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They say money can’t buy happiness, but it can definitely buy one thing that those who don’t have a lot of it can’t: convenience. Rich folks have it easy because their worries revolve around “How do I pay?” rather than “How much does it cost?”
In turn, having deep pockets offers luxuries that normal people don’t often see. Those came to light in a recent Reddit thread, where people talked about having the ability to do nothing, being exempt from paying restaurant tabs, and owning only customized clothing, among other things.
If you think there are things worth mentioning that are not included in this list, feel free to add them in the comment boxes below.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Quiet. Rich people live in places that are quiet (even if they are in the middle of a city, they are away from busy roads, have significant landscaping to dampen noise, etc.), have quiet appliances, sound proofing in their homes, exceptionally quiet cars. The only noises they hear are the ones that they want.
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#2
The gift of preventative maintenance.
#3
Depends how rich we're talking about. I knew a billionaire once. He didn't carry a wallet. Nobody ever presented him with a bill for anything. It was all just taken care of by his people without a word. But if you were at the restaurant sitting at the next table over you wouldn't notice a thing.
Also all of his clothes, even the casual clothes, was custom made for him. Never had any branding on it.
#4
I work with bay area rich people and they have community that deeply extends their opportunities.
If you wanted to pick up Burning Man tomorrow you can use your mate’s RV without charge. Want to make exhibits? Come to your colleague’s airplane hangar which he owns and runs as a metallurgy workshop. Never created a propane fueled dragon sculpture before? Your friend’s husband is bringing his team to make it for you.
Hated your dragon installation because you were in a dark med induced hole and couldn’t communicate to the craftsman your vision? Your mate’s wife is the on the board of a commercial office association and they will buy it as public art giving you money and them a tax write off.
#5
This is more of an "upper middle class and higher" than straight up rich, but "Not having to budget".
I grew up (very) poor, and I'm reasonably well off now, and that has been one of the biggest differences.
You go to a fancy steakhouse. There's a burger dinner plate on the menu for 25 bucks. There's a steak for 95 bucks. You feel like a steak today. You just order the steak.
The friend who you invited along who isn't in the same socioeconomic class as you is looking at the burger plate wondering if they can get it cheaper if they order just the burger without the side, while sweating at how you're planning on splitting the bill.
This is a contrast that people born well off don't realize, and that even every day people may not consider just how big of a deal it is in term of cognitive load.
Petra Peitsch 1 hour ago
My guy, if you have some emphaty, you don't invite your less well off friend to a restaurant, where he/she must decide, if paying the bills this month worth the time spending with you at that "fancy steakhouse". You are a bragging arsehole.
#6
Time without constant pressure.
Not just free time, but the ability to make decisions without every choice being tied to survival, bills, or exhaustion. Being able to rest without guilt, turn down bad opportunities, solve problems quickly with money, or disappear for a while without your life collapsing.
A lot of wealthy people also buy convenience in ways most people barely notice. Things getting handled before they become stressful. Good healthcare fast. Quiet spaces. Reliable transportation. Access through connections instead of waiting.
From the outside it can look like “they just seem calmer,” but a big part of that calm comes from having buffers between themselves and everyday stress.
Ye Olde Dirty Grumpy 35 minutes ago
What? I only know ONE rich person like that. Most are hustling to make even more money
#7
Laundry service. I remember when I was a kid my mom paid some lady that hung out at the Laundromat to do our laundry for us. I mentioned that to a teacher or something and they assumed we were rich. We weren't, not even close. It was literally some trailer park lady that set up shop and did people's laundry for like $5. But looking back as an adult that's definitely rich people behavior, especially if it includes pick-up and drop off.
Petra Peitsch 55 minutes ago
No matter how my financies are, I want to handle my undies myself ....
#8
Being able to do nothing on trips because you don’t have to make the most of every vacation day and you’ll probably be back to Italy again soon anyway.
Petra Peitsch 49 minutes ago (edited)
Yeah, llike next month. And I'm no way rich. Okay, also not living in the USA, but it doesn't supposed to be an USA-post. Right? Right?????? Because, there is a whole world outside of Orange-Country.
#9
To chase their goals and still survive if it fails.
#10
Securing credit with reasonable interest rates. Being poor is expensive.
#11
A gargantuan amount of social capital. And I'm not talking upper middle class, but really rich people. Their entire "work"-day consist of managing connections. Because if you need something in a world where everyone has functionally infinite money you need something else than money to get what you want.
This grants them a safety net that others don't have, because even if they go bankrupt they'll always have a friend with a third vacation home where they can stay until all the decade long lawsuits have been settled.
In my opinion this is where the line between working class(upper middle class if you want) and rich really is. No exact dollar amount, but at a safety net that exists outside of money.
Petra Peitsch 57 minutes ago
Soi, in fact, bankrupt golden children couch-surfing ... and you are mistifying it, while millions are doing, but their realtionships are not based on exclusively money.
#12
Elizabeth Currid-Halkett wrote a book called The Sum of Small Things: A Theory of the Aspirational Class. She suggested that Inconspicuous Consumption (as opposed to conspicuous consumption we all learned about in school) is the biggest one.
