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The world puts rich people up on a pedestal because people assume that if you have a lot of money, your life is perfect and you have no problems.
Of course, most of us know that isn’t really true. I personally think one of the weirdest parts about dealing with really wealthy folks is that they seem to be out of touch about a whole lot of things that us normal people deal with every day.
Like how much stuff costs…
What’s the most out of touch thing you’ve witnessed from a wealthy person?
Here’s what folks on AskReddit had to say about this.
1. Well, that was nice.
“I work at a veterinary hospital in a fairly wealthy area.
Once had a client hand me a $50 for a $9 nail trim on her dog.
I told her the price and she just shrugged, told me to keep the change and said that would be my lunch money for the week.”
2. Easy money.
“I once got asked to watch my buddy’s mom’s dog. Cute Pomeranian, super well behaved.
I was stoked to watch the little dude. She messaged me and told me where the garage key was and that she left a couple hundred dollars on the table for me. A couple hundred!? I showed up at noon and took the money and the dog and went into town.
Took him to the dog park, then the beach, and then we kicked it and napped for a couple hours. Dropped him off around 6pm. It was the easiest $200 I’ve ever made.”
3. That cedar smell.
“I grew up in a very well-to-do suburb and there was a family that would buy cedar clothes hangers for their closets.
But then once the cedar smell “wore off” after a month or so, they’d buy new ones and take the old ones to Goodwill. Apparently just lightly sanding them to refresh the scent was too much trouble.”
4. How much is that?
“I was flying a private jet and the caterers forgot the owner’s sandwich.
He graciously said “no big deal” and I replied that I’d call when we landed because they charged us $100 for it.
He said “Is that a lot? How much does a sandwich normally cost?”
5. What’s this thing?
“Had a client who dealt with one of America’s richest men back in the late 1990s.
He took him out for a night on the town and had to stop at an ATM.
The rich guy had never seen one, his staff just got him cash when he needed it. It’s a different life.”
6. Ummmm. No.
“I got a new job slightly above minimum wage and my girlfriend’s dad got excited for me and told me I could afford a new Tesla now.
Spoiler: I cannot.”
7. Time to up sell.
“There was an obscenely rich kid that I went to high school with.
At lunch one day, he thought his friend’s peanut butter and jelly sandwich looked good so he offered him $20 for it.
For the rest of the school year, the friend brought two sandwiches to lunch every day and gave the rich kid one for $20.”
8. Never even been to one.
“I worked for 1 family as the general family personal assistant for a long time. These people are wealthy. Like drop $1M in cash on an oceanfront condo wealthy.
The husband gave me $150 cash to go to the grocery store to buy a 12 pack of water and 6 $1 yogurts.
I don’t think he’s even stepped foot in a grocery store before.”
9. An expensive burrito.
“When I was a cashier at Chipotle, I had a woman misunderstand the price of a burrito.
She heard me say “that’ll be seven-twenty-eight” and without any hesitation, counted out eight $100 bills from a wad of cash that must have been several thousand dollars. We had a good laugh when she realized her mistake.
She was carrying a suitcase and had a thick accent so I think it may have been her first cash transaction in the US and she was just so rich that it didn’t occur to her that $800 was a sh*tload of money to spend on a burrito.”
10. A cheap one.
“I repair bathtubs and showers. I’ve been in poor homes, middle class homes, wealthy homes and super mansions.
So we were at this mansion, the kind where there’s a tennis court and pool in the back yard. The kind where the foyer and first room of the house had 16×16 black granite tile with subfloor heating. Just this magnificent house with it’s 3 car garage, but in the garage there were three lifts to literally stack their vehicles. These f*ckers were loaded.
They are “updating” the house to sell so they can move back to North Jersey. They replaced the soaking unit in the master. The granite in that bathroom was absolutely breathtaking. It was blue, and under a certain light sparkled like there were lights built into it.
The deck was cracked at the caulk line. So we’re in there fixing it, being as anal and meticulous as possible bc we know we’re in probably the most expensive house ever. The wife comes in to chat with us and basically states that they just got the same kind of soaker as before bc it’s the only thing that fit in the spot. Eventually she says something like
“It’s okay though, it was only $8,000.”
If I was drinking something, I’d have choked on it. She said it like the tub was a piece of sh*t that she settled for bc it was cheap. $8,000 was a drop in the bucket.”
11. Exchange student.
“My sister and I, both Latin American, befriended a Chinese girl in college. We always helped her in studying and with her English.
Turns out her dad was some billionaire in China who owned a Chemical producing company. She drove an expensive Audi and for the longest, up until 2 years ago, I was freeloading off the Chegg account she opened up for me. That account was paid for about 3 years.
Whenever she’d invite us to go eat, the bills were super expensive, like $300+ for just 3 people, but she played it off like they were nothing. I had never once eaten a single meal over $40 per plate until we ate with her.
She’d always take us Starbucks, food and on a couple occasions bought us books for school. At one point we went shopping with her. She wanted a laptop, she was gonna buy me one too but I felt too guilty to accept it. Laptop was $3,000 (some Apple laptop), I felt like it was too much.
She was really cool and treated my sister like her sister. She was living alone and didn’t know many people. We were always friendly with classmates and that’s how she got to know us. My sister and I are from low income families. The money that was spent around her was ridiculous!
Like $300-$400+ per lunch almost every day, that was around my weekly pay back then. Really miss her though, she was funny to be around with and always wanted to learn more about the US, always insisted we go out with her to movies, shopping or dining and teach her about our culture.
Have not heard from her in 3 years. She went back to China and we never saw her on campus again.”
12. Thank you!
“I sold hash to a business partner of my dad’s when I was in college. I had a variety and it was the only drug he enjoyed. He obliquely asked me to bring it over to him – no discussion of what or how much.
I biked over to his (very nice) place and he had a coffee and a chat, and I simply handed it to him and was getting ready to leave, thinking maybe he’d have my dad pay me?? Nope, as I left there was an envelope on next to the rear entrance.
It contained $500. For like $80 of hash. He would repeat this several times. He just needed a source he could trust and not raise eyebrows.
When my dad passed he helped manage the estate and we had an implicit mutual trust that made things go much easier.”
13. Hmmmm.
“My partner has a cousin whose family is very well off and has always provided everything for him.
When he was 18 and first dealing with managing his own bank account, he once didn’t understand that he had overdrawn his account because he though the negative sign in front of the balance was “a decorative dash.””
14. Kinda clueless.
“Had a roommate in college who was pretty well off. I was pretty much putting myself through school, and was almost always broke.
One day we went by the ATM that dispensed in $5 increments (yeah, I made d*mn sure I knew where those were!) Anyway, turns out I had less than $5 in the bank, so looked at my buddy and said, “well, looks like no beer for me tonight.”
He literally looked at me and said “well, just take it out of your other account.” I just stared at him and asked what he meant. Turns out he legit thought that everybody had a second account their parents kept filled with “emergency” money!
He did buy beer that night though, so he was a good guy. Just kinda clueless.”
How about you?
Who are the most out of touch rich person you’ve ever encountered in your life?
Tell us your stories in the comments!
