Any Ultra High Net Worth Individual (UHNWI) here? What do you do?

[Music Lover]

Can you imagine how excruciatingly boring that would be, after the novelty wore off? Living such a stereotypical "lifestyles of the rich and famous" life, would be such torture.

No more choices, no more free time, no more privacy. Always running from one place/house/country to another. Ugh. Well, each to his/her own, but that type of life is not something I would crave.

What about the Queen? What could be more mind numbingly boring than being forced to attend decades of rigidly structured ceremonies where you can't skip them or leave early.

 

[WhenIsItTime]

How much net worth is considered Fat F.I.R.E?

These definitions are always difficult to nail as $5M in San Fran or NYC is not what it is elsewhere.

For traditional FIRE (wealth accumulated by working), I consider fat FIRE to be <2% withdrawal rate where with a reasonable budget + some discretionary there should be no concern of outliving your means.

 

[W2R]

What about the Queen? What could be more mind numbingly boring than being forced to attend decades of rigidly structured ceremonies where you can't skip them or leave early.

Exactly!

 

[FreeBear]

We've known a couple of people who are probably worth tens of millions. None are interested in retirement in these sense of no longer w*rking for pay. A few are professionals that moved up to "partner" level while carefully controlling spending. One guy founded a sevice-industry chain that grew big locally over decades.

A few couples lived very normal lives, but with some very nice houses and typical middle-uppper middle class cars. One liked bling, but no jet setting.

None were especially generous when eating out, although they tipped solidly, but not outrageously (no $2K tips). So very comfortable, but nothing reality TV worthy.

 

[Amethyst]

I think you don't have to share a private jet with other people, especially not smelly ones. That's why it's private.
But what would I know? The closest I will ever come is business class.

For us normal folks, it would be like giving up the car and taking a bus all the time.. a transport device full of other people who smell, talk, invade your space... etc. . Horrible

 

[Amethyst]

We read in the press all the time about actors and actresses who have perhaps $100M and live like they are billionaires. And then, they wonder how they get into bankruptcy.

.

Not casting shade at any particular celebrity, but I hear the good drugs can be really expensive.

 

[Sunset]

I think you don't have to share a private jet with other people, especially not smelly ones. That's why it's private.
But what would I know? The closest I will ever come is business class.

Yes, I was trying to say giving up the jet and taking commercial planes is like giving up the car and taking the bus.

A bus all the time.. a transport device full of other people who smell, talk, invade your space... etc. . Horrible

 

[flyingaway]

We could be in this group if my wife and I continue to work and save to our 80s and the market does like it did.

We will certainly not do that.

 

[Car-Guy]

Yup. That much dough and I'll hire a personal assistant to arrange my stuff.

The difference in the quality of "staff" whom you and I could afford to hire, and the actual professional house staff that a billionaire can get, is night and day.

Professionals can handle just about anything that might come up without troubling you in the slightest, as long as you pay the resulting invoices. So, the billionaire just shows up in her personal helicopter at whatever house, whenever it's convenient, and everything is ready and waiting, just as if she lived there all the time.

As others mention, true UHNWI would just hire rafts of people to take care of all of this.

Your houses? Continuously staffed and taken care of. Your plane? Taken care of. Pilot? On staff. Vacations? Talk to your 24/7 personal assistant, who will check details with you. Language? You got a human translator for that.

And let's not forget all the security guards you'll need.

Worried about staff stealing stuff? Doesn't matter. You won't miss that crystal bowl.

 

[Gumby]

Yes, I was trying to say giving up the jet and taking commercial planes is like giving up the car and taking the bus.

A bus all the time.. a transport device full of other people who smell, talk, invade your space... etc. . Horrible

I spent years riding the train and subway every day. After a while, it's easy to tune out all the other people. I suppose being a submariner was also helpful in defining my idea of personal space. The relatively few times I have flown privately, the thing that I valued the most was the convenience. Just drive around to the General Aviation side of the airport, park, walk from the car to the plane and get going. No lines, no searches, no waiting for the flight to board. The fact that hoi polloi were not in the plane with me was nice, but not crucial.

 

[JoeWras]

The relatively few times I have flown privately, the thing that I valued the most was the convenience. Just drive around to the General Aviation side of the airport, park, walk from the car to the plane and get going. No lines, no searches, no waiting for the flight to board. The fact that hoi polloi were not in the plane with me was nice, but not crucial.

Woah! Gumby, you are celebrity! You flew privately at least once. That puts you in some might rarefied air.

I presume it was some corporate thing?

 

[braumeister]

I spent years riding the train and subway every day. After a while, it's easy to tune out all the other people.

I think most people would be very surprised at how easy it is.

Through four years of college I commuted during the rush hours, morning and evening. Three different subway trains and one bus in each direction for a total of between three and four hours a day. Not only did I get much of my homework done during the commute, I often got a nice nap in as well, despite everything being full to overflowing with other commuters.

 

[SecondCor521]

Woah! Gumby, you are celebrity! You flew privately at least once. That puts you in some might rarefied air.

I presume it was some corporate thing?

Not Gumby, but I also flew privately a few times on my company's jet. It was primarily for executives, but if there were seats available they would rather let some low-level manager like me take up a seat for free rather than pay $400 for me to fly commercial.

