Everyone knows a Lucille Bluth. They're the kind of person who has been wealthy for so long that they have no idea how the rest of the world operates. They've never known the struggle of living paycheck to paycheck or not being able to drop an obscene amount of money on a new car just because. It's truly mind-boggling how out-of-touch these people are. These Redditors shared their wildest encounter with someone who wasn't aware of how rich they were. Content has been edited for clarity.
They’ve Already Lost Touch
“I have an aunt and uncle who are both experienced aerospace engineers (retired military officers, now higher ups at private contractors), so they make an obscene amount of money. You can always tell how much they’ve lost touch with the value of a dollar when you look at presents they’ve bought.
One time, years ago at Christmas, they bought my aunt a $600 iPod and my mom a $20 t-shirt. They didn’t mean any insult, they just thought my mom would like a shirt better and that my aunt would like an iPod better. They didn’t even look at the prices of them.”
The Money Card
“A friend of mine was dating a super-wealthy girl in college. Not sure how they got together, it was some internship thing or something. He grew up pretty poor, and he told me a story about how they were at Wal-Mart and he was considering buying a pair of flip-flops, but they were like $10 and he wasn’t so sure it was something he could afford at the time.
Apparently she said to him, ‘What do you mean, you don’t know if you should get them? Whenever I want new clothes, I just ask my daddy for the money card.’
She literally used the phrase ‘The Money Card’ as if it was some weird artifact that magically made all clothes free for her (which, I guess it kinda did).
He also told me she felt the need to take a full shower every time she pooped, which…I mean, that’s a different thing, but still funny.”
Crazy Rich Boss
“I used to work as an office admin for this family owned company. The family was stupid rich with money like I’ve never seen before. Among other things, I was in charge of balancing all the bank accounts and paying all the bills, and part of that job included paying my boss’ adult (30 years plus) sons’ allowances.
So one day my boss walks over to my desk with his youngest son (still at least 30 years old) and says, ‘Can you write him a check for $100,000 from my personal account?’
The son was going on a trip to the Netherlands. He looks at his dad and say in the most exasperated voice ‘I guess…’
So his dad looks at me and says, ‘Okay, $300,000.’
This was on top of the $50,000 he gave to each child every month. This is also the same job I had to work for five years and beg them for $15/hour wage, yet my boss spent $50k a month on a few bottles (like 3-5) of vino.
Needless to say I don’t work for that company anymore.”
“Why Don’t You Just Have Your Parents Buy It For You?”
“One of the owners of my company spoils his kids. Their family has been wealthy going back at least four generations, so not one of them has ever struggled financially.
I, working as a laborer for them in my 30s, was looking to buy a car after finally getting my license back after a few years without it. I was looking for rebates and good deals because I was living paycheck to paycheck.
As I was browsing cars online and talking to a co-worker about deals and loans, one of the rich boys said to me ‘why don’t you just buy the car with cash so you don’t have to make payments?’
When I told him I can’t afford that, he replied, ‘Why don’t you just have your parents buy it for you?’
It didn’t seem to occur to the teen that I wasn’t working for fun, and how I didn’t make enough to just buy a car outright. To illustrate how it wasn’t just a one-time occurrence, his brother casually explained to me a few weeks later how he was giving up his pilot lessons because he was choosing to take up yachting instead. When I said how I’d love to be able to take flying lessons, he told me it was ‘only’ $200 per hour. He seemed shocked when I told him I don’t even make $20 an hour.
They’re good kids, but goodness are they spoiled and sheltered.”
She Had No Idea
“At university, I was heading through the main campus building with a friend after a class. I was heading to the bus stop and she was heading to the parking lot. There was an enormous staircase getting from the fourth floor to the first floor.
I’m not sure what happened, but someone bumped hard into me and I took a bit of a tumble. I was mostly fine, if a bit sore, but my glasses were annihilated. I had just a few months back bought a new pair and used the student insurance’s coverage on it, so I was facing an expensive bill to get a new pair, one I could hardly afford having grown up pretty poor and not having much of any money to my name.
