25 Insane Extravagances That Rich People Seem To Flaunt Their Wealth Over

In a world where a significant portion of Americans struggle to make ends meet—with 78% living paycheck to paycheck—these tales serve as a poignant reminder of the stark inequalities in our society. We can’t dictate how individuals choose to use their money. However, we can certainly offer our perspective, particularly when extravagant spending is on display for everyone to see.

#1

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During college I worked at a place selling very high end patio furniture in the richest DC suburb. One day a Washington Redskin comes in and buys a custom patio furniture set for his deck and pool area, total cost for 10 pieces was over $24,000. He paid cash and I set up delivery for 6 weeks later because the furniture had to be made at the manufacturer. Three weeks later he was cut by the team. I called when the order came in and he said “oh, I’m in the Caribbean now, think I’m selling that hous3, think I’m going to retire…you like the furniture?” Me: “yeah”. Him, “you can have it, thanks for being a fan”. 14 years later and I still have that furniture and the fanciest patio setup in my middle class neighborhood!

#2 One of my students gets dropped off to school in a helicopter.

Image source: anon, Somchai Kongkamsri/Pexels (not the actual photo)

#3 In high school, my friends parents paid me $50 to hang out with their dogs in the basement for two hours while they had a party on the main floor. I got to hang out with dogs, play video games and they brought me down some of the catered food. I would have done it for free.

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#4 I went to Chipotle with a friend and they willingly paid for us both to get guacamole.

Image source: unicornmarket

#5 I was helping an owner rent his apartment, which is an investment property. It’s a 2,500 sq ft condo with 4 balconies and 360 degree views of midtown east in Manhattan asking for $15,000/month. Rented it for 6 months upfront with option to renew to someone who has ties to oil families in the Middle East. The person never moved in.

Image source: greyconscience, Max Vakhtbovycn/Pexels (not the actual photo)

#6 I went to a birthday party in 3rd grade. Every girl in the 3rd grade was invited. So 80 girls were picked up in limos, taken to build a bear where we could choose any bear, then we all got manicures and pedicures, we went to Red Robin for dinner, and limoed back to her mansion for a sleepover. I will never attend a party that fancy ever again.

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#7 I had an obscenely wealthy kid in my graduating class. His parents bought him a brand new Range Rover on his 16th birthday and he crashed it into a school bus. They got him a new one and he crashed it road racing. They got him a new one and he got a DUI and finally the police took away his license (thank the lord).

Image source: RunninOnStalin, Aidan Roof/Pexels (not the actual photo)

#8 My rich friend has had to respray his car multiple times because a peacock on his land keeps seeing his reflection in it and attacking it like crazy

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#9 They bought a new yacht because the wife didn’t like the beds.

Image source: diegojones4, Pixabay/Pexels (not the actual photo)

#10 Lived in the international dorms in college. First week of school move in happens and you get to meet a bunch of people. One of the people I met was this girl from Singapore. She’s pretty cool and whatnot, but after a few weeks she realizes that to get around she needs a car, as public transport BLOWS. So, naturally, she calls her parents to tell them that she needs a car. No biggie.

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She tells them that she needs a Mercedes S class. hmm, okay. Nice. But remember, she’s from Singapore. If you know anything about Singapore it’s that cars cost anywhere from 6-9x what they do in the US. Casually, her parents wire her enough money to get an S class….. in Singapore.

Girl gets $650,000 wired to her account, not knowing that it cost 6x less here. She goes to the dealership then comes back in a hour with no car. I asked her what happened, and she says “oh, it’s getting delivered”. Sure enough, 2 days later a brand new car shows up, except it’s no S class. It’s a Lamborghini Murcielago. Touche, well played.

I later find out she doesn’t know how to drive, so she hired a chauffeur to drive her around. She would sit in the passenger side of her own lambo and be driven places. What made it more hilarious was that the chauffeur would actually wear a black jacket and hat.

