How do the very wealthy spend their money? You may not want to know..

[n2doc]

The jet set unmasked
By Thomas Kostigen, MarketWatch
Last Update: 8:03 PM ET Aug 22, 2006

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- Private jet owners have an average annual income of $9.2 million and a net worth of $89.3 million. They are 57 years old. And 70% of them are men.
Hannah Shaw Grove and Russ Alan Prince, two researchers, surveyed the group to find out who they are, what makes them tick, and perhaps most interestingly, what they spend their money on. The average jet setter spends nearly $30,000 per year on alcohol (wines & spirits). Grove and Prince note that this amount is about two-thirds of the median household income in the U.S. And that's the smallest category of spending they surveyed.

The next smallest was "experiential travel," which includes guided tours, such as photographic safaris, or hikes to Machu Picchu, or eco-tours to the Brazilian rainforest, or kayaking in Baja California during the gray whale migration. For these experiences, jet setters spend an average of $98,000 per year. But these journeys are small potatoes when compared to how much these wealthy individuals spend on hotels and resorts ($157,000 a year), or events at hotels and resorts ($224,000 a year). Spa treatments even fetch more jet-set dollars than wilderness tours. The average jet setter spends $107,000 a year at spas around the world.

Not that many of these "global citizens," as they like to be called, would know: Just 34% of jet owners open their own mail and only 19% pay their own bills, Grove and Prince found. This results in a sort of detachment from the world and creates "the low level of awareness that most jet owners have about their finances," they say. Indeed, it would take a curious psychological composition to comprehend spending $147,000 a year on watches, as the jet set do. Or $117,000 on clothes. Or a whopping $248,000 a year on jewelry. These people need serious help with their ... finances. And that is partially why Grove and Prince conducted the survey - as a note to advisers who might be able to help people with complex money issues.

"Any way you slice it, private jet owners are an ultra-affluent bunch and, as such, likely have intricate financial requirements. As is often the case, there is a proportionate relationship between the amount of wealth and the complexity of the financial goals, meaning there is a greater need for a professional adviser to guide them through the planning process and supply them with strategies and experts to meet their goals along the way," they say. Whatever. I'm far more interested in how much the super rich spend on cars ($226,000 per year), and boats ($404,000 a year on yacht rentals). I'm even more interested to know what the $542,000 a year in home improvements was spent on. Grove and Prince say the average jet setter has more than two principal residences worth at least $2 million each. New kitchens? Kick ass sound systems? They don't inform. But they do tell us that jet-setters spend the most amount of money on art, $1.75 million a year on average. It's also here that the spending patterns differ by the classes within the classes that Grove and Prince unearthed by analyzing the jet-set pack.

more (if you can stomach it) :
http://www.marketwatch.com/

[elehhhhna]

1. I keep TELLING you that Republicans are DRUNKS.

[baldguy]

20. And $30k gives 'em quantity *AND* quality!

It's a shame to waste good booze on bad people.

[Skidmore]

2. Yeah, that trickle down economy stuff really works doesn't it?

[BrotherBuzz]

6. Well, I hope someone is getting paid to pilot those planes

while the elite consume $30,000 worth of alcohol. :shrug:

[karlrschneider]

18. They don't pay us all that well, considering.

:eyes:

[BrotherBuzz]

22. Well, you pilots are viewed as nothing but...

glorified bus drivers in their minds, don't you know? I hope you make more the Ralph Kramden's sixty bucks a week.

[karlrschneider]

38. I know some people think that way...it doesn't bother me.

I get $150 an hour as pilot in command, $100 as copilot, plus expenses.
...

[RaleighNCDUer]

32. With all that booze it would be more of a

tinkle down economy, no?

[elehhhhna]

3. 248K on jewelry. Of course. DUH. Viagra doesn't supply the girls, y'know

[Newsjock]

4. Restore the top marginal income tax rate

http://www.truthandpolitics.org/top-rates.php

91% on income above a very high level, roughly $2.5 million in today's dollars.

It was good enough for that evil left-wing loony liberal Dwight D. Eisenhower, so it oughta be good enough now.

[Jed Dilligan]

5. Good for them.

I'd rather they spent it than invested it. I'd rather they supported distilleries in Scotland than the price of Halliburton shares.

[MindPilot]

8. I'll take gobs of $$$ for 200, Alex.

Behind every one of those half million dollars spent on home improvement is a whole cadre of craftsmen and suppliers. People like you and me for whom making a molding fit perfectly, or squaring up a cabinet just right means much more than racking up a stock portfolio.

[Jed Dilligan]

10. I see nothing wrong with paying for quality,

although I don't get as many opportunities to do so as I would like!

[QuettaKid]

13. I'd get a couple of these.

Behold...the Aquada!! It's a sports car...It's a speedboat.

[Jed Dilligan]

14. Sweet

Is the coupe version a submarine?

[MindPilot]

15. I want an electric one!!

edit: spellosity

[Blackhatjack]

7. Since Bush Came Into Office, Yacht Sales Have Never Been Better n/t

I would assume Bentley & Rolls Royce sales must have improved as well.

I guess it is more impt to have an expensive plaything than to know you kept a child from going to bed hungry or helped provide medical care for a child or elderly person.

