- This topic has 113 replies, 56 voices, and was last updated 9 years ago by somewhatslightlydazed.
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Why are rich people always so dull ?
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MidlandTrailquestsGrahamFree Member
If you’ll excuse the attention grabbing hyperbole in the headline, why is it so rare to hear of someone with lots of money who spends it in an interesting way ?
I tend to mix with working class* people with interesting hobbies and limited funds.
The sort of people who have to think carefully before spending their money, whether it’s £10 on Meccano parts, £100 on a sewing machine, or £1000 on a bike frame.
There are obviously people about who have no such worries, but most of them don’t appear to be able to think of anything more imaginative to spend their money on than a big posh house and car.There are one or two exceptions, Pete Waterman and his steam trains being the first that springs to mind.
He is very much an exception though.
Most large projects, whether it’s a preserved railway or a mountain bike trail centre are short of money.
There are people out there who could easily buy a years supply of coal, or the land and materials to build a trail, but they don’t.
Why are they so dull ?*Can we leave the argument about the definition of “Working Class” to another thread and just take it to mean people who have to work full time to pay the bills and have a bit of disposable income for now ?
geoffjFull MemberThere are some notable exceptions – http://www.gatesfoundation.org
rogerthecatFree MemberBecause all of their attention has been focussed on making money rather than enjoying it perhaps?
I love the ingenuity and genuine camaraderie of folks with less money, bit of a sweeping generalisation, but on the whole I’d stand by it based upon my experiences in the VW scene.
BigDummyFree MemberSorry, an “interesting way” to spend masses of money would be to buy a load of coal for some nerds who have a preserved railway?
As opposed to, you know, building a spaceship, or cloning some neanderthals, or organising a coup in an obscure African country?
andymc06Free MemberMost rich folk have got there by being tight and not spending anything!
djgloverFree MemberProbably not what you want to hear, but lots of them are petrol heads an have a collection of old, fast and obsure, and obviously very expensive cars. Chris Evans and Simon Cowell are two such people. Not that I can stand either but they obviously have a keen interest in their collections
LHSFree MemberAs you get older and earn more money, you realise that you never ever want to be in a position where you are not able to afford to live a lifestyle that you have become accustomed too. That is why most wealthy (I hate the word rich) tend to invest their money in their property (historically a sound investment) and something that impacts your quality of life the most.
There are then far more fun things to spend your money. Travel being the next one (including investing in holiday homes). I know for sure i would rather have a property in the sun and a property on the slopes than being able to drive a Ferrari 458 at 12mph down the Kings Road on a Saturday.
peterfileFree MemberThere are some notable exceptions
David Choe
I listened to an interview with him the other day. It could be said that he was “enjoying” his money.
somewhatslightlydazedFree MemberAs opposed to, you know, building a spaceship
I think Elon Musk sank a lot of his own money into SpaceX?
binnersFull MemberUnimaginative stuff it’d be fun to spend lots of money on if you were rich….
1. Coke
2. HookerswordnumbFree MemberAssuming we’re talking about the rich rather than the better-off-than-most, privacy can be bought.
willardFull MemberDoes John McAfee have lots of money? I think he either has, or did have, before blowing it on Binners’ favourite hookers and coke.
Either way, he’s interesting.
BigDummyFree MemberBranson has a space-ship, a submarine, and a private island covered in lemurs.
Jeff Bezos has spent $42million on a 10,000-year clock, the “Clock of the Long Now”.
Elon Musk builds spaceships and is going to colonise Mars soon (as somewhatslightlydazed points out).
Obviously, it depends on your definition of “rich”, but if you’re rich enough, your “hobby” can quite literally be “attempting to change the course of human history”.
Whether that is better than £10 worth of Meccano is a matter of opinion, of course, but I’d want to have tried both before pronouncing Meccano better, as it looks incredibly lame. 🙂
mudsharkFree MemberI dunno, loads of people do great stuff, some keep it quiet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duncan_Bannatyne#Charity_works
Was more prevalent in Victorian times it seems.
jambalayaFree MemberMost rich people try and keep their spending and charitable donations out of the public view, so we don’t hear about them.
teamhurtmoreFree MemberIf you’ll excuse the attention grabbing hyperbole in the headline, why is it so rare to hear of someone with lots of money who spends it in an interesting way ?
