People Break Down The Craziest Money-Making Schemes They've Ever Heard Of
Reddit user primeiro23 asked: 'What are the craziest ways you’ve heard of people making money?'
When I was in seventh grade, I had aspirations to be a poet. I made a Mother's Day card for my mom with a cute (but now, cringe-worthy) poem inside, and a hand-drawn picture of a rose that took me hours to perfect.
A friend saw the card and said they wished they could do the same. Then suddenly, she asked if she could buy the card from me. I said no, since I needed to give it to my own mother, but I said I could make her a copy. From there, my friend got the idea for me to make copies of the card to sell. I went along with it, mostly because I didn't think it would actually work.
Turns out, it did. After making sure people would actually be interested, we went to the library after school and made several color copies of my card for 10 cents each. The next day, we sold each card for $1. Not only did we make enough money so that my friend and I could both afford to get our moms an actual present in addition to the card, but we had enough leftover to put us over the top for the money we needed to buy the matching faux leather jackets we'd been wanting all year.
The next year, many people who bought cards asked me to do it again, so I did. Once again, we made a killing. We didn't try to do it again once we got to high school, but it was definitely fun while it lasted.
When we tell people this story, they think it's a pretty crazy money-making scheme. Maybe it is, but we're not the only ones who ever did anything like this. Redditors know all about crazy money-making schemes, and are eager to share their own stories.
It all started when Redditor primeiro23 asked:
"What are the craziest ways you’ve heard of people making money?"
Tumble Into Business
"In college, I take a class on how to start & run a small business. Prof tells us to think of ridiculous business models for our fictitious businesses as we will get more out of the class that way. Stupid ideas ensue. Selling paperclips door to door, refilling car gasoline tanks in people's driveways, service to read & summarize the newspaper to executives etc."
"One classmate decides he is going to sell tumbleweed."
"Guess who quits college and started a successful business? Tumbleweed guy. Takes a van to the desert, collects tumbleweed and sells them to Hollywood movie & TV studios who need them. Keeps the tumbleweed in a warehouse and since they never spoil, his only costs are gasoline, storage & a website. He eventually becomes the number one tumbleweed provider to studios around the world, shipping tumbleweed globally."
"Made a heap of money selling what millions of people drive by and ignore every year."
– Accomplished-Fig745
Synopses
"I did have a job reading and summarizing newspaper articles to the boss. Literally only task I was hired for."
– Draigdwi
"An actual union job in the film industry is reading scripts and summarizing them in short mean book reports."
– Trixiebees
Jump!
"Heard of crazier, but a guy I know, friend of my mother's, went to Texas 30+ years ago. (we are from Norway), and he noticed every single garden had a trampoline. And it was almost always "jump king" - the circular with blue mat ones."
"So he went to the HQ, bought 10 and took back to Norway. Within days they were sold, and he ordered 50 more, same thing. So he became the only importer and has God knows how many millions to his name today."
– alexdaland
"This IS wild. I went to Norway recently and one of the first things I noticed was that almost EVERY yard had a trampoline in it."
– TrulyMadlyCheaply
Working For A Home
"Back when Dogecoin took off I wrote a guide on recovering old lost wallets and it got so popular I was flooded with requests for further help. Some corrupted wallet files, some lost passwords, etc."
"I have a background in computer science and experience in data retrieval and password cracking, so I started helping people in exchange for a percentage cut (industry standard for wallet recovery). All above board with a contract and everything."
"For a while I was getting new clients every week and making hundreds up to thousands of dollars on every successful recovery (with a fairly good rate of success). The biggest one I ever recovered was a 19 letter long password someone had lost. The work dried up when the price of doge dropped but it got me the down-payment on a house."
– internetpillows
Horsing Around
"A cabbie in Dublin once told me a story about one of his fares who had a brilliant hustle."
"The guy was a sculptor. He would watch horse races, then when a horse won, he'd use social media to contact the owner directly with a digital mockup of a life-sized sculpture of the winning horse. Now, the people who own winning racehorses tend to be very rich - we're talking sheikhs, oligarchs, billionaires. Every now and again, one of these owners would bite, and spend €100,000 euros or so on a statue commemorating their animal's win."
"Dude only did a couple a year, and spent the rest of the time living the good life."
– escoterica
Sweet!
"Richest guy in a rich town near us makes enormous amounts of money buying Hershey bars and rewrapping them with customised retirement celebration designs or corporate logos to be given away at events. Literally just rewraps them in pieces of paper and doubles or triples his money."
