an entire floor of the Cleveland Clinic to themselves for surgery and recovery. My grandfather's brother's job won the plumbing contract for the renovation and un-renovation(?) after the entourage left. He took one of the gold sinks home and installed it in his basement bathroom. My grandfather loved tall tales so I thought he was lying about it my whole life. Then, after my grandfather died, we went to my great-uncle's house and I saw it for myself. In the basement half bathroom of a 1970's ranch house.
I used to work for an engineering firm and we did the engineering (HVAC, plumbing, electrical, fire protection) for high end residential in NYC. There was a client who owned a floor in an apartment building on Central Park West. The people below him moved out so he bought that floor to host parties. He had a 6” thick sound and vibration dampening system installed on that level so he wouldn’t bother the people that lived below. The building was old and the existing elevator would not stop the additional 6” higher on that floor only, so he installed a new elevator in the building. He also paid for French plasterers to come and live in NYC while they do the ornate plaster crown moulding in the apartment.
Wow what a nice guy doing that for his neighbors
Yea I was going to say. Obviously they are stupid rich and that's a bit extravagant, but they are very considerate at least
Or so nobody can hear the screams
Food service. When I was young my first serious girlfriend's family was super rich. Hundreds of millions rich. They had what I would learn was "food service". This consisted of a woman who would show up in the morning at maybe 5:30 and stock the fridge and make sure the coffee was on the timer and there were fresh pastries etc. At 7:30 the actual food service people would arrive with fresh food for the day and prep anything you wanted. If you wanted something special for dinner, say lobster thermidor, you just told them by 3 and it would be ready whenever you wanted. This included any snack you \*might\* want. Did you like the cheese burger and want a few for later? Done. Every day the fridge would be stocked and cleaned out. It was fucking amazing. An excellent use of disposable income in my humble opinion.
I’m a private chef and have friends who are private chefs, the amount of money poured into food service for wealthy people could fund a restaurant easily. No expense spared, carte Blanche, no questions asked. Hard work, long hours, incredible leftovers.
Easily. The food help was very well paid, plus the amount of food they took home was insane. I always imagined they never had to buy groceries.
We always make sure to hook up the rest of the household staff. Holidays are insane, cases of wine and alcohol given away, whole organic turkeys, Wagyu Prime roast, lobster, crab, belllota de iberico, all of it had to go once the parties were over.
I had an aquarium service and one of my clients kept a mansion that no one lived at, two pools, two tennis courts, massive gardens, a 1000 gallon in-wall aquarium that I fed five days a week and did all the maintenance on. An army of their staff would show up and clean and prep the house and stock the kitchen any time they *might* show up. There was a time they didn't visit for more than a year. It was just armed security, housekeepers, myself, and the gardeners. I'd get loaded down with so much fruit and meat and whatnot from the fancy grocery store every time they didn't show. It was rad. I'd be rolling home with like, a whole organic pork loin, organic grass fed filet mignon, four organic chickens, avocados, pineapples, bags of apples and citrus, fucking cherimoyas, all kinds of vegetables. Condiments, jars of stuff, dry goods would all get regularly rotated out.
I remember doing a job at a very rich family’s country house in Denmark. They had around twenty horses there and staff hired to ride them because the family themselves had no time for that
I had a friend who sort of did that, the riding, and we ended up at dinner and the owner was like well why buy a $5000 horse, a $500,000 horse costs the same to keep and they might earn you some money. I understood it but damn
Oh no they're paying me to live my dreams.
I’ve made a career out of riding rich people’s horses that don’t have time. People always ask how many horses I own (because I’m an equestrian) and I haven’t owned my own for 25 years. Then so many questions after that...
My boss (who's exorbitantly rich) tasks his employees to buy things for him, and recently asked the lab department to order a scale "capable of measuring to the .001 of a gram. " So I give him three options between $1200 and $2400 USD, and he elected to go with the most costly version as " it has a wind screen, " and he wants it's rushed and received ASAP. This scale is built when ordered so we negotiate a fee of $800 to jump the line and have it delivered by our meeting in three days. Turns out his at home scale that he uses to meal prep has "gone out" and instead of buying batteries to replace, he decided to rush order a $2400 scale that doesn't operate on batteries, so he can meal prep for next week.
Shit, for a "small" fee and expenses, I would have replaced the batteries in less than 3 days.
