People who work for rich people. What things have you seen?
Not exactly "work for", since I only did it once, but I was a driver for a plastic surgeon. His brother is a famous celeb in southeast Asia. Anyway, he was in the states because he wanted to go skiing in the Rockies so I drove him to various ski resorts over the course of 5 days. On the way to the first resort, he was wondering where my gear was but I did not expect to go skiing with him nor did I own any gear (always rented or borrowed). He made me turn around and take him to the nearest outlet and then casually dropped like 7k on snowboarding gear as a gift to me. He then paid for my own hotel room, resort tickets, and food. He absolutely would not let me pay for anything because I'm "forced to spend time with an old guy". 10 years later, I still own and very much use and abuse the gifts he gave me.
What a guy š„ŗ
Wang....What.A.Nice.Guy
I found a job as a chauffeur in London driving politicians around. Thing is it only pays Ā£15k a year, which is no where near enough to live in London, you canāt even live out your car with that and I donāt think the politicians who are raising taxes are going to buy me snowboarding gear š
I k ow someone who did this job and they had a zero hour contract but were used all the time. During covid they were dropped immediately and had to use the food banks to survive.
How can they justify paying so little?
And considering youāre hired by the civil service to drive literal politicians around, so essentially people who donāt know the price of bread and never have had to budget in their lives, youād at least expect a bit more.
āHumphrey, Iām appalled that my driver is paid so little.ā āAh minister, (Latin phrase)ā
Damn politicians should take the tube like everyone else.
You are driving the wrong people. You need to drive the people who line up the politicians' pockets.
OK, so how can they not expect you to be a huge security risk on that salary?
Iāve been friends and worked for rich people in China, the US and EU. The Chinese were hands down the most generous.
Well thatās wholesome af.
Side quest with great reward :)
How stingy they can be. It's shocking.
"I'm a billionaire and you expect me to pay $2 for water? That's insane!!!!"
The people my husband works for are billionaires and they are the biggest penny pinchers I've ever seen in my life.
***Edit - The people I am speaking of live in an estate worth about 45mil, drive limited edition Bentleys, provide Fiji water for their cat, bought their daughter a 20mil penthouse as a wedding gift, spent 200k on flower for the wedding, that kind of thing. .
They do not live frugally, at all. But they get weird about their money. If it is not something they WANT to spend their money on, they're cheap as cheap can be.
Yes. Thatās what I said in my comment. I worked for a man for ten years as his house keeper/companion. He was the cheapest man Iāve ever met. He was worth MILLIONS. But wouldnāt spend a dime
Mind blowing right? What's the point of having it if you're not going to spend it??!?!?!?!?!?!
He had more money to live 100 life times and drove a 20 year old broken down car lol. I finally convinced him to buy a new car and he bought a luxury one .. he died a week later
The CEO of an oil company lived in our neighborhood when I was a kid. He drove the same Olds Cutlass forever. Something would go wrong with it, heād pay to have it fixed. It was in beautiful shape. My dad was friends with him and he asked him once why he didnāt buy a new car, like a Cadillac or fancy sports car. He said he just really liked his Oldsmobile.
My parents lived next to a couple that was early wal mart investors. Regular ranch house. Their big spend was matching Cadillacs. Gave their tens of millions to the University when they died. They seemed happy.
Sounds more like a smart man and why heās a millionaire. Cars are massive depreciating assets and at the end of the day all they do is get you from point A to B the only difference being how comfortable you want be while you get there.
I once worked for a carpenter company, I'm not a carpenter, but I was the customers contact (not sure what the proper term is in English), we had one job at a rich couples house. They were constantly haggling over the cost of small details.Ā I remember making a remark about it to a friend, who replied "That's how they got rich in the first place"
It actually wasn't, the wife was the sole heir of some large company, butnI guess it's a mentality that's quite common for a lot of people with money
In my early 20's I was hired as security along with nine other guys for some big important party. We were given three piece tailored suits. I still have mine though I was much skinnier back then. The party was at a big estate and the owner and host was a big name where I live but I didn't recognize until my co-workers were talking about it the next day. I was posted at the lower basement. There were two basements and no one was allowed in the lower basement. It was an easy gig. I just sat there, watched TV, and they gave me food. I only had one incident where a drunk older lady was looking for a man and somehow wandered all the way to me and kept grabbing me. We were tipped 500 on top of the promised pay the next day.
So the lady pulled the classic spy move. "I'm so drunk and just looking for the bathroom"
Slips usb drive in pocket. Ohh, your right. He is somewhere else.
I wondered why she kept mumbling into her purse. Here I thought she was just puking.
Nice š š
Two basements is fuck-you-money in a private house
Sounds like a villian lair TBH. Was he guarding so.e secret lab or server room?
basement level with front and back staircases
Agent 47 sent the lady over as a distraction so he could get into the forbidden basement level.
He went to the beach and instead of getting a hotel room he bought a house on the condition he got it immediately and all the contents. He said, "we need to find a restaurant, or actually let's check the kitchen." it was full of food because people lived there yesterday, and it surprised him they had food for some reason.
This is crazy! Hello hereās a ton of money. Get outta here! Leave everything WTF?!?!
He sold it a few years later because he kept getting messages from a person looking after the house that things needed repairs, painting, the yard, etc... all the normal house stuff. He wanted to just give the caretaker a credit card and tell him not to bother him. He barely thought about it being odd to just buy a house. To him, the percentage of income was the equivalent of buying a bicycle.
Worked with a guy who was a foreman on a huge custom limestone/brick project for a billionaires home. Home was worth probably 35-40 million, had this huge terrace with custom carved limestone steps, railings, etc.
The billionaire bought it because he got tired of having to slum it in a hotel penthouse every few weeks/months.
The foreman thought it was odd that the dude told them, āJust throw the limestone work away.ā Even though he could sell it or they could use it elsewhere.
So the foreman went out on his own and got a bunch of skids and started to catalog and map where each piece went as they took it down.
