Rich people have it so good. Whether they were born into old money or they worked their way into new money, they seem to have enough to get whatever the heck they want. But do they actually spend their money all willy nilly like some people think they do? The answer lies with us, and if you want to find out what kind of things wealthy people are not spending their money on, you'll just have to keep reading to find out.
Inflated Interest Rates
If there's one thing that rich people really don't want to spend their money on, it's interest. So, how exactly do you keep your interest rates low? Well, in order to do that, you just need to keep your credit score up. Not only does your credit score show people how trustworthy you are and allow you to take out loans or leases or even open new credit cards, it also saves you money on interest.
Having a higher credit score can save you anywhere between hundreds to thousands of dollars on yearly interest rates. So what are you waiting for? Start building it up!
Impulse Buys
There are plenty of people out there who buy something the second they see them. After all, if they don't buy it then and there, maybe they'll never get a chance to buy it ever again. Well, it doesn't work that way for a lot of wealthier people. Warren Buffet once said to Forbes, "If you buy things you do not need, soon you will have to sell things you need".
So if you were thinking you really need that dress or jacket you saw while window shopping, maybe think about some of your other priorities before making a decision.
Extreme Inheritances
If you think that most people get their money from large inheritances, you'd be wrong. Many people don't want to just hand their families money, they want them to learn how to make and manage their own finances. If they just gave all of their money to their kids, they might actually go and spend all of it before learning how to invest it all properly. Then they'd be left with nothing.
Instead, some of the money goes into the trusts or will that they share with their families, or they go to charities. Billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates both give extensive amounts of money to those who need it. Probably more to them than their families.
TV Channels
When you're making a truckload of money, you probably don't actually have the time for sitting around watching TV. People like Elon Musk, for example, who work huge amounts per week, are probably only able to watch a video here and there on their phones, so you won't be catching them sitting down in front of the TV. And when they do, they're probably just going to watch a movie or a couple of episodes of something.
The other thing is that there are streaming services available for a decent price rather than having to buy all of these cable networks that are available. That way you can watch what you want when you want it.
Video Games
The same thing goes for video games. Because there is such a lack of time to sit around and do whatever you want, not only are they going to not have a huge amount of TV channels but video games as well. In fact, there aren't too many wealthy adults who play video games at all. And unless your job is to play video games, you probably won't be doing so.
That's not to say they never play any video games, they probably just invest in other things. They probably have a few here and there that they love to play and leave the rest up to the kids.
Luxury Brands
You see all of these celebrities coming down the red carpet and doing all of these elaborate Met Gala outfits that it becomes harder and harder to realize that they aren't always wearing the most luxurious items. Many of these things are once-a-year events, and they typically wear normal clothes on a day-to-day basis. Besides, they can't possibly afford to wear the most expensive clothes every single day when anything could happen to ruin them and cost them hundreds.
While it's nice to have a few items here and there that are expensive and glamorous, that doesn't mean that you can't enjoy the cheaper and simpler options.
Over-Priced Homes
You may think that people who have a ton of money spend it on buying huge houses and mansions and the like. And while many of them definitely are buying themselves nice houses that are pretty big, most of the time there are a lot of other things going on in the background. If they come across a house that they think costs too much, just like any other person they are going to try to get a better deal.
Just because you have money doesn't mean you should waste it. There's always a better price you can get when it comes to real estate and rich people stay rich buy saving more.
Buying Vs. Renting
Speaking of buying houses, there is another option that many people don't often think about. Sure, you can buy yourself a house and then you own it, but that costs so much money sometimes that it's not exactly worth it. "Renting is more popular than ever, even among the wealthy," said Michael Corbett, host of Extra’s Mansions and Millionaires, in an interview with The Huffington Post.
"While it once made sense for people who could afford it to buy a home and flip it after two years, and the market has improved moderately this year, we’re hardly in a boom."
Expensive Grooming
We all love a nice haircut and mani-pedi, but that doesn't mean it's efficient to be getting a new 'do every week or a rich man's haircut. Many people with money keep themselves just as well-groomed as the rest of us and they do it in the same way. They may go to a nice salon and get it done for a bit more, but that doesn't mean they do this excessively.
