ADVERTISEMENT

Working for the elite and ultra-wealthy is an eye-opener. You get to see life from a very different perspective. And that contrast between your life and the one that the super-rich lead can often be mind-bogglingly bizarre.

Folks who have worked for the rich before spilled the tea in an online thread about the excesses and indulgences they’ve personally witnessed. We’ve collected their most interesting stories to give you a peek behind the curtain at how the 1% behave.

#1

Young girl with backpack shopping in luxury store, illustrating rich people living in a different reality from others. My mom worked for a very wealthy man. He and his wife had 2 boys and she decided she wanted a girl. So she adopts a girl, probably about 4 years old. She wasn't old enough for school yet. So it's a done deal and she finally has her girl. They spend their days going shopping for clothes and fun stuff for the girl. A few months later, the wife decides she doesn't want a girl anymore and RETURNS HER, like a dog from a pound. She told the girl to keep the clothes if she wanted them.

MonkeyUndefined , Josh Maddocks Report

Mrs Irish Mom
Community Member
1 day ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That is the most disgusting thing ever to do to the poor child, she dosnt deserve to even be a mother, heartless Bìtch

View more comments
RELATED:
    #2

    Luxurious bedroom interior with chandelier and elegant decor showcasing rich people lifestyle and wealth. My son is a contractor. They just finished an outdoor “party barn” for a wealthy hedge fund manager. One room for $120,000. They followed the architects plans to the smallest detail. It turned out beautiful. When the guy’s wife saw it she said she hated it and ordered it torn down immediately and replaced. That kind of waste and attitude sickens me. To top it off, they’re out of state and may spend two -three weeks a year there.

    hikerjer , Getty Images Report

    SouthernGal
    Community Member
    1 day ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I knew someone (not a friend) who bought an expensive lake house. They spent hundreds of thousands in renovations and landscaping to get it ready for a big party, knowing full well that they were going to demo the entire place to build a nicer bigger house right after the party. I just can’t fathom that kind of waste.

    View more comments
    ADVERTISEMENT
    #3

    Young woman in airplane economy seat, stressed and tired, reflecting on rich people living in a different reality. My friend's wife flies to Aspen when she has a headache. Not for a headache treatment, just to ‘breathe better air.’ Meanwhile, I treat my migraines by turning off the lights and putting a wet facecloth over my forehead.

    anon , R photography Background Report

    Archanae
    Community Member
    1 day ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    As Paris would say: Stop being poor! *Shrug*

    View more comments

    As per the findings of one study, rich individuals who were self-made more prominently embodied ‘rich’ personality traits like risk tolerance, emotional stability, openness, extroversion, and conscientiousness than people who inherited their wealth.

    According to the BBC Science Focus magazine, many of the richest people around the world tend to share similar personality traits.

    “These people are good at controlling their emotions, both positive and negative ones, and they tend to be less emotionally reactive to the world around them at high levels. This can come off as cold, but they don’t tend to react in the way most people would. They also tend to be extroverted, outgoing, and open to new experiences,” explains social psychologist Dr. Steve Loughman, from the University of Edinburgh.

    ADVERTISEMENT

    “This defies a popular stereotype of the reclusive, introverted millionaire that is often portrayed.”

    #4

    I fly private jets for a living. The levels of excess and indulgence I see are insane.

    - $50k worth of dishes that never get used.
    - A vacation to Norway last year cost around $450k.
    - The plane I fly right now is around 40 million.
    - Flying the family dogs on the jet an hour to their preferred groomer.
    - A day trip to Maui just for a same day passport.
    - $34,000/month for our satellite based wifi.
    - The


    EDIT: hah, I’m at work and closed the app before I finished the comment. I didn’t think it posted. I’m still alive and definitely not a sniper posting on my victims phone. Definitely not 😅.

    ApatheticSkyentist Report

    BarfyCat
    Community Member
    1 day ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    My brother's friend had to tell some wealthy Sheikh that no, I'm very sorry, but we cannot install a hottub in your private jet, because physics.

    View more comments
    ADVERTISEMENT
    ADVERTISEMENT
    #5

    About 20 years ago, I was the personal assistant / nanny for a billionaire family in SoCal. At first, they were such lovely people but slowly all of their dysfunction overtook the happy veneer. The husband spent almost all of his time away and barely checked in with his family. The wife was the epitome of the bored, neglected rich second wife who ignored her only child in private but pretended to be mother of the year in public. She would take one yoga class a day and attend one high society function and then spend the rest of the day bemoaning how difficult and stressful her life was.

    The child was neglected, unloved, and acted out constantly. He reminded me of one of the kids from Russian orphanages that weren’t held as babies and grew up not being able to form attachments to other human beings. He basically lived alone in this mansion with only myself, the cook and housemaid, and his mother who barely even spoke to him and who I never saw hug him much less play with him.

    I essentially drove him to school, and to all the activities he didn’t want to do but kept him out of her way, helped him do his homework and tucked him in at night. He hated me no matter how I tried to bond with him, which I could understand because all he needed was his parents love and attention, and didn’t want me as a replacement.