Billionaire, midway through like a few million dollars already spent on the renovation project was like, āI think Iāll miss being in a penthouse in the city if I finish this house just outside of the city.ā
So he bought a penthouse. Told them to put the home all back the way it was whatever it cost because he wanted to offload the property soon.
Thankfully they had all of the limestone pieces still, the foremanās boss shit a brick at the thought of redoing it all but thankfully the foreman had the foresight to keep it all organized and stored.
Crazy that these billionaires just spend that much money as if theyāre having buyers remorse and a change of heart with an Amazon purchase lol
I was told that at some point the money was useless. He said "there isn't a restaurant that I can afford but uoh can't. The percentage of eating out for me based on my yearly income is the equivalent of you spending 3 cents. Money stops meaning things day to day. That's why rich people have their cars customized because it drives them nuts to see a regular guy driving the exact same truck.
The irony is that it becomes a situation where nothing is special or exciting. Kind of sad.
Exactly! He was incredibly smart. Grew up in a wealthy family. Best education. Fantastic career. We used to talk about Buddhism and life. He loved that I'd leave a job in order to take a vacation. Because his whole life was a vacation and he worked at a hospital to give some meaning to his life. He married a friend of mine and she complained that they never fought. He just agreed to anything she wanted. I really liked him a lot. He ended up getting addicted to medication and eventually passed away early. Left his wife and two sons behind. It was as if he couldn't fit into this world.
A life without purpose. Iām sorry.
I got the feeling that everything seemed too easy. He was brilliant, so getting into a skilled career was simple. He was beyond thinking about money. He seemingly could do anything. He talked about reality and asked, "How do you know what's going on in life? All I know is that something is happening, and that's it. " a life where you get all you set out to get sounds wonderful yet the pretender syndrome would be huge. That's probably why he became a doctor , it's something that was entirely his accomplishment. I'm sorry as well. It was actually nice to remember him.
I always tell my kids that you need the bitter and the sweet to make life work. The oyster needs some sand to make a pearl (someone will probably chime in to say thatās not true but I like it) again sorry about your friend. It seems you have taken a lesson and some joy from his existence which is really all we can do when someone is gone.
My mother had friends who were caretakers of a beachfront house in Hawaii. The owner was there one week a year and they would visit their kids that week.
Damn that's the perfect job!
No kidding. How do you get into that line of work?
"Name one thing in this world that is not negotiable." -Walter White
Not exactly the same, but someone knocked on my door, offered me 20k over asking if I moved out in a month. I did.
I've heard of that. There is a website called "make Me move" where you post the price for your house that would make you walk out that day.
4x the current market value, cash.
Happened to my wife and I too. We had married in June of 2004 and lived in a small shotgun house and got a knock on the door in September. They offered 2x the worth and we were in a new house in November. It was a great feeling. Especially since we had put the tub thru the bathroom floor when we returned from our honeymoon. My running joke was I literally knocked the bottom out of it and boy did I overuse that one.
Can you imagine being the old owner and that happens, though? I think Iād think at best I was being set up for some awful prank TV show, and I might think I was having a psychotic break or Iād got caught up in some elaborate mob hit or something
They didn't even get a chance to get their clothing or pictures. It all was in the purchase. He did get kinda depressed throwing out their things. At one point he told the realtor that he'd put obviously person items in bags but lots of things, jackets, shoes, pictures of kids. All in the trash.
Thatās just wrong. Itās wasteful and inconsiderate. He could have paid some movers to come in and take out clothes and photos and give them back.
I'm not sure there's any amount of money that would make me move out of my house and sell it "as is"
There absolutely is. Leave now and hereās a million over market value.
Nice try Buzzfeed
LOL!
I nannied for a wealthy family in the 90s . They had a check sitting around for 180 000.00 They would look at it occasionally and say, "I really should get this to the bank." They didn't deposit that check for at least 3 mos.
Ex worked for a very hooked up, edge of the 1% couple. They were definitely in the group and my ex took care of their kids as an au pair. She said that, despite all of them living in the same house, they were completely absent parents and basically hired her to have someone to blame when their kids scream at them.
That's sad, for both the kids and the parents.
And they wonder why their kids are using cocaine
These people usually have kids to transfer all their wealth.
My sister worked with some old money young folks like that down here in the South. These are people who leave the raising of their kids to mostly paid servants. One time, the wife left the husband and the husband went searching for her. They never even thought about who was going to take care of the kid, because they never did. My sister was stuck with the kids for a week without a phone call. They did pay well though! I think it was 50$ an hour. She had to quit because they were just too demanding.
I grew up hunting, fishing, gardening, farming, a real country and forest life. A rich guy calls my friend who is basically my dad, asks to come to town for a long hunting weekend and he's looking for someone to set it up and be his guide through it.
I'm offered $500 + expenses in 1998 money and totally take the job. I rent a local cabin from another friend's dad, meet the rich guy and show him the plan, we set out for the weekend and it's basically me hunting and fishing but him pulling the trigger and him pulling fish out of the river. It's actually pretty nice. I'd taken many people on trips like this before, usually for free. At the end of the 4 day weekend I drive him to the airport about an hour away, he takes some of the meat with him, gives me the rest, and tells me the shotgun and rifle and ammo and fishing pole are mine, and that was awesome. I left them with a friend when I went into the service, that was almost 30 years ago, I'm told the shotgun and rifle are still fine.
Good fun.
The credit card attached to their investment accounts pays for all their day to day expenses.
I did this for almost a year with a down payment for a house. I took out 100k for the down payment (both mine and wife's 401k's) and put it in some closed ended funds with high dividends. It made enough to take care of all my day to day expenses. I almost didn't want to buy a house.
Could you explain more?
When you have so much money invested that you can just live off of the interest it generates.
The earnings from investments help pay for their daily splurging, could be hundreds or thousands.
