People who cater to the ultra rich shared the wildest stuff they’ve seen – 17 glimpses into how the other half live
Everyone suspects that the ultra rich live radically decadent lifestyles, but the reality is far worse than you’d expect.
From extravagant building projects to day trips that cost a regular person’s annual salary, Redditor Budget-Cash-3602 has uncovered how the one per cent splash their cash. And they did it by posing this question to the folks over at r/AskReddit…
‘People who cater to the super rich, what things have you seen?’
Here are the top spending habits of the elite that will have you campaigning for communism…
1.
‘My aunt is a retired high-end realtor. She got roped into helping this service arrange housing for wealthy F1 fans.
‘These “Saudi prince” types are from another planet. 1 mansion for a week isn’t enough. They need 6-8 mansions next door to each other for a month to accommodate their private medical staff, legal teams, chefs, airplane mechanics, etc. They fly in on multiple private jets and rent entire airports for the weekend. Once guy even paid to have a helicopter pad constructed on a property he rented, and then paid to be removed when he was done.
‘All of this for a WEEKEND GETAWAY.’
-Sometimes_Stutters
2.
‘My wife is an attorney. All of her clients are those Arrested Development style rich people who are completely detached from reality.
‘One of her clients gets a new car, every 10,000 miles, rather than “going through the trouble” of having somebody take the car in for regular maintenance.’
-morose4eva
3.
‘Worked for a summer cleaning boats at a yacht club so I could get free sailing lessons. One very rich pharmaceutical family had a person hired specifically to bake cookies and brownies. Nothing else. Warm cookies and brownies for certain times of day.
‘They had entirely separate culinary / pastry staff for other food preparation. She was a public school teacher who loved to bake so it was a great summer job for her but still…blew my mind to conceive of enough wealth to hire staff for such specificities.’
moonphased239
4.
‘Worked a $3 million wedding. My in-laws own the premier florist in town. The flower budget was $250K. They blew that out of the water. I think it ended up being in excess of $480K.
‘The wedding was on the bride’s father’s land. An entire section of land (600+ acres) with three houses, two churches, barn* and a private polo field (the damn horse stalls were nicer than my first apartment).
‘(*by barn I mean a Amish-built barn the guy found in New York State, had it dismantled and reassembled on his land and turned into an apartment. I had to move a painting from the mantle for decorating. They told me AFTER it was worth $1.5 million.)
The tent for the wedding could have held 2 of Barnum & Baily’s 3 rings. Everything was over the top.
But, talking to the father, he was an exceptionally nice man and you would never knew he was rich.’
-GrimSpirit42
5.
‘I fly private jets for a living. The levels of excess and indulgence I see are insane.
‘$50k worth of dishes that never get used.
‘A vacation to Norway last year cost around $450k.
‘The plane I fly right now is around 40 million.
‘Flying the family dogs on the jet an hour to their preferred groomer.
‘A day trip to Maui just for a same day passport.
‘$34,000/month for our satellite based wifi.’
-ApatheticSkyentist
6.
‘I was a nanny for about a year for this rich family. The mom’s closet was as big as my entire first floor. She never paid attention to her four boys, and all she did was shop all day, everyday, for like 8-10 hours.
‘And I mean, helping her carry in carloads, everyday ( all clothes for her). Thousands and thousands of dollars worth of clothes, each day, for a year. Mid year, I asked for a raise from 9.00 an hour( for four boys) to 11.00 an hour. She said no. I quit that day.’
-Significant_Most5407
7.
‘My friend’s wife flies to Aspen when she has a headache. Not for a headache treatment, just to ‘breathe better air.’ Meanwhile, I treat my migraines by turning off the lights and putting a wet face cloth over my forehead.’
-Discard86
8.
‘My niece had a scholarship to an excellent university she would never have been able to afford. Therefore there were many people attending that came from money.
‘She was lucky enough to room with really nice people. The girls she was with would just give her clothing and bags like Prada and Gucci, like stuff that cost thousands of dollars. My niece would say, I can’t take this. The girls would say stuff, like, don’t worry, I have another one that’s almost just like it.
‘Or, my aunt gave it to me and I just don’t like the color or something like that. They were super nice but the fact that they thought nothing of giving away items that cost thousands of dollars. My niece would tell me, “They gave me a bag that’s worth more than my car!”’
-Labradawgz90
9.
‘I installed tile for a major city-developer in his personal house.
‘45,000 square feet on ten acres in coveted forest land. Needed two different satellite dishes for TV service because one wouldn’t cover the whole house. Had two different tile crews, one for inside and one for outside. Decided to add an infinity pool after construction started, just a cool impromptu $1,000,000 addition.
‘But the wildest note is that the wife ordered a massive ($50,000) natural darkwood countertop from Cameroon, Africa. This sounds like a joke. It took months to be delivered, and when the wife saw it in the house’s lighting, she decided she didn’t want it and sent it back.
‘These people flew in a private barber from across the country to get their hair cut. Exorbitant wealth is ridiculous.’
-LONGLlVETHEMX-5