YouTube Video: 7 Signs Someone is Secretly Wealthy

[Route246]

This video crossed my feed. 7 Signs Someone is Secretly Wealthy from Humphrey Yang.

Most of it pertains to my wife and me. I suspect most of it pertains to many people in these forums. It seems this is basically a video addendum for The Millionaire Next Door. It resonates nicely with me and I would assume it resonates with with many here.

 

[imjustawarrior]

I watched the video. It didn't resonate with me. The car thing was non-sense. The time thing was strange because I am DIY as much as possible. It has been years since we hired anyone to do anything at our house. He talks about being frugal right after talking about collecting expensive things. Which is it, frugal or collecting expensive things? Who has security issues? Really?

 

[aja8888]

I watched the video. It didn't resonate with me. The car thing was non-sense. The time thing was strange because I am DIY as much as possible. It has been years since we hired anyone to do anything at our house. He talks about being frugal right after talking about collecting expensive things. Which is it, frugal or collecting expensive things? Who has security issues? Really?

I had the same impressions. Seems like conflicting advice in places.

 

[gwill1010]

I watched the video. It didn't resonate with me. The car thing was non-sense. The time thing was strange because I am DIY as much as possible. It has been years since we hired anyone to do anything at our house. He talks about being frugal right after talking about collecting expensive things. Which is it, frugal or collecting expensive things? Who has security issues? Really?

He talked a lot about cars. Which part was non-sense?

 

[Aerides]

I didn't watch (not my thing) but I saw this at the bottom:

Timestamps:0:00 - Start Here0:23 -
They Avoid The 3 E's2:06 -
Drive an Older Car3:34 -
Spend Money on Uncommon Things5:43 -
Hyper Aware of Image7:38 -
Scrutinize Small Purchases8:43 -
Mastered the Ability to Wait10:05 -
Live in Modest Home

that sounds like a lot of non-wealthy people too! But the Hyper Aware of Image seems really off.

 

[imjustawarrior]

He talked a lot about cars. Which part was non-sense?

It came across to me as wealthy people do not buy expensive cars. His advice was that it is better to buy a used car. Those two things are non-sense to me. I was cringing so much at what he was saying about cars, I probably missed some other things.

 

[gwill1010]

It came across to me as wealthy people do not buy expensive cars. His advice was that it is better to buy a used car. Those two things are non-sense to me. I was cringing so much at what he was saying about cars, I probably missed some other things.

Yeah, wealthy people do by expensive cars.

Wealth builders buy used cars, buying new is a bad idea in all but extremely rare situations. Investing that extra $20K or $300 a month starting at age 25 is a life changer.

 

[Gumby]

I am much more interested in what people have done or can do than in what they have.

 

[Car-Guy]

Watched the video but almost stopped a few times. I'm not rich and I do live in a modest home (2000 sq ft) and probably wouldn't trade "up" even if I had tens time what I do. Yes, I do drive expensive cars but that's my love in life. What am I going to do? Save my money and deny my myself until I'm older! Hell, I am older.

 

[ponyboy]

It came across to me as wealthy people do not buy expensive cars. His advice was that it is better to buy a used car. Those two things are non-sense to me. I was cringing so much at what he was saying about cars, I probably missed some other things.

The whole buying a used car to save money was always a strange one to me. I guess if you don't have the pocket, by all means. Most people on these forums have so much money that a mediocre day of returns in the market offsets any amount of savings one would save on buying a used car vs new.

 

[Route246]

It came across to me as wealthy people do not buy expensive cars. His advice was that it is better to buy a used car. Those two things are non-sense to me. I was cringing so much at what he was saying about cars, I probably missed some other things.

I didn't take it that way because I never buy used cars, mainly because of technology improvements and I am a car guy and do my own detailing, etc. He is absolutely correct about the depreciation curve for most cars (very high-end Porsche, AMG. Lamborghini, Ferrari, et. al. excepted but that is because supply is tightly constrained). The electronic safety features are evolving very quickly so that is my excuse for having newer vehicles. He is also targeting people who make payments on cars. Most wealthy people I know pay cash so he is referring to those who are impending wealthy as I see things.

