What's The Life of a "Trust Fund Baby " Like?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
61

An interesting question. In Mike’s and Don’s specific case, and drawing no broad conclusions (as noted, those two are my only entre to uber-wealthy people), I don’t think it was so much “I’m superior” as “I’ve nothing to prove to anyone.” Think of it as an affirmitive response, rather than a negative one - Not ‘I can beat you down’ but ‘I have no need to beat you down.’

Certainly, the calm respect that they granted others never showed any signs of superior airs or condescension. Rather, that they themselves never felt inferior to anyone they met.

62

I’ve known one person with major income from a trust fund. His came in the form of parcels of very valuable land that he quickly sold for way less than fair value because he wanted the money for drugs. Wacky hijinks ensued when the trust ran out.

63

I’ve noticed two things upon reading this thread (and I suspect I’m not the only one): a) I’ve actually done a lot of the same things as the trust fund kids discussed in the thread and b) most likely, if I were a trust fund kid myself, I would have done much of the same, fundamentally. College, choosing my own major, pursuing opportunities to live abroad, enjoying art, culture, food, and wine…not to mention, working hard with integrity and a conscience.

I’ve also suffer from some of the same problems: isolation (more due to having done these things than plugging it out in one town or city at one job my whole life) and busy father syndrome (my dad worked very hard, was away frequently, and passed away at a young age, even though we were, by no means, wealthy)… not drugs or alcohol, though.

But otherwise, though admittedly on a smaller scale than I would be doing if I had a lot more money, my life choices have been quite similar to these folks. And the only major difference that I can think about regarding what I would do if I had more money would be to travel even more, take more classes and focus solely on creative work for certain periods of my life without giving myself a hernia about bills, never have student loans, ever, and work with others to found organizations that fill service gaps in my local community. Getting bored? No…seriously doubt it—I tend to make work and projects for myself even (well, especially…) when income is not the goal. Buy a whole lot of random s*** just because I can? I doubt it (well…ok, ,maybe once in a while, especially while travelling abroad). Cosmetic surgery? Maybe. Home ownership? Most certainly… at least one abroad. More connections than I could ever have as the lowly commoner that I am, about fifty times over? You betcha. Worry less? I doubt it. More stressed due to family obligations/need to retain image and name? Very likely.

Food for thought…I’m actually walking away from this thread feeling better than I expected, and not in a schadenfreude sort of way. Does anyone else feel like this? It may be a generational thing: a lot of people I know have done similar, simply because the option of marching off to a job and staying there for fifty years isn’t there for us anymore.

That being said, trust fund kid: still my “dream job”…especially in this day and age.

64

I know a TFB at work. I’ve heard that part of her TF stipulates that she work a “real” job. She’s a health nut so definitely no drugs - she’s always dressed beautifully so I imagine that’s where some of the cash is going. She’s excellent at her job so shrug

65

Sophie Tucker
" I have been rich. I have been poor. Believe me honey, rich is better."

66

I was technically a trust-fund baby, in that I had a trust fund and was able to grow up middle-upper class without my single mom having to work. My trust also paid for my education and I still have a significant amount left over, though not enough to live on for any significant amount of time. I’m guessing that’s not the type of person the OP is talking about, but…

How you manage that depends largely on your family’s philosophy as well. I’ve had a job since I was 12, whether it was corn detassling, babysitting, as a receptionist and cashier or doing what I do now. I also had a job during college and paid my way through grad school by having three jobs without touching my trust. The idea has always been that my trust was there for my upkeep until I was out of college and completed a college education (also until I was out of college). Any leftovers were mine to do with as I wished, but the idea was instilled in me very early that the funds left shouldn’t be touched in the event I needed them later. I haven’t used them since the late 90s.

Regardless of my family’s wealth, I have always been expected to work hard. My physical needs and education were taken care of for me by my grandparents with the expectation that I would prove myself a good investment. My mom had a different idea than my grandparents did when I was growing up and was dismayed when I didn’t get married and have babies immediately out of college. My grandparents (well, grandmother - my granddad passed away when I was 9) wanted me to continue a graduate education and create a career for myself while having a family.

My husband also comes from wealth - much moreso than mine. His mom’s side was former royalty in India prior to colonization. Most of his family on his mom’s side do not work. Those that do, do so as a hobby or do a significant amount of volunteer work. Those that don’t have some fairly expensive leisure hobbies and/or travel quite a bit.

