I had to chuckle at a family that checked-in in front of me at the Thompson Hollywood then who I ran into again at the pool. While not as offensive as Tweedledum and Tweedledee, you just have to wonder about some people.
“Peter And Judith” Boast At The Thompson Hollywood
It was a family of three, parents in their late 40s or early 50s and a teenage daughter. As they checked in front of me, the father began sharing that they were visiting from Beacon Hill (a posh neighborhood in Boston) and that their daughter…but before he could finish his sentence his wife jabbed him on the side.
I thought she smartly realized that the front desk agent probably did not care, but she just wanted to take over. She said that their daughter had just started at Harvard and that she was the fourth generation family member at Harvard (talk about affirmative action…).
“Peter” continued that she was studying…and was again cut off by “Judith.” Judith shared that she was studying chemistry and would be a veterinarian one day. Peter added that she was also studying music and was against cut-off so that Judith could tell the poor front desk agent that her daughter had been playing violin since she was six years old.
Somehow the conversation shifted to… investment properties…and Peter mentioned that they were in California to look at one of their apartment buildings. Judith interjected that it was one of several properties they own “around the world.”
Ok fine. Rich people being rich people, I suppose, and thinking the world revolves around them.
But wait, there’s more.
I go sit up on the pool deck later.
There they are. The girl is swimming and Peter and Judith were bickering about something. All of a sudden a waitress turns up to see if they wanted something to drink.
And it began once again…
The Harvard boast. The property boast. This time they added that they flew business class on JetBlue and it was “really nice.” Judith also added that the Thompson pool reminded her of their indoor pool at home. To the pool girl. Wow…
I said nothing. But goodness gracious folks, get a grip. No one wants to hear that.
So why did I call them Judith and Peter? If you’ve ever watched Come Fly With Me on BBC, you’ll know why. I could not believe how often she interrupted him. What a family.
image: BBC / Come Fly With Me (fair use)
I feel bad for their daughter. Too bad she didn’t insist on going to Stanford.
They can save money if the daughter lives at home while attending college. And perhaps the daughter didn’t get into Stanford.
Even with lots of relatives who have attended Stanford, I got the sense that Stanford was at least somewhat less about affirmative action for children of alumni than Harvard and a bunch of the other top schools on the East Coast are. [The only college/university in California I would have considered actually attending was Caltech, but nowadays my relatives from the East Coast seem to send a steady stream of kids to Stanford and Pomona — to my disappointment for reasons I won’t go into publicly.]
There is definitely a lot of affirmative action for “legacies” and major donors at the top schools.
My point was it was a shame she’ll have to live so close to her insufferable parents. Stanford would be a good school a coast away. I’m sure she’d probably be happy to attend Arizona State if it meant no more Mom and Dad.
I grew up 5 miles from Stanfurd and they’re absolutely still high on Legacy admissions, my school would get 1-2 kids into each Ivy each year, but 10+ legacies into ‘Furd
(Go Bears!)
U of A has a very good vet program….just sayin
I’m chuckling about the usage of the term “affirmative action” for legacy college admissions. I suppose this was used to justify affirmative action for someone due to race (or gender) because whites with legacy admissions get in too and there is some merit to that point. As the descendants of coal miners, I don’t think there’s a benefit to giving someone preference in university admissions merely because their relatives or parents went there. End it ALL now.
It’s a big different for EARNED preferences though: “Thank you for your service” should mean more than priority boarding for vets and letting them check-in their duffel bags for free. Anyone whose a combat vet or child of a KIA veteran should get preferences. Anyone whose eligible for selective service should get a $2000/year tax credit. Everyone else including someone fresh-off-the-boat who thinks the USA owes them a living? Reparations have been paid since 1964. Get to the back of the line with the rest of us!
The wealthy doth protest too much? I feel like people who are genuinely well off and able to do all the things they claim wouldn’t brag about it to every poor soul they bump into. These people are coming off to me as the types who cashed in some points to stay in a nicer hotel and now they think they have God by the bollocks. Wouldn’t surprise me if their daughter wasn’t even theirs.
This is exactly right. This is some nouveau riche nonsense – if it were to be believed at all. For instance, the “we flew business class on JetBlue” comment. That’s not a flex to a lot of us because, well, lots of people fly Mint and while it is NICE, it’s a TRANSCON that is flown multiple times a day by lots of people. The only people that would think it IS a flex are people that are unaccustomed to that sort of thing and need to tell everyone. As Matt witnessed.
I once met a similar couple at a safari lodge in Kenya. The wife told everyone in earshot how she liked being the best customer everywhere she went spending her husband’s money and how their neighbor in Tennessee was Ashley Judd.
The husband mostly kept quiet since the wife cut him off every time he spoke and mostly fidgeted with his 800 mm camera lens that he packed around on his back like a bazooka.
I really enjoyed that show, my son and I still quote it when we see a “Come Fly With Me” situation.
I don’t think it’s a matter of rich people being rich.
This couple is insecure because they’re from Boston.
People from Massachusetts are many things but insecure isn’t one of them.
