19 employees of the ultra-rich share the biggest waste of money they ever witnessed.

Working for someone who makes more money in a year than you'll probably ever see in your lifetime can give you some humbling and distrubing insight...

Buying a new phone because you left yours at home, hopping on a private jet whenever you don't feel like sitting in traffic, or not knowing how much anything in the world actually costs--exobitantly wealthy people can seem like aliens sometimes. So, when a Reddit user asked, 'people who work with or around that ultra-rich: what's the worst excess or waste of money you've seen?' employees of the 1% were ready to share. No kids, please don't throw change away just because you don't like to carry cash...

1.

I work in a very wealthy town. The parents will get their kids a brand new BMW when the kids turn 17 and get their licenses, the kids will do something stupid and total the car in less than a year, and the parents buy them a brand new replacement BMW. - KLWK

2.

I went to a college with a lot of wealthy kids. My roommate freshman year was one of them. She was awesome and humble as fuck but her family was loaded. We went to her condo in Cabo for spring break and our return flight was delayed by a day. Her dad was SO close to playing $10,000+ for a private jet to fly us back because I had two lectures the next day and my roommate had one. I wasn’t planning on going anyway so I’m very happy we talked him out of it. - swonstermonster

3.

When I was in college, I was employed by a neurosurgeon and his wife to do one thing. In exchange for being their 'pool boy,' I lived in the pool house for free, utilities included. My job was to keep the pool clean, and act as life guard when their kids swam or had a swimming party.

During the two years that I lived there, I was life guard maybe a dozen times. The pool house was like the one on Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Sometimes I bartended at their dinner parties and made 250 cash. - RonSwansonsOldMan

4.

A buddy of mine used to be a pilot on private planes for rich people. One time he was waiting for the guy he was going to fly that night at the main airport in town, and the guy called him and asked him to fly to a smaller, non-commercial airport that was closer to this guy's work to save time because he didn't want to deal with traffic.

This is not a very big town so traffic is really nonexistent and the drive would have been 15-20 minutes. Instead, my buddy had to redo his flight plan and make the 4 minute flight to this other airport. Probably cost the guy at least 5k. - non_clever_username

5.

In college I worked for a super high end interior designer who fully designed houses for the ultra rich. Like, he did Walton level money houses. I moved furniture for 15 bucks an hour. Anyways, this one particular house we had to move in a pair of custom built Italian recliners.

These chairs were hand built, hand embroidered and I sh*t you not, the wooden legs were vigorously rubbed with a gold bar so as to embed tiny flakes of gold so it shimmered. We moved a pair of these chairs into a third living room on the second floor.

The room looked like it had never, ever been used and we just plopped down 30k worth of window dressing in there like it was nothing. I did sit in this throne that would have paid my tuition for a year and you know what, it wasn't even that comfortable. - cerealdaemon

6.

My dad chauffeured around some rich people when I was kid. The one guy he drove was actually a really nice bloke and used to get my dad's family things. One time on a trip to London he asked my dad to bring my mom and then said he had to be in meetings all weekend so didn't need my dad to drive him around. He paid for them to stop at The Ritz and bought them tickets to Phantom of the Opera.

Now this guy's kids were a whole different kettle of fish. He was taking them to the amusement park and my dad was driving them. He asked my dad to bring me so I could enjoy the day out too. I went around with this rich kid who would buy whatever he wanted and then throw the change after paying into the nearest trash can. When I asked him what he was doing he said he didn't like carrying around change so threw it away (wouldn't give it to me though) - mattmu13

7.

Did some construction work on a 7 million dollar house. While everything else was already insane about the place, the real kicker was that the owners had purchased the neighbors paltry 3 million dollar home, and TORE IT DOWN so that they could extend their patio and backyard out into that space. - [deleted]

8.

Did some electrical work at T-pain’s House in Atlanta a few years ago. We needed a tarp to prevent dust from getting in carpet and generally just keep the area clear, T-pain says to one of his entourage “how much does a tarp cost, go get us a tarp from Walmart” and hands the man $500 - jackandcokedaddy

9.

I have a friend who is the head concierge at a hotel. Whenever there is a large event like a concert, the acts will usually stay there, it’s that kind of place. He looks after whatever royalty, celeb or star stays there and makes sure they have whatever they need.

He had Rihanna staying there a few years back. Her entourage hired an entire floor and totally ruined the place but because it was Rihanna, they could do whatever they wanted. He went into all the rooms after they all checked out and all the mattresses had to be replaced as whoever was in there smoking put there blunts out on the bed.

They didn’t give a fu*k, money was no issue so pay for new mattresses because you can’t be arsed to move! They also left behind a shit load of weed so he took that for himself.

They had some of the Saudi elite stay there once and before the guests checked in, large trucks arrived carrying a selection of super cars for him. Then they sent a team in re-tile the bathroom and redecorate the rooms to be in line with the style he liked! After all this, the bloke decides that he was going to stay somewhere else!!! - simonmatik

10.

