Employees of the Ultra Wealthy Dish On the Craziest Stuff They’ve Seen
When it comes to the super rich, there are two ways they spend their money: outwardly, for everyone to see, and privately, around those they’re most comfortable with. And you can rest assured, those two types of spending look different. Sure, they’ll buy that flashy sports car and drive it around town to flaunt their wealth, but what kinds of things are they paying for privately? We found some Reddit stories, shared by employees of super-wealthy folks, that highlight the most insane ways the rich spend their money. Get the popcorn ready.
All in the Name of the Party
“I set up a party for a family out in the Hamptons that bought the house next door just to level it and set up a giant temporary party tent on the plot.” –u/BinxieSly
Trash or Treasure?
“Not the craziest thing but wild to me. I was working for a kind of well-off family during the summer. I went inside to get a drink and the mom was cleaning the kitchen putting things away and such. She picks up a Macbook and says to me, ‘Hey, do you want this? No one uses it.’ Got a brand new Macbook for college.” –u/kingJoffi
Messing With Nature Is Expensive
“Worked as one of four full-time groundskeepers at a large estate. 46 acres of lawn to mow twice a week. 2 clay tennis courts, 3 pools, one for the main house, and one for each of the two guest houses. 100+ acre private lake with boat house. No clue how big the whole estate was including the woods. Personal favorite was the 3-mile personal race track.
But what really blew my mind was that he hosted his niece’s wedding one summer, and paid $350k to have this massive willow tree trucked in and planted by the lake for wedding photos. Only to pay another $50k to have it removed and the landscaping returned to its original state after the wedding because he did not like the look of it.” –u/Rarnah
The Crown Jewels
“Jeweler here. Some random client quotes:
Client: ‘So I have some gemstones that have just been collecting dust.’ (Pulls out about a dozen amethyst, citrine, and smoky quartz, most an inch or more across.) What can we do with these? Can you make a crown? No, not a little flimsy fake one, a real one.’
Me: (makes a 5lb silver and gold crown)
Client: ‘You’re going to see me a lot. This is going to be my new addiction. ‘” –u/LetheMariner
Can You Say Spoiled?
“I often do work for the wives of wealthy professionals. The thing that has always stood out to me is that if I tell them that something they want isn’t doable, they respond with literal confusion. It isn’t anger. It’s confusion. They are so unaccustomed to not being given exactly what they want that it’s as if they don’t understand what is happening when they are told they can’t have something.” –u/ShakytheBear
Moving Sale
“My brother-in-law builds custom homes in Florida. One day, he called me to come over to this $15 million beach house he was doing a complete remodel of. He was the original builder. He asked me to bring my truck and trailer. I show up, and he walks me through all four floors. He then says, ‘The owners have removed all the stuff they want to keep. She has told me to dispose of everything as I see fit. Get what you want.’
Furniture, appliances, outdoor furniture, rugs, lamps, artwork, you name it. I don’t know the value of everything I took home with me that day, but it was the highest-end stuff I’ve ever seen.” –u/Blackhawk-388
Breathing Lawn Ornaments
“Bartending at a fancy party in a very wealthy older couple’s house where these people had art on display they had bought from museums. I was working in a room where three walls were glass and you could see this beautiful manicured garden with sculptures. When the sun started to set these big floppy-eared white bunnies started to appear and frolic around the yard. I asked someone who worked in the house about the rabbits. The rich people bought them as a garden feature. Every once in a while they had to cull the rabbit population. The rabbits were decorations!!” –u/CindeeSlickbooty
Buying the Whole Marina
“The owner of my company had a customer pay off a giant debt by signing over a yacht to him.
When he went to the marina to get the storage info transferred to his name and saw how much it cost to store the yacht there, he bought the marina.” –u/UncleGrako
Make It Make Sense
“I do high-end florals in a very rich area. See tons of obscene shows of wealth all the time. The amount of money some of these people spend on flowers alone is unfathomable. The one that I always come back to is a client who we were decorating their house for Christmas, and as I was hanging garlands around their 6-car garage (a separate garage than the one connected to the house), I looked in to see each of the 6 spots has a car elevator and is 3 cars deep. So there were 18 of the same exact $350k+ car. Why would anyone need 18 of the same exact car? let alone one that expensive!?!” –u/Spade18
Talk About a Workaround
“Had a Client who purchased a newly built penthouse apartment and wanted a jacuzzi on the balcony. It would’ve meant a structural column was needed in the middle of the balcony below which the contractor who built the apartment block wouldn’t go for as it would impact selling that apartment.
Client buys the apartment below, approves the column, jacuzzi is installed, then privately sells the apartment below. Voila, problem solved.” –u/kl_dudey
Is She Still Adopting Grandchildren?
“Did appliance repair … My favorite was an old lady who just had nice stuff. She took care of what she had. Every time I went she gave me 40 bucks for ‘a nice beer with your lady.’ I would always refuse but she insisted and was basically the typical granny everyone would want.” –u/kograkthestrong
That Is an Entire House
“I had a client gamble away $220,000 in one night.” –[deleted]
Like Throwing a Million Bucks in the Trash
“I worked on a billionaire’s home installing his custom pool. He ordered a custom iridescent tile. For the whole pool, it cost $ 440,000 for the material alone and another $400,000 to install it. We informed him that it was a special order and couldn’t be changed once ordered. He approved. We installed it. Walks out, it looks amazing (all the people working on it thought so), says he doesn’t like it, tear it out and replace it. All told he blew like 2.4 million dollars on his pool tile before he got done.” –u/Lousyfr
Hush Money or Compensation?
“The CEO of the company I worked for was the founder’s son. …One night, I’m working overtime on the late shift and we get this call.
‘Hey! You guys… Got… ‘Lectrician?’ The guy is clearly drunk, we have no idea who it is or why he’s calling our maintenance/engineering group. We ask who he is and he informs us, light-heartedly. He wants someone to take a ride to his house and figure out why the internet isn’t working. This is an hour’s drive away. I volunteered, I was bored anyway. I get to the house, the entry gate is smashed, a section of the white horse fencing is gone, Jaguar is stuck in the field. Here in the house is dude, completely blasted. He’s got a huge cut on his hairline. …
I accompany him to the bathroom and help him clean himself up, wash off the gash, and put some bandaging on it. Then I corrected the Internet. Unplug-plug. …
The next day I’m at work early. About eleven in the morning he comes walking up. ‘Uh… We’re not going to be… Talking about last night?’ I tell him it’s all good, ‘Awesome.’ A little bit later I get an envelope. There’s a check attached for ‘Emergency Tech Support:’ $5,000.” –u/wjescott