Things That Make a Person "New Money" vs "Old Money?"

I have found that old money will hold onto their well made made clothes for a long time and re-wear them in different ways. New money wants high fashion, but the trend fashion that not only won't be "in" by fall let alone years down the line. Like Gucci vs classic Ralph Lauren.

I would think neither Gucci nor Ralph Lauren would be worn by old money.

People with old money would never ask this question.

People with new money and its attendant insecurity do.

Has anyone said that old money will drive their mint condition 25 year old vehicle while new money leases a brand new car every year or two?!

Posting that every fucking time this topic bubbles up makes me feel like I know something!

R1 Old money knows and understands classic undertones never go out of style. They buy expensive clothes as an investment. I would say old money looks at every purchase as an investment.

What I love most about these threads on this topic (this must be the thousandth I've read since starting Datalounge) is how the discussion of old money always turns worshipful--"they're better than anyone else" is always the point.

Example of what I'm talking about: r3.

Old money doesn't advertise and knows itself. It's got it. Doesn't need to try to impress people.

How right you are!

When I was at prep school in New England in the mid-60’s, it seemed the greatest insult you could say was to refer to someone as a “nouveau.” As in nouveau riche.

I noticed there that the scions from old money were pretty modest and unassuming. One of the nicest guys I encountered was the great-great-grandson of a legendary financier, with exactly the same name. Curiously, his roommate was just about the exact opposite, always showing off possessions and vacation sites. Nouveau…

25 year old Cartier tank watch.

This again Jesus Christ.

A bunch of desperate losers listing nothing-isms like “well tailored clothes” and “flashy watches” as if it makes them partial to some kind of nous. Listen up boys, partaking in these threads in a genuine enthusiastic non critical way is intellectual bankruptcy, the lowest of the low, money or no money. Get a life.

Let's see-- we've covered the old car, the timeless clothing, the authenticity, that watch.

What's left? We need a post on teeth, a post on hair, and post about shoes that will devolve into a 25-post argument between two DLers who think any of us care which one is fatter.

What else?

I come from no money

Another fucking thread on a subject that just a couple of ancient queens hold dear.

Money is money, no one fucking cares what type of rich person you are, capitalism doesn't care. The term "old money" is an obsolete and extinct concept, coined long ago by unsure snobs worried about their own social standing. Get over it.

if they're talking about money, they're not "old money"

Sniff their wallet.

[quote] When I was at prep school in New England in the mid-60’s

Imagine reading this in 1921 and someone is talking about his regiment in the Civil War.

R14 you seem bitter.

Or you can just watch this 81 year old movie and draw conclusions

There is so much new money, it has drowned the old money. No one cares anymore.

But since you asked, old money doesn’t brag about anything.

General rule of thumb.

New Money = Show offs with tacky style chasing after the latest trend.

Old Money = Conservative, bit stiff and stuffy, restraint, classic style.

One of the biggest "subtle" difference is that New Money values usability over appreciation of the finer things. There was a similar thread about this a while ago and a great deal of people don't get the concept that using precious and expensive things on a daily basis outs you as New Money, because - by using an item on a daily basis - one loses the appreciation for it to the point it doesn't even register as special and precious when using it.

You can’t tell anymore. Class is dead.

New money likes bright shiny things. New money likes to look like everything is inherited.

I’m glad we’re finally discussing this topic again. It must have been almost 2 weeks since we talked about this last, no?

The one thing I have learned from old money and new money, is that those who keep their wealth, are most often stingy. The more money people have, the stingier they get.

I knw a woman whose mother was from an old aristocratic French family.

Her parents' house was full of interesting, fragile, threadbare antiques, mom smoked like a chimney, and the family was quite quirky. Didn't give a shit about appearances except for once while we were waiting for a table. Another customer started speaking school girl French to her friend. My friend started speaking to her in authentic fluent French and got a blank embarrassed stare in return. It was mean but funny.

My friend was drop dead gorgeous, still is.

just like mine. OP, not to berude, but realistic. If you, darling, meet them, they're not "old money"

Nouveau Riche is better than no Riche at all. Really who gives a fuck if someone dresses like it’s still 1954 or Edina Monsoon for Lacroix? You bitches aren’t going to give them any respect from either end of that spectrum. Light a blunt, cradle a cocktail, slip into a caftan and read something that we can discuss that’s actually interesting.

Old money - comfortable in their position and privilege wherever they go. Therefore, not afraid to socialize or even befriend people of a lower class, because it won't affect their own class standing amongst their peers in any way. Will either not show they have money or treat it like it's not a big deal. They have real power.

New money - obsessed with social climbing and knowing "the right people" and being in "the right crowd". They sometimes tell on themselves by their excessive consumerism.

New money strives to get good press (think Architectural Digest, Forbes, etc). Old money strives to stay out of the press. ("The family will not be issuing a statement".)

