People From Around The World Share Outrageous Rich Kid Stories


People From Around The World Share Outrageous Rich Kid Stories


Rich kids are invariably portrayed as spoiled, obnoxious brats. But let's be honest: deep down, we all wanted to be that kid with the platinum credit card and personal chauffeur. And we still do, but hopefully we'd be able to display better manners than the kids in the stories below. Money makes people crazy, and these outrageous rich kids are no exception.

shane-U_ekGjoIm_E-unsplash-300x200.jpg Shane


123. Time for an upgrade

One of my college classmates wrecked his Range Rover over winter break and came back in an Aston Martin.

michael-heuser-wuEs2P8VLGA-unsplash-300x202.jpgMichael Heuser

122. Gonna need some more crayons too

In middle school we were asked to draw our homes for some assignment and hand it in at the end of class. A popular, extremely wealthy kid that sat behind me raised his hand and smugly asked the teacher for another sheet of paper because he couldn’t draw it all on one page. His friends just snickered but I was cringing. Even at 12 I remember thinking it was such a snobby thing to say.

aaron-burden-1zR3WNSTnvY-unsplash-300x212.jpgAaron Burden

121. How much is a lot?

Worked with this kid who was a good kid, but completely disconnected from financial reality for most people. He’d just moved out west from another state and was trying to get on like a “normal” adult.

He went to buy a new car and was shocked that they couldn’t just bill his dad for it, since they didn’t know him.

Another time, he ordered a bottle of wine at a restaurant and the sommelier said “certainly, sir.” Then the sommelier whispered “just for your knowledge, sir, the bottle is $700.”

He looked straight at him and asked “is that a lot?”

The sommelier honestly didn’t know how to answer.

Good kid, and he got a lot better, but he just didn’t know. Once he casually told his mom he needed some help with bills and she deposited $20,000 into his account.

kelsey-knight-udj2tD3WKsY-unsplash-1-300x200.jpg Kelsey Knight

120. No one cares who your father is

In middle school, a repairman was working on a broken AC in our class. This kid kept making fun of how dirty he looks. The repairman finally had enough of it and requested the kid come to the principal's office with him. Kid started screaming stupid stuff like "how dare you talk back to me? Do you know who my dad is? Don’t you dare touch me, you’re dirty!" On and on. At that moment I lost all faith in humanity.

david-siglin-UuW4psOb388-unsplash-300x214.jpgDavid Siglin
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119. I never thought I'd feel sorry for a dentist

I work for a dentist and her son is a spoiled brat. He was at the office one day because she had to bring him to an appointment later that day. He got bored and went out wandering around some of the local shops. Then he came back a little while later and without any preamble walked up to her and said "give me $80." She asked him what it was for and he just repeated himself and she gave it to him.

He was 17 at the time of this incident. The father is in the picture but my boss (the dentist) is the main breadwinner and disciplinarian of the family. The husband is more like another child and just works here and there and lives off her money.

She tries to act tough and instil certain morals and values in her kids but then turns around and caves to all of their demands. For example, her twin daughters are going to university next year and instead of staying in a dorm they demanded a two-bedroom two-bathroom apartment. They refused to share a bedroom or even a bathroom. At first she told them absolutely not but they whined and complained and she caved.

My boss is very much about appearances and from a young age got her kids accustomed to a privileged lifestyle. She created monsters.

yusuf-belek-gHdVUGAJYGo-unsplash-300x200.jpgYusuf Belek

118. Sugar daddy

My fiance's cousin. He managed to crash 4 cars while still in high school because his father would replace them. When he moved on to college, he got kicked out of several apartments for owning a dog when they weren't permitted. He told me he didn't care though, since his father also funded his continuous stream of new housing. From what I last heard, his father is now paying for his long-standing *ahem* white, powdery habit.

clark-van-der-beken-CSkriQWeTVs-unsplash-1-300x200.jpg Clark Van Der Beken

117. He should go on The Price Is Right

This guy looked at my $2,000 beater car in college and commented that it must've been really cheap. His guess was $15,000.

erik-odiin-DH_IAgZkJP4-unsplash-300x200.jpgErik Odiin

116. I wish I had a grownup allowance

My fraternity brother's monthly allowance of $2,000 was canceled from his parents because he made a few F's. He then called his aunt for a separate allowance.