    I ended up getting fired after the holidays because I was tasked with planning their Christmas vacation, and after a month of intense planning: booking a private villa, organizing their private jet, the house-staff at the location, ordering all the necessary food and getting all the activities planned, the wife decided two days out that she no longer wanted to go to that location, but to a private island instead. When I informed her of the lack of availability at the new destination and cost of lost deposits etc, but did provide her a list of options to choose from, she blamed me for ruining their holidays because I should have anticipated and planned a back up at the exact location she wanted that she had never previously mentioned.

    I was so happy to have been fired from that mausoleum of rich malaise and despair. and honestly, I’ve sadly enjoyed reading the news over the years of the husband moving on to his fourth and now fifth much younger wives, get caught up in legal drama for corruption, and she off into obscurity once she was divorced from her place in high society.

    Unfortunately I’ve seen the kid’s social media and he’s turned out to be another uber rich soulless [jerk], and will probably just play out his father’s life beat by beat in an attempt to forever try to earn his attention, love and respect.

    honeychild7878 Report

    ADVERTISEMENT
    #6

    Clownfish swimming near colorful coral in an aquarium, illustrating unusual underwater scenes related to rich people stories. I've got friends who work on superyachts. They've told me a few stories, but one that sticks out is the guy who worked on a yacht with a fancy fish tank. The yacht also had a "snow room" where they had a snowmaking machine, and people could go in at any time and just...play in the snow, I guess. But this fishtank ran the entire height of the staircase in the yacht. You could go up and down the stairs and there'd be fish all the way. It sounded pretty amazing. The problem was that one of the fish they had in there was a shark. So, every week the shark would eat all the other fish, and they'd end the week by spending 50k buying more fish to put in with the shark.

    gilestowler , Alex Surd Report

    Farah (she/her)
    Community Member
    1 day ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    why not just... wait for it... set the shark free?

    View more comments

    Extroversion and emotional control aside, individuals with sizeable fortunes are rarely traditionalists or conformists, according to Loughman. He told BBC Science Focus that these people, in the vein of Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos, “push for innovation.”

    ADVERTISEMENT

    Rich people tend to be very conscientious (organized, responsible, goal-oriented), but lack agreeableness (kindness, cooperation). As per Loughman, this might mean that these individuals are “comfortable with conflict” and can challenge others without the need to be liked.

    #7

    I had a close friend who's aunt and uncle owned one of the major hotel chains on the West Coast. They have so much money its become a figurative "dragon on a pile of gold" situation.

    My friend (who was living modestly, as we were both in our 20s) told me that that part of her family had recently bought their neighbor's mansion to the tune of something like 15 million dollars, and knocked it down because they wanted a bigger yard.

    ===

    On the flip side, I know someone who worked with Harrison Ford and said he is the most boring, average person you can imagine. Don't ask him about acting (he'll shut down on you) but ask him about carpentry or aviation and he turns into a little kid. Also: while filming Indiana Jones 4, Ford had a weekly party in his hotel suite - cast and crew, everyone invited - and always picked up the (often enormous) tab if he went out to dinner with groups.

    MrLeHah Report

    Lee Gilliland
    Community Member
    Premium
    1 day ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    He also frequently cooks his own meals.

    View more comments
    ADVERTISEMENT
    #8

    Taught at a private school on a yacht club. Once I asked a parent what they were doing this weekend. They said going to the Keys to check out a property they forgot they owned 💀.

    maroonmallard Report

    Mrs Irish Mom
    Community Member
    1 day ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    If i find a few euros i forgot i had i do be delighted, imagine finding a whole house you forgot you had 🤯

    View more comments
    ADVERTISEMENT
    #9

    Small dog wearing a black bow tie collar indoors, illustrating rich people lifestyle in unique reality stories. My girlfriend was a mobile dog groomer in San Francisco. She groomed dogs at several homes on "Billionaire's Row". With most of her clients, she interfaces with the owner of the dog (normal, right?). At one house on Billionaire's Row, she didn't interface with the owner or even the butler - but with the "dog butler". The dog butler didn't groom or walk the dogs - he would just coordinate the schedules of the dog walkers and the dog groomer. He reported to the butler.

    BladeBronson , EyeEm Report

    ADVERTISEMENT

    What do you think, Pandas? Which of these stories made you do a double-take? Did they match up with what you assume the super-rich live like?

    Have you ever worked for someone who is ultra-wealthy before? Broadly speaking, what was it like? If you feel like sharing your opinions and experiences, feel free to do so in the comments at the bottom of this list.

    #10

    Luxurious mansion at dusk with bright lights showcasing the extravagant lifestyle of rich people and wealth. My aunt is a retired high-end realtor. She got roped into helping this service arrange housing for wealthy F1 fans.