My ex employer is very wealthy Arab dude.

Complete f*ckface. Biggest waste of money I've personally seen is:

$7k on champagne, he doesn't drink, bought it, took a Snapchat picture and then left.

$50k for three days in Dubai, he didn't come back with any sort of luggage or anything.

$1.5 million in three failed businesses, opened within months of each other.

Cars he doesn't drive, Maseratis and Ferraris. He bought a brand top of the class Ferrari, had it for like three weeks and I never saw it again.

But. mostly just the way he does things, buys a super expensive coffee from Starbucks, has a sip, throws it away, buys expensive as f*ck clothes from expensive stores, never wears them. Has f*cking real gold on these shoes that come in a big fancy wooden box. - whipperwil

11.

I'm an accountant with a couple fairly rich clients. Most wasteful thing I have seen is a client who tore down a 6 year old house to build an even bigger newer one. it had 9 bedrooms, 10 and a half (htf?) bathrooms. It was his wife and 2 kids who lived in it. - [deleted]

12.

I managed the social media accounts of an entire car dealership network for about a year, it was family owned and they we're hundreds of millions type of rich. The daughter (probably early 30s) would send her assistant out to buy literally DOZENS of expensive outfits for her to try on.

She'd then spend all Friday using the executive office area as a catwalk to try on her new outfits. Once she picked one she'd wear it to whatever club she was going to that night and have the rest put in storage never to be seen again.

Her assistant, who hated her job, once told me she bought the same expensive dress three times now, there's three of them in a storage room somewhere that have never been worn. Apparently each trip was around 10k or more, and she'd do this at least once a week. The only thing that wouldn't go into storage was the jewelry, she special room in her house for getting ready in and that's where she kept the literally millions of dollars in jewelry she bought over the years. - oopsbutohwell

13.

My boss's 8 y.o. daughter was at our office. I offered her drinks - water, tea or coke. She said: my parents said that only poor kids drink coca cola. She was too rich to drink coke. Damaged kid. - Annieb01

14.

A guy I knew in college came from an extremely wealthy family. At one point we happened to be in the vicinity of his grandfather's house and he asked if I wanted to stop and see his car collection. It was approx 30 cars in his basement- basically a garage beneath his house with an elevator that took cars up to surface level. Mostly old rolls royces, kit cars, or just weird things like one of the last el camino's ever made.

The car collection didn't strike me as a waste- I assume most of those cars will at least hold their value. His lawn did. completely flat. thickest, softest, most evenly colored and cut grass i've ever seen in my life. I doubt it was more than 1/4 inch high. No clippings or signs of a lawnmower. it literally just looked like a thick, hunter green carpet that had been unrolled, except it was about a half acre in size.

I walked on it barefoot and it really felt like the softest carpet i've ever walked on. Edges perfectly trimmed. I can not imagine the cost of maintaining something like that, and really what is the benefit other than status? - TRAMAPOLEEN

15.

My friend is married to a plumber. He was once hired to set up a special room for a famous composer's wife's tortoise. It was a huge room in their mansion that his company set up to be arid all the time, like a desert.

I believe it even had sand and cacti in it, and sun lamps. I don't know how much it cost, but it was more than most people spend on their houses. All for their spoiled-a*s tortoise. - fwooby_pwow

16.

My old boss sold his Bentley on Craigslist for $30k. He spent $400k on it. I don't think that needs any more explanation. - FeralCalhoun

17.

I do taxes for the ultra high net worth. I had a client who was having a rough year, his fund was down, he was going through a divorce, he was just angry at the world. We were on the phone and I was giving him more bad news (he owed a lot in taxes even though he had tight cash flow) and he said to me 'Let me tell you about the lesson of the 3 Fs, it'll save you a lot of headaches and heartbreaks... If it Flies, Floats or F*cks, rent it. Don't buy it.' I loved that client. - [deleted]

18.

I work at an art gallery and we deliver pieces to some extremely wealthy people. I can't believe how many times we've seen clients design and buy a brand new multi-million dollar home, only to sell it a year and a half later, 'just because they got bored with it', and proceed to buy an even more exquisite place. Most of them aren't the house-flipping type either, they just literally get tired of their massive houses. - csbirtcher

19.

I used to work for a hotel for years. It was not a fancy hotel, & it was not in a rich area. But a long-term guest of mine wanted to take me & my friend to the casino on his dollar. I knew this man for 2 years by this time, & considered him a friend, so we both agreed to go.

When we got there he bought us all a drink, & then he proceeded handing us both a STACK of hundred dollar bills. Like, $1k each. He told us to gamble until we dropped. All he asked is that if either of us won the jackpot, that we would split the winnings with him.

Coming from a modest upbringing it felt like such a waste to gamble that money away. But we all ended up having a great time. & he never expected anything questionable in return. He was a very cool guy. - morallycorruptgirl