It is really nice. The things I liked were avoiding TSA and most importantly, within reason the plane waited for you. They had a list and when everyone was there, we just took off. If you were five or ten minutes late showing up, no worries.

Oh, and the pilots were super friendly and there was a stash of candy and newspapers available which was kind of fun.

 

[Gumby]

Woah! Gumby, you are celebrity! You flew privately at least once. That puts you in some might rarefied air.

I presume it was some corporate thing?

8-10 times on business, only twice for pleasure.

 

[braumeister]

If I had that level of money (I never will), I would most likely buy a NetJets subscription, where you just buy hours of private plane time. Even Warren Buffett does it that way (although I believe he owns part of the company).

 

[NW-Bound]

I had to Google "Two Buck Chuck", never heard of that before.

You have not been around much, have you?

That's only in California, I think. Elsewhere, like where I live, it's $2.99 a bottle, or a "Three Buck Chuck".

I have not been to TJ's recently, else would have picked up a few bottles.

 

[street]

just for kick, here how billionaires live:

I sure wouldn't fit in that crowd. I would be much happier out getting my hands dirty at the ranch. Lol

 

[W2R]

Woah! Gumby, you are celebrity! You flew privately at least once. That puts you in some might rarefied air.

I presume it was some corporate thing?

Hey, I flew in private jets a half dozen times, when I was finishing up my BSEE at Texas A&M. Companies would fly three or four of us to their plants in other states, for a "plant trip" where we toured the plant and were interviewed for a job opening.

It was interesting to fly in a private jet, but in my case really I was just another senior that had made the final cut and so not a celebrity at all, or anything special.

Seeing the massive projects they were developing was more fun than the private jet.

 

[braumeister]

In my experience, flying in noncommercial jets is not always as much fun as you might think.

 

[Car-Guy]

^^^^ Looks like plenty of headroom.... Bet you could get out quick too...

 

[JoeWras]

I sure wouldn't fit in that crowd. I would be much happier out getting my hands dirty at the ranch. Lol

That Billionaires video has a flaw! When you get off the plane, someone else drives the car for you.

At least that was my experience when I lived in Florida. My "neighbors" included a #1 world ranked tennis player and a top 5 (in fame) baseball player, along with a bunch of golfers ranked top 10 at one time or another. Going to work, I took the main road that the private airport was on. In winter, I never saw so many Rolls Royces. It was nuts! I feared driving and banging into one of those cars. The "poor" rich people drove their own top end Benzes. 100 millionaires and above must have been the ones with drivers. You couldn't tell, because the windows were blacked out.

I did like the fact that you didn't have one chef, but two. Seems accurate.

In my experience, flying in noncommercial jets is not always as much fun as you might think.

I was wondering when someone would bring this up. DW was a civil air patrol cadet and she had stories. She never went in the military, though. I think her CAP experience cured her of the desire to every experience actual military air travel of any type, let alone getting dropped out of one.

 

[audreyh1]

just for kick, here how billionaires live:

Wait a minute ! That guys wheeled his own luggage out of the plane and put it in the trunk? No way!

 

[JoeWras]

Wait a minute ! That guys wheeled his own luggage out of the plane and put it in the trunk? No way!

Exactly! Flawed!

 

[Koolau]

I got to fly on the Megacorp jet a couple of times. Oddly enough, we were doing some field w*rk (and I do mean field) regarding some issues with one of Megacorps big products. Though we were all one-way-or-another scientists and technicians, we were dressed like field hands. It must have been an interesting sight as a dozen folks in jeans and long-sleeved flannel shirts bailed out of a $50 mil aircraft.

I recall for the return flight showing up at the executive terminal and asking where NXXXXX was located. The guy looked us up and down a couple of times, noticing the dirt on our pants and our sweaty shirts and bad sun burns. He finally directed us to our plane but I could see he still had doubts.

Heh, heh, we looked more like those folks on the bus than executives but YMMV.

 

[stepford]

I got to fly on the Megacorp jet a couple of times. Oddly enough, we were doing some field w*rk (and I do mean field) regarding some issues with one of Megacorps big products. Though we were all one-way-or-another scientists and technicians, we were dressed like field hands. It must have been an interesting sight as a dozen folks in jeans and long-sleeved flannel shirts bailed out of a $50 mil aircraft.

I recall for the return flight showing up at the executive terminal and asking where NXXXXX was located. The guy looked us up and down a couple of times, noticing the dirt on our pants and our sweaty shirts and bad sun burns. He finally directed us to our plane but I could see he still had doubts.

Heh, heh, we looked more like those folks on the bus than executives but YMMV.

This is a bit of a shift from the UHNWI thread into the area of Megacorp privilege, but Koolau's tale of the Mcorp jet reminded me of the grand old days of the executive helicopter. From the 60s through the 90s the old Aerospace Megacorp to which I was indentured had multiple divisions scattered around the Los Angeles area. Rather than make their executives rub bumpers with the great unwashed, Mcorp had a fleet of choppers that would ferry said execs around the Southland. Directors and VPs got to fly in the chopper all the time, but it was a privilege bestowed upon mere research scientists like me only rarely. I got to ride with the bigwigs only twice over the years. I'm not sure if it felt like being a UHNWI, but it was pretty cool.