Stuff Rich People Do

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Free time, location flexibility & low stress are the best things about having enough money that you don't have to worry about it. We bought a second home overseas & have turned it into our primary home. Neither of us work, and we mostly spend our time as we please: exercising, exploring our new place, finding local artists to commission work for our new home & learning the language. Not much stress or pressure; it feels like an extended vacation.

I'm poor and I'm going to do all that in retirement. I'll retire in a place in Europe where col is so much lower. I have a list of artist to commission work for my old and new homes soon. Know the language already plus 4 others. Life really is beautiful and easy.

[Anonymous]

We own property in the carribean. Our neighbor flys his jet there. His kids make comments like "we live in a mansion." When I first met them I asked them how they got there - asking essentially if they had to connect from their home town. I was quickly explained that no, you don't connect on your private jet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Free time, location flexibility & low stress are the best things about having enough money that you don't have to worry about it. We bought a second home overseas & have turned it into our primary home. Neither of us work, and we mostly spend our time as we please: exercising, exploring our new place, finding local artists to commission work for our new home & learning the language. Not much stress or pressure; it feels like an extended vacation.

I'm poor and I'm going to do all that in retirement. I'll retire in a place in Europe where col is so much lower. I have a list of artist to commission work for my old and new homes soon. Know the language already plus 4 others. Life really is beautiful and easy.

What town in Europe? Sounds nice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We own property in the carribean. Our neighbor flys his jet there. His kids make comments like "we live in a mansion." When I first met them I asked them how they got there - asking essentially if they had to connect from their home town. I was quickly explained that no, you don't connect on your private jet.

Must be new money. Most rich people I know don't make comments like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD and her college roommates got a bad housing lottery number (meaning they won't get the suite they want to live in next year). So the parents of one of the girls just bought a $4M 4 BR house for the girls to share next year. Sweet.

Same with a friend of mine, who figured buying a house made better sense than renting a place while studying. I thought it was awesome to have that kind of massive flexibility.

Other things "that rich people do": they use things until they fall apart and never throw out anything of value. They also keep wealth within the family, so when one dies, the others get things that have become antiques over the years. While they may go to a craft show or something like and buy collectibles (Edwardian jewelry or a high-end craft, think Smithsonian-level, item), most of what they have came through the family (museum-quality dishes or artwork). They also tend to have collections (Stuben or diamond pins). These are some examples from my friends life. I've absorb some of these habits over the years. I am nowhere near even DCUM's measure of middle class, and have found these insights useful.

[Anonymous]

I don't know if this is an exciting one - but I just hired a personal assistant. Both DH and I work full time, work travel, high pressure, we have two kids one that is low-functioning ASD. DH has always made fun of what he calls my "staff" - we have a live-in nanny, 2x week cleaners, yard cleanup, plus various repair people. There is constantly someone in our house some weeks. We also had a long-running renovation project with about a million subcontractors on top of the GC. For some reason though, hiring a PA to deal with papers, rental properties and various errands seems to me that we are now entering the "rich" people stuff. I still do the grocery shopping, kids' appointments, work with accountant on taxes, so far. Once some more of those go to the PA, I will feel relaxed rich. We have an HHI around $400k, but just came into large inheritance, thus the change.

[Anonymous]

I am more shocked at how appalled and nasty people are at things that "rich" or event moderately rich people do. Based on what I am about to post, there are people on DCUM who would be outraged, and say "why in the world can't you do that yourself." Of course I CAN do these things, but we can afford to pay someone, and it allows time for me to do other things. For what it's worth, most of my friends in the Bethesda area have all these things also. Our HHI is under 300K.

I had a baby nurse for 2 weeks. It was great. About half of my friends had full time baby nurses, and many had night nurses a couple nights a week.

I have a cleaning person once a week. We have someone else mow the lawns.

I SAH, but when my kids were little I had a nanny come 2 days a week so I could go to appointments and run errands. (Where I live, many SAHMs have some help). I do not have family in the area able to babysit on a weekday. This set up made it so I could go to the dentist without a screaming one year old, and it's not so easy to find mid-week babysitters you trust with your kids.

We do not go on crazy vacations, and when we do we often use points or miles. We stay at Marriott level or less nice hotels, not Ritz or Four Seasons. We drive 2 cars, but they are toyotas not BMWs. We live comfortably, and we now in the grand scheme we are well off, but we are not at the level where we are private jet, exclusively luxury hotel people. But in DCUM world, we will get slammed for being rich and clueless, and how dare I not be a martyr for doing absolutely everything in the home since I am supposedly a useless excuse for a human living off of my husband.

[Anonymous]

We're a full pay family in private school but it's not easy. We're doing fine but no crazy vacations to Europe or anything like that.

A causal friend was telling me about their spring break plans and how she was so worried about her kids flying. Thinking it was their first plane ride- I started giving her tips about Benadryl, snacks etc. She quickly stopped me- she was worried because her kids had never traveled commercial before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're a full pay family in private school but it's not easy. We're doing fine but no crazy vacations to Europe or anything like that.

