Doing the math on how long it would take to earn a million dollars on an average salary is a depressing reality check. Especially when you compare it to the wealth some people casually sit on.
But some got a rare glimpse into that lifestyle by working for the ultra rich. And they took to Reddit to share what they witnessed: the bizarre, the unexpected, and the kind of stories that make you question reality.
We’ve gathered the best ones below. Take a look and upvote the ones that made your jaw drop.
#1
Not exactly "work for", since I only did it once, but I was a driver for a plastic surgeon. His brother is a famous celeb in southeast Asia. Anyway, he was in the states because he wanted to go skiing in the Rockies so I drove him to various ski resorts over the course of 5 days. On the way to the first resort, he was wondering where my gear was but I did not expect to go skiing with him nor did I own any gear (always rented or borrowed). He made me turn around and take him to the nearest outlet and then casually dropped like 7k on snowboarding gear as a gift to me. He then paid for my own hotel room, resort tickets, and food. He absolutely would not let me pay for anything because I'm "forced to spend time with an old guy". 10 years later, I still own and very much use the gifts he gave me.
Image credits: AllYallThrowaways
#2
Ex worked for a very hooked up, edge of the 1% couple. They were definitely in the group and my ex took care of their kids as an au pair. She said that, despite all of them living in the same house, they were completely absent parents and basically hired her to have someone to blame when their kids scream at them.
Image credits: Kale1l
#3
I sanded the hardwood floors with my uncle for the guy who started e trade. One of his many condos. The first time he showed up to the condo, the neighbor came out to meet him. Neighbor says, hey nice to meet you, selling my condo here next door for $1.5 million if you happen to know anyone who’s looking to buy. E trade guy writes him a check on the spot for $2 million & says, take care of all paperwork & let me know when you need me to sign. Neighbor was completely floored.
Image credits: anon
#4
My cousin got rich by working his a*s off. I unfortunately grew up around rich people because I went to a private school, he didn’t. I hated them, we weren’t rich, we were just catholic. I got divorced and then got cancer . It was hard with 2 kids. He dropped off a card for me with 3,000.00 in it, I called to return it him and his wife refused saying how my mom and dad were always there for them. It really helped me a lot! Then unfortunately my father recently passed and he held a dinner in his honor after the service, it was beautiful ! He worked hard for what he’s got and he does good with his money!
Image credits: Usernamer0987654321
#5
I taught English to an oligarch in Moscow while he was being driven to his meetings at the Kremlin. In the summer he took all of us staff with him and his family to St. Bart’s.
Rubbing elbows with Heidi Klum and Dimitri Peskov on the beach within the same hour was a weird mix. At the end when I was leaving he called me over he’s like “my friend… we don’t talk about anything that happens here, yes?” I literally saw nothing damning but still he’s in prison now because… Putin 🤷♂️
EDIT: This was during the 2016 election and while watching a clip of Stephen Colbert, he looked at me dead seriously and asked me to hire Kellyanne Conway for him or at least set up a meeting with her. Like mate who exactly do you think I am? A man who lives in a world where “no”and “can’t”don’t exist.
Image credits: alyhasnohead
#6
I nannied for a wealthy family in the 90s .
They had a check sitting around for 180 000.00
They would look at it occasionally and say, "I really should get this to the bank."
They didn't deposit that check for at least 3 mos.
Image credits: Visual_Lingonberry53
#7
He went to the beach and instead of getting a hotel room he bought a house on the condition he got it immediately and all the contents. He said, "we need to find a restaurant, or actually let's check the kitchen." it was full of food because people lived there yesterday, and it surprised him they had food for some reason.
Image credits: Earl_your_friend
#8
How stingy they can be. It's shocking.
"I'm a billionaire and you expect me to pay $2 for water? That's insane!!!!"
The people my husband works for are billionaires and they are the biggest penny pinchers I've ever seen in my life.
***Edit - The people I am speaking of live in an estate worth about 45mil, drive limited edition Bentleys, provide Fiji water for their cat, bought their daughter a 20mil penthouse as a wedding gift, spent 200k on flower for the wedding, that kind of thing. .
They do not live frugally, at all. But they get weird about their money. If it is not something they WANT to spend their money on, they're cheap as cheap can be.
Image credits: IllustriousPickle657
#9
I used to bartend private parties when I was in college. I worked at an event at this huge estate outside Milwaukee, WI. It was the first event I ever worked for my friend who hired me (he was a regular at the bar I worked at downtown MKE).
