Any wealthy Dopers?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

Funny, I almost started a similar thread recently. (Not wealthy, by the way. I’m an English teacher, economy class all the way.) My thread would have been in MPSIMS, I suppose, since all I have to add is mundane and pointless.

My wife recently started managing a men’s clothing store for rich folks in Seoul. Waiting for her to get off one day, I watched a guy buy a $400 shirt. It looked a lot like the $20 shirt I was wearing. There’s a briefcase in her shop that goes for around $20,000, enough to buy the Harley that I’ve dreamed about for the past 25 years. The store, and the entire shopping center, is always almost empty. I expressed concern, and my wife said that they really only expect 2 or 3 sales a day. I guess that’s enough, if the mark-up is high enough. But if I shopped there, I would feel like a chump, knowing that I was paying for all this overhead.

I just wonder: if I were rich, would I shop in those places? Now, a yacht I can understand. I could enjoy that. And I’d love to have a big fine house. But could I enjoy a $20,000 briefcase that much more than a $100 briefcase? I would like to have some nice things, and some might be expensive. But I really don’t think I could ever feel right about spending $400 for a shirt, even a high-quality shirt. My shirts are good enough.

Sorry if this is off topic. I just wanted to say that I don’t understand the spending habits of some rich people. But I’d still like to be one of them.

42

Include me in the group that defines “wealthy” by assests, not income. I make a decent salary for a scientist who doesn’t have a PhD, but life was easier back when Mrs. Lagomorph was still working (pre-baby). But our house has pretty much doubled in value in the five years we’ve lived in it, and if we sold it and moved to any other part of the country but NY or San Fran we could afford a freakin’ mansion, by my calculations. We also have quite a few stock options from the company I work for, which are not worth as much as I expect they will be, someday…

43

Tell me about it :frowning:

I’m just a hair over $30K/year and I live in NYC. My yearly rent increases (used to be 2% per year, now it’s 4% plus my rental company got added charges approved thanks to “necessary repairs”) have outpaced the raise my union allows, and now my student loans have come due, too. Would have gotten another job but stuck around for the break my current one gives me on tuition; now that I’m done with my M.S., the job market is sucking hard.

I am essentially living from check to check now, even though I have drastically cut my recreational spending (such as it was) and keep general shopping to a minimum. Store brands and stockpiled canned goods are your friends!

I have good friends who are earning over three times what I am. They wouldn’t count as wealthy by Stoid’s standards for this thread, but they sure have more money than anybody else in my circle. Yet you wouldn’t know it unless they told you, because they save so strictly that they are living almost as frugally as I am. If I had that kind of income, I’d be saving a lot of it but I’d want to be enjoying it a wee bit more with fun stuff, but we have different goals. They want houses in the suburbs, kids relatively soon, stuff like that. I still like living in the city and am not planning a family yet.

Though I’d like to pay off my damn loans…

44

I feel wealthy sometimes, just because I’m not chained to a job. I make money 24/7 even if I’m asleep. Which means I’m free, which means I have the most important thing that money buys.

On the other hand, I’m still paying off a fair amount of debt and I don’t yet own my home. Also, for all of the fact that I don’t HAVE to work X hours each day to make my living, it is the wise thing to do, so my business does pull at me.

But I don’t flip out over vet bills or car repairs anymore, and I live pretty comfortably.

It will be nice when the debt is paid off and we can buy a house.

And of course, I have my health (pretty much) and I have my Maggie, and I have ** Pump Action Gerbil ** and I have fabulous friends, so I am wealthy in all the other ways that matter.

Life is good.

45

MrO said:
“I just wonder: if I were rich, would I shop in those places? Now, a yacht I can understand. I could enjoy that. And I’d love to have a big fine house. But could I enjoy a $20,000 briefcase that much more than a $100 briefcase? I would like to have some nice things, and some might be expensive. But I really don’t think I could ever feel right about spending $400 for a shirt, even a high-quality shirt. My shirts are good enough.”

Good lord have mercy! $20,000 for a briefcase! My head is reeling. The question you posed reminds me of when I was talking about the spending habits of the rich with a friend, and I remember asking him how in heaven’s name folks would spend $1000 for a bottle of wine. He said that if you have billions of dollars, a $1000 is really equivalent to 10 cents. So maybe that applies for folks who spend $400 for a shirt or $20,000 for a briefcase. They have so much ready cash that dropping a few thousand here or there really is equivalent to spending pocket change, and they just don’t miss it. Must be nice. Oh well. I really would just love to have that kind of cash to see if I would spend that kind of money on things that are just as good that I can get at WalMart and equivalent stores.