    These “Saudi prince” types are from another planet. 1 mansion for a week isn’t enough. They need 6-8 mansions next door to each other for a month to accommodate their private medical staff, legal teams, chefs, airplane mechanics, etc. They fly in on multiple private jets and rent entire airports for the weekend. Once guy even paid to have a helicopter pad constructed on a property he rented, and then paid to be removed when he was done.

    All of this for a WEEKEND GETAWAY.

    Sometimes_Stutters Report

    Zig Zag Wanderer
    Community Member
    1 day ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Ridiculous. I can survive with only one chef, at least most of the time... 😂

    View more comments
    ADVERTISEMENT
    #11

    Customer service team with headsets working on computers illustrating rich people lifestyle stories concept. I did some work for a bank in Dubai. They had a department for the elite which consisted of people sitting around waiting for a phone call along the lines of "I need $500k in New York". The person in the office would them sort the paperwork and the cash, jump on the next flight to where ever the money was wanted and hand deliver it.

    MiddleAgeCool , Getty Images Report

    Heffalump
    Community Member
    1 day ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    OK, that's weird. You'd imagine they'd have an arrangement with banks around the world so that someone local could hand deliver cash, and quicker, rather than fly someone around the world with a bag of cash.

    View more comments
    #12

    Worked a $3 million wedding. My in-laws own the premier florist in town. The flower budget was $250K. They blew that out of the water. I think it ended up being in excess of $480K.

    The wedding was on the bride's father's land. An entire section of land (600+ acres) with three houses, two churches, barn* and a private polo field (the horse stalls were nicer than my first apartment).

    (*by barn I mean a Amish-built barn the guy found in New York State, had it dismantled and reassembled on his land and turned into an apartment. I had to move a painting from the mantle for decorating. They told me AFTER it was worth $1.5 million.)

    The tent for the wedding could have held 2 of Barnum & Baily's 3 rings. Everything was over the top.

    But, talking to the father, he was an exceptionally nice man and you would never knew he was rich.

    GrimSpirit42 Report

    ADVERTISEMENT
    ADVERTISEMENT
    #13

    Tray of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies illustrating wild stories about rich people’s reality. Worked for a summer cleaning boats at a yacht club so I could get free sailing lessons. One very rich pharmaceutical family had a person hired specifically to bake cookies and brownies. Nothing else. Warm cookies and brownies for certain times of day. They had entirely separate culinary / pastry staff for other food preparation. She was a public school teacher who loved to bake so it was a great summer job for her but still…blew my mind to conceive of enough wealth to hire staff for such specificities.

    moonphased239 , Beytullah ÇİTLİK Report

    #14

    I knew a billionaire pretty well and worked in close proximity to him for years. He was a nice guy - very smart, shy, and eclectic. Happened to luck into back to back excellent business decisions after growing up with a really great childhood. Not all luck, but a lot of it was right time, right place.

    After a while, people mistook his luck and quietness for genius business acumen, and started to semi-worship him. After a few years of this, he started to believe the hype, and started surrounding himself with sycophants and yes men who assured him they were his friends. Anyone that challenged him would be exiled from his circle. It was really hard to watch.

    He ended up going down a path of trying to “hack his own body”. Got heavy into [illegal substances] and ended up passing. Really tragic.

    Heffe3737 Report

    ADVERTISEMENT
    #15

    Woman holding happy French bulldog, showcasing moments that reflect rich people's unique lifestyle and experiences. Private air charter. Once saw a woman fly herself and her dog up to Aspen, Colorado because she liked the groomer there. The dog groomer ended up being out sick when the woman arrived. She then flew home empty handed, and flew back a few days later once the dog groomer was available.

    All said and done, she spent about $75,000 on a private jet to fly her and her dog out to Aspen and back twice so she could get the person she wanted to bathe her dog.

    Once watched a woman fly from FL to CA to spend the day shopping in Beverly Hills because she was annoyed at her husband. She shopped all day and flew back the next morning. She dropped about $100,000 on the last minute flight, plus whatever she bought that day. She bragged that she used his credit card for everything. She had armloads full of clothes and purses. The next day we found a price tag for one of her purses in the airplane and it was over $10,000.

    ZeroPt99 , Oov Report

    Mrs Irish Mom
    Community Member
    1 day ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    And they tell us not to use Turf from our bog to put into our range to keep us warm because we are pollution the air, fùcking joke what the rich in Every country get away with

    View more comments
    ADVERTISEMENT
    #16

    A Saudi princess and her entourage were coming to stay in Paris for a month at the Plaza Athenee Hotel and they paid the hotel to renovate and reconfigure one entire floor of rooms to make it into a single large apartment with its own kitchen and private entry. The princess would pay for the cost of refurbishing it back to the original state after the trip.

    moonbeam_window Report

    Wendy
    Community Member
    Premium
    4 hours ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Well so long as she's paying to fix it ...

