Why are rich people in this area so cheap?

[Anonymous]

A lot of money in this area is also nouveau riche. People who grew up with more modesty and who aren't used to excessive lifestyles simply carry over habits they grew up with. When you grow up in a household where your parents spend $2000 on a bottle of wine during a dinner like it is chump change, of course you'll think nothing about spending $500k on a car later on. However, if you become wealthy by becoming a scrappy entrepreneur who started with nothing, and built wealth from scratch you tend to have vastly more conservative habits. People who build wealth are more concerned about protecting it than people who grew up with wealth.

[Anonymous]

Clearly people here haven’t read of the millionaire next door or read Warren Buffett’s biography. Lots of wealthy people are more interested in hustling for that compound interest than making themselves look rich.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of money in this area is also nouveau riche. People who grew up with more modesty and who aren't used to excessive lifestyles simply carry over habits they grew up with. When you grow up in a household where your parents spend $2000 on a bottle of wine during a dinner like it is chump change, of course you'll think nothing about spending $500k on a car later on. However, if you become wealthy by becoming a scrappy entrepreneur who started with nothing, and built wealth from scratch you tend to have vastly more conservative habits. People who build wealth are more concerned about protecting it than people who grew up with wealth.

Which is why some families loose their generational wealth. At some point somebody works hard for it but when a descendant who doesn’t appreciate it or know how to manage it comes around, the wealth is gone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Get so many hagglers on Craigslist yet you know they all got money.

All rich people in my neighborhood give away their stuff on our Buy Nothing group.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I'm wealthy because I'm frugal, OP.

I'm wealthy because I don't need much and can easily live on less. Doesn't includes haggling though. I see the price and decide to buy it or wait for another such item.
Op, the ones who haggle have some screw lose. I once drove many blocks to meet somebody- wasn't a big deals as I drive a lot. Once I got there, she only had $12 in coins, but the brand new shoes I was selling were $15. I was put in a position after having to drive there to feel super funny and walk away or take the $12 (well, partly in coins) and get the hell out.
Having to drive to them and then met with coins, showed that there was something wrong with the buyer. Somebody ahead explains that it's mental thing.
And no, she was not poor. Looking for the coins was well planned. Not selling anything after that, not worth it. If you sell on craigslist, people thing you are desperate and take advantage of it. I wasn't desperate- never have been, just wanted to get rid of crap. Only a few people show up on time and buy your stuff. Most play some kind of games.

I’m sorry but if you drive many miles to sell one pair of $15 shoes that makes you desperate or stupid. You are probably burning $5 in gas plus your time.
Your behavior indicated that you time and energy was worthless. If I was the buyer I wouldn’t have offered more than $5.
Before you answer that you didn’t do this for the money, if you want to do charity, do charity and donate. But, if you want to be a salesperson don’t be a stupid salesperson.

It's funny - I think about this a lot. When I was a first year associate at a firm in New York, one of the senior associates, who was pregnant, told me about how she'd spent like 45 minutes driving to a far out baby store because she could save $10 on a stroller there. I was so surprised, and it also made me realize how much money stuff can just be ingrained (or taught, or whatever). Even then, $140k in debt from law school and 100% certain I wouldn't last more than a year or two in BigLaw, I wouldn't have spent half an hour trying to save $10 - but that is partly because I am bad with money, and partly because it's not how I was brought up, and partly because I consider my time to be worth more than that. I'm completely confident that senior associate made partner - she was great at the job - and is still squeezing pennies because it's just how she is, and she probably has monumental savings at least in part because of it. 20 years out I am just on the cusp of paying off my loans at long last - and even now, with a much more mature attitude toward money, I still probably wouldn't spend half an hour trying to save $10.

TL;DR: I think some people are just like that, regardless of their wealth.

[Anonymous]

Woah. According to one study, generational wealth is lost after three generations. And part of the cause (no, not all) is because of the attitudes wealthy people on this board

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/globe-wealth/eroding-family-fortunes-how-the-cycle-can-be-broken/article33757468/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get so many hagglers on Craigslist yet you know they all got money.

All rich people in my neighborhood give away their stuff on our Buy Nothing group.

+1. Great way to recycle!

[Anonymous]

Maybe they are new rich? i.e. Raised by parents with less and therefore respect a good deal?

I don't know any high level professionals haggling on craigslist unless they came from lower-middle class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get so many hagglers on Craigslist yet you know they all got money.

All rich people in my neighborhood give away their stuff on our Buy Nothing group.

Or literally have their maids/gardeners see if they want it - and if not, have a charity pick it up.

[Anonymous]

We have two homes worth a combined $6-7 million and I buy plenty of clothes at consignment shops or on Etsy. My GF's think I'm crazy but it's a fun hobby.

[Anonymous]

I don't reply to hagglers on facebook marketplace (or craigslist when anyone used it). You don't need to. My stuff always sells for full price within the week. I mean I could post it $5-10 more expensive and then let the hagglers win, but why bother?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rich people are often cheap. That is one of the reasons some of them are rich.

From my experience waitressing at hip restaurants in the city during my college years, not all people with ample money to dine out -rich people- are cheap , but certain groups tend to be very generous: in my experience those are artists, wealthy self made businessmen , people in fil and entertainment industry and people who work in restaurants themselves like chefs

The cheapest tippers and the jerks: lawyers, accountants and doctors. Lawyers basically viewing their dinner bill as a “ first offer” they could negotiate on ( excuse me, we see we were charged for X , but we really didt like it ..hence we only picked at it ...might you take it off the bill “ when you do , they then also lower the tip to “ of course” be 15 percent to penny of the now lower check total ...even though the chef and the owner both cursed you out in the kitchen for asking the item to be removed from their bill ...that kinda cheap

DC has a LOT of lawyers maybe

fwiw, my mom always told me when you first date a man , run back into the restaurant saying you left something in bathroom and take a peak at how much they tipped the waiter because - that is a pretty good indicator of how they will one day treat you if you marry them

[Anonymous]

I'm not rich. I sell things on Craigslist on occasion. Usually I just give away to a thrift store but if I think it will be easy to sell or worth selling, I will sell it for less than I paid. I usually start at 50% of the price I paid then after a week or so if no one bought it, drop the price about 20% and continue to do so until it's not worth listing any longer. Usually someone buys it by that point. If I have something that's going to be a PITA to sell or I just don't feel like dealing with the buyers, I'll list it as free. This is usually a used bulky item that's still too good to go to bulk trash pickup. Listing things as free is a great way to get rid of them because a lot of people will want it so you'll get a lot of responses quickly.

I used to meet in a third party location like a parking lot but after a couple of no-shows, I just started having people come to my house because I'm not wasting my time for someone that may not show up for the items. I haven't had any thieves show up yet but of course I've always sold used items. I'm not selling new PS5's for a mark-up.

[Anonymous]

We do well now but my immigrant family went through a period of poverty when I was growing up. The memory will never leave me and I will never be a spender.

[Anonymous]

I had no idea people don't like haggling. I thought everyone on Craigslist haggled. I mean, it's Craigslist. It's expected.

To a PP, if someone showed up with $12 in coins for a purchase, I'd just give it to them because that is just sad. Let them have the "win." That's part of the art of the haggle.