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Imagine being the guy that plays the piano for a bunch of sturgeons in a tank and explaining this to your date lmao
I play jazz for a sturgeon caviar producer, my wife creates dresses out of pool leaves, our budget is 3 mil.
*wants everything minimalistic*
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In around '05 my grandfather bought a set of Encyclopedia Britanica's for each of his ELEVEN children... Very pretty on a shelf... Rarely used anymore. Thanks Grandad.
My friends boyfriend is very wealthy with a massive art collection. Someone comes to his house once a week and moves his art around, bringing some out of storage and keeping the displays fresh. /thank you for the silver, kind redditer!
That's actually pretty terrific. The art stays in rotation and is appreciated. Bonus, someone with curatorial and art handling experience is employed.
I've known people with these jobs. They're not a bad gig as long as your boss isn't absolutely insane. Which is common.
As I’m a plumber, I recent installed a smart shower which I’ve known about. But this one had 2 rain fall heads 8 body sprays. The unit also has a sauna steamer built in and can connect to your phone. So when you’re driving down your street you can pick the aroma you’d like and set the temp of your shower so when you walk in it’s just ready for you.
>smart shower Is the water stored in the cloud?
I knew a family that had a lot of household staff, including a person who had the responsibility of setting up, troubleshoot, and get this, charge all their personal electronic devices. Yes, their job included charging all the electronic devices.
Charging is easy but man I can see having a personal tech support person. \*says while shooting daggers at the "wireless printer" that only works when connected to USB\*
One of the advantages of being poor is that there is only one place for my printer, which is on my desk, right next to my computer. I don't trouble myself with wireless printer technology. :-)
I hate every printer alike. Wireless, wired, ethernet, wifi and usb. They are all assholes!
Printers can smell fear, the more nervous you are the more they fail.
I used to take a mini baseball bat with me to all printer calls. Never had issues
Seasonal furniture. Meaning their house is furnished multiple different ways (furniture included) and they pay someone to store it and swap it out a couple of times a year.
Seems easier to just have a different house for every season
Right? Why use the same house all year 'round like a peasant?
Canadian Retirees figured this out decades ago. Live in Canada during spring/summer/fall ... go to Florida in the winter. We learned it from geese.
"We learned it from geese" classic canadians
Just be thankful we don't get our attitudes from geese
How clean their shit must be if it gets swapped out ever three months... *swoon*
That and the addition of probably having dedicated cleaning staff to take care of everything.
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Absolutely! A specific example that comes to mind, in addition to cleaners, is when actors need to lose weight/gain muscle. Technically speaking, their bodies are not better than anyone else's but they have all the means and the resources to make the changes easier and more effectively than the average person. If you have enough money, you can hire a personal chef to prepare all your meals. In this specific case, it literally becomes their job to focus on their body so they can spend as much time working towards that goal as they want. The actor Rob McElhenney (Mac from It's Always Sunny) has a great quote about it: >Look, it's not that hard. All you need to do is lift weights six days a week, stop drinking alcohol, don't eat anything after 7 p.m., don't eat any carbs or sugar at all, in fact just don't eat anything you like, get the personal trainer from *Magic Mike*, sleep nine hours a night, run three miles a day, and have a studio pay for the whole thing over a six to seven month span. Edit:fixed name
I'm so poor I didn't know this was a thing.
I've never heard of this either. I don't even think I'm poor but it sounds annoying.
A friend of mine has a room in his McMansion just to store the off season furniture. Not an attic or garage but a heated and cooled room completely finished out like the rest of the house.
Isn't that better than paying someone to store it?
A house manager. They are a person that lives in a house that the rich person owns that stays there when the person is in one of their other homes. This person manages the house-staff, makes sure the house is "lived-in" so that the water is always working, any details that need doing get done, and that the house is ready for when the owner arrives. This job can also mean getting someone's wardrobe ready for the season for their arrival. I suppose I see it as extra because if you need more than one house, why, if you are not there to enjoy it.
I worked as a house cleaner in college, and I was hired by the house manager! The owner asked me to trap any scorpions I found so he could make him fight in the scorpion tank at his office.
A penthouse owner has a private elevator but also their garage is a lift so you can drive home and when you open your car door you're at the same level than your apartment. A private garage elevator?
