Have you know anyone super wealthy? Worth millions?

Yeah yeah known* known*

Millions is not superwealthy. Hundreds of millions is.

I went to school with the son of not one, but two billionaires. He was thoroughly unimpressive, but to his credit he was as humble as they come. I don’t think he ever got married, which makes sense because he had no societal equal and girls who pursued him were pretty transparent.

I grew up around a few “old money” families, and most people would be surprised by how stingy they are. My friend’s father fired his new housekeeper because she bought brand name groceries instead of the store brand products, which came out to a $10 difference.

Rich people are CHEAP. They don’t want to spend their own money. They try every way they can to use other people’s money.

I had a millionaire boss who was taking a business trip to Delhi. His wife decided to go because she wanted to see the Taj Mahal. He freaked out when he saw the prices of a private car, but they weren’t about to take a train. I think the total car hire was less than $200, which is nothing to an investment banker with a base salary of $1 million per year (before bonus). This was a man who had a house in Long Island, a condo in Florida and Colorado and a membership in a private plane company.

Very new money loves to push limits, that’s them being assholes, not eccentric. A lot of eccentricity can be attributed to personality disorders that were always there, but became worse with time, as well as dementia in later years. Multimillionaires tend to spend extravagantly on experiences while being more modest on material things, however, they will always have expensive quality shoes. Not designer for designer sake, but high quality materials, often bespoke. They don’t have mega mansions because they have several nice homes. They enjoy their money, but they don’t want to be immediately identified as having money. Wealth recognizes wealth because of the small details.

R5 I’ve come across people who work in finance who are either insanely gifted with making money and retire super early or they have the worst personal finances and are drowning in debt, which their wife and kids are completely ignorant about. Rich people do tend to be stingy though. A lot of them are too far removed from knowing the value of a dollar as an average person. They either think you are close to their financial level or that things don’t cost as much as they do. Truthfully, they’re probably right in that they know the cost to actually make, but completely disregard retail price.

Yes, many. Like other socioeconomic levels, there are sane and kind people and then there are shitty bad ones. They just have more money.

My husband's step mother is up there on the Forbes 500 list. She's a sweetheart who knocks back the booze and pills. But she's very quiet as she was trained to be seen, not heard.

My favorite thing about her is that she sleeps in a designer peignoir and her magnificent jewels.

Millions? Yes. Super wealthy? No. She's dead (about ten years now), and her bitchy, spoiled gay grandson (her favorite) got most of it.

R9 She sounds perfect.

Yes. Here he is.

I have an uncle who married into oil money (Canada). He’s a boring narcissist.

Yes, a few. Old money.

Very down to earth and the kids were expected to finish college and find careers of their own.

And they did.

A couple who inherited it and a couple who made their own. The former are just typical rich, prep school athlete types, neither intellectual nor interesting. The latter, one is very eccentric and plays it up, the other is very “down home” and plays that up.

I partied briefly with a real life Billionaire back in the late 1990s. He was the Pres and CEO of the company I'd just been hired at. Threw a party for all we new hires after flying us to Denver. Just plain folk with a nasty temper if you got under his skin.

I’m not rich just middle class. But due to some inheritances and a good stock market I now have more than 2 million plus a guaranteed income in the 6 figures. The more money I have the cheaper I have become. When I was poorer I spent money on very nice hotels and designer goods. Now I stay at chain motels and buy cheap clothes. It’s ridiculous and makes no sense but having a lot of money does turn you cheap. My favorite thing is getting anything for free.

I used to deliver pizzas and the people with giant houses and a driveway full of luxury cars always tipped $2. It happened very consistently. I think rich people are cheap because they've seen how money can solve 99.9% of life's problems and they don't want to lose that power.

My boss is super wealthy. Definitely hundreds of millions. He can't operate any type of technology, including a computer. Can't send an email. Can't figure out Zoom. Relies on other people for everything. He's actually a nice enough guy, but he's kind of pathetic in that way.

[quote]I’m not rich just middle class. But due to some inheritances and a good stock market I now have more than 2 million plus a guaranteed income in the 6 figures

This is not remotely middle class and you know it. Why lie about it?

I don’t envy the $2million - but a guaranteed six figure income!?! That is the jackpot. Pensions were the only way retirement could be truly comfortable. Now we are all told you’re on your own and to be stockbrokers and investors. Capitalism really does create a world centered on those with capital. Not sure it’s much progress from monarchy.

yp, madcap heiress and her sisters. "there won't be any left after we're gone" is her motto and she is super gerenous to a fault, and not planning on anything after she dies. has no kids so that is that.