The dude was a massive jerk. His dad is a very successful stockbroker in the Memphis/Germantown area. The kid only went to college so he could earn a degree to work at that company. This guy already had it made from day one. I could write paragraphs on how big of a loser sandwich this dude was.

will-van-wingerden-dsvJgiBJTOs-unsplash-300x200.jpg Will van Wingerden

115. One for you, one for me

Someone’s sister got $600 shoes so the parents got the other kid shoes of the same price to stop their complaining. It was a birthday present for the first kid -- I should’ve mentioned that.

gavin-allanwood-ndpX28miBtE-unsplash-300x300.jpg Gavin Allanwood

114. "Why don't poor people just get more money?"

I knew this one guy at my college who didn't understand why everybody is so worked up about student loans. I remember him saying something along the lines of "why don't people just pay the tuition upfront?" He was also quite sheltered.

1_celyn-kang-e-CrwdBNL7k-unsplash-225x300.jpg Celyn Kang

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113. We could all use a little change

My friend literally throws away his change because he hates holding coins. Like, he throws loose change into the garbage. It doesn't matter if it's 99 cents; he'll throw it away. That stuff adds up.

1_josh-appel-NeTPASr-bmQ-unsplash-1-300x225.jpgJosh Appel

112. That's what the garbage is for!

I went to high school with this insufferably spoiled kid. His family had a couch in their home's elevator. And classical European sculpture (this was in the U.S.). Kid talked down to/about the less fortunate on a regular basis. He once made fun of me for picking a coin up off the ground.

tomas-martinez-U61mIAtcGpU-unsplash-212x300.jpgTomas Martinez

111. What a great incentive

In high school a kid was bragging that he got in his third fender bender in his "old" car (3 years old) that his parents gave him but he hated, so his parents were buying him an entirely new (current year) car to incentivize him to drive better.

"Hey Son, you wrecked your new car? Well, fine. We're getting you a new one hoping you'll drive better!" Genius.

1_stefan-katrandjiski-wjsbdnWotC0-unsplash-1-300x212.jpgStefan Katrandjiski

110. I can't be seen with poor people

The Nintendo DS had just come out. It was like $150 and my family lived in a cramped 1 bedroom apartment and drove a 20 year old car that was always breaking down. We ate those cheap bags of Walmart beans and rice for months at one point. I expressed the desire to own one after my friend said he had one and I got "Why can't your parents just... buy you one? I don't get it, it's dirt cheap?"

He didn't want to be my friend after that anymore, literally avoided me and made fun of me for the rest of the year behind my back.

I'm still salty about it.

1_denise-jans-vPAeOZkpBJQ-unsplash-300x200.jpgDenise Jans

109. Should have used air miles

Girl at work told me she hated her Dad. I asked why. She said he keeps asking for money since she used his credit card for a Euro trip and left him an 80 grand bill from last year.

1_gabriel-salas-YnENabLdEKY-unsplash-200x300.jpg Gabriel Salas

108. What a gentleman

First day as a librarian in a private school, I help a 7 year old with the printer and he offers to tip me.

1_fabian-blank-pElSkGRA2NU-unsplash-300x200.jpgFabian Blank

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107. Hope he had insurance

I went to college with a guy who totaled five Mustangs in a year. I don't think he was sober enough to remember any of them.

1_slade-lapusnak-z-3lZfFdsj0-unsplash-300x200.jpgSlade Lapusnak

106. She must work really hard

I use to have a friend who would constantly say "I love when my dad gives me money," and "If I ask for a certain amount of money my parents always give me $50 extra." This girl then bought an apartment boasting about it on Facebook and how proud she was of herself because at 23 she was able to afford a home at such a young age all on her own. Still makes me want to face plant into a pile of jagged rocks.

zachary-kadolph-KHDXZ3w-g3w-unsplash-225x300.jpgZachary Kadolph

105. Talent isn't everything

My personal favorite was in college - kid down the hall from me bought a brand new Fender Stratocaster and played with it for a day and got bored and sold it to me case and all for $20. I still have it and play it fifteen years later. It's a great guitar.