Money spent on stuff like education, personal services, health and longevity activities. And as others have said, a lot of money affords the possibility of reducing or removing friction related to decisions, time, and outside pressures.
Petra Peitsch 8 minutes ago
Wow, did she discovered, that life on Earth needs oxigen? How brave! And she is making a living from it in the USA?
#13
Passive income. No need to worry about making sure you're being productive in order to afford dad's new fishing boat. The money comes whether you need it or not.
Petra Peitsch 52 minutes ago
Yeah, that's nice. But for it, daddy or most likely grand- and great-grand daddy had a hell-out-of-freaking-much work, like 90-120 years ago. Flexing with it, is just disgusting. Even between the "richies".
#14
Medical Appointment on call as a concierge service.
Example: If you pay a medical clinic a membership fee, you are bumped to the first of the line and there will always be a doctor on call.
#15
I only recently became what could be considered 'rich'.
My answer is time. I can just pay people to do things I don't want to do. I no longer clean my house, because it is easier for me to spend $250 every 2 weeks for my house keeper to do it. I spend my free time doing what I enjoy.
#16
Dental problems are a small inconvience of time and not financial.
Petra Peitsch 45 minutes ago
More like big inconvience of my freaking-unreasonable-but-still-existing-fear ...
#17
Sometimes I think that rich people operate at 90s speed. No rush. Able to talk to strangers without fear. “You can do anything and be whatever you want to be- so just do it!” Mentality .
Petra Peitsch 47 minutes ago
It's called social-democracy in real 1st world countries. But nevermind ...
#18
A college friend who went grocery shopping with a famous person's daughter said it was remarkably fast because the girl just threw into her shopping cart whatever caught her eye, whatever she felt like she wanted. No looking at the ads. No price checking, no price comparisons.
I don't know why but I can't seem to forget that.
#19
Our household income is in the top...3% it looks like? I think that's "rich" but I'm sure some people here will think only helicopters, private islands, have a live-in staff, etc are "rich."
As a person that was housing & food insecure as a kid, whose eaten both government cheese and dumpster dived for food, my overwhelming response is:
The single thing that makes me feel "rich" is keeping my costs and expecatations low enough (avoiding most lifestyle creep) so that I not only don't look at prices for everyday living, I have no idea how much things realistically cost.
Of course I do if I'm buying some piece of electronics, or planning a vacation,e tc. And I was pretty shocked when I filled my car the other day and it was over $6 a gallon here in CA. But in my general day to day I don't know or check prices on food, snacks, milk, dry cleaning, etc. I don't really think about or look at them if I go to somewhere like Home Depot, etc.
Overall, this is what I idealized "rich" would be like when I was young.
#20
*The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.*
*Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.*
*But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.*
*—Men at Arms*.
#21
Committing crime knowing you'll be caught and then happily paying fines.
I know a guy who lived about a quarter mile from the beach, but there was a strip of trees on county property between his new house and the water. He asked how much the fine for illegally cutting trees was ($2500 each), and then decided it was worth it. He happily paid several million in fines to get what her wanted even though it was a crime.
#22
Never feeling existentional threat.
You come to life, you live, you learn, you get a girl, home, and do whatever you want.
Now imagine normal person who gets into adulthood, and realizes to own a home, he needs earnings of 2 people, and worse, everybody is bent on not needing anyone else. Jobs are harder to get, food gets expensive, and you might not have kids, because you are afraid you'd bring them into same struggle you had your entire life.
#23
Being able to buy silence, privacy, and distance from other people. Rich people can pay to avoid noise, crowds, waiting, interruptions, unwanted attention, even unnecessary social interaction. Bigger homes, quieter neighborhoods, private transport, exclusive spaces where fewer people have access to them. At a certain level, luxury stops being about expensive things and starts being about control over your environment and your peace of mind. Being able to buy comfort without thinking twice. Quiet spaces, good mattresses, clean and safe neighborhoods, air conditioning running all day without worrying about the bill, food delivery whenever you’re tired, healthy high-quality food..
#24
The one thing they all have in common is places to rest/relax.
They literally have nothing to worry about so they are able to switch their minds off completely.
Nearly all of them have their version of a backyard oasis, man cave, or whatever it is they need to just turn their brain off.
They also have not one but several places to go for vacations that they own.
(I did construction/home reno for A LOT of top one percent clients. Nearly every job was an oasis of some sort).
#25
Using summer as a verb.
#26
A rich man buys a car. He can either afford to buy it outright, or because he has excellent credit he gets a brand new car with a full warranty. He has lower insurance premiums because of his credit, and the fact he has a new car with modern safety features. The car rarely has issues, but if it does it's covered by a warranty and he gets a courtesy car to drive whilst it's being fixed. Worse case scenario, his insurance will cover a rental.