"Every time I try to start a company or invent a better product or something, I ask myself why I’m not just rewrapping candy bars."
– perchance2cream
"F**k man, I think I found my new niche."
– LibertyPrimeIsASage
Slightly Used
"I went to college in a capitol C college town. A friend of mine bought an old school bus, fixed it up and took out all the seats."
"At the end of every semester she would drive around the neighborhood that was the fancier side of off campus living and collect whatever the rich kids were throwing out before they moved / went home for the summer. Flat screen TVs, couches, computers, tables, it was wild to see what people would chuck out and replace the next semester rather than having to deal with getting a storage unit or moving themselves."
"Sold it all on Craigslist over the summer or the beginning of the next semester and made a killing."
– sam_neil
Credit Where Credit Is Undue
"When I worked in a really busy, upscale restaurant my coworker would put all of his cash-paying customer’s bills on his credit card and keep the cash which he used to promptly pay off his credit card."
"He did this all day, every day for quite a while and the points started to add up and he was getting free airfare, etc."
"Worked great for a while until management notice a rise in credit card processing fees with an emphasis on one employee and they shut him down real quick."
– blinkysmurf
We Found Gold!
"My buddy worked his way through college by panning for gold. This was in 2009 in California. Most days he made nothing, occasionally he would come home with a couple hundred bucks worth and I think once he found a night worth over $1k."
– discostud1515
"My cousin had a metal detector when he was in HS. He would go every weekend down to the lake and take it with him on vacation. He found all kinds of things. He did find gold jewelry and would sell it online. He made so much money he bought his own car."
– Content_Pool_1391
Sleeping For The Job
"I knew a woman whose job was literally to sleep."
"A local office building owner wanted somebody on-site 24/7 to be the point of contact with first responders if they ever needed to be called. So they hired her to come in to the building in the evening when the maintenance crew was finishing their work. And she would settle up to sleep for the night in a bedroom they'd set aside for her. In the morning she'd hand the building back over to the office employees and go on about her day."
"No first responders were ever called. It's about the least stressful legitimate job I could ever imagine."
– CaptainTime5556
The Secret
"Back in the 90s, I knew a guy who put an ad in the classified section of the newspaper which read something along the lines of, “For $10, I’ll tell you my secret to making easy money. Send $10 cash to (address) to find out how.” People would send him $10 & he would then instruct them to put a classified ad in the newspaper telling people to send $10 & how to make money."
– freudianfalls
Accident Payment
"I was pushed down the stairs by a teen girl who told me to "pay attention and get out of her way" i ripped my dress during the fall and was getting back up when some guy rushed up to me, apologized for his daughter and handed me $500 as compensation."
– thebrilliantcounc
"LOL - years back, I was in a parking lot during a snowstorm. A guy was trying to pull around me, slid on the snow/ice and hit into my passenger side door. It really and truly was an accident. He was all apologies. We exchanged info - he said to get a quote and he would pay for the damage."
"Well, the car I was driving at the time was a crappy old Ford worth maybe $500. But, I went to a body shop, got a quote on the repair and it was $900. I faxed it to him (this was back in the 90's, LOL) thinking he'd tell me to go through the insurance company and just have the car totaled out."
"To my surprise, I had a bank check for $900 from him in my mailbox three days later. Now, I already owned another car, so I pocketed the $900, sold the smashed car for parts for $300 and ended up with $1200 on a car that was worth only $500 before the accident. I was very glad that he ran into me!"
– Deleted User
Only Feet
"I have a friend who sells pictures of her feet. In heels. Barefoot squishing cake. In mud. She charges extra for special requests. Has strict ‘no go’ rules. Never shows anything above the calf so she can’t be identified (no tats). All proceeds go to her kid’s college fund. Has made enough to fund a PhD."
– NotACrazyCatLadyx2
The things people do for money! But, I guess it works for her!
People Explain What 'Rich People Sh*t' They Do Even Though They're Not Rich
Reddit user Abbas_Noorani asked: 'what is some rich sh*t you do even though you are not rich?'
When I started college, I had every intention of cooking all my meals. It became very apparent very quickly that I simply didn't have the time to accomplish this, and I became the Takeout Queen.
I ordered food constantly. Between getting a monthly "allowance" from my dad (intended to go towards groceries), finding coupons taped to my apartment door everyday, and essentially being "allowed" to tip less than handsomely since I was a college student, I was able to afford this.