    ADVERTISEMENT
    #17

    My niece had a scholarship to an excellent university she would never have been able to afford. Therefore there were many people attending that came from money. She was lucky enough to room with really nice people. The girls she was with would just give her clothing and bags like Prada and Gucci, like stuff that cost thousands of dollars. My niece would say, I can't take this. The girls would say stuff, like, don't worry, I have another one that's almost just like it. Or, my aunt gave it to me and I just don't like the color or something like that. They were super nice but the fact that they thought nothing of giving away items that cost thousands of dollars. My niece would tell me, "They gave me a bag that's worth more than my car!".

    Labradawgz90 Report

    ADVERTISEMENT
    #18

    I once served a billionaire who insisted on gold flakes caviar for his pet parrot, said it made the bird “sing better”. Meanwhile, I’m over here wondering if my cat would even notice if I upgraded her to the fancy tuna!

    bareflick Report

    #19

    Stylish wealthy couple wearing sunglasses and elegant outfits outside a modern building symbolizing rich people lifestyle. I installed tile for a major city-developer in his personal house.

    45,000 square feet on ten acres in coveted forest land. Needed two different satellite dishes for TV service because one wouldn’t cover the whole house. Had two different tile crews, one for inside and one for outside. Decided to add an infinity pool after construction started, just a cool impromptu $1,000,000 addition.

    But the wildest note is that the wife ordered a massive ($50,000) natural darkwood countertop from Cameroon, Africa. This sounds like a joke. It took months to be delivered, and when the wife saw it in the house’s lighting, she decided she didn’t want it and sent it back.

    These people flew in a private barber from across the country to get their hair cut. Exorbitant wealth is ridiculous.

    anon , EyeEm Report

    Hugo
    Community Member
    1 day ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    House about 4200 m² (?!) on a 4-hectare plot.

    ADVERTISEMENT
    #20

    Luxury closet with designer shoes, handbags, and accessories showcasing the rich people lifestyle and exclusive reality. I was a nanny for about a year for this rich family. The mom's closet was as big as my entire first floor. She never paid attention to her four boys, and all she did was shop all day, everyday, for like 8-10 hours. And I mean, helping her carry in carloads, everyday ( all clothes for her). Thousands and thousands of dollars worth of clothes, each day, for a year. Mid year, I asked for a raise from 9.00 an hour( for four boys) to 11.00 an hour. She said no. I quit that day.

    Significant_Most5407 , Chastity Cortijo Report

    Mrs Irish Mom
    Community Member
    1 day ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    11 an hour is bad money for minding 4 boys, you would want atleast 100 quid an hour because them poor kids would be all looking for attention off you since the mother didnt care for them

    ADVERTISEMENT
    #21

    Close-up of a luxury car steering wheel with a tattooed arm, illustrating the lifestyle of rich people in a different reality. My wife is an attorney. All of her clients are those Arrested Development style rich people who are completely detached from reality.

    One of her clients gets a new car, every 10,000 miles, rather than "going through the trouble" of having somebody take the car in for regular maintenance.

    morose4eva , Alberto Frías Report

    Rick Murray
    Community Member
    1 day ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    The guy who used to be headmaster of the boarding school I went to would get a new car every year and he was obviously connected as it was often the first "new licence plate" that one would see in a year. In those days British licence plates were like C123ABC and the next year Dxxxxxx and the following year Exxxxxx. Or was it xxxxxxC? They switched the order around when they ran out of letters, but I don't remember which year that happened. Anyway, the head's new cars was in the mid '80s. Oh, and I'm talking *fancy* cars too.

    View more comments
    ADVERTISEMENT
    #22

    This seems obvious, but they just do not think about money as a real physical thing. I'll be out with a guy having drinks, he sees an apartment he might like, makes a call to his "guy", and it's now his. Inside unseen, just likes the look and area. Their view of travel is also unreal. Like "thanks for the offer to bring me to Rome for a week just out of the blue but I have [things] to do tomorrow".

    United_Struggle9596 Report

    #23

    Man wearing sunglasses and a black suit sitting inside a private jet, illustrating rich people lifestyle realities. I used to manage the personal properties of a super rich farmer/developer.

    One morning he was trying to explain to me about a garden he saw in San Antonio that he wanted to emulate. He got frustrated trying to describe it, so he got on his phone….An hour later me and the gardener were with him on a flight in his private jet. From Idaho!

    We were picked up by a private car service, taken to the garden, spent a half hour walking around, and went back and got on the jet. Didn’t even stop for lunch.

    The fuel for that flight was two months of me and the gardener’s salary!

    rufuckingkidding , Francois Joubert Report

    ADVERTISEMENT
    #24

    I’ve got megarich clients.

    Most of them are first generation money, grew up on farms or working on oil rigs. You’d never know they were wealthy.

    There’s no shabbiness or suffering, but no ostentatious displays either. They have a nice car, but not nicer than lots of other people who aren’t rich. The difference is that theirs isn’t financed. They have vacation homes, but purchased with cash and not financed to the eyeballs.

