Someone Asked “What Was The Most ‘Out Of Touch With Reality’ Thing A Rich Person Ever Said To You?” And 30 People Don’t Hold Back
‘Money talks’, they say. So do rich people themselves, but oftentimes, the things they say can seem quite out of touch with reality. And understandably so—when you’re used to a certain lifestyle, something different can be quite shocking or difficult to comprehend. How someone can’t buy a second car just because the AC is broken, for example. Or why public transportation is still a thing.
These are a couple examples that were shared by the ‘Ask Reddit’ community members after the user ‘BananaBR13’ started a thread about bizarre things rich people say. The redditors were happy to discuss what they’ve heard coming from the mouths of some wealthy people, and we’ve gathered some of the most exceptional conversations in this list today. Scroll down for the snippets that reveal how differently rich people view reality.
This post may include affiliate links.
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.
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.
“Why don’t you just buy a house? It’s going to be cheaper than paying rent.”
Thanks. Just let me find the down payment that I don’t have yet.
A coworker of mine was talking with a parent once (summer camp in a rich town). The parent mentioned how she loved my coworkers dress, and wanted to know where she bought it, with the stipulation that it cost under $10,000… turns she had bought the dress on clearance for something like $10. When she explained this, the parent just laughed like it was a joke, saying “no really, how much was it.” Never seen someone thaaat out of touch.
My late MIL would ask where I got my clothes and I always said Ross, Marshals etc. Her response was always, "well don't tell people that!"
“My father gave me a small loan of a million dollars.”
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.
"Oh you get seasonal depression? Why don’t you just go to the Caribbean for a week and the Mediterranean the next? It always helps me.”
A button fell off my jacket. My rich friend recommended where to buy a new jacket. When I took out the needle and thread, he was very confused.
“Money doesn’t buy happiness”.
I understand the intent behind the saying and obviously money doesn’t physically buy happiness in and of itself, but anyone who has lived poor can understand that that’s kind of nonsense. I’ve been at points where I had zero anything. No money, no resources, nothing to fall back on. I’ve gone hungry. I’ve struggled just to pay for the most simple things. Anything that breaks is a huge problem. When you’re completely broke or struggling to make ends meet, more money would absolutely make you happier. Not having to worry about food makes people happier. It seems that it’s always people with money who say that phrase.
No but it makes misery a shite load easier to handle. Mother: good things come to those who wait. Me: I don't want to die waiting for the good things to happen though.
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.
New CEO started for a large company I used to work for, and six months in she announced changes to the office schedule. No more work from home days (this was years before Covid), and no more flex schedules: strict 8-5 for everyone. This negatively impacted parents like me who dropped their kids off at school on the way to work.
In a subsequent meeting where many of us expressed the difficulties with this new schedule, she at one point said, "look, I get it, change is hard. When our kids were little we had to have three nannies!"
I started looking for a new job right after that.
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.
I do IT for the 1% in LA. This is my life all day. “My son crashed his Mercedes, so he and I will stop by the dealership to pick up a new one.”
“You sure he won’t crash that one too?”
“It’s just a car, we can always replace it.”
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.
My ex was a teacher in a private college in Switzerland. Once she asked her class (5-6 kids coming from ultra rich families) if they knew the price of a loaf of bread. First reply: “uhm… 100 Euro?”
Another time a kid from UAE told her he was paying about 15k of phone bills a month, because he was still using his Emirates SIM card, in roaming all the time. He said it wasn’t much.
Some of them were usually ordering sushi delivery for lunch or dinner, from the nearby city (like 20-25km down from the college which is up in the mountains). It’s like 1 hour round trip by car. They were paying 100-150 CHF delivery fees and thinking that was normal.
The horrific thing is that these kids will be the top managers of tomorrow.
“I don’t think I’m rich.” Said to me by an A-list actor who has made six figures per episode and owns at least 2 multi million dollar homes.
Our CEO mourned having to sell 4 of the company’s private jets in a town hall meeting because it was really personal to him and hurt. Meanwhile the personnel cuts were described as necessary in the same meeting.
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."
“Why does public transport still exist?” This dude was legitimately convinced that there is no reason for public transport to still exist. He thinks that everyone is rich enough to afford cars
When I had to explain to my roommate that I couldn't go with him on an expensive multi-week vacation because I had to work and all of my money was going toward the rent/car payment/etc coming up. His dad paid for his rent, his car, his university tuition, his vacations, etc.
My Mom did this to me. I was a working student and she was going to Greece for a wedding. She told me I could come too if I could take the time off and but a plane ticket (coming from the USA). I told her I couldn't afford to take the time off, and her response was "It's only a week and the plane ticket is only a few hundred dollars. You can afford it." I was paying all my own bills, working, and a full time student. No, I can't afford to miss a week of classes and work to fly off to Greece for a week.
I complained about going an entire summer without ac, and she asked me why I didn't buy a new car.
I was at a table full of wealthy people in Boston where they all lamented about how difficult the upkeep on their second and third houses was. This is while I can barely rent 1 place.
I have an acquaintance who just bought an apartment in southern Europe (we live in east coast north america), so they could "get away from winter". And they expect those of us here to feel sympathy for the difficulties of dealing with contractors and renovations while on another continent; that they're so exhausted having to go over there every month or so to check the work. smh.
Taught high school at a private school making $35k a year busting a*s to barely make ends meet as a single parent. Lots of rich kids and out-of-touch parents. At conference time, this mom whose husband was the CEO of an energy company pulling an annual salary of like $30 mil came in. The conversation turned to house projects. They were renovating their 3,000 sf basement and she was complaining about the expense.
