Whether or not money can buy true happiness is a contentious topic. But at a certain level of wealth, what you certainly do get is the flexibility and opportunity to do, well, pretty much whatever it is that you want. The only limit is your imagination.
Inspired by u/animetroy, the members of the sprawling r/AskReddit online group shared some of the mind-boggling things they’ve seen or heard the ultra-wealthy do. We’ve collected their perspectives to share with you. Scroll down to have a read!
We got in touch with personal finance expert Sam Dogen for his thoughts on the smartest ways to spend wealth to improve the quality of a person and their family's life. He shared some of his insights, including what worries the ultra-rich face, with Bored Panda. You'll find our full interview with him below. Dogen is the founder of the popular 'Financial Samurai' blog and the author of the bestseller 'How To Engineer Your Layoff.'
#1
Traveling the world yearly to stay in your preferred seasonal temperature.
Image credits: Polluted_Shmuch
Personal finance expert Dogen told Bored Panda that once you have a lot of money, you don't need much more. "Pursuing additional wealth often won’t make a significant difference in the quality of your life. However, I firmly believe that the best way to spend money to enhance your life is by buying an ideal home where you can enjoy life and raise your family," he told us in an email.
"Given that we spend more than 12 hours a day at home on average—sometimes up to 20 hours—a beautiful home offers the greatest return on investment. Not only do you get to enjoy your living space, but there’s also potential for its value to appreciate over time."
According to Dogen, the best time to own the nicest home you can afford is when you have children. "This way, you maximize the use of your home and spread its cost across more people. Once your children grow up and leave, you’re unlikely to want a larger, more expensive home—quite the opposite."
#2
Never wash clothes. Not only do you not have to wash your clothes because someone else can do it for you, you never have to wear the same clothing twice. Just get a new shirt every day. You don't go to the store, you have a body double (a person with the same type of body and size as yourself) go and shop for you. The clothes are put into your wardrobe by them.
Never shop grocery's. Someone restocks your fridge daily. You basically have a fully stocked shop in your gigantic kitchen. But you're nit gonna cook anyway since you have a professional chef on duty 24/7.
Never clean. Never fix anything on the house or car etc. You never need to do any chores ever. Other people do it for you. They can even raise your kids for you.
Image credits: StunningWash5906
#3
Buy a mansion. Rip it down and build a new mansion with a slightly different layout
I'm in $10m+ homes all the time. The carriage house or groundskeepers house are nicer than mine .
Image credits: Ate_spoke_bea
Furthermore, you should consider spending the money you've earned to improve your lifestyle. For example, you could invest in your health and fitness, as well as the quality of the food you eat. "Once you’re wealthy, your goal should be to live as long and healthily as possible. Lastly, consider spending on friends and family. Once you’ve achieved financial success, it’s rewarding to share it. Throw parties, pay for vacations with your favorite people, and enjoy life together," Dogen said.
However, the expert pointed out that just because someone's incredibly wealthy doesn't make them immune to life's problems. "The sad reality is that even if you’re ultra-rich with a $20 million net worth or more, happiness isn’t guaranteed. You’ll still have the same worries, fears, and hopes as everyone else. In fact, the higher your net worth, the more you might fear losing it. Much of the wealth of the ultra-rich is illiquid and can vanish unexpectedly. In addition, you will likely have to sacrifice for an extremely long time to achieve tremendous wealth. Be careful what you wish for!"
#4
Wake up richer. (interest on a principle... compounding... not just a couple of dollars but instead think a salary's worth of added interest)
the act of sleeping/just exisiting & waiting is a net positive for the ultrarich.
time is quite literally on their side.
Image credits: buttermelonMilkjam
#5
Never worry about money.
I know it sounds obvious, but I find that *everything* in my life hinges around the question of "Can I afford it?"
Socialising, renting (or buying, if you're lucky) a house, paying the bills, going on holiday, having a kid, etc. The first question, every time, "how do I afford to do this?"
Not having that constantly nagging at you must be the most amazing feeling.
Image credits: TranslatesToScottish
#6
Some ultra rich people will buy a house for the children to live in whilst studying at university then sell the house when the child finishes university and the appreciation on the house will be used to pay the debt of the university.
Image credits: busyhat5
Meanwhile, we were curious to get Dogen’s perspective on the healthy ways the ultra-rich can react when facing other people’s envy. He explained to us that the best way to react is, well... not to react. "Better yet, practice Stealth Wealth, where no one knows you’re wealthy. Dress down, drive a used car, avoid wearing flashy watches, and keep your address private," he told Bored Panda.
