There are certain things that all human beings have in common. Luxury purchases are not one of them. Some items out there on the market are so expensive, excessive, and exclusive that not only are the super-rich the only people who can buy them, but sometimes they are the only people who even know that they exist! Don’t believe me? Here is a list of 42 examples of things that only the rich buy.
1. We’ve Got Our Eyes On You
I can confirm that the rich often buy kidnapping insurance. I used to work for a place where the CEO was very hands-on and would often fly to countries in parts of the world that were less than stable to try and sell our product. In the event of a kidnapping, we always had insurance purchased for him before each trip, as well as for anyone else who traveled with him that might have been at risk of getting grabbed.
We also always had contingency plans in place for what we needed to be doing and who to contact in case it ever actually happened.
2. When Size Does Matter
Some wealthy people just buy books as decorations from time to time, with no intention of actually reading any of them. They typically buy the books from wholesalers by the linear foot, specifying based on how the books would look on their shelves (i.e. size, color, the material of spine, etc). In these situations, there is typically no regard whatsoever for what the books even are.
They just need to fill up the wall space in their libraries or office rooms in their homes.
3. When the Movies Go Out to See You For a Change
If you're willing to fork out $35,000 for the machinery and $500 per showing, some movie theaters actually offer you the option of renting films that are currently playing in theaters for custom screenings in your own private home theater.
4. Crazy Across the Board
A lot of rich people now pay to have their own private boarding gates at certain airports. These gates are typically complete with showers, a spa, a full bar, a lounge, food, a bed, a gym, a sauna, etc. There is hardly any luxury you can think of in the world that they don’t have available for those who pay, and it’s all offered in a totally private setting away from the rest of their fellow passengers.
Your luggage is scanned and taken through security by a concierge, and then you're driven to the plane in a BMW 8 series. LAX even has a gate of this kind now.
5. Stupidity Like This Is a Form of Art
I have done some consulting work from time to time for an extremely rich client who lives in Canada. When I went to their house for a meeting one time, the walls were completely lined with more pieces of modern and contemporary art per square inch than the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
I asked one of the family members who lived in the house if she had a favorite piece from the very impressive collection. As an art lover, her answer made my blood run cold.
She told me deadpan, "Oh no, I hate contemporary art."
6. His Bark Is Bigger Than His Bite
Here’s something that only a rich person would ever even dream of buying: pet cloning. My former boss is currently getting his dog cloned for a small fee of $100,000.
7. Ice Ice Baby
I have known some rich individuals to spend money on “luxury ice cubes.” An organization called the “Gläce Luxury Ice Co.” produces perfectly square ice blocks for the purpose of “minimum dilution and maximum cooling.” The ice cubes are hand-carved and completely clear—you can practically see right through them as if they aren’t even there.
They are typically sold in bags of 50, and each bag costs about $325.
8. Don’t Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes
Some rich people use their money from time to time to buy private performances from big-name artists and celebrities. I was on a yacht one time in the Virgin Islands and some mega yacht owner pretty close to us had Christina Aguilera flown in to perform for his guests at a party on the boat. We were close enough to see the performance, but sadly not close enough to pretend to be part of the party.
Oh well, at least we got a free concert—unlike them!
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9. The Patriot Game
Rich enough people can actually buy themselves citizenship to certain countries. A few examples include Malta, Cyprus, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Vanuatu. There are financial and tax reasons for doing so, but many also do it because of security and safety concerns.
10. Now We’re Cooking With Gas
The majority of my clients are in the $10 million dollar and up club, and many of them are actually worth well over $100 million. They all tend to buy very specific and detailed service subscriptions for things that can save them time and effort. For example, some of them have subscriptions to a company that comes to their houses and fills up the gas tanks to all of their cars every morning.
Stuff like that is actually a lot more common than most of us would probably be aware.
11. Leaving on a Jet Plane
One thing that only rich people would ever buy is private jet timeshares. They tend to be either for those not quite rich enough to afford their own private jet or for those rich people who are still just wanting to be a bit frugal with their purchases.
12. This Train Is Bound for Glory
Everyone knows about mega yachts, but the very rich also enjoy their own trains—or at the very least, their own private, super luxurious train cars. With their budgets, it isn't expensive at all to rent some space on a freight line and an engine, assuming they don't already own their own. Sometimes, a group of friends will hook their private cars together and motor around a continent having a big party.
13. So This Is What They Mean by “Time Is Money!”
The most important thing that rich people often buy is time. All that crap that you do every day—things like commuting, grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning your house, waiting on hold on the phone, and paying bills—those are all chunks of your life that are eaten up by the minutiae. Rich people simply buy out of all that routine garbage and the time that it takes up by paying for other people to do it on their behalf instead.