1_simon-weisser-phS37wg8cQg-unsplash-300x200.jpgSimon Weisser

104. A fraternity with principles

When I was in college a friend that was heavy in the frat life told me about a freshman that got kicked out for having a servant flown to town to do the hazing chores he was supposed to do.

neal-e-johnson-fwXkHBFoETE-unsplash-1-300x200.jpg Neal E. Johnson

103. Show him to the donor clinic

One time a college dorm mate next door was stressing his dad hadn’t yet given him money for the month, and $1000 wasn’t going to last him for the week.

Meanwhile I’m having to donate plasma to afford my next meal. Life just be like that.

1_jp-valery-blOLCO2K4M0-unsplash-1-200x300.jpgJp Valery

102. Cleaning service

One of my flatmates in uni was a Chinese girl who asked us all if our washing was being done. She just threw all her clothes and towels outside her room door and was expecting them all to magically get cleaned. That was an eye opener.

1_sarah-brown-oa7pqZmmhuA-unsplash-300x200.jpgSarah Brown

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101. That looks used

There was this rich kid in our class who was literally disgusted by us buying used stuff (like computer parts) on ebay. Once during a conversation I said I bought on eBay memory module for my PC and he said to me that I should have a little dignity, and if I buy used stuff I should keep it to myself.

1_christian-wiediger-WkfDrhxDMC8-unsplash-300x200.jpgChristian Wiediger

100. One man's trash

I know a garbage man that works in rich neighborhoods, and takes out trash around move-out time for the uber-rich-kid university. Every year, he finds 200-300 game consoles (the newest ones) and sometimes desktop PCs. The kids don't want to take them home, they just throw them all out. He makes a good ~40k a year on ebay - he just cleans stuff up and sells it - nice supplementary income.

1_kamil-s-13W6AqIKV_I-unsplash-300x200.jpgKamil S

99. Black diamond tantrum thrower

A 14-year-old in full volume cursing meltdown ("WHERE THE [BLEEP] IS HE!!???") because the pilot of the private helicopter that had brought him there had gone off to get a cup of coffee. The kid was done skiing for the day and found it totally unacceptable that he had to wait 10 minutes before he got flown home.

1_westwind-air-service-_TUvJQS9Aoo-unsplash-1-300x200.jpg Westwind Air Service

98. Among the upper crust

I was that poor kid who ended up getting a scholarship to a ridiculous private school.

The one thing that stood out massively for me was probably how much people cared about what everyone else's parents did. Like your parents' achievements counted for yourself.

"My daddy just brought a new plane." (Yes a literal statement)

"So what does your dad do?"

When I replied "nothing" they laughed and thought I was being cool about it.

bucerius-law-school-hQ4WT372J9g-unsplash-1-300x200.jpg Bucerius Law School

97. Entitled to a lawyer

There’s a lot of rich kids in my particular business program in university.

I met this one girl a few months ago at a social. We were chatting a bit about our program and she proudly told me about how she threatens to sue the school whenever things don’t go her way. She also said something to the effect of: “They have to take the threat seriously because they know I actually have the means to follow through, haha.”

brooke-cagle-JBwcenOuRCg-unsplash-1-300x200.jpgBrooke Cagle

96. Can't give her back

A girl in my school was "surprised" by her parents in the school's parking lot with a new BMW. A freaking BMW. Everyone who is out is basically watching this go down and she starts crying. At first we are all thinking its because she's so happy but then she runs back into the school. Apparently they were supposed to show up earlier (I'm assuming when there would be more students to witness the surprise).

I felt bad for the Dad because he looked totally embarrassed and sad about it. You know in his head he's like, "I created this monster."

zan-1BWBiUUT-AA-unsplash-300x196.jpgZan

95. This really tops the cake

My college roommate's mom gave him $1400 "for the weekend" just randomly. He blew through the whole thing by Saturday asked his mom for more money and was screaming at her because "she promised $1400 for the weekend" and he spent most of what she gave him on Friday which isn't a part of the weekend.