"Envy is inevitable when people perceive that others have more, regardless of the risks you've taken or the time you’ve put in. Most won’t credit your hard work for your success, so it’s best not to stand out. Some people work less than 40 hours a week and wonder why they can’t get ahead, while others work 50% to 100% harder every week for years. The competition to build wealth is fierce. Recognizing this reality is crucial to avoid being left behind."
#7
I had the (dis)pleasure of working with royalty once.
One standout was how he had employed a coffee guy, who's job was just to be driven to a nearby Cafe and come back to hand over a cup of coffee in the morning.
That's it. Nothing else, the coffee guy would just laze around the mansion for the rest of the day until the next morning again. I really wonder how much he got paid for that.
Image credits: KoosPetoors
#8
I think it’s important to differentiate millionaire earners like plastic surgeons from true ultra wealthy 0.01% billionaires.
Seems like a differentiator for the ultra wealthy is Access. If Beyoncé is coming it town, ultra wealthy people don’t go thru Ticketmaster, they have someone call the owner of the venue or Beyoncé’s manager directly and get tickets.
Pothole in the road near your house? Don’t need to complain to your county rep, they have someone call the mayor/governor’s office directly.
Image credits: JK_NC
#9
A crew on a super yacht lived on the boat. The owner often wouldn’t give notice before showing up, but would demand fresh lobster every morning if he did, so the crew prepared fresh lobster every day of the year in case he happened to show up.
Image credits: dring157
Being financially wealthy or owning lots of things is not necessary to be happy. You can feel rich in many other ways, including having a thriving social life, choosing to work less once you see that you’re earning ‘enough,’ deciding how you spend your free time, and prioritizing your health and fitness.
However, it’s common sense that you need at least some income to guarantee access to the bare necessities (food, shelter, clothing, transportation, education, medical care, etc.).
That way, you have a solid enough foundation from which you can do whatever it is that you want, whether that’s building your own business, climbing the corporate ladder, traveling the world, dedicating yourself to your creative projects, starting a family, or anything else you value in life.
To put it bluntly, spending time with your loved ones and looking for your purpose is easier when you’re not starving or living paycheck to paycheck.
#10
The biggest flex I've ever seen was a hedge fund guy who, whenever he was going on a business trip, would have an assistant book and take the exact same trip a week early. The assistant would figure out all of the fiddly bits (where the taxis were, how to get to the hotel, how to check in, etc.), take a bunch of pictures, and if there were any issues, there was enough time to fix them or figure out workarounds. Then the assistant would make a long document with all of the guides and photos explaining exactly where to go and what to expect.
Basically, he used his wealth to guarantee that he never had problems traveling and always knew how to get where he was going. I wouldn't want a mansion or a sportscar, but if I were a billionaire, I'd definitely have somebody smoothing out all the kinks in my travel plans.
Image credits: handyman5
#11
My brother is an extremely wealthy tech entrepreneur, people on this sub whole follow tech would know who he is. The main thing for him that shocked me once he became super rich was the speed of his decision making around what I would have thought to be massive luxuries requiring huge amounts of planning (we grew up relatively poor). Like he was going on vacation with his family to an island, he didn’t like the rental options so he bought a new place and had a designer decorate it. The decision to buy that place took him about 3 mins after a quick glance at rental options. He still owns it but doesn’t visit it, I use it all the time though. And he got a custom built 45 foot sailboat, then realized he actually needed another motor boat to get from his waterfront house to his office. The decision to buy the second boat took him maybe 3 mins one morning. It seems really haphazard until you realize that money isn’t the deciding factor, he just takes whatever decision is easiest for him because the cost of it is completely irrelevant. I would wonder wtf he was doing with his random vacation homes that he would use once and then resell or not use until I realized he was solving minor inconveniences for him using money because money literally has no meaning to him anymore.
Image credits: jawstrock
#12
Only spend the interest of their money. The ultra wealthy aren’t spending core money, just the money they make off of that core money.
Image credits: hahalarry
For a long time, research has indicated that earning money past a certain salary threshold (around $75,000 to $100,000 per year) won’t significantly increase your happiness. The general idea is that extra cash is very noticeable and has a big immediate impact if you’re struggling. But once you’re living a fairly comfortable lifestyle, the effect of earning more isn’t as pronounced.
However, newer research appears to indicate that this might not be entirely true. More money seems to matter if all other factors are equal. A 2023 study from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School implies that there’s no ‘ceiling’ when it comes to the relationship between happiness and wealth. In other words, the indication is that the more you earn, the happier you might be.
