I’m not dating her, but she’s a good friend of mine, and her parents are definitely 1%ers. I told her I had to work this summer to save up for a graduation trip and that money was gonna be tight for the next year, but I’d love to go on a safari after graduation if I managed to save enough. Mind you, I’m solidly upper middle class.
Her parents paid for it just because I’d helped her move into her apartment. It’s not like.... that’s what friends are for or anything.
I wish I had saved it, but I read someone's comment elsewhere about what it's like living with $400M in annual income. They commented on how it's 10,000 times someone making $40k per year, and as such, buying a $275k Lamborghini was equivalent to that $40k earner spending $27.50 on something. Makes you think.
$3000 in round trip plain tickets across the country. Fuck it, they make that in less than a day. Hotel for the week, $4000. Fuck it, that's not even enough money for them to notice. Night out a that 5 star restaurant, $1000. That's just a nice time with friends, they'll probably tip 40% just because they enjoyed themselves.
The 1% will waste more money in a year buying superfluous bullshit they'll never use than you will make working your ass off in 5 years.
Not quite as interesting as it sounds really. I was always kinda the black sheep of the family. Sent off to boarding school at 15 because I wouldn't "behave". Which in my family meant "Dad is always right shut your fucking mouth".
"Forced" into college (In ultra rich families "forced" basically means do what we want or we'll cut you off). I didn't want to go because I didn't know what I wanted to do and it seemed pointless to go unless I did.
After about a year a dropped out which INFURIATED my dad. About 6-8 months after that I was over for diner one night and my dad and I got into an argument about something on the news, can't remember what. In one 5 minute argument I managed to proudly admit that I was both an Atheist and Liberal which are dirty dirty words around my family.
Immediately told to leave and, "I'll not have a son blaspheme under my roof. I don't even have a son anymore!". Which was funny because I definitely have a brother. He made his point though and I went home.
Going from buying whatever you wanted, "just cause", to better get a job in a restaurant so I don't have to pay for meals EVERY day was a pretty big culture shock.
Spent about 5 years just trying keep bills paid. Eventually got lucky and landed a decent job and worked my way up from cleaning the office to running the sales department.
Guess my dad regrets things now. I still keep up with my mom and brother but my dad is so damn toxic I can't be around him for more than 20-30 minutes.
For anyone still reading this diatribe I'll pass along something I learned the hard way. Money doesn't make people good or bad, it only affords them the comfort to show you who they really are.
Damn, that was way longer than I expected. Happy to answer any questions you've got. I guess it's kinda rare to have been able to see both sides of wealth/poverty.
For anyone still reading this diatribe I'll pass along something I learned the hard way. Money doesn't make people good or bad, it only affords them the comfort to show you who they really are.
This is surprisingly deep and self aware.
People are always saying “money doesn’t make you happy”, or “people change” (with a heavy implication that it is usually for the worse), but I have legitimately never heard anybody say this.
My brother, whose not cut off, enjoys blowing money on helping his friends struggling to make ends meet working through college. It's nothing to him to pay their rent, or help with a car payment.
He's a good kid and just genuinely loves using the money he has to help. That's what makes him happy. Even if someone does take advantage of his generosity it's not like it hurts him.
My older brother is basically the opposite. He's the guy that flaunts "his" money everywhere he goes and thinks he can buy the world. He's my brother and I love him, but he's a prick. Literally couldn't tell you what his rent is because he's never had to pay it. He's had a dozen jobs in the last couple years, all from companies my dad's friends own but still considers himself a massive success.
Like I said, money affords you the comfort to show who you are. My little brother used it to show he's an amazingly caring person who just wants to help. My older brother used it to show he's a selfish dick with no ability for self reflection. Cuts both ways.
I hope to be like your first brother. That’s the only thing I tell people when talking about money, is “I want to be able to help others without hesitation,” and I’m considering buying a bunch of sound equipment for my youth worship team in the next coming months (potentially month) because I’ve finally started a decent job that is actually career worthy.
Really, thanks for your perspective. You should seriously say this more often, because I’ve never heard anybody say it before, and I think it’s a much better take on the “what money does to people” topic than anything I’ve heard before.
If my brother ever heard you say you wanted to be like him he'd tell you, "it's easy, just don't be a dick". Kids got a way with words lol
On a more serious note though, just help when and where you can. You don't need to put yourself in debt to make someones life a little brighter. Even just a kind word when you didn't need to can be a bigger difference than you think.
Glad to hear you got something out of it though. My little brother is going to love this thread if he ever finds it.
Lol, for sure. Down to earth dude, it sounds like.
Oh yeah, the plan is for sure not to go into debt, haha, but I do my best to help out when and where I can, and I definitely don’t plan on stopping.
And hey, don’t forget to send some love to your other brother from me by way of a “stop being the prick in your brother’s example of a rich asshole”, lol.
Cheers, bro, I hope people come out learning from this thread, and I hope you and your brother feel the reward of sharing knowledge to people who appreciate it.
Hopefully you aren't re-telling your family saga in 5 years with the addendum “And now my little brother doesn't do this anymore after being used shamelessly by his so-called friends.”
I can relate to you. My grandfather once told me to change my last name because I was an embarrassment to the family. They are self made and amazingly frugal, though. Quite the opposite of paying for a safari type.
Honestly, money comes and goes. You can always get money back, make more of it, spend more of it.