A causal friend was telling me about their spring break plans and how she was so worried about her kids flying. Thinking it was their first plane ride- I started giving her tips about Benadryl, snacks etc. She quickly stopped me- she was worried because her kids had never traveled commercial before.

ha!!!

[Anonymous]

The obsession on this forum with being rich, thinking you're rich, envying the rich is so damn silly. I can't believe anyone wastes precious life time wishing and hoping for things. If you drop dead tomorrow, none of your wealth matters.

That being said, I have someone do my hair and makeup daily. Sometimes I'm half asleep while it's being done.

I am not rich.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am more shocked at how appalled and nasty people are at things that "rich" or event moderately rich people do. Based on what I am about to post, there are people on DCUM who would be outraged, and say "why in the world can't you do that yourself." Of course I CAN do these things, but we can afford to pay someone, and it allows time for me to do other things. For what it's worth, most of my friends in the Bethesda area have all these things also. Our HHI is under 300K.

I had a baby nurse for 2 weeks. It was great. About half of my friends had full time baby nurses, and many had night nurses a couple nights a week.

I have a cleaning person once a week. We have someone else mow the lawns.

I SAH, but when my kids were little I had a nanny come 2 days a week so I could go to appointments and run errands. (Where I live, many SAHMs have some help). I do not have family in the area able to babysit on a weekday. This set up made it so I could go to the dentist without a screaming one year old, and it's not so easy to find mid-week babysitters you trust with your kids.

We do not go on crazy vacations, and when we do we often use points or miles. We stay at Marriott level or less nice hotels, not Ritz or Four Seasons. We drive 2 cars, but they are toyotas not BMWs. We live comfortably, and we now in the grand scheme we are well off, but we are not at the level where we are private jet, exclusively luxury hotel people. But in DCUM world, we will get slammed for being rich and clueless, and how dare I not be a martyr for doing absolutely everything in the home since I am supposedly a useless excuse for a human living off of my husband.

I'm just as baffled by people who think everyone is jealous of them.

I think one of the luxuries of being rich is not giving a shit about what anyone thinks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD and her college roommates got a bad housing lottery number (meaning they won't get the suite they want to live in next year). So the parents of one of the girls just bought a $4M 4 BR house for the girls to share next year. Sweet.

One of my friends did that in grad school: her parents bought her a townhouse in the Back Bay because they said she needed to feel like she was in a real home to be comfortable enough to do well. I worked as an RA for free housing and meal plan, and I used to love it when my friend invited me to stay with her for my weekends "off"... I remember gazing in awe at her fully stocked kitchen: she spent more on copper pots and china one weekend than I spent in all my years of grad school combined. Yes, I was envious, but she is still one of my best friends and her life was my little window into another world.

[Anonymous]

We can give Larla the Escalade when I get my new Range Rover this summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Free time, location flexibility & low stress are the best things about having enough money that you don't have to worry about it. We bought a second home overseas & have turned it into our primary home. Neither of us work, and we mostly spend our time as we please: exercising, exploring our new place, finding local artists to commission work for our new home & learning the language. Not much stress or pressure; it feels like an extended vacation.

I'm poor and I'm going to do all that in retirement. I'll retire in a place in Europe where col is so much lower. I have a list of artist to commission work for my old and new homes soon. Know the language already plus 4 others. Life really is beautiful and easy.

Will you have or be able to build community?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am more shocked at how appalled and nasty people are at things that "rich" or event moderately rich people do. Based on what I am about to post, there are people on DCUM who would be outraged, and say "why in the world can't you do that yourself." Of course I CAN do these things, but we can afford to pay someone, and it allows time for me to do other things. For what it's worth, most of my friends in the Bethesda area have all these things also. Our HHI is under 300K.

I had a baby nurse for 2 weeks. It was great. About half of my friends had full time baby nurses, and many had night nurses a couple nights a week.

I have a cleaning person once a week. We have someone else mow the lawns.

I SAH, but when my kids were little I had a nanny come 2 days a week so I could go to appointments and run errands. (Where I live, many SAHMs have some help). I do not have family in the area able to babysit on a weekday. This set up made it so I could go to the dentist without a screaming one year old, and it's not so easy to find mid-week babysitters you trust with your kids.

We do not go on crazy vacations, and when we do we often use points or miles. We stay at Marriott level or less nice hotels, not Ritz or Four Seasons. We drive 2 cars, but they are toyotas not BMWs. We live comfortably, and we now in the grand scheme we are well off, but we are not at the level where we are private jet, exclusively luxury hotel people. But in DCUM world, we will get slammed for being rich and clueless, and how dare I not be a martyr for doing absolutely everything in the home since I am supposedly a useless excuse for a human living off of my husband.

No...dcum will be outraged that you had the audacity to consider yourself well off on a HHI of $300k