Fast forward to the night of the party and my friend said “I need you to wear a white buttoned up shirt with nothing under and be ready to take it off at some point during the party.” I was completely shook. Had no idea what this party was all about. I walk in to the house and the owners have a couple of pet pigs wearing tutus. I’m showed the dining room and told to set up in a corner while the guests arrived. Super fun party, I was allowed to drink during it and was ripping shots with the guests all night long. Eventually this super muscular gay guy walks up and asks me to to take my shirt off, and instinctively, I say “you first”. He does, he’s super ripped. Everyone’s cheering and yelling now as he tells me it’s my turn. So I do it, why not I’m feeling pretty tipsy. The guy busts out laughing, loving that I actually followed suit.
Tips me $50 on top of the $300 I made from working the party. I worked a lot of parties like this over the next couple of years and became good friends with some of the usuals that I would see at most of the parties. Really good source of income for broke college me. Good times!
Image credits: niemzi
#10
I grew up hunting, fishing, gardening, farming, a real country and forest life. A rich guy calls my friend who is basically my dad, asks to come to town for a long hunting weekend and he's looking for someone to set it up and be his guide through it.
I'm offered $500 + expenses in 1998 money and totally take the job. I rent a local cabin from another friend's dad, meet the rich guy and show him the plan, we set out for the weekend and it's basically me hunting and fishing but him pulling the trigger and him pulling fish out of the river. It's actually pretty nice. I'd taken many people on trips like this before, usually for free. At the end of the 4 day weekend I drive him to the airport about an hour away, he takes some of the meat with him, gives me the rest, and tells me the shotgun and rifle and ammo and fishing pole are mine, and that was awesome. I left them with a friend when I went into the service, that was almost 30 years ago, I'm told the shotgun and rifle are still fine.
Good fun.
Image credits: distortion-warrior
#11
Worked for a guy who owned a bunch of hotels. Loved his booger sugar (died from it actually). Several nights I'd see guys come in rolling briefcases and was told if his wife asked he was never there. Half hour or so later they'd leave with nothing in hand. Interesting guy. Gave me a couch once geeked out of his mind cause I mentioned I needed one lol.
Image credits: Silentmutation84
#12
I dated a girl who was from a very rich family. Private Jets, property in every major city and celebrities over for Christmas Dinner.
The thing that amazed me the most was that socks weren't washed, they were just binned. The sock drawer was just full of brand new socks. Boxer shorts were exactly the same, but girls Underwear wasn't.
We're still friends now and I always joke with her about the socks 😅.
Image credits: stanagetocurbar
#13
I did some mechanic work for a guy in Vegas who had a passion for finding homeless junkies and taking them off the streets. he would set them up in an apartment and give them work to do like take care of the sick ones, clean the house, pick up meds etc, and he would also give them unlimited money to continue getting their fix. I was so confused, like if you're doing all this to get them off the street then why not get them off the dope and onto suboxone? I was constantly fixing one of the cars he bought the boys because they were trashing it. I was clean and sober for a few months just out of rehab and he never once offered me anything to help even after my sober living got suddenly shut down and I was homeless.
One story of many but the general trend is that rich people have NO clue how to spend their money.
Image credits: Miklos103
#14
Guy had his driveway and inside of his garage paved with f*****g *agate*. Like, insane. It was is beautiful. Probably one of the more unusual things I've seen.
I don't know what was beneath it, but it was agate coated with an epoxy resin.
Image credits: Impossible-Wear5482
#15
When I was in high school I was a nanny for a wealthy family,with 3 kids. They had a handyman guy that always seemed to be there when the husband was not. Then,she was pregnant again. Hmmm. Baby is born,looks nothing like her other kids. Handyman is not around anymore. They divorced a few years later.
Image credits: anon
#16
I did some engineering work for the top 6 or 8 AmWay people. One of their houses had an NBA approved basketball court installed on the second floor of a house that had a 2000 sf cigar humidor room. We had a meeting where they flew their private jet to Salem, Oregon to pick me up on the way to Los Vegas. We had the meeting on the aircraft, they went to Los Vegas then sent the plane back to Salem. One of their houses had a room that was only accessible via under water in the swimming pool. I don't know who is more irresponsible..... the very poor or the very rich.
Image credits: gnique
#17
My wife's best friend works for one of the richest women in the world. I have been to one of her houses before and know many details. But honestly, it's all pretty mundane. She is pretty normal and has many of the same issues we all face. Problematic kids, always striving for what's next, and a complex about her money and perception. What was wild was seeing pictures of people in the room I was standing in. Some of the most powerful people in the world stood where I was, which was pretty cool.