1_anthony-fomin-Gee1LDFJRQc-unsplash-300x200.jpgAnthony Fomin

94. Gotta stay dry

Once had a flatmate craving for Japanese food. He went to Japan for dinner. He used his Macbook as an umbrella on a rainy day. He bought another friend the same watch as his because he kept complimenting it. It's crazy for someone who can't even afford a phone.

1_hunters-race-dE0sBTZCVoY-unsplash-300x200.jpgHunters Race

93. They do grow on trees

A Saudi guy in the UK got in a crash, with light damage to one side of brand new Mercedes. He called for one of his assistants to come get him, even though the car was in good enough condition to drive. My friend rolled up on call with his tow truck and asked the guy where he wanted the car towed. The guy gave him the keys and said "Keep it, I don't want it."

1_hakon-sataoen-qyfco1nfMtg-unsplash-300x211.jpgHåkon Sataøen

92. Ah, bless

My girlfriend's family is wealthy, and she’s working her way to it. But, she was waiting to get a chance for a promotion and the words “I cannot believe anyone would make somebody work for almost a year to get a promotion” came out of her mouth. And I laughed.

tamara-bellis-2Tv7-O13hgk-unsplash-300x199.jpgTamara Bellis

91. Petty cash

A long time ago I was dating a rich girl, not insane rich, but rich enough. Well, I'm from Norway and we have a recycling system for plastic bottles (you get like 10 cents per bottle). Her family had a literal mountain of empty bottles and crates in their warehouse (they had a warehouse). I asked her dad "umm, whaddya gonna do with these?" for which he replied something like "oh, those are from our employees staff parties from a couple years back, I just haven't had the time to get rid of them". Logically I told him that I'd recycle them for a percentage. He said "keep it all, guy." So I did, I had to do multiple trips to several different stores, but it ended up being like $1300 bucks, which was insane money for me at the time. I bought a guitar with it.

I realize now it's not a CRAZY story, but for me it was insane to earn that much money for 4-5 hours of work because her family couldn't be bothered to do it.

jasper-benning-rJPY9L2f_SM-unsplash-200x300.jpgjasper benning

90. Big fish, small pond

In Alaska, we have a family that owns some furniture stores. The kid has been on the commercials most of his life, probably in his mid-late 30s now.

I was working for a grocery store up here, where I was friends with the girl that worked the customer service desk. The guy from the commercials comes up and was trying to return something without a receipt. Policy was to check ID, apparently he didn’t have his.

“Don’t you know who I am?????”

“No, sir. And even if I did, I would still need your ID.”

“I’m (blah blah), my family owns (furniture store).”

“Okay, well I still need your ID.”

She called me to tell me about it after he left ticked off. She really had no clue who he was, so she asked me if I knew him.

julien-pier-belanger-kIPct2PcXYY-unsplash-300x200.jpgJulien-Pier Belanger

89. Smells like money

I had two friends in college who were from the Unites Arab Emirates. They were brothers, and their parents were sending them to school in the US. They were actually pretty cool and down to earth... if not a good bit weird. They knew I didn't have a ton of money and couldn't afford to do the cool stuff they did, so they covered me all the time. Crazy stuff, like renting a private plane to go to a concert, black cars with drivers, expensive dinners in exclusive clubs.

On the weird side... they slaughtered a goat in the bathtub to make a traditional Arabian dinner. And they wore far too much Drakkar.

peggy-anke-jZLxRYWjzwE-unsplash-300x200.jpgPeggy Anke

88. The other 99%

Sitting in a group discussion in college, and having one kid whine that his parents were so disadvantaged that they only brought home $500k a year (20 years ago). I sat there and kept quiet, because my family only had $30k a year. I was only there because of scholarships and financial aid.

The worse thing is all of the sympathy this kid got from the other people in the class. The school was so proud of their racial diversity, but 95% of the students came from families in the top 1% of income.

For what it's worth, I fought for it later. I landed a spot on a student/admin advisory board, and pushed them hard to stop patting themselves on the back for textbook diversity (since they were already majority female and minority white/non-Hispanic) and focus on economic diversity. Not sure if I made a difference though.

1_tim-gouw-bwki71ap-y8-unsplash-1-300x200.jpg Tim Gouw

87. All about the wheels

Girl I went to high school with got a Mercedes for her 16th birthday. She moaned about the fact that she didn't get a Lexus, because her name was Lexi and she thought it would be "Sooooo cool!" for Lexi to drive a Lexus with a custom license plate saying "Lexi".

