I can tell you (don't) have money by...

Maybe the house has cheap fake surveillance outdoor cameras installed just to trick the insurance agency?

 

(duplicated)

 

Thinking more about household staff, a few differences that would be noticeable between neighbors of different incomes in the same well-to-do neighborhood:

Houseman / no houseman. Handyman on retainer / generic service provider. Someone with more money might have a regular guy who comes regularly to do the "heavy" stuff. People who don't hire a service provider as needed.

Not always an indicator, but do they walk their own dog or hire a dogwalker?

Dog groomer who comes to the house (either via dog grooming van, or sets up in the house).

Sending a new puppy away to obedience school vs. training them yourself or taking a class at the park.

Personal chef.

Hair stylist / manicurist / pedicurist / masseuse who comes to the house.

 

Yep. I've met this sort of person many times in my life. To be honest, I don't hang out with wealthy people—or know any. But I certainly know many who have maxxed out their credit cards acquiring 'stuff' that wealthy people have.

I know somebody who lives near me who won't wear anything but Jimmy Choo shoes, etc. She pays hundreds of pounds for these things (and other labeled items as well) and constantly points out that these are Jimmy Choo shoes, etc. She is a hairdresser and her husband works in the building trade as a project manager. That's their income level. But she insists on 'nothing but the best.'

They are seriously in debt. And yes, the debt worries them, but it doesn't stop them from continuing to buy extremely expensive things. I suspect it makes them feel wealthy, which they find temporarily comforting. They aren't the least bit snobbish, by the way, and don't look 'down' on others at all. But they definitely like to pretend to be living the good life, as they assume wealthy people live it. It's difficult to know how to react when she shows me yet another wonderfully expensive thing she's acquired. I sometimes think she's on another planet from me. That kind of knife-edge financial existence would scare the shit out of me.

 

Certainly the rest of us can look down on them. And use their souls for our novels.

'He's Special Air Service...'

'Moron.'

'With an orphanage in Katmandu. He teaches when not on mission.'

'Paedo.'

'Hand writes the most delicious erotic adventures with his Mt Blanc pen. He posts the stories to his lover, long distance, and she types, she types, they are very much in love together. His novels, her introductions printed by the most bijou of publishers in Edinburgh. Joint profits feed homeless. Probably they'll be married in...'

'...The Maldives. Vile and sickly creatures. There should be a law to have them both gassed.'

 

Good point, and it's something he's consciously studied (with mentoring). Won't be dwelt on in the story, but there will be the notion that this is something he's had to learn to succeed in his career.

 

The Millionare Next Door talks a lot about...I think the term is “accumulators” who are frugal and who invest, as opposed to those who make a lot of money and then spend it. I suspect that the best target would be an accumulator with a weak spot, because they’d have more money in semi-liquid form, while the non-accumulators may mostly have flashy assets funded by debt.

By “frugal” I don’t really mean cheap. As I imagine it, an accumulator would buy a very good purse (for example) that will last them for years, but they won’t blow ten or a hundred times that price on a Birkin bag.

I think it’s the same book that says that the money earner and the money manager may be different people—the man may earn while the wife manages their affairs and makes the money grow. Maybe the man would be a good target shortly after the wife dies.

 

No, it needs to be a little lady. Otherwise there is no suppressed sweating in the drafting.

 

I think it's important to note that in So Cal, especially in L.A., neighborhoods change and evolve at a very fast rate, which means that many neighborhoods have a wide income range within a few blocks of each other. Especially in older neighborhoods, neighborhoods populated by creative professionals, and neighborhoods that were affected by the Northridge quake.

The Northridge quake, for example, substantially changed the "price of getting into" a suburb like Sherman Oaks literally overnight. Before the quake, wealthy rock stars lived there. After the quake, they still did...but one street up, their assistants could now afford condos. ETA: Now skyrocketing real estate means those condos are expensive again.