All in all, I guess my interactions are boring because she happens to be a normal "billionaire.".
Image credits: anon
#18
I've seen clients with so much money, up in age, barley able to get around, litterly getting around with the assistance of a personal nurse.Spending more money than anyone could imagine, bringing Bali, Rome, Tuscany, all places they've traveled into there home's environment, in this particular case we're talking a dessert zone in California, we litterly created Micro Climates, in order to accomplish some of there visions. Money was not a concern, so long as they ended up with the same Tropical environment they experienced in Bali. It was insane the entire time I was working on this once In a life time project, pulling off Scapes that I'd never be able to repeat again. It was impossible to fathom another client like this, with so much money to burn, I recall on one particular area the Tuscan zone of there property, I failed to capture the true flavor of Tuscany. Fact was I didn't spend the kind of money to import fully established Olive trees, not pleased with the wave of there hand they had me replace the 52" box Olive trees, with bigger Olive trees, it was a over 1.3 million dollars worth of Trees, irrigation, established shrubs planted from 36" box containers, that were torn out. I obviously transplanted what I could and took them to lm my nursery.
Image credits: Rich-Appearance-7145
#19
Worked on some house renovations for extremely rich clients.
Wife of rich guy in perth decides she wants to update the house. We literally stripped the house of every bit of flooring, furniture, finishing etc and they were just going to dump it all. The foreman bagged a huge stainless steel kitchen unit that he sold for 15,000aud. Another guy salvaged all the marble and resurfaced his kitchen. I got a brand new in its plastic mattress that was worth something like 6000aud. It was absolutely disgusting how little respect they had for money.
Worked in another house in L.A. fireplace was white hand carved italian marble. Guys lifting the obscenely big flat screen into place dropped it and chipped the fireplace and cracked the screen. Thought i was about to witness someone being m******d. The woman who lived there calmly said it's fine, it was an accident. She was just upset she would have to wait another few months for a new fireplace.
Same house had built a raised platform off the side of a hill so they could put down a few hundred square feet of AstroTurf. Whole thing cost over a million dollars.
To be honest most of the really rich people i met were very down to earth and nice but when it came to money it was surreal how they would find ways to waste it.
Image credits: anon
#20
I worked for a billionaire who was building a 30,000 sq ft home. The guest house was over 6,000 sq ft. He didn’t care for how long the cabinetry was going to take so he actually bought a cabinet company and had them work on his home exclusively until all the cabinetry and built ins were installed and completed. He also owned a few Gulfstream jets and I got to sit in the pilot’s seat while the mechanic would ask me to press this lever or that as he was maintaining them.
Image credits: grannygogo
#21
Owner of my last company flew 5 of us to New England to a funeral of a coworkers parent. We were there for 10 minutes, loaded up and flew home.
Image credits: BestVirginia0
#22
About half of them are not smarter than anyone else, just luckier.
#23
Guy who lives in a climate that is not hospitable for palm trees…..at all. I’m taking all the way northern US. But he didn’t care, he wants palm trees. So every year, when the palm trees inevitibly die, he just gets new ones delivered and planted.
Image credits: anon
#24
Guy I used to work for was worth over 200m. I had personally seen balance sheets indicating 100m+ in cash at times. Older guy; you’d never know he had money if you randomly met him.
Drove a 12 year old truck like 500k miles. 5 acre lot in the country with a small home and not much in there.
He owned several companies but his personal office was a little former lawyers office with not much in there.
But man, outside of that town he had it going on. Private jet. He and his kids and grandkids took a big trip every summer. Every single time he would just buy a home on that vacation. He had acquired over 30 personal houses. Most of them large lodge-like houses on lakes and in forests.
And he loved to share it. Any employee could rent any of the houses up to a week for no charge except for a little cleaning fee. We could rent one every two or three years. One employee that worked for him battled cancer (and beat it!) for years, and he had to go to Minnesota or something for treatment. Every couple weeks the boss let him take the jet for no charge, and he stayed in one of his houses near that hospital. That guy is now a pretty high up manager.
During COVID they had their most profitable year ever. The company earned $20m more in profit than the previous year. It was insane. They issued a huge bonuses for every employee based on your tenure. I got $8000. I know a guy who had just started a month prior and he got $500.