 

[Jerry1]

I know a few people that have at least $5M and I believe they have more than $10M. These are mostly execs where I used to work and am still friends with. None of them buy used cars. A couple lease (the ones I think that have the most) and the rest buy new and while they don’t flip them every few years, they certainly don’t drive them into the ground. I can’t imagine people that have even more (the truly wealthy) drive used cars. Maybe a few eccentrics but I doubt it’s the rule.

Personally, once I made manager, I started buying new and as a director, I was leasing. Now I buy new and get a new one when I feel like it. The expense of a vehicle just isn’t as material as it was in the early years.

 

[audreyh1]

Yet another good reason I don’t watch finance videos aside from not caring if other people are secretly wealthy. Also sounds like click bait to a side hustle to me.

 

[imjustawarrior]

I've heard the secretly wealthy don't watch youtube videos or read articles about being secretly wealthy.

 

[Diogenes]

These are fun amusing videos to watch... a guilty pleasure. Trouble is, that the definition of "wealth" is slippery and amorphous. My friend Joe has a net worth of $10M. Is he wealthy? Joe doesn't fly commercial. Why not? Because he doesn't fly at all. He stays home, saving his money. A big outing is driving his car to the nearest National Park. His used car, of course.

But what does impress (or maybe dismay?) me about essentially ALL such videos, discussions or blogs, is that "the wealthy" - even the middling wealthy - invariably own their own house. Modest, perhaps. Maybe just a generic bungalow. But own they do. They don't rent. Why not?

 

[RetiredHappy]

Not interested in watching stero types. Everyone is unique. We don't have alot of money but enough, always own nice new cars, not more than 3 to 5 years old before replacing with another new one, eat out at nice sitdown restaurant everyday. No car payments, always pay cash. I don't care what people think about us, whether we have alot or little, whether we are wasting money or not. We live in a modest home in a very high end community, still worth about a million, but considered cheap and there are those who would say, oh, those tract homes. Whatever.

 

[Andre1969]

Maybe I'm behind the times, but I don't think $500-800/mo is all that much for a car payment these days. But, my point of reference there is myself. In the fall of '99, I bought a new '00 Intrepid. It was $22,389 out the door. $2000 down, and $347.66/mo for 60 months, at 0.9% APR.

Adjusted for inflation, that would be $42,975 out the door, $3,839 down, and $667.33/mo. Now, I was ahead of the curve back then, buying that car at age 29. For the most part, younger guys don't buy larger cars...the median age of an Intrepid buyer was something like 43 at the time, and that was about the lowest age of what they were passing off as "full-sized" cars by 2000.

That car payment was not a struggle for me, nor did it hold me back. Anyway, nowadays, you're not going to get that much car for $3,839 down and $667.33/mo for 5 years. Interest rates are higher nowadays, so that $667/mo is going to be more interest payment, and less car, for your money.

Now maybe if you're paying $800/mo, but you put zero down and you're financing it for 72 or 84 months, then yeah, you probably bit off more than you can chew. But these days, I imagine "struggling" with a car payment would be more like $1000 or more a month. That is, if you can't afford it.

And, at one point, he mentioned "people with 7, 8, or 9 figures." Well, that's an awfully big span, ranging from $1,000,000 to $999,999,999! Even within, say, the 7 figure range, someone at the $9,999,999 mark is a whole different level than $1,000,000. Someone with $1M might feel the effect of an $800/mo car payment, depending on what their other expenses are. But someone with $9,999,999 could probably pay cash for a Ferrari without batting an eye.

Well, depending on their priorities and their propensity to spend money, I guess. I'm sure there are some people with $1M who might blow a big chunk on a Ferrari, while some at the $9,999,999 level would still gripe about an $800/mo car payment (being able to easily afford it, and wanting to pay it, are two different things!)