I taught English to an oligarch in Moscow while he was being driven to his meetings at the Kremlin. In the summer he took all of us staff with him and his family to St. Bartās. Rubbing elbows with Heidi Klum and Dimitri Peskov on the beach within the same hour was a weird mix. At the end when I was leaving he called me over heās like āmy friendā¦ we donāt talk about anything that happens here, yes?ā I literally saw nothing damning but still heās in prison now becauseā¦ Putin š¤·āāļø
EDIT: This was during the 2016 election and while watching a clip of Stephen Colbert, he looked at me dead seriously and asked me to hire Kellyanne Conway for him or at least set up a meeting with her. Like mate who exactly do you think who I am? A man who lives in a world where ānoāand ācanātādonāt exist
Putin is the Emperor , the Oligarchs are Kings; if they are not sufficiently loyal, the kings die or go to prison to 'think' about things...
An Ode To Russia
Putin is the emperor
The oligarchs are kings
If youāre not sufficiently loyal
Die or go to prison
To think about āthingsā
I sanded the hardwood floors with my uncle for the guy who started e trade. One of his many condos. The first time he showed up to the condo, the neighbor came out to meet him. Neighbor says, hey nice to meet you, selling my condo here next door for $1.5 million if you happen to know anyone whoās looking to buy. E trade guy writes him a check on the spot for $2 million & says, take care of all paperwork & let me know when you need me to sign. Neighbor was completely floored
You were all floored, just in different ways! :) You can understand the rich guy here. He gets far more privacy for what to him wasn't huge money, and now has a holiday home for his pals to stay in too.
Worked on some house renovations for extremely rich clients.
Wife of rich guy in perth decides she wants to update the house. We literally stripped the house of every bit of flooring, furniture, finishing etc and they were just going to dump it all. The foreman bagged a huge stainless steel kirchen unit that he sold for 15,000aud. Another guy salvaged all the marble and resurfaced his kitchen. I got a brand new in its plastic mattress that was worth something like 6000aud. It was absolutely disgusting how little respect they had for money.
Worked in another house in L.A. fireplace was white hand carved italian marble. Guys lifting the obscenely big flat screen into place dropped it and chipped the fireplace and cracked the screen. Thought i was about to witness someone being murdered. The woman who lived there calmly said it's fine, it was an accident. She was just upset she would have to wait another few months for a new fireplace.
Same house had built a raised platform off the side of a hill so they could put down a few hundred square feet of AstroTurf. Whole thing cost over a million dollars.
To be honest most of the really rich people i met were very down to earth and nice but when it came to money it was surreal how they would find ways to waste it.
This! My realtor has told stories of mega rich clients who dump the entire contents of their luxury penthouses into the buildingās trash chute as they leave because they donāt understand what else could be done with it and theyāve been told the apartment wonāt be sold furnished.
Iāve seen this on a smaller scale. I was a dog walker and they had no idea you could donate books you didnāt want to the library
Several rich people Iāve worked for were some of the cheapest people Iāve known but had amazing houses/cars.
The few millionaires I've met complained about costs like everybody else, while living a very comfortable life of course.
I knew a millionaire who used to look for bargains at garage sales.
I knew an old lady who was millionaire off of trading stocks or something, she refused to eat or turn the lights on to save money. She also would only allow people to use 1 square of toilet paper if they peed and 2 if they pooped. It was wildā¦
If I pee and poop, can I have 3?Ā
Probably have to get a ouija board to ask the lady at this point
My richest friend in high school had parents who made her go to the free clinic when she got sick because they didnāt want to pay the copay at the doctorās office. They were multimillionaires. They literally owned a yacht. And they refused to pony up $40 so their kid could see a doctor without waiting for hours and hours in the free clinic filled with homeless people.
They werenāt doing it to save money. Have you ever thought about experiencing life like the other half? Might realise we aināt that different.
That's why they are rich and
Worked for a wealthy bitchā¦ she went out for a business lunch at some brewery downtown and brought back a bottle to the office. A few weeks later she had a lunch at the same brewery and I was attending. She came to my desk and said if we return the empty bottle we can get back $0.05 (five cents). She kept reminding me until lunch time at which point she placed the bottle on my desk.Ā
When we were ready to walk on over I casually forgot about said bottle. She awkwardly grabbed it, tucked it in her coat and walked to the brewery.Ā
Five. Fucking. Cents. Yaāall.Ā
some ppl are just crazy OCD like that, no matter their wealth. Probably mental.
I donāt take Uber Eats to the Uber affluent. Fuckers have giant Corinthian columns and houses worth tens of millions of dollars and they are the worst tippers. Last one was fifty-nine cents. Itās because they see us as less thanĀ
Yup. Any time I end up in a nice neighborhood with big houses I know I'm not getting any tips. One time i actually got a 0.05$ tip from a gigantic house with two garages. I think it makes them laugh.
Youād think people who have unsupervised access to your food, youād think youād wanna treat them decentā¦
I used to bartend private parties when I was in college. I worked at an event at this huge estate outside Milwaukee, WI. It was the first event I ever worked for my friend who hired me (he was a regular at the bar I worked at downtown MKE).
Fast forward to the night of the party and my friend said āI need you to wear a white buttoned up shirt with nothing under and be ready to take it off at some point during the party.ā I was completely shook. Had no idea what this party was all about. I walk in to the house and the owners have a couple of pet pigs wearing tutus. Iām showed the dining room and told to set up in a corner while the guests arrived. Super fun party, I was allowed to drink during it and was ripping shots with the guests all night long. Eventually this super muscular gay guy walks up and asks me to to take my shirt off, and instinctively, I say āyou firstā. He does, heās super ripped. Everyoneās cheering and yelling now as he tells me itās my turn. So I do it, why not Iām feeling pretty tipsy. The guy busts out laughing, loving that I actually followed suit.
Tips me $50 on top of the $300 I made from working the party. I worked a lot of parties like this over the next couple of years and became good friends with some of the usuals that I would see at most of the parties. Really good source of income for broke college me. Good times!
I have to ask- are you male or female? Cause that changes my perception of what you were being asked to do
Haha fair question! Im a male
It pays to be gay (sometimes) lol
The āsuper muscular gay guyā didnāt tip you off?
