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

[JoeWras]

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Originally Posted by street 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.

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Originally Posted by braumeister 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]

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Originally Posted by Spanky just for kick, here how billionaires live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3q3Rb86ZqI

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

[JoeWras]

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Originally Posted by audreyh1 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]

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Originally Posted by 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.

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.

[CoolRich59]

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Originally Posted by donheff No one with $30M+ would out themselves on a public forum, notwithstanding promises to do so one day by HawaiiShrimp..

Agreed.

In between megacorps, I spent a couple of years with a software company. One of the company's founding employees cashed in his options and was pretty wealthy.

He had a villa in Tuscany and would spend six months there each year. The other six months he spent back in Chicago, working for the company as a software sales exec, to keep from getting bored.

Pretty nice guy and very low key. I don't think he would ever post about his wealth.

[NW-Bound]

The biggest benefit of having a private jet is that you do not have to wait around in a commercial terminal for boarding. Even when flying 1st class, you still have to mingle with the uncouth. On the other hand, with a private jet, the boarding process including custom and immigration clearance is much quicker and more personal.

In his autobiography The Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort recounted the time he flew to a Swiss city, Geneva if I recall correctly, he was surprised to be able to walk from the jet directly out to the street, without encountering any officer checking his paper or luggage.

One does not need a private jet for the privilege. Just a NetJet timeshare will work.

[WhenIsItTime]

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Originally Posted by SecondCor521 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.

My Corp experience was mostly like this, but I reported to a couple bosses who had direct access. While our leadership were humble and great to work for, out of respect you either showed up with them or before them. On time was late!

Considerably less hassle. Going transatlantic during the day was nice. Only downside was having to bring your own entertainment and bit hard to get sleep (unlike commercial business class). Always felt special until we landed in Teterboro, place was always packed with private jets.

[audreyh1]

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Originally Posted by NW-Bound One does not need a private jet for the privilege. Just a NetJet timeshare will work.

The uber wealthy I know charter private jets for personal travel.

[SecondCor521]

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Originally Posted by WhenIsItTime My Corp experience was mostly like this, but I reported to a couple bosses who had direct access. While our leadership were humble and great to work for, out of respect you either showed up with them or before them. On time was late!

Indeed. I was never late, but some of my fellow average class employees occasionally were. Even so, it was not a big deal because we all knew that when the fifth or eighth person (*) walked in the door we could all go - didn't have to wait for an arbitrary departure time. And while we were waiting we could just hang out in a nice hangar office and drink coffee.

(*) My company had two jets, they were both on the small side, maybe 6 to 10 people total.

[Ronstar]

My niece’s husband used to fly for a uhnwi. Several houses, jet, lots of fancy cars. I took a ride on his jet once. The thing that I’ll never forget is how clean the jet and hanger were. Spotless.

I suspect that rich people like everything spotless and pay a lot to keep their stuff that way.

[Spanky]

It is hard to laying down when there is work (or cleaning) to be done. Ha

[HawaiiShrimp]

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Originally Posted by Ronstar My niece’s husband used to fly for a uhnwi. Several houses, jet, lots of fancy cars. I took a ride on his jet once. The thing that I’ll never forget is how clean the jet and hanger were. Spotless. I suspect that rich people like everything spotless and pay a lot to keep their stuff that way.

Wow. Thanks for sharing. I never sit in a private jet; let alone owning one. I hope to get a chance to try it out some day.

[F.I.R.E User]

If I was to Fat F.I.R.E. I would definitely go back to where I grew up which was in Bay Area, CA.

Pacific Heights in SF.

[JoeWras]

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Originally Posted by F.I.R.E User If I was to Fat F.I.R.E. I would definitely go back to where I grew up which was in Bay Area, CA. Pacific Heights in SF.

I think I'm kind of going in this direction. If I were UHNW, I wouldn't care about taxes or housing expenses, and would go for the moderate climate, beautiful views, and access to other UHNW buddies. California comes to mind for sure. FL is nice, but damn the humidity. CA earthquakes? Who cares? Just throw away the house and get a new one.

The UHNW taxes are one reason CA can stay afloat. Of course, keeping the servant class viable continues to be an issue.

[F.I.R.E User]

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Originally Posted by JoeWras I think I'm kind of going in this direction. If I were UHNW, I wouldn't care about taxes or housing expenses, and would go for the moderate climate, beautiful views, and access to other UHNW buddies. California comes to mind for sure. FL is nice, but damn the humidity. CA earthquakes? Who cares? Just throw away the house and get a new one. The UHNW taxes are one reason CA can stay afloat. Of course, keeping the servant class viable continues to be an issue.

Also, Palo Alto or Los Altos Hills are great choices too.

[CRLLS]

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Originally Posted by Time2 If I was suddenly UHNWI, there's nothing much about my life would change. I would however try to put together an electromechanical shop, hire, a machinist, mechanical engineer, a physicist, chemist, and who nows what else. And just build sciencey type things. Maybe interactive displays for museums. Possibly work on new inventions or products. Just make cool things. If interested, put me in your will!

That highlighted part almost sounds like Jay Leno. I had to look him up. One site says he is worth 400mil. That would be enough for me.

[Car-Guy]

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Originally Posted by CRLLS That highlighted part almost sounds like Jay Leno. I had to look him up. One site says he is worth 400mil. That would be enough for me.

I wonder if that includes his car and motorcycle collections?

[NW-Bound]

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Originally Posted by Music Lover 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.

That's why Prince Harry quit. I don't know a whole lot about him, but like his style when I read the news.

[rodi]

On the private jet thing - like others here I had the opportunity to fly in my employers jet a few times - these were strictly pleasure type trips... he'd just upgraded to a Citation (had some lesser lear jet prior). One saturday I was in the lab working overtime and he offered to reward me and my roommate (who was in another part of the building, also working overtime) - we flew from Bellingham to Everett, had lunch at the airport and then flew back. Gorgeous day and beautiful views over the puget sound.

I still resent that jet, though. The day he announced he was buying it, he also announced he was cancelling our annual bonuses... Since bonuses were part of the promised "total compensation package" they'd sold us on when hiring, it was a big slap in the face.

Another jet story - from the other end. At my next employer I was getting ready to fly, with another engineer, across country. The CEO's admin called me up to see if I could give one of the execs a ride to the airport to pick up his car. He'd been on a work junket and hitched a ride back to a different airport on the corporate jet... His car was at the Philly airport, and he'd flown into the Allentown airport on the corporate jet. So - he got the luxury of sitting in the back seat of my tiny 3dr honda civic hatchback (The other engineer was tall - the exec was short - so it made sense.) The exec was gracious, but horrified, all at the same time.