Time is all that you really get in your life. Rich people buy it back.
14. Skin in the Game
I work in the field of luxury beauty products. Some rich people pay us over $2,000 for our face creams. We also charge $200 for a face wash, $400 for eye cream, and $400 for body lotion. You’d be surprised how many customers we have who don’t even think twice about paying for these services. I even have one client who pays $15,000 to have us stock both of her two houses with all of her personal essentials.
I’ve also had a single $40,000 sale that was all skincare and makeup.
15. Baby, You Can Drive My Pets
I know it’s going to be hard to believe that this actually exists, but some rich people actually pay to order “pet taxi” services. As the name suggests, this is a service that sends a car to pick up your pets from your home and take them to daycare programs for the day.
16. Reputation, Reputation, Reputation
This one’s really gross—especially when the people involved are slimeballs. There are services that rich people can pay for that will defend their personal reputations in the public arena and even make sure that fake news stories are disseminated in as many popular media outlets as possible.
17. All for One and One for All
One thing a lot of rich people do that most people have never even heard of is buying entire libraries at one time. My sister used to work at a bookstore, and she once told me that some guy came in and wanted to furnish his library with a library-size purchase of hundreds of books in one shot. They just wanted a cherry-picked list of bestsellers, completely up to the discretion of the people working there.
It sounded pretty wild to me, but to some of the others in the bookstore, it was nothing out of the ordinary.
18. Say Yes to the Dress
I know of a very rich family who literally took a trip to Paris just so that their 13-year-old daughter could buy a specially made dress for a homecoming party. That’s a lot of effort for something that you’re only going to be wearing once, no matter how rich you might be!
19. Home Sweet Home
Some rich people are actually able to buy smart homes. The Alexa/Google home market is bringing it more into the mainstream nowadays, but for decades the wealthy elites have had smart home functionality through companies like Crestron. The controls go far beyond controlling your lights and thermostat and integrate with more technologies.
20. Fine Dining
Rich people can buy or rent entire floors of hotels. Sometimes even multiple floors. Sometimes entire restaurants. They can pay to hire chefs from literally any restaurant in the world to fly in and cook for them, regardless of where they are. As the manager of a very high-end restaurant, I once saw all of those things done by a prince from Saudi Arabia who came to town.
We estimated that it must have cost him over $50,000 just for the one private meal that he had in our restaurant, given that he had the top four floors of our hotel booked off—for the hundreds of personal staff there to take care of him, his wife, and his two kids, plus he likely had some mistresses there too, if I'm being honest.
He paid us $30,000 just to get us to close our restaurant to the public for the evening. He flew his favorite chef from New York to Orlando to cook for him on his private jet earlier that day, and then flew him back again.
21. That’s Entertainment!
I know of a rich family that paid to have high-speed satellite internet service installed on their yacht. Their bill for that can run up to around $40k a month!
22. It’s All in the Game
One thing that only rich people are able to spend money on is the sport of polo. Very few poor people attend or pay any attention to any polo matches. Equestrian events, in general, are almost always exclusively for wealthy people.
23. Straight From the Horse’s Mouth
I was shocked to learn that rich people can essentially do illegal things and not care, because if it’s just something that gets them a ticket or fine, they treat it like paying a small service fee. I grew up around Lexington, Kentucky. The region is huge on horses, particularly thoroughbred horses. The entire city is surrounded by horse farms, and these farms breed some of the best racing horses in the world.
Some obscenely rich and famous folks will come here to buy racehorses to add to their personal breeding stock. One such person who stops by from time to time is a sheik from Dubai who owns his own private 747 plane. Now, the local airport here isn't rated for 747s and it's not legal to land one there unless it's an emergency.
Nevertheless, the sheik doesn't care and lands his plane there anyways. The airport fines him every time he does this, which he is totally fine with paying each time. I've been told that many of the upgrades to the airport over the years were almost entirely funded by the money from that one guy’s fines.
24. How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?
Some rich people can afford to buy a platinum retriever as a pet. No, that’s not a joke. It is a real type of dog whose price tag can be in the thousands.
25. The Night Shift
Some rich people choose to pay for night nannies. Having a newborn is a much less painful experience when you can afford to have someone watch your baby for you all night while you get a full night of uninterrupted sleep in.