I worked for a billionaire who was building a 30,000 sq ft home. The guest house was over 6,000 sq ft. He didnāt care for how long the cabinetry was going to take so he actually bought a cabinet company and had them work on his home exclusively until all the cabinetry and built ins were installed and completed. He also owned a few Gulfstream jets and I got to sit in the pilotās seat while the mechanic would ask me to press this lever or that as he was maintaining them.
My cousin got rich by working his ass off. I unfortunately grew up around rich people because I went to a private school, he didnāt. I hated them, we werenāt rich, we were just catholic. I got divorced and then got cancer . It was hard with 2 kids. He dropped off a card for me with 3,000.00 in it, I called to return it him and his wife refused saying how my mom and dad were always there for them. It really helped me a lot! Then unfortunately my father recently passed and he held a dinner in his honor after the service, it was beautiful ! He worked hard for what heās got and he does good with his money!
He got it. That's the way to do things.There is no pleasure like helping other people. Please tell him this, and that others admire him for being a good guy despite the success.
Wish him and his family health and happiness and a bit of Irish luck, from Dublin! The same to you, too and the kids :) - you deserve it.
Ireland is far from perfect but that sort of connection to your fellow man, and modesty, is still more common than not here.
Owner of my last company flew 5 of us to New England to a funeral of a coworkers parent. We were there for 10 minutes, loaded up and flew home.
When I was in high school I was a nanny for a wealthy family,with 3 kids. They had a handyman guy that always seemed to be there when the husband was not. Then,she was pregnant again. Hmmm. Baby is born,looks nothing like her other kids. Handyman is not around anymore. They divorced a few years later.
Guy who lives in a climate that is not hospitable for palm treesā¦..at all. Iām taking all the way northern US. But he didnāt care, he wants palm trees. So every year, when the palm trees inevitibly die, he just gets new ones delivered and planted.
Ummmm, do we know the same person??? My friend lives in a suburb of large midwestern city and does this. He just likes to have them around his pool in the summer. Heās hilarious, a very loyal friend, loves his kids, and has worked his ass off to be able to do fun things like this.
Worked for a guy who owned a bunch of hotels. Loved his booger sugar (died from it actually). Several nights I'd see guys come in rolling briefcases and was told if his wife asked he was never there. Half hour or so later they'd leave with nothing in hand. Interesting guy. Gave me a couch once geeked out of his mind cause I mentioned I needed one lol
I'll tell two funny stories. I sold cars at a Chevy dealership in Michigan. The owner was a rich guy who had no idea what it meant to struggle (his father, of course, started the business.)
Funny story #1: In the winter, we had to "broom cars" which meant brush the snow from them. Move them, plow, move them back--all in freezing cold. You would wear so much clothes that you would sweat and freeze at the same time. Before we started, he and his son had some expensive skiing clothes on like they were going to help (they did for about 2 minutes) and he said, "I'll bet you can't wait to get out there!" like it was schoolkids about to have a snow day. Hours later--when we were about done and totally spent--he pulled up in his warm Suburban--cracked the window about 2"--and said, "Thanks guys, I really appreciate it."
Funny Story #2: In 2008, things were getting really bad in Southeast Michigan. The economy was crashing, GM was filing BK and things were just rotten. We were all broke--not selling any cars. Worried about how were were going to feed ourselves. We had a sales meeting and the owner came in all bubbly and excited. "I talked to my wife today and Christmas is coming early to ####### Chevrolet!" We all cheered and high fived each other. I'm sure we were all going to get a Christmas bonus or something!!! He smiled for effect and said, "We're going to put up our Christmas tree today instead of waiting until December." Our jaws hit the floor and I said to the manager, "What the fuck was that?" "We're here and he lives on fucking Pluto" he answered.
EDIT: Oh yeah--forgot one more really funny one.
Added Funny Story #3: I was salesperson of the year. I sold like 180 cars--about 30 more than the second place person. Did he throw me a bonus? Nope. He took me to the auto show. Apparently, someone was giving away free coney dogs and he went from one rich friend to another talking about the free coney dogs. All he fucking talked about.
Was your boss Kid Rockās dad? (IIRC he owned dealerships in the Detroit area)
Lol no but I did know someone who went to school with Joe C (in Taylor, MI)
Rich people LOVE free stuff lol
Crypto millionaire - paid $60k/month for 5-6 high end working girls to basically be his personal sex servants. Start the day with a double BJ everyday. Snort coke out of another's orifices every weekend. Non stop partying.Ā
This went on for a year before he flew off to Monaco. I haven't seen him since.
I was his video editor for his Instagram.Ā
He was making $1m a month.
Username checks out
$60k / month for 6 girls sounds really cheap
$2k a video...not bad I'd take 3-4 hours to edit each. Did 38 videos.
Hung out in his mansionĀ
I did some mechanic work for a guy in Vegas who had a passion for finding homeless junkies and taking them off the streets. he would set them up in an apartment and give them work to do like take care of the sick ones, clean the house, pick up meds etc, and he would also give them unlimited money to continue getting their fix. I was so confused, like if you're doing all this to get them off the street then why not get them off the dope and onto suboxone? I was constantly fixing one of the cars he bought the boys because they were trashing it. I was clean and sober for a few months just out of rehab and he never once offered me anything to help even after my sober living got suddenly shut down and I was homeless.
One story of many but the general trend is that rich people have NO clue how to spend their money
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.
I watched the C beams glitter in the dark near TanhƤuser Gate
All those moments will be lost in time.
like tears in rain.
Time to die
Guy had his driveway and inside of his garage paved with fucking agate. Like, insane. It was is beautiful. Probably one of the more unusual things I've seen.
I don't know what was beneath it, but it was agate coated with an epoxy resin.
I worked for a billionaire that is constantly embroiled in legal battles. I was the head of a new business venture for him. He placed his family and kids into top positions and eventually had them making decisions while they had zero experience. The guy was extremely rude and I left the role pretty quickly.