When I graduated and moved into my own place, things changed. I was too old to not tip properly, I didn't get any supplementary money from my family, and I had more expenses, such as rent. Still, I continued to order food, and it became my main expense.
My friends tell me the way I order food is only meant for "rich people." I have to skimp on everything else in order to have enough saved to support this. It's definitely true, but I don't think this habit will ever change.
I'm not the only one that does "rich people stuff." Redditors do lots of things that is classified that way, despite not being rich, and they are ready to share their stories.
It all started when Redditor Abbas_Noorani 16 asked:
"What is some rich sh*t you do even though you are not rich?"
Ravenous
"Food. I buy what I want and I try new stuff. I like cooking."
– 34i79s
"Grocery shopping without concern for budget is what made me realize I had made it back in the day. Good times."
"Now I have hard budgets again and it truly sucks. You question every damn decision and convince yourself to do without or downgrade to the lowest priced quality."
– txmail
"On the same boat. The other day I looked at expensive butter that I used to stock up on without even thinking twice and sighed."
– cat101786
Monthly
"Forget to cancel my free trial."
– Adept_Insurance5550
"Damn. Thanks for the reminder."
– -Bk7
"I'm still a member of AOL."
– __SpeedRacer__
Too Hot
"I leave the fridge door open when getting the butter out even though my dad said it would cost billions and send us to the streets."
– frank-sarno
"I leave the front door open when I pop out to grab my mail. Took me years of living on my own to realize the AC bill doesn’t shoot up by hundreds of dollars if I do that."
– MelodramaticQuarter
Necessities
"Buy the good toilet paper."
– FrankGehryNuman
"Absolutely!"
"Good toilet paper. Can't stand cheapo toilet paper, you give yourself a surprise when your finger goes through the paper when wiping your chuff. Don't get me started on that stuff they used to have in hospitals! It was awful - sandpaper that didn't soak up but rather moved stuff 🤐"
– helensmelon
Clean And Sweep
"I have a maid that comes weekly. I've found that my sanity is worth the cost."
– Eringobraugh2021
"Weekly? Oo la la!"
– a**ypantz72
Comfort Matters
"My thermostat stays at the temperature setting of what is most comfortable to me and nothing will change that."
– Cyb3rTruk
"Lol this really outlined how different climates can be. My thought was "Yeah, I'm going to be as cozy and warm as I want and not freeze in the comfort of my own home.""
– McCoyIsFun
Double
"Some days I have two sandwiches at lunch. I smile as I watch all my fellow proletariat eating their single sandwich."
– ShambolicPaul
"Brotip: Cut your sandwich an infinite number of times and rearrange the pieces into two full sandwiches. Don't give your money away to Big Sandwich!"
– NotInherentAfterAll
Sparkling
"Paying for car cleaning."
– angydevil
"Justified, tho my dad would kill me."
– Abbas_Noorani
The Big Cheese
"I sometimes buy name brand cheese instead of the store brand."
– NeuroguyNC
"Tillamook or nothing for me! I’ll buy store brand beans and paper towels and other stuff. But not for my cheese!"
– VariegatedThumb
Replenish
"We have a garage fridge that is full of all different kinds of beverages."
– SixStinkyFingers
"It's not the fridge itself, it's keeping it stocked!"
– 4x32Studio
A House Is A Home
"I own a house...."
– 1d0m1n4t3
"Oh damn rich people sh*t."
– Abbas_Noorani
"We shouldn't be able to joke about owning a modest home being rich people sh*t. Anyone who works full time should be able to afford a home."
– 1d0m1n4t3
Write Better
"I buy the gel comfort pens. Makes me feel I'm a higher class when writing at work. Smooth crisp consistent ink."
– UltraCoolPimpDaddy
"I have gotten into arguments over people stealing my G2 .07."
– savvyspoon2
Me Too!
"I buy small trash bags for the bathroom trash bins. My whole family uses grocery bags, but I don’t like how they always rip at the bottom."
– Deleted User
It's Required!
"No Margarine in my house, Butter Only, and lots of it. My arteries think I'm rich."
– weisblattsnut
Unused
"I have HBO but I don’t watch it."
– MillionToOneShotDoc
"I have Netflix, Prime, Hulu, and Disney Plus. Don’t watch any of it. Watch YouTube all the time and I’m too stupid to get Premium."
