31 Redditors Name The Insane Things That Rich People Buy, But The Poor Are Clueless About

You'd be surprised at how much they spend to achieve exclusivity.

May

• Published in Interesting
• September 9, 2022

Rich people live a different lifestyle than the rest of us. But what exactly sets them apart?

First of all, they're always on the go. While the rest of us are content to stay in one place, rich people are always on the move.

They jet set around the world for business and pleasure, and they're always up for a new adventure. With tons of money to spend, rich people tend to accumulate more stuff than the rest of us.

They have bigger houses, nicer cars, and more expensive clothes. And they're not afraid to show it off.

Also, rich people are usually workaholics. They're always hustling and grinding, even when they're on vacation.

They just can't help but be productive all the time. Elon Musk, for example, claims he works 120 hours a week.

A lot of rich people are givers, not takers. Despite their wealth, rich people are usually very generous.

They donate to charities, give back to their communities, and help out family and friends. And another thing that sets them apart is that they're lifelong learners.

They're constantly reading, taking classes, and attending seminars. They want to know everything they can about the world.

Time

Time.

For example, I own a boat, I work my a*s off on it repairing, cleaning, storage, etc. If I were rich I would just pay to have all of that taken care of so that I just make a call and the boat was ready to go anytime I wanted it.

The rich spend their money on toys, but they also spend money buying the time to use those toys and to live their lives.

Convenience

My in-laws were well off.

Way before the internet, I had an unexpected emergency when my brother was in a bad car accident in another state. I had been out shopping with my sister-in-law when my mother-in-law called the store and told us to come home right away, but she didn't say why.

It took me 20 minutes to make what was normally a 40 minute drive. I'm pretty sure I scared my sister-in-law to death with my driving.

When we got home, my in-laws gave me the news. They also had airline tickets waiting for me so I could be on a plane right away. How? They had a travel agent they'd used for years. In the half hour between the time they got the call from my family to the time I walked through their front door, they had called the travel agent who had booked the ticket and had it hand-delivered to my in-laws home.

So what do rich people buy that poor people have no idea about? Incredible convenience, that's what.

A way to prevent poor people from getting near them

Isolation from poor people. Rich people spend a lot of money to make sure that poor people can't get anywhere near them.

A chef who exclusively makes tea

My wife’s, cousin’s husband is a chef for a famous Bollywood star. The catch- he is only there to make chai. Apparently his chai tastes exactly the same as his employer’s beloved (now deceased) grandmother used to make. The man makes more than I do per year making chai 2-3 times/day.

In general, access to everything.

Access.

Need to call a governor? He's on speed dial and will phone the senators too. Need to talk to the CEO of Coca Cola... he's waiting for you and immediately assigns someone to fix your problem. Do you want to yatch around the horn of Africa? The closest naval fleet will tell you the safest route and provide "support" so pirates don't mess with you.

I own a company and by nature interact with a lot of billionaires and CEO's. I'm by no means rich but hang in the circle enough that I've e-mailed CEO's of fortune 500's and they've hooked me up with huge "free" things as a small perk or thank you. I've been PAID to fly places just to have a 1 hour meeting and then get a free VIP week long vacation with the mayor or consulate showing me around.

It's trippy and I've never really felt at home, but I've been eternally grateful for these travel opportunities.

Family offices

OilSpillsAreGood:

You don't really "buy" this, but, family offices. You need to have an incredibly high NW to even think about these services.

climb-it-ographer's response:

Yeah a proper dedicated FO is really in the $500+ million net-worth territory.

They're really like an 'easy mode' for so many of life's annoyances. Having trusted lawyers, financial advisors, personal assistants, and other staff on-hand for everything just takes so much of the hassle out of day-to-day life.

Feel like buying a new Range Rover? Well, you sure as hell don't need to mess around with that process yourself-- just ask your FO to handle it and have it dropped off at the house. Want to buy some property you saw while on vacation?

Just have them work out the details and give you the final paperwork to sign. Getting sued because of some shit you said on Twitter? Your lawyers are working around the clock with no other clients just for you. And on and on-- a team of dedicated assistants is a hell of a luxury.

Support vessels for a yacht

Support ships for your mega-yacht.

The biggest yachts don't travel alone, they generally have small cargo ships that do everything from house additional staff, to transport your cars so you always have them when you make port, to holding all of your toys (helicopters, submarines, day-boats, etc.).

They'll often travel a day or two ahead of the yacht to a destination so that your staff can unload your things (cars, clothing, etc.) at the next villa you're summering in.

In case one of their family members get kidnapped...

Kidnap insurance

They can buy happiness.

Happiness.

People say you can't buy happiness, but that's not true. Not only do rich people have more time since people with less money have to work a lot more, they can also buy stuff that can make then happy for years that is someone from a poor family tired to buy it they definitely ruin the family's income, making them even more poor.

I'm not saying buying stuff like multiple phones or expensive clothing i mean stuff like pets, plane tickets etc,, poor people have to really work for those. Me and my bf live really far away, I live in Czech Republic and have lives in Australia.

If someone bought us plane tickets to we can be with eachother, I'd be so unbelievably happy. Unfortunately they are really expensive and neither of us have that kind of money atm, tho we are hoping to get it soon enough. Neither of us is that poor, it's just a lot of money to spend on something.

Access to free stuff

Honestly insanely rich people often get so much for free because they're rich. Money begets money as well as access. It's crazy how much free stuff and access you get just because you're rich.