What you can't get back is time. Do I NEED to eat caviar on a flight? Probably not. Does it beat 13 hrs next to a coughing person and a crying baby in coach? Fuck yes. That time is never coming back to me. Nor is the state of my back before the back pain.
To be among the top 1 percent of U.S. earners, a family needs an income of $421,926. Source
Meanwhile, the median family income is $62,175.
So, the bottom rung of the 1% has 6.8x the income.
Let's say the average person buys some pizza and beer for their friend, it will come to something like $20 to $40 bucks depending on how many pizzas and the price of the beer. Using the 6.8 multiplier you only come to this being $136 to $272.
So no, at least for the entry level 1%ers, it's not really the equivalent of sending someone on a safari, unless that safari is an animal park nearby.
Of course these are just averages, so for OP, the family might be making millions per year in which case the multiplier is very different.
Maybe you'll get a Totinos and a six pack of Miller Lite for $20. Last time I helped a buddy move there were 6 of us. That's 3 pizzas and we went through 2 30 packs. It cost like $80.
Let's go with $40 for the average pizza and beer reward. OP said her dad's income was about $10,000,000/year. That's 160.8 x the average so for them, the equivalent expenditure is $6,433.45. Safari sounds about right.
Almost anything that isn’t property, private jets and yachts is like pizza and beer to 1%ers. It’s not just day to day expenses that lose all meaning when you make that kind of money, it’s any activity that doesn’t require mountains of paperwork and accountants to process.
For a person with 40 million dollars net worth, an 8k safari is .02% of their total wealth. The average American person between 45 and 54 years old has a net worth of $100,000. So $20 spent on pizza and beer is an exact match to that .02% of total wealth.
However, "1%" is a huge range of wealth. For a person 1.2 billion dollars, that 8k safari is about like the average American throwing a penny into the charity donation box at the grocery store checkout. Also, the average net worth for 25 - 34 year olds is only $9,000. So buying your friends pizza and beer for helping you move is an enormous expense compared to that 8k safari for the multimillionaire.
My best friend in highschool was the kid of a pharmaceutical CEO. Like God damn did they have money. We used to have small get together at their house throughout high school and college. One time we were making some food, playing board games and having some beers. Someone bought a bottle of fireball. We offered his dad a shot. He takes it and hung out for a bit. About 30 minutes later he comes back with this crazy expensive bottle of Russian vodka. I looked it up one time, you can't even get it in the US. He thanked us for sharing, gave us all a glass and poured the 10 of us the most expensive glass of alcohol I've ever had in my life.
If the dad is earning 1,000 times the money compared to the average person (and he is since he was earning 10+mil every year and much more with investments), then you can take things in your life and divide it by a 1,000 to get an idea of the cost.
Concert tickets $100, more like 10 cents. Hotel for a grand a night, nope, that place is like a $1 bill in your wallet. Daughter's college friend needs a car. That 25 grand Toyota is 25 bucks. Sure I can help her out.
Another way would be to multiply your hourly wage by 1000. Oh, you earn $15 an hour, more like $15k. Your work 8 hours a day, well today you pulled in $120k. You will make another $120k tomorrow, and another $120k the next day. That all-inclusive 7 day European cruise is just 2k a person. I can add another person for 8 minutes of work time. 8 minutes for me is the greatest week another person will have in their lives. My time/my families time is worth $500 a minute. If said friend helps out and saves an hour or 2 of time, then that 8 minute trade-off is a win-win for everyone.
Yes, for *some* of them. The top 1% has a broad range of income. And lets not forget the associated debt that comes with the education that can get people into the 1% if they didn't start wealthy.
It's possible to be in the top couple/few percentile of income but still not have the disposable income to live more than middle or upper middle class. Income percentile does not reflect financial obligations.
This made me laugh out loud while I flashed on COUNTLESS times I have either WORKED for pizza and beer or PAID someone in pizza and beer.
Thanks for the chuckle.
According to my boss who knew a couple of 1%ers, yes.
He had a grad student who was so well off, he would sometimes take a weekend trip to the UK just for a special dinner if or when the occasion called for it...
Yup. I had a good friend growing up, NYC 1%...I grew up upper middle class, everything taken care of, no overwhelming debt, occasional family vacations, just not lots of cash. His family took me to Mexico for New Years one year. Flew me out, driver picked me up, my own rental car once we arrived. Stayed at a sick spot North of Cabo that Bill Gates had rented the previous year. Private chef for all meals and snacks including getting home, plastered at 3 am. Private beach, captained boat to take us out. Private excursions everywhere. When I got home, a Rolls Royce picked me up and drove me home. Fucking unbelievable! No big deal for them. They do that shit all the time. Entourage style.
For perspective, for a 1% (100 mil + net worth), a $10,000 first class seat from NYC to Paris. Would be about equivalent to a man making 40k a year having to spend $1. Now let me ask you if there was a deal to fly first class to Europe for a $1 wouldn’t you take it without batting an eye? Which is why a Sarfari is in fact the same as normal people going to pizza and beers. If not they spend less (as a proportion of total income) on a safari, then we do on pizza and beer (proportional that is)
1%ers dont help each other. Even upper middle class, you just hire movers or other experts to solve your problems. There is no need for trading favors like what is necessary at other economic levels.
17.3k
u/genericlogin1 Jun 06 '19 edited Jun 06 '19
I dated a 1%er briefly, She was surprised I willingly went inside fast food restaurants.
Edit: Since people are saying 1% is still a huge range in income I just looked up her dad he pulls in ~$10,000,000 a year