– AngryDerf
Now, that's the definition of having money to burn!
Of course, I wouldn't know. I need to save money for my food!
By the time we are in high school, we tend to try and keep track of our classmates and see what they are up to as we progress in our own lives.
Some of our classmates end up extremely successful, and sometimes, wealthy. Redditors know this all too well. They know how their old classmates became rich and are eager to share.
It all started when Redditor Ivl231889 asked:
"How did that person in your class become rich?"
He Was A Skater Boy
"He dropped out of high school at 15 to be a pro skateboarder. People laughed, he's now worth 50 mil."
"Rick Howard"
"Yeah it's pretty cool, went to school together and a bunch of us started skating around the same time, he just took it to the next level. Thankfully I wasn't of those laughing as I knew he'd make it but damn, numerous businesses and 50 mil later, well done my man."
– tekhed303
A Hell Of A Life
"Started online gambling sites back in the 90s, dropped out of high-school, millionaire by 20 Overdosed by 25."
– waltwalt
"What a life. That 5 year run would have been wild"
– superfresh23
Coders
"Sim for me- my friend wrote code for the online sites that was really good in some way (beats me how I’m no programmer) and they paid him through the nose for it. Next step he modified the code to work for stock market prediction and he runs a hedge fund. Owns like 8 houses in 6 diff countries and his own jet. I’m smart but not in that specific kind of way - I’d be jealous except he was a good nice dude before and remains. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy and it was all through work and smarts"
– Remarkable_Green_566
Bitcoin
"I went to school with a kid that was all in on bitcoin from the get go. He was a hustler out of the womb, and held two jobs along with a couple different side hustles. He didn't have much in the way of a social life, so he invested probably 75% of his income. He was buying bitcoin when it was like $1. He went on to buy a number of gas stations/ convenience stores and apartment buildings. He went from a McDonald's fry cook to buying and selling classic cars as a hobby."
– Waffle_Maestro
"One of my former co-workers did something fairly similar. When he upgraded to new servers (we were self-hosting), he asked our owner if he could use the old ones to mine BTC. The owner said it was fine as long as he took them home to do it. Similarly to the kid in your story, he also spent some of his income buying up BTC (between the years it moved from ~$10 to $200 per coin), and then also was part of some BTC trading thing online."
"Fast forward to 2019, he sells off most of it at $16k per coin. He wouldn't tell our friend group (mostly old colleagues) how much exactly, except to confirm it was more than 1,000 coins. He did pay taxes on all of it... still bought a giant house outside of Boulder and now travels all over and is getting a Ph.D. for fun."
"Obviously he could've held longer, but I think he was just tired of obsessing over its value bouncing all over the place when he already had more than enough to retire comfortably in his mid-thirties."
– asmodeanreborn
"Not my close friend but a kid in my English class, really f**king smart kid. He entered a coding/robotics competition and got third place. He was pretty bummed out for a while. First prize was a scholarship for a pretty big university. And third place got a lousy 500 bitcoin. He kept the 500 bitcoin despite people telling him to cash it and get the $100 or whatever it was worth. Anyway he cashed it at the peak of bitcoin and is now living pretty f**king well with his $30mil."
– Sploshta
He Was The One
"A guy skipped class to MUD enough times that the best high school in the Midwest kicked him out. He rarely showered and smelled like death."
"He went to college at 25 and sold Volcano vaporizers from his dorm room. Over the next decade or so, he built that business into a large head-shop wholesaler. He cashed out eight figures liquid just before the pandemic."
"20% of our class are engineers today; 10% are doctors and 10% are lawyers. Ol' stinky is more successful than any of us."
– mzanon100
The Tech Field
"She started working for a little company called Microsoft in the mid-1980s. She retired at 40."
– dma1965
"My classmate worked at LinkedIn before it got big. Retired at ~30 by pouring everything into buying a house. Helps that he likes eating plain foods (bread, rice, porridge, potatoes, broccoli, carrots) and doesn’t really spend that much money."
"He’s basically been traveling 10/12 months a year since retirement."
– WeeBabySeamus
Stock Guru
"Smart guy. A little socially awkward but was a swimmer and in top classes."
"Went to UCLA, became a doctor (maybe a surgeon). Started to play the stock market for fun. Ran a bulletin board to talk stocks."
"Turns out he had Asperger and was able to read the stock market signs really well."
