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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)

#341

Post by 4gotunameagain »

wiseowise wrote: post #335
4gotunameagain wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Self improvement is one thing, "go on coaching sessions to increase your confidence and how you socialize" & "buy dating coaches who understand the psychology behind dating and successful relationships" are a completely different beast.

This is just streamlining process of how to become desirable. Nerds with money can afford to even the odds VS their more successful peers who manage to do it naturally. Nothing cringe about that.

Based on the fact that you just wrote "streamlining process of how to become desirable", we will probably never see eye to eye on what is cringe :)

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

#342

Post by elorant »

Wealthy people usually get concierge services. You go to a museum as a regular folk, it’s overcrowded and there’s like 20 other people looking at the same art piece you’re looking, trying to get a better shot from it. You visit as a wealthy individual, you get a private tour after hours with a dozen others when the museum is empty with a trained guide who can answer any questions you may have. You can view any art piece at your own pace from every angle you like. This goes on for pretty much every public service out there.

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

#343

Post by TacticalCoder »

safety1st wrote: post #248
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…

On a personal level I know several guys who are worth $10-30M, one who's worth probably $40M, and one who's worth around $700M, this is LNW. Not much in the Reddit reply checks out for me. It's true that the $700M guy socializes with "Senators/Congressmen/community leaders." He travels a lot, and comfortably, but has no ownership in a jet. He retired young-ish and no longer works so maybe that's why. He doesn't flash…

I was invited for coffee at a friend's friend.

He seemed a pretty regular guy, very friendly: kids playing in the pool. Nothing out of the ordinary except as many house employees as adult guests (and house employees where calling guests by their name).

I happened to know the artist Jeff Koons: not a big fan of the "inflated balloon dogs" but I do like his ballerinas. Well... Turns out the dude had one house destroyed then rebuilt to accommodate a 3 meters high Jeff Koons sculpture of two ballerinas.

I don't know exactly but I take it that's a $15m sculpture. I'd say most people don't know who Jeff Koons is and most people have no idea that some people shall just level an entire house just to have an architect redesign a new house, at the same place, so that a sculpture can now be admired from the living room, kitchen and garden.

He's got several paintings from Basquiat too. He's actually in the top 200 of the world's top art collectors (I found that out by googling his name after having been to his place).

And he's got his art pieces sprinkled around the world, in his many properties.

> The $10-30M people don't seem much different from me.

Definitely not very different. One little fantasy I saw not one but two people in that range do is buy several times the exact same car. Identical. Same config. Then they use one as a daily, and put the the others at different vacation places they have: so they land, take a cab, then get to enjoy the same car. Weird but I've seen two people do it, so I take it's a thing? One had identical Range Rover, the other identical Lexus.

Not real petrolheads: rich car petrolheads are actually going to own fancy stuff like old Ferrari 250 (even if "just" a GTE), old GT40, old Porsche, etc. which every body expects rich people to have if they're into cars at all.

But yup: buying x times the exact same car when times comes to change cars is kinda just weird.

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

#344

Post by lmm »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #320
oezi wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Price is 3-4 times higher but it lasts 5-10 times longer The problem is that if an Ikea furniture lasts 15 years then that's enough. People no longer need 50-100 years furniture, because nobody wants to inherit old stuff anymore. Life's circumstances change faster and buying quality often isn't worth it. Maybe a Miele dishwasher last twice as long at double the price. But it will become old after 10 years even so.

> People no longer need 50-100 years furniture, because nobody wants to inherit old stuff anymore. I'm going to challenge this assertion: did anyone, ever? Looking around in my parents' house (retirement age), there's no furniture from their parents (post-WW2). I don't remember whether my grandparents had any furniture of their parents in use either. I do recall going to the charity shops and finding older wooden fur…

> did anyone, ever?

Yes. Pre-railroad people mostly didn't move and inheriting furniture was extremely helpful. Go back earlier and the cost of buying your own furniture would have been prohibitive.

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

#345

Post by bjourne »

ta1243 wrote: post #299
bjourne wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Progressive tax scales solves that problem neatly.

Tax on income keeps wealth with people who have wealth, and people without wealth wage slaves. If you rent a $10m house you pay $500k a year for it. With 50% tax you'd have to earn $1m a year to pay the rent. If you own a $10m house you pay no rent, and have to earn $0 a year to live there.

Wealth tax is a thing.

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

#346

Post by dinkblam »

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…

> existence of Miele kitchen

i'd pay not to own Miele

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

#348

Post by ponector »

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…

Next stage is to realize solid wood is better than veneer wood.

Also miele has too much marketing hype. Want the ultimate appliances? Buy professional equipment. Like washing machine that are used in hotels.

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

#349

Post by lm28469 »

rwmj wrote: post #326
lm28469 wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it’s more accessible than most realise > I am only marginally wealthy, high 7/low 8 figures We must have a very different definition of "accessibility"

Anyone on a programmer's salary should be able to get to low 7 figures in a decade, and better in 2 decades. In fact I'd go further and say that if you're on a six-figure salary you really must do it. We can't be sure our privileged position will continue for too much longer.

lol, lmao even... Most devs aren't even making 100k a year, even in the US the median is at like 120k.

Let's say you make 100k a year in Berlin, you're already in the top 1% so "accessibility" is out of the equation at that point, that's 4.8k net. Let's say you manage to invest ~60% of your salary, that's about 3k a month, 36k a year. Now let's say you get 8% return per year (which you won't), you're barely above 500k after 10 years.

So yeah sure, if you're in the top 1% to begin with, and live on what basically amounts to your local minimum wage while investing everything else, you can get to 1 million after 15 years or so...

Ah, and don't forget the tax man, he'll take his 20-30% cut on your million.

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

#350

Post by tlb »

master_crab wrote: post #331
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…

Miele looks and acts high end. And that includes the repair costs because they frequently break. No thanks. I’ll take something that is less so but will work for years without complaint.

Yes, but the quietness outweighs all other considerations.
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