Wealthy Southerners

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to one of the Texas schools you mention and can tell you, there's a huge, wide range of wealth. Yes, there are many billionaires and multimillionaires in the state (and in the South); however, there is also a huge phenomenon of what I've heard called the "$200,000 millionaires." Meaning, people who make around $200K, probably a little more, and live like they're really wealthy. For example, growing up, our neighbor's house was worth about $500K (probably worth about $1.2M now), but he owned three Ferraris. Perhaps he bought a much cheaper house than he could afford, but seeing this kind of thing was pretty common.

I went to both high school and college with a bunch of "$200k" types. They usually tend to graduate from one of the "top" public schools (Memorial in Houston, Highland Park in Dallas, Alamo Heights in San Antonio and Westlake in Austin). Their parents paid < $600k for their homes back in the day and used the money they saved paying for private school on fancy cars, perhaps even a BMW or C-Class Mercedes for the kids, designer purses, etc. Many have second homes and country club memberships. These people live it up like they're rich, but they're not in the East Coast sense of the world.

Most of the sorority/fraternity clan comes from this type. However, there are the true, truly, truly wealthy types at these schools. It's usually new/newish money (oil money from grandparents', possibly even great grand-parents', generation or sooner). Meaning families with hundreds of millions or even billions. They make up the minority, but you'll definitely run into them if you're in the Greek crowd. I dated a guy in college who had his own plane (didn't share it with his parents, literally, his own plane). They're a different breed from East Coast wealthy- usually more materialistic but also more fun.

Then there is Old South wealth in places PP mentioned like New Orleans or Charleston. Definitely not on the same level of wealth as the Texas Big Rich money or East Coast old money.

This is very interesting. So how does Old South money compare to Big Texas and NY Wall Street?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting thread.

I live in Plano, and I wish so much there was a DFW Urban Moms and Dads

I wish the same thing. I'd be on that forum in a heartbeat. I LOVE TEXAS PEOPLE ! They're much nicer than the hags here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting thread.

I live in Plano, and I wish so much there was a DFW Urban Moms and Dads

I wish the same thing. I'd be on that forum in a heartbeat. I LOVE TEXAS PEOPLE ! They're much nicer than the hags here.

Totally agree!

[Anonymous]

A lot of that generational wealth was literally made off the backs of others-slaves. Why weren't the plantations and farms confisiated and redistributed after they lost the war?

[Anonymous]

Most interesting thread of the week!

[Anonymous]

I'm in the south and there is massive wealth right around the corner from my neighborhood. The first home has a 3 car garage on the side of the home and a detached 3 car garage on the driveway side.

The lady that owns the home got it in the divorce. HA HA ! The best wealth there is.

The house itself is magnificent. Who knew the solar panel industry had all that going for it. The day the divorce finalized, she threw a big party. The next day the solar panels on the other side of her property were taken down. That was hilarious !

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm in the south and there is massive wealth right around the corner from my neighborhood. The first home has a 3 car garage on the side of the home and a detached 3 car garage on the driveway side.

The lady that owns the home got it in the divorce. HA HA ! The best wealth there is.

The house itself is magnificent. Who knew the solar panel industry had all that going for it. The day the divorce finalized, she threw a big party. The next day the solar panels on the other side of her property were taken down. That was hilarious !

Nice, although I am sure you can get giant houses in the South for about $800,000 can't you? Which city/region of the South is this? I think we should distinguish between oil wealth in Texas and possibly less ostentatious wealth in the southeast.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'll give another SMU story:

Freshman year, I was 18, had broken up with my boyfriend here. We both came from money but we would do low key things, like go to the inn at glen echo, go to shows, go out to clyde's, etc. It was what I was used to.

A sophmore at SMU asked me out for a date, and I said yes. Well, he picked me up in a chauffeured SUV (and these were in the days before Uber, so you had to arrange that shit) and takes me to Nobu, where he promptly drops $500 on our meal.

Over the course of the amazing dinner, he kept bringing up Uncle Albie. I had no idea who he was, and he kept mentioning going to Monaco to see him. I kind of thought, "that's weird, I dont give a shit about you uncle, but okay, another Monaco story." (Yes, i was young and an idiot, never had been to the south of france or monaco before)

Anyway, we went on a few more dates and it fizzled out. A couple weeks later he went to Monaco for spring break, posting pictures with "Albie". I believe Uncle Albie got married that summer- anyway, I saw his face in the papers- and immediately recognized him and the Crown Prince Albert of Monaco. Utterly ludicrous.