In an effort to find common ground with her, I told her something like "Oh I get you. I'm having plumbing problems and need to replace all of my exterior plumbing lines. Thank goodness for my tax refund or I wouldn't be able to cover it." Her response: "Oh honey, be grateful you even GET a tax return. I haven't gotten ANYTHING back in twenty years!"
"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.
Why should that be a problem? We use pig skin, sheep skin, shark skin,... for books. Why not use human skin? What's the difference? Doesn't mean you had to murder a person. You just used the skin.
“If you’re worried about flooding, why not just go to your second home until the storm passes?”
I rent
Just last week, this rich, ultra-libertarian a*****e I know from a hobby club I'm a member of told me that "everyone can get rich if they only work hard". He said this in response to me telling him about my financial problems (afterwards I deeply regretted having done so). He also said that poor people don't deserve any pity because they're just lazy. He then went on to brag about how much he had worked in his life. I always find this so stupid and obnoxious. Why do these people assume that I'd be impressed by them throwing away their life like that? "Look at me, I never spent any quality time with my kids, neglected my wife and my friends and never went on a long vacation despite my immense wealth because I spent every hour of every day of my life working. Ain't I amaaaazing???"
Anyway, I pointed out to him that his logic was complete nonsense because his cleaning lady would never become a millionaire, regardless of how hard she worked. He actually flat-out denied this. He claimed that even for a cleaning lady, it was possible to become very rich if she works hard and saves up her money. I was like: "Okay dude, you clearly don't live in reality."
He had other very annoying and offensive opinions that he shared with me. For example he complained about minorities being over-sensitive and receiving too much protection. He said this stuff to ME, a member of a minority group (I'm physically disabled). He complained about a prominent case of racism that happened in our country and said how it was "nothing" and how "no one is actually harmed by this." I told him: "That's hardly something you can judge, considering you're a white person." He claimed that he could judge it just as well as any colored individual. Later in the conversation he also claimed that he knows what it's like to be disabled and that he can judge whether something is ableist or not, even though he's never been disabled himself. I was extremely hurt by this to be honest. It was so incredibly disrespectful. And the whole conversation was just beyond frustrating.
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."
I said "man I didn't have one until high school and it was s**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
Edit: it had a pots and pans mode, which we tried exactly once. Turns out it couldn't wash anything even remotely stuck on, so we usually just washed them by hand anyways
My husband and I were in the process of buying our house abs I was discussing with a coworker that I was concerned that we didn't have enough for closing costs. My boss says "just ask your parents to help. My in-laws gave us $50,000 when we got our first house and we've given each of our boys $25,000 to buy their first homes". I had to explain that my parents were poor and couldn't do that. She couldn't comprehend why my parents couldn't just give me thousands of dollars.
Your first problem was trying to buy your house abs. A house has to do crunches just like the rest of us.
Not to me but near me "I would pay money to see The Hunger Games if it was real".
Mind you, I can imagine a lot of non rich people saying the same thing. People can be such disgusting sadists.
Note: this post originally had 88 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
Most rich entitled people I come across do not believe me when I tell them I live off of $950 a month. My disability pay is all I have to live on and I praise God I have it. There are people in this world who are so worse off than I am homeless living on the streets children with no health Care people freezing to death in the cold dying in the gutters from because they have nothing. I wish that the rich could live in our shoes for a week or two maybe then they understand a little bit of what the less fortunate deal with.
"Quarantine wasn't that bad. I don't know why people complain about not leaving their homes for 10 days" from a person who quarantined in her second home in the swiss alps. "Why do you buy a used car? I would never buy a used car" from a person who received 2 brand new cars from her parents, because she crashed the first one and also received a 9-room-house and a complete overhaul of said house also as a gift from her parents. I rent my flat.
There's a prominent 'epidemiiologist' who appears a lot on CNN who called for everything in the US to be closed. But did it by Zoom from his second house in Austria where schools and everything were open. Sacrifice is for us, not them.
Load More Replies...
"We all have the same 24 hours in the day. Just apply yourself." No, you have a nanny for each of your children. You have a private chef. You have a driver that takes you to the "job", where your father is CEO. You send your clothes out to be laundered, and you have a cleaner come in every day. We do not all have the same 24 hours.
Most rich entitled people I come across do not believe me when I tell them I live off of $950 a month. My disability pay is all I have to live on and I praise God I have it. There are people in this world who are so worse off than I am homeless living on the streets children with no health Care people freezing to death in the cold dying in the gutters from because they have nothing. I wish that the rich could live in our shoes for a week or two maybe then they understand a little bit of what the less fortunate deal with.
"Quarantine wasn't that bad. I don't know why people complain about not leaving their homes for 10 days" from a person who quarantined in her second home in the swiss alps. "Why do you buy a used car? I would never buy a used car" from a person who received 2 brand new cars from her parents, because she crashed the first one and also received a 9-room-house and a complete overhaul of said house also as a gift from her parents. I rent my flat.
There's a prominent 'epidemiiologist' who appears a lot on CNN who called for everything in the US to be closed. But did it by Zoom from his second house in Austria where schools and everything were open. Sacrifice is for us, not them.
Load More Replies... "We all have the same 24 hours in the day. Just apply yourself." No, you have a nanny for each of your children. You have a private chef. You have a driver that takes you to the "job", where your father is CEO. You send your clothes out to be laundered, and you have a cleaner come in every day. We do not all have the same 24 hours.