"Made $300M when the market crashed as he bet against it. Christian Bale played him in the movie about him, the Big Short."
"Mike Burry. Class of 1989. We knew each other. Not friends but acquainted. Couldn’t be happier for the guy. Truly, happy he’s done well. Not seen him since we graduated. If I did I’d totally (and jokingly) ask him for some cash. I’d try to make him laugh. He’d probably still be awkward."
– MW240z
Rich By Accident
"There's a lot of them that became rich. For most of them they graduated as engineers or medical doctors and simply did their jobs and were reward handsomely."
"But that friend became rich through trades. He took his student loan and bought a piece of very inexpensive land just outside of his city limits. Just by an absolute fluke the city announced shortly after that it planned to expand city limits to include his vacant land.... and suddenly it skyrocketed in value. This was at a time before any real internet and before everyone had a cell phone. And there's all these property developers trying to figure out who owns this land so they can buy it."
"Eventually his mom opens his mail and finds a past due property tax notice and an offer for about 20x what he paid for it."
"He took the first offer he got (and regretted it) and went to a bank and directed them to invest entirely in dividend stocks and for the dividends to be deposited directly into his bank account."
"He used that money to stay a student for life and basically never worked a day in his life. There was one point where it got close to him needing to get a job... but then one of the companies announced increasing their dividend."
"I have rich friends, and then there's him... just living off of his wealth. He doesn't have a great life, but he also doesn't work."
– garlicroastedpotato
I Knew Him Before
"I went to school and was friends with the guy who founded Uber. He offered to take my SATs for me for $500 as we looked alike and he is very smart. He was always "that guy.""
– ReflectionsGo2Ways
Don't Judge A Book...
"Big-time stoner who I always thought was a lazy scumbag who would never amount to anything.
He went on to start one of America's most successful marijuana edible companies. Classy billboard ads in multiple cities. My mom bought their CBD gummies for awhile. Every year he donates millions of dollars of his company's profits to bail funds for people of color who've been arrested for marijuana possession.
He is more successful and has done more objective good for the world than I ever have or will. Turns out I was a bitter judgmental loser in high school!"
– UOLATSC
Do With It What You Will
"Guy’s parents told him in middle school, we’re giving you $20k right now and that’s all you’ll get from us. He was told he can use it for college if he pleased or a car when he was old enough to drive. He started studying stocks like a madman, invested most of that money, and now he’s a millionaire."
– maru_badaque
I need to start studying stocks...
Do you have any similar experiences? Let us know in the comments below.
When I was a cater waiter I saw it all.
People being flown in for entertainment.
All of the furniture in the building being replaced for one short evening.
Or buying out a building for an intimate dinner party.
It's crazy.
And I want enough money to do it too. Although I did see a ton of waste.
And I hate to waste.
Like who doesn't love a lavish wedding?
But a lavish wedding with a $500,000 price tag, and you have to be out by midnight?
That party better have had Madonna performing, live fire acts, and ice cream served with diamond spoons.
Redditor AMGBOI69420 wanted to hear about what it was like to work for the insanely rich, so they asked:
"People who work for the super-wealthy, what stuff have you seen?"
I've also had rich friends who didn't clean clothes.
They bought new every week.
You can't make this stuff up.
Musical Chairs
Make It Rain Money GIF by Tim and EricGiphy"Pumped a bunch of money into the Malibu City counsel in order to change a few seats. This would allow him to have the local ordinance changed so his front doors could be taller than 20 feet."
losthours
A Personal Willow
"Worked as one of four full-time groundskeepers at a large estate. 46 acres of lawn to mow twice a week. 2 clay tennis courts, 3 pools, one for the main house, and one for each of the two guest houses. 100+ acre private lake with boat house. No clue how big the whole estate was including the woods. My personal favorite was the 3-mile personal race track."
"But what really blew my mind was that he hosted his niece's wedding one summer, and paid $350k to have this massive willow tree trucked in and planted by the lake for wedding photos. Only to pay another $50k to have it removed and the landscaping returned to its original state after the wedding because he did not like the look of it."
Rarnah
Different Shades
"I used to work at a jeweler that sold Argyles amongst other precious things. We had one big money customer who never wore anything more than Hawaiian shirts and shorts (think on-holiday Adam Sandler) who would come in and tell us 'I’m feeling like a (color) diamond today.' And we’d show him the collection we had at the time of those colors."
