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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)

#571

Post by sunrunner »

geodel wrote: post #539
sunrunner wrote: post #517

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you were that rich wouldn't you just hire someone to drive well for you? But if you liked driving for the sake of it would it not be part of the enjoyment to learn to handle different vehicles well?

As people are discussing there are different level of rich. At some level one want to reasonably good car that they drive themselves. At another level maybe people send advance team to setup before owner reach their vacation mansion and drive them around, cook their meals, etc once they are there.

> maybe people send advance team to setup before owner reach their vacation mansion and drive them around, cook their meals, etc once they are there.

I can readily believe this does happen at the right level of wealth, but there's something deeply absurd and humorous about someone sending a vanguard to their second or third home before they arrive.

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

#572

Post by alexey-salmin »

bluGill wrote: post #433
alexey-salmin wrote: post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But your comment on Meile, nice kitchen cabinets, sounds like you're looking only for what the next tier above you is enjoying. No, not really. These are examples of things I know from N+1 level. I'm curious to hear about N+2, N+3 and so on. Some of the points shared in this thread fit nicely, like "buying identical cars in locations you visit often". Or something like "don't by 488, find a used 458 instead -- it's…

A lot of things aimed at the middle class are better than what is aimed at the rich. There are not enough rich people pay engineers and so you end up with a $30,000 appliance that has the same features as the $1000 version and is lower quality because the few people who can afford to spend that much isn't enough to work out all the over time, while the lower priced models they release a limited run and then watch to…

Sure. I'm not interested in high-quality appliances per se, it's just an example of something middle class people buy that poor people aren't really aware of.

The original question still stands: What do insanely wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about?

By the definition of the question I can't know the answer myself: I am "ordinary people" so I must know nothing about it. So what's left to me is to suggest parallels at the level I do know something about.

Another example of a "middle class thing", not related to things or appliances: services, in particular moving. I changed flats many times in my life, more than 10. I used to pack, load, unload and unpack everything by myself and at some point it started to take 2-3 days of my time full time. Then one time I contracted an end2end moving service (you just give them the keys) and I would never ever go back.

Recently a friend of mine was moving and asked to help to load the truck. After an hour of sweating I asked why he didn't contract someone -- this idea just never crossed his mind. A year later he was moving again and was grateful for the advice.

Surely, rich people enjoy services that would never cross my middle class mind? A governour for the child maybe? Well I would never know.

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

#573

Post by FrankPetrilli »

ape4 wrote: post #561
noboostforyou wrote: post #537

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Price is 3-4 times higher but it lasts 5-10 times longer and is much more pleasant to use. "The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. ... A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about…

Probably $200 for a good pair of boots

$200 is enough to get you a pair of Keen boots, which will last a year or two. Truly "good" in the boot world is hand welted hand made leather boots, which are a rarity these days. There are functionally only a few bootmakers that still manufacture this way these days, and about half of them are all in the same Washington State region :)

Expect ~$400, and it's easy to spend $600 without much effort.

That said, look at my comment above in this thread; they do really last 10 years or more, so the investment is well worth it.

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

#574

Post by gruez »

Majromax wrote: post #558
gruez wrote: post #534

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>What the author says about 700M, is probably roughly equivalent to today's 5 billions. The cumulative inflation for the past 10 years is 35.6%, not 7x as you imply. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CPIAUCSL

> The cumulative inflation for the past 10 years Without taking a stand on which metric is better for social and lifestyle comparisons, the grandparent poster said 'valuation of assets' rather than inflation. Per Yahoo Finance ( https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%5ESP500TR/ ), the S&P500 is about 340% of its mid-2015 level on a total return basis (reinvesting dividends). Today's $700-millionaire would have been a 'mere…

>the S&P500 is about 340% of its mid-2015 level on a total return basis (reinvesting dividends).

I appreciate the correction, but that's still nowhere near the 7x that the OP was talking about.

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

#575

Post by bluGill »

sfeng wrote: post #160

What so many people fail to realize is the true purpose of money is to avoid having to spend time with people you don’t like, or do things you don’t value. So if you have a $400/million per month job, but you have to have meetings all day long, you’re not really rich. Similarly, no offense to billionaires, but the ones I’ve met have been someone manic and misanthropic. If you are using your access to spend your time…

A few years back I took some mandatory training. As part of this we were told to write down our personal goals which we all did. Then the trainer said something profound "I can tell you are engineers - mostly I give this class to executives who get mad when they do the above exercise. They realize their goals are things like spending time with family and yet instead of going home after this class they will be getting on an airplane to get to their next meeting".

I would love to have a private yacht, or whatever other symbol of wealth you can dream of. I have plans for what I would do with a house more than double my current house in size. However it isn't worth going into upper management to get those things.

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

#576

Post by Mashimo »

cess11 wrote: post #492
Mashimo wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we should get rid of the rich. In what way for example?

Why isn't material and financial redistribution good enough of an example?

Maybe, but you declined taxation that could be used for financial redistribution and just said "we should get rid of them".

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

#577

Post by adolph »

mattmaroon wrote: post #403
esperent wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They wouldn't even have a brand on their dishwasher - it would be commissioned by an architect or interior designer quietly maintained at regular intervals by an appliance engineer I'm not sure that I buy this. It's not simple to make a bespoke appliance like a dishwasher that's better than a very high end mass produced one. Where did you get the idea that this happens from?

That would be the ultimate status symbol, paying the world’s best dishwasher engineer to design you a custom one off dishwasher.

Or an interactive AI primer for your grandchild.

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

#578

Post by MichaelDickens »

noboostforyou wrote: post #537
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…

> Price is 3-4 times higher but it lasts 5-10 times longer and is much more pleasant to use. "The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. ... A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about…

This is one economic function of loans: borrow money to buy the more expensive boots, pay extra in interest, but save money in the long run. Assuming it is in fact cheaper to buy the more expensive item.

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

#579

Post by e40 »

flerchin wrote: post #566
bane wrote: post #488

Grew up poor, made it a little in life - could maybe retire now. The things I and the people I grew up with don't know how to do at all can be shocking. People who grew up similarly and ended up in middle class seem to be similar unless they put real time into it: - how to buy stocks, what ETFs are, what a 401(k) is, etc. - hiring people to clean your house, do yard work, etc. - traveling out of the country, or in ma…

I think a cleaning person and lawn guy should be more like $3500-$5k per year.

The given range was the assumed incorrect price, which made them not contract for the service.

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

#580

Post by hnthrow90348765 »

dhuk_2018 wrote: post #520
jl6 wrote: post #475

The richest people I know don’t have work-life balance, they have a supercritical work-life fluid.

Can you further explain this?

Basically it's their personality, but they don't do like 8-12 hours/6 days a week of drudgery work like building web apps on a deadline for someone else - that shit's draining. But if I'm putting money to work knowing my (rich) life is secure and more in control of my destiny, it's empowering for a lot of people to stay connected to it 24/7 even though it's "work".
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