17 people who dated a rich person share the most surprising thing they learned.

There's nothing that can kill a romantic vibe more than a boring breakdown of the bills that need to be paid or how the check at dinner is going to be split...

While money isn't the most exciting subject to unpack at a candlelit ABC's 'The Bachelor'-ready date night, it's important to discuss finances before combining bank accounts or running down the aisle with a mountain of debt and false expectations. So, when a Reddit user asked, 'people who have dated rich people, what did you learn?' people who dated someone who lived a luxurious lifestyle of the rich and famous were ready to gossip about their experience.

1.

How real the 'network' or 'bubble' of it is. It's like the other side from the 'it's expensive being poor' concept. It's this weird internal community of people with money, and thus power, who are willing to make things happen as long as you're 'in'.

I mean, I would meet people at a fundraiser or something and five minutes later, they're happy to make a call that will get me a job at some huge firm.

Or like, my then-boyfriend would say let's go this concert. Tickets are $180 but it's okay but a friend's parents have a box, so we'll just join them. Or even one time the dishwasher in our flat broke - but we didn't have to pay a dime for repairs, because his friend from high school's parents own the building, so they're fixing it for free as a favor. - PhiloPhocion

2.

I learned just how productive having money can be. Something needs to be fixed/ replaced? We can afford to. Want to do something fun or adventurous? Sure let's do it now. Want to eat healthier? We can afford all the ingredients. Like what do you mean your life isn't slowed down by a million different things that need fixing/ upgrading/ replacing/ saved for? - capricious_achelois

3.

Quality really does make a difference in everything from clothing to ingredients. - LatterTowel9403

4.

Dated a girl for 3 years who came from old money. She was fine but her family was beyond out of touch with the real world. They were nice people but incredibly removed from the rest of the world.

They looked at me like I was zoo animal in the sense that they were so curious about my life/family. They'd ask me what it was like going to public school. How my parents immigrated. They were baffled that not everyone had vacation homes or traveled a lot.

The most interesting thing is that old money is much more powerful than new money. They belonged to these 'clubs' that consists of other rich families and the influence they had was mind-blowing. Want to build a factory in an area not zoned for it? Within a week that was changed. - edwadokun

5.

Grew up poor (now middle class) and at 18 dated a superrich guy. First thing I noticed was the food. Not just quantities but I also discovered so much food (like oyster, fresh fish, olives,..) things my parents could never buy.

I also had to learn etiquette. My parents brought me up well, I read books all the time, was a decent student and well-behaved kid.. but the way his family interacted was SO different. I had to learn a lot of unwritten rules that I wasn’t aware of.

I think in the end what I actually learned was that even though my childhood was rough (the amount of stress of not having enough money has probably impacted me for life), I valued my parents so much more. Once I had seen what life was like for rich people, I was just so proud of my family for making it work with so much less. - Friendly-Sea1979

6.

If you have a lot of money, people give you so much free stuff all the time trying to earn your business or procure donations. Ironic that the people who can best afford to pay for the items get comped the most! - redbradbury

7.

I only went on one date with him. He booked out the entire bowling alley so we'd have privacy for our date. It just seemed so shockingly wasteful to me, and it was bizarre to have a 20-lane bowling alley just to the two of us plus a fair sized staff who were left with nothing to do but look after us.

I learned I'm very uncomfortable with that level of casual assumption that the world will rearrange itself to suit my whims. Also he had absolutely no respect for personal space. I don't think he was used to women not liking to be touched by folks they barely knew. - MerylSquirrel

8.

I remember as a kid our appliances would always die, we never owned a house just rented and for some reason back then you had to bring your own washer/dryer. Seeing my mother, with 4 kids stress over the dryer dying again and how she was going to swing the laundry mat was something I’ll never forget as a kid.

I married a guy from a well off family and was blown away when he wanted to replace our dish towels because they were looking ratty. Like wtf dude, we use these until they disappear. We don’t just “replace” perfectly good dish towels. New dish towels were ridiculously frivolous to me. - Wexylu

9.

I had a girl that wanted to take me to her parents vacation home for the weekend. But it was farther than my two hour on-call leash as a firefighter. She was like no worries if you get called out on a fire. I'll have my dad pick you up in the helicopter...I was ok let's do it. - ihc_hotshot

10.

People born into money think they know what it’s like to be middle class or poor (and sometimes even can make it sound convincing) but they honestly aren’t even close to understanding.

I worked 40 hours a week at a gas station while taking 21 credit hours at a public university. Now I’m a department lead engineer at a pharmaceutical company. When I hear the stories about all my gf’s rich classmates in a prestigious MBA program going to Europe for “studying” (really just taking Molly and clubbing all night while the school pays for it) I cringe like hell.

They get snobby about if a job makes less than 6 figures and imply that’s low middle class (we’re in the Midwest where that’s upper middle class). - raynorelyp

11.

How much easier it is to make money when you already have money. - RunningRunnerRun

12.

My wife's family has no concept of what a workday is. - chumabuma

13.

They don't really have a concept of how rich they are. My ex-boyfriend was WEALTHY, but had a complex about how he was super poor. It was because all of his friends were also so wealthy, and he was maybe marginally less rich than some of them, he considered himself on the lower end of the scale.

They don't really have a point of reference for how poor some people are. When we were together I was living on a food budget of around $50 a month, and he absolutely could not wrap his head around how a person could spend that little.

I lived with a horrendously rich friend, his family are aristocracy in his home country. One thing I've noticed about him is that he's completely incapable of grasping that if I stop working, I just stop being able to eat.

He was confused about why I was worried about taking a week off work, and didn't understand I was worried I'd lose money. He seemed to think that most people work because they choose to, because he's never had to work. - lavenderacid

14.

On a Friday night whim my gf decided she wanted some pie. I suggested we go down to the store. She rang her favorite restaurant and had a chef bake her her favorite pie. The cost $170. A pie. Yes, she could afford to do it but the problem was the complete lack of value. Nothing really mattered to her because she had that kind of money. - Infamous-Arm3955

15.

Dated a man who didn't work - lived off of a TrustFund. Oddly, since he could afford nearly anything - nothing had any value. He'd buy a $400 KitchenAid mixer - and burn it up making Christmas candy the first week. If he decided to make more candy - he'd just go buy another $400 mixer. Nothing meant particularly ANYTHING to him. - BlitheringEediot

16.

He didn’t have any concept of saving money, it was always just there because his money was always earning money. Having money was an income stream of itself. Also he had no concept of how much anything cost. Was going to get some groceries for dinner and he gave me $300 to pick up some basics. - problematicsquirrel

17.

My ex was having problems with roommates at university. Her parents bought a $300,000 condo for her to stay at while she finished her degree (2 years). They sold it for a profit immediately after. I can't imagine not only being able to solve my problems with money, let alone make more off of them.

She also assumed her family was lower middle class because she didn't live in a mansion like her friends. She was very humble and was smart with her money, but it was very clear she could just call her parents if something didn't work out. Meanwhile my parents were struggling to pay rent, meaning I was their fallback. Not the other way around - MakeRobAPirate