what its like to be rich

lets cross the divide and share what its really like to be rich

materially rich I cannot truly say but spiritually rich we sure are.

In terms of being spiritually rich it means you can be generous to those who are less well off than you. And its a great feeling knowing you have the resources to make someones elses life better.

If one is born rich there is no need to prove oneself. And if that is all you know you may feel uncomfortable around poor people at close quarters.

There are downsides to being rich too, if you are trusting in your material riches, because at any moment they can taken from you, so tragedy seems to hit you harder as up to that point you have never had to suffer or want for anything.

sometimes being rich can warp your view of the world as rich people often move in exclusive circles so that they neever experience or even see poorer people. Servants and people who do things for you can become like wallpaper, and often rich people are only concerned with their own affairs and not even be aware that people give up their time and energy and everything to serve the needs of the rich.

One cup of coffee each day is a necessity for rich people but for a poor person it means tending a coffee crop and making enough harvest to pay off a debt and not having enough to eat but only being allowed to grow one thing....coffee for people in richer countries to buy.

Rich people get used to the finer things in life and can become extremely proud of what they own, but most of it is never fashioned by their own hands.

rich people can be divided into new money and old money, old money has a respect and aura that new money often doesnt have, but it can be both ways with the old guard being set in their ways and the nouveau rich doing radical things with their wealth.

I had philanthropists try and film some children at school asking what you should give money to, they got them to say some lines for camera and suggest rich people go and join this philanthropy that tells you what to give your money too...but I thought it was wrong to put children up to this because these children would say I would just give the money to my parents...cos their parents were not even rich. It was not as if their parents had any spare money to give to anyone. But you cant ever tell a rich person that cos they somehow dont understand that not everyone lives in the same world as they do.

some rich people are often averse to any suggestion of sharing wealth since they are very used to keeping it all to themselves, and the very idea of communism is like anathema to them. If a rich person does warm to the idea, they are at best labelled a hippie and end up squandering their wealth on designer drugs or weed anyway. The drugs a rich person is addicted to are just a higher class than the ones poor people are addicted to, but they are drugs all the same. A rich person is more likely to be a dealer and somehow its more acceptable to deal drugs if you are rich, as someones always there to bail you out and the best lawyers can bribed. that is if a life of indulgence tempts you.

the book of proverbs has a lot to say on what its like to be rich as it was written by the richest man on earth King Solomon. Unfortunately even with great wealth King Solomon lost all that was valuable when he failed to heed his own wisdom...and as the Book of Ecclesiastes would say over and over...all is vanity.

rich people contribute to the economy by spending their money not actually working as poor people need to. If you are rich, you hardly need to work at all, but then comes a life of indolence and leisure which can be very bad for your soul. Its not called unemployment for a rich person, its just early retirement,

a rich persons secondhand store is called an antique store, not an op shop.
but the ripped jeans are just fashionably ripped, and not actually all the clothes that you own that you cant afford new ones and looks so bad it looks like the dog bit them.

I encounter rich people through work occasionally (law firm partners, who I know make half a million dollars at least because they have big name clients) or other people like senior VPs, etc. who I encounter during business trips. Of course, almost any specialist doctor we visit is also rich (they make at least $300k plus, more if they perform surgeries). I have found these people to be hardworking and smart, and work long hours, but also arrogant at times. There is also the uber rich (like celebrities, owners of large chains) who are in a different class and I am not including them in this discussion. The main difference between rich and middle class is that the rich have nicer material things (nicer house, car, clothes, etc.). Aside from nicer material things, I do not think there is a big difference between middle and rich classes. However, there is a big difference between poor and middle class, and especially between poor and rich. The poor is struggling financially which changes the daily thoughts/outlook in life.

I know a rich lady from the Philippines (whose family is well known and rich there); she explained rich people do not like to give money away because they can lose the money quickly. They are rich on thin ice. I guess this may apply to other rich people, such as when a company crashes, etc.

Job was both materially and spiritually rich. All wealthy Christians can look to his example (and also note that few Christians will be subjected to the extreme losses which he suffered while being righteous).

But the unsaved who are rich make wealth their idol, and the Bible says that covetousness is indeed idolatry. And that is why it is is difficult for the rich to enter into the Kingdom of God.

MATTHEW 19: THE RICH SHUT THEMSELVES OUT OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD
22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.
23 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.
24 And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
25 When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved?

the book 'crazy rich asians' was quite a popular bestseller and became a movie. The author, Kevin Kwang who hails from the extremely wealthy and moneyed class himself, writes about these absurdities such as

rich people giving their wealth to investors and hedge fund managers to invest on their behalf since they have so much they dont want to do it themselves.
flipping properties that make money overnight, some having portfolios with so many proerties they lose count.

rich heirs are frowned on by their parents or grandparents when they fall in love with anyone poorer than themselves. The family fortune could disappear!

a weekend doesnt mean you stay at home tending the garden (you have gardeners) or visit sick relatives (you have hired nurses and caregivers for that) It means you fly to some exotic place in a jet and have every need and want catered for.

if you are a rich housewife you might spend your days shopping and lying about your extravagant purchases to your husband, who may not even want you to work and earn your own money, so there is little else to do. Kept women are common if the husband earns a fortune, but the reverse can be true as well.

rich people can be workaholics but work to a rich person doesnt actually mean much manual labour at all.

rich people can collect art and nice things but sometimes those obsessions become all consuming. they might have twenty cars and only actually drive one or two. the rest are for show. They might have 50 suits but only wear one, the rest are back ups. Or they might have 50 dresses that only ever get worn once.