 

[TheWizard]

Since we're talking new cars now, I'll just mention that I bought my first new car back in 1975, fifty years ago. And I've bought quite a few more since then.

For the first few decades, I would take out a 36 month loan for the new car but then pay extra as funds permitted, thus paying it off in maybe two years.
The reason for this was that I was increasing the withholding from my monthly paycheck each year to stuff more into my tax-deferred 403(b).
Eventually I maxed out contributions to both my 403(b) andy Roth IRA but it took a while.

In retirement, it's a different story. I've got lots of income and invest the excess in my taxable account. So when time comes for a new car now, I just pay cash...

 

[luckydude]

The irony is that the vast majority of the people who produce these kinds of videos are not wealthy. So, they have zero firsthand experiences on what it's like to possess, manage and utilize wealth., and much of their "observations", "lessons" and "secrets" are invariably drawn from what they've read or watched elsewhere. Then they either regurgitate or draw their own conclusions based on what they think how wealthy people behave, which invariably ends up being stereotypes that often times have no basis in reality.

There's a tendency for people to ascribe certain common stereotypical "characteristics" or "behavioral patterns" to a given socio-economic group, whether it's the wealthy, the middle class, or the lower class. For example, it's an easy temptation to assume that "lower class" folks are somehow "uneducated", "lazy", "irresponsible", etc. The truth is that there's a wide and diverse range of experiences, dynamics and even luck of the draw as to why someone ends up in a certain socio-economic group, and it's simply not possible, nor is it fair, to paint everyone in a group with a broad brush. But these nuances are lost in videos like this.

 

[Lorenzo]

Cars. Right out of college my family strongly urged me to buy a brand-new car, and they chipped in 2k, if I recall, for the downpayment. Their thinking was that the last thing I needed as I began my new life--which began with a cross-country road trip to where I would be working--was a car that needed frequent repairs. What I needed, their logic went, was to be able to budget reliably. I have never made up my mind whether that was good advice. I was so paranoid about keeping my car in perfect condition that I was susceptible to every repair shop's recommendation to fix something that probably didn't need fixing.

 

[marko]

The whole buying a used car to save money was always a strange one to me. I guess if you don't have the pocket, by all means. Most people on these forums have so much money that a mediocre day of returns in the market offsets any amount of savings one would save on buying a used car vs new.

Fifty five years ago at age 18, I was getting ready to buy my first car. I was all hot to buy a used car from a friend. It was a lot cheaper than the brand new car that I was eyeing.

My dad took me aside and told me that, that car would "bankrupt" me as every other month I'd need a new battery, or shocks, or brakes, or tires or something else expensive.

I was not happy as the used car was kind of "the hot car" at the time (but Dad, it has Hurst shifter!!) but after sleeping on it, decided that the old man was right, and went out and bought the new car. Never had a used car.

 

[zangbao]

Well, this video almost describes me. I don't own a house though. I rent a tiny condo. I don't own a car either. I've only bought four vehicles in my life so far. Only one was bought new after college that still runs to this day. All the clothes I own now can fit in one large suitcase. But the small things I do buy, I buy it for life. As for travel, I BTD.

 

[DrRoy]

It was a fair fit except that we have generally bought new cars, although we did usually keep them for a long time.

 

[Koolau]

The whole buying a used car to save money was always a strange one to me. I guess if you don't have the pocket, by all means. Most people on these forums have so much money that a mediocre day of returns in the market offsets any amount of savings one would save on buying a used car vs new.

I think the whole used car thing is a mind-set. It is with me. Even though I have more money than I need and can afford virtually any "normal" new car, I can't loose that "value for the money" guiding principle.

Besides, I've driven or ridden in several new cars and I like the comfort and lay-out of my old cars better!

 

[marko]

As I get older, almost every day out driving I'm reminded that I want need the latest and greatest safety features.

Advanced collision avoidance, backup cameras, automatic parking, lane departure and 150 air bags. My built in dash cam is an added plus.