A longtime close friend's father started a manufacturing company (something to do with plastic moldings), built it up to be hugely successful with several hundred employees, and then sold it a few years back. I suspect he's worth somewhere in the $50 million range or possibly more. For years they lived in a very modest suburban subdivision but once he retired, he turned to designing he and his wife's "dream home" which is a very large mansion in an upscale exurban area. He also owns a small jet that he likes to fly to their cabin which I've never visited but I understand is similarly opulent. He's kind of loud and opinionated and a big conservative, and he loves to go on about his humble roots, but can also be engaging and seems to be interested in other people. I probably only see him once ever 3-4 years but he always asks me about my career, etc. And his wife is a truly kind woman. My friends and her two siblings all have trust funds, and perhaps as a result none of them have never really mounted a successful career despite the fact that we're all in our 40s now.

Another old friend, one of my college roommates, has been a partner with one of the big national accounting firms for something like 15 years now. His wife told me recently his yearly salary is now "low seven figures." He comes from a very middle class background and she grew up more lower middle class -- he doesn't really talk about all the money he makes now, she sometimes does. He's also still kind of a tightwad, she isn't. Like if he and I go out for a meal together we will still split the check -- which is fine, I don't mind paying my fair share, but sometimes I am tempted to say, you know, your salary is more than 10X mine. I will say he worked his ass off to get where he is, he's been with this firm about 25 years and for much of the year he's working 75-80 hours a week. So there are tradeoffs.

I know a very old money billionaire family in Europe. None of them flaunt their wealth. As they say, money talks, wealth whispers. They all live very nice lives, but have full educations usually through to a master's degree or similar, and they all have jobs. It's a family value to contribute to society or the family business or they don't inherit.

NYC male escort here (since 2007). Last time I commented on here was about my experiences with that douche bag Glenn Greenwald.

Was hired in my early years by the entire "Velvet Mafia" gang of power players (I think Michael Jackson was the one who coined that term). And most of them are billionaires; Barry Diller, Calvin, Geffen, Sandy Gallin, etc

Geffen was offensively disrespectful and rude. Every escort buddy who's met him says the same.

Calvin was fun to party with and much nicer but has very specific fetishs.

Forgot the point of this thread ? Barry has elephant size testicles and is the only time I've been hired by someone and knowing what the wife looks like and it made me uncomfortable.

Yes. My husbands family. They are old money, and you would never know it by looking at them. They all drive older model Volvos, BMW, and Mercedes. The kids are expected to go to college, and get good careers. All the trust funds are generational, and dont transfer until both parents die. His Great grandfather set it up that way, and its kept the fortune intact. I think it's a smart way to do it, providing everyone lives a normal life span.

R25. Not to worry. DVF is gay, too.

No. I'm a poor and so is everyone I know.

My dad is a multi millionaire. I am not bragging. We do not have a relationship. I'm just commenting because it's true they are tightwads. My dad is the cheapest mf ever. He only shops at aldi. he drives a toyota. He penny pinches everything and gets a thrill out of doing so.

My aunt has millions and buys secondhand clothes--her cousin, my daughter does the same. It's incredible what a miser she is.

Also, a family friend who died several years ago, was a multimillionaire. Honestly, he probably had close to a billion considering how much commercial and residential property he owned and other holdings. But this man was so cheap he makes my aunt look like a spendthrift.

What I’ve observed is that very wealthy people have things exactly as they like them. They have people spinning their wheels and walking on eggshells to make sure things are the way they like them. For instance, billionaire’s wife doesn’t like cluttered counters, so their kitchen looks as if the house is unoccupied. There is NOTHING on her kitchen counters except the kids’ goldfish bowl and a fake flower arrangement. Once the toilet paper gets used a certain amount, the housekeeper has to put a new roll on the holder. I’m guessing this goes back to some time when she was a poor nobody and she sat down to a roll with three squares of paper during a diarrhea attack.

If the French fries aren’t burning hot, she send them back. No sesame seeds in any form. Things like that.

I know .01%, OP. Hundreds of millions in fortune, and a few billionaires. It was once part of my line of work. They are not eccentric anymore than any other class. In fact they are very stable in part because their wealth insulates them from drama and troubles. Especially if they were born "super" wealthy.