    Maybe it’s like the saying “money talks, but wealth whispers”.

    afriendincanada Report

    Zig Zag Wanderer
    Community Member
    1 day ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    That is what I'd prefer to be like if I was stupid rich

    ADVERTISEMENT
    #25

    I spent years working for multi-billionaires in their private homes. A few memories that come to mind:

    1. Purchasing 30 lbs. of top quality filet mignon and asking the butcher to grind it up so the chef could make hamburgers for the principal's annual Super Bowl party. I thought the butcher was going to cry.

    2. Sneaking into a child's bedroom in the wee hours of the morning and setting up 500 inflated helium balloons so that the child would wake up to a balloon extravaganza on the morning of their birthday.

    3. Sending a housekeeper and gardener 90 minutes up the coast to Malibu to collect diarrhea that the principal's dog had deposited on the private beach used for its morning walk. The stool was collected in 2 separate baggies so that the samples could be sent to 2 separate veterinarians for evaluation. (Because you simply can't trust the opinion of just one vet.) There was nothing wrong with the dog other than the Mr. had fed it cheese.

    4. Spending over $500K USD on empty hotel rooms over the course of three months. I had to reserve the rooms and have them stocked and ready to go just in case the principal decided he wanted to use them. He rarely did.

    5. Bribing a group of university researchers so that they would reschedule their research trip on an icebreaker ship in the Svalbard archipelago because the principal wanted the ship for those dates so he could take photos of polar bears and whales. After three days the Mr. and Mrs. both got "bored" of Norway and returned home early.

    Sgt_Booler Report

    Ace
    Community Member
    1 day ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    A burger made from fillet steak would really not be very good. You need fat and stronger-tasting meat.

    View more comments
    ADVERTISEMENT
    #26

    A slice of cheese pizza being lifted from a wood-fired pizza on a wooden board, showcasing melted cheese pull. I know of somebody who got married to a very wealthy girl in the 90s. Talking multi billionaire family members. She was down to earth and totally chill. At their bachelor / bachelorette party weekend, they each had them in separate family estates. His in Colorado, hers in Connecticut. Earlier in the day, he mentioned to somebody how there wasn’t any good pizza in Vail, where they were partying. She had her assistant call his favorite pizza place in Boston and had them close down for the night, put their two cooks and owner all on a private charter to Colorado with their supplies, closed down and rented out a local pizza restaurant in Vail with a pizza oven, and surprise him with a dozen pizzas from his favorite pizza place for his bachelor party guys.

    Total cost of everything was over $100k, in 1990s money.

    They are still married now over 30 years later, with adult children. His favorite pizza place closed down when the owner retired so he hired one of the cooks to be his private chef for a few years.

    gaqua , Tadahiro Higuchi Report

    Zig Zag Wanderer
    Community Member
    1 day ago (edited) Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I mean, who hasn't hired a chef from their favourite restaurant when it closes down, eh?

    View more comments
    ADVERTISEMENT
    See Also on Bored Panda
    #27

    I used to work in ski rentals. Some extremely rich family came in and spent over $1500 to rent for just an hour as the lifts were about to close. Ski passes too were probably around $1k for their whole group. Didn’t bat an eye.

    When they came back, one of the women in the group told me she didn’t how to tie her shoes, and planted her shoe in front of me then demanded I tie it for her. I just said “I’m not gonna do that.” She rolled her eyes at me and had her husband tie them for her.

    I worked in tourism for 6 years and the people with more money than I could ever hope to have, were some of the stupidest people I’ve ever met in my life.

    Specific_Emu_2045 Report

    Mrs Irish Mom
    Community Member
    1 day ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Rich or not she should know how to tie her own shoes, she sounds like the type of person who pays someone to wipe her àss

    View more comments
    ADVERTISEMENT
    See Also on Bored Panda
    #28

    I work in the luxury industry - I've seen more than a few Ferrari showrooms.

    I don't mean dealership showrooms, and I don't mean a room that has a Ferrari in it, I mean a residential car showroom *full* of Ferraris.

    Probably seen a dozen of these residential Ferrari showrooms over the years, which means there must be hundreds of people out there with them.

    As a side note, I've met quite a few billionaires who are exactly what you would expect - pretentious [jerks]. You wouldn't be surprised to hear who some of those types were if I listed off their names. But, for as many of those pretentious [jerk] billionaires as there are, there are just as many of them who have been super nice and down to earth. And surprisingly it doesn't *always* depend on how they got their money, some who were born into it are really nice people, some who grew up poor and became self-made are dickheads.

    I had one Billionaire client who I did a project for in his penthouse in a Manhattan skyscraper. He asked me if I was hungry and I was like "Yeah, I could eat." He left and came back an hour later with burgers and fries for me and himself, and we just hung out at his dining table (with a Pollock painting hanging next to us) and talked about camping and fishing while we ate burgers. Totally awesome guy.

    Asleep_Onion Report

    Kelly Scott
    Community Member
    1 day ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    We used to walk by the Ferrari dealership in Los Gatos and wonder if there were actually enough people buying the cars to keep them in business or if the whole thing was just a money laundering front.