I remember some interview with some rich old money broad who knew Jackie Bouvier and recalled her wedding. She said "to us it was just Jackie getting married so everyone wore regular wedding clothes but the Kennedy's were all overdressed" meaning nouveau riche and wanting to impress.

I think talking about things is the big difference. Old money don't need to make big deals over labels or first class travel experiences because it is their everyday and it's all they know because old money is generational wealth. They are more subtle. The social circles are different as well. Old money tends to stick together. New money can be more loud, garish, more keeping up with the Jonses. But money is money and as long as you have a lot of it, that's all that matters.

Everything OP lists sounds new money to me.

Old money came from ancestors earning it or stealing it, new money is earned, stolen, or won in a lottery.

It's all chance, luck, grift, theft, or hard work. I respect wealth when it comes from innovation and hard work used in ways that not only benefit the earner and their heirs but others.

History sometimes shows us that the original wealth in an old family will dissipate over generations leaving people with impressive ancestry and little else.

The ignorance on this thread is disconcerting. Your stereotypes of people from old money and new money is so off base.

R34, offer some of your own examples, R34.

New money craves attention and is never sated. Old money is sated.

Hairdresser here- Old money gets their hair cut and retouched much, much more often than we do, isn’t easily attracted by flashy promotion but by word of mouth among their peers, and genuinely love engagement in a great conversation where you challenge them- because they have nothing to prove like new money.

The especially wealthy won’t reveal much about their wealth, and can often be stingy, unless you offer something uniquely prestigious- a stunning, novel or compelling experience, time and time again- then the wallet will flip open without so much as a blink. As a NYC colorist, I had a cosmetics mogul that came to color her hair every single week, loved me, then promptly sent her entire staff from both coasts to me to get their hair done. She paid for dozens of people at full price…

Then one day a stylist yanked out her earring with a paddle brush and stepped on it, crushing the mount. She never came again.

If they have really bad hair sometimes they come every single day.

The Old Money ways are completely going out the window, as reality TV and social media has made everyone aspirational. Gauche is the new Class.

OP is sweet, isn't he?

Let me make this very simple for you.

Old money not only knows how to make it, they know how to keep it.

New money is more interested in impressing people with their money, and spend it like its growing on trees. They all too often die broke.

Old money goes through the Britney Spears period in foreign countries and stabilizes before coming home. New money tours different Promises rehabs.

Old money pens its losers in failsafe positions while new money inflicts its spawn upon management.

Old money hires alcoholic help. New money imports help from the Philippines.

Old money buys a beautiful, historic old house in a venerable resort town and opens it as a club so everyone can enjoy it.

New money buys a classic modernist building on 5th Avenue and tears it down to put up some flashy, Burj-inspired monstrosity.

Manners

Old money does not talk about money. New money posts on the DL every time there is a thread about struggling with income jobs or being unemployed. They just cant help but brag about how well they did in life by investing in the stock market, 401k, how much they saved, how much they make. Even if the topic is how to get buy with no money.

New money are usually the rudest people to wait staff in restaurants and the most demanding, holding back that tip and ready to bitch if just the tiniest thing is not done the way they expect. Old money understands you don't piss off the help.

The idolizing of old money ways in this and other threads is staggering. Some of it is true in terms of manners, discretion and authenticity. But culturally the majority of people from old moneyi know are extremely uninteresting in culture’ and, generally, take pride in it. They smoke and drink a lot and are in some cases particularly prone to trashy programs and gossip (between people they know,). Dining with these people is generally a lottery but verges on a bad experience (taking to much trouble is bourgeois). There are good and interesting people as well, but the idea they are shakespearean lovers who seat all they in their ratty cashmere pullovers while listening to opera is ridiculous.

Old money is boring, because they are set in their ways and invested to keep the status quo alive, where they keep all of their money and behind-the-scenes influence (donating to right wing conservative politicians to shield them from taxes and provide them with handouts from entitlement programs for the rich, or lucrative government contracts). Younger generations of old money may try to switch things up or try to pull their families into the 20th century (forget about the 21st for at least two more generations), but these older generations dig their heels in and threaten to cut off the young rebels financially if they dare to press the issue further.

All rich Americans are parvenus and arrivistes.

This thread is mostly written by "no money", rather than old or new money. When I was young in the 80s I accidentally became friends with Brooke Astor. Now, she wasn't born an Astor but neither was the original Mrs. Astor of the NY 400, Mrs. Caroline Schermerhorn Astor. Now anyone who knows and social and class history of North America knows that almost all old money was once New Money. Mrs. Caroline Schermerhorn Astor's Astor money was a hundred years old, and she was wise enough to fold her cards and let in the newest biggest money, the Vanderbilts.

Anyway, Brooke was exactly the same. Brooke LIKED "new money" because it was the Biggest Money, except the stray Rockefeller or Dupont. New Money is fun, has energy and it willing to SPEND.