Retainer pilots

An acquaintance of mine is one of six pilots "on retainer" for a wealthy family

In-house mechanics for all their cars

On staff mechanics. People see the Floyd Mayweathers and Tom Cruises of the world buying tons of cars and motorcycles, but when you have a fleet like that, you basically need on staff mechanics who at the very least keep your cars clean, but also handle all maintenance.

Create impossible opportunities

Funny, I know this guy who is the son of a man who sold his company to a large tech company for hundreds of millions.

The son went to art school. Works for an associate of his father Lives in Manhattan. Dad pays for everything.

He started a movie company recently. Dad $. Wrote a screenplay. Is filming a movie today. He's the producer and director.

He invited me to drive a few hours to be an extra in a few scenes.

I had to refuse because I need to work to pay for some unexpected bills.

That's what money can do. Either give you options or make opportunities out of reach.

Insurance on their money-making properties

Weird but important different types of insurance on their "money-makers"

Like Taylor Swift has her legs insured for like $50 million. Her legs are part of her brand, her look. If some terrible accident happened that removed her legs or damaged them, she has insurance to cover that loss of income.

Private doctors

Private doctor's. My nephew married into a very high net worth family, They employ a general practitioner/hospitalist with privileges at several top level hospitals.

He caters, in house, to any and all medical needs they may have.

Residential homes turned into commercial real estate

Its not just buying stuff but also keeping stuff they once bought. Many rich people just keep all the homes they ever owned as investment instead of selling when they move. Thats also a prime example of housing turning into commercial realestate in many cases.

Clothing and apparel that are more expensive than Prada and Gucci

I work for the super-rich/elite of California. Tycoons and politicians and old money types. They don't wear the "poor" name brands like Gucci or Prada. They buy these random brands you've never heard of where a white t-shirt is 3k. Money talks, wealth whispers.

EDIT: for those asking, some examples off top of my head would be Khatie, Miu Miu, Alaïa, Loro Piana, moncler, etc. Those aren’t the most expensive, just the most common.

Someone linked a Quora below with other good examples! The clothes are all pretty normal and unassuming, which is the point. It’s meant to be an iykyk kinda thing

Exclusive vacation clubs

There are membership-based vacation clubs. Similar to high-end country clubs, but for travel.

You may pay a one-time initiation fee that can be upwards of $100k - $250k to get 5-10 years of *access* to purchase incredibly exclusive vacation/resort/rental property experiences.

I work in the travel industry and I know of multiple companies like this.

Working people

In my ex-socialist country, rich people buy (off) officers, teachers, doctors and judges.

Pet clones

Cloning pets, one of our investors spent ~$100K cloning his dog.

Corporations are willing to hire the kids of the rich

Opportunity.

You can throw a hundred business ideas at the wall and only one sticks, if you are rich enough, when you finally do something right, everyone calls you a genius, like you didn’t buy your way through 99 failures first.

Most people only get one shot.

Also, corporations will literally bend over backwards to employ rich peoples useless kids. The bank I used to work at once had a guy like that and after six months has to let him go, but “couldn’t wait to work with him in the future” because his family was loaded,

They couldn’t be honest and tell him what a useless f**k he was, they wanted him to come back when he finished university instead.

Paintings

Obscure paintings, like ones you've never heard of. There have been cases of art changing hands without ever being seen but the buyer or leaving the vault where it was stored.

There are a lot of investment vehicles that are largely unused for their intended purposes and are purchased just because their perceived value is expected to increase (e.g. a lot of luxury apartments in major cities).

People rightfully trash talk NFT's but those are basically just a parody of what a lot of rich people are already buying.

Travel bookings at insane amounts

I work in the film industry and one time I booked a trip for someone to fly from London to California for a weekend and it cost more than my yearly salary.

Edit: This was 2010, and it was $35,000 for first class airfare, private car, & hotel, because they realized Friday morning that based on his contract that he needed to be present while the film was being finished that weekend, and his contract specified he accommodations needed to be first class/5-star hotel, etc.

Edit2: I accidently had an extra "0" it was $35k, which is $10k more than what the studio was paying executive assistants at the time...

Luxury hospital floors

I don’t thing many people know that their are luxury hospital floors for rich people:

Rich people can stay anonymous

anonymity

Books by the foot

Books by the foot to fill decorative libraries

Islands, buildings, and high-frequency trading

That people don’t actually know about? There are a few towns and islands that are only for rich people. It’s just a place you’d never know to go or have access too unless you too are rich.

But also things like specific buildings for high frequency trading. Some trading firms move to where they have faster access to the internet and as such can complete trades faster peeling off those tenths of a cent in a transaction that in term can make millions.

I think the exchanges actually figured out a way to stop it but for a period of time it was something only rich people could buy

Adding laws to a state

In California, a rich person can spend a few million dollars and get a measure placed on the state ballot. If it passes, it becomes law.

Convenient streaming service

There a streaming service that's pretty much netflix for rich people, allowing you to stream current cinematic movies for about 3000 bucks a pop.

Researchers

They don’t invest on their own, they hire company to do research and advise on best steps to make their money grow.

50 additional years of life

Pretty soon. A very long life. Thanks Bezos.

Rich people blow their money on cars, wine, and houses while the rest of us, ordinary people, buy practical things like groceries and toiletries. It’s interesting to think about how our spending habits might change if we suddenly came into a lot of money – would we become more extravagant with our purchases?

May