Custom designed and built, 50,000 square feet, 16’X60’ indoor swimming pool, much is underground, a big ol’ tree was moved 6 inches because he’s that kind of person, door handles that cost $2000 each, extensive electronic gadgets throughout the place, RFID everywhere, rooms that adjust to the visitors preferred temperature and plays their favorite music, etc.
Most of the place is for entertaining and meeting, their private residence is (I read somewhere) not terribly extravagant compared to the rest of the place.
Why? It was finished before the dot-com bubble burst. With that kind of money, why not? Probably has and/or is developing technology that many people will have in 10 or 20 years. Or now, since I seem to recall that he had a bunch of plasma displays that rotated through his art collection back in ‘95. No big deal now (except for the quantity) but us workin’ folk still had CRT’s back then.
This is mostly speculation, based on what I remember from a Wired article at the time, and a little Wiki.
ETA - ParentalAdvisory, I was mostly kidding with the Gates Foundation thing, but aside from his company it seems to be his biggest interest.
A couple of small corrections: According to recent news stories, Carlos Slim of Mexico has passed Gates to become the world’s richest man. Also, according to Gates’s Wikipedia entry, his house is assessed at $125 million, not $100 million.
This week someone is throwing a surprise party for 300 people. The party is in a city park. I couldn’t find anything but snark about it, but it’s rumored to be hosted by Bill and Melinda.
Well that was snarky. I don’t believe he was bragging at all. He was just stipulating the fact that of the rich people that he does know, you’d never would have known they were rich unless you knew them, or saw them in a fortune magazine. Because like he said, “All of the mega-rich that I know don’t do very much that is extravagant either.” Did you read the OP? His comment was related to wealthy people and being extravagant.
If your comment wasn’t meant to be snarky, then I refute.
As others have said, there’s only so many possessions you can keep up with.
I believe Clark Gable (in reference to prostitutes) once said something to the effect of “I don’t pay them to have sex with me; I pay them to go away afterwards”.
My guess that their biggest extravagances are making people or situations go away, or go their way, or whatever.
Right. Does he have a solid gold toilet in his bathroom? Does he (as Madonna is reported to do) refuse to wear a pair of underware more than once? Does he have a different limo for each day of the week? I think the OP is talking about that kind of extravagent foppery, not just having a large house.
One of the Persons of Interest in this thread keeps at least one mistress in a mansion and a Lifestyle to match. (A friend of mine knows him from when he [del]got kicked out of college[/del] left college to pursue business. When he comes into town to visit his mistress they (Billionaire, mistress and friend) get together.
Now, just having a mistress doesn’t require having billions (but it certainly helps). Keeping several in a lavish lifestyle might.
Also, paying off media to not write about certain unpleasant things is quite expensive and may be considered lavish by many. (For example, my friend receives a “research grant” just to make sure certain things don’t get communicated to certain other people. Like a wife for instance.)
That is all correct. I do know some very rich people as long-time family friends and it is a simple fact. They are rather unassuming too probably because they were self-made. There isn’t any “connected” anymore than someone else’s family friends would be because they are just people albeit ones that work much harder and longer than most and it can be exhausting to be around them.
That is part of what prompted me to ask the question. Sports stars and rock stars seem to blow cash well, like blow. I was just curious if any of the self-made billionaires fell prey to the same type of thing after a while.
The bar for extravagance has been set pretty high. Aristotle Onassis married a president’s widow and had the barstools on his yacht upholstered with whale foreskins.
I wouldn’t consider having private jets or yachts that extravagant for billionaires… The OP was probably referring to lighting cigars with $100 bills, swimming in coin-filled pools, feeding the pets caviar, etc. Now those things would be interesting.
Before his death in 1990, Malcolm Forbes was well known as a big spender.
From Wiki: Malcolm Forbes was legendary for his lavish lifestyle, his private Capitalist Tool B727 trijet, ever larger Highlander yachts, huge art collection, substantial collection of Harley-Davidson motorbikes, his French Chateau (near Bayeux, Normandy, in Balleroy), his collections of special shape hot air balloons and historical documents, as well as his opulent birthday parties
My apologies; I should have included a smiley with my comment. It wasn’t meant to be snarky at all, but just a silly joke.
As far as wealthy people being extravagant, I suspect that wealthy people try to hide their extravagance as much as possible. For example, I don’t believe Bill Gates has allowed any photos of his residence to be taken. And IIRC Barbra Streisand tried to suppress pix of her Malibu mansion that were posted on the web.
It really isn’t in the interest of America’s elite for regular people to see how well off they are.