He’d send people to school. If you were a good employee and you wanted to go back and study business or something related to a role, he’d pay all of the tuition as long as you made As.
Immensely lavish Christmas parties for employees. They gave away THOUSANDS of dollars of gifts. They’d draw a name for a car.
It’s astonishing what he’s done for so many people. He told me that he felt like he needed to do it because he inherited a business decades ago, giving him a head start.
He did a lot for me personally, and it killed me to take another job. I just wanted something new in a new place. I was about to cry when I gave him my resignation. He congratulated me, and I was like “you’ve done a lot for me and I hope this is alright” and he said “just pay it forward. You owe me nothing.”
Very cool guy.
#25
I worked at a Fairmont hotel in banquets department and we had the owner (a rich Saudi prince) and his entourage come for a visit. We were briefed ahead of time on how to act around them. For instance, we were told not to look at the women at all.
They requested a buffet of McDonald’s food, so we ordered tons of food and organized it all into a buffet for them.
One evening we set up an outdoor event for them. It was cold/snowy so we had gas fireplace warmers around. A few guys from his entourage were standing around one, and I saw them put their phones into the fire, and watch, ensuring their phones were entirely melted/burnt up before leaving.
Always wondered why or what could have been on those phones..
#26
I didn’t work for, but dated a rich girl. Rich as in his father had a helicopter, they had an armored vehicle, bodyguards, etc. She and her environment lived inside a bubble.
Once I took her to a normal area and she saw a shop, Hermes I think it was but not sure. She had a card from daddy to pay for things.
She liked a bag that was like 45.000 USD or something like that and bought it. I mentioned about how expensive that was for a purse. She looked at me confused and asked “45.000 USD is a lot of money?”.
She genuinely didn’t know the value of money, for her it was like tokens.
#27
I know someone who pays a company to clean out his charcoal grill and big egg smoker. Yes, there are apparently companies who do this and people pay good money for this service. I didn’t even know this was an option in life.
Image credits: RegularFinger8
#28
I worked on a luxury electronic device for a client (actual billionaire), the device costs 175k. He bought his neighbors 2million dollar house to put it in and turn into a game room/club house. He goes to tip me 100 bucks (tipping is VERY rare in my industry) I look surprised cuz that's a nice little bonus. He mistakes my surprise for it being too little and goes "i dont know how much i should tip I'm sorry" before i can thank him he hands me another 900 dollars. I try to refuse but he will have none of it he's just happy the work was done.
I just liked how he was aware that money holds no meaning to him, but it did to me, a working guy, and he was genuinely concerned to come off as stingy/insulting. .
#29
In my early 20's I was hired as security along with nine other guys for some big important party. We were given three piece tailored suits. I still have mine though I was much skinnier back then. The party was at a big estate and the owner and host was a big name where I live but I didn't recognize until my co-workers were talking about it the next day. I was posted at the lower basement. There were two basements and no one was allowed in the lower basement. It was an easy gig. I just sat there, watched TV, and they gave me food. I only had one incident where a drunk older lady was looking for a man and somehow wandered all the way to me and kept grabbing me. We were tipped 500 on top of the promised pay the next day.
Image credits: ark-ayy
#30
I came to work one day and saw a Ferrari parked. I was like wow who’s Ferrari is that? He said oh sorry my Porsche is in the shop getting fixed so I had to drive my Ferrari.
Image credits: OverallVacation2324
#31
A sign saying “service entrance “ in the back door.
Husband and wife each have a private jet.
Image credits: SpringerPop
#32
Lingerie models parade around for the biggest developer in Virginia Beach so he could pick out something for his wife.
#33
For a bar mistvah a family rented out the star light roof at the waldorf Astoria and 2 other banquet halls
One was full of video games. The hallways were full of candy vending machines.
#34
Worked for an Uber rich Afghan man, he would hand me wads of cash and multiple credit cards with different names/addresses on them. He would then have me take his kids wherever they wanted to do whatever they want. Didn’t ever ask for a receipt, but I brought him back receipts and kept exact change.
He also lived in a very safe wealthy neighborhood, but hired private armed security for his home if he was ever traveling.
#35
I live in an area where there are billionaires amongst us. I lived here for 15+ years and noticed there were a lot of helicopters around. I would joke and say “on that’s the CEO of _____.” Come to find out, the billionaires get around on helicopters so they don’t have to wait in traffic lol.
