Wealthy Southerners

[Anonymous]

First off I need it to be clear that this is a post I spores out of harmless curiosity and not meant to create division. Second, if you plan to post in this thread simply to create an argument ("why do you care about money?" etc) I will not respond and I encourage others not to as well. I want to keep this thread on-topic and as civil as possible.

Ok! Now here is my question: what do southerners mean when they talk about their wealth, generally? I am an undergraduate from New York and have visited some of my old high school friends at southern schools this year: namely SMU, W&L and UT Austin. I saw a lot of preppy Greeks in luxury cars and many seemed to come from families with land and country club membership. However I'm uncertain what "wealthy" is in the South and obviously I'd never be rude enough to ask. In Manhattan the prep school I went to had kids with hundreds of millions or even billions. (I'm not one of them - upper middle class kid on scholarships and financial aid). So I tend to consider that "rich". I do wonder if these rich southerners I see are more in the $200,000-a-year range with a $400,000 house. Of course I'd never dream of asking anyone in real life! But I'm curious so I'd appreciate hearing from southerners here who can speak candidly since its anonymous.

Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Sorry for typos - on phone

[Anonymous]

Talking about wealth means new money.

[Anonymous]

It really depends where in the South, since some Southern cities are insanely wealthy, on par with New York, and others are definitely not. Atlanta, Austin, Houston and Dallas have serious money, for example. The students you met at UT Austin or SMU is likely to have multi-millionaire parents, although whether that's $5M or closer to $20M is hard to guess.

In Southern states like Mississippi and Louisiana, the fraternity men you meet are more likely indeed to come from upper-middle-class $200k a year families.

[Anonymous]

There is a lot of oil money in the south

[Anonymous]

According to Forbes, 37 billionaires live in Texas. Micheal Dell leads the list at 17+ billion. That doesn't count the poor nine-figure folks. The fracking boom has been led by hundreds of independent oil companies. Texas is awash in serious money.

I went to one of the schools you mentioned. I had sorority sisters who shopped for their clothes at Paris fashion week. Yes, it is "new" money, but there LOTS of it.

[Anonymous]

Haha. Sweetie. We're a whole different breed than your billionaire prep school friends. An older and harder to crack breed.

[Anonymous]

I went to SMU!

Actually, you'd be surprised. I went to a private prep school $30,000 a year, here in DC. And I can tell you that I saw way more wealth at SMU. And by wealth, I mean anywhere from millions to tens of millions to hundreds to billions.

I mean, I couldnt even count on three hand the number of kids I knew with private jets. It was so common.

Our RA's had to order us that no one was allowed to leave their entire wardrobe behind at the end of the year, as apparently it was somewhat regular for girls to do this and buy all new clothes for the next season. (Crazy, right?)

Girls used birkin bags to carry their books around.

As for cars- you name it, someone had it. Lambos, maseratis, ferraris, and of course your standard range rovers, bmws, mercedes.

I remember two girls got passes from school my freshman year so they could attend Paris fashion week and all the major shows. They posted pics of them on their jet, school books laid out.

Yachts were not uncommon, as was attending yacht week.

I knew a girl who flew my friend out to Coachella- she decided last minute, rented a jet (She didnt own her own- how gauche, right?) and bought everyone tickets.

So yeah. Now this was not every student, this was the upper echelon.

Which meant that the midline was still multiple designer bags, a really nice car, and European vacations.

Also, Dorothy Wang was in my year (though she transferred out). So that should give you some perspective of what was happening.

[Anonymous]

There is a big distinction between Texas wealth vs old money wealth in charleston, Nola, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:According to Forbes, 37 billionaires live in Texas. Micheal Dell leads the list at 17+ billion. That doesn't count the poor nine-figure folks. The fracking boom has been led by hundreds of independent oil companies. Texas is awash in serious money.

I went to one of the schools you mentioned. I had sorority sisters who shopped for their clothes at Paris fashion week. Yes, it is "new" money, but there LOTS of it.

Update: the most recent Forbes report shows 41 billionaires in Texas, led by one of the Waltons, at $30 plus billion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is a big distinction between Texas wealth vs old money wealth in charleston, Nola, etc.

I'm from Old Money and I love that. Love the culture and all that.

But I will tell ya from experience: Texas wealth is a hell of a lot of fun. Texas money knows how to party, that's for damn sure.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks, enjoying these replies, please feel free to continue. I also hope I did not come across sounding disrespectful of southerners - love southern culture.

[Anonymous]

Also this is definitely opening my eyes! I see I was not very accurate in my estimations.

[Anonymous]

I live in Dallas, and I can promise you that there are a shitload of extremely wealthy individuals here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in Dallas, and I can promise you that there are a shitload of extremely wealthy individuals here.

I miss Dallas! It's so much more glamorous than DC wealth.

OP, if you want to see a glimpse into Dallas wealth, watch the old, original version of Dallas (from the 90s). Should give you an idea of what you are dealing with.

If anything, it has only gotten more ostentatious and wealthy since then.