When Brooke would go prospecting to get gifts for the NYPL , she would always ask "where's the new money".

there is nothing wrong with New Money. Money is Money. 40 years after the go go 80s, we can see the new zillionaire money really throwing it around.

Now, we would rather they couldn't accumulate fortunes that put Robber Baron and Guilded Age fortunes to shame. But at least we can encourage them to spend it. And have some fun with them while they are spending.

[quote]This thread is mostly written by "no money", rather than old or new money.

Meh, one friend is not much of a sample. I used to work in a 5 star hotel and a couple really upscale restaurants in a very rich neighborhood full of both old and new money so I really got to see the difference. Old money people were generally more conservative, polite and rarely called attention to themselves. New money ALWAYS wanted attention either from their gregarious personality or flashing over scaled jeweler and or abundance of designer labels on everything from clothes to luggage. They were sometimes funner to talk to, tipped well (showing off) but could also be really self righteous pretentious ass holes.

Old money tended to have long term live in maids and cooks. Usually from "the old country". Sometimes living with them for 20 years or a life time. New money had maids too but never live in and mostly illegal from across the boarder. The help for them was something they skimped on financially, always looking for a cheaper bargain, never happy with the work and would never dream of supporting them long term.

Old money drank life fish. A lot belonged to the private clubs the type that are invite only and cost 100,000 or more to join to keep the riff-raff out. New money also partied a lot, more like binge drinking. Think frat house or rock star behavior. They usually trashed the place with no regard. Their money, they can do what they want kind of attitude. Then sober up because the vanity of making more money was a driving force for them. Work hard play hard Boomer 80's cliché.

Children of old money usually didn't drift far from the tree. During their youth some would try to carve out their own identity but for the most party they ended up similar to their parents. New money kids are the worst. Lots of parents not talking to their adult kids was a common theme. The parents were generally bad at parenting, focused mainly on themselves and when the kids finally grew up, they were pissed they didn't have little angles who worshiped them for all the luxuries they gave them. The life mommy and daddy didnt have. The life they "worked" for. Of course the kids didn't know any better so they resented the parents as well. Lots of drug problems, issues with making friends or interacting with other people and most never worked a day in their life which their parents resented but also enabled and funded.

Old money generally seemed happier than new money. Nothing to prove, have everything they need in life. New money always trying to prove they mattered or that they were important to an exponential narcissistic level usually. And new money always paranoid people only liked them for their money. Which I always found ironic because that's actually what they did full time was try and impress people with their money.

This was once said to me by some old crone who must've been the inspiration for Dame Diana Rigg's character on Game of Thrones.

"Old money is strategic, new money is a blunt force attacking your senses without rhyme or reason".

Gallant gives you a reach around when he's fucking you in the ass.

Goofus is a pass around bottom.

That's basically what these kinds of threads are.

R52 I fucked a lot of Goofus’, they can be HAWT!

Goofus is the top

Goofus was the top. Gallant grew up to be the pass-around bottom (albeit a very clean one)

"I made my money the old-fashioned way. I was very nice to a wealthy relative right before he died. " - Malcolm Forbes

"If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to." - Dorothy Parker

"Money can't buy friends, but you can get a better class of enemy." - Spike Milligan

"There are people who have money and people who are rich." - Coco Chanel

"Money is the best deodorant." - Elizabeth Taylor

I don’t think Old Money talks about high culture at all. They attend to events and might subscribe to them but their interests are on a level with the middle class; sport, vacationing and work but at a different level. New Money talks about high culture because they’ve just discovered it.

Covid stays away from Old Money.

Old money, new money, who cares. People are people at every level, you'll find good people and bad wherever you look.

No bragging. No conspicuous consumption.

I had a WASP friend whom I'd known for ten years before she let slip that she'd gone to Harvard.

OP, are you lonely?

Old money: Prince Andrew

New money: Jeffrey Epstein

Differences: One was born to wealth, the other grifted for it

Similarities: Child rape

DL is such a time warp.

Old money gets offended when you talk about money.

New money cant stand being talked about as new money. Oh, don't get them wrong, they LOVE to talk about THEIR money and all the things they own and can buy, just don't talk about how it's new found wealth and their spending is tacky as white trash.

New money - Rolex

Old money - Patek Phillipe

In Los Angeles:

New Money = Porsche Old Money = Rolls

"Shakespeare?"

New Money watch = Gold with diamonds Old Money watch = Cartier Tank

Old Money = the Bushes

New Money = the Trumps

BUMP

R48 = Henry James

New money assaults you and old money is present when you actually know what it is.

New money iphone, old money rotary phone.

Just kidding, these threads are so predictable (and mostly wrong. Old money was once new and if there is still money it has more in common in just money. Despite the odd comment behind their back, money stands together.