"He had dozens just sitting in our vault. Loved collecting them but he never took one home. Sometimes he’d book a visit and we’d get them out of the vault for him to look at over a glass of whatever drink he felt like. The cheapest I saw him buy in my time there was $130k."
princess_bubble
I Don't Understand
"I often do work for the wives of wealthy professionals. The thing that has always stood out to me is that if I tell them that something they want isn't doable, they respond with literal confusion. It isn't anger. It's confusing. They are so unaccustomed to not being given exactly what they want that it's as if they don't understand what is happening when they are told they can't have something."
ShakyTheBear
Take This
Cash Gifts GIF by DigiGiphy"Not the craziest thing but wild to me."
"I was working for a kind of well-off family during a summer. I went inside to get a drink and the mom was cleaning the kitchen putting things away and such. She picks up a Macbook and says to me 'Hey, do you want this? No one uses it.' Got a brand new Macbook for college."
kingJoffi
I held onto my last Macbook in hopes that someone would just give me a new one.
Like on TV.
It didn't happen.
Let's Party!
Real Estate Thanks GIF by The Masters Division at Nest Seekers InternationalGiphy"I set up a party for a family out in the Hamptons that bought the house next door just to level it and set up a giant temporary party tent on the plot. Wild sh*t."
BinxieSly
Take it All...
"My brother-in-law builds custom homes in the redneck Riviera belt of Florida. One day, he called me to come over to this $15m beach house he was doing a complete remodel of. He was the original builder. He asked me to bring my truck and trailer. I show up, and he walks me through all four floors. He then says, 'The owners have removed all the stuff they want to keep. She has told me to dispose of everything as I see fit. Get what you want.'"
"Furniture, appliances, outdoor furniture, rugs, lamps, artwork, you name it. I don't know the value of everything I took home with me that day, but it was the highest-end stuff I've ever seen. FOUR floors of it, and I only got one trailer load because I simply couldn't fit anything else in my house. I likely had over $20k worth of furniture and appliances on that trailer."
Blackhawk-388
Money well spent
"Had a client come into our 3D printing office. His attention was immediately caught by a large industrial 3d printer in our showroom. Pulled out a credit card and bought a $250k machine on the spot. The best part was when we installed the machine at his facility. The first thing he wanted to print was a meter-tall penis. A few weeks after the install we got a photo of him standing next to the meter penis. Money well spent."
robertcboe
Not a Bad Dude
"An old boss did extremely well and sold off the lion's share of his ownership but wanted to stay involved in the company anyway, so he'd drive his absurd supercar to the office and just hang out. One day he came into the office and it was set up in such a way that the executive offices were in a little 2x2 office glass pod in the middle (with curtains for privacy if needed) and our rows were arrayed around them."
"I'll say this though, he wasn't a bad dude. We may not have seen eye to eye on politics but if you worked for the company he knew your name and would hang around and chat. Super generous around the holidays with time off and the big holiday party/door prizes/stuff of that nature. The company went way downhill when he finally let go of the reigns completely."
GWindborn
Money well spent...
kennedy center honors mic GIFGiphy"I moved the guy that created eBay. He had Aretha Franklin's grand piano (played it) and Elvis Presley's coat (didn't wear it)."
Interesting-Step-654
I want Aretha's piano and Elvis' coat.
I would wear the coat while playing the piano.
We all have those friends who do extremely well for themselves. They're rich, and they know it... and everyone else knows it too.
They go on expensive vacations and buy the latest and greatest in technology. They want for nothing and always seem to have the means to go out or buy something on a whim.
However, we may also know someone who can do all of those things but doesn't. These are the people who are just as wealthy as those who flaunt their money (maybe even wealthier) but are subtle about it.
They live modest lives, rarely, if ever, talk about money, and never make it obvious they have money.
Sometimes, they even try to do the opposite -- make it seem like they are middle class.
However, no matter how hard they try, there are few subtle, but tell-tale, signs that they are rich.
Redditors are revealing what those signs are.
It all started when Redditor ues1bredev asked:
"What's a non-obvious sign someone is rich?"
Travel Light
"They don’t have luggage when taking a flight."
"So many wealthy people have multiple homes with separate wardrobes at each. To just jump on a plane with no carry on bags must be a dream lol"
– Just-My-Pinion
This Is Off The Rack, I Promise
"They wear very nice clothing without any brand identification."
– BobbyB90220
"this is kind of funny. I knew someone whose family was new rich and he would go to lengths to buy brands that he could remove the brand tags because he didn’t want people to know what brands he wore."