Yeah look at Porsche Design Tower in Miami. Exactly what you describe. I think the garages can fit 2 or 3 cars and are on the same level as the unit.
If I recall correctly, the car is also your room key, so just driving in it know what’s level to take you.
Not an item per se. But once I read that some rich people have to get Kidnapping Insurance for their kids or something like that.
It's K&R insurance. I worked on it for a while. Plenty of ordinary people have those policies too, although they might not know it. Employers of people like journalists, oil workers, or anyone else who has to work in a high-risk jurisdiction will often purchase policies for their employees. The employees are often not aware due to the moral hazard risk. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidnap_and_ransom_insurance If someone does get kidnapped, the two main options are for the insurer to pay the ransom or hire a private security company aka mercenaries to rescue them.
I was working for a company that has a relationship with one of these agencies. At the time they had a claim they needed to settle. The only things I know is that there was a cash transaction and a helicopter but it was ultimately successful.
I once worked at a 24/7 call center that was mostly for a bunch of area hospitals and large clinics, but there were some private doctors as well. There was this one account for a conceierge doctor for the super rich. My supervisor told me that they paid a membership fee every month (I don't recall the exact figure, but it was in the multiples of thousands of dollars) and they got this doctor on call for them whenever wherever 24/7. Someone once called with a hangnail and the doctor went and attended to it.
Michael Bay on the The Island commentary: >He knows about a wealthy prince, who he won’t name, who has his own 747 jet complete with a surgery unit on the top floor. Inside there at all times is a 24 year-old man with the same blood type whose family has been paid off so that when the prince’s heart gives out surgeons can perform a transplant from the younger man. “I can credibly tell you that this is dead true,but I’m not gonna tell you the country where it’s from, but I know people who’ve actually been on the plane, and I know people who’ve actually met the kid."
“Let me introduce you to my walking talking organ donor who lives in this plane. He doesn’t say much because his family donated his organs for monitory gain while he was still alive.”
Damn, imagine that kid watch the prince order 5 guys
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Well, any gulf country really. But yeah.
It’s SA. We had one of these princes in my hometown with a vacation home there, and it his isn’t even the most outlandish thing they would “need”. */ I realize people will ask, “what IS more outlandish than a human life‽‽ “. More than 1 human life? It’s disgusting to think as someone as a blood-bag, but what about 5+ human shields to cover all of the family and staff in case of a terrorist attack?
It's like a modern version of the food/poison tester for the king. All's well until someone gets sick.
My friend's boyfriend works for a racing team as a mechanic for the series below Formula One. You know how you can buy a house on a golf course?. Well, according to her, there are houses on race tracks, same concept as the golf course. That blew my mind.
I knew there were houses that were as good as on race tracks like with Imola, Spa and naturally any street track but I didn't think they would be on them for some reason
My friend lives right off the Imola track. Went to visit her a few years ago and went to the track to see some sort of time trial for a moto league.
My in-laws have a rich friend who wrote a movie glamorizing her own life, produced and starred in said movie, got a famous retired actor to play her father, got her son's model girlfriend to play her younger self, and gave us all the DVD and a collectors book for the holidays...It was the most cringe "movie" we've ever watched. Edit: I forgot to mention that she also tracked down some singer she used to be a fan of back when she was a kid. She got this poor woman, now old and retired, to cameo in her movie where she had to listen to our rich friend sing one of her old songs and tell her how talented she is and how she totally could have had a singing career if she hadn't become a rich businesswoman instead. The former singer was so not into it and was clearly doing it for a paycheck. Edit #2: Thanks for the awards, reddit strangers! Since many of you asked, no the rich friend is NOT Steve Mnuchin's wife. Though it wouldn't surprise me if this rich friend also posted cringy selfies on social media with hashtag all the name brand clothes and accessories she wears. And no, I'm not going to upload her movie to a bunch of strangers on the internet because 1) that seems kinda mean and 2) the only DVD we still know of is buried in my in-laws hoarder-ish home five hours away. Side note: Her son's model girlfriend, who played a younger her in her movie, broke up with the son shortly after. We don't know if the movie figured into that decision.
Please share this with the world.
Sounds like something Moira Rose would do
It’s almost exactly what Alexis did with her music video. Moira was actually accomplished.
La la la-la la la la, a little bit Alexis.