I live in a neighborhood of creative professionals. At one end of my street are mansions from the '30s and '40's. A couple blocks down, where I live, are Mid-Century houses with inhabitants of a wide variety of incomes. The common denominator? Most people work in the TV industry. So, in one Mid-Century house built by Builder A in 1950-something is the young TV star in a Mid-Century house with a newly-remodeled interior he just bought from a flipper. A few houses down from him is a retired couple in their own Builder A Mid-Century home they bought into decades ago. The exteriors and lawns of both homes are well-maintained and don't look that much different from each other income-wise, aside from a bit of new landscaping installed at the TV star's house.

ETA for clarity: So it's less about flat-out deception and more about keeping up with the Joneses, so to speak. Even in Beverly Hills, there are "good ends of the street" or "good street"s vs. not as good streets. Yet on the outside, the houses look remarkably similar.

edit to correct an auto-correct wrong word.

 

IDK if has already been stated yet or not, but having
off brand stuff (like furniture and what not) that looks
very similar to high-end brand name stuff, can make one
look wealthy without actually being wealthy.
So knockoffs and other stuff like that, might be in their
house to keep up an appearance of "Keeping up with the Jones'".

 

Yes, exactly. People who are actually old-money wealthy (usually) don't feel the need to point out what they've 'got.' New money wealthy sometimes does want to show it off. People who can't really afford expensive things but buy them anyway (via credit card debt) are another category altogether. That's probably the category my friend is in.

My friend (and she is a friend—actually a friend of a friend!—we often go out for meals in a group, we exchange Christmas cards, etc) doesn't want to 'pass' as wealthy. She's not in any way a snob—and she is generous to a fault. I casually admired a handbag she was carrying once, and she immediately dumped its contents on the table and gave it to me. I was so totally taken aback! I kept protesting no no no, but she insisted. She went home with her belongings in a plastic carrier bag, and I went home with two handbags. She wouldn't consider a swap with mine either. It was a very weird experience, and one that has made me refrain from paying her any compliments for anything portable like that ever again. I compliment her for other things—things she's done or the way she looks. She is a vital personality, who gets things done, and is always working hard to make other people's lives easier. There is lots to admire. But I won't ever say 'oh what a lovely handbag, shoes, etc' to her again.

I think that being able to buy these wildly expensive things makes her feel comfortable, in some way. She comes from an un-wealthy background, where her folks had to struggle to make ends meet, and I think she regards her ability to buy expensive things as some sort of assurance that she's okay. More than okay. She's 'made it.' The sad thing is, that comfort is a tad illusory when it's based on massive credit card debt, which she admits to. She is terrified what will happen if her husband should lose his job—and she's right to be. House repossession is a very real threat in her life.

I'm wondering how much our consumer culture has to do with all this, or whether this tendency towards acquiring expensive things would have manifested itself anyway.

 

We left the restaurant together. I was topless, my musculature gleamed past the candelabra whilst @jannert wore the two shirts again.

I was thinking about this subject last night. I was a 'little' drunk. From memory:

'Yeah man but it is all so much "game," heh. Game, game of life - from the top of the range 'North Face jacket' [tier 1 consumer] to the 'Experience gift moron' [tier 2] to the maestro in tweed eating a single beansprout a week [expert & aristocrat]...'

 

It was truly weird. Two shirts.

 

But then that week at the pool and you said you never had shorts and I was struggling you know my conscience this poor lady never had shorts of her own but I had to do my lifeguarding duties there was nothing for it but the rubber ring all afternoon. I hope you enjoyed my shorts.

 

Jeebus my thread's gone into some preternatural romance between matt and jann...

 

Hey, we been like twin lilos on the pool since, y'know, '88 or something. Although she does have her favourites, and I sometimes, you know, it goes, when she likes the wrong people I get really furious. Same for all my boys and girls.

 

Better her than me, sez I.

 

Oh

I'll just go back to my puddle.

 

It wisnae me.

 

Now I'm wondering whether if you'd complimented her shoes, she'd have taken them off and given them to you.

 

She'd have come in like a millionaire's wife and gone home like a pauper ...no shoes, carrying her wordly possessions in a plastic carrier bag. Yes, the vision did occur to me, especially as I think we might have the same sized feet. Yikes. I can admire things like her haircut and her tooth crowns, though. Well, at least the haircut....