    View more comments
    ADVERTISEMENT
    ADVERTISEMENT
    See Also on Bored Panda
    #29

    Person riding a horse in formal equestrian attire outdoors, illustrating wild stories about rich people’s reality. I train dressage horses.

    The guest homes I’ve lived in are bigger than the homeless shelters I’ve stayed at.

    Own_Salamander9447 , Alexandra Tziolis Report

    Michael Largey
    Community Member
    1 day ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    So training dressage horses apparently does not provide a steady income.

    #30

    I write content for super rich people. I know all about them. One thing I can only say is most successful people made it happen because of doing evil things.

    alizastevens Report

    Mrs Irish Mom
    Community Member
    1 day ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Doing evil things and selling your soul to the devil is a quick way to get rich, famous or become a kardashan

    View more comments
    #31

    My mother is in the legal field and her former boss bought 4 condos in a building on michigan avenue (chicago) to turn into a single condo.

    my stepfather is head of security for a billionaire hedge fund manager (forbes 50). he regularly takes private flights to run errands for them. he also has had to work on building armored cars for them… escalades costing in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

    both families are some of the nicest people i have ever met and both of them have taken care of my family in ways that are above and beyond what is considered normal kindness.

    not all uber wealthy folks suck

    to answer the question: my stepfather’s boss flew my family out to NYC for my brothers 30th birthday to see billy joel at MSG. paid for the nicest hotel and set them up at restaurants that we would never be able to afford and then flew them home on their private jet…. just because they could, appreciate my stepfather and weren’t going to use their jet for those couple of days.

    kind of wild thinking they just casually tossed what i would imagine is $50k at my little brothers birthday without batting an eye.

    billionaires are a different breed. but being affiliated with a billionaire does have its perks.

    PM_ME_UR_MEH_NUDES Report

    Michael Largey
    Community Member
    1 day ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Rich people are often pleasant. How they get and stay rich often isn't.

    ADVERTISEMENT
    See Also on Bored Panda
    #32

    I worked for the CEO of a major bank. This person (K) also sits on the board of multiple other companies and charities. They were constantly travelling for work and basically never home.

    They had an 8 year old kid who was cared for almost exclusively by a nanny who barely spoke English and spent most of the day on the phone with her family back home, fully ignoring the kid. The kid had terrible grammar and could barely read. She was very juvenile for her age. I don’t know for sure if she had an intellectual disability, but I think she was just really neglected. She would sit by herself for hours watching TV shows meant for toddlers.

    The house was obviously huge and gaudy beyond belief. The driveway was full of luxury cars that never seemed to get driven because K was driven around by a chauffeur.

    I was at the house one day and watched the little girl shriek with delight and go running full tilt towards her parent with her arms outstretched for a hug as K stepped through the front door. They’d been away all week travelling for work. As the little girl went in for a hug, K said “I have to go. My driver is waiting.” And then closed the door in the kid’s face, and left for another week.

    It seemed obvious to me that this person is an absolute workaholic who should not have become a parent. I later learned that there was teenager too who was in some preppy boarding school and only came home on the weekends.

    It was really sad.

    ForeverInBlackJeans Report

    Mrs Irish Mom
    Community Member
    1 day ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    This one is just so sad, poor kid is neglected and all the money in the world wouldn't keep any decent parents away from their kids, a kid is not just for Christmas its forever 😢

    View more comments
    ADVERTISEMENT
    ADVERTISEMENT
    See Also on Bored Panda
    #33

    I had a conversation with my girlfriends friend who catered for the Ambani family in London. Basically just stayed at this mansion and she got a real insight into their lives. Many things were said but the one thing I remember her saying is that the kids/teens would stop and wait at doors for someone to open them for them. She wasn't sure they'd ever opened a door in their lives.

    ArecSmarec Report

    Mrs Irish Mom
    Community Member
    1 day ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Not being able to tie a shoe is one thing but not knowing how to open a door is ridiculous and they are making kids into stupid adults, adults with alot of money YES but stupid none the less

    View more comments
    #34

    My friend went to the beach and decided to stay the night. He saw a house for sale and arranged to buy it on the spot under the condition that he got the keys instantly and everything in the house. Once inside he realized it was the house they lived in and not a vacation home. It was full of very personal possessions like photo albums and keepsakes from their military carer. Children's toys. He was so ashamed because he didn't even ask if they wanted anything. It just didn't cross his mind. He wanted a place to stay and picked a house. That's as far as he thought.

    40ozSmasher Report

    Rick Murray
    Community Member
    1 day ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    He must have offered quite a bit for them to just hand over the keys and abandon an entire life's worth of things.

    View more comments
    ADVERTISEMENT
    See Also on Bored Panda
    #35

    I worked for the ceo of a pharmaceutical company. I went to his personal residence and asked where the recycling bin was (I had an empty bottle). He said he was too busy to sort it and paid someone to go through his trash. This trash sorter would literally pick through his trash and sort out the recycling.

    tuwts Report

    #36

    My boss is uber rich. It’s kind of endearing that he always advises me to grab a 10% coupon online. Like, “Sir, I have just saved you $12”. He still stays in cheaper hotels on the company dime. That said, he also dropped a million of his own money just to have a more authentic experience on a recent project. Wild.