I've told this story before. A neighbor is a lottery winner and his cash payout after taxes was in the mid nine figures. One of the biggest lottery winners and I found out totally by accident. At any rate, he was happily married with kids. In year one after the win, he went crazy buying stuff, property, cars, etc. but he never gave up his house. He and his family realized they were happiest at their house with their neighbors in their neighborhood. He's a very hands out guy and if his car is dirty, he'd love to just get the hose out and clean it himself but understands that calling a detail service can pay a bill for that guy. Overall, the money is wonderful because he doesn't have to think about it but nothing substantial has changed, except he no longer goes to work and really spends time with his wife and kids.

The K.o.c.h's of Wichita. I wouldn't say I truly know them well, but was in the home a few times and we were on a first name basis.

Yes, lots. They're all fascinating in their own ways. Larger than lifes some of them. Colorful. They all have problems, too, just like all the rest of us. Old money are the most interesting. You can learn a lot from them, very much apart from making money but keeping it, and the importance of discretion and good conduct. Some of them understand the importance of finding meaning in their lives through work - and do - others just putter along in a kind of dissipation. Some can still pull strings, many cannot except in their own circles. They all eat well and travel a lot. But what else is there in life when you reach a certain age and satiety? They quietly admire people rising from little because in their distant past this was their own history but for a genius forebear who was an inventor or had a clever insight, which is rarely repeated within a family. They all seem to have problems with their children in one way or another, some of whom fall in line eventually while others do not. If you enjoy history, the stories can be very interesting since some of their ancestors were in the middle of making it. I don't know, I'm rambling.

My great-uncle is a multi-millionaire (like, $100 million+ millionaire). He grew up lower-middle-class in Los Angeles and made his money later in life. I'd say he's more congenial than eccentric to be honest—he is also extremely funny and the type who is always telling jokes and recounting funny stories. I envision him as being a class clown in his youth. He's in his mid-80s and still works running a business that employs several of my family members.

One of my best friends from high school in my two horse town was normal enough, because his rich self-made businessman dad didn't allow him too much of a leash. Was a friend in college, too. Once his dad died and he inherited tens of millions he dropped everyone he ever knew. It was a lesson. I hope he chokes on ashes but he's probably very happy. It sucks.

Working on Wall Street, I’ve worked with many who are $100 millionaires. Few would consider themselves rich - because we also deal,with the billionaires. Working class rich - all these guys (and they are all men) work their ass off and still don’t feel they have enough. Because they guy who lives upstairs is worth twice as much.

That's it. There's never enough when you know others have more.

R39 It's called Greed & discontentment.

For some it's never enough.

This is a thread where you realize that there is a super troll making up shit. We're supposed to - but do not - believe that on the Datalounge, that in the span of a few days, that over a couple dozen people have provided personal anecdotes about their relationships with multimillionaires.

My aunt married a man whose family is worth millions, he has already inherited much of it. He controls her and refuses to let her have any money, plus he's stingy and won't pay anyone for babysitting his granddaughter. He and the likes of him will die alone with their wealth glued to their skin.

One multi-billionaire who still has a billion or two. I knew him through a girlfriend of his he didn't marry. I didn't know him well and didn't think much about him one way or the other - he was pleasant enough to me although I've been told he was ruthless in business. I was surprised when I went on his company's Christmas gift list and stayed on it for a couple of years after he'd dumped her and married someone else who was very well known - one of his several high-profile wives.

He once bummed a cigarette off of me and told me the menthol flavor came from licorice. I don't know if that's true and I've long since quit smoking, but more than anything else that's what I remember about him.

If it's just millions then, yeah, my BF's family. Only his mother is left and all the money has funneled down to her. It comes from her husband's family buying and sitting on Blue Chip stocks from the 1950s on. The mother has dementia. She knows she has a lot of money now but has no idea how to write a check. The father died a month ago and we had to go down and sort through bills. I was surprised at how rich they since they never talked about it nor was there any evidence they were sitting on this pile of cash.

I was friendly with E Lee Hennesee a hedge funder who was wealthy beyond imagination.

She was fun but nuts and not in a good way....She died of a stroke which isn't surprising as she had so much rage in her southern belle body that Im surprised her head didn't implode long before it did

And in the space of one hour, we are supposed to believe that another 4 people have contributed to Datalounge's thread about multimillionaires (and -billionaires) we have known.

I was a server at a very elite country club in a very wealthy enclave of Orange County. And I have to disagree with the posts about how awful old money people are. My experience is the complete opposite.

