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General interestMy rich and out-of-touch tech bro friends
I have been friends for almost 30 years with this group of guys from high school. We're all in our early 40s now. A great many of them have worked for a very, very famous tech company in the past (which I cannot name).
One dude, (who - incidentally- was born with a silver spoon in his mouth), is doing extremely well financially. His custom-built home resembles a high end office building. It's absolutely huge. He lives there with his beautiful young wife, domestic staff, and their dog.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that he's an intelligent and hard working man. However, he does not seem to understand that most of us don't live the way that he does.
He was recently complaining that he didn't understand why more of his staff had not personally purchased the Apple Vision Pro, which he believes would increase productivity among his staff. I checked the price on it. It's at least $3499.
I gently suggested to him that this device is not something that everyone can afford.
He then retorted that most of his employees should be able to afford the Apple Vision Pro because his staff members pay $350/month for a train ticket to commute into (a major American city).
Perhaps he is right and his employees could shell out their personal money for the Apple Vision pro. But why should they have to? What if the train ticket is the biggest strain on their budget(s)?
I was gonna say, having lots of liquid cash on hand says “rich” to me. Having a high credit card balance you can’t pay every month says “poor”.
There's also often a difference between how generationally/long-term rich people versus temporarily rich people approach it; the former tend to be relatively understated and less conspicuous/flashy, live within their means, and always have an eye on where to cut costs, while people who have suddenly found themselves wealthy can very quickly and easily spend themselves into a very deep hole. Plus just the sheer number of rich people who could easily be busted for tax evasion in one form or another, whether employing/paying people for services under the table, accepting payments for things in cash, making huge purchases in cash without paying sales taxes, etc. Credit/transactions conducted through a bank are for things that are write-offs, or conspicuous (main income, real estate, etc.).
TLDR, 'real' rich people aren't just good at spending money, but at saving it. And one of the ways a lot of them save it unscrupulously is by cutting the government out of getting a cut of a lot of transactions, which tends to mean cash. More above board, it means not paying interest on credit card balances.