What I found out though was that he played a billionaire game of not paying any business debts and forcing suppliers or whatever companies that were owed money to always settle for pennies on the dollar, which ultimately screwed over everyone except for him. It made me realize how unfair the world is for the 99% of people.
Kinda sounds like Donald Trump lol
I dated a girl who was from a very rich family. Private Jets, property in every major city and celebrities over for Christmas Dinner. The thing that amazed me the most was that socks weren't washed, they were just binned. The sock drawer was just full of brand new socks. Boxer shorts were exactly the same, but girls Underwear wasn't. We're still friends now and I always joke with her about the socks š
I've always said if I ever get super rich I'm going to wear a brand new pair of socks every day.
Freaking new Bombas every day. Thatās all I want if I win the lotto.
I have seen people with great monetary wealth, the character of any of them is not in how many servants they had, but in how they treated them.
I came to work one day and saw a Ferrari parked. I was like wow whoās Ferrari is that? He said oh sorry my Porsche is in the shop getting fixed so I had to drive my Ferrari.
I don't know but, isn't a Ferrari way more prestigious?
Yes thatās why he drives it less.
They donāt spend any money. Super cheap. I worked for a man for 10 years. He had 20 million in his account plus was a doctor and owned a clinic work 35 million. He was the cheapest man I ever met.
I'm a painter, I used to only work in super expensive high end houses.
Ive been in houses so big i literally got lost walking back from the bathroom.
I went to a house where the guy spent several million dollars to buy the house next door, then tore it down and used the lot to put his tennis court in.
A place where he had the swimming pool put in on the second floor over the dining room table. It had a glass bottom so he could watch his wife swim while he ate.
I was in a house that had 3 fire places, a swimming pool and a 9 car under ground garage with an elevator that took you from the garage to the house. That was the guest house. They lived next door.
One day i was working g in the basement and the guy putting in the elevator was saying to the lady, " when the elevator comes up, door want the door to open on this side, or this side"? She shrugged and said " It doesn't matter. No one is ever going to use it anyway."
We worked on a house where every Friday they sent one of the (live in) servants to buy us all coffee and fresh pastry. When we finished the job they had a catered party for us including a free bar. The property was so big it took me 15 minutes to walk from yhe sidewalk to the back of the backyard. Two people lived there but they had 3 luxury cars in the garage.
A guy who told me that when they were looking for a house they narowed it down to two that they like, but one of them needed renovations. So they did a budget gor each house, the one that needed work included a million dollars just for the reno.
They were the nicest people. One night i was working late and try sent out for pizza and we just sat in the ysrd and had pizza together. Insane money, but really down to earth and nice
I went to one house, parked in the alley and came in through the back gate. As I came in I said to one of the painters " it's a nice house, but with all his money I thought it would be bigger."
He laughed at me and said "This is the garage".
A house that had two kitchens. One to use and one that was just for show.
In 99% of them, if I broke in and tried to rob the place, there wouldn't be anything there that I wanted. Tons of money but not much good taste.
Two kitchens - I worked for a very successful lawyer who had a huge, beautiful house in a very nice part of town. He would host firm events at his house and entertained clients and other wealthy people at his house.
He had 2 kitchens. One for him and his family to cook, the other for the caterers to cook out of sight when he hosted events.
He wasnāt like crazy wealthy, but I was always impressed that he had a separate kitchen for caters to use once or twice a month.
A sign saying āservice entrance ā in the back door. Husband and wife each have a private jet.
I have been doing private security for the same asian family in NYC for over 25 years. The family's father is now 72 years old, and they have taken me around the world. The crazy thing is that since the day I was hired, he has had a young fenale masseuse. Come give him a 2-hour massage & and a happy ending every night for over 25 years... never misses a day , even on holidays or vacation. Including the time we went on an African safari for 21 days .
I worked inside a shark tank (yes those kind of sharks) In a basement of a home, and it was bigger then my apartment. The walls were higher then my ceilings. Literally the captive sharks had a bigger space then me. The room full of equipment like pumps, and stuff, was bigger then any room in my apartment. Talking to the guy who was the expert on the job about the whole thing....
He was saying, if you didn't feed the sharks for awhile. and tossed a person in, or fell in yourself. You would die, be eaten, and the filters and everything would have the water clear again in under an hour.
Literally this rich person could dispose of bodies if they needed in a secret underground shark-tank,
From the surface from the street, the house looked like a normal big house...
But inside it was full of art, and workers, and fancy alcohol, a cigar room, a gym,
and it went DOWN so deep, and had such a huge basement, like a tooth with roots, or an iceberg, where the tip is the house and the real mass is underground.
Then at the very bottom was a shark-tank room.
If I hadn't helped put it together I would never believe it exists...
When I would work there, every hour someone would bring me water and food, cookies, and sandwiches. Near the end we drank fancy scotch, and I received an envelope just full of 100's. I think it was 10 Grand.
Cool people, real nice.
I've seen clients with so much money, up in age, barley able to get around, litterly getting around with the assistance of a personal nurse.Spending more money than anyone could imagine, bringing Bali, Rome, Tuscany, all places they've traveled into there home's environment, in this particular case we're talking a dessert zone in California, we litterly created Micro Climates, in order to accomplish some of there visions. Money was not a concern, so long as they ended up with the same Tropical environment they experienced in Bali. It was insane the entire time I was working on this once In a life time project, pulling off Scapes that I'd never be able to repeat again. It was impossible to fathom another client like this, with so much money to burn, I recall on one particular area the Tuscan zone of there property, I failed to capture the true flavor of Tuscany. Fact was I didn't spend the kind of money to import fully established Olive trees, not pleased with the wave of there hand they had me replace the 52" box Olive trees, with bigger Olive trees, it was a over 1.3 million dollars worth of Trees, irrigation, established shrubs planted from 36" box containers, that were torn out. I obviously transplanted what I could and took them to lm my nursery.
