Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

old.reddit.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

651–660 of 829 posts

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

#651

Post by financltravsty »

FreebasingLLMs wrote: post #500
myself248 wrote: post #487

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My mom worked at a law firm where one of the partners retired, moved to England, and bought a castle. As one does. He told this story while back in the States for a party: Castles are old. And drafty. And need a LOT of renovations to bring them up to a modern standard. So he had immediately set upon this work, hiring contractors, picking out high-end appliances, arranging for the import of Italian marble countertops.…

[flagged]

It's old-world ragebait. Falling for it is lowly -- like you don't know the game.

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

#652

Post by huehehue »

Der_Einzige wrote: post #638
FrankPetrilli wrote: post #573

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$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 a…

You can get goodyear welted boots which are decent and will likely last on the order of 10 years for 200$ if you're willing to let the person hand stitching it for you be brown and overseas (i.e. buy from Thursday who will make them in Mexico or Portugal) Hell, Schott will sell you a pair of made in the USA goodyear welted boots for 300$.

Yes, I have an 8 year old pair of boots that have been through all sorts of conditions, all over the world. And I don't even do anything to maintain them. You can get very good boots for $200.

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

#653

Post by mixmastamyk »

rsynnott wrote: post #477
alexey-salmin wrote: post #441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It won't require the Wi-Fi connection to operate (so definitely a reason to stick to my 12 years old appliances) I'm not even joking: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43463200 > It says options with an asterisk—including Rinse, Machine Care (self-cleaning), HalfLoad, Eco, and Delay start, are "available through Home Connect app only and depending on your model." This is happening now.

Yeah, I mean obviously don't buy a dishwasher with a wifi connection, come on now. But that's not mandatory.

Forgot the cloud account and app only available from BigTech platforms.

Don’t buy—well just like cars they are taking that less-profitable choice away.

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

#654

Post by acuozzo »

toyg wrote: post #630
myself248 wrote: post #487

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My mom worked at a law firm where one of the partners retired, moved to England, and bought a castle. As one does. He told this story while back in the States for a party: Castles are old. And drafty. And need a LOT of renovations to bring them up to a modern standard. So he had immediately set upon this work, hiring contractors, picking out high-end appliances, arranging for the import of Italian marble countertops.…

That's a classic put-down (and a lie). English aristocracy really knows how to cut someone to size when they feel like.

> how to cut someone to size

This, thankfully, only works when the recipient of the cut-down lacks self-assuredness.

If Mr. New-Money Castle Owner wears pride in knowledge & expertise on his sleeve, then no amount of snobbery will have an impact.

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

#655

Post by geodel »

bluGill wrote: post #497
baal80spam wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, you can't be serious.

One of my coworkers - a senior engineer - came to the US from India and found it a big change - sure he knew how to cook, but he didn't realize he would have to cook every meal. He has two house keepers before who would come in the morning make breakfast, and clean the house. They would then leave for the afternoon and return to make supper and minor tidying up. He really only had enough work for 1 house keeper but h…

Yup, no big deal. One of my cousin has like 2 housekeepers full time and 2 comes are different time of day like help with cooking and cleaning during lunch and dinner. Their luxury car is however lowest end Audi and another is Corolla.

On flip side he had to change 2 jobs because travel distance as ~20 miles but in term of duration it was 4+ hrs daily. And no such thing as peak hours there, day-in/day out, morning, afternoon, late night, week day, weekend, same worst possible traffic.

Any interaction with real world outside of home can wear people down specially the kind who keep multiple household helps. From traffic, to pollution, medical care, school admissions, doing groceries, shopping, parking and on and on.

One way to think is at absolute top level like senior most politicians, industrialist, CEOs, other types of super influential people, developed vs developing countries' lifestyle can match, but as one start moving down the ladder, the quality falls very rapidly in developing world and serious compromises can start just 2 step down from top.

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

#657

Post by anon291 »

ty6853 wrote: post #646
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…

The real cost of hiring people to do stuff for your house is it's actually hella expensive to get licensed and bonded legal employees with references that attest they aren't thieves, and if you don't eventually they steal your shit or they get hurt and sue you for a billion dollars. I could easily hire people to do it, but I sweat bullets everytime I am guilt tripped into letting a neighbor kid mow the lawn because I…

Umbrella insurance is very cheap, and if you have any money at all, you should have it.

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

#658

Post by ty6853 »

anon291 wrote: post #657
ty6853 wrote: post #646

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real cost of hiring people to do stuff for your house is it's actually hella expensive to get licensed and bonded legal employees with references that attest they aren't thieves, and if you don't eventually they steal your shit or they get hurt and sue you for a billion dollars. I could easily hire people to do it, but I sweat bullets everytime I am guilt tripped into letting a neighbor kid mow the lawn because I…

Umbrella insurance is very cheap, and if you have any money at all, you should have it.

" Umbrella insurance does not cover workers' compensation claims,"

-- some random top google result for umbrella insurance

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

#659

Post by vel0city »

nickd2001 wrote: post #628
vel0city wrote: post #603

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A 2.4GHz wave has a wavelength of ~12mm. The concept of blocking the emissions of a microwave oven is to only have small gaps, much smaller than the wavelength, in the metal casing. That's why you can have those 1-2mm holes in the door window without having much leakage; the holes are much smaller than the waves. So as long as the gaps on the doors and panels of the microwave are still aligned right and the door clos…

Thanks for the explanation. :) Hacker news is indeed to place to talk about these things ;)

Yeah dude. Its crazy to think about how electromagnetic waves can actually be large, as they're invisible to us. But yeah, EM waves can have wavelengths measured in meters, and can often be as long as 100M or more!

Electromagnetism is weird.

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

#660

Post by snowwrestler »

mathverse wrote: post #494
snowwrestler wrote: post #459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think that happens at wealth = $5 million? One high-end luxury house costs more than that.

I am thinking liquid not net worth.

Yes, exactly, a person with $5 million liquid can afford to buy maybe 1 luxury home. Sure they probably already own a home, but 2nd homes are not uncommon luxuries.

As a reminder you said “almost anything highend / luxury becomes a commodity.”

Or look at this way: $5 million throws off $200k/year (pre-tax) with a “safe” pull rate of 4%. Ok so now you want to buy a luxury car, that’s over $100k. You’ve spent most of your annual income on one car. Hardly a commodity!

$5 million is enough to sustain an upper class income in most metro regions. But a long way from commodifying luxury.

Post reply on HN