26. I’m a People Person
One thing rich people like to buy that no one else gets to is, well, other people. Or at least full-time access to their services. Many rich folks have multiple people whose entire jobs are just to live with them and/or tend to their needs. One family alone can have a butler, a valet, a cook, a nanny, a maid, a chauffeur, etc.—all of whom are working full time just to make their bosses happy.
Also, fun fact, what people usually think of as a butler is actually called a valet. A butler is traditionally in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantry. The valet position more closely resembles the duties of a personal assistant. But yeah, the richer you are, the more people you are likely to be paying to boss around all day.
That’s definitely not something that too many non-rich people can relate to!
27. Going Once, Going Twice, Sold!
When you’re rich, you can buy specific, individual, and unique items—often ones that are the only one of their kind in existence. Occasionally, you hear about stuff like this in the news. Things like “The hat used by the star in [insert popular movie title here] was just auctioned off for $80,000” or “A 5,000-year-old Egyptian statue was auctioned off for $2,000,000” are certainly not uncommon headlines when dealing with the world of the rich.
And any time I read something like that in the paper, I just shake my head and think to myself “What kind of auction do you even go to find a thing like that?”
28. That’s Tough to Digest
One thing that only rich people would ever buy is a $300,000 oven. No joke. I was flipping through an architectural digest one time and saw an ad for a $300,000 oven.
29. Pot of Gold
Something that I didn't even know existed until a month ago is a pot filler that's attached on the wall behind the stove, so that you can fill pots with water without having to bother to carry them. That seems like something that only rich people would ever have...
30. No Man Is an Island
Don’t ask me how I know this one. More rich people than you might expect have sex parties on private islands with their friends.
31. Staying On Track
I once worked with a rich guy who owned his own private train car. He was an older Wall Street-type of guy. Definitely wealthy, but not super-rich. Maybe earning about a million dollars a year and living in Manhattan. He described it as "Instead of having a boat, I have this."
32. Off the Road Again
When companies like Lamborghini and Koenesgegg make limited-edition supercars worth about $6 million each, it is typically something that only rich people are capable of buying. Those cars are usually paid for before they are even finished being built. Somewhere out there are personal garages filled with dozens of these insane supercars that are just sitting there, unused.
I can't even imagine being so rich where just dropping $6 million for a decoration would seem trivial.
33. To Have and Have Not
I'm not rich but, due to the fact that my dad was a top-level government official and I went to a very elite private boarding school as a result, I hung out with fabulously wealthy kids a lot of the time when I was growing up. Sure, there were a lot of decadent and extravagant purchases, but what surprised me is what a portion of very rich people DON'T buy.
I noticed that a surprising percentage of very wealthy people do not buy super fancy cars. For example, one family who owned a world-famous beverage company all drove around in nondescript SUVs or minivans. Some rich people are extremely flashy, but others are almost manic about not wanting to be seen as “crass” and, to those people, a supercar is considered crass.
What’s weird, though, is that apparently having a $10 million home in Palm Beach is NOT crass to some of those same people…
34. A Whole Lotta Foods Goin’ On
I worked at Whole Foods back in the day and, while a good chunk of the items are reasonably priced, I would occasionally ring up some items that are just insane. Often, a lower-middle-class family would walk in and be surprised at some of the items that we carried. There were certain products on our shelves that were clearly designed and intended specifically for the rich and, believe it or not, rich people actually would often choose to buy them.
I only vaguely remember the details of some of these products since it’s been a while, but some, I’ll never forget. A $30 bottle of olive oil. A $12 chocolate bar. A $22 baby bottle. A $350 cooler. A $70 water bottle. A $10 package of "organic" spices. $29 candles. $16 1 oz. spiritual oils. $28 mittens, scarves, and hats—each individually priced. And the wildest one of all? A $60 mini handbag for toddlers.
The whole entire body and beauty sections were total garbage. Most of the organic labeled items are crap as well. A single full cart of groceries can easily come out to over $600 for shoppers rich enough to frequent these parts of the store.
35. Night at the Museum
One specific thing that only rich people are capable of buying is specialized household managerial staff. When someone is truly mega-rich, running their household takes the same complexity as running a small to midsized company. Therefore, the management of the household are considered skilled workers, and they are compensated accordingly.
Don't think "butler"—think "head of operations at a luxury hotel." The staff that household managers tend to oversee can be highly specialized as well. For example, American businessman Larry Ellison has his own personal curator to oversee his collection of Asian art. They do things like advise on the purchase and sale of art for his collection, oversee the storage and display of art housed on his property, and oversee the process of lending art for storage and display at museums.
