18 people eye roll over the most privileged thing they heard a rich person say.
Over on the Ask Reddit Subreddit, one user asked people to share stories of the most unrelatable thing they have ever heard a wealthy acquantance utter. Here's a list of some of our favorites. What's yours?
BananaBR13 asked:
What was the most out of touch with reality thing a rich person ever said to you?
1. It's just smarter to buy than rent.
My boss asked me why I didn’t just buy a house in her neighborhood instead of renting an apartment. The houses there were $300-500,000 (very pricy for my area), and she was paying me $9/h….I had literally just applied for food stamps.
2. You need a vacation from this vacation.
Not a quote from the person but me and my sister were planning a weekend trip with our two cousins and one of them just could not understand how and why we couldn’t make the trip longer and couldn’t seem to understand the concept of taking time off work and that we can’t just not show up whenever we feel like it.
3. Just use your imaginary money.
I was complaining about mortgage payments, and she said 'I know, I finally just took the money out of savings and paid mine off so I wouldn't have to worry about it every month.'
4. Trust fund TED talk.
I overheard a girl (one of my wife’s cousins, whose dad is very, very wealthy) say “yeah, things got real rough for a bit there, I even had to pull money from my trust fund.” I actually laughed out loud and she looked at me disapprovingly because I wasn’t in the convo.
This same girl gets an allowance (separate from the trust) of $6k per month. When she turned 21 she posted on Fb “hooray everyone, I finally got a raise this week!” Everyone was congratulating her on her hard work, which is funny because she doesn’t have a job, it just meant her monthly allowance increased because she got older.
5. Technically still giving their teacher an Apple.
One time a client’s kid gave a coworker an iPad. Brand new, unopened box. My coworker was a little uncomfortable receiving such an expensive gift from a kid.
The kid just said “don’t worry, I just grabbed it out of the gift closet.”
We were confused, so we asked him what a gift closet is. Apparently, their family keeps a whole closet loaded with stuff like this - Apple Watches, cameras, iPads, etc so that whenever they need to give a gift, they always have something on hand.
6. Insert fainting coach here.
I have a friend and she is very wealthy. She was talking about finding a charity for Christmas. I mentioned that there were people going places and paying off Christmas lay a ways. I mentioned a town I grew up in as a possibility.
I told them the per capita income is 9k. And she said, “9k a month!!!! How do those people live!!!” Then I had to tell her 9k a year. She was floored. Edited to say: she is actually a very very sweet and caring person and donates millions a year to so many wonderful places and causes.
7. When your dishwasher in equiped with a birth certificate.
In college I was washing a bowl in the sink and someone said 'that's the weirdest thing about college for me, not having a dishwasher.'
Me: 'man I didn't have one until high school and it was sh*t so it couldn't clean pans.'
Him: 'oh, I meant like someone to wash the dishes for us...'
Me: 'you're joking, right?'
He was not joking, but I got invited to their upstate place for spring break so that was cool.
8. You don't have a person for those?
My husband was on a business trip w some rich people in Hawaii. They asked why I didn’t come-he told them I was home with the kids. The guy says “well-couldn’t the nanny just stay with them?”
Nice enough guy-just out of touch for sure.
9. Technically correct.
2008, Great Recession: My job was cut from full time salary to hourly and then my hours were cut regularly. My boss, the business owner who was in the midst of a company-paid whole home remodel, handed me my paycheck and said “Wow, you don’t make sh*t!”
10. Then there would be no one to steal the food you can't afford.
Why have roommates at all? I don't think anyone I knew had roommates. Seems like too much trouble. Just spend the extra hundred on rent and live at peace. - an 80 year old man.
11. The Necronomicomic book.
'I think there's a book bound with human skin in here.' - billionaire showing me his sibling's extensive library.
He was high and immediately retracted it when he realized he'd said that to someone he'd literally just met hours before.
12. Didn't have time to jet-pool.
This actually happened:
I work for a large tech company. My first year there, I had a co-worker that had God level money. We were booked for a business trip to London. I boarded the flight, didn't see him, thought he missed the flight.
I get off the plane and he's texting me from our hotel in London. He arrived 5 or so hours before I did. I get to the hotel, check-in and meet him for dinner. I ask if he took an earlier flight as I didn't see him.
Nope. He told me he was racing his vintage Ferrari(s) in Southern California, lost track of time. Realized he was probably going to miss the flight so he flew his own jet to NY (with the Ferraris on-board), then 'grabbed a flight on the Concord' and beat me to London.
And he genuinely said this like he'd just grabbed Starbucks on the way home. He was incredibly down to Earth and very humble, but his assessment of everyday life related to travel was so far out of my realm of reality. That was my first brush with God level money.
13. This feels like a red flag.
Not to me but near me 'I would pay money to see The Hunger Games if it was real.'
14. Who would even miss $1,000?
Back when I worked in payroll a doctor yelled at me because his administrator didn’t process his bi-monthly incentive on time so it missed his check. He was supposed to go pick up his new Mercedes with that money (it was 6 figures) so he threw a fit to have a check cut that day.
Two weeks later that same doctor did not approve a check to be cut for an hourly employee whose hours (2 weeks worth) didn’t get approved on time because it was only $1000 and they wouldn’t miss it. I had to go above him to get it approved because I knew that employee would definitely be negatively impacted by not being paid on time.
15. Maybe buy two to be safe.
'If your car is broken why don't you just go buy a new car?'
He was dead-pan serious.
16. The Outdoor Hose Garden Club.
I am a not rich person that lives in a rich town.
I got tired of people asking me what pool club I belong to, so now I just try to keep a straight face, stare into their soul and say, “my sprinkler in my backyard, you?”.
17. Maybe he can give this car to number 15.
I worked as a tow truck driver for a little bit. I got a call that a customer needed their car towed from the police impound. I get there, and it’s a 7 series BMW. I didn’t even want to touch it, because they’re expensive af and are notorious for transmissions that disintegrate when moved in park.
The owner wasn’t even there, it was his man servant, and he knew nothing about the car. We ended up having to call the owner for something, and he basically told me he didn’t really give a shit what happened to the car because he already got another one, because he couldn’t wait for the impound to open.
18. Like fuzzy dice, but make it children.
Years ago I was hired to fly a helicopter for a woman with 9 kids. For a few weeks I would pick out different aircraft and show them to her so she could decide. The cost difference between a helicopter that holds 4 people and a helicopter that holds 11 is about $20 million dollars.
She asked me if some of the kids could just hang on the outside since it was only a short flight to the airport where her two gulfstreams were. That was my last day. I despise being the reality broker for crazy.