Uncle Albie, himself, went to Amherst for college. You will find a lot of interconnections between Wall Street, Texas, and the Old South. My DH is from an old Southern family - there are streets named after them in their mid sized Southern city. They made the bulk of their money on Wall Street and attended Ivy league schools.

Many families who started in New England have relatives who moved to Texas to make their fortune. Look at the Bushes.

OP, if you knew the background of many of prep school classmates, you will find that many if not most of their families are from somewhere else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to one of the Texas schools you mention and can tell you, there's a huge, wide range of wealth. Yes, there are many billionaires and multimillionaires in the state (and in the South); however, there is also a huge phenomenon of what I've heard called the "$200,000 millionaires." Meaning, people who make around $200K, probably a little more, and live like they're really wealthy. For example, growing up, our neighbor's house was worth about $500K (probably worth about $1.2M now), but he owned three Ferraris. Perhaps he bought a much cheaper house than he could afford, but seeing this kind of thing was pretty common.

I live in Dallas, and while the $200k millionaire makes sense, the thing you hear more often is the $30k millionaire. Totally a different thing, but the $30k millionaire is the one you hear about most down here. Young, preppy, douchey people who make 30k at their first job out of school and are living high on the hog either supported by mommy & daddy or racking up debt.

I will say, I'm a transplant from Chicago to Dallas, and the Dallas area is for SURE more flashy. Much more conspicuous consumption, more mid-range luxury cars on the road than I've ever seen anywhere else (so many Lexus SUVs it will be hard to find yours in a parking lot - no joke), more shopping, more eating out, etc.

Now, it is completely dependent on which areas you live in, and of course any city is like that to an extent. But it is much more widespread in the Dallas area.

For the poster from Plano, I'm in a suburb right next to you - maybe we should start a DFWUM! There certainly would be no shortage of discussion topics. The city-data boards are decently active for Dallas but the overall experience is nothing like DCUM.

[Anonymous]

First off, dear ones, southerners do not consider Texas to be the South!

[Anonymous]

There's two different types of "wealthy" in the south: legit, old southern family wealthy, and new "wealth" which is where you make maybe $250k a year but because COL is so cheap down there, you can flash that money around all day long and look "rich."

In either case, southerners are definitely more ostentatious with their money, even the old money crowd. Definitely not the miserly threadbare New England wealthy who take pride in looking shabby and living in rundown houses. That's not how southerners roll. They like to look nice, have pretty homes, and throw damn good parties.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I love this. I have so many stories about dating a dude and then finding out he has an awkwardly large amount of money. It's ludicrous. And none of my east coast pals understand. Must be a Texas private university thing.

For example, my boyfriend was often broke as hell. He lived in an amazing house that he shard with a friend, and drove a range rover, and did tons of blow. But quite often his credit cards would get declined when he went out to eat and I would end up paying, much to his chagrin. He would always pay me back, but it was really awkward (because in Texas, it's standard for the guy to always pay) and kind of emasculating for him. I always just figured he was kind of broke and he told me this whole story about how it was a really old range and I just assumed that his family wasn't wealthy and he lucked into a nice place to stay (maybe his roommate was wealthy and bought the house and let him live rent free? I never asked, but wondered) and he had somehow gotten a range.

ANyway, one day I was bored and decided to google stalk him, and looked his name up.

Welp, he was named after his grandfather, who is a billionaire and owns one of the most expensive (plane/yacht/home- I'm not specifying because I dont want this googleable by the DCUM sleuths) in the world.

It was such a weird feeling. And such an "only at Texas private school" thing. Of course, most of his money was squandered on blow, but it's just funny. Even the people you think are broke turn out to be loaded.

Do you know this phrase, "humblebrag"?

I bet you are the friend your friends reluctantly invite along, because if they have to listen to one more story about the superiority of Texas...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:First off, dear ones, southerners do not consider Texas to be the South!

That's okay. Their backward politics and outsized bragging means the rest of us lump them in with "y'all."

[Anonymous]

Less taxes, regulation and oversight = more wealth. Try it sometime, yanks.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, but what about the poor? There's probably much more poverty in the south, since the rich don't share the wealth like they do up north.