Old money people were super nice and respectful and generous. It was the NEW money (nouveau riche) who were the absolute cunts and assholes. We're talking doctors, lawyers, stock brokers and their awful wives. They have money for the first time in their lives and they want everyone to know and to be treated like royalty!!! They were loud and rude and demanding. People snapping their fingers at me happened a half dozen times! You could always tell who was NEW money.

Old money doesn't know any other way. They've always been wealthy so they judge people, not on wealth (because they don't care), but on who you are, or in my case, my life goals and plans for the future, for my education, etc.

Not as much as others here, but my BIL is worth $30-40+ million but my sister still drove a Prius or Highlander for years. They have great real estate but otherwise, you wouldn’t really know they were wealthy.

I’ve always been quiet and shy. Mostly just a geeky loner for most of my life. I live very modestly, haven’t been on a vacation in 30 plus years and I’m mostly happy. I have amassed more than $50 million while running a medium sized business and working 12 to 16 hours every single day. Somehow it doesn’t seem like work. I don’t enjoy the money but it’s nice knowing it’s there if I ever need it. I will leave it to local soup kitchens and food banks when I turn up my heels.

Oh, I completely forgot. I used to be friends with a well-known jewelry designer who has really scaled up her eponymous company over the past ten years. She’s lovely but we never see each other so we aren’t really buddies anymore. Anyway, she must be worth a fortune and was very sweet for the years I knew her - I’ve heard differently recently, but I remember her as being kind, outgoing, and ebullient. And very, very, very rich.

My stepdad's brother won 100+ million in the lottery. He bought very nice lakefront homes for him & his wife and my stepdad & mom. They hardly ever stayed at there house and preferred to stay in their old trailer home. His son blew through whatever he was given pretty quickly though.

My aunt and uncle had millions, not mega rich. She would make people spit out their watermelon seeds at the family reunion so she didn't have to buy seeds for the next year. And she would always let her roots grow out four inches because it was so expensive to get it done. I'm surprised she just didn't do it herself. Very tight with money.

A relative's business took off in the 1990s. I cannot mention what type of business they own because they're also gay and they read DL regularly. Their business brings in around 6-7 million a year. There are only three workers. This person was doing well in their former career, but was never a millionaire. They came upon an idea, then were lucky it took off.

Like others have mentioned, this relative, who is nouveau riche, has also become incredibly cheap and a bit haughty since becoming rich. I do think the more money you have, the cheaper you become. This seems to be the case with the nouveau riche.

In the past, this relative was very generous, they threw wonderful parties and always lavished nice things on their close friends and close family members. Last Christmas they had a few people over their home, all the guests brought gifts, my relative gave them nothing. I wasn't surprised at all.

My former boss should have around $75-100 million in a few years when he sells his company. He is insanely smart, but incredibly normal, thoughtful, and funny. Truly a near-perfect person and boss. He previously told me he doesn't care about money and the most he'd leave his 2 kids is $5 million. He knows I'm poor, so I'm hoping....

My current boss is worth $75 million now, but 50 is in stock. Like someone said above, he is horrible at technology, but obviously good at running a multi-billion biz. He's not eccentric, but refuses to stay in a hotel room that isn't luxurious with a nice bathroom. No kids, so, I'm hoping...

I have known a few very wealthy people, some old money and some nouveaux riches. All of them more than nine figures. The old money people are, in fact, cheap, except when they are expected to show off. Then it can be over the top ostentatious.

One new money guy was a lot of fun. He made hundreds of millions as a pioneer of the despicable check-cashing industry. He also owned a bunch of small wine shops, through which I am sure he laundered money. His best friend was omnipresent and gave off a horrible, sociopathic vibe. Together they owned an LLC that was, basically, a slum lording operation. The friend drove a new Cadillac, which he replaced every year. My friend drove an old Volvo station wagon. He was married to a woman who wanted the tackiest material goods, which he allowed her to buy. They had two boys who were lazy as hell.

There were numerous city police officers and sheriff deputies on the payroll, as well as lobbyists in virtually every state capital where he owned check cashing stores. He was secretive about where he lived, and everything about him was unlisted and searches led to commercial properties. He gave me a lot of valuable things over the years, and never with any strings attached. Until he needed a big payback from me. He called me one night well after midnight and told me he needed me to do something for him. I had to drive to his house, which turned out was very nice, but not gaudy, on a golf course. He loaded two duffel bags into the trunk of my car and gave me an address two states away and told me to leave right then. He handed me $10K in cash and I took off. I drove all night and dropped off the bags the next afternoon as he asked. The lady who removed the bags from my car handed me another $10K. I drove as fast as I could home. Less than a month later, I moved across the country. I got Christmas cards from him (his wife) every year about about ten years, postmarked in south Florida.