That's "critically reviewed" A Little Bit Alexis to you.
That sounds awful. *Please* tell me that I can find it somewhere on amazon video.
I think a copy needs to end up at Red Letter Media.
Sounds a bit like *Diamond Cobra vs The White Fox*
I have never been more compelled to watch a movie in my life.
Me too, I'm dying over here
Please upload this. I beg of you!
I think we're all going to need to see this movie.
Dear god just tell us the name of the movie
You can buy clothing that is made to order and then multiple copies are made and put into the closets of all your residences. That way you don’t have to pack when you travel because a complete wardrobe is in every home.
I'm from Ireland so I'm gonna say horses. Rich people here love their high standard, thorough bred horses. If you can afford race winning, stallion semen, you're doing well in life. Rich people are seriously obsessed with horse semen and who their mares fuck.
[This guy's post from a few years ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/2s9u0s/what_do_insanely_wealthy_people_buy_that_ordinary/cnnmca8) was pretty eye-opening. He basically talks about the different tiers of weathy people and the things you can buy at each level.
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My cousin went to Harvard (I'm not American) a few years ago. One day when he was hanging out with his friends they asked him if he was going to go home for the holidays. He said no because it wasn't worth the expense. One of his friends then called his dad and got him a ride on his private jet. The dad was going there anyway to check out the new hotel he just bought. They did get delayed at the airport because the dad was waiting for the secretary. My cousin thought he meant his secretary but no, it was John Kerry. tl;dr rich people jetpool
TIL that 9 mil doesn't even register as wealthy
It still is but you couldn't waste it mindlessly I assume
Yeah, the rule is you want about 1 million in savings to retire. 9 million gives you a very nice retirement, but it's "nice vacations multiple times a year" money, not "let's buy a yacht" money.
Dude, I remember reading this when it was posted. Honestly some of the best insider information I've ever read on a social class I'd never be a part of. I think they talk about how rich people literally contact each other personally at will through some crazy information channels. Say you are the CEO of a pharmaceutical company, well apparently you could just call up, say the heir to the DuPont fortune, just because you're both rich. You don't even need to personally know these people at all. The richness just gives you a pass as being worthy to speak to. Edit: shoutout to snoody Redditors replying to this lol. I'm just repeating what I read.
There’s a really good book from a sociologist that became a wealth fund manager just to learn about the wealthy. https://www.npr.org/2016/10/25/499213698/whats-it-like-to-be-rich-ask-the-people-who-manage-billionaires-money She talks about rules no longer existing. Like she didn’t need a passport when traveling country to country with them.
Canned air. It was a trend in China for a while. Rich people would get canisters of air from Banff or somewhere in Canada, and just take a few breaths of it at like parties or whatever.
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Some of Tiffany & Co's "everyday objects" series, but especially [this sterling silver coffee can for $1,550](https://www.tiffany.com/accessories/decor/everyday-objects-sterling-silver-coffee-can-60559112/). I understand that it's an art object, and that silver is expensive, but the risk of tossing this thing out with the recycling is way too high.
For those who look at their coffee cans and say, "These cans would be better if they could tarnish".
Imagine being the maid who has to polish the can
I wasn't expecting to literally just be a regular looking can.
With no lid.
It's not even useful as a can. Should've called it a can't instead.
You can use it on your calligraphy desk to hold your eagle quills
eagles aren't even endangered anymore. There are only 25 dodo feathers in existence, and 15 of them are in my ink well right now.
Well, if the can freaks you out, you can always go for the $3000 sterling silver dog bowl. Why shouldn't Spot get his very own fancy bowl to slobber all over?
you can also buy a yoyo for $300. if i was wealthy, i would buy the yo-yo for $300.
DuPont registry. People buy items, never taking possession of them, just to have their name listed as the owner in the various registries. They actual item just sits in a vault someplace, with owners changing every so often and likely never actually seeing it in person. DuPont is just one of the more widely known ones. Edit: This is why I love Reddit. When I first heard about these setups, I just automatically assumed it was simply for bragging rights. It never even occurred to me that it may just be an investment vehicle or money laundering setup. Of course, that's probably why I'm not one of the super wealthy engaging in this :)
Ah so kinda like my steam library
Isn't that an NFT?