A poor man buys a car. They can only afford something used. They have bad credit so their monthly payment is higher and their insurance premiums are higher because of their credit, and it's an older and less reliable car. The car is frequently in the shop because it's old and breaks down. When this happens, they either have to take public transport, get lifts, or walk to work. Or, miss time and then lose even more money. There is no courtesy car, and their insurance isn't good enough for rental, and a rental company probably wouldn't rent to them anyway.
This is how poor people remain poor.
#27
I remember seeing an interview with George Hamilton where he said he only wore brand new socks. He would wear them one time and get rid of them. No one would ever notice that.
#28
I've always said that the level of rich I want to be, is to be able to choose the most convenient flight to my location. Not to check various days for the best price, or take a red eye because it's £50 cheaper than the one at a respectable time. I'd like to just book the flight I ACTUALLY want to take.
#29
Being able to make mistakes without their life falling apart.
A bad month, a failed business idea, quitting a job suddenly, moving cities, taking time off most rich people have enough cushioning that those decisions don’t become disasters.
For normal people, one mistake can spiral into debt, stress, or years of recovery. For wealthy people, problems are often expensive inconveniences instead of life-changing events.
That safety net is a luxury most people don’t even think about because it’s invisible until you don’t have it.
#33
Family gatherings are awesome. No one is keeping track of who is footing the bill or how much different people are spending. We pretty much are all just contributing to the gathering without thinking and no one is ever thinking about money.
#35
One of the interesting things I've seen with money, and with people that have a lot of it, is just how much they get for free or at reduced costs. It feels like every budget friendly or cost conscious good or service opens up an opportunity to be nickel and dimed after the point of initial spend. With travel for example - cheap flights and hotels come with a laundry list of add-on fees. Bag fees, early check-in/late check-out, and on and on and on. Meanwhile a premium flight or hotel come with free bags, daily food/experience credits, food, drinks, and so much more.
I don't consider myself rich, but some would. I have a couple high cost credit cards that make travel so cheap in so many ways. My last trip was to a four star hotel - all covered in points, free upgrade to a suite, flight covered in points, free upgrade, no bag fees, free lounge access with food/drinks,etc. 75% off on the rental car, upgrade to a large SUV for free. $75/day meal credit, access to the mountain right out the back of the hotel so no transportation fees, it was great.
And it's not just with luxuries with travel. When you have money you can capitalize. Paying up front for discounts, avoiding costs of loans/credit. Life is incredibly expensive when you don't have money.
#36
My husband and I travel internationally using reward points on credit cards and now only fly business class to do it. We only do this when we’ve saved up enough points for the flights/hotels to be free, but it’s an incredible luxury that I didn’t know existed. I grew up incredibly poor and the idea of that didn’t even make sense to me, but now that I’ve done it I never want to go back.
Traveling is no longer a stressful hassle. We show up, go to a lounge and get to snack on free food, then get to board whenever we like on the plane. They give you all the food and drinks you want, and most importantly, you get lay flat seats so you can actually arrive to where you’re going rested and ready. I still remember the first time I went out of the country in my twenties and how uncomfortable the flight was, how long it felt, how I was constantly worried about eating too much of my snack so I wouldn’t be starving later, how my body was so stiff and sore, etc. None of those things are even concerns with the upgrade. I get off the exact same flight as the people in coach, but our experiences could not have been more different.
#38
Lack of Auto problems. Buying new cars even every 3-4 years eliminates all the hassle of finding rides, swapping cars and getting mechanical things handled even if you can afford it.. that next level of just always driving a vehicle that doesn’t break down is an amazing perk that even I did t notice in my own life until my kids started driving and I bought them like 5 year old cars. No big trouble or hassle but occasional brakes or AC or a check engine life that needs to be dealt with that I just haven’t had in my own life in 20 years.
#40
Peace of mind. Not spending money by choice is not same as not spending because you are broke.
#41
Financial peace of mind is extremely underrated when it comes to mental health. The ability to not worry how you're going to handle car problems, or groceries, or unforeseen bills that show up out of nowhere really gives space to relax and provide a lot of inner peace.
#42
Easy access to jobs in the arts and humanities. Rich people can freelance, work part-time, pick and choose their employer based on what they want to do and not based on salary. So a rich kid fresh out of college can work part-time at a low paying museum job, because they love museums, and they don't need a side hustle or a second job. Meanwhile, another kid who wants to be an actor has to abandon it pretty quickly because they're not getting consistent work, and waitressing is not paying enough to address their student debt and living expenses.
What this looks like on a societal level is that careers in "high passion, low income" fields like the nonprofit arts and humanities are increasingly for the wealthy, first because the wealthy have the resources to give their children an advantage from a very young age (music lessons, elite private arts high school), second because the wealthy can leverage their connections in the industry, and third because the wealthy are the only group who doesn't need to care about paycheck size or health insurance copays. So actors, artists, museum workers, musicians, dancers, singers, writers, are more often from upper income families as it's getting harder and harder to scrape by as a struggling young artist unless you've got financial backing from family.
#43
We didn’t have much growing up. I remember my Dad telling me you’re rich when you can grocery shop without looking at every price tag.
I now feel “rich” because I can buy whatever I fancy when I’m grocery shopping.
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