EDIT: Eventually she got a drivers license and was able to drive the car herself. I think the chauffeur was around for 2-3 months though. After moving out of that dorm, I didn’t really keep contact with her, but I assume she went back home just like every other ballin’ international student.

#11 Quirky one:

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I have a regular day job, but I also teach English as a Second Language to Gulf nationals, in particular Saudi families. I receive a lot of gifts, but one boy I tutored came from a family who owns some of the most expensive racing camels in the Gulf. The father buys and sells these animals that are over six figures. When the son graduated, the father allowed me to choose a camel that would be mine, and designated as not for sale. I have a racing camel in Saudi Arabia that lives probably in better conditions than I do.

#12 Family I know bought the $3 million house next door so they could knock it down for a tennis court

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#13 One of my dad’s friends from high school is unbelievably rich and a collector. He owns a legitimate Stradivarius. Eventually, he decided he wanted to learn how to actually play it, so he signed up for lessons and brought a f*****g Stradivarius with him down to the local music shop to meet his instructor and have his first lesson. I can only imagine the look on his instructor’s face…

Image source: OwenLeaf, Mark Ordonez/Flickr (not the actual photo)

#14 Back when the recession hit, one of my very best friend’s family was very distraught, because they had to sell one of their three private jets.

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#15 I saw this guy at a bar who got a call and just got up and left: He hardly even touched his beer and most of it was still there in the mug.

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#16 My boss once had me drive him to an exotic car dealership to pick up his new Bentley… 3 days after my paycheck had bounced.

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#17 A woman on a Delta flight in first class, loudly complaining to her seat mate that she had to ‘fly commercial’ because her family’s private jet was being repaired

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#18 I met the CEO of the company I work for and I complimented his watch. The first thing he did is take it off a day let me wear it. Come to find out after doing a little research, the watch he was wearing is a Patek Phillipe that cost 1.75 million. That watch alone cost more than every asset in my family for the past 4 generations.

Image source: ilike2makemoney, The Lazy Artist Gallery/Pexels (not the actual phtoo)

#19 My last job before college was dealing with what they call the 1% now. We had a call from a customer who had spent a five-figure sum for items for her house, and realized the house she had it sent to was not the house she wanted to decorate with them. After being informed the order was already in transit she just reordered everything and had it rush delivered to the house she wanted it for. She was totally cool with it. I always picture the basement of her one house having the duplicates sitting there, worth far more than what I made at that job in a year.

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#20 My hometown of Hobart is a working class city right at the end of the world in Tasmania, where nothing much ever happens. In the past not many people came here except a few hikers / outdoors people to admire the natural beauty of the place but nothing else was really going for the town. A guy who made hundreds of millions of dollars gambling opened his own private $150 million art museum, and has turned the city into a major tourist drawcard. Best of all, locals are allowed in for free whenever they like, and free parties/festivals are thrown year-round. In under 5 years he’s single handedly transformed the entire city.

EDIT: thanks for the replies and interest everyone! Here’s a piece about David Walsh and MONA: http://www.afr.com/opinion/columns/david-walshs-wisdom-beats-the-odds-20131213-ij8gn

Also, You can find out more about my beautiful hometown here http://www.discovertasmania.com.au/about/regions-of-tasmania/hobart-and-south/hobart.

Image source: brodme

#21 I work for a wealthy man and he once had me fly on a private jet to the other side of the country to pick up 6 perfect heirloom strawberries that cost 100$ per six pack. They were placed in Chinese silk hand molded box so each strawberry wouldn’t be jostled during the trip.

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He ate 3 gave me the rest for my trouble… Not gunna lie. It was the most amazing strawberry experience I have ever had. They probably cost him 25k all said and done between flights and my wage.

Edit: here are some of the answers to all of your questions.

How did i get the job? It just sort of happened. Was teaching the kids ski lessons, started working as a nanny, transitioned into personal assistant role. Given title Director of Fun by family.