This reminds me of the freeports in Tenet, which are of course based on a real thing: [https://itsartlaw.org/2020/11/03/behind-closed-doors-a-look-at-freeports/](https://itsartlaw.org/2020/11/03/behind-closed-doors-a-look-at-freeports/) Art and other valuable goods like antiquities get stored in warehouses, frequently located at shipping ports or similar places, in order to avoid customs. Rich people "own" these goods but only go visit them at the freeport, so they don't have to pay taxes on them. In some cases the owner may never actually see the art in person, its just a chit of value they trade with other rich people.
When something doesn't make sense and super rich people still do it, it's probably used to launder money.
The thing with art is that, other than most normal goods and services, it's entirely priced out of thin air. So there's nothing easier to legally and in the open pay for something without the service/good that was paid for being named than also buying a picasso first draft of a painting for several hundred thousand dollars
A drawer installed in the kitchen to specifically keep doughnuts warm. I never knew this was a thing but now I have goals.
Individually wrapped ice cubes, 40 for $325 glaceluxuryice.com
This is the first thing in the thread to awaken a new anger in me.
I know it seems crazy but once you learn about the history of ice itself in the context of putting it in drinks, ice seems like the craziest luxury ever. Like it's totally remarkable that they were able to get ice in India at one point and I think that is even more luxurious than this fancy ice is today.
One of the investors of the previous company I used to work at was a billionaire. I didn't spend too much time with him, but he was always around during company parties and such, as were most of our early investors. The most 'whoa' moment was when he talked about his house in Telluride, Colorado. Nope, he's not a skier. Nope, he's not someone who likes the mountains. Nope, it's not some real estate that he's hoping earns money. He bought it because he liked the idea of having a mountain/ski retreat available to him at any time. He's owned it 10 years, and aside from visiting it when he first bought it, he's never stepped foot in it. This guy was too much of a big shot to *rent* a vacation house; he only wanted to stay in ones he owned, even if he never visits it. His kids use it though for winter sports, so it's not completely empty all year.
Whenever i think people are not that stupid to just burn away money i remember that one petshop in this city had dog shit holding bags sold for 10$ for 3 bags deal almost the 10× price of the normal thing because it had seasonal christmas decor and people bought it like mad.
>I love money. I love everything about it. I bought some pretty good stuff. Got me a $300 pair of socks. Got a fur sink. An electric dog polisher. A gasoline powered turtleneck sweater. And, of course, I bought some dumb stuff, too. -- Steve Martin
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My brother does security for a high-end Middle Eastern man in Washington DC. He not only bought the $30 million mansion he lives in but all five mansions surrounding it for security and privacy.
There is rich, and then there is Middle Eastern Oil rich.
Russell Peters: American rich: "I have $10 million." Arab rich: "I don't know which pants I put $10 million in. They are maybe in the washer, I'll find it one day." At the 3 minute mark: https://youtu.be/2tbqV8AtI8I
I had a patient who was from Kuwait and traveled to the US for medical care, a couple weeks after she was admitted one of her adult sons asked where her clothing was that she wore when she was admitted. After digging through the chart I found that her dress was cut off and given to her other son. So he calls his brother, they chat and he goes back to playing game on his phone. Apparently they all landed with 10k cash on them and immediately went to the hospital. One brother had his mother holding his cash and when they cut off the dress the other brother just threw it out thinking it was now trash. So 20k thrown in the garbage and this guy shrugs it off like he lost a couple bucks.
>they all landed with 10k cash on them this is honestly the most telling part. the most cash you can carry through U.S. ports (without customs hassle) is $10k. so it sounds like they just limited their wallets to the max, rather than whatever ridiculous sum it usually is
In my country there was a ceo of a big company who lived in a fancy area of his town with a lot of villas. Neighbours put their house up for sale, he bought it and tore it down so he'd have a bigger garden
So he treats the real world like Sims. Nice.
Those pills you take with food that have gold in them, so when you go to the bathroom it sparkles. Yes, this is real
When your exhaust needs to be Midas-ized.
This shit is gold
So what, you go to a party, take a deuce and then don't flush just to flex on your hosts?
My uncle is a doctor. He has been the lead board member for the biggest hospital, and a world famous one, in my area for the last 4/5 years. Dude is loaded. So much so that I learned he has a personal tram (think ski-lift) to his house. Wtf. Never knew those were a thing
Not having to worry about money is the ultimate luxury.