My wife's best friend works for one of the richest women in the world. I have been to one of her house's before and know many details. But honestly, it's all pretty mundain. She is pretty normal and has many of the same issues we all face. Problematic kids, always striving for what's next, and a complex about her money and perception. What was wild was seeing pictures of people in the room I was standing in. Some of the most powerful people in the world stood where I was, which was pretty cool.
All in all, I guess my interactions are boring because she happens to be a normal "billionaire."
Iāve worked as a lawyer for some rich folks. One of them said, āUntil you have a billion dollars, youāre a nobody.ā
What I saw reflects the observations above: When you have that money, your life becomes consumed with the business of managing it. Lawyers and accountants up the wazoo. It has a force akin to the gravitational pull of a black hole; you basically become a servant to the money. It becomes a god you must serve.
Normal people think you can just stick it in the bank, invest it in bonds or whatever, and forget about it, living a relaxed life of ease and comfort. Itās not that simple. That much money makes you a target for others who want a piece of it. They get sucked into its pull too, and theyāll drag you along with them.
you can easily hire an accountant & lawyer full time
And if you don't ride herd on your accountants and lawyers, they can easily rip you off.
How much time have you personally spent with any of those people? Iām guessing they spend a great deal of time managing their money and businesses.
Now, some people might enjoy that kind of thing, so theyāre not necessarily miserable, but I guarantee you it means they have much less time for things like kids, leisure, and whatnot. Things a lot of people find more enjoyable than conference calls with lawyers and accountants.
A lot of really hot fuckin woman. As a luckily handsome poor guy Itās actually pretty awkward.Ā
Not an employee, just reflecting on my own family:
When I was a kid, there was a huge windstorm that downed a bunch of trees in the backyard of our lake house that had previously blocked our view of the house next door. It was a little chartreuse square with a pointed roof, nothing horrible, but it did distract from our view of the lake. My parents ended up buying the house and tearing it down so we would have a better view. It seemed normal to me at the time, but looking back, itās a pretty crazy privilege to be able to buy a neighborās house and destroy it just so you donāt have to look at it anymore.
They pay to solve every problem.
About half of them are not smarter than anyone else, just luckier.
Just the complete and utter disconnect from reality.
Lingerie models parade around for the biggest developer in Virginia Beach so he could pick out something for his wife.
Yeah, definitely for his wife.
Guy I used to work for was worth over 200m. I had personally seen balance sheets indicating 100m+ in cash at times. Older guy; youād never know he had money if you randomly met him.
Drove a 12 year old truck like 500k miles. 5 acre lot in the country with a small home and not much in there.
He owned several companies but his personal office was a little former lawyers office with not much in there.
But man, outside of that town he had it going on. Private jet. He and his kids and grandkids took a big trip every summer. Every single time he would just buy a home on that vacation. He had acquired over 30 personal houses. Most of them large lodge-like houses on lakes and in forests.
And he loved to share it. Any employee could rent any of the houses up to a week for no charge except for a little cleaning fee. We could rent one every two or three years. One employee that worked for him battled cancer (and beat it!) for years, and he had to go to Minnesota or something for treatment. Every couple weeks the boss let him take the jet for no charge, and he stayed in one of his houses near that hospital. That guy is now a pretty high up manager.
During COVID they had their most profitable year ever. The company earned $20m more in profit than the previous year. It was insane. They issued a huge bonuses for every employee based on your tenure. I got $8000. I know a guy who had just started a month prior and he got $500.
Heād send people to school. If you were a good employee and you wanted to go back and study business or something related to a role, heād pay all of the tuition as long as you made As.
Immensely lavish Christmas parties for employees. They gave away THOUSANDS of dollars of gifts. Theyād draw a name for a car.
Itās astonishing what heās done for so many people. He told me that he felt like he needed to do it because he inherited a business decades ago, giving him a head start.
He did a lot for me personally, and it killed me to take another job. I just wanted something new in a new place. I was about to cry when I gave him my resignation. He congratulated me, and I was like āyouāve done a lot for me and I hope this is alrightā and he said ājust pay it forward. You owe me nothing.ā
Very cool guy
We need more people like this in the world. Like once you cross a certain threshold, thereās really no point in being richer since you canāt use it. Use it for good and make the world a better place.
I did some engineering work for the top 6 or 8 AmWay people. One of their houses had an NBA approved basketball court installed on the second floor of a house that had a 2000 sf cigar humidor room. We had a meeting where they flew their private jet to Salem, Oregon to pick me up on the way to Los Vegas. We had the meeting on the aircraft, they went to Los Vegas then sent the plane back to Salem. One of their houses had a room that was only accessible via under water in the swimming pool. I don't know who is more irresponsible..... the very poor or the very rich
OK IDGAF about any of the rest of that stuff but a secret room you have to swim to from the pool?!?!?! WWAAAAANNNTTTTT
Love secret rooms but I'm wondering what was in the room? I guess everyone would have been wet in there?
Perhaps thereās a towel and liquor hatch
That swimming pool room is some Minecraft shit lmao
Wow š³š³
For a bar mistvah a family rented out the star light roof at the waldorf Astoria and 2 other banquet halls One was full of video games. The hallways were full of candy vending machines
I was a private chef for a Hollywood producer when they stayed at their other other home. So for like 2 months of the year I worked for them. Anyways they had loud phone calls with lawyers always bossing and shouting at them. A few times they specifically asked for spies from a certain middle eastern democracy to start stalking and threatening young actresses that another producer/director had raped and sexually assaulted. The spies were former actual spies and now run a security firm that protects members of a certain religious ethnic group from charges and lawsuits regarding sexual assault, coercion, and child rape. Two of the ladies ended up disappearing.
Whatās parvenus?
It's a name people who were born rich like to call people who earned their wealth.
Like, if you were a descendant of the Vanderbilts, it's what you would call Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk
A parvenu is someone from humble origins who has become rich.