According to research done by Matthew Killingsworth, happiness does improve with higher earnings. That’s good news for the ultra-wealthy. The researcher found that the life satisfaction of people earning $3 million to $7.9 million was far higher than that of individuals earning ‘just’ six-figure salaries.
#13
I've worked at a private ski resort for the ultra wealthy. Some clients have upwards of thirty houses. The concept of "this is my home. " is actually strange to them. They have so many houses in so many places that they dont spend enough time there to develop the same attachment. They are at their house in big sky for a month in the winter. The house is empty for the rest of the year. The soul breaking moment when I found out member services occasionally sends reminder letters to members that haven't been at the resort for a year or so. To remind them of owning a house at a private ski resort.
Image credits: Redbeardsir
#14
Reserve a whole resort, beach and sea for themselves and their friends.
Image credits: meenarstotzka
#15
I was the right hand to a Bay Area billionaire for a few years.
A few things:
* The head designer/jeweler of LVMH was staying at his $70 million house. He was there to show him his latest custom jewelry pieces. Many of the pieces he designed for his wife were on loan to the Louvre.
* He had a special boat to cut through the bay to reach the Oracle Arena for his courtside Warriors season ticket seats, avoiding the traffic.
* His personal chef had worked at two three-Michelin-star restaurants before he hired her.
* His butler would hide behind a wall, visible only to him throughout the dinner, to attend to his every need immediately without a word.
* He never wore belts because his clothes had no belt loops, as they were all perfectly tailored to him.
* To escape the city on weekends, he bought a 40-acre vineyard in the heart of Napa, California.
* Most of his wine was $1,000 to $3,000 a bottle, and a lot would be left in the glass. We had plenty of liquor ranging from $20,000 to $40,000 a bottle. Some crazy stuff.
* He owned five houses in California, totaling over $250 million, and when he moved to Miami, he bought two houses, each for around $50 million. The art, the details, the furniture were insane. I recall a room covered in leather with ivory inlays, crafted by descendants of those who worked on the Palace of Versailles. The bar resembled a swanky New York bar, and the entire room was hand-carved in Morocco before being reassembled in the US.
I could go on and on with countless other examples, and to be honest, he wasn’t even that happy.
Image credits: BlueRa1n
“The money-happiness curve continues rising well beyond $500,000 a year. I think a big part of what's happening is that when people have more money, they have more control over their lives,” Killingsworth explained to CBS MoneyWatch.
“I suspect it's much more fundamental and psychologically deeper than simply buying more stuff.”
The research looked at how people rated their life satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 7 (from not at all happy to extremely satisfied). Respondents earning $30k per year or less reported their life satisfaction to be around average, at a 4. Those earning around $500k per year felt happier, rating their lives around a 5. Meanwhile, multimillionaires gave themselves a rating of 6.
#16
My mom used to work as a housekeeper for an older, very wealthy lady in Manhattan. We're talking new worth $150 mil.
1. Her cat had a custom-made crystal bowl with Swarovski crystals that cost over $4K.
2. Her cat would have its food prepped by a chef. No store bought food.
3. She had her bedsheets laundered every week and replaced every 4 weeks with new. Those were some pricy high-end sheets, too. She made sure the old ones were destroyed/torn up so that none of the servants/housekeepers would take them.
4. Even though everything she needed was within a 5 minute walk (she wasn't bedridden and in good enough physical shape to move about freely), she was chauffeured everywhere. In a Rolls Royce.
5. Went out of the country on trips 4 - 6 times per year. Mostly Europe, for 2 weeks at a time.
6. She had private homes in upstate NY, Florida, California, Arizona, Florence (Italy), and Sao Paulo (Brazil). Think there was another one in San Pedro (Spain) or somewhere in that area.
7. She had around a few million dollars worth of jewelry. Necklaces and brooches. She never wore earrings.
8. Pretty much all her clothing was custom-made.
Image credits: Qimmosabe_Man
#17
Get a whole apartment for their dog.
Image credits: bikinifetish
#18
Fly from one country to another just to get a certain food or beverage...
Image credits: ZekeMoss18
With all that being said, Killingsworth pointed out that money is just one of the factors that matter when it comes to happiness. “So, I think it’s important for everyone—policymakers, executives, and regular people—to keep in mind that so many things matter besides money,” he told CBS MoneyWatch.
"It's entirely possible to be rich and miserable or poor and happy. The main reason is simply that lots of things matter for happiness besides money. But, all else equal, people tend to be happier the more money they have.”