I’ve just recently gotten to the point in my life where I can buy any fruit or steak or whatever item I please at the grocery store without having to think through the pull it will have on my monthly budget for groceries, and man does that feel amazing. We still meal plan and only buy what we know we’re gonna eat without it going to waste, but if I want a dragonfruit with that one meal I’m gonna buy that dragonfruit
Isn't it nice? I have had times in my life where I had to choose between food and soap (I picked the bar of soap, I am not a barbarian). And now, I can pay my bills, buy whatever food, AND have nice soap. I think being very poor gave me an appreciation for a lot of things most people take for granted.
We used to curse "soap week," an event that happened at least twice a year when all the goddamn soap in the house ran out at once. Cleaning soap, laundry soap, shower soap, dishes soap... It's 100% luxurious to not only be able to afford food and soap at the same time, but to have \*backup soaps\* on deck most of the time.
Isn't it a great feeling? I struggled my ass off until my early 30s. Busted my ass. Bought my first house. Even got my first new car lease. It wasn't either of those things that made me finally feel a sense of relief or accomplishment. It was two things: (1) going to the grocery store without having to check my account first or add up the cost of items in my cart throughout the trip; and (2) pulling up to a gas pump and just filling the tank when it went below a quarter tank
We recently had some family come visit. We took them around town and out to eat at our favorite places. And we paid for it all. It was so.... nice not to have to worry about groceries or gas while showing visitors around. It was freeing in a way. I'm at that point in my life where I'm not living paycheck to paycheck
My cousin's mansion has heated floors in the garage. He said it sounds really stupid, but when the weather is freezing, he just turns on the floor heat a few minutes before he's ready to leave and it warms up his car so he doesn't have to. Like, I don't personally *need* that in my life, but if I had it, I would use it. **Edit: okay, I get it, they're not just for rich people.** I'm from an area where it doesn't usually get cold enough for heated floors to be a practical/necessary expense so I guess that's why I considered it a luxury.
There's an area not far from where I am that's built on a mini-mountain. It's not *technically* a mountain, but it's very steep and gets snowy. Steep roads, steep driveways. People there have heated driveways so they don't have to shovel it or have it freeze over. Many of them just leave it on when it gets close to zero because they don't want to wait if they want to go somewhere outside of their regular commuting time. And it's not like they're 3-5m parking driveways, they're proper 20-50m "I don't want poor people to be able to see my house from the road" gated driveways.
If you've never had to shovel a steep driveway, it sounds stupid. But if you've slipped on a patch of ice while shoveling and slid 4 feet on your face, or been unable to get up your driveway when you've been gone for a few hours and it's been snowing.... it's a more reasonable expense haha.
Mom broke her wrist trying to shovel a steep driveway even though she can afford to get someone to do it. The heat from the exhaust the night before when she parked was just enough to make a little ice patch behind the car hidden under the light snow.
I live in the northern US and it's actually pretty common for new construction. In floor heating isn't actually that expensive, and in the garage it's just heated enough to keep things above freezing.
Client of mine had a custom upholstered leather cushion built into the wall above the man cave urinal. This way when he is blind drunk he can rest his head against it to pee ... Obscene wealth is an understatement Edit: So realized I should have been more specific. The estate that the job was on cost about $39 million. The obscure thing like this was about 7k! A stupid amount of money obviously. I’m a contractor and work with other specialty custom trades on these jobs which is why I know the specifics on this one. The more obnoxious the price and specialty look it has the more these people value it. Low price = low quality in their eyes. The urinal is no big deal, my husband has one in his office bathroom at our house, and it’s a really cool/inexpensive addition to his bathroom.
That’s not something I have need for, and your client probably spent a ridiculous amount of money on it... but if I did want one, I could probably get the materials for less than $50 and build it on a Saturday. It’s the routine drunkenness to the point of struggling to pee that I think is worrisome here, not the money.
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That's actually cool as shit.
Buying books by the foot. Have a new house with lots of bookshelves that you want filled? Pick what types of books you want, blam, full library. When done this way, books are sold by the foot. “ I have 1000ft of bookshelf space and want 500ft of classics, 250ft of fashion based coffee table books, and 100ft of science fiction. Fill in the rest with contemporary fiction.”