In fact, for many of these people, they get their own hair cut at home. It just doesn't make sense to always spend on things that you can do yourself, so why not do it yourself?
Too Many Credit Cards
While we're sure everyone has a credit card stashed away, these are only for emergencies. And the people who know how to budget themselves and invest well know this very well. What would be the point in getting a bucket-load of credit cards when you have the money to spend? Credit is just a way for companies to allow you to spend money you don't have while making money off of the interest you pay.
Thus, it becomes pointless to use credit cards when you have the money for them unless you're just trying to build your credit score. In fact, credit card companies hope you don't realize how pointless credit can be so they can make more money when you need to pay.
Overdraft Fees
One of the things that having less credit cards in use can actually do is make you more vulnerable to overdraft fees. These fees can occur when you try to use more money than is in your debit account. When this happens, depending on which bank you use, you might get slapped with a fee of some sort (which is ironic considering the fact that the issue was your lack of money in the first place).
So, to counteract this, you just need to always have some money in your account. Easier said than done, but for the wealthier people, this is certainly one problem that they avoid pretty well.
Late Fees
Speaking of interest, late fees are another easy way for companies to make more money than they are actually owed. LAte fees happen to us at the worst of times when we're just waiting for our next paycheck to pay it off. That's why the wealthier people of the world are very diligent about making sure they have these payments set to pay automatically. There's no point in waiting when you can just pay now.
Interest is like the bane of anyone when it comes to money. It can build up until you just don't have the money to pay for it anymore and then you're out of luck.
Things That Don't Last
When you need to buy things, do you buy the thing that you can afford or the thing that's better quality? These are the kinds of things people who are trying to save money really ask themselves. For people who can afford both, it's pretty much a no-brainer that they are going to buy the thing that actually lasts because then they'll just have to buy it all over again.
That's why rich people don't buy such cheap things when it matters. They don't want to have to use more of their money again later down the line. It's all about saving as much as you can.
Materialistic Items Rather Than Experiences
Have you ever heard that money can't buy happiness? Well, research has actually shown this to be at least somewhat true. You can't just buy more and more things and expect to be satisfied. A lot of the good about being alive is all the experiences that you can have. Why buy a luxury car or a big, new home when you can, instead, buy a month-long vacation abroad?
The answer is you don't. If you truly want to be happy, you're going to be spending your money on experiences and memories that you can carry with you for the rest of your life.
Retirement
This isn't to say that retirement isn't a good option for many people. It's that for the people who are making tons of money on what they do, they don't actually plan to retire and instead want to work for as long as they possibly can. According to a study done in 2010 from Barclay's Wealth, about 54% of millionaires plan to work through their retirement years.
It also showed that a further 60% of those with a net worth of $15 million plan to work no matter what age they are. So if it works for you, that's fine, but don't forget it won't make you more money than you already have.
Gambling
This is probably one of the more obvious things that wealthy people don't do. Well, maybe "don't do" is the wrong way to phrase it. Gambling can be a really fun activity when you only spend however much you're comfortable potentially losing. So it's quite common that a wealthy person might try their hand at some poker, but they aren't going to be spending as much as other people do.
That's simply due to the fact that they already have quite a bit of money. For them, it would be nice to have more, so they might try, but there's no point to overdoing it because they'll more than likely lose the money they already have.
Lottery Tickets
This also falls a bit into the gambling aspect of this. The biggest difference, though, is that you don't see your results immediately, so we decided to call it two different things. Whereas gambling at, say, a casino is for more than just making some money, but also having fun, buying lottery tickets is more of a thing you do out of desperation and hope.
The thing is that people who are really rich already pretty much won the lottery. And yes, while winning the actual lottery would mean making more money, they don't want to waste what they already have trying and leave it to the people who are more in need.
Luxury Items
Luxury items are great in theory, but they can cost quite the pretty penny. The thing is that a lot of the time you're actually paying for the brand name rather than the actual quality Sure, the quality is bound to be good because then they wouldn't have been able to make a name for themselves, but that doens't mean you can't find the same item somewhere else.