Her parents did cave and buy her a Lexus for her 17th birthday.

My college roommate threw a massive tantrum, like on the floor screaming and crying, because her parents got her a used truck for graduation. It was a 2013 truck with less than 10k miles that was fully upgraded/loaded with every possible add on. We graduated in 2014.....the car was maybe a year old. She already had a 2009 Range Rover.

1_steady-hand-co-RKVEmmaJqGc-unsplash-300x200.jpgSteady Hand Co.

86. The Lamborghini parade

There was this family that had two children who attended the elementary school that was connected to my middle school. Every day the two parents would leave the house and drive separately to pick up their two kids before returning home.

I should mention at this point that they each drove a Lamborghini, one black and one orange, back-to-back in the pick up line to get their kids from elementary school.

At first I thought they were just being showy, but then I realized that they were two seaters, so this was really the only way to do it.

felipe-simo-HBop_t9V9kM-unsplash-300x219.jpg Felipe Simo

85. Daddy's home

Dad bought his college-aged daughter a house in a VERY nice neighborhood so that she and her friends could live rent free while they attended university. He remodeled the entire house. In all he probably spent close to $2 million. Two weeks after moving in, they left a candle burning while they went to the store to get snacks for a football game. Came home and the house was on fire. A month later, it was good a new for them to move back in.

1_nick-romanov-_hw4aUQ81ic-unsplash-300x200.jpgNick Romanov

84. Yeah, that's harsh punishment

My ex wife used to drive a 1998 Honda Accord. She treated it like crap and so one day I got into it to drive somewhere and I noticed that it was falling apart.

I had two options; junkyard or sell it, and so I put it on Craigslist for $250. I thought it could go to a low income family that had someone with some knowhow who could semi restore it, but when I meet the buyer he was not who I expected. He pulled up in a brand new Escalade and told me that his son was spoiled. His son had crashed a BMW, Mercedes, and an Audi and so he was done buying him nice cars. Turns out, this guy purchased my car as a way of torturing his son.

cody-campbell-f_aSVHS8kjY-unsplash-200x300.jpg Cody Campbell

83. It’s the motion of the ocean

I grew up attending a private school in a developing country so a lot of my classmates were in the 1% of the country.

Whenever we'd be swimming in the school pool one friend of ours in particular would always remark that swimming is more fun if the pool has a current or waves. To which I had no idea what he was talking about and generally thought he was just being imaginative.

One day he invited me over to his house for swimming and... he had a 50 foot indoor pool that generated a current/waves.

He wasn't lying. They are a lot more fun.

raphael-biscaldi-7RQf2X6aXXI-unsplash-300x169.jpgRaphaël Biscaldi

82. It's complicated

One of my coworker, kind of not really friends, years ago made a comment that's stuck with me as the most out-of-touch thing I have ever heard anyone say in person: "I mean, who trusts portugese cleaning people?"

There are layers of entitlement and snoot in there, but the thing is that he was complaining about legitimate and relatable "my parents hate me and blame me for everything" things. His parents really did blame him for whatever the cleaning team broke.

I'm still not sure how to feel about it--he had legitimate hardships that I can understand, expressed from a frame of reference that I cannot.

nino-maghradze-BUXdQh53eis-unsplash-1-300x200.jpgNino Maghradze

81. It's a tragedy

This happened a couple of weeks ago at the Infiniti dealership.

I was in the waiting room with a very well dressed lady for our loaner cars. She left the waiting room to look at her loaner and came back crying. She said she drives a fully loaded qx80 and they gave her a qx60 with nothing in it. I said sorry that happened and asked how long she was going to have the loaner for. She said a couple of hours. I wanted to tell her to suck it up but instead I sat there quiet thinking how life must be easy for her to cry over a loaner car.

giorgio-trovato-3teQ7WdXVDw-unsplash-300x200.jpgGiorgio Trovato

80. Money for nothing

I knew a trust fund girl whose dad gave her the money to start a company. She lost it when she went on vacation for 6 months and forgot she was supposed to pay her employees all the time. She assumed they would not get paid for 6 months and be there when she got back. I quizzed her on this for a few minutes and it was clear she had no idea what a job was.