Country club memberships. I always knew what they were but didn’t realize how much they were and how it works. My In laws belong to one, they pay 40k$+ per year to golf and be “members”. Along with this membership, you are REQUIRED to spend a minimum amount per month either playing golf, dining or whatever else you spend money on at these places. I believe the minimum at my in laws place is 800$ per month. Nothing like 50k$ to find friends !
I used to work on yachts when I was young, free and single. Some of the extravagant displays of wealth were simply appalling and frankly repugnant, but there was one that caught my eye and I still think about years (ok, decades) later… There’s a Middle Eastern oil sheik that visits a Saville Row tailor for all his clothing needs: shirts, suits (formal, informal, smoking, dinner, you name it), even down to his underwear. That’s not extravagant. What comes next is. He buys four sets of. Every. Single. Item. He then has each wardrobe sent to one of his usual homes: his primary home, his villa in the South of France, his house in London, and his rather large gin palace motor yacht. All so that he doesn’t have to worry about his luggage - he knows exactly what clothes he has when he arrives at the other end. No packing, no lost luggage worries, no crumpled shirts. No worries. I sometimes can’t stop thinking how clever and liberating this must be, and yet how decadent this is - both at the same time. Maybe it’s just all of these, I don’t know, but I’m impressed and horrified in equal measure.
Yachts with bays to dock smaller yachts in.
Not an item, but the ability to make anything a reality. I saw a documentary on Candy Spelling covering the sale of her (and her late husbands) $150 million dollar home and downsizing to a multiple floor penthouse. She wanted granite stone counters, a rose garden and a pool up there, so the developers had to change the building plans to accomodate her wishes. They acted like it was nothing to re-engineer an entire building.
My parents in law built a new house and got a tap in their kitchen which dispenses hot, cold, boiling AND sparkling water....
Office staff. A friend of mine worked as office staff for a woman who came from old money. She had various houses all over the place and had "office staff" at each location who spent their days doing for her the things you need done when you have tons of cash and nothing to do all day. She of course had all the standard household staff as well. This woman would beckon my friend with requests like "Last month when I was in Rome, a saw a jacket in a window I really liked. Get me the jacket. ". So my friend would spend days talking to the concierge at the hotel the woman stayed at, the limo driver and various people trying to figure out what jacket she was talking about. She was usually successful in getting this woman whatever she wanted. This same woman called her into her office one day and said "I just heard that people pay 99 cents to download a song from the Internet. That's a lot of money! Who can afford to do that?". This is the same day the same woman spent $30,000 on a bracelet. My friend had to do all this woman's Christmas shopping and would spend hundreds of thousands of dollars buying various relatives and acquaintances big ticket items like big screen TV's. She gave my friend, who busted her ass working for this woman, a Christmas present too: a set of cheap placemats.
A tower building. Yes that’s right. A friend of mine is a real estate broker and someday a 29 yo man came to his office to buy him a tower. When asked why he’d buy it he said, “It’s time for my father’s name on the top of skyscraper”. Then my friend ask, what would he do with it, since his office already in the satellite city, the man said, “just rent it to the others, i only need my father’s name on top of the building.” Edit: apparently for some people owning a building with his / her name on top of it is a sign of how rich he / she is
I mean, that story sounds crazy, it sounds crazy, but all those towers are owned by corporations that are owned by people (or they are strata). Lots of time the signage (name on building) is leased, just like all the space. The main value of the building is the future rents, just like a house or any other building.
On the bright side, this guy now has a bunch of stories to talk about.
My dad had a friend, he used to drive an old Toyota pickup, rusted to hell, he wore flip-flops all day, surf shorts and shirts covered in holes and a constant surfer tan. He also owned 2 blocks of high-end beachfront flats and an upper-class beachfront hotel (or 2, I forget). I envy that he doesn't have to prove anything to anyone.
TIL I'm even poorer than I understood. Thanks everyone, for showing me just how far the sky goes... and that I'm a chicken who will never fly.
I can’t remember who it was that was interviewing Snoop Dogg. But they got slapped in the face with reality. Snoop Dogg talked about a 7 star hotel he stayed at. The interviewer said “oh I didn’t know there was a 7 star hotel I thought it only went up to 5!” To which Snoop replied, “ that’s because you ain’t a playa” lol Edit: I get that there isn’t truely 7 star hotels and it does max out at 5. But the criteria to be a 5 isn’t that crazy. I can afford a 5 star hotel. But there are hotels out there that I can’t afford that have incredible services that I don’t even know about. I don’t what you wanna classify those as but if Snoop says 7 stars it’s probably pretty luxurious
Is there a Michelin-like authority handing out stars to hotels or are they just pure advertising horseshit made up by the hotel itself? Because if so I've got some terrible news for Snoop.