Nouveau riche. New money etc etc
Thanks
They have nicer toys than I do
I don't, but an old family friend did construction work for a famous chef who shall not be named who did not like to see any workmen about when he came to inspect the under construction property to the extent that he threw a hissy fit if he saw so much as a vehicle pulling out the driveway as he pulled up and would threaten to pull the building contract and take "legal action". They unironically had "spotters" on several points on the roads leading to where the property would be so they could scarper when his vehicle made an appearance.
Generosity. My mother boss paid for my little brother private school + university tuition. Just because my mother built a connection beyond employee/employer
I worked for a very wealthy couple for a while. They were like everyone else, mostly nice, but could be total aholes when in a mood.
Two things to understand... firstly they don't think that they're rich. This couple had 27 properties across 5 countries... a dozen cars... half a dozen boats... a private jet (albeit a small one)... a "significant" stock portfolio... and I heard one day... $350m in the bank... yet they were always talking about what they would do if it all vanished overnight. Everyone in their world that I dealt with was the same... matter how much they had it felt to them like they were on the verge of being poor.
The second thing is that they have a totally skewed understanding of the value of money. They might fly 1200miles in the private jet to get a hamburger, but not get a Coke because its "Too Expensive!". They will get a bill from their lawyer for $2000 and lose their crap, then you find out that they were in a bind and the lawyer fixed it and saved them 7 million. I remember one time she bought a dress for $500,000 and then wouldn't wear it because the strapless bra she needed was going to cost $600 and she wasn't prepared to pay that.
I work for a really rich Italian family and they have really large refrigeration in the Wearhouse....not really sure why.....not gonna ask either
I worked at a Fairmont hotel in banquets department and we had the owner (a rich Saudi prince) and his entourage come for a visit. We were briefed ahead of time on how to act around them. For instance, we were told not to look at the women at all.
They requested a buffet of McDonaldās food, so we ordered tons of food and organized it all into a buffet for them.
One evening we set up an outdoor event for them. It was cold/snowy so we had gas fireplace warmers around. A few guys from his entourage were standing around one, and I saw them put their phones into the fire, and watch, ensuring their phones were entirely melted/burnt up before leaving.
Always wondered why or what could have been on those phones..
When I was in grad school I worked as a piano mover, so I mostly either did jobs for local orchestras, music venues, and schools, or people who were rich enough to keep grand pianos in their homes. Which, not all of them are absurdly wealthy, but there were a few jobs that really stuck with me.
One of my favorites was this mansion that was in a gated community nested inside ANOTHER gated community. We looked it up on Zillow and it was listed as having sold for 7 or 8 million, and I'm in Kentucky where property is pretty cheap. Guy said "yeah, I live on a few thousand acres up in Hoosier National Forest but my b*tch wife doesn't wanna live with me anymore so I bought her this place."
Lots of taxidermied exotic animals
Did a job in one of the OLD old money mansions in town, still had intact slave quarters
My Sis N Law does private sitting for a couple of rich, older ladies from a well known older wealthy family in the town she lives in. They make her cook steaks for the dogs to eat whenever she works...
Company bought a small block of houses (about 6-7 very very old houses in a historic city district) next to business I work at, told all employees not to record or photograph as he had them all bulldozed (middle of Canadian housing crisis) city forced him to make it āgreen spaceā (planned on expanding parking lot) so had to lay sod over it all. Grass is all there dead and weāve been fined several times for parking cars on it
NDAās
I live in an area where there are billionaires amongst us. I lived here for 15+ years and noticed there were a lot of helicopters around. I would joke and say āon thatās the CEO of _____.ā Come to find out, the billionaires get around on helicopters so they donāt have to wait in traffic lol
'Last thing I saw was an NDA. Everything after that is blank.'
A rich person is more likely to steal for a thrill than a person in poverty is to steal for survival.
A rich person is more likely to attempt to overthrow the government because they figure they can lawyer it out if they lose, and send their enemies to gitmo / squad if they win.
Worked for an Uber rich Afghan man, he would hand me wads of cash and multiple credit cards with different names/addresses on them. He would then have me take his kids wherever they wanted to do whatever they want. Didnāt ever ask for a receipt, but I brought him back receipts and kept exact change.
He also lived in a very safe wealthy neighborhood, but hired private armed security for his home if he was ever traveling.
I've worked with, and have hung out with, several uber rich people and they are completely normal aside from the following:
Some control people with money. This is really bad in rich Asian families that have more social connections to worry about.
They buy everything they want until they get super bored and show off their toys. My buddy had a sweet mansion and a speed boat that he'd always show off, but he was a normal person that didn't really care about money.
The people trying to appear rich are either old money socialite types trying to make connections to make more money, or people without money that can't afford to buy what they buy. Both are super annoying and most of the normal rich people avoid them.
Drinking is a sport and everyone has a bar, but that doesn't mean it's fine liquor because it's usually bottles of beer, or long islands.
Jobs that make tons of money are usually social, and those social circles are super small, so everyone knows everyone and reputation is everything until people make enough to not have to care.
Everyone hates events, but they go because they have to.
I worked for a guy who had his own luxury furnishings business. He was from Iran and had had a bad time growing up ( scars from beatings etc). Wealthy. Paid his ' do everything for him' employee I found out - minimum wage. He would hawk the biggest loogies outside and snort the mucus loudly in front of anyone. Went to a work related thing with him in New York and he became angry with me for politely passing on dessert at his favourite place because we had eaten a big meal prior. He liked the rush he got from employees running around for him and purposely left projects to thr last minute and had a huge smile on his face watching us scramble. My coworker drove 10 hours at 4am to make a trunk show in time because the Owner wouldn't approve his trip until the very last minute. He had a brother he hated who owned a competing business and they were exactly the same.
Worked for the wife of the owner of a very prominent design company that everyone knows. She had her own workspace on the 2nd level of the company's flagship store. Very wealthy, she would drop 50k without blinking on Japanese textiles for her little design business. I billed her for an agreed upon amount and then 3 months later she wanted to hire someone else and told me to cut my wage in half so she could afford both of us. I said no and she never contacted me again. She was the wealthiest and thus the most worried someone would take advantage of her.