1_chen-mizrach-jL6PTWI7h18-unsplash-300x169.jpg Chen Mizrach

79. They inspire gratitude

I used to work for a restaurant that celebrated free pancake day. On free pancake day I had the most interesting encounter. This college kid comes in and takes an entire 4 person table all to himself. Sets up a Mac book brings out a Mac air puts on headphones connected to his iPhone. He won't take off his headphones to order and won't look at me. Just wants the free pancakes and water. He stays for over two hours during our busiest day. Finally we are getting ready to end the event and are collecting donations for the local children's hospital. I stop by his table and let him know. He puts up one finger and makes a big show of shutting his laptop. Pausing his music and finally takes his headphones off. Turns to me and says "I don't think people should get free stuff." Then sets everything back up and makes this shoo gesture at me.

I thank God every day I don't wake up being that guy.

nikldn-qp7WA8AV2x0-unsplash-300x200.jpgnikldn

78. Culture shock

A friend I met at Uni flew from Auckland to London for a week to go shopping. Clothes were cheaper in London, so to him it made sense. His parents were from Singapore and had no idea just how much cheaper cars were in New Zealand. So when he said he needed $70k for a Toyota Corolla they gave him the money and he bought a used BMW M3.

When he went home for the summer he asked if I could mind the car for him - given his Dad had pretty much cut him off at that point he just said I had to pay for insurance on it and I could treat it like my own. But as a 19yo sharing a flat and barely getting by there was no way I could cover the cost of insurance - let alone petrol.

1_hu-chen-__cBlRzLSTg-unsplash-300x231.jpgHu Chen

77. E for effort

​My first teaching job was at a private middle school in one of the wealthiest enclaves in the United States. I taught a kid who told me he didn't finish his homework because his helicopter had stalled over the weekend so he couldn't leave his family's island. He was telling the truth. Same kid was also a huge pain who wanted to misbehave with the "cool" kids, and then would lie through his teeth while crying when held accountable. His parents knew he was a jerk and cared enough to bring me a case of wine from their vineyard as a gift every parent teacher conference or before the holidays, but they didn't care enough to discipline their kid.

I now teach at a private school in Europe and I'm absolutely gobsmacked by how many parents are happy to pay 35k per year to dump their kids into boarding so they can do nothing as students and repeat grades one/two/three times because they don't make any effort whatsoever.

1_victoria-heath-b7CRDcwfNFU-unsplash-300x200.jpgVictoria Heath

76. It's not a toy

When I worked at a gas station in my early 20's. It was the hang out spot for spoiled teens to show off their new cars, try to steal beer, but generally just hang out...in a gas station parking lot. Guess they didn't have anywhere else to go.

Anyway, one douchenozzle turned 16 and his parents bought him a brand new sports car (don't ask me what it was, it just looked really expensive). By the next weekend, he totaled that car, trying to show off and do donuts in the intersection the gas station was on and just slammed right into a pole. He was fine, car demolished. Where is Karma when you need her?

Within 2 weeks, this dolt already had another BRAND NEW car! He would brag about how is parents were so stupid and he is already looking to 'upgrade' when the next model came out.

No regard for the money his parents shelled out, no regard for the possible lives he put in jeopardy with his reckless driving. I wanted to throttle him.

cory-rogers-6l4CBNleEBE-unsplash-200x300.jpgCory Rogers

75. Pizza money

I had a friend and this kid's dad owns all the Little Ceasars in town. Getting free pizza whenever we wanted was nice.

Fast forward to prom dinner. I don't have a date, but I like Red Lobster so I tag along for that before going home to play WoW. Good number of us, some of us share entrees because they're pretty darn big.

Kid wants mozza sticks. He orders a chicken burger with mozza sticks instead of fries. The dinner goes normally, and everything is being cleared. There's no bite out of his burger.

"Do you want me to pack it up?"

"No just throw it out."

