A sure way to find out who is a "well to do" retiree? (inherit, friend)
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This thread has reminded me of a quote by Knight Kiplinger: "The biggest impediment to becoming rich is living like you are rich before you really are".
It is easier to live a more affluent life as you age as your time horizon to plan for shortens. Makes a big difference.
Maybe the best way is to follow someone you suspect is wealthy home and if they go to a mansion in an upscale neighborhood you can figure they're wealthy.
Two possible problems with that suggestion though, A. they could be the hired help and B. You could get arrested for stalking.
That is the truth!!! In the mid 90s I had a job as a tour guide at the Breakers Mansion in Newport, R.I. This was the former summer cottage of Cornelius Vanderbilt who at the turn of the century was one of the wealthiest men in the country. One day at work I was having lunch in the tour guide break room which was originally the mansion kitchen pantry and was interrupted by this late 60ish woman, every hair out of place wearing a tattered pink sweat suit. This woman asked me if I could help bring in some cleaning supplies she just purchased. Her appearance and the fact she just purchased cleaning supplies made me suspect she was one of the mansion maids. I gladly agreed to help her bring in the cleaning supplied from her car which was an older model economy Ford or Chevy. She took the 24 pack of toilet paper purchased from Walmart, and I grabbed the remaining bags of supplies and followed her up the stairs behind the kitchen. Just as we got to a closed door at the top of the stairs this woman asked me to leave the bags there and thanked me for my help. When I got back to the break room there was another tour guide in there and has seen me head up the stairs with the "maid" and said to me "looks like you just met the Countess Szepary". The Countess was the gg granddaughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt who lived from time to time in the 3rd floor apartment which the family retained residence rights when they sold the Breakers to the Preservation Society which I was unaware of. Here I am thinking by appearance this woman was a maid and come to find out she was a multimillionaire Countess who just happened to like to wear sweat suits and shop at Walmart
Great story! I have one too. I work off and on at Williams-Sonoma. One day I spent a couple hours helping 2 'older' people choose a bunch of high end kitchen stuff for spring weddings they were attending. They were really nice, just ordinary looking folks. No OTT jewels or anything. They were very kind. Great customers.
After they left one of the other employees told me they were the Firestones... More money than I can ever imagine!
Many fabulously wealthy people in my part of New England are artists of various kinds, intellectuals with advanced degrees who may have never needed a career to survive, and eccentrics. They tend to immerse themselves in counterculture and do not do the nails-hair-makeup-clothes-car stuff. They get "down and dirty" (lol) with the local folks who are generally ok-off but not well-off. The blending of rich and not-so-rich is so subtle there's just no way to tell. There is to some degree cultural snobbery in some circles, like who's been to whose gallery opening and lots of armchair "culturalists" who go to every event, some to be seen more than to be enlightened. I think it's easier to be among the not so wealthy in America today, the strata of wealth being so indistinguishable in general.
Living in Florida it's easy to tell that the snowbirds have disposable income as they can afford two homes. But perhaps they worked hard all their lives so they could live a good retirement. I don't begrudge them that. However, I do want to shoot them when they are on the roads during rush hour!
Money to travel several times a year and eat out a lot at "nice" restaurants.
We all can have nice houses, cars and clothes, some solid stock/investments" -yet its these two things that tell me the couple is well fixed, financially, because they are the extra expenses that separate the herd.
We can keep up with the house, car and clothes but we have to cut back on the travel and nice restaurants to save money.
What tells you that a couple you meet or know is doing very well?
Usually I look for signs of "not wealthy" like when you open the fridge and see generic condiments and lots of McDonald's ketchup packets! Then you notice in the trash they only have cans of cat food discarded but they don't own a cat!
Seriously? Affluent and well off people and the truly well off never discuss investing or investing strategies or wills and estates and trust funds etc? Sure about that? Diversification, allocation, how much to keep in cash, financial advisors, annuities etc etc etc. How about buying a second home or a beach home. Those are all give aways. Even retiring at 60 and waiting til 70 for SS is a clue that your lifestyle still has room to grow etc etc. Even if discussing interest in a CCRC and comparing buy in notes about cost and what size unit you are interested in.
I meant they don't discuss how much money they or others have. It's gauche.
I'm wondering why it's something the OP wants to figure out. Why does he want to know how much others have? It's nobody's business but their own.
We operate on the exact opposite system of the OP. He keeps up with others by spending excess money on house, car, clothing (according to his post) and forgoes travel and eating out, perceiving those who do so as being "well off". We travel and eat out when we want by restricting spending on overpriced clothing, cars, houses, etc. So to him we might appear "well off", while we shop at Walmart and drive 14 year old compact cars.
"Well off" is such a vague meaningless term anyway. His "well off" might be someone else's "just doing okay".
Last edited by TheShadow; 07-16-2016 at 09:13 AM..
I have to laugh at some of these descriptions of how to spot wealth. You may instead be spotting credit card debt and overextended finances. Expensive jewelry in particular holds very little interest for some women.
A few decades back I remember an older couple who lived in a sweet home around 1250 sq. ft. that eventually sold for $150k. They were car shopping for probably their last car and could have afforded anything they wanted, including a Cadillac which at the time was the most luxurious choice. Instead they decided to move "up" from their Oldsmobile to a Buick, declaring it their best car ever. They decided they would be embarrassed to drive a Cadillac.
When they passed away, each child received well over a million dollars as inheritance, and one them kept that Buick for several more years to drive. I think the attitude towards conspicuous consumption is something that is ingrained from the behavior of the family.
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