There are also some things we don't see behind the "rich people" they have lots of debt, can't sleep at night and much much more bills to pay, people who works for them, suppliers, etcetera and yes they have money but most of the time the money is rolling, it's not that they don't want to give to other people or share them, for some it's because they also work hard for it and they also value spending it wisely, although I am not generalizing, there are those who are filty rich rotting to the guts corrupt people, just saying there's also a difference between the rich ones. There are also who are very down to earth, I think it depends on the person what they value most character or money! Imho.

rich people can be very worried about their money but they can alway do some things that poor people cant because of their connections.
if their cashflow dries up then they are in a bigger hole than someone who doesnt have anything to lose, but through connections they can easily get out of it again.

rich people have a different attitude to money than poor people (if the book 'rich dad, poor dad' is anything to go by) they can either be more generous or more ruthless.

Being finanicially free is something that is quite different from being either rich or poor.

i read this quote...maori people before european contact did not have a monetary system.

the europeans said of maori...the maori people are terrible and measure how rich a person is by how much they give away. we must teach them greed.

rich people will often talk about their vacations in a boasting way. Its not really sharing ones experience, at all, its kind of saying wow look where I went. its never to visit people either. its to get away from other people.
It will be nearly every weekend they go somewhere since they have the means to. You can never contact them as they are always away, or at their holiday home (of which there may be several) it is so stressful being rich that they cannot just stay home and chill out. the money needs to be spent!!

their home actually might be comfortable enough but its boring to them. or the weather isnt as warm as it could be.
rich people own holiday homes that stay empty half the year, sometimes in entire towns. what happens to these holiday homes when they are not there is they are just empty. but they might have a full retinue of servants just in case they need to visit, who are keeping up the grounds etc.

Again with this? Why do you like to pillory rich people so much? You've been putting them down on this forum for more than a year, and you consistently ignore anybody who disagrees with your "spoiled rotten rich people" fantasy.

Maybe it's a bad case of sour grapes.

I'm thinking an entire vineyard. Never seen anything like it

I have just enough money to put food on the table at will and provide basic needs for my family. That makes me extremely monetarily rich. And I thank God every day.

rich people can afford to invite friends and family over for christmas, and often buy brand new gifts for every single person in the family, as well as strangers.

Lanolin you do not have a clue what it is like to be rich anymore than what rich people have a clue about how you feel about them.

In your own words, you are not rich, therefore, you do not know. You present rich people as entirely desiring looking for ways to spend all the money. You totally exclude rich people who generously give to others or who give up all they have in response to the gospel.

You totally ignore the fact that God blessed many who were His with vast riches. Do you know better than God? No you do not.

You would better spend your time inquiring about your relationship with God instead of beating on people you really know nothing about.

Rich people might have 5 bathrooms, but they do the same thing in those bathrooms that poor people do in theirs.

The emphasis in scripture is not to trust in riches because they cannot save. The flip side would be do not think you are saved if you are poor. Jesus welcomed the expensive perfume poured out upon Him as His time drew near. When Judas the hypocritical liar said that the money from the perfume could have been give to the poor, Jesus told Him, and by default the rest of us, that we shall always have the poor with us.

Does God make people poor? Perhaps some would not trust in God if they were rich and He desires them for His own, so He takes away their crutch. Actually, I don't know that for a fact anymore than you know what it is like to be rich.

I am not making a defense for lots of money; I am pointing out the fallacy of drooling over what rich people have.

A valiant effort lenna, but... you must be new here. She will find a way to argue that rich people are stuck-up spoiled brats. You can bring facts and figures, all the statistics you want, anecdotes from rich people you personally know and news stories that anybody can verify - she WILL stick to her viewpoint. It is immutable.

I think she just likes to gripe, and this is one of the revolving subjects she uses when she has the urge.

gosh you sound angry...?!

am not drooling over what rich people have, speak for yourself.
rich people have, poor people do not have. its not rocket science...and there are many type of rich people as there are poor. this is a free thread for anyone to post in, if you feel excluded, then sure you can post what its like to be rich. Nobodys stopping you!

when you are rich and have five toilets, you need five times as much time to clean them, or you can just hire a cleaner.

whos to say you havent been rich? some people like to think its a permanent thing, but being rich or poor is actually a relative thing, depending on the economy.... its not actually a type of person...God doesnt say well I make this person worth $$ and that person worth nothing.

those with riches can be very precious about their possessions, even if they are quite useless and it can turn into idolatry. the golden calf wasnt made out of recycled milk bottles for example.

rich people can be very exacting. used to the finer things in life, anything shoddy or substandard can be offensive to them. its a shame that poor people cannot look after their properties for example, but then when do they actually have the time and money to do so? they are too busy working fingers to the bone for someone else, to pay much attention to their own appearances.

maintenance is kinda hard to keep up if you dont have the resources to do so. when you are rich, you CAN sit down and have a long lunch if you so desire. After all nobodys paying you by the hour. You can also shout all your friends too if you are rolling in it.

in fact, if you shout people who cant pay you back, God will see it and reward you.