    MyAvarice4 Report

    ADVERTISEMENT
    ADVERTISEMENT
    See Also on Bored Panda
    #37

    Friends family is billionaires, legit, from the medical patents. One time his dad was telling me how he wasn’t selling the beach house at the cape (prob 10-15 mil) because the housesitter watches the dog at that house when they travel.

    B-raww Report

    #38

    While being a chauffeur I witnessed a 10 year old have a hissy fit and thrown the iPad he was playing with on the ground. Without question it or saying a thing a nanny got out a new one and handed it to the kid. I mean a brand new one in the box. No discipline, no discussion, no consequences and people wonder why the super rich act the way they do.

    Limp_Distribution Report

    Zig Zag Wanderer
    Community Member
    1 day ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    It takes me days to set up my new tablets when I have to do it!

    ADVERTISEMENT
    #39

    Worked for a few billionaires doing construction projects n such...

    They're wasteful. Like, we throw away half a burrito and feel bad right?.. redoing a bathroom that JUST, like the week before, had Italian marble imported in was the wrong color for the toilets.

    He made us toss 5 new toilets $5k each, 4 top of the line mirrors 12k each, Italian marble 250k total, and various other things into the trash pit on his compound.

    Instead of returning or giving away or selling, we tossed it into a literal pit and covered it over...

    Wasn't an uncommon practice for the uber wealthy.

    throwawayB96969 Report

    Mrs Irish Mom
    Community Member
    1 day ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Disgusting that they would rather throw stuff away then give it to someone who could use it... Its like, I paid for it so if I can't use it no one can

    View more comments
    #40

    My brother is super rich, if you follow tech you would probably know who he is.

    While he's basically the same dude he always was and I always enjoy spending time with him, the biggest thing I've noticed over the years is that he [doesn't care] about money and he uses it to solve issues that probably aren't actually a problem in the most expensive way possible because the decision making process is fast and easy. Like he will spend 100K to solve a problem that I would not have even considered a problem because the decision to spend 100K is nothing to him and the problem slightly irritated him for a couple of minutes.

    He also has a massive compound that caters to his desires whenever he may desire it. Like he literally has a spa that operates 365 days a year on his property and he maybe goes and gets a massage like twice a week. I do always really enjoy going to visit though!

    jawstrock Report

    ADVERTISEMENT
    ADVERTISEMENT
    #41

    I work at a very high end restaurant that has some wildly rich clientele. One of these couples came in on a week night. They were drinking a bottle of wine worth about $1200. She got a little animated and spilled a full glass all over her $10,000 dress and $7,000 purse.

    Her reaction? She just laughed. Said she was gonna soak the dress in more of the same wine when she gets home so it matches and that she was gonna go purse shopping soon anyways so she’d just go grab another one the next day.

    Her husband was not even phased. He was chuckling along side of her. The only reason I knew how much the dress was worth was because he told us.

    pleasantly-dumb Report

    #42

    I did a bit of IT/technical contracting and I guess by word of mouth got into a "elite/super rich" clientele at some point.


    So a few interesting cases:

    1- Had a guy who lived in a mansion by himself who would pay us 1200 dollars an hour to plug in a TV (Power + HDMI). He requested a team of a minimum 4 people, all of which must be asian (Chinese/Japanese/Korean). So we would go over, plug in the TV, then the next 2-3 hours was him just being the most racist PoS you've ever met- talking about how WW2 should've ended, white supremacy, all of the things. My staff have been briefed about how this job is not to plug in a TV, its get paid 300 an hour to stand there, smile, nod and take whatever he throws at you. This guy called us up maybe once a month and we were all happy to take his money. I really do think he was just lonely and suffering from some sort of other mental issues though.

    2- Once had a guy pay us to setup an A/V system inside a swimming pool. Just to re-emphasize, **inside** a swimming pool. He wanted audio/visual fidelity under water.

    We showed up with all the equipment and it turns out the swimming pool wasn't even dug yet. They hired another person to dig it on the same morning we were to install the equipment. The swimming pool that he had built that we measured for was a sample one he wanted torn out. They didn't want us to leave either and come back when the pool was in as they wanted workmen around to film something for social media, so we were all paid 500/hr to walk around and look busy like we were extras on a set. I myself carried a spool of HDMI cable for about 6 laps around the house before I picked up a colour calibrator and started pointing it and plugging it into trees.

    3- Was asked to setup a Game of Thrones watchparty in a cabin in the middle of nowhere with no road access. Was also told that the cabin was not fully built yet- and that there was no electricity or water to the area yet- we had 5 days. There was a veritable army of contractors running cables, lumber and workcrews doing shifts around the clock but we got a nice Plasma TV in there with a satellite connection, great WiFi, septic systems, well water, electrical, emergency generators and HVAC. In those 5 days I probably took in 30K CAD in pay after expenses.

