If you have more money than all your friends

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have five very close friends I've known since middle school.  I went to UVA and two went to Virginia Tech and the other three went to JMU.  I turned out to be the most successful person financially in the group, has a 7M home and 30M in the bank.  My friends are just federal employees but it does not matter.  I've made clear to them that I will take care of the bills whenever we get together.  Between 2019 and 2022, I made a lot of money from Tesla, Amazon and Apple stocks. I bought five Model 3 Tesla for my friends.  I don't keep score with my friends.  Next month, all six of us will be traveling to Argentina for a month-long trip and I am footing the bill.  Friendship is like a marriage and it takes work on both sides to keep it healthy.

I’ll be your friend.

But seriously, I wouldn’t want my friend to buy me a car. I would rather have him take me on golf trips with his FlexJet account.

Props to you if you are being serious! Generosity is the greatest gift

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have five very close friends I've known since middle school.  I went to UVA and two went to Virginia Tech and the other three went to JMU.  I turned out to be the most successful person financially in the group, has a 7M home and 30M in the bank.  My friends are just federal employees but it does not matter.  I've made clear to them that I will take care of the bills whenever we get together.  Between 2019 and 2022, I made a lot of money from Tesla, Amazon and Apple stocks. I bought five Model 3 Tesla for my friends.  I don't keep score with my friends.  Next month, all six of us will be traveling to Argentina for a month-long trip and I am footing the bill.  Friendship is like a marriage and it takes work on both sides to keep it healthy.

Yeah, didn't happen.

Even our most richest friends don’t just buy their friends cars. If OP is from a modest background, she probably has extended family who would get financial assistance and cars before she would buy college friends cars.

[Anonymous]

Friendships change and drift over decades, OP. You’re attributing all of the shift to your wealth, it seems, but maybe that’s an oversimplification?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
What saves our friendships is that we still live in our starter home and drive our beater cars. We don't worry about retirement or college tuition or anything like that, and it came up this year because our oldest is going to an expensive college. It may have been the first time our friends realized we could afford that sort of thing. I do think that if we moved to a fancy house and drove fancy cars, our friends would need a period of adjustment!

Yes, this is us too. I’m sure it’s just my bias because I grew up very middle class but I don’t think I would fit in in a rich neighborhood. And I’m
Not sure I want my kids growing up surrounded by that. So we save a ton, spend on travel and other things we value. Friends would have no idea how much we have, which is fine with me. I don’t try to act like we are struggling but the house cars etc are not luxurious, but still good quality. This is what has worked for us.

+2. Sending kids to college is the first time the wealth difference became apparent because all our friends are worried about loans etc.

[Anonymous]

We have had a generally very high income. $300k combined in 2002 when we were 25 with a peak year of $14M during Covid. Been over $2M for a decade (agi which doesn’t consider $300-$400k in annual commercial rental property depreciation).

My college friends with whom I’m closest have household incomes between $75k and $300 with most in the $150-200k range.

We’ve known each other since our net worths were the same. It is not an impediment to our friendship.

Now our post law school friends, they never bring it up because the income disparity is so great between us and them, but that also makes it not an issue.

[Anonymous]

They know and care. $$ always causes separations - sooner or later. Don’t kid yourself.

[Anonymous]

I think it would be hard to make that much and not live in a different world than substantially all of America.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have five very close friends I've known since middle school.  I went to UVA and two went to Virginia Tech and the other three went to JMU.  I turned out to be the most successful person financially in the group, has a 7M home and 30M in the bank.  My friends are just federal employees but it does not matter.  I've made clear to them that I will take care of the bills whenever we get together.  Between 2019 and 2022, I made a lot of money from Tesla, Amazon and Apple stocks. I bought five Model 3 Tesla for my friends.  I don't keep score with my friends.  Next month, all six of us will be traveling to Argentina for a month-long trip and I am footing the bill.  Friendship is like a marriage and it takes work on both sides to keep it healthy.

Yeah, didn't happen.

Even our most richest friends don’t just buy their friends cars. If OP is from a modest background, she probably has extended family who would get financial assistance and cars before she would buy college friends cars.

How do you know OP didn't also buy cars for her extended family? She probably did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
What saves our friendships is that we still live in our starter home and drive our beater cars. We don't worry about retirement or college tuition or anything like that, and it came up this year because our oldest is going to an expensive college. It may have been the first time our friends realized we could afford that sort of thing. I do think that if we moved to a fancy house and drove fancy cars, our friends would need a period of adjustment!

Same here. My friends have a vague sense that we made a lot of money when we sold a business, but outwardly our lives look the same as before. It's not an issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have five very close friends I've known since middle school.  I went to UVA and two went to Virginia Tech and the other three went to JMU.  I turned out to be the most successful person financially in the group, has a 7M home and 30M in the bank.  My friends are just federal employees but it does not matter.  I've made clear to them that I will take care of the bills whenever we get together.  Between 2019 and 2022, I made a lot of money from Tesla, Amazon and Apple stocks. I bought five Model 3 Tesla for my friends.  I don't keep score with my friends.  Next month, all six of us will be traveling to Argentina for a month-long trip and I am footing the bill.  Friendship is like a marriage and it takes work on both sides to keep it healthy.

Yeah, didn't happen.

Even our most richest friends don’t just buy their friends cars. If OP is from a modest background, she probably has extended family who would get financial assistance and cars before she would buy college friends cars.

How do you know OP didn't also buy cars for her extended family? She probably did.

“Just” feds can take off the month of June and go to Argentina?