I hadn’t known how wealthy my friend was until she was consoling me in my panicked state over how I was going to afford a new pair when I’d already allocated the next six months of my budget. I was tearing up when she told me, ‘Hey, it’ll be okay, these things happen. I’m sure it can’t be much more than fifteen hundred, right? Just eat out a few times less in the next month or two and it’ll be covered.’
When I told her it’d be around $200, she was completely stunned that I was worrying about an amount that was less than what she’d spend on going out each weekend.”
The Most Beautiful Home They’d Ever Seen
“I repair bathtubs and showers. I’ve been in poor homes, middle class homes, wealthy homes and super mansions.
So we were at this mansion, the kind where there’s a tennis court and pool in the back yard. The kind where the foyer and first room of the house had 16×16 black granite tile with sub floor heating. Just this magnificent house with it’s 3 car garage, but in the garage there were three lifts to literally stack their vehicles. These people were loaded.
They are ‘updating’ the house to sell so they can move back to North Jersey. They replaced the soaking unit in the master. The granite in that bathroom was absolutely breathtaking. It was blue, and under a certain light sparkled like there were lights built into it.
The deck was cracked at the caulk line. So we’re in there fixing it, being as meticulous as possible because we know we’re in probably the most expensive house ever. The wife comes in to chat with us and basically states that they just got the same kind of soaker as before because it’s the only thing that fit in the spot. Eventually she says something like, ‘It’s okay though, it was only $8,000.’
If I was drinking something, I’d have choked on it. She said it like the tub was worthless and that she settled on it because it was cheap. I guess $8,000 was a drop in the bucket.”
The Pool Boy
“When I was in high school back in the early 2000s, I had a summer job mixing concrete for a pool installation company. The client had purchased a lot outside of town and had us putting in a new pool. We had removed his old pool and spent all summer on this luxury vacation resort style pool in this guy’s back yard. It was heated throughout, had an island in the middle with two jacuzzis, palm trees, sun chairs, a BBQ pit, and two cascade waterfalls. It had a bridge to the island, a swim-up bar, a state-of-the-art sound system, a light system, and a huge projector so they could watch movies in the pool. It was a massive job.
The client arrived a week early as we were getting the pumps set up and putting in the finishing touches. He had been born into extreme wealth, but had made his own fortune too. That afternoon, he had his house staff make lunch for all of us. I sat down to eat and the client sat right next to me. He asked me why I was working since I was only a teenager. I told him I was saving up for a car. His eyes lit up and he said, ‘Hey, I just bought a new car! It’s really fast! Come look at it!’
Of course, I followed. He had a brand-new white Porsche sitting in the driveway. He started rattling off specs about the car and urged me to get in so he could show me how fast it was. We went over 100mph several times down the farm roads, then he turned around and we went back to his house. He said ‘When you get your car, you should test drive a Porsche. My son talked me into getting this one. They drive like a dream.’
I laughed, but he seemed confused, so I clarified that there’s no way I could afford a Porsche. I asked ‘What did this cost, anyway?’
He shrugged, then told me the bill of sale was in the glove box. He had paid $140k for the car.
I told him it would take me like 10 years to be able to buy a car like that, and that’s if I didn’t eat or pay rent. Right then, we were pulling into his driveway and stopped, so he looked over at me incredulously and said ’10 years? Come on, how much are they paying you for this job?’
I told him I made $8 per hour and was expecting to get around $4,500 from the job. He said ‘So you worked outside all summer for $4,500?’
I nodded. He just stared ahead for a few seconds, then turned off the car and said, ‘You should probably get something reliable.’
I could tell that he learned right then how much money poor people made.”
Her Parents Did EVERYTHING For Her
“My girlfriend’s rich friend decided to move out of her parents’ home, and because our lease was ending, we thought we’d all move in together and share the rent.
The first few months were a hilarious discovery phase for her. She didn’t know how to wash dishes. She grew up with a dishwasher and her version of ‘washing dishes’ was ‘stacking the dishwasher.’ She also didn’t know how to do laundry (her parents did everything for her, apparently). To her amazement, everything was so ‘cheap.’
