Well-off people have been sharing their privileged wake-up calls – 17 belated realisations of the wealthy
10.
‘I’ve had many, but a particularly memorable one was when a guy at work I’d been flirting with (older than me – I was 19 and he was around 25, so in my naive mind it was plausible that he was set up despite the fact that we both worked shitty retail jobs) told me he’d signed a lease on a new apartment. “How many bedrooms?” I asked conversationally. He laughed and said, “Five – it’s a penthouse suite.” Wow, I thought, he’s doing pretty well for himself!
A couple weeks later he brought me back to his new apartment – which was in fact a 300sq ft studio. At this point it occurred to me that he’d thought I was making a joke when I asked how many bedrooms his new apartment had.’
-Haldoldreams
11.
‘Becoming an adult and realizing that I have extremely good role models as parents because when they have disagreements they talk them out and I have never ever heard them argue or bad mouth each other. I also realized that as a kid my parents got me mental health help that I needed even though it was expensive and continued that care for as long as I have needed it. A third one that doesn’t seem like much but has had a huge impact was being taught financial literacy from a young age- to budget my money and only buy the things I really really want.’
-Successful-Emu-1412
12.
‘My parents loved to travel. By the time I was 16 I had been to every continent aside from Antartica. I didn’t realize that this was privileged behavior until I went to uni and most of the guys I met had never left the country.
In fact, I grew up thinking I was less privileged because everyone at my school was just obscenely rich. Like all their stuff was high end designer stuff while I was in converse.’
-abal1003
13.
‘I did not grow up wealthy. We were a single income household and my dad made like 30k most of my childhood (1990s). That’s decent in the 90s but there were several of us kids.However, my grandparents are very wealthy. My dad worked for them. But, they just didn’t pay him well. I work in finance, and I’ve seen their old paystubs, so I know. My grandfather was just an old fart anyways. Good man, but old fashioned and wouldn’t pay for shit.
Anyways, it dawned on me how wealthy my family was when I started looking for a “real” job about 15 years ago. I had worked multiple jobs because my parents were like “if you want a phone and car, etc you are on your own”. I was talking to my pops about getting my finance degree. A week later, one of the wealthiest men in the area that owns several businesses called me. He’s like “your pops said you’re studying finance. We’re hiring in XX company. Send your résumé to my secretary”. Then my pops called and said “hey I heard you got a job at XX”. I hadn’t even sent the résumé. I didn’t know my pops knew him!
After that, I thought about many little occurrences over my life. Although I was never given money directly from my parents or grandparents, they opened doors for me. I talked to my dad about it a couple years ago. He said “I’ve recently inherited more money than I’ll ever need. Your pops always told me to live life like I’ll never inherit a penny, and I encourage you to act the same. Many folks are given money and have no skills to manage it. We wanted to give you the skills in case you are given money”.
I personally was not wealthy but I have definitely been privileged.’
-ConSemaforos
14.
‘When I saw how big my friend’s bedrooms were.’
-IwantToSaveEarth
15.
‘Dad was an engineer, so professional wealth, but not like dgaf wealth.
Probably hearing about a kid whose family had to give his dog away due to the cost in elementary school.
Giving away our dog wasn’t on the radar or even on the table.
But it was only out of the question because my parents had the money for it to be out of the question.’
-didsomebodysaymyname
16.
‘In 9th grade I (unhappily) attended a fancy private school. When we’d go on a field trip through the most expensive old money neighborhood in town, everyone on the fancy school branded buses would point out at every 3rd house – “Oh there’s my house, and there’s yours, that one’s John’s” etc. At the time, I lived in another plenty nice–if less expensive & exclusive–neighborhood and found the whole thing eye roll worthy.
In 10th grade my parents let me transfer to a local public arts school where overall I was much happier. One day we were riding a rusty yellow city school bus on a field trip through that very same fancy old money neighborhood and 90% of the kids on that bus rushed to the windows, gasping and pointing at the houses – “OH MY GOD guys look at that house! And that one! Whoa these are HOUSES?!” etc. The difference 6 months and a new school make. It was wild. Really stuck with me/in my brain.’
-percipientflip
17.
‘Answering for my privileged 14 year old daughter (we are most definitely not wealthy, just ok day to day): when she arrogantly corrected a friend that Spotify doesn’t have ads.’
-notseb1no