#36
My ex and I stopped in a major tourist attraction city on the way to visit family in another state. We just happened to run into a rich guy and his wife at one of the bars we chose to go to and hit it off. He said he was the head engineer at some company, and was vacationing with his wife. They ended up spending the whole night with us, going from bar to bar, buying expensive champagne and liquor, and footed the whole bill everywhere we went. They even took us to a strip club, rented out the whole VIP section, paid for a few dancers to spend the night with all of us (no, nothing happened aside from a lot of lap dances, chatting, drinking, and pot smoking), and just acted like it was no big deal. We tried to decline and pay for ourselves on a few occasions, but he insisted and said he wanted to. When I asked why he was being so generous he said “you two are fun to be around and you made my wife smile” like it was the most normal thing in the world. At the end of the night, they paid for a luxury cab to get us back to our hotel and that was that. In hindsight, that totally could’ve ended up turning into the start of a trafficking/horror movie, and I’d definitely never do something like that now, but it’s still a fond memory.
#37
I work at a private high school, and every year each class starts with an overnight class retreat. One year, we couldn't find a location that would take the junior class, so one of the parents just casually BOUGHT A SUMMER CAMP, and the junior class had their retreat there.
#38
This one guy had a jar of c*****e in his bathroom labeled ‘for guests’. And it wasn’t a small little lipstick sized jar. It was, like, something you’d put q-tips in.
Another was just funny. He was excited about the $32 jacket he got at Costco. The guy was literally a billionaire, and was bragging about the deal he got on his jacket.
#39
They dont move furniture when they move. They leave it at the old house and just buy new s**t for their new house. F’ing blew my mind.
#40
We became freinds with a rich couple because our children got along really well. For some reason they started to really like us as friends, even though we are lower middle class. We started getting invited to Christmas parties and events they put on.
These were the kind of people who have a huge gated property with multi car garage. The husband owns a bunch of online tourism websites or something really random.
One day hes talking with me and hes asking what he can do for ideas for his parents retirement. Not sure why my opinion mattered but he seemed to really value it.
Eventually we got to the conclusion he should buy his parents a self sustaining business. Right then and there he decided to buy his parents a huge orchard farm worth millions that was already largely profitable. It was like it took no thought at all to just drop a few million to buy it for his dad.
He ended up thanking me for my advice lol. I dont think I really contributed at all. Haha.
#41
The first and last time I had an ultra rich friend, from true privilege, was at university. Don't get me wrong I do think she was a nice girl and we had good times, but I think we eventually realised our backgrounds were making us incompatible.
The last time I hung out with her she was talking about her trip to Tuscany which looked absolutely delightful on her social media. I was asking her questions about it and ventured how I would love to go to Italy some day. She suddenly burst out laughing, the rich people laugh, and said, "What do you mean you have never been to Italy? Just rent a villa - they're so cheap!"
That was about 9 years ago now and I am still yet to follow her advice.
#42
My boss is a multi millionaire and the amount of times he tries to cut corners, only to just end up spending way more money is baffling to me. He’ll hire a contractor to do something, then 60% of the way he’ll change his mind and ask for not only something different to be done, but also add like 2X the amount of work originally planned. He will just get a wild hair up his a*s and then one day we’re trying to work and then “Oh s**t, The Boss bought 4000lbs of fine wood flooring that we need to figure out where to put it, everything has to be put on hold” Then that wood just sits there for two years before anything gets done, a lot just gets damaged over time because we just don’t have a good place to store it.
So it’s just every couple of months we have to deal with some weird curveball b******t that doesn’t make sense.
#43
I was shocked by how much they discriminate against each other.
In my line of business I work for a lot of celebrities and the ultra wealthy. One day I was chatting with a multi millionaire client at his house when he suddenly looks over to his neighbors property with a look of absolute disgust. He proceeds to spend the next 5mins complaining about how his new neighbor is “new money” and a “dot com billionaire” and doesn’t fit in the neighborhood. Like.. this dude was literally disgusted and mad about it. “All our neighbors are embarrassed to have him in the neighborhood”.
Here I am, a $25 an hour employee trying my best to act sympathetic to this guy’s “dot com billionaire” problem while internally trying not to scream.
#44
Used to play a team sports and do outdoors stuff with some guys regularly years ago.
one of the guys - was very well off - a few million - owned a chain of jewelry stores.
Most of the guys did not even know - he did not flaunt it at all. He drove a beat up truck, average gear, was modest and a just a great guy. he never talked about it or anything (if you directly asked him "are you the guy..." he would admit it, he just did not talk about it or brag or anything).
it only really came up twice that I saw - once he showed up in a very nice BMW - his wife's car - his beat up truck was in the shop.