It isn’t. Perhaps the fact that it is so unremarkable is a reason why it’s rare to hear people make a point about it?
stilltortoiseFree Member@MTQ Graham
Where does one hear about what the rich spend their money on? Is there a Facebook page or Twitter feed for it? If so I’ll have a look and come back to you, since currently I’m completely unqualified to comment (except for Chris Evans, who I know spends his money on some mighty fine automobiles that are far from dull).pslingFree MemberYep, I think you’re confusing rich with famous and rich. You don’t really know what the ‘non-famous’ rich are squandering their wad on. I’ve been surprised by the wealth of some ‘ordinary’ people I’ve mixed with without them making it apparent that they are rich and they certainly haven’t been dull. Mind you, I also know a few people who think they are the life and soul of the party who are so far up their own sphincter that they are annoyingly dull 8)
gobuchulFree MemberNick Mason has got a fantastic car collection, which he does actually drive.
geetee1972Free MemberI read a few books by George Soros. He’s a fascinating guy and one of the most philanthropic billionaires you’ll ever hear about. His Soros Foundation is pretty amazing.
simon_gFull MemberFor every “interesting” working class person, there are dozens with nothing better to spend their time and money on than booze, fags, watching football or crappy TV.
I imagine similar ratios of boring/interesting apply to the wealthier end of the spectrum too.
BigDummyFree MemberWhere does one hear about what the rich spend their money on?
I think the “How to Spend It” section of the FT would probably assist.
I have just realised that if I was massively wealthy, my current hobby would be “travelling to Siberia to hunt wolves with a spear”. I would travel by icebreaker to the mouth of the Lena River, and then paddle upstream in an open canoe for 1,000 miles. Then I would leave my canoe and travel on foot through the forest. I would hunt wolves, bringing them to bay using my trusty wolf-hounds and would then battle them with an artisan-crafted organic wolf-spear. I would skin them, and use their pelts to make hats on my return to civilisation (assuming I survived).
I would probably be away for several years.
Once I was done with that, I would probably take up something else. Posibly Meccano.
eddFull MemberFor every “interesting” working class person, there are dozens with nothing better to spend their time and money on than booze, fags, watching football or crappy TV.
I imagine similar ratios of boring/interesting apply to the wealthier end of the spectrum too.This this sums it up.
MidlandTrailquestsGrahamFree MemberWhere does one hear about what the rich spend their money on?
I was thinking of general life experience and my own particular interests.
A lot of the examples above are what I would consider “The Super Rich”, which isn’t exactly what I had in mind, although it is closely related.Two million pounds for a house is not unusual these days, therefore, there must be a lot of people around who can afford them.
The projected cost of Tornado was £1.6 million.
Everyone’s got their own interests, but I think that most of the people that I find interesting to talk to, would rather have a modest house and car and the ability to take their hobby to the extreme, than a posh house and car and no hobby.thisisnotaspoonFree MemberI imagine theres two other points:
1) They’re rich because their hobby is something that makes truckloads of cash (e.g. Gates and Jobs are/were geeks who liked making computers).
2) They’re rich because they don’t spend >5% of their income on a bike frame. If I had done nothing with the money I’d spent on bikes, hollidays and other bike related costs (renting a house with a garrage etc Vs a flat I’d otherwise ‘need’) over the last 10 years I’d probably have in the order of £20k (I’m actualy worried it may be substantialy more!), which could have been invested in some sort of startup etc, then I’d (maybe) have been rich.
The ‘new rich’ probably look on other people as boring for driving a ford focus when they could have a Range Rover Evoque. Their hobby is just spending money and looking like a bit of a tit.
BigDummyFree MemberWhere does one hear about what the rich spend their money on?