I ended up getting the burger and the waitress ended up getting a 300% tip since his dad gave him a fifty and the kid has no concept of money.

ivan-torres-MQUqbmszGGM-unsplash-300x200.jpg Ivan Torres

74. It's all relative

Grew up wealthy, lived in a large house in a nice area, went on nice vacations once a year and flew across country to see family at least once every two years. I didn’t have any real concept of money growing up.

My friends all came from different background due to the school I attended but I never put much thought into why my friend lived in a small apartment where they shared a bedroom with their sibling and I had my own bedroom with a private bathroom in a big house in the suburbs. Our father even joined a country club, though we weren’t very active in it.

I figured it out sometime in high school.

Anyway my younger brother didn’t quite get the memo. I was talking to him one day and comparing something to the size of our house. In a very serious tone he informed me “Our house is small. We’re poor.” I really didn’t know how to respond to that. Years later at almost 30 I think he still thinks the same.

The best I can come up with is compared to some of his friends we were poor and by the time he got to high school the neighborhood was mostly large McMansions. Our house was built in the 60s and wasn’t the biggest or the smallest when we moved it. It may have been one of the smallest by the time I left for college and my brother started high school.

1_daniel-barnes-RKdLlTyjm5g-unsplash-300x169.jpgDaniel Barnes

73. In hot water

I'm from a lower class background and got into a top university in the UK where I joined the scuba club. I'm an instructor, paid for all my training and kit myself but you could see my kit had been well used. Still safe and functional, just faded, frayed around the edges etc.

One of the senior members (so he must have been nearly mid twenties) pointed out how beaten one items of kit looked and asked why I didn't replace it. I was genuinely confused. It worked, it was safe, all good to keep using in my books. He kept pointing out how it looked and I point blank told him I didn't have £500 to drop on something just because what I had didn't look pretty any more.

He then asked why didn't I just ask my parents to buy me a new one.

Yes. Because in my twenties, after having worked part or full time for seven years, I will totally ask my single parent on disability benefits to buy me new toys.

The guy was completely baffled.

1_divers-668777_1920-300x225.jpgJen Batler

72. Prep school posh

I went to a private school with a gigantic discount because my father has taught there for nearly 20 years at this point. Oh the stories I could tell. One kid flew to Florida for a dentist appointment. One kid bought a Jeep with a credit card. At one point we had an ATM on campus for some reason. Someone found a receipt for a withdrawal from a checking account which still had $900,000 in it. I went on a field trip where we stayed in a hotel for a few nights and my roommate couldn't understand why I didn't want to go to a different hotel where we would both pay $100 per night when I only had $100 to last the entire week. I could go on.

1_nathan-dumlao-ewGMqs2tmJI-unsplash-300x200.jpg Nathan Dumlao

71. Back at it again

My old roommate had been doing an internship with Nike in Portland over the summer. When he got back for our last semester, I had a breakdown about not saving enough money for my last semester. Then he shared, nonchalantly eating his chips and salsa, that he had been charging thousands of dollars in Nike Limited Edition shoes, Gucci products, and drinks to his credit card for the past 4 months. His response was “It’ll all work out, I just need to send me bills to my parents I keep forgetting to do that.”

1_alexandr-podvalny-BFmvDCBIWiM-unsplash-300x200.jpg Alexandr Podvalny

70. Expensive KD

I attended a boarding school for 8th and 9th grade and lived across the hall from the kid of a major CEO. This kid was a little brat to say the least. On multiple occasions, he would walk into my room while I was doing homework or whatever and would start going through my clothing and ridiculing my taste in belts. “This belt is so cheap. Why don’t you get Gucci?” I would respond “I like that belt... and I don’t need Gucci to look nice.” I remember once he was saying he didn’t want to microwave Mac and cheese anymore, and he offered me $50 to make him Mac and cheese whenever he wanted, I accepted instantly. Barely made any, well worth the $50.

1_mariana-ibanez-1ee7Z06ZFe0-unsplash-240x300.jpgMariana Ibanez

69. It can swing both ways

Dude in high school never wanted anyone to visit his house. Always wore nice clothes and had an okay first car, but nobody really knew why he had this aversion to houseguests. Oh well, our little clique hung out all through high school and then the day after graduation he actually invites us to his house for a grad party.