Another time, we were all volunteering working on a outdoor site - and it was hard work and we had missed lunch. he went out and brought back decent lunches for like 12 guys. Would not take money for it from anybody.
I think the differences are - in many of the comments here - the rich people who were not jerks - were self made - worked really hard - were not born into it.
#45
When I was in the Navy, my bunk mate came from good old money. We'd go out on the town together and he'd drop money like it was nothing when I was barely affording to survive. PS4's came out and he said lets go get some and I couldn't afford it so told him I'd come along. He bought two PS4s, every accessory the store had for him and me, and two copies of every game they had there.
If he ever ran out of money he just called his daddy and would have money in his account by the end of the day. Like $20,000 just transferred.
And man had no idea what a regular tip at a restaurant was him. We go out and eat together with friends, tab would be $25 for him and he'd go and leave a $100 tip thinking that was normal.
#46
The credit card attached to their investment accounts pays for all their day to day expenses.
#47
I worked for a billionaire that is constantly embroiled in legal battles. I was the head of a new business venture for him. He placed his family and kids into top positions and eventually had them making decisions while they had zero experience. The guy was extremely rude and I left the role pretty quickly.
What I found out though was that he played a billionaire game of not paying any business debts and forcing suppliers or whatever companies that were owed money to always settle for pennies on the dollar, which ultimately screwed over everyone except for him. It made me realize how unfair the world is for the 99% of people.
#48
I worked inside a shark tank (yes those kind of sharks) In a basement of a home, and it was bigger then my apartment. The walls were higher then my ceilings. Literally the captive sharks had a bigger space then me. The room full of equipment like pumps, and stuff, was bigger then any room in my apartment. Talking to the guy who was the expert on the job about the whole thing....
He was saying, if you didn't feed the sharks for awhile. and tossed a person in, or fell in yourself. You would die, be eaten, and the filters and everything would have the water clear again in under an hour.
Literally this rich person could dispose of bodies if they needed in a secret underground shark-tank,
From the surface from the street, the house looked like a normal big house...
But inside it was full of art, and workers, and fancy alcohol, a cigar room, a gym,
and it went DOWN so deep, and had such a huge basement, like a tooth with roots, or an iceberg, where the tip is the house and the real mass is underground.
Then at the very bottom was a shark-tank room.
If I hadn't helped put it together I would never believe it exists...
When I would work there, every hour someone would bring me water and food, cookies, and sandwiches. Near the end we drank fancy scotch, and I received an envelope just full of 100's. I think it was 10 Grand.
Cool people, real nice.
Image credits: Optimal_Pangolin_922
#49
When I was in grad school I worked as a piano mover, so I mostly either did jobs for local orchestras, music venues, and schools, or people who were rich enough to keep grand pianos in their homes. Which, not all of them are absurdly wealthy, but there were a few jobs that really stuck with me.
One of my favorites was this mansion that was in a gated community nested inside ANOTHER gated community. We looked it up on Zillow and it was listed as having sold for 7 or 8 million, and I'm in Kentucky where property is pretty cheap. Guy said "yeah, I live on a few thousand acres up in Hoosier National Forest but my b*tch wife doesn't wanna live with me anymore so I bought her this place."
Lots of taxidermied exotic animals
Did a job in one of the OLD old money mansions in town, still had intact slave quarters.
Image credits: jurd_fosh
#50
Generosity. My mother boss paid for my little brother private school + university tuition. Just because my mother built a connection beyond employee/employer.
#51
They have the capacity to help way more than poor people do, and most of them do it. They arnt the greedy swine most make them out to be.
#52
I worked for a very wealthy couple for a while. They were like everyone else, mostly nice, but could be total aholes when in a mood.
Two things to understand... firstly they don't think that they're rich. This couple had 27 properties across 5 countries... a dozen cars... half a dozen boats... a private jet (albeit a small one)... a "significant" stock portfolio... and I heard one day... $350m in the bank... yet they were always talking about what they would do if it all vanished overnight. Everyone in their world that I dealt with was the same... matter how much they had it felt to them like they were on the verge of being poor.
The second thing is that they have a totally skewed understanding of the value of money. They might fly 1200miles in the private jet to get a hamburger, but not get a Coke because its "Too Expensive!". They will get a bill from their lawyer for $2000 and lose their c**p, then you find out that they were in a bind and the lawyer fixed it and saved them 7 million. I remember one time she bought a dress for $500,000 and then wouldn't wear it because the strapless bra she needed was going to cost $600 and she wasn't prepared to pay that.