It died down after a few months as she faced the reality of having to pay for things herself instead of putting it into savings and relying on her parents. A real standout for me was a time she complained she was only able to put $100 into savings every week because she was spending so much. She asked us if we could cover more of the groceries and household bills so she could save. We then asked her how much she thought we had in savings and how much we put into savings weekly. That’s when she realized we live paycheck to paycheck and have literally no savings.
I still think it’s pretty funny that whenever it’s her turn to cook, she offers to buy takeout instead, and she visits her parents for dinner multiple times a week.”
Let Them Eat Cake
“I was at an office lunch with a new hire in reception and my associate attorney along with a couple of paralegals and an accountant.
My associate was the sort of law school graduate who didn’t need to go to law school or any school. She’s a former model who was in a couple of commercials and never touched the $60,000 or whatever they paid her for the shoot because she didn’t need it. Her wedding was under a waterfall, a relative arrived in his private jet, the groom’s family owns dozens of businesses… those sorts of people.
Anyhow, the conversation at lunch was about travel plans for summer vacations. One of the paralegals was talking about how she wished she could drive up to see her father in Tennessee (we were in Georgia), but needed repairs for the family vehicle before trusting it for the trip. My associate then piped up ‘Why don’t you guys just fly there?’
I jumped in quickly to talk about how much I hate flying and there’s nothing quite like family car trips, etc.
When we got back to the office, I dubbed my associate ‘Marie Antoinette.’
To her credit, she said she knew it after she said it, but felt apologizing would make it worse.”
Party Like It’s Your Birthday
“I went to a very expensive club (for me) one night with 3 rich friends to celebrate one of the guys’ birthday.
So we get there and it’s $4,000 for a table. I was nervous about it, but when they said we could drink all the $4,000, I got a bit relieved as I had about $2,000 in my bank account and there was no way we could drink all that money.
We order a bottle of Jack, $800. Some bottles of water, $20 each. We ordered a second bottle of Jack within the hour. I go to the bathroom with one of my friends and he meets some friends on the way back to our table. These girls are unbelievably beautiful.
We get there and he starts ordering bottles of bubbly for the ladies. I leave again for the bathroom with the intention to check on the menu. It freaking costs $1,200 each.
Knowing I’m hopeless and to avoid shame not being able to cover the bill, I get to the table and tell my best friend that I had to leave because of an emergency. I offer to pay my share and he says not to worry about it and we’d deal with it later. Next day, he phones me around noon to check in if everything is okay with my mom. I said it was okay and asks about their night and how much and whom I should pay my share to.
He tells me how epic it was and how they went to the birthday boy’s house afterwards with the girls, etc. Then he says that it wasn’t expensive at all because they left early with the girls. It was only around $14,000 and that birthday boy paid for it.”
It’s All The Same To Him
“For some reason, my college roommate’s boyfriend didn’t have a car and used to hitch rides to the grocery store with us, but was super rich. Like month-long abroad vacations, private charted yachts, the whole thing.
This due would spend like $300 to $400 every week on who knows what at the grocery store. Like it was impressive. He’d get piles of Red Bull, gross packaged stuff, whatever looked good I guess. We shopped weekly together for like months.
We were sitting talking about something one night and my roommate responds to something someone said with ‘You should see what my boyfriend spends on groceries every week…’
Everyone is obviously like ‘Dude, what do you spend on groceries?!’
HE HAS NO CLUE. First, he guesses $100. We look at him super confused. He then goes oh maybe like $800 then? When asked to explain his thought process on that number says, ‘Well, I dunno, I guess if like $500 is normal and you’re saying I spend a lot? I really don’t pay much attention.’
No idea where the $500 number came from, but he had no idea what he spent on groceries weekly for months, let alone what they should cost. He just didn’t care. It’s all the same to him.”
Nana Didn’t Have A Clue
“My Pops (grandfather) handled all the finances for him and my Nana (grandmother), so she never did the shopping or paid any bills. Her net worth now as a widow isn’t shy of £1m.
When Pops died, she bought herself a brand-new car that was tailored to her disabilities, because again, Pops always did the driving. Her car was around £16k. This was her first experience of buying a vehicle and thus thought this was the standard price for ANY CAR.