He sold his check cashing business when various states started regulating them more. He should be about 68 or so now, and I imagine that he still has some shady business dealings going on.

I hate to tell you OP, but merely being worth millions is not "super wealthy". IMO super wealth doesn't start until you get to at least $100 million.

I was very close friends with a guy whose father had 10s of millions in property holdings and cash. His father lived cheaply and gave him very little money so in a way he was poor like me. I knew him from kindergarten and after college we moved in together. We were like brothers and so comfortable around each other we shared the same bedroom. We were never lovers as he was straight. He eventually moved out to marry a friend we had known since junior high. I remained friends with him and her. Then his father died and left him his millions. He divorced his wife and married another woman(my friend wanted to kill herself) he completely cut me off(when we were in school together we'd stay up late watching all kinds of TV shows together and if we were at our homes it was nothing to have 3 and 4 hour telephone conversations.) I was shocked and deeply deeply hurt that he wanted nothing more to do with me. I heard he built a mansion in Connecticut, took up horseback riding, traveled and stayed at the best hotels. He had a terrific personality and made many new friends with other Connecticut millionaires. The loss of his friendship was a burden. It was a total denial of our friendship like it never had happened. Like I had never been a very close friend. Like I had never existed.

He died of a fatal heart attack at 44. His former wife who to this day is one of my closest friends called to tell me. I was in shock but after that the burden of the lost friendship lifted and his death made the loss of that friendship no longer matter. I thank destiny for that. I no longer had mattered to him and now he no longer mattered to me.

His second wife inherited all that money, kept the house and now has a new husband. I thought how funny that his parents worked for decades making that money and living frugally and this stranger swoops down and grabs it all and shares it with another stranger. All people the people who made the money never knew and were of no relation of any kind. A very perverse twist of fate.

R55, you did all that for only $20 thousand?! WTF?

You didn't even question what was in the duffel bags?!

My cousin. His dad, my grandma's brother, founded a multimillion dollar hardwood veneer lumber empire. He was very generous in his community, 10 million dollar donations to multiple places but treated his family like shit. Cheated on his wife of 50 years and treated her poorly. The women are nice, the men not so much on that side of the family.

I knew a billionaire for a while. (Truth here.) He and wife came from working-class backgrounds but he had a vision for various info media and a genius for business. He made enormous fortunes from three huge companies in succession.

Huge house, but he watched TV alone in the central hallway under the grand staircase. The kitchen was larger than a large hotel kitchen, and she would make fish sticks and frozen fries for supper for the family. They only really trusted their old friends from before riches, and those old friends controlled and censored and went along on the yacht ocean crossings, skiing in the Alps and the rest. Largest wine "cellar" in climate-controlled I've seen, like a winery tasting room and storage facility. And glug glug glug.

Untreated mental illness is very common as they are surrounded by enablers.

^Very true!

I had a friendship with the grandson that inherited The Browning Rifle Company & then sold it for many $0's...... That family needs a freaking series!!!! Browning Rifle for one, then his sister owning circus animals they rented out to circus'. To his brother in law inventing the "No Fear" brand...... Oh & their mother, Consuela....... A wild ride would be had!!!!

Darling, when you're rich "eccentric" merely means asshole!

My mama always says that they have money because they look after every single euro. And I think she might be right. So, not fun at all.

Yes, including the two Steves. Silicon Valley and all the assorted minions of that period. We look like scruffy hippies, and only one of us is extravagant, the scruffiest one. We are liberal, and generous, and one of us is a genius, and very beloved.

Despite living in a $4 mil house, one of brothers borrows the mower.

R41, you need to see more of the world.

Housing in my region is a$tronomical. Take a house flipper for example, that renos and resells. It adds up pretty quickly for many people, as there aren’t enough homes for the populations.

A person I went to school with is a world famous musician. Another schoolmate made his fortunes in clothing that everyone ordinary wanted to have. Also a kid that lived a block from me now sells real estate to the rich and famous in California. I have a family member that worked on Wall Street. Another family member that sells real estate in a desirable city, where $2M is an average price for even old homes. So it’s not so hard to believe anymore.