There's bound to be a bunch of places that use the same materials and work just as hard to give you a good item. So sometimes it's nice to show off a brand, but most of the time you can save your money.
Latest Gadgets
We all like to think that if we had a lot of money we would spend it on all of the latest gadgets and technology. But the thing is, that's a really easy way to go and throw your money down the toilet. If you upgrade every year or even every two years, you might be spending way more money than you really need to. Especially since things don't change much year-to-year.
Take the iPhone, for example. There are many times when the biggest upgrades are the colors, a bit more memory, and a better camera. But those things are so marginal that it really only makes a difference when your phone is already 4 years old.
Costly Educations
At the end of the day, a diploma from a school is not going to get you where you need to go. Think about it: you can be at the top of your class because you study and know the materials, but that doesn't mean you are the most gifted one there. So a diploma just proves you've graduated. What people really want to see are the skills and determination to prove your worth, not the difference between an A or a B- report card.
Many famous people such as Steve Jobs, Oprah Winfrey, and Mark Zuckerberg to name a few, have at some point dropped out of school before becoming successful. Let that be a lesson to anyone who values diplomas over the people who can't necessarily afford one.
Personal Improvement Training
The people with money didn't get to where they are today buy listening to other people teach them how to do those things. Well, maybe some of them did and adapted their own skills to the knowledge they learned, but the point is that you shouldn't fix something that isn't broken. Besides, the people who are "self-help gurus" typically only provide superficial advice and the real change comes when you decide to step up.
So people who are wealthy don't want to waste their money on things that aren't actually going to help them. They've done fine thus far, so they're just going to keep on keeping on.
Gold Jewelry
We already spoke about how wealthy people don't tend to waste their money on random luxuries, and gold is just another one of those things that they tend to avoid. That doesn't mean that they don't have or will never wear any gold jewelry, but rather that they don't spend a lot on investing in it. They just wear the few things they buy themselves and whatever they have personally inherited.
Not only that but there are tons of other options that they have for themselves. They probably where the things that matter more to them rather than a brand new meaningless necklace they saw in a store.
Plastic Surgery
Plastic surgery is one of those things that they tend to avoid as well (that is unless we're talking about the myriad of reality stars that think the most important thing in their lives is improving the image that they've already created). Especially when it comes to wealthier people who are not on camera all of the time, rich folks just don't spend their money on cosmetic surgeries.
For one thing, they can be pretty dangerous or need constant touch-ups. That makes them even more expensive than they already are. Another risk is becoming obsessed with body improvements and that would be too big of an investment.
Fur Coats
This is one of those things that you're either for or against. The thing is that it's becoming a lot less popular to be sporting real fur jackets due to the requirement necessary to make such a thing. Major fashion designers are on the decline regarding wearing these items and that's because they find it to be unethical. And their replacements can be pretty darn convincing, comfortable, and fashionable, so what's the point?
If you're thinking about buying a really nice fur coat, think about this: the fewer people buy them, the less likely they are to actually hunt down the animals to make them. And you can look just as good with faux fur as real fur.
Business Class Flights
You may think that a lot of people with money spend it on business class flights. The truth is that there isn't ever really a point to doing this. If you're the kind of person who travels a lot, then you can get rewards that eventually add up to upgrades and discounts that eliminate the need to purchase the business class. Other times you're flying for a couple of hours so there's no real point in paying an extra thousand.
The best thing that a person can do is to buy themselves a rewards card or get frequent flyer credit so that they can save money on their flights and one day they'll be able to fly business with it.
Home Appliances
This comes back to one of the points we made earlier about things not needing to be fixed if they aren't broken. There are plenty of reliable and affordable models of household appliances that work just as well or sometimes better than the more expansive and (more well-known) name-brand items. When someone with money has something that works perfectly fine, chances are they aren't going to be spending the money to get a new one.
This also counts for things that people tend to buy and use only one time like waffle irons or ice cream makers. Only buy things you know that you need.