For me, the benefit of having a trust is a certain amount of mental security. I was brought up to work, so I can’t just not work. Even if I were to stay at home with the kids, I would start freelancing again. But if something were to happen, I feel very fortunate in that, while my finances wouldn’t last forever, losing a job wouldn’t be as catastrophic for me as it could be for someone else.

67

The ones I know follow Phish tour and love every second. When Phish is not touring, they travel.

68

Story of trust fund baby that I know:

Grandfather made the fortune, then died and Mama & her brother got it all. Mama’s Brother blew most of his share. Mama invested well and carefully and hasn’t worked in 30 years. She fancies herself to be some sort of new age spiritual “healer” and goes around inflicting woo on people who ask for her help. Hopefully, she doesn’t charge for this. Given her spiritual beliefs, I sort of doubt that, but I don’t really know. Friend told me she has this crystal bed in her house that she lets people lay down in for the woo healing. I tried really hard not to snerk out loud.

Son of Woo Mama gets a stipend from the trust fund and could probably live off that alone. He chooses to pretend like he has no money and instead, started up a business about ten years ago and spends his days running that. He tries to live off the business and, from what I can tell, only dips into his stipend stash once in a while when business is a bit slow. He’s not interested in growing the business or making more money or getting filthy richer. He lives in a humble little house and goes to work every day and bitches about his bills like everyone else.

Both the Mama and the son are kind, humble, down-to-earth, delightful, compassionate people. I think Woo Mama’s lifestyle is frivolous (she could be creating jobs or feeding starving children or rescuing kittens or something), but basically harmless.

In general, I find them to be pretty much like everyone else I know, only Woo Mama lives in a big(ish) fancy house in a pricey part of town with a woo crystal bed in it.

69

This is sounding like Brushes With The Rich, but…we have a friend, who was good friends with another student from, I think, Singapore. A very rich, little tiny female studying engineering. They were walking down the street in some big city when she veered into a jewelry store and attempted to buy each of them a Rolex watch. The store would not give her a ‘deal’ for buying two, they wanted full price for each one, so it was no sale, and so they continued on their way to the bookstore.

70

One friend immediately comes to mind because sometimes when he’s drunk or high he’ll start singing “I’m a trust fund baby…”

Basically, Charlie is a fry. In fact, that’s his nickname, C-Fry. He’s a loveable, likeable, affable drunk and drug addict. He’s been in and out of rehab any number of times, but with his unlimited money and addictive personality the hiatuses are really little more than a chance for his endorphins to recharge.

His father is a very wealthy, fundamentalist egomaniac, so you can imagine with what disdain he treat his oldest son. He’s given him a job in the lowest levels of one of his newspapers and he’ll never enjoy any semblance of professional success.

I love him to death and some of the trips we’ve taken together were absolutely legendary but without question his unlimited capital has led to a professional and personal trail of abuse and wasted opportunity.

71

Well, if you want a tale from the other side, read this: Britton Chance - Wikipedia. He was the scion of a very wealthy family, but after getting three degrees from Penn he helped develop radar during the war and then got a second PhD in Cambridge (and had a wonderful crimson robe as a result). He then spent the rest of his life as a biochemist. A friend of mine at Penn told that until he died (a year ago at 97) he still biked in to his lab every day and carried out experiments.

He won an Olympic gold medal in yacht racing and his trophy case (which I once saw), had an empty space next to it reserved for his Nobel prize, which never came, but he was reputedly under serious consideration. He owned three homes, one in West Philly, one on the main line and one on the Jersey shore. Although he regularly hired students (including me) he had no idea what to pay them since he never wanted for money in his life and couldn’t imagine how others lived. Nonetheless, even if I didn’t particularly like him, I had immense respect for him. Without that job, it is not all obvious that I could have gone to college at all. RIP

72

I think there’s a lot to this; I imagine if you’re comfortable financially and socially, and not under any other rocks (crappy workplace, chronic disease, etc…) it’s awfully hard to have much in the way of aspirations or ambitions.