I’m due to inherent a significant amount (10’s of millions) from both of my (divorced) parents. My sister and I only recently found out a ballpark figure and we were both shocked at the size of the payout. I’m 52, have a solid career but live within my current means. What it does mean for me is that i can live in the moment and don’t have to worry about retirement savings. What I don’t love is that I recently moved back to my home city and many of my friends are aware of my fathers status (he was a significant business presence) and definitely judge me for his success, rather than my own career achievements. It actually just came through pretty clearly in a group conversation from one of my oldest friends a week ago and I was upset by it. A minor issue and I’m very conscious of my luck through no work of my own.

R69, are you single?

R69 Are you a handsome silver fox, too?

I have known one worth at least hundreds of millions. She got the money in her divorce and had a small press agency she had as a vanity project to cosplay a manager and invite important people to after-work parties. She conducted business as if it was private and her personal relationships as if they were business. She honestly set up meetings for possible dates in which she presented her expectations and laid out relationship rules. The plan to convince her son to go to Harvard was stored in the middle of our other projects. (I didn't peek in; I just saw the title.)

All her money made her paranoid; she lived in permanent fear that she could be scammed out of it, and, ironically, always fell for the scammers while she met anyone who was meaning well with permanent suspicion. She also referred to poor people as "these people" - forgetting that she was once poor herself.

She once gave me a ride home and I witnessed how she tried to secure a date for the night on the phone put on speaker while she drove. Since then, I really pitied her.

I grew up in Old Brookville, NY and went to school with the kids of middle eastern oil barons, financial tycoons and the occasional celebrity (Keith Richard’s son). Some sucked, some were nice. Their houses were fucking insane though and it was fun to party in them.

More recently, I discovered that a very sweet, chill girl at my office is the daughter of a billionaire. Her mom is an heiress to some weird shipping fortune. The girl I work with is very guarded though and kinda unknowable.

I’m not impressed with wealth at all. Especially right now. Money and greed is literally destroying the world.

My mother was fairly wealthy, but she left nothing to my brother or me, for reasons which are known to both of us.

[quote] All her money made her paranoid; she lived in permanent fear that she could be scammed out of it, and, ironically, always fell for the scammers while she met anyone who was meaning well with permanent suspicion.

That's textbook self-fulfilling prophecy. She was looking to affirm her beliefs (attracting scammers) while rejecting, pushing aside everything else to the contrary.

I had a one night stand which turned into a long friendship with a guy who came from old money ( family owned huge Irish estate, and he was a hedge fund manager). He had gone to Eton, but said it had not suited him, and he had few friends from school. He was a very sweet man, very kind and down to earth. He owned an entire townhouse in Notting Hill, which gives you some idea of his wealth. Sadly he died a few years ago.

R30, your aunt's cousin is your daughter? That's not a kosher sounding family tree.

R68, approximately 3 in 100,000 people in the US have a net worth of $50 million or more. Another source says that there are only about 30K people in the world with a net worth of over $100 million. If 10% of those lived in the US and they probably don't, that would be 3000 people. In reality, accurate numbers are very difficult to come by because many ultra wealthy aren't talking much if at all. Current data is based on what's publicly available.

And I'm here at the Datalounge, where I'm supposed to believe upwards of 50 people have chimed in on a single thread in a few days about the ultra-high net worth people they know, most of those comments appearing in a few brief bursts of a few hours apiece. It's bullshit.

Nobody cares what you believe r78.

I’m sure that comes as a shock but you deserve to know the truth.

I went to an elite prep school and Stanford so I've always rubbed shoulders with the scions of the wealthy. Old money folk tended to live very regular lives and pursue their passions as they didn't need to worry about a career that would make them money. New money folks tended to be entitled assholes.

My cousin, through a combination of hard work and extremely good luck is now worth hundreds of millions. He and his wife live a nice unpretentious life - bigger house than most in a moneyed neighborhood but kids in public school and lessons in whatever their passion might be. (baseball and dance currently). I don't envy them as I'm perfectly comfortable, but it is nice to be able to borrow the Manhattan apartment occasionally.

[quote]My cousin, through a combination of hard work and extremely good luck is now worth hundreds of millions.

Sigh, most of these posts are absurd. I think most Americans already know, that hard work NEVER guarantees a person will have financial success and a comfortable life. So many Americans are living on the installment plan.

Most people literally work themselves to death, only to make others wealthy.