The curators will also often have their own staff to conduct actual conservation work, art transport, art installation, etc. So, if you've already got an in-house crew of seven people focused on your art collection alone, imagine how big your entire household staff is! That's why you've got to have a professional household manager.
36. Guest of Honor
I know of some rich people who pay for their favorite adult film stars to attend their parties and put on a show for their guests.
37. Recipe for Access
Access. Money buys you access to people, places, and events. It also buys you inaccessibility. I know a couple of billionaires. Both have yachts. That way, they can get away from everyone else and just bring in the people who they actually want to spend time with. The planet isn’t that big, so my friend said he kept bumping into the same annoying people all over the place.
Wherever he went in the world, he would always end up seeing the same few characters in all the fancy hotels and restaurants. In the end, he bought a yacht, kitted it out as he wanted it, and just flew in his pals.
38. The House That Rich Built
When you are rich, you can actually buy a house "ready to move in, only with a suitcase." What does that mean exactly, you wonder? Well, it means that these houses are more than fully equipped. Everything is already there, including the furniture, plates, glasses, knives, forks, spoons, tissues, toilet paper, towels, toys, games for the children, etc.—you name it!
Anything that you could possibly need in a house, they will make sure that it’s there for you before you even buy it.
39. Fly Me to the Moon
One thing that rich people typically buy that others don’t is casual travel. The poor know that planes exist and that people travel overseas. The rich go to Paris for the weekend to catch up with friends over a couple of beers and wine. I am well aware that there are plenty of ways that people out there have managed to play the system to their own advantage regardless of whether or not they are rich.
Things like frequent flier miles, waiting for sales, or planning six months ahead for cheap airfare have certainly made travel more accessible to the average person. I am well aware of all that. Nevertheless, there are two distinct tiers of traveler here: flying on the regular but squeezing every penny you can, and flying rich.
Flying on the regular is working those airline miles, credits, and perks at every opportunity to stretch them out as far as you can. When we are talking about flying rich, I am talking about literally some rich person saying to their friend: "Hey do you want to swing by the next continent for a couple of beers this weekend?"
They don't pack a bag or make a plan. They just catch a limo out to the airport on the spot and buy their plane tickets at the airport to fly to the next continent, stay three days in a hotel, and then fly home. They will probably be coming back with more luggage than you started with. They do this every month, depending upon their whims—London, Paris, Rome, Jerusalem, Moscow, Shanghai, Tokyo, Melbourne, Hawaii, San Francisco, Cancun, Sao Paulo, Port Elizabeth, you name it!
I’ve even heard of people who make ridiculous plans like: “There are seven continents on the planet, let's have lunch on a different continent each day of this week, starting today.” If you have to stop and think about the cost of your plans or even think about playing games with frequent flier miles, you aren't flying rich.
The rich also fly in private cabins that have butlers and fully stretched out lazy-boys in soundproof rooms, so that they can actually sleep on the flight. Must be nice!
40. Counting Cards
You think your platinum credit card is cutting it? Please! A Centurion black card is the way to go. It'll cost ten grand just to get one with an initial fee to join and the first annual fee, but you get everything once you have it. The Crystal Method are playing a concert at a local venue and you want to go backstage and hang out with Scott Kirkland? That can be arranged.
Want a table at Schwa restaurant in Chicago, E restaurant in Las Vegas, Schloss Schauenstein in Fürstenau, or Aragawa in Tokyo? They'll get you in tomorrow. Need a full itinerary planned for a week in Paris? Need that new iPhone on day one but don't want to stand in line? Want to stay at the most luxurious place in Ibiza for the days Pete Tong is at the Blue Marlin?
They can do all this for you in their sleep. Having this lucrative card is better than having a butler, a concierge, or any other servant you can imagine. Anything in the world that you could ever want is just a call away when you have this.
41. The Letter of the Law
I had a rich buddy who once hired a driver, got him to get a chauffeur's license, and then made sure that his Jaguar was long enough to meet the criteria to be considered a limo in the eyes of the law—all for a bizarre reason. Because it was considered a limo, he was then able to legally drink alcohol in the back seat. Yikes.
When I traveled with him internationally one time, someone met us at the door when we were dropped off, and they proceeded to just walk us directly to our plane. None of the usual customs or security stuff took place.
42. How Do You Plead?
I didn’t believe this one when I first heard it. In some parts of the world, you can actually pay another person to go to jail in your place and serve your sentence on your behalf if you are convicted of a crime. This is actually quite a common and well-known phenomenon amongst upper-class criminals in Latin America, but I would imagine that it happens in other places as well.
Sources: Reddit, ,