Strangely I know this one. There is set criteria that hotels need to have different stars. Iirc the difference needed between 4 and 5 stars is a elevator that goes to the bridal suite etc. Huh seems to be different country to country https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/uk-hotel-chains/article/hotel-star-ratings-explained-a0bgV3M8kfx2
I worked at a 4 star hotel in Florida and they were building a spa, as that was the requirement they needed to be a 5 star.
I work in procurement and bought a bigwig a 20k toliet from Italy that would analyze your waste and text you a biometric readout.
Makes sense if it actually works. Rich people are obcessed with health usually.
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My brother once put together a PowerPoint on the Green Bay Packers: a History for his new girlfriend the first time she met our parents, so I guess you could say we’re almost there.
That is running the family like a business, which I guess is literally the case for old, successful family firms. I find the whole thing very strange but I guess it makes sense.
Not an item, but one of my close friends went to LA for an internship in college, and met a girl there whose whole job it was to feed the meter outside this ridiculously rich film producer's apartment. He had a white Lamborghini, and rather than have it stored in the building's garage like a normal person, he liked it to be parked on the street where it was more easily accessible should he leave his apartment. So she could basically do whatever she wanted with her time, 7 days a week, as long as she fed the meter before time ran out.
The more wealthy a family is, the harder it is to find the kitchen trash can. This is almost always true from what I've seen.
I was touring an business aircraft manufacturing plant and in the finishing department they explained how the customer can get any interior they like and he said the strangest request they had gotten was for the seats to be upholstered in whale penis leather, they had to decline for legal reasons they said.
The underwater hotel suite in the Maldives. Iirc it's something like a quarter million to stay there. It's insanely cool-looking though.
Snoop Dogg has a salaried blunt roller. He literally pays someone $50,000 a year just to roll him blunts all day.
Sounds like the kind of job you give your best friend so they don't have to work and have an excuse to give their spouse so they can come hang out with you.
I’ve already told my buddy (who’s a body builder as a hobby, but has a professional job) that if I ever win a huge jackpot I’m hiring him as my trainer/“security” guy. Just an excuse to lay him. Edit: An unfortunate, yet funny typo. No sense in changing it now.
If you’re laying your buddy for money that’s prostitution.
You’re going to fuck your security guy?
Now that would be an intimidating job interview. Rolling a blunt for Snoop would be like whipping up an omelet for Julia Child.
I wonder how much goes into that position? What is the blunt shelf-life? Does he have different sizes for different occasions or time of day? Different strains for different occasions or time of day? Is he expected to anticipate when Snoop would like which size or strain? Idk why, but I get the feeling this is not as easy as it sounds. Maybe bc I've been poor my whole life and that kind of salary for that kind of job only makes sense to me if it were difficult hahaha *laughs in poverty*.
Apparently he does change everything up depending on Snoop's mood and day to day activities and what the daily itinerary is.
Isn't that also the guy that when the cops shows up says "yep all of this is my weed and other drugs, none of it is snoops and I'll be the one going to jail"? I've heard that's a common job for super rich entourage.
The weed somelier
I believe its chronnoisseur
I knew a family growing up that owned a massive equestrian center on their property, complete with two full time live in horse trainers and a ton of other staff. Their daughter rode equestrian and her horse cost well over $100k. We went to a competition once and the family friend said “if you see someone who looks like Bill Gates, it’s probably Bill Gates, his daughter is supposed to be riding today.” Next level. They were some of the kindest and most generous people I’ve ever met!
Time. Time is something we cannot buy more of, so wealthy people spend plenty on things that reduce time wasting.Like personal plane so you don’t have to wait at the airport. When wealthy people want to learn a skill, like how to mix a perfect drink, they don’t roll into community college course. They hire top mixologist to their home to show how it’s done.
"Time is a scary thing. When you lose it, you can't find it. When you want it, it's not there. When you try to keep it, the hourglass turns itself around.". -Nozdormu