How many people bust their butts their entire lives and aren't even able to by a house in a crappy neighborhood. American healthcare costs can easily bankrupt most Americans and this is with actually having health insurance. A late relative spent most of her savings on home aides and then a long nursing home stay, she left her adult children nothing.

If the GOP get in again, it will only make things worse, especially for the morons who keep voting for them.

There are few people with very high incomes, but there are a lot people with a few million in wealth. Of course they all know thousands of people, who talk about them because, well people don't really talk about the poors, do they?

But yeah, it is quite believable that there are numbers of people on datalounge who know some very wealthy people. I'm afraid our skeptical poster is not good with numbers.

R81 simply can't read. The poster said 'through a combination of hard work and EXTREMELY GOOD LUCK.'

Yes it happens. Not often but it does.

A friend's mother decades ago bought long term care insurance when it was cheap. When she needed to be put in assisted living the insurance paid for it and my fried got the money for her mother's house. Of course the insurance money could have run out but her mother died before that happened. Most people don't believe in insurance and screw over their children.

You know, there are such people that post here on DL.

In college I made friends with a guy who was tight fisted, and I was so naive I thought he was broke. He was from a rich family with a common last name, not quite so common as Smith, but close. He was a stoner, but much smarter than he let on. Great manners even when high. It was a couple of years before I had a clue about his background. I had been to his family's house when they were out of town. It was a nice place, but in an upper-middle-income neighborhood, not a any sort of mansion. We had mutual friends, so we'd bump into each other over the years. He worked, sometimes as a carpenter on real-estate developments his family was behind or managing apartment complexes they owned. Sometimes he started ventures that weren't bad ides, but he didn't have the drive to push them to success. Total pusshyhound. Didn't marry or have children until he was in his 40s. He died at 51 of cancer. His family was worth hundreds of millions in the 80s.

I dated a gorgeous, smart, well-hung guy who worked in finance at a big brokerage and made savvy investments and then became a successful entrepreneur who sold a company to a conglomerate and he and his partners retired from that. His family was not poor but they were nowhere near rich either.

He defined "rich" as someone who could live at a luxury level off passive income alone. I remember him telling me that you start to move toward "wealthy" around $20M, you have so much money that's just printing more money it multiplies faster than any down-to-earth person could spend it, even without much oversight...and if you learn about money and manage it well (with his finance background he did) the growth accelerates. So while he's not worth the $100M OP asked for, I'd guess he's at $50-60M now.

Gay, voted for Reagan but is now progressive, what philanthropy he does tends to be small amounts relative to his true fortune and it goes to the indigent. There's a house in the islands (which I'm guessing is tax shelter as primary residence) and a few places in America and another custom built one overseas.

He's a good person overall, and has always been kind to me, but I have also seen the understandable wariness when people come at him with dollar signs in their eyes. Most recently, he had another entrepreneurial idea and started working again.

I'm old now, so I don't get gorgeous, smart, well-hung guys with money anymore.

I am not remotely wealthy, but I have known many millionaires and the ex-wife and also the daughter of two separate billionaires. I find the new money millionaires fairly normal in their behaviour and outlook. It is the vast, multigenerational wealth where people haven’t worked for generations: those people are nuts. There are very detached from reality and often have trouble sustaining romantic relationships, despite their money. There are a higher proportion of suicides and drug abuse than in the general population.

[quote]I had been to his family's house when they were out of town.

Hmmm. Cat burglar?

I grew up in a wealthy area and, while I can't really say with any certainty what any of these people are worth, there are undoubtedly several couples worth somewhere in between $.5-1 Billion. My maternal grandparents were multi-millionaires as well, but I actually don't know what they were worth when they died because my parents have always been very secretive regarding money. The one caveat is I grew up in the northern midwest so it wasn't necessarily opulent. A lot of the people I knew came from family farms on 10s of thousands of acres, or managed to develop a successful blue-collar business. So there weren't a lot of typical displays of wealth. You'd see a lot of people with enormous trucks and multiple recreational vehicles, and the houses were generally newer and large on bigger estate-style plots of land. But you didn't see a lot of coastal-style luxury. One of my high school friends had a grandfather that started a successful medical device manufacturing company. Her mother (her grandfather's daughter) is worth well-over a half a billion at this point due to the company's sale; she also held a high corporate jobs at the company for decades so her salary contributed to the wealth greatly. Due to their blue-collar backgrounds however, they really don't spend much and my friend, despite having the trust fund and financial backing generally, lives pretty frugally. They do travel well however, they stay in remote areas in foreign countries surrounded by monkeys and nature.

