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What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

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Re: What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

#221

Post by song »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #64
sarchertech wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I stayed at the 4 seasons a few years ago just to give it a try. Not even remotely worth it. The only real difference I noticed was the obsequiousness of the staff. If you want hotel employees to kiss your ass and pretend to respect you, then this is the place for you. But the quality of the room wasn’t noticeably better than other places I’ve stayed. I will give you a good example of something that most upper middle…

> the quality of the room wasn’t noticeably better than other places I’ve stayed I broadly agree with you on their hotels. But I’d note that Four Seasons doesn’t compete on room quality, but service. If you planned your stay perfectly they shouldn’t outperform. But if you forgot something, or need help with something weird, they have a habit of being halfway legendary. (Colleague left his suit at home. They had one m…

Memorable experience at a four seasons in Shenzhen (memorable for how well they fixed my screwups that is), I had forgotten my laptop charger (apple laptop). They didn't have any I could borrow, went to the apple store to buy one and lent it to me. I forgot my phone in the taxi arriving at the airport. Noticed immediately, I tried calling my phone, the taxi driver hung up immediately on me (so he knew I left my phone there and was probably planning on selling it). I called Four Seasons, they had kept a record of the taxi number, got the phone fedexed it to my destination.

Re: What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

#222

Post by Black616Angel »

alexey-salmin wrote: post #179
ludicrousdispla wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For many tennis players, love means nothing.

So it does for many ordinary people. Money can't buy happiness but nether could the absence of money. It's not really a good argument against money.

What? Money absolutely CAN buy happiness. What do you even talk about?

Probably all of the current problems in my life could be solved with money.

Re: What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

#223

Post by urbandw311er »

nayuki wrote: post #211

That particular Reddit comment [2015-01-13] overlaps with a recent Graham Stephan video that explains what life is like at each order of magnitude of net worth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAPhN6o3e3o (19m57s) [2025-04-28]

As in: you’re saying he just copied it for his YT? Or as in we should watch it because it’s interesting

Re: What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

#224

Post by EvanAnderson »

Through some odd circumstances I found myself receiving a lot of catalogs and sales solicitations for a reasonably wealthy person. Most of the stuff was what you'd exoect-- expensive furnishings, clothing, home goods.

The two that were most interesting were the travel-related (guided trips in exotic locales w/ profiles and resumes of the local guides), and oddly specific and highly-focused catalogs (gardening, specific types of home goods). The one that really stands out was a catalog with hundreds of different brushes-- each with a very specific purpose (and many with carrying cases and other accessories). I had no idea there were so many different brushes.

Re: What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

#225

Post by ctchocula »

hcfman wrote: post #205

What would be great if these ultra rich people started to associate success not just with money but also with being a decent human being and giving back. Because just having shit lots of money is not my definition of being successful. Ultra rich should make giving back a structural part of their lives and businesses.

What you're talking about sounds a lot like the post-scarcity world that Gene Roddenberry envisioned in the Star Trek universe, where everyone has enough to live on, so social status is attained by prestige and doing admirable things (i.e. working for Starfleet). However, there's a lot of work to be done getting from here to there.

Re: What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

#226

Post by rienbdj »

anal_reactor wrote: post #202
alexey-salmin wrote: post #176

The referenced reply is dull. It's very pretentious but just reiterates common knowledge, it doesn't convey any useful information. For example I wish someone told me about the existence of Miele kitchen equipment before I accidentally rented an apartment of a well-to-do woman. She renovated it for herself but then rented out when circumstances changed. Similarly it took me a long time to realize just how much better…

> but it lasts 5-10 times longer I find it such a weird argument. Ok, your furniture from 1900 is still doing great, fantastic. The problems are: 1. Your great-grandfather had a different sense of esthetics, so shit just didn't fit your modern apartment. 2. You moved to a different country, and shipping fees of the furniture were ten times the cost of brand-new chipwood furniture (literally). 3. The furniture was des…

The best interiors feel lived in but not stuffy. A few old pieces of furniture can help achieve that. Part of the skill of interior design is making these pieces work together in new ways.

You don’t want your home to feel like an ikea catalog surely!?

Re: What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

#227

Post by st-keller »

madaxe_again wrote: post #208
lm28469 wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buying "things" really is the level 0 of wealth. What matters is that you don't have to sell your time for money, that alone changes your entire existence. Then you have access to better healthcare, education, seeing your kids grow, &c. That's why a lot of poor people who unlock large amount of money go broke quite fast, they still think like poor people

Time is indeed a very major thing, but it’s more accessible than most realise - I am only marginally wealthy, high 7/low 8 figures, and that’s ample for me to not need to work for a living and live very comfortably. Frankly, once you have even $1M in free liquid capital, you are in the endgame, as money makes money far more efficiently than labour. I spend perhaps 20 hours a year farting around with our finances, pla…

I also like showing up at places and don’t give a shit what other people think. It’s even more fun not being wealthy at all.

Re: What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

#228

Post by TheAceOfHearts »

One of the things that isn't really mentioned here is that extreme wealth and power lets you bring your special interests to life even when they wouldn't be particularly practical or economically viable. For example: did you know there was a large community of animators in North Korea because it was a special interest of Kim Jong-Il [0]?

Another example is how inheritors of the Walton fortune helped build tons of biking infrastructure in an Arkansas City [1].

I wish more ultrarich people would compete on building thriving communities, instead of maximizing their own personal luxuries and walling themselves off from the world. Silicon Valley is a bit of a deranged version of this, where different companies create their own little kingdoms of community for employees, while the broader community ends up being rather dull and uninviting.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korean_animation

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/13/us/how-an-arkansas-city-b...

Re: What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

#229

Post by lrhegeba »

Animats wrote: post #116
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Family offices manage investments. Personal staff are typically separate.

Traditionally, yes. That's for the people who inherited a mansion, retainers, and trusts. Now there are family office concierge services. "Luxury lifestyle as a service" is available.[1] That's for people who made a lot of money all at once and need guidance in spending it. (The people I've known with serious money made most of it themselves, and didn't need a family office. Except for one married couple who blew thr…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quintessentially_Group would be another one. American Express has a concierge service for their wealthier clients as do most big banks with services for their wealthy clients

Re: What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

#230

Post by song »

tsoukase wrote: post #100
david38 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Little, but largely impactful in certain circumstances * money for health care * education * money to walk away from a bad job + money to hold you over for extended periods during hard times

After health and edu, your points do not apply. Filthy rich do not have jobs, hard times etc And at least in Europe we have (mostly) low cost health and edu and we do not (mostly) get jealous about the rich

I'm French and, out of all the countries I've lived in (US, developing countries in South East Asia, China, ...) I have a hard time thinking of a country where there's more hatred for the rich than in France. So I'm not sure that the statement of Europeans not getting jealous about the rich tracks. If anything Americans seem to dislike their rich less.
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