As far as the OP, earning what I presently do, I am not nor do I expect to be anywhere near having a million dollars or earning $400-$800K a year. [sigh] So if any of you wealthy Dopers/lurkers are looking at this thread, I GLADLY ACCEPT DONATIONS. Make your checks payable to the celestina trust. :wink: But I have family and friends who love me and whom I love. I have a wonderful, spoiled doggy, Shnookums, who I wouldn’t trade for any amount of $$$, I have a roof over my head, food to eat, some liquor around here somewhere, and I’m just happy to be me. :smiley:

46

You know it occurred to me the other day that I’m actually poor. I couldn’t believe it! I mean, how insane is that? Honestly, I’m living from paycheck to paycheck.I’m still shocked about this. We’re so close to living on the street it’s not even funny…

47

As some have posted, there’s a difference between wealth and income. But there’s also a difference between wealth and net worth. I’d define wealth as a measure of how long you can live the life you choose without working. It’s been said that time is money, but I think the converse is true: money is time. Money represents a part of your life that you have sacrificed to your employer (or your customers if you’re self-employed). The more money you have, the less of your life you have to sacrifice.

By that measure, I guess I’m doing all right. I have no debts. I’ve got a decent investment income, although I’ve sustained sizeable paper losses over the past 18 months. I’m still a working stiff, but my salary is above average for the Reno area. I guess if I wanted to live a little simpler, I wouldn’t have to work at all…but I’d rather not dip into my nest egg just yet.

As far as intangibles, I’ve got solid marriage, two good kids, and everyone in the family is healthy. I’m more content and at peace with myself than ever before. I’ve even got time to pursue new hobbies. And I never stay at the office past 5 pm, and don’t work weekends – a BIG change from the way I worked just a year ago.

All in all, I’d say I’m a very lucky guy, living a good life. If that’s wealth, then I’m richer than any king.

48

Financially speaking, fairly…Mr Carina is a radiologist, which puts us in the top 1%. (I paint houses & play artist.) We have minimal debt, and the newest car is a '96 Escort.

Scylla et al are right though. It is about how you manage it. I know way too many people who have the things…Lexus SUV, trophy house, armies of brown people taking care of house & yard, fabulous wardrobes, who are cash poor and unhappy besides. When these people have financial worries, its on a big scale…God forbid their neighbors should see them driving an inappropriate car or mowing their own lawn.

I grew up extremely poor (mother making us casseroles from chicken feed, and using newspaper for TP most of my childhood) and was homeless at one point in the late '80s, living in a Dodge van for three months. Having lived in both extremes of the financial spectrum, I’ll echo those who say it ain’t the money honey that makes you happy!

49

rubs eyes once, twice, stares in wondrous, delighted disbelief

Carina?!? CARINA!!! You’re back online!!!

50

Wealthy? you bet! but not within your parameters…

i’ve got a family of nice, loving owners, one big meal a day, snacks in between, as many naps as i like, freedom to go where i please, do what i want (as long as it doesn’t involve destroying or defacing anything in the house :D), internet access, a place to hide to when it’s rainy, and, best of all, CATNIP!!!

ooh yeah, i’m RICH! :slight_smile:

51

Maybe this is true wealth.

Or as The Economist says,

The only reason Phartizette & I have been able to become members of the “mass affluent”–though not the millionaires next door–is because we scrimp & save. We don’t feel able to spend like the typical American and certainly don’t feel wealthy.

(HA-ha! the Economist said ‘fuck you’! Ha-ha!)

52

Well being only 21, I have sometime to work on this one. Although here at the start of next year I’ll begin training with my father’s company.
Training pay is 150 a day, probably for about 6 months or until I can be turned loose on my own. After that though I can get up to around the 350 to 400 a day. Now in big cities thats not “wealthy”, but living in West Virginia it’s pretty top notch. But the best thing about the job isn’t the pay it’s how much fun it is.

53

So what kind of work is it, Nicklz?

54

My dad owns his own contract company where Coal, Oil, or gas companies give him buisness. Which intails alot of court house work (finding out who owns what properties and whether it’s surface or mineral rights), then he has to work out lease agreements and road right of ways for the companies (lots of legal stuff), then he also is kinda like a negotiator because everyone always tries to hit up the companiess for more money, and also if there is a mistake and a boulder gets blown off the side of the mountain and falls on someones little dog Toto, or their house he has to try to settle the complaint before they take it to court.

The job sounds hard, but it is fun because it’s doesn’t have that same mundane repition most jobs have. Your always talking to a new face or trying to solve a new problem. Ever since I was 16 I’ve gone with him on buisness and have decided that I’d really enjoy doing this as a career, and since he has his own company it’s kinda a free ride, but I won’t complain.
:slight_smile:

55

Yeah, living expenses can make a big difference. I didn’t realize how well I was doing financially before I got married until I started having to pay some real bills.

I worked for a major ISP, got in early and got some good stock options. Before I married I was making just under $30K a year salary, plus $6000 or so in bonuses, plus $26,000 annual stock options (my chunk was divided between 4 years, and the company was bought out so I always get the same amount). That would make me solidly middle-class living in Dallas, where I worked. I could probably have afforded a nice $750/mo 1BR or a payment on a small house, and a new car, and still come out ahead, if I planned ahead and didn’t splurge with the bonuses and options.