#53
My Sis N Law does private sitting for a couple of rich, older ladies from a well known older wealthy family in the town she lives in. They make her cook steaks for the dogs to eat whenever she works...
#54
I’ve worked at my company, which is global, for about 3 years and the thing I don’t see is them working that’s for sure. My company’s HQ is in Ohio and they live in Florida. They take a private jet in for the quarterly meetings to speak but after that, they’re back to whatever they do prior
I gave a given, but I’ve never seen it executed in my own personal experience and it’s mind boggling.
#55
In college, talking about plans for winter break, my friend says their family is going skiing in Switzerland, they're planning to leave after her last final exam. I think "What if she's delayed or something?" and ask when the plane takes off. She gets confused and says "When I get there."
Turns out her family owns their own plane. They're flying in from their home to the airport near the college, and fueling up, and when she gets done and gets to the airport then it's off to Zurich.
She was confused because the plane always takes off when she gets there. She's never flown commercial in her entire life.
#56
I worked quite closely with the CEO of a multinational corporation, not sure how much cash he had, but on paper, he was worth billions if selling all of his shares etc.
What shocked me was how lovely he was, very down to earth, had nice things but was warm and generous.
Still 5 years later if he is local to me he reaches out to see if I want to go for dinner or a drink and messages out of the blue to see how I am doing.
The shock is that I expected him to be a real stuck up a*****e that had no idea how ‘normal’ people lived, but he was the opposite.
#57
The rich guy I know very well owns a series of hardware stores in the Midwest and has a NASCAR team. Multi-billionaire level. He was the cheapest person I've ever met and torn up clothes on the daily, cheap daily vehicles, ect. Also, he was super nice. You wouldn't (and didn't) know who he was until I was introduced.
#58
Friend of mine works in fundraising and became great friends with a billionaire who earned her money through clothing. My friend was visiting the billionaire when the billionaire was talking about a great meal she had in Paris. The billionaire, then stood up and yelled, “you know what! Let’s go right now!” They drove to the airport, got in the billionaire’s private jet, flew to Paris from the west coast. They spent about 12 hours in Paris. Ate good food and walked around. On a whim the billionaire bought a 100k painting at a gallery and carried it around until they got back to the plane.
That’s a different way to live.
#59
They were very normal in almost every way. But had really big houses and expensive hobbies. Walked by the counter one day and his pay stub was laid beside the mail. 28629.00$ was his one week net pay as senior VP at a fortune 250 company. He was more interested in talking about grilling and cars than anything.
#60
Lad going out with my niece, his father is ultra rich. Money is no object but wears trainers that look like something you find on the street old ripped and basic unbranded clothes.
Met my niece at uni, he was buying food from the reduced section.
He said girls didn't speak to him. He asked her out and they were just 2 poor students.
My niece had the shock of her life when he picked her up from the train station in a aventator wearing a 20k rolex and took her back to his dad's that had a helicopter on the lawn.. But still wearing his old ripped trainers.
He still works a normal job
My ex girlfriends family ultra rich lovely people but when it came to hygiene smelly dirty lads and dad never brushed their teeth or even showered I don't think. Couldn't sit next to them in a car they smelt so bad.
The lads had absolutely stunning girlfriends even though they reeked of s**t and you'd heave when they spoke to you their breath was that bad.
#61
I had good fortune in my younger years to work event and “VIP” security for various events and venues, mainly concerts. Naturally, lots of famous faces and personalities. Are there a lot of d******d artists out there? You bet, that’s why the stereotype exists….but there’s a surprising amount of well known names who really do treat people well (particularly in metal and country genres).
I will specifically say that Metallica, Avenged Sevenfold, Shinedown, Godsmack, Korn, and anyone on the Tech N9ne/Strange Music roster was above and beyond a pleasure to work with and just be in the company of. Maybe not relevant exactly to the question but a pleasant thing/surprise to learn in life.
#62
I was on vacation with the son of a billionaire during college. They wouldn't rent us a car, so he bought a new car instead, and then let his friend who we were visiting keep it since he didn't want to go through the hassle of selling it.
The funniest one was a different rich guy. We were in middle school, and (apparently) boating recklessly. We got pulled over, and the water police gave us a ticket. My buddy pulled out ten times the amount of the ticket and said, "This way you won't have to come back every fifteen minutes.".