– Pochusaurus
Money Talks, People Don't
"Most of the time, they will stay quiet about money, but never balk when presented with a bill"
"They will be very selective in those they choose to be friends with, for various legal reasons."
– veleriphon
"I had a close friend and I never realized he was from a wealthy family until he died. He told me that his father and brother lived in another state and ran a moving company, so I pictured a two guys and a truck type of company. When I looked up his father to send condolences after my friend's death, I learned that the company operated out of multiple states and is worth millions."
– haloarh
In A Rich Kid's World
"I went to high school with the offspring of millionaires and billionaires and something that I always noticed was how close sibling groups are. It's because they exist in the same space in life, they understand what that means, and they don't have to worry about each others intentions (unless they plan to Macbeth each other)."
"But then also, if you manage to become friends with someone then you kind of get absorbed by the whole sibling group. They're all kinda like "well ok, clearly he's ok.""
– throwawaysmetoo
Basic Human Kindness
"In my experience as a waiter in a fine dining establishment, they treat you like a normal f*cking human."
"Not sure if my boss coined the term, but a "100k millionaire" will treat you like you're just "the help" and make you feel like less of a person..."
– ImNotAFatKid
Ivy League Brain?
"Went to a good university but is kind of dumb"
– BjornBeetleBorg
"I went to private prep schools all my life. I'm doing this just to see what people say. But in reality, first hand, this is so unbelievably accurate I can't even tell you. I did a paper for my economics class in college about how wealth plays into elite university admissions."
"And first hand, I've seen many friends go Ivy who wouldn't even get into state schools based on test scores"
– ues1bredev
Stuff Or No Stuff?
"Minimalist homes. I don't know why...but rich people like the simple aesthetic which honestly doesn't feel homey. They'd rather live with very few things."
– Inevitable_snow_gal
"It is because they can go buy anything they need, so no need to have anything on hand in the home."
– Helicopter0
"I don't get this, if I was rich I'd have so many fun things in my house like fancy lamps and sh*t"
– ism659
"When you have several houses and probably a house sized yacht you have to spread your stuff around"
– SigmaBallsLol
"Part of this is just a lack of clutter because they have ample hidden storage."
– AltaDK
Only On TV
"If they wear a monocle and a top hat?"
– More-Escape3704
"And when shocked they drop their monocle and say "well I never!""
– Chromattix
That's The Dream
"They're too young to be retired, yet they don't seem to go to work"
– Mental_Task9156
"That is telltale."
"Retired early. So, you are correct, don’t work. But truthfully we just work at different things now. We work on the house. We actually DO a lot of it ourselves. We work on growing the money for our children and grandchildren. We think of it as “family money” and treat it as such. We have helped our adult children when they truly need it. We don’t squander. We worked too hard for it."
– Alarming_Honey5015
Stealth Mode
"Real generational wealth keeps an extremely low profile."
"They have no digital footprint. They actually pay people to keep information about them off the internet, and out of any publications."
"They will keep a low profile, driving cars that blend in. Nice, reliable vehicles, but nothing too flashy."
– fifercurator
I Won't Talk About It
"They are quiet when the discussion is about cost of living pressures, and will deflect the questions from themselves and/or nudge the conversation into a different direction"
– hdhdhdhdzjursx
"This works both sides, depending on "who's in the circle"... Poorer/Richer than the group sign"
– Cautious_Bicycle_494
"I do this for the exact opposite reason though"
– Domhausen
Opening Nuts
"Doesn't bother with the pistachios that are hard to open."
– altheasman
"That’s where the true wealth shines."
"Pre-shelled pistachios."
– FILTER_OUT_T_D
Experience The World
"Casually having expensive hobbies. Stuff like sailing, skiing, and golfing. Especially in areas where those activities aren’t as accessible and if they’ve been doing it for a long time. You live in the Midwest but you’ve been surfing since you were 10? Probably rich."
– belowthemask42
Don't Touch The Readable Artwork!
"I used to have a running buddy who was very rich. For me, the non-obvious sign were the books on his bookcase. They weren't books to be read. They were investments. He told me once that if somebody tried to rob his place, they might go for the big TV, but they should go for the bookshelf."
– rueguard
Honestly, those would be what I'd buy if I was rich!
Do you have any telltale signs we should be on the lookout for? Let us know in the comment below.