But I was living 50 miles from Dallas in an economically depressed town of 25,000. I was paying $265/mo for an all-bills-paid efficiency apartment. I owned an early '90s economy car so my only transportation expenses were app. $130/mo gasoline bills and my liability insurance. Those were my only expenses! I ate out all the time, bought expensive gifts for females I was wooing, basically had whatever I wanted since I’m not too materialistic - even though I had money to blow, I couldn’t bring myself to spend it on big investments unless I was absolutely sure I wanted them, so I piddled away a lot of money on computer games and such. To have that much disposable income again with the bills I have now, I’d have to be making quite a bit over $100K a year.

56

I got into law because I wanted to be rich. HA! As if! Australian taxes suck!

So I ran away from the 48% tax I was paying in Australia and now live in Hong Kong. My rent up here though was HK$23000 a month. That’s around US$3000 a month, I guess. So I moved and now pay half that, for a place out in the sticks. Its all relative.

My wife is an accountant. We’re not rich, but we’re not hurting. Beats working 3 part-time jobs to get through university and earning next to nothing, anyway.

In defence of the truly rich: I have never met the “idle wealthy”. Everyone I know who has real wealth works their arses off. Perhaps I need to meet the aristocracy in England to dispel my illusions that most rich people deserve to be rich.

57

We’re not rich, we’re not poor. I make an engineering salary, and my wife is a senior nurse, so we each make a solid middle-class income.

We still have a big mortgage, but we have a nice $300K home overlooking a lake and we each have a car. Not new cars, but then I wouldn’t want a new one.

We’ve got pretty much our entire net worth tied up in our home. We don’t go out much, and my primary hobby now is developing our basement by myself. When done, we’ll have a home theater, office, and games room that will raise the value of the house by $30,000 or so, but my cost will be a quarter of that.

Until a few years ago we were pretty much living paycheck to paycheck, and could never afford to invest in the market. Now we’re in our mid-30’s, and I’m finally managing to put 10% of each paycheck into investments. The financial security of knowing that you can survive a layoff for quite a long time is really comforting, and if all goes according to plan we’ll be able to retire in our early to mid 50’s, and send our daughter to college.

I don’t feel much need to have a lot more money, other than that it would be nice to be able to have a little clout in the world. I’d like to be able to support charities in a way that really makes a difference, or support a political candidate I like, or help a friend in need in a way more substantial than just helping him move. But far more important to me is that I have time to spend with my family, and that I can provide a nice home and a secure future for my daughter. And I’ve already got that, so I’m pretty content where I am.

Oh, and I would like a new airplane. (-:

58

I do well, and am currently on track to be able to retire by 50 if I want, but at this point I couldn’t take more than a few months off and stay afloat.

Scylla is absolutely right. Wealth is about the choices you make. I saw an Oprah show where one of her guests earned $18,000/year, but managed to save $400,000.

The truly wealthy would never spend $20,000 on a briefcase. I grew up middle class in a very wealthy town and noticed a lot of things. New money spends it like water. Old money pays a lot for quality, but then gets mileage out of that quality. I saw a lot of 5-10 year old Benzes and Bimmers in my neighborhood. Those people will have money left to leave their children. The people who lease new cars every year and redecorate the big flashy house in the trendiest way probably won’t.

I’m aiming to go the quality over quantity route. I just bought a car, a two year old, top of the line VW, and I plan to drive it for the next 5 years at minimum. I started tracking my spending about a year ago, mostly to plan through a very tough move when I was still living check to check, and I discovered how much crap I pissed it away on. All of the paperbacks, cat toys, gum, soda, fast food, extra clothes, shoes, towels, sheets, blankets, knick knacks, christmas presents, and kitchen gadgets add up. And then you’ve got to pay a rent or mortgage on a bigger place to store all that crap.

I’ve decided over the years that I’m just not gonna do it any more. I don’t work as hard as I do to keep the local mall in business, and lo and behold, after a year of living very carefully, I have a down payment for a house, and shopping actively gives me the heebie jeebies. It’s a miracle.

59

While I certainly appreciate all the noble platitudes about how wealth is about how you manage your money, and about how you’re wealthy if you have happiness & health, etc., I don’t believe that you’re addressing what the OP was really asking. Which is to say, does anybody on these boards have moolah flying out of their ass? Why won’t somebody just step right up and say, “I’m rollin’ in it! I’ve got a mansion (or a hellacool condo), a yacht, 2 or 3 Jaguars, more zeroes in my bank account than you can shake a stick at, yada yada yada…”

So either there are no wealthy Dopers (in the sense I just described above), or the wealthy Dopers are too humble to admit it.

60

Given recent events, I have to wonder just whose bank statement he showed me. Jerkface.