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^

A pony 😆 I love this!

I'm so poor, I don't even own a watch 😭

I think you claimed this thread as your own with all of the replies to this!
I decided against the AP I always wanted because my Apple Watch does so much more. I don’t think the Apple Watch was expensive in comparison 😆

Quiet about it...yet you know they have tens of millions in the bank plus properties.

A lot of those things are produced to create a marketing sensation and a price point image and never actually move off the shop floor. Can’t think why. If you had over 2 million to spend on a watch would it be what you ended up with?

I've got to be honest, I didn't know that either! I've never given it any thought. I've never thought people buy watches or jewellery as an investment. I guess I don't move in those circles. Most people I know buy watches to connect to their phones these days. I don't watch antiques roadshow, and any bits I have seen are usually a picture or ornament of sorts. I do like the theme tune, though! I have learnt something new! Every day is a school day!! Although it's a bit of useless information that's not going to help me in any way.

@Calliopespa I wont bother then 🤣

At the weekend when the staff had gone home, sweeping up the toys on the floor, including Lego 😱 and blithely binning it all.

She might be their bank manager.

Wow, just wow.
im fairly well off and consider 400 a pricey watch and would think twice before spending 50 on a bag.

I’m just trying to put you off @Manypaws so I can get in first !

Nope. No interest. Knew about antiques, of course. I sometimes buy the odd antique but because I like it. Not thinking about its worth in the future. I also have some original art. Because I like it. Don’t care if it increases in worth.

I spend very little time thinking about other peoples choices with money to be honest. Just not that interested. Never came up in conversation. So, again, no, it had never occurred to me that people bought watches as investment pieces. Assumed they just wanted a flashy watch to wear.

Believe it or not. No skin off my nose.

The woman at work saying how she’d have loved to be rich. She’s from overseas, parents paid for her uni and flat in London and life. And now sadly she had to work after her masters so not a low salary job. We told her she was rich because of that. She just laughed. Then few weeks later when we were talking about our student debt she had her eyes wide open - you guys in Europe pay yourself for your education? You’re so independent!

@Calliopespa I'm saving myself for the Graffs Diamond one.. a bargain at £55 million

Really curious what the equivalent discussion would be like in the US/Asia where wealth is not considered crass.

I think it’s more “look-at-me-flash” that’s crass, not underlying wealth.

I also had no idea that people bought watches as investment pieces either, and I am not being disingenuous.

I have no interest in watches other than using them to tell the time. I don't watch shows about antiques either. They bore me.

You think that's bad. I had to let the pastry chef go last month. I can't even have a bit of croissant for breakfast anymore.

School mum friend, "lots of people think that everyone at [kids' school] is really wealthy when they aren't". Me, expecting her to mention the families with parents working in hospitality, agrees. "I mean, we have a nice house but we're really not that well off". Said house was bought for £600k and renovated for at least £200k. Friend has three children and is a SAHM. They have considerably more disposable income than us and we are by no means poor - rather the opposite. Words fail sometimes!

That's interesting because our bank manager would not have a clue how much money we had - a financial advisor might have more of a clue but how would they know how quiet we were with our friends about our wealth - they wouldn't observe our private conversations would they?

With that sort of wealth they would bank with the kind of bank that does both.

@EleanorLucyG agree.

People can argue a £400 is not an expensive watch relative to the price of watches/ value/ quality.
But effectively when we have a National Minimum Wage and Universal Credit we can objectively say what is cheap and expensive. House prices are expensive. Food in the shops really isn't. £400 a month is what the government give adults to live on after housing.
Clearly a hand made Swiss watch is worth more than a plastic mass produced watch but a £400 watch is unlikely to be any better than a £100 divers watch. So yes it's expensive both in relative and actual terms.

This isn't a brag but kinda fits in the thread. I have worked for decades, but last yr I had to leave my job due to increasing health prpblems. So I am watching every penny whilst presently on the dole. I am struggling to keep up with the gardening and never ending housework with my various ailments. My very wealthy friend said ' Just get a gardener and cleaner in weekly, that's what we do'. I just smiled. Twas pointless even attempting to explain that I can't afford to put my heating on let alone employ a gardener and a cleaner. This wealthy couple won the postcode lottery with two tickets recently, and had an endowment policy payout recently too of £50,000. They had forgotten they had taken out the policy years prior. Oh how the other half live eh.

They might use their bank to perform all their financial transactions but the bank manager would still not know how they converse with their friends.

I felt fancy for getting second hand valentino sunglasses on ebay for £75 (they'd been relisted multiple times with a buy it now of £250, and I stuck that in as a cheeky offer, thinking they would haggle, and they just took it) not because of the brand, but because the design was worn by a character in my favourite TV show, based on my favourite book. (the name probably gives it away)
that's the most I've ever spent on sunglasses, and DEFINITELY expensive.