    Cookie_Eater108 Report

    ADVERTISEMENT
    #43

    Art galleries will spend thousands of dollars to have a painting installed in a house to see if the client likes it. If they do, they buy it and it stays on the wall. If they don’t, it gets packed up and taken back and the gallery eats the cost.

    PatrickGoesEast:

    A previous boss of mine had a piece of art delivered (c. $100,000) and the custom made wooden crate it came in cost $3,000 alone. It was just broken up and discarded.

    youngdoug Report

    #44

    Was helping a buddy who is an electrician, he works with alot of super rich cliental. We went out there to wire up a new patio, guy spent over 100k on this patio, a grilling station, TVs, with nice pavers and all with electric outlets and all. He had it done in 2024. Just went back out there, he had almost everything we did torn out, and he’s building a guest house there now, the guest house dwarfs the house I live in. It’s a baby mansion to a mansion.

    NetworkDeestroyer Report

    ADVERTISEMENT
    ADVERTISEMENT
    #45

    I grew up in an area that a lot of wealthy people would have a seasonal home.

    I worked with glass, plastics, mirrors, etc. Everything from the most generic things to the most specifically custom made items.

    The thing i would see very often when giving clients options would be the response "Just give me whatever the most expensive options are". Not the best, not the best looking for what they were trying, exclusively the most expensive.

    Do you have any idea how ugly a house looks when you exclusively pick the most expensive option without considering anything else... some of these multi-million dollar houses were outright repulsive.

    TwistedDragon33 Report

    #46

    One time I cleaned Steve Harvey's golf clubs and he walked away without tipping. A few seconds later I hear "Look up," and saw him on a balcony above tossing me down a crumpled $5 bill.

    anon Report

    ADVERTISEMENT
    #47

    I just filed a client's tax return this year, and he has to pay $10 million in taxes.

    I forgot if it was CRA or his bank that has a daily limit of $500k. So he had to pay $500k everyday for 20 days straight.

    Not to mention he already paid a couple million in tax installments and withholding tax from employment already.

    ILoveSharting Report

    Zig Zag Wanderer
    Community Member
    1 day ago (edited) Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Or he could just get it done in one go by going to the bank in person. A phone call might even do it.

    View more comments
    #48

    I used to paint houses in Malibu and was often in the homes of the rich. One guy that I became friends with used to trade huge amounts of stock and actually had me sit with him while he traded. The money was insane,but the story I want to tell about him is different. One day, he called me in and asked for my impression on a story he was going to tell me. This story changed my life.

    Before he retired, he was the CEO of a huge worldwide building company, and he would get to work at around 5 am and work late into the night. He began to notice that one of the clerks who worked for him was keeping the same hours.

    Now he asked me what I thought he thought of this young clerk. I said that you were probably thinking he would make a good and dedicated Vice President someday. He laughed and said no "anyone that would work those hours for peanuts was dumb."

    Book8 Report

    ADVERTISEMENT
    ADVERTISEMENT
    #49

    I install glass windows, showers, railings, basically anything glass. At this one mega mansion, in their pool house that wasn't completed after 7 years, they were ripping out the old shower glass and putting in a newer style despite the fact that it had never been used!!! Construction had taken so long that it wasn't trendy anymore so they ripped out an unused shower system.

    Johnathonathon Report

    #50

    I had a specialty cake shop smack dab in the middle of the Microsoft campus in Washington in the 90's-early 2000's. Even though we were hidden back in the corner of an office park, we got a lot of word-of-mouth business from the wealthy people who loved to engage in one-upsmanship especially when it came to product launches, bar mitzvahs, weddings, and birthdays; especially children's birthdays. The amount of money these people would drop without batting an eye on a ONE YEAR OLD'S birthday party always made my mouth drop, but boy was I glad I was in a place where people were willing to spend that kind of money on a cake because it gave me a tremendous opportunity to flex my creative muscle and create some really spectacular things. Even though I basically lived at the shop with little free time to myself, I loved that time in my life. I got to live the dream for a while and get paid to do my best work.

    Now, all I have to show for it is a fantastic portfolio that gets me exactly nowhere because it's such a niche profession. And you have to be in the right place. I was lucky enough to be in the right place and I'm glad I had the opportunity.

    It also opened my eyes to inequality. The amount of money some people would spend on one cake was more money than I would net in a week after all was said and done. Often I would operate at a loss because many cakes took much longer than I estimated since every job was unique, and like a lot of artists, we tend to underprice ourselves. It became unsustainable for me.

    The experience was priceless though. Things I've seen, like unbelievable mansions, huge expensive weddings and bar mitzvahs, TV and movie sets, Paul Allen's plane, and my favorite: The Mariners dugout and all my favorite players!

    Chefpeon Report

    Note: this post originally had 91 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.

    ADVERTISEMENT