The casual things that wealthy people take for granted

[KaleQueen]

Inspired by a thread that’s gone totally off topic….where someone suggested a £400 watch was cheap.

What’s the most casual (even accidental) brag you’ve ever heard a wealthy person say?

I can start as I know someone who celebrated a big birthday recently and is an absolutely lovely person but during their party (in the wonderful house) they said “oh! Here comes the string quartet. I had completely forgotten about them!”

^www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5174898-to-feel-slightly-suspicious-of-dp?page=35&reply=138771616^

This made me laugh. God we’ve all done it haven’t we.

Here's one..

My wardrobe is a lovely big John Lewis triple door. It was still in stock when I got it at well over £1500 for about £200. It came from a charity shop. They told me that the family that donated it give them ALL their house hold furniture every 2 years as they turfed out the whole lot and replaced it..

£400 for a watch puts it in the same category as a winter coat, nice boots or a good handbag. Not cheap but not particularly expensive either, particularly for something you wear every day.
And less than many spend on a phone.

Health.

People with money live longer generally... they have access to all the things that not well off people have because they can pay without thinking ie bills, health care, dentist, good food etc.

And they don't have to worry. Money stresses takes its toll on your health.

so many things
my dd has been living abroad,
have you visited her?
is one of them.
or, time to buy a new car?

.

Pony prices are insane now. Love a section A! Little devils though. RIP Twinkle.

And gets me chuffed with my £20 Casio watch...

Most people probably have an acquaintance who's had a child, even if not friends and family.
And I can tell you that I certainly didn't feel privileged wearing my older cousins' old clothes when they were a decade out of fashion (but of course there are always people even worse off).

Keep for life eg classics, Rolex, Omega etc which aren't flashy still don't come cheap.

That said, it's all a matter of perspective isn't it.

One evening having a catch up after lockdown one friend (very lovely but very tone deaf!) commented that she'd managed to source a supplier who'd saved her £8000 off the granite worktops for her newbuild. I dread to think what the original cost was! And my parents got an entire kitchen fitted for less than she saved.

This was massively tone deaf as just minutes earlier another friend had been very upset sharing how they were being evicted by their landlord and didn't have the 10% deposit to buy a £140k house they seen. There was like 50 applicants for any rentals coming into the market locally and she was really scared she was going to be homeless with a toddler and husband who'd been made redundant. The contrast was astounding.

Apparently the top 10% of UK households have an average of £480k property equity, over £200k in readily accessible savings and incomes of over £200k.

I’d say that’s what true wealth starts to look like. Assets, steady high income, savings. Of course it gets exponentially higher in some cases but it’s the security and the ability to be able to make so many more choices freely and without consequence that wealthy people take for granted.

This thread isn't about people necessarily boasting, just being oblivious.

😆

Well my FIL is wealthy. 2 rental properties a big pension and lots of investments.

But he would never spend £400 on a watch and they never go on expensive holidays. Christmas presents are usually around £20.

Wealth is how much you own, not how much you spend.

@TheCompactPussycat I was just about to post that - so true! I have one handbag and spent £65 to get a real leather one that would last me for years - spending less on something that wouldn't last so long would have been a false economy but I also recognise it's a privilege to be able to spend money to get better value. I wouldn't dream of getting a £100+ handbag!

No sorry this is just detached from reality. My winter coat cost £70 and my nice boots were £50 from the Clarks outlet shop 6 years ago and still in good condition. Spending £400 on any of these items is just wasteful and unnecessary. Why are people so incapable/unwilling to admit their financial privilege?

@Sharontheodopolodous The times she's gone out to do something (like shes been known to go to a funeral or gone to see a friend) and come back with a new car ('I was passing the showroom and nipped in for a look') or she's gone into town to buy her veg from the market and come back home to tell my father they are going on a 5 holiday*

Reminds me of Cecil Chubb, who in 1915 went to an auction to buy dining chairs and came back having bought Stonehenge .

I know on one level that there are watches out there that cost thousands. But I would never in a million years pay 400 for a watch.

Tbh I have an old tag heuer that needs the battery changed which is going to cost 400! So it's buried in a drawer somewhere!

I don’t think it’s detached from reality as such. It’s just different people have different realities. Someone can say they don’t think x amount on a watch is expensive as that’s their world while still acknowledging others would find it expensive. I have a friend who spends 80k on a holiday and thinks nothing of it. She’d probably think the watch was cheap. But she’s a multimillionaire.

My sister bought a very sweet well bred five year old ex racehorse for £500 five years ago.

I know someone who bought their pony for £1

This is the EXACTLY what the OP was talking about, the assumption that everyone has £400 floating round that they could justify spending on a replacement watch. As oposed to spending an extra 50p per month on the increased insurance premium for having it named on the policy.

The irony is that it can cost a lot of money to be poor.

Ps. £40k? That's not what I'd call an expensive watch. That's what I'd call a RIDICULOUSLY expensive watch!

I've got a "forever watch" that my DM kindly bought for me in the early 90s. Been wearing it ever since so it's an heirloom in that sense.

But in another sense it's not, because we got it in a department store for about $60 .... so what does that make it?

I don't see any humble or obvious brag, it's an opinion/point of view.

I remember a friend who claimed NOT to be wealthy saying that 10k wouldn't make a positive change in her life because she would HAVE to spend it on a new kitchen.