My former piano teacher comes from a family that owns a major agricultural conglomerate down in Iowa. She basically has never worked outside of giving piano lessons and has led a very quiet idyllic life. She's an awesome woman and her daughters are very sweet and kind and very grounded. What she's worthI don't really know, but my parents have always said that it's likely several hundreds of millions.

The last couple I know owned a successful high-end cabinetry business. They lead a much more opulent lifestyle, with a private corporate jet, two enormous homes in the same neighborhood, and rural real estate all over the midwest. They had two boys I grew up with who were snobs and complete jerks, and the entire extended family was really rough around the edges, replete with criminal issues and general social drama. But they did instill their boys with a work ethic, and one owns a landscaping/snow removal business and the other is a pilot for their jet. They moved out of the neighborhood a few years ago but my parents still hear gossip about them from time to time. The mother, my mom's "friend" was an alcoholic and she's had a difficult time keeping away from liquor and the resultant issues. Despite their wealth, they were never particularly happy,

R81 You are correct about the wealth gap and it is immoral but here is how my BIL made his money: grew up middle class in upstate NY, very smart, went to Dartmouth in the 70s and majored in finance or business, I don’t know. Worked on Wall Street, went to Kellogg for MBA and got a job with American Airlines in the 80s. Stayed there his entire career, flying to Japan once or twice a month while his kids were very young and constantly working very long hours. My sister couldn’t work at all until the kids were grown because they aren’t the type to hire a nanny. Anyway, he is 66 and retired about five years ago. AA was a lucrative place to work and his longevity helped. I think he considered a move to Disney back in the early 90s but stayed with AA. He’s one of the coolest, most liberal people I know so I don’t consider him one of those guys who had a dream to just make money for money’s sake - I just think he really enjoys finance. He’s a VC now and his big splurge was a Tesla about six years ago.

R9 No Forbes, but I might know a few people from Poorbes list.

I love when super wealthy people are down to earth.

R8 bailed it. Wealthy people are not necessarily cheap. There are many varieties. I know a fair number of merely wealthy, a few with 10’s of millions and one self made billionaire. They’re all pretty nice and generous people. Otherwise I probably would not know them (these are friends and family). The wealthy creeps I know are more or less like other creeps I “know of” and stay away from.

Why are so many on DL obsessed with posting about rich people?

Why not post about the company owner's workers, you know, the workers who made these people extremely wealthy? Without workers, none of these people would be rich. Some of you post as if these rich people were actually doing the physical labor which made them get rich, they were not. Most rich people are rich due to the hard work of others.

How about posting about decent business owners who actually care about their workers?

There was a great article in this weeks NY Times about the owners of the Dr. Bronner soap company, how they pay their workers thousands extra for child care and other wonderful perks. These are the types of company owners who should be applauded.

Me myself and I

One of my closest friends in high school and college came from a family that made millions in local businesses. Not super-wealthy, just successful property owners. Very nice and normal family, about the only signs they had an unusual amount of money were a nice pool and said friend being able to meander around in school for ages until he got his degree. Everyone else I know range from moderately successful middle class to dirt poor trailer dwellers.

My godmother is a Multi-millionaire, very cheap & eccentric. She owned a bunch of properties in Hawaii & the Bay Area, didn’t have a property manager, & would do maintenance, painting, yard work at her properties well into her mid-80s. She drives only very old cars, one of which got infested with rats (!) who are all the wiring; with one car she adjusted the clock for DST & the car literally stopped working; another car had a wheel fall off while driving. She’s somewhat of a hoarder, even with supplements & food, & sifts weevils out of her flour rather than buy a new bag. One time we ran into each other at Costco, she saw my coworker was buying cherries (much cheaper than at the fruit stand) & yelled at her to put them back because they’re too expensive.

She also thinks DWTS Maxsim is the president of Ukraine! And was shocked that the Nazis were portrayed at villains in Raiders of the Lost Ark (which is the most boring movie ever, nothing really happened in it, according to her).

Yes, she’s a bit odd.

I was close to one of Gaddafi's sons (now dead). I asked him to take me to visit one of the dozens of bunkers each filled with zillions in American cash and thousands of diamonds. He declined.

R94, why don't you start your own thread? No one is stopping you.

Yes, old money people don't flash their wealth around, so you have probably encountered them without realizing it.