#19
In México, membership to the most expensive golf club costs three million dollars per half a year. And on top of that, the committee has to approve your request if they like you and you have the status. I swear, rich people live on another PLANET.
Image credits: ??
#20
Have a tab at the airport for jet fuel.
Image credits: SunsetSizzle
#21
I met a couple who both worked on private yachts for a very rich client. Different boats. The lady was the head of housekeeping on one of the primary yachts that the client owned. The man was the captain on one of the SUPPORT YACHTS! They have yachts FOR THEIR YACHTS! The support yacht scouts out locations for the main yacht, delivers jet skis, helicopters, food, staff, fuel etc. Similarly, after the main yacht has left a location, the support yacht comes to clean up. The single client owns multiple yachts in multiple seas around the world, which are fully staffed 365 days a year, each with a double compliment of staff so that every worker gets six months paid vacation.
Image credits: ohimnotarealdoctor
What is the most jaw-droppingly impressive or bizarre thing you’ve seen the ultra-rich spend their money on, Pandas? What would you ideally like to do if you had millions (or even billions) in your bank accounts, assets, and investments?
What would your day-to-day life look like if money was no issue at all? We’d genuinely like to hear your thoughts on all of this. If you have a moment, feel free to share yours in the comments!
#22
When you show up to your vacation house, and the fridge has been stocked for you, the internet connections have been set up, and your outdoor furniture has been arranged. These people can walk off a private jet with zero luggage. Their vehicles have been topped off, house plants have been maintained, yearly passes are maintained, linens have been replaced, empty houses cleaned weekly. It's nuts.
Image credits: brucatlas1
#23
I used to work in a resort environment that served a lot of wealthy elites, and you had women who haven't washed their own hair in years. Literally, years. They go to the spa and have standing appointments every 3-4 days to have their hair washed and blown out.
Image credits: ayatollahofdietcola_
#24
Buy a £100M apocalypse bunker.
Image credits: Falconhoof420
#25
Former wealth management banker. I've seen rich foreign nationals look at a model of Manhattan and just choose a place to buy based on proximity to whatever attraction they like to visit. Then they gift it to their kids who come to study in the US for university, the kids manage/live in the asset instead of dorms, this sometimes also expedites the residency paperwork and viola, everyone wins. Except the locals who dreamt of affording real estate.
Image credits: iamtherealomri
#26
Having a personal chef. Many regular people may have a weekly cleaner or something like that, but a personal chef is something normal people couldn't dream of. Imagine having restaurant quality food prepared and cleaned away for you daily.
Private health care. In the UK at least private heath care is obviously a different league to the NHS, which most people will access and be familiar with. The idea of getting seen very quickly is sadly alien to a lot of people.
A lot of rich people are asset rich, so it's not necessarily showy or extravagant. I think there must be a great deal of comfort that no matter what happens you have a huge safety net.
The joys of compound interest. Being able to have a passive income from savings and investments. They always say the first 100k is the hardest. Once you have that things only get easier from a savings perspective because it just starts generating it's own wealth.
If we're talking crazy money then a private jet or helicopter would be life changing and hard to imagine. Hi honey, I'm just flying off to the carribean, want to come?
Image credits: anon
#27
Have Rihanna, Beyonce and Justin Bieber sing at your weddings.
Image credits: varunpitale
#28
Some families have a thing called a "family office". These are companies set up to handle everything a family needs, like investment advisors, concierge services, wealth management, and so on.
My extended family has a main family office abroad that co-ordinates satellite family offices in countries where we have relations. The office that works for my immediate family has a small staff of one investment advisor, an in-house lawyer, two (I think) accountants, two PAs for my parents, and two - maybe three - concierges who likely work rotating shifts since they're available 24/7.
The service I use most is the concierge for things like booking reservations, buying tickets, and scheduling deliveries. The woman who usually manages the day shift is the most organised and efficient person I've ever met.
Image credits: Eurymedion
#29
The superyacht industry is fun. They are really the ultra rich castles of modernity.
- the annual maintenance and fuel costs can far exceed the gross salaries of fortune 100 CEO's and sporting celebrities people think of as 'rich'.
- these yachts can employee dozens to hundreds of people. These aren't employees in a company producing economic value. These are just people to have on hand to make your life slightly better / more comfortable. (Bezos has 40 crew on his yacht but would have 2-3 times this on the payroll to factor in people on their off swing and support staff).
- some oligarchs have multiple yachts they helicopter between so no one really knows where they are at a given time.
- if they can't fit all their toys on their main superyacht, it's very normal to get a shadow superyacht to carry extra toys, normally at a cost of many, many millions to buy and operate. The owners may never bother setting foot on this.