My first exposure to people from Boston was when my school had a new girl in school who couldn’t help but tell everyone — and tell everyone often — how she was from Boston. And she did this while she spoke with some kind of pseudo-sophisticated accent that made me think she was arrogant and wanted to be British or something special despite kids in class only knowing Boston for the Boston Tea Party rejecting the Brits and maybe the baseball and basketball teams. [Her brothers and dad didn’t speak that funny way, so I did eventually chalk it up to something else. But on my first work trip to Boston, I definitely learned that there is no lack of self-confidence in the city and the state.]
Was she using the “Mid-Atlantic accent” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_accent) made famous by actresses in the mid-1900s? That vaguely English but clearly not affectation that makes you think less of them for pretending but makes THEM think highly of themselves?
The only potential truth for this could be if she spent more of her childhood/teen years at a multinational boarding school where English was the language in which education was provided, but the students came from varying backgrounds with country-appropriate accents when speaking English. That tends to see an odd mashup of accents that can produce a non-specific, real world accent similar to Mid-Atlantic, which was completely fabricated.
“Ok fine. Rich people being rich people,” I disagree. Stupid people being stupid people is more appropriate. I have known several extremely wealthy people that if you don’t know them you probably feel sorry for them and want to help them. The way they dress, talk and live their lives says absolutely nothing about how rich they are. They are just humble and down to earth. These people that you described are probably just vomiting insecurity. If they were really really rich they would probably be staying at a more upscale property than the Thompson.
I always remember something a wise man told me many years ago when I was young…..”Money doesn’t buy happiness, but there is a hell of a lot of it out there for rent”.
All things considered, I’d rather have money than be poor. And it’s not how long you live, but how you lived.
Which brings me full circle laughing at and wondering why so many people in their 60’s are dressed in their suits, on their laptops flying next to me. I realized it’s a generalization and I don’t know everyone’s situation but most anyone in their 60’s still working after the markets we have had since the 80’s made some bad financial decisions in the past 40 years.
I think it’s better the other way. Have $150M in assets. Spend $750,000 per year so that the $150M stays more than intact. Have good values. Also have a safe and somewhat fast car, nice house that isn’t too pretentious. Not hostage to frequent flyer programs even if one or two is slightly preferred.
One caveat. If one doesn’t spend too much, there will always be large expenses, like property tax, capital gains taxes on mutual funds when they have capital gains distributions, and quarterly federal estimated taxes to pay.
A sign of success to me is to maintain the value of your assets and spend only what makes you comfortable but not to the extent that it drains the value of your assets. Then pass on the money to your children and have them do the same.
There are only 25k people in the entire world who have $100M or more in assets*, I make that about 0.003% of the global population. It should go without saying that the number above $150m will be significantly smaller. I suspect that the family in question is more like in the global top 2-3%, in other words they’re in a group that’s orders of magnitude more inclusive than what is referred to in this comment.
* https://www.barrons.com/articles/u-s-boasts-38-of-the-worlds-centi-millionaires-01674679280
If they have $10M in assets, they have nothing to brag about. If one spends 4%, that is only $400,000 and will likely fully deplete the $10M in 20-30 years. Spending $400,000 per year is not much if one has severe dementia. If you have severe dementia, you may need 2 people to work most of the time and maybe 1 person at night. These means 7 person-shifts per day. That may require 10 people. If you pay them $75,000 per year, that is $750,000 per year, which is greater than $400,000.
In reality, most people don’t have $750,000 to pay for home health care each year so they resort to paying a poorly educated home health aide, who may be an immigrant or semi-skilled person who is exiting welfare or they go to a nursing home who cannot give one to one care with feeding, diaper care, and constant supervision.
I am not sure whether you are trolling. An annual income of $400k would comfortably place someone in the top 1% of earners in the USA alone and somewhere around the top 0.3% in the world.
It really is obvious that the vast majority of people won’t be able to spend $750k per year on anything- that’s why most of the developed world has state run/subsidised healthcare and/or robustly regulated systems of private medical insurance. The fact that [particularly in the USA] there may be people who are very wealthy by any reasonable definition and at the same time unable to afford the support they require could indeed result in the kind of insecurity that manifests itself in the sort of conduct described in Matthew’s post.
You’re such a gossip lol
Kudos for knowing about CFWM!
I was on the plane beside a “Peter” two days ago. On and on about all the things he owned candy his important job. I just let him talk and I gave him my full attention. These guys actually fascinate me and I am interested. Not in the things they own, but in this peculiar character flaw that demands attention when they seemingly already have it all I oohed and awed him throughout the conversation to keep it going
He never once asked anything about me as he kept the focus on himself. So I did too. Probably I should have been bored, but I don’t often ru into these “Peters”. Yeah, just give them what they want and let them talk and see it as a form of entertainment.
Thanks for the Lucas and Williams sketches. Used to watch Little Britain and somehow lost track of these guys. Still hilarious as ever! Gotta catch up on their stuff.
I’m trying to imagine their Christmas letter.