I was thinking of general life experience and my own particular interests.[/quote]
So rich people aren’t as into Meccano as you are, therefore they lead bleak, shallow, empty lives?
😉
mudsharkFree MemberBuffet’s pretty boring – he lives in a very modest house anyway….
thestabiliserFree MemberAll those quoting cars as an exciting way of spending money. You are wrong. That said, better than meccano.
IanWFree MemberI read somewhere recently that being impulsive is the characteristic most likely to make you financially poor.
BTW the properly rich folk I know tend to have crap cars, something fancy is usually a status symbol/self reward for the nouveau riche or or on credit.
mudsharkFree MemberYeah that’s getting into the old v new money thing. All the rich people I meet have land, wonder about in wellies and clothes full of holes and a gun dog or two.
brooessFree MemberRich people who spend their money in an ‘interesting’ way aren’t rich anymore, they’re poor… they’ve spent it all!
Exhibit a: George Best
I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered.
CaptainFlashheartFree MemberBTW the properly rich folk I know tend to have crap cars
Yep, sort of! Not normally crap cars, but older good cars. Like old Mercedes or Volvos for example. No, I’m not, but the premise stands. Look at some of the best streets in SW3 for example, and for every shiny new Ferrari, there are three or more older BMWs or slightly careworn Mercs.
*Edit*
Exhibit a: George Best
Sad story that. I remember seeing him shortly before he died, in the Trafalgar, on the King’s Rd (SW3, as well!) Quietly sitting there alone, tipping back the booze. 🙁
coreFull MemberI’d have to agree with the general point of the op, I live in a relatively affluent (depending on the circles you mix in) rural area/community and hobbies/interest vary greatly between classes/amount of wealth.
Most of the wealthy people (farmers or business owners) I know have few, or no hobbies in general, preferring to have a brand new car every 3 years, property assets and material goods. Even my ‘working class’ friends who have done or are doing well for themselves don’t spend much on hobbies, and prefer to have ‘stuff’.
Me, I’d rather live in a modest house, with a boring car, but have some relatively expensive hobbies to enjoy my evenings and weekends. Sitting in a big house or being out socialising all the time, thinking about, looking at, or telling people how much stuff I have wouldn’t do it for me.
But, you need to be careful and balance it all out, don’t you. A poor man who spends too much on hobbies will always be poor. Have heard stories of people re-mortgaging houses to pay for autograss cars ffs!
stilltortoiseFree Member^maybe they have no time for hobbies because they’re too busy working and getting rich, but it’s easy to buy “stuff”
timcFree MemberCheck out Dan Bilzerian, you might not like how he spends his $$$ though 😀
jambalayaFree MemberI know a number of wealthy people (£10m plus) who don’t spend money on cars as they think they are a waste, eg one guy with a £1m yacht who doesn’t own a car at all, he spends 6 months a year on his boat so what would he do with a car ? I know plenty of people with less money who have nice cars (Aston’s, Ferraris, Lambo’s etc) but equally one guy I know built a garage under his (large) garden to house his car collection (EDIt3 – this guy ran his own privateer team Maclaren at Le Mans)
Rich people do tend to have different hobbies than the rest of us, collect art, wine, etc (EDIT4 Sir Alex is selling some of his wine collection, £6m estimate, clearly targeted at Asian ManuU fans he is selling it bottle by bottle, so his hobby will make him a handsome profit)
@CFH as I’m sure you know they don’t park their nice cars on the street, the BMW/Merc is the run-around. EDIT 2: I saw George Best a few times in the Dover Street Wine bar and then towards the end on the train down to Portsmouth, sad tale indeed and a lesson in addition.
EDIT: Americans tend to be generous donars as they have large tax breaks for doing so, that’s one of the reasons you see so many foundations and US Universities like Harvard have very large endowment funds.
konabunnyFree MemberI have just realised that if I was massively wealthy, my current hobby would be “travelling to Siberia to hunt wolves with a spear”.
You need a budget about about three grand to do everything that you mentioned. Why wait?
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