I mean, as a kid growing up in a middle/lower middle class home (depending on exactly when), I wanted to have some material items and experiences that my parents couldn’t provide- i.e. get to travel and get some big items new, instead of used, like cars. I also wanted to go to a college that I didn’t have to live with Mom and Dad to go to, so I worked hard, got a scholarship, went to college, and got a series of decent paying, if not exactly enjoyable jobs to do those things.

I imagine if Mom and Dad had tens of millions in the bank, all those things would have been part and parcel of growing up; what would I have aspired to? Roman Abramovich’s yacht? Harvard instead of Duke? A new Rolls-Royce instead of a Vette?

I imagine that people in their 30s and older who would get a windfall like that wouldn’t necessarily stop working, but might just choose to work how, when and where THEY want to, i.e. start their own business, work for a non-profit, do jobs that might not pay well, but that would be fun, like working part-time at a little coffee shop) or volunteer full-time.

73

I’ve known one trust fund baby, and she was…unsettling. She wasn’t making NEARLY enough with the trust (I guessed her income at around $20,000/yr) to maintain anything more than a lower-middle-class lifestyle, but because the trust also bought her a house outright she chose to act like not paying rent/mortgage made her filthy stinking rich. Had a college degree which she never used, lived like a queen with restaurants and toys for half the month and on ramen for the rest when the money started running low.

Scary to me, especially when I think about how much $20,000/yr with no extra hours worked would do for my mad money budget.

74

My husband has a friend who inherited a nice amount of money. He works as a ski instructor in Colorado and lives in a condo that no ski instructor should be able to afford. He did the sex, drugs and rock and roll for a few years and decided that he he had had enough and settled down a bit. He’s a decent enough guy and we have dinner with him when we go out there. He drops money without a thought and always has the best new gear and accessories, a new car and nice clothes. From what we can gather, he has had his money invested wisely and can sustain his lifestyle indefinitely.

75

I went out with a guy here in NYC who’s grandfather is a wealthy businessman (and who was in the news a few years ago for suspected Russian Mafia ties). I knew something was up when I visited his apartment, which he OWNED, btw, and the apartment was absolutely gorgeous. Huge, high ceilings, rooftop garden, the whole shebang. He has probably a dozen custom guitars. I don’t know what he paid for that apartment, or in all likelihood, what his grandpa paid for it, but I imagine it was 3 million plus.

What turned me off, and what me break it off, was his disrespect. We would make plans, and then not only would Trust Fund Baby not show up, I wouldn’t hear from him for four or five days later. I told him I wasn’t going to put up with that, and TFB huffed, “Well, my friends don’t care when I flake on them,” and I said, “But I do.” And that was that.

My brother knew another TFB back in the day. She was a drugged-up hobag. Of course, my brother was a druggie mess without the trust fund, so whatever.

76

I’ve only ever known one trust-baby, my ex’s best friend. We used to hang out there a lot when we were still together. He was hands-down the most neurotic person I’ve ever met. Most of it I heard secondhand, he was always nice when we visited. But there were things missing in his life that the money couldn’t replace. He barely showered, he was on a shitload of anti-depressants, never left the house voluntarily, smoked weed like it was his job, played League of Legends and WoW all day long, and ordered Jimmy John’s every single day. He put himself and his gf through art school, then didn’t do jack with the degree because he didn’t need a job to live. Just aimless.

Nice guy, but something fundamental was missing.

77

I’m a “trust fund baby”

I received my trust fund of $130k when I turned 21 in December 2001. I invested all of it in the stock market and today it has grown to over $900k.

I am 32 years old and work at a job making $11.45/hr. I really don’t need to work at all. I make way more money from my investment income than from my job’s paycheck, but I work because I need to pay taxes on my capital gains and dividends.

I am very frugal and live a simple lifestyle. I don’t even own a car or eat meat. I live in a 1 bedroom apt and use a bike for transportation. I drink tap water and don’t even own a smart phone.

My mother owns and runs a real estate company and has a net worth of over $100 million which I may inherit once she passes. But I have no idea wtf I would do if I inherit $100 million. Most likely I’d just buy more shares of stocks and index funds and continue working at my $11.45/hr job to pay the taxes.

78

ok im an idiot. My mom’s net worth is not $100 million. she is worth $10 million.. correction

79

I’ve met a lot of independently wealthy people. One thing the older ones have invariably stressed is that maintaining wealth is a job in itself.