Do I make enough money? I only work 4 months a year and travel 8 months…. so yes.

Was the family nice? super awesome family, really nice, slightly out of touch with reality.

What did the strawberry taste like? My lips parted as I slowly brought the impossibly red berry to my mouth. It’s scent was too powerful for something that small and the aroma filled my head until nothing else remained. Gingerly placing my teeth on the seed covered tip I took the smallest of bites. The explosion of flavor was overpowering and each time my teeth broke the flesh of that perfect berry an impossible amount of juice gushed out. As I sat there slack jawed with juice crippling down my chin my employer looked at me in disgust and said “you can go home now” (hahah the last sentence is a complete lie but honestly the strawberry was incredible)

Edit2: obligatory thanks for the gold!! However if you could fly it to me on a private jet with some strawberries that is my preferred way of getting karma.

#22 I used to be an Optician in a very high end Optical shop. I had a customer spend $15k on glasses in 1 hour. He was wearing overalls covered in paint and dirt, no one else wanted to help him. I approached and began to help him when he decided he wanted to look at Cartier glasses. The Cartier case is ALWAYS locked and the key is in the owners office. So I politely excused myself and on my way to retrieve the key, my co-workers where warning me to be careful, he just wants to steel the eyewear. My co workers where all dumbfounded when I walked to the back to ring up his order on the credit card machine, as I asked “how do I ring up $14,995”?!?Managers mouth dropped to the floor. Turns out customer is Andre Rieu. Best commission check ever. And I still hold the company record for highest sale, so I’m told.

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#23 Guy from my town bought a helicopter. He had fallen out with his neighbour so decided to call his pilot at 4am and hover over his neighbours house all night to annoy him.

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#24 We owned a karaoke service in Las Vegas. Got a call one day at 730pm from a party planner we often worked with.

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They wanted us to be at the Venetian in 1.5 hours for a 4 hour event. “Price is not an issue”

We gave them a decent last minute deal ($2000).

Turns out this was for a private gambling club. They had a special room with the big table games set up.

Minimum buy in just to attend was $500,000 actual cash on hand and another $500,000 line of credit.

Minimum bet was $5000 with no max. Most bets were $20k or more (a stack of 20 $1000 chips.

I forgot to mention, there was also a $1,000,000 membership fee (one time, lifetime) to get invited to these kinds of events.

The smallest chip in the room was $100, and that’s what they used for tipping.

I made over $3000 in tips that night, plus my pay of $2000. In 4 hours.

Rumor was that one guy lost $3.5 million. In 4 hours.

#25 So, this is obscene, but not really in a hugely bad way.

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Many moons ago I worked at a cable company. This guy calls in because his internet sucks. Sadly, there was about f**k-all we could do about it as his home was out in the boonies. We could only get him internet through a wireless tower, and those things will have connection hiccups if a butterfly passes by. He asks us how much it’d cost to run a wired line to his house. At first, we assumed he was either: a) stupid or b) crazy Turns out he was serious. We got a contract put together in a few days and he paid for a new line to his place, which let us run connections to a few other houses in the area. I can’t remember if it was a 7 figure or 6 figure deal, but that s**t wasn’t cheap. So, hats off to crazy old rich guy in bumf*cknowhere. I hope your porn streams are still flowing like a river. EDIT: Since this keeps coming up; No, this wasn’t for Joe Rogan. This was in Kansas, so the bumf*cknowhere was truly bumf*cknowhere and threats of wind were a serious issue on those wifi towers. Edit2: for the other thing that keeps coming up. It was a really small company. They weren’t intentionally giving anyone the screw job on a line, they couldn’t afford to run lines everywhere. If I remember right, at the time it served 2 towns plus the surrounding farmlamds, and that’s counting the Wi-Fi towers. I can’t remember the details on the contract the guy got for running the lines and future costs, but I’m pretty sure he was on the short list of folks with a VIP flag on his account.