"I Just Grabbed An iPad Out Of The Gift Closet," And 17 Other Wildly Out-Of-Touch Things Rich People Have Said
Have you ever heard a wealthy person say something SO WILDLY OUT OF TOUCH that it blatantly warranted a spit-take?
Well recently, Reddit user u/BananaBR13 asked in r/AskReddit: "What was the most out-of-touch with reality thing a rich person ever said to you?" Here's what people had to say.
1."One time a client’s kid gave a coworker an iPad. Brand new, unopened box. My coworker was a little uncomfortable receiving such an expensive gift from a kid, but the kid just said, 'Don’t worry, I just grabbed it out of the gift closet.' We were confused, so we asked him what a gift closet was. Apparently, their family kept a whole closet loaded with stuff like this — Apple Watches, cameras, iPads, etc. — so that whenever they needed to give a gift, they always had something on hand."
2."I was complaining about mortgage payments, and she said, 'I know, I finally just took the money out of savings and paid mine off so I wouldn't have to worry about it every month.'"
3."'Why don’t you just buy a house? It’s going to be cheaper than paying rent.' Thanks. Just let me find the down payment that I don’t have yet."
4."An 80-year-old man once said to me, 'Why have roommates at all? I don't think anyone I knew had roommates. Seems like too much trouble. Just spend the extra hundred on rent and live at peace.'"
5."'Oh, you get seasonal depression? Why don’t you just go to the Caribbean for a week, and the Mediterranean the next? It always helps me.'"
6."In college, I was washing a bowl in the sink and someone said, 'That's the weirdest thing about college for me, not having a dishwasher.' I said, 'Man, I didn't have one until high school, and it was bad so it couldn't clean pans.' Him: 'Oh, I meant like someone to wash the dishes for us.'"
7."Back when I worked in payroll, a doctor yelled at me because his administrator didn’t process his bi-monthly incentive on time so it missed his check. He was supposed to go pick up his new Mercedes with that money (it was six figures) so he threw a fit to have a check cut that day. Two weeks later, that same doctor didn't approve a check to be cut for an hourly employee whose hours (two weeks' worth) didn’t get approved on time because it was only $1,000 and they wouldn’t miss it. I had to go above him to get it approved because I knew that employee would definitely be negatively impacted by not being paid on time."
8."From my old boss: 'I feel like you can't find a decent place to live around here for less than $8 million.' I bet you can..."
9."My husband was on a business trip with some rich people in Hawaii. They asked why I didn’t come, and so he told them I was home with the kids. One of them then replied: 'Well, couldn’t the nanny just stay with them?' He was a nice enough guy, just out of touch for sure."
10."I didn't go to college for seven years after high school due to struggles with alcohol abuse and bipolar disorder. A kid I worked with asked me what I was doing working and going to school at 25, and when I said I took time off due to personal issues, his response was, 'Wow, if you're not making at least $100K a year at 25, you've basically failed.'"
11."I work for a large tech company. My first year there, I had a coworker who had God-level money. We were booked for a business trip to London. I boarded the flight, didn't see him, and thought he'd missed the flight. When I got off the plane, he started texting me from our hotel in London. He'd arrived five or so hours before I did."
"I asked if he took an earlier flight as I didn't see him, and he told me he was racing his vintage Ferrari(s) in Southern California and lost track of time. He realized he was probably going to miss the flight, so he flew his own jet to New York (with the Ferraris on-board), then 'grabbed a flight on the Concord' and beat me to London. And he genuinely said this like he'd just grabbed Starbucks on the way home. He was incredibly down-to-earth and very humble, but his assessment of everyday life related to travel was so far out of my realm of reality."
12."My husband and I were in the process of buying our house and I was telling a coworker that I was concerned that we didn't have enough for closing costs. My boss then chimed in, 'Just ask your parents to help. My in-laws gave us $50,000 when we got our first house and we've given each of our boys $25,000 to buy their first homes.' I had to explain that my parents were poor and couldn't do that. She couldn't comprehend why my parents couldn't just give me thousands of dollars."
13."The person who underpaid me told me to get my kids out of public school and pay for private schools."
14."'Ever since I donated millions to the church for a new pipe organ, our city's symphony orchestra has been hounding me to become a benefactor. They must think I'm made of money!'"
15."I worked as a tow truck driver for a little bit, and one day, I got a call that a customer needed their car towed from the police impound. When I got there, I saw that it was a 7 Series BMW. I didn’t even want to touch it because they’re so expensive and are notorious for transmissions that disintegrate when moved in park. The owner wasn’t even there, it was his servant, and said servant knew nothing about the car. We ended up having to call the owner for something, and he basically told me that he didn’t really care what happened to the car because he already got another one, since he couldn’t wait for the impound to open."
16."I taught at a private school making $35K a year, barely making ends meet as a single parent. There were lots of rich kids and out-of-touch parents. At conference time, this mom whose husband was the CEO of an energy company pulling an annual salary of like $30 million came in. The conversation turned to house projects. They were renovating their 3,000-square-foot basement, and she was complaining about the expense."
"In an effort to find common ground with her, I told her something like, 'Oh I get you. I'm having plumbing problems and need to replace all of my exterior plumbing lines. Thank goodness for my tax return or I wouldn't be able to cover it.' Her response: 'Oh honey, be grateful you even GET a tax return. I haven't gotten ANYTHING back in twenty years!'"
17."I once worked for a family of four in their home — nannying, laundry, cleaning, chauffeuring the kids, helping with dinner and errands, etc. They did whatever on their end to have me as a legitimate employee in the eyes of the IRS, I assume to avoid getting taxed on the money they paid me. The mom told me they'd 'help me out' when tax season came because I would owe the IRS, as they never did any withholdings on their end from my pay, which is the only way I'd ever been paid before (I was in my early twenties and ignorant about this kind of stuff). Anyway, tax season came, and sure enough, I owed the IRS around $900. Which I did not have."
"So I let her know. She said, 'If we give you around half will that be okay?' I responded, 'We can talk about it another time,' since the dad wasn't home and he was a little more in touch with financial realities than she was. She then went on to tell me a story about a time when they sold property and didn't know the nuances of property taxes and whatnot, and they unexpectedly ended up owing the IRS around $50,000. They had to call her father-in-law/his father to have him open up their access to the trust fund so they could pay it. She literally compared her ABILITY to get $50,000 at the drop of a hat to my INABILITY to pay $900. I did not work one single second again for them after that."
And finally:
18."'Money doesn’t buy happiness.' I understand the intent behind the saying, and obviously, money doesn’t physically buy happiness in and of itself, but anyone who has lived in poverty can understand that that’s kind of nonsense. I’ve been at points where I've had nothing. No money, no resources, nothing to fall back on. I’ve gone hungry. I’ve struggled just to pay for the simplest things. Anything that breaks is a huge problem. When you’re completely broke or struggling to make ends meet, more money would absolutely make you happier. Not having to worry about food makes people happier. It seems that it’s always people with money who say that phrase."
Answers have been edited for length and/or clarity.