I have a friend who works in Russia as a Gouverneur, they are Tutors and Nannies for the rich oligarchs of Russia. He gets paid something around $2000 a week. But he told me one day as he walking with his family ( they did mid day strolls around Moscow ) how the patriarch of the family had absolute contempt for poor people. i don't mean like "oh they are just lazy" i mean put them all on an island and blow it up, like hatred towards them.
Donāt we all work for rich people?
Weekly subscription magazines that I could not ever fathom relating to, strewn with ads of companies I have never heard of selling products "FOR the rich. BY the rich". I guess that's what they mean by the rich having their own economic bubble and only spreading mass amounts of wealth to already wealthy people. Trickle down economy is bs.
I didnāt work for, but dated a rich girl. Rich as in his father had a helicopter, they had an armored vehicle, bodyguards, etc. She and her environment lived inside a bubble.Ā
Once I took her to a normal area and she saw a shop, Hermes I think it was but not sure. She had a card from daddy to pay for things.
She liked a bag that was like 45.000 USD or something like that and bought it. I mentioned about how expensive that was for a purse. She looked at me confused and asked ā45.000 USD is a lot of money?ā.
She genuinely didnāt know the value of money, for her it was like tokens.
Not super rich but definitely had $$ .i used to work as both a birth doula and a postpartum doula in an area that had some wealth. Some of the weirder things 1 family had me coming everyday mom was home and would ask me to do things with the older child but she would just come with us. For example if she wanted me to go to the park she would come with me and sit over in the corner reading the paper and holding the baby while I watched the older daughter. 2. One family wanted me to only use a sippy cup she didnāt trust anyone to not spill , even water. I declined the sippy cup. 3. I had one very strange family that lived in a huge house , maybe 5000-6000 square feet. Every time I went the newborn was in a bouncy seat in the upstairs area away from view of the older child because she was afraid to upset the older child. She even hid to nurse him.
One thing i noticed about working for the families I did is that all of them seemed to be very nervous, uptight and unnatural parents. I donāt know if this had to do with money or just the demographic I worked for but they really struggled with just enjoying their babies and toddlers. Lots of micromanaging and weird rules. That reminded me I had one family of two physicians who had one newborn. They wouldnāt allow the baby to take walks, outside in a stroller or baby carrier because of ticks and mosquitoes. Poor little person was always inside.
They have the capacity to help way more than poor people do, and most of them do it. They arnt the greedy swine most make them out to be.
My boss is currently āinvestingā in rental properties. His ROI is expected to be over 240% the first year and increase 10% every year there after. This is whatās wrong with the housing/rental market. People canāt fucking afford that.
Say the mortgage is $1000/month he expects rent to be $1700 the first year, $1800 the next year etc. and right now he has 4 duplexes, bringing in that kind of money per unit. Itās ridiculous. Highway robbery.
Heās salary and makes $3700 a week. (I saw his pay stub) thatās after taxes and insurance. And rarely puts in 40 hours per week.
I canāt stand him.
Good paychecks
Grey Poupon
Their sonās buddies hired and do nothing but collect a paycheck. Sometimes they donāt have to show up for work or have a side business.
I used to work on ultra luxury cruise ships. I saw a rich family of 3. 1 mother and 2 daughters in their teens. Spend 100,000$ on a cruise to Iceland. Absolutely hated it the first day. The 2nd day they had a private jet come pick them up so they could go shopping in London. Didnāt even see Iceland lol. Made me sad that they could just burn 100k when I can barely pay my bills.
Enough to know I get paid not to say anything about what Iāve seen.
I was a concierge at a 5-Star resort spa for a few years. It cost $90 just to walk in and use the pools. We had massages that cost over $500.
I saw rich old men shit everywhere. In the floor, in the showers, in the pools, in their robes, the steam rooms, the saunas..
I didnāt work for a rich person, but I did meet one once. After the bar while I was living in Florida, I went to dennys, it was the only 24 hour restaurant near by and well, nachos. There was this homeless looking guy. Torn clothes, dirt and stains everywhere, crazy hair, late 60ās I imagine. He kept talking about how he was rich, and i just believed he was some homeless drunk guy telling tales. No one believed him and moved away when he approached them. I told him he could sit with me and shared my nachos with him. I was drunk and he was funny. He said come back to the Dennyās tomorrow at noon and he will show me his pay me back for the nachos and give me a tour of his mansion. I said sure, sure man, enjoy the nachos. I came back the next day and he wasnāt there. I stood outside smoking a cigarette and here he comes pulling up in a very nice 911. Heās wearing different stained clothes, but his hair was done and I could tell he had showered. He said, āHey kid, Hop in!ā Iām 21 at the time, and pretty careless, I got in and I canāt remember the name of the area but itās just across a causeway by the Indian river in Florida. He did in-fact have a mansion, long scenic driveway that led to a circle around this giant oak tree, statues water fountain and the front doors were huge. I had never seen anything like it. He showed me his private movie theater, game room which had everything from ping pong machines to two full sized bowling lanes, tennis court, indoor pool, it was crazy. I met his wife as well while I was there. They were a very down to earth older couple. Nothing like I would have expected.
i spent time living in a stately home in england for a summer. the daughter was best friends with my older sister and they had me and my boyfriend come out and live at their estate. outside of the entire experience being exactly like saltburn minus the death, the weirdest thing i heard was that they genuinely believed the english and american governments were doing everything they could for the people and that we were coming up with conspiracy theories when we talked about the issues around education, health, and poverty. their daughter went on to be a teacher at an underprivileged school so i think she was aware of the privilege, but her family were completely unaware. even though they could trace their family back to the knights of the round table and their grandpa was an advisor to the queen.
Well I have a story to share as well. Daughter of our friend married one of 10 richest person in my country. They invite us periodically for birthday parties, this rich guy is there as well. I remember one time he arrived in brand new porche, parked it and allowed all present kids to play inside. Turned out in the morning that some buttons and levers were damaged, he assumed some 2-5kā¬ repair costs. No hard feelings.
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