[MindPilot]

12. The illegal they probably have detailing that Rolls...

feeds his kids and sends money back to Guatemala for his Grandma. So indirectly, they in many ways do.

[tridim]

9. Seems that they forgot to list the yearly stripper/hooker bill n/t

[neoblues]

11. While it disgusts me... I suspect I might...

While it disgusts me how extravagant and wasteful they are... I suspect that if I happened to have 90 million and an income on top of that, I'd probably be spending rather alot on myself (and family and friends) as well. I'm certain that I wouldn't be more than half as self-indulgent and self-centered as they are, and that some fairly serious amount of my money would be spent trying to improve our world and help others, but I don't doubt that I'd be taking some pretty cool trips, perhaps choosing to own several nice residences and possibly a rather large boat--and/or a nice plane as well. I doubt that I'd be spending so much on Alcohol (of course, I wouldn't be throwing large parties either). I'd also have several nice cars and be wasteful of gasoline.

It seems likely, therefore, that money itself tends to act as a corrupting influence. The solution? Abolish it? I don't know, but what if we limited the income potential for individuals by creating a 100% tax rate on all income beyond, say $100,000 annually. That would reduce 'wasteful' spending, and if the government handles the tax revenues properly, it would translate into investments in Universal Education, Universal Healthcare, improvements in infrastructure and increased research and development into improving the lives of Humanity and saving our planet/Environment for the future...

It would also prevent situations like the existing American Corpocratic**/Theocratic/(Feux-)Democratic-Oligarchic Republican Aristocracy.

**with growing Facist tendencies.

[SmokingJacket]

16. More on watches than on clothes? Weird.

If you're that rich, does it really matter what time it is?

[newportdadde]

17. That 30k on boose is after tax money, so can't compare to median income.

Thats not 2/3 of a median income, that is more like 100% of the median income after taxes.

[The_Casual_Observer]

19. All they get is more stuff. They don't live any longer to enjoy

it. I could care less about how much stuff somebody else has. Artwork, watches, jewelry it's just more stuff. Once you buy it & realize it doesn't make you happier you go out & buy something else & on & on.
They live in 30 room houses with one or two people, it's all bullshit.

[GeorgeGist]

21. And this is why...

we love capitalism?

[LSK]

26. yes, because you can be one of them

Just like every other American thinks he will be someday. Idiots!

:eyes:

[Kickoutthejams23]

23. Two questions?

How many earned their money?

How many are progressive Democrats?

I suspect that the percentage of "jet Setters" that are progressive Democrats helping our causes is higher than the public as a whole.

[LSK]

24. how exactly does $1.75 million in art sales trickle down into the economy?

:shrug:

[Jed Dilligan]

41. So artists aren't real workers

and don't deserve to make a living?

Without public support for the arts, the only reason why there's any art at all is that rich people buy it.

[SammyWinstonJack]

25. And with their NOT needed tax cuts, they have even more money

for self indulgence. Heckuvajob, republiCONS! :grr:

[Blue_Tires]

27. ttt n/t

[Double T]

28. I am glad the rest of us sacrifice so that the filthy rich.........

can have a tax cut, so they don't have to go without ANY of their extravagances.

[ComerPerro]

37. Its all so they can spend more than some people make on alcohol

[Double T]

39. Perhaps the problem is WE are NOT drinking enough..........

'Drink and Grow Rich'

[ComerPerro]

40. gotta spend money to make money

[Jacobin]

29. Corporate Welfare Queens

That's what they are.

[warrens]

30. $107K on SPAS?

OK, they really should be marched to the guillotine.

[alfredo]

31. Inheritance tax cuts= pearls before swine.

[zbdent]

33. Inheritance baby Randy Lerner in Cleveland decided to spend some money

buying a British soccer team ...

Randy Lerner "inherited" the Cleveland Browns (with their spiffy, taxpayer-built 1999 stadium) when his father, Al Lerner, passed away a few years ago ...

[eggplant]

34. Jealousy is an ugly thing

Honestly, why do people care what they choose to spend their money on? Are you pissed simply because they have that much money? Or that they aren't "doing enough" of the "right things" with it?

They can sit around and burn it for all I care. I've got what I consider to be a very good life -- I have a nice place to live, a loving family, enough to eat, health insurance. Lots of people out there don't have that. I certainly didn't *need* those DVDs I just bought, or to go out for lunch today. But I did, and I don't feel guilty about it. Why should I?

Charity means giving to those less fortunate, not those less fortunate taking from the affluent. For people to whine because *other* people don't live up to their standards is bullshit, plain and simple. If you want to be miserable because you don't have that kind of wealth, that's your perogative. But just remember, there are people with less than you who are happier than you.

[jilln]

35. This is no surprise to anyone who watches the Paris Hilton channel.

Oops, I mean "E!" Or VH1. Or the Style Network.

Perhaps even more disturbing than this waste of wealth is the fact that these people are constantly held up to the rest of us as something to aspire to.

[yorkiemommie1]

36. I do sleep better at night knowing they

got their tax cuts.

[FILAM23]

42. What is the problem??

It is their money, just like all of us, they are free
to spend it anyway they care to. Many of the replys
sound like childness jealousy