I bought myself a new car a few months later. It was the same model as hers but a few years older and had previous owners. All my other cars had come in under £600, and this new car was £5k and I took it out on finance, which was a huge deal for me. When she asked how much my car was, she was terrified that I’d bought a run down car, and that there must be something horrendously wrong with it. We had to explain the value of cars to her and why mine was £10k less than hers.
Flash forward to this year: my broke brother’s deathtrap car pretty much exploded, so she took him to buy a new one. He’d seen a pretty good car for just under £1k and figured that’s what he could afford to pay back. Before he mentions it, she drags him to the dealership and buys an approved used car (same model and year as mine) at £3k and can’t believe her luck at how cheap it was, and gifts it to him because it was so cheap. Brother is speechless and very grateful.
This is the same woman who had an absolute meltdown because her Ambrosia custard pots had risen in price by 20p and she was now (very seriously) concerned that her continued purchase of them would bankrupt her.”
Easy Cash
“I once got asked to watch my buddy’s mom’s dog. Cute Pomeranian, super well-behaved. I was stoked to watch the little dude.
She messaged me and told me where the garage key was and that she left a couple hundred dollars on the table for me. A couple hundred!? I showed up at noon and took the money and the dog and went into town. Took him to the dog park, then the beach, and then we kicked it and napped for a couple hours. Dropped him off around 6:00 pm.
It was the easiest $200 I’ve ever made.”
Who Wouldn’t Want A Friend Like This?
“My sister and I, both Latin American, befriended a Chinese girl in college. We always helped her in studying and with her English. Turns out, her dad was some billionaire in China who owned a chemical producing company. She drove an expensive Audi and for the longest time, up until two years ago, I was freeloading off the Chegg account she opened up for me. That account was paid for about 3 years.
Whenever she’d invite us to go eat, the bills were super expensive, like $300+ for just 3 people, but she played it off like they were nothing. I had never once eaten a single meal over $40 per plate until we ate with her. She’d always take us Starbucks, buy us food, and on a couple occasions bought us books for school. At one point, we went shopping with her. She wanted a laptop, she was gonna buy me one too, but I felt too guilty to accept it. The laptop was $3,000 (some Apple laptop). I felt like it was too much.
She was really cool and treated my sister like her sister. She was living alone and didn’t know many people. We were always friendly with classmates and that’s how she got to know us. My sister and I are from low income families. The money that was spent around her was ridiculous! Like $300-$400+ per lunch almost every day, that was around my weekly pay back then. I really miss her though. She was funny to be around with and always wanted to learn more about the US. She always insisted we go out with her to movies, shopping or dining and teach her about our culture. I have not heard from her in 3 years. She went back to China and we never saw her on campus again.
I think my upbringing kept me humble. She never wanted us to pay for food or shopping expenses when we were with her, so I always felt bad asking her for anything. She also bought us textbooks for school on a couple occasions which was more than what I could ever ask for. Never felt right taking that laptop offer, as badly as I needed it.
She had also offered money for tutoring her, which we also turned down. She already offered us food, shopping and entertainment expenses. I remember once she asked my sister if she could pay her something like $800 or $1000 and my sister told her no. I think that’s why she kept us around for so long. She knew we weren’t trying to take advantage of her.
If I ever get in touch with her, it’ll probably be through my sister. They kept in touch the longest. I just tagged along since my sister was the one with a car back then.”
He Used His Money For Good
“I worked at the concessions stand at a movie theater and it was opening weekend for a large Marvel movie and the line was super long to get popcorn. This rich millionaire dude from India walked up to me and handed me his AMEX black card and waved a hand over the entire line of customers and said ‘WHATEVA THEY WANT MY FRIEND’ and plopped it down hard on the glass counter.
I’m just like ‘…are you sure?’
Him: ‘WHAT UH EVA THEY UH WANT!’ with a huge smile on his face
He waited as the entire line ordered tons of food, entire combos, large everything, extra candy. I was like ‘you total is uh… $10,718.62’ and I swiped the card and it said ‘transaction complete’ and he said ‘thank you my friend’ and he went to watch his movie having fed everybody in line.
Absolutely unreal moment. And no I didn’t get a tip or anything but now I have a cool story to tell..”