- the tenders (small boat which takes people too and from the big boat) can cost many millions of dollars. It's normal to have a few of these.
- usage of these things varies from constantly cruising the world / hiding from one's enemies through to maybe a couple of weeks in summer. Not to many people can fathom a $100m vacation home that costs $50k a week to maintain that you may or may not bother visiting this year.
Image credits: ResultsPlease
#30
Imagine leaving your home, driving 10 min to a small airport. You hop out of the car and into your private jet. Within 6 min it is airborne and you fly halfway across the country to go watch a superbowl game, then afterwords, you drive back to the jet and head home.
This sort of travel is so far out of the reach of 99.9 percent of the population you cant even realize it.
The cheapest jet you could possibly imagine will cost 500k just to purchase. After that you can expect 2500 a month for hangar, 30k a year for insurance, 20k a year for your OWN training if you fly it yourself (if you hire a pilot, probably 150k a year salary + the 20k annual Training cost) and this is all before you actually fly it... and Low end total hourly cost would be 1500-2k an hour and any jet you could get for THIS CHEAP will not be very fast, maybe 400mph (vs 600mph for some of the fastest) So on operating cost alone you are talking ~4-5 bucks per mile.
Remember, this is for the CHEAPEST Jet... and the prices from their go up almost exponentially.
#31
Breaking rules/the law without even thinking because they just get fined. Or worse: buy themselves out of harder criminal offences.
#32
Go to outer space for fun.
Image credits: Dudesymugs12
#33
The world just isn't that big for them. It's just like a playground where there is different themes around. The European themed side, the Asian themed side, etc.
They just move around doing what they want everywhere without worrying about the cost of It.
People forget we live how and where we do because of work and money limitations. The world could not afford the whole population living that way.
#34
When i saw the documentary about Michael Schuhmacher and they Said Michael asked US what are we gonna do this afternoon, go parachuting ind Dubai or go skiing in the alps
Apart from skiing beeing the wrong decision that day, the freedom to just anywhere anytime.
#35
Pursue their dreams. Think of the successful actors, musicians, artists, entrepreneurs, academics, olympic athletes that you know. What do these fields have in common?
1. A ridiculous amount of time required to master the skill, time which cannot be spent ‘making ends meet’.
2. High level (expensive) coaches, mentors, equipment, and resources.
3. A high possibility of failure. For every Taylor Swift, there are 100,000 musicians languishing in obscurity and will never break out. It is much easier to put everything into pursue your dreams if the consequences of failure are not severe.
So that is what the super wealthy do that the average person doesn’t. They dream.
#36
I had a friend who worked for a wealthy guy about ten years ago. He was officially a "personal assistant" but his real job was to find women for his boss to sleep with. He said his boss had a different girl for every day of the week. They were all... curated...for lack of a better term. Background checks to make sure they were 18 or up, std tests, everything. All "sugar" relationships that he supposedly spent between $10-20K on each, per month. The guy was in his 40s and most of the women were around college age.
#37
I know a retired guy who used to own a custom plane design company. His company’s main consumers were middle eastern billionaires. He said when they travel, they travel with organ donor employees. It’s exactly what you think it means. The “employee” is their blood type, size of organs have been measured to be a good match. Their salaries are very well and if they actually have to donate a vital organ (say in the event of a wreck, cancer, etc etc) the employees families are paid the salary for life. This is not folklore. This is a real thing.
#38
Having separate sets of clothing in each house so they don't have to take more than carry on luggage when travelling.
#39
My friend once hung out with an ultra-wealthy friend.
They invited her to go diving over the weekend, so by Thursday they had a driver pick her up after work to go get a full set of diving gear, by Saturday a driver picked her up to drive her to the airport for their private jet, spent the weekend at a private resort, then by Sunday night flew back home.
#40
Submarine excursion to go see the titanic remains.
#41
Realistic answer:
Stay busy constantly.
I'm in aviation, and know of many, "own my own 767" type individuals. They never stop. There's always some business trip, a vacation that's secretly a business trip, or if not, managing their money becomes a more than full time job.
The world isn't stagnant, and it's rare you can stay at the top and stand still.
#42
Live in New York and visit Italy because you want authentic Italian.. then be home the same day.
#43
Someone i know has quite a bit of money too much and they where on a short vacation in Monaco last week when they met some very nice people from the us and went to see their house the next day only to spontaneously fly to a taylor swift concert with front row tickets the next day.
#44
Order whatever food they want... From the middle of the f*****g Ocean.
#45
Take a helicopter to their private jet.