Clutter
People love to fill up their houses with all sorts of knick-knacks and decorations that don't really need to be added. A lot of the fancier, richer-looking homes you'll see actually look that way because of the lack of clutter that they have in the house. It all comes down to buying the things you need rather than the things you think would look nice on the shelf in the living room.
There are ways you can decorate your house without buying a bunch of junk that is just there for aesthetics. Many of these things can also serve a purpose rather than just be decorative.
Big Houses
There are plenty of people who realize that building yourself a house with more than ten bathrooms and a whole bunch of floors and bedrooms is just a waste of money. As nice as it looks to be able to afford never-ending housing space, you don't really need all of that room to yourself. For example, Warren Buffet, one of the top ten richest men on earth, still lives in a home that he bought for $30,000.
When you think about it, it makes a lot more sense to buy and live in a home that really means something to you rather than a gigantic mansion that's about as empty as the hole in your heart that you're trying to fill.
Buying Lots Of Things For The Kids
We love to shower kids with gifts and nice things so we can see them smile and be happy. But even people with the money to give their kids a never-ending stream of gifts know when to stop. There is a real risk of spoiling your child that people with money want to avoid. It's crucial that they do so in order to teach their children how to manage their own expenses.
If they're always fed things on a silver platter then they won't grow up into a person that can handle things like that. As parents, people just want to set their children up for success, not failure.
Expensive Restaurants
It's no secret that the people who can afford real fine dining and Michelin star restaurants will do so. After all, that is their customer base--the people that can afford their food. But that it isn't to say that wealthy people are going to go out for expensive food all the time. That can be a really huge expense. Buying food and preparing it at home yourself can actually be super affordable.
In fact, it might even be more affordable to hire someone to cook for you with the groceries you buy than to eat out all the tie at fine-dining establishments. It's really only an occasional treat.
Marriages
Bear with us now, this one definitely seems odd to put on the list. But when you really think about it, it is that strange? We're not necessarily talking about the cost of throwing a ceremony, but the cost of getting a divorce. The couple usually split the money regardless of who earned it and that's on top of the cost of the divorce lawyers who might need to help with custody and general management.
That's why people who have tons of money definitely try to find someone that they can stick with forever or get a pre-nuptial agreement. It may seem obvious, but these days there are actually a ton of people who rush into marriage way too soon.
Doctors
Those with money aren't trying to go get doctor's appointments any time something is wrong. The wrong doctors can end up pushing you down the wrong path seeing more and more doctors and getting more and more tests all while the bills just run higher and higher. Even for people with money, the cost of medical bills can become way too big of a hill to climb.
That's why they'll try their best to keep themselves as healthy as possible for as long as they can. Proper diet and exercise go a long way into saving money, even if the gym bills seem expensive at first.
Extended Warranties
This one might actually surprise you. That thing that you typically pay for because any number of things can happen to that fancy new TV you just bought is something that successful people may not necessarily care about. If you do a little bit of research, you just might find that the manufacturer's warranty that comes with the product gives you a lot more coverage than the one they give you in stores.
So maybe you should even consider skipping out on the store's warranty and just use the original one. That is, of course, unless you're prone to breaking things.
Low-Interest Savings Accounts
While having copious amounts of money will net you a lot of cash in your savings account regardless of how much the interest is, the fact of the matter is that if you can get more money without any drawbacks, you're definitely going to choose that option. That's why a lot of successful people choose other options for their savings accounts that you might not normally think of trying yourself.
According to gobankingrates.com says that with the Monifi banking app, your Save Balance earns 0.60% APY on every dollar, which is more than 10 times the national average. That's a done deal.
Buying Used Cars
This one may seem less obvious to you, but it makes a lot of sense. While you may see a lot of wealthy people driving luxury cars, chances are they bought a used car. There are plenty of options for used cars that will give you both a pretty discount and a car that is in perfect working order. Even a car that has driven 1000 miles will have a good price drop.
For people with money, it might just make more sense to buy a cheaper car, and worst case pay for refurbishing it rather than spending the full price for a car that works just as well as the cheaper option.