Well, this one’s kinda peripheral, but: my wife’s stepdad is good friends with a guy who’s crazy-rich. He came to our Vegas wedding, and when he goes to Las Vegas, it’s on Treasure Island’s dime; he’s a “whale” there. He recently got divorced, and bought his ex-wife out for a total of something around $1.6 million flat, and says it was worth every penny.
He knows my wife’s stepdad because they’re both into classic cars. The friend owns a building in town that they’ve converted together into a sort of playhouse/garage, where they can both work on their cars. Right now he’s building a new house with two 3-car garages to help house some of his vehicles.
I’ve met the adopted daughter of Rogie Vashon. Last I heard she was cutoff for various reasons (she is a very troubled individual).
The former lead guitarist for The Highwayman’s band is the son of a successful businessman. He owns several factories, many houses, and a few years ago traded his private jet in for a 'copter. I’ve never met the dad, but former LG is a total douchebag. His older brother is really cool though.
My best friend growing up inherited an entire town…the Main Street, all the businesses on that street and the surrounding farmland. It was a small town, but an entire town nonetheless…
You would never know it if you met him. Very down to earth, still wears jeans and boots and tshirts when he hops in his truck to go shopping. His wife and kids are also pretty down to earth, despite the fact they live in a huge mansion on the water, with a yacht out back and a pool in the back yard and and and.
Also met hundreds of celebrities in LA while I was living there, and went to some of their homes, so although they were hardly “friends”, I have have seen what money can buy.
My sister (doctor, married to another), my parents (business owners), my uncle (couple of business ventures, brilliance in the stock market), my grandparents…
Though, being of the generation that raised children during the great depression, my grandmother would buy food at garage sales in the same day she’d deposit $25,000 dividend checks from one block of stock or other. And it wasn’t as if they were CEO’s or anything - my grandfather biggest station in his career was manager of a sporting goods store in Charleston WV. They just saved every dime they had - didn’t have what we would call a “fun” life as they, of necessity, developed habits that poor people nowadays would consider impossible to meet. As in buying food at garage sales.
However, I’m just going by the standards set by the OP. I consider my family to be well-off, but not “fabulously rich” (I think one would have to be worth 9 figures to be considered “fabulously rich.”)
I went to elementary school with a bunch of rich kids, and one in particular who was crazy rich. I’m not exactly sure how much money his parents have, but I visited his mansion once and my entire house could have fit into his living room.
My brother the intellectual property lawyer became a multi-millionaire from one patent infringement suit he represented. He gives nices presents at Christmas.
I’m one of the poor relations on my dad’s side of the family–and my parents did quite well for themselves. However, my two uncles and my aunt did absurdly well! Odd thing is, that doesn’t hold true for people of my generation. We’re all mixed as to who brings in more money.
Then there’s my friend in Barrington Hills, IL. I knew she had money, but, until I visited her house, I had no idea how much. I swear, it was like money was dripping off the walls! With her, the only reason I suspected she had money was her address. She is one of the least ostentatious people I know (aside from her gargantuan, humongo, shopping-mall sized house).
I used to party with the son of one of Chicago’s most famous billionares. I’ve partied in his home and he in mine. Talk about new money.
I went to a well-known Jusuit highschool in one of Chicago’s North Shore suburbs. One of the best things about it was the contrast between city kids and well to do kids and super-duper 8 figures a year household kids. Surprisingly, there were far fewer brats and jerks than you might first suspect. Italian sports cars, British SUVs, German luxury sedans and 30 year old beaters all shoulder to shoulder in the school’s parking lot. One kid in my brother’s class would routinely be helicoptered to and from class. Winnetka, Lake Forest, Highland Park, Glencoe, and Barrington were all well represented.
I’m well aquainted with a family with a $700,000 painting on the wall.
My uncle was the chauffer for a fabulously rich family you’ve all seen on the news. Their name is almost a synomym for wealth. His son (my cuz) were the only two kids growing up on their sizable estate, and sort of grew up together. (Oft-told example: at one point, both kids roughly 5 yrs old; they developed a hankerin’ for a McDonald’s shake. Nearest McDonalds approx 75 miles away. No prob, the private jet was summoned, and the two kids were whisked away for their milkshake) My cuz says they neither one realized how amazing that stuff was until years later.
Do I know 'em? Not really, but I’ve met 'em several times. Nice folks, actually.
A guy in my hometown won the KS (I think) lottery in the late 80’s or early 90’s. I don’t remember how much he won or which category he’d fall into. I vaguely knew his daughters in high school. My parents said the only really big things he did that they knew of were building a gi-nor-mous house, and giving new astroturf or whatever they use to the football stadium of his alma mater, so probably it’s the ‘wealthy’ category for him, rather than ‘really insanely rich.’
I used to work for one of Chicago’s “new money” billionaires. His son is roughly my age (40) and we used to party together, too. Wouldn’t it be funny if we knew the same guy? (His name - the son’s - is Mark. If that rings any bells for you, let’s trade gossip!)
My best friend my freshman year of college (we drifted apart after that year) invited me snowboarding once. Her dad took care of everything. I thought that was super generous, but when I went to their house I understood that it was no big deal. They lived in this HUGE house behind a gate with a long windy driveway in…I forget, it was either Orinda or Lafayette, CA. Very pricey area even if you live in an ordinary house. Turns out he was the VP of a bank. After this, I was kind of embarrassed to have her over to my house for dinner - but she loved it. My parents are still married, hers were divorced (messily, I might add). We always sat down to have dinner together, which amazed her. Her family was pretty screwed up and her dad used his money to get her to do what he wanted all the time. She tried to resist his offers and got jobs to pay for her own things, but I know I would have had a hard time saying no to “if you take these classes, I’ll buy you a new car”. (She wanted to study art, he wanted her to study economics.) It wasn’t real pretty.
A friend of mine from university lives in Guyana and is extremely wealthy. I went down there for Christmas once, and was utterly amazed. His family owns banks, insurance companies, brokerage houses, and factories. He and his brother are NOT allowed to fly on the same flights, in case the plane goes down.
My aunt and uncle own an insurance brokerage (where I work), and they do very well. Condo in Yorkville (Toronto) and another in Coconut Grove (Florida). For fun, he races his 40 foot sailboat and drives a Mercedes SLK. She drives the Aston Martin.
One of my few hetero crushes was on a Finnish exchange student in high school and I understand it was reciprocal. We exchanged letters a few time and she invited me constantly to come stay with her family, but I never did.
I knew her family was well off, but years and years later learned that they owned a castle as well as vacation homes in France and Italy. One of her father’s business partners married Diana Ross, and people accused Diana of being the golddigger. They were stinking loaded, and the hysterical part is that she was housed with an upper middle class family in small-town Alabama who worried that she might not fit in or dress appropriately for their country club or church.
-My grandfather on my dad’s side is worth a few hundred million. I’d say $100-$300m?
-My dad is worth $30-$50m.
-My uncle is one of the top 2-3 executives in a company that’s in the top 20 of the fortune 500.
For my family I only have ballpark figures, in my family we don’t talk about money.
I know Jack Whittaker to a degree, the dope from WV that won the largest lottery payout of all time (and has been in trouble with the law for extreme stupidity ever since then.)
My grandfather was personal friends with Sam Walton, so that’s probably the richest person I have any connection with (well, had, since Sam’s dead.)
My landlord has about $6 million in liquid assets, in addition to the houses, castles and other assorted property he owns.
Another acquaintance of mine has a few million to toss around, but I don’t know exactly how many. Apparently he is the last heir of a big, rich, childless (except for him) extended family and every now and then someone pops their clogs and he gets a wad of cash.