#63
Crypto millionaire - paid $60k/month for 5-6 high end working girls to basically be his personal s*x servants. Start the day with a double BJ everyday. Snort coke out of another's orifices every weekend. Non stop partying.
This went on for a year before he flew off to Monaco. I haven't seen him since.
I was his video editor for his Instagram.
He was making $1m a month.
Image credits: Creampie_Gang
#64
I have been doing private security for the same asian family in NYC for over 25 years. The family's father is now 72 years old, and they have taken me around the world. The crazy thing is that since the day I was hired, he has had a young female masseuse. Come give him a 2-hour massage & and a happy ending every night for over 25 years... never misses a day , even on holidays or vacation. Including the time we went on an African safari for 21 days .
Image credits: Past_Cry5522
#65
Not super rich but definitely had $$ .i used to work as both a birth doula and a postpartum doula in an area that had some wealth.
Some of the weirder things
1 family had me coming everyday mom was home and would ask me to do things with the older child but she would just come with us. For example if she wanted me to go to the park she would come with me and sit over in the corner reading the paper and holding the baby while I watched the older daughter.
2. One family wanted me to only use a sippy cup she didn’t trust anyone to not spill , even water. I declined the sippy cup.
3. I had one very strange family that lived in a huge house , maybe 5000-6000 square feet. Every time I went the newborn was in a bouncy seat in the upstairs area away from view of the older child because she was afraid to upset the older child. She even hid to nurse him.
One thing i noticed about working for the families I did is that all of them seemed to be very nervous, uptight and unnatural parents. I don’t know if this had to do with money or just the demographic I worked for but they really struggled with just enjoying their babies and toddlers. Lots of micromanaging and weird rules.
That reminded me I had one family of two physicians who had one newborn. They wouldn’t allow the baby to take walks, outside in a stroller or baby carrier because of ticks and mosquitoes. Poor little person was always inside.
#66
I was a private chef for a Hollywood producer when they stayed at their other other home. So for like 2 months of the year I worked for them. Anyways they had loud phone calls with lawyers always bossing and shouting at them. A few times they specifically asked for spies from a certain middle eastern democracy to start stalking and threatening young actresses that another producer/director had r***d and s****************d. The spies were former actual spies and now run a security firm that protects members of a certain religious ethnic group from charges and lawsuits regarding sexual a*****t, coercion, and child r**e. Two of the ladies ended up disappearing.
#67
My boss is currently ‘investing’ in rental properties. His ROI is expected to be over 240% the first year and increase 10% every year there after. This is what’s wrong with the housing/rental market. People can’t f*****g afford that.
Say the mortgage is $1000/month he expects rent to be $1700 the first year, $1800 the next year etc. and right now he has 4 duplexes, bringing in that kind of money per unit. It’s ridiculous. Highway robbery.
He’s salary and makes $3700 a week. (I saw his pay stub) that’s after taxes and insurance. And rarely puts in 40 hours per week.
I can’t stand him.
#68
Company bought a small block of houses (about 6-7 very very old houses in a historic city district) next to business I work at, told all employees not to record or photograph as he had them all bulldozed (middle of Canadian housing crisis) city forced him to make it “green space” (planned on expanding parking lot) so had to lay sod over it all. Grass is all there dead and we’ve been fined several times for parking cars on it.
#69
I work for a really rich Italian family and they have really large refrigerator in the Warehouse....not really sure why.....not gonna ask either.
#70
Pretty much everything the other 99.9% of the population waste their lives chasing. None of it fills the void. That can only be filled from the inside.
And I’m the right hand for one of the richest people in the world. So I’ve seen, used, broke, thrown away, or given away what most would sell their souls for. Bored of it all. Only thing I enjoy is when I’m left alone at home in my own little world. I still enjoy track day at various test tracks when we break the race cars out, and tuna fishing. Besides that not much else.
And everyone of us has a pretty thick nda so I wouldn’t expect any detailed stories.
And I can say the rich people are not the problem as you’ve been lied to about. The amount of money put back into the economy is mind boggling per what we buy and subs we employee. I spend more on my work credit card per month than most make in a year and most of that is local owned business shops and such.
I personally saved 3 local stores from going out of business after Covid with that card.
So I can say I’ve seen just about everything, been about everywhere, and met about every famous person you can think of. Or as we call them (movie stars, sports players, and singers) the fake rich. Those people are the real issue. Bunch of cheap asses.
Been doing it for 25 years now. .