His lakefront house in the mountains had a jag and a Ferrari parked out front, he had a racket ball court in the basement that we weren't allowed in, but that was okay cuz we had free reign of his VINTAGE ARCADE ROOM. Like, the stand up, feed a quarter type machines! He never told us for 4 years that he was stupid rich.

I've never met anyone so humble..

library-of-congress-tsDdM796y_w-unsplash-213x300.jpg Library of Congress

68. Costly hanky

When I was still in high school I had this buddy who literally opened the door to his house and said "Welcome to the lifestyle of the rich." I went to an inner city school most of my friends lived below the poverty line. One day we need made a twenty dollar bet and I won. After paying up he started begging for the money back because his parents only give him $20 for lunch a day and he didn't want to use his own money. When I refused he told a teacher who made me give it back (because we're not old enough to gamble) but did tell him not to make bets if he couldn't pay. I proceeded to blow my nose with the 20, ball it up and toss it at him. The teacher didn't say a thing.

1_money-652560_1280-300x250.jpgJen Batler

67. The laundress

Girl in college kept putting her clothes on the floor and then would knock on the RAs door and tell her the clothes were piling up. Our RA was a foreign exchange student but such a sweetheart and she was actually washing the clothes to be nice for like 2 months.

The floor told the RA to stop and scolded the girl to do her own laundry. She was absolutely insulted that she had to do laundry to the point where she ended up re-wearing clothes or throwing them out and just buying new ones.

bianca-jordan-o7SvheEZoks-unsplash-300x200.jpg Bianca Jordan

66. This year's model

A kid I grew up with's mom was the CEO of a local bank and his dad was a seedy personal injury lawyer. On his 13th birthday, his parents bought him a brand new pickup truck and he was the talk of 7th grade for a few weeks. Fast forward to three years later and he's about to turn 16, now demanding that his parents buy him a new one. They, of course, oblige. He gets expelled from his school less than a year later and sent to an alternative boarding school for kids with behavior problems in Montana and I lost contact with him after that.

anton-darius-3XY7BWwGolk-unsplash-300x200.jpg Anton Darius

65. One for every day of the week

Moved states in the summer before high school started and the family was basically living out of suitcases for two months as we were transitioning, finding a house, scheduling movers, etc. The second week of freshman year I walk into a class and sit down.

"Eww!" I look up at a girl across the table. She looks disgusted.

"What?"

She points at my shirt and I immediately look for spilled something. "Didn't you wear that last week?!"

Confused, I say, "Yeah, it's my shirt..."

"I never wear the same thing twice." Turns out, she wasn't the only one at that school like that, but they were the minority by far.

1_sasun-bughdaryan-EmGF98ckNSU-unsplash-300x200.jpg Sasun Bughdaryan

64. So generous

My ex would buy new clothing from designer stores each season, and he’d shred and throw the previous season’s clothing away. When I pointed out the possibility of him donating it to a charity store he thought it was wonderful and felt really proud of himself. He never thought of donating clothing, or really been in a secondhand store before (until I dragged him in there). I dumped him soon after.

prudence-earl-8F0I12ypHPA-unsplash-300x200.jpg Prudence Earl

63. Part time is too much time

Guy in college chimed in on a conversation between my group of friends about how working multiple nights a week was taxing. He told us he was frustrated with his parents because they were only willing to help him out financially to a certain point. They were paying for his education, rent, car, and food but he couldn't believe how unreasonable they were being because they wouldn't also pay for his reading week vacation.

charles-deloye-2RouMSg9Rnw-unsplash-300x200.jpgCharles DeLoye

62. Let me check my schedule

I had a friend whose parents were very rich. He was a relatively down to earth guy but his major flaw was that he had zero concern for the plans and scheduling of others. He was the ultimate flake. He would make or cancel plans in a heatbeat because he had no sense of the time and expense it cost people to make plans. When he made plans he would just decide what to do and do it. It never occurred to him that other people had budgets and commitments.

This attitude has lost him a lot of friends over the years including me.

1_element5-digital-jCIMcOpFHig-unsplash-300x199.jpg Element5 Digital

61. Unpopular opinion

I dated an insanely rich guy (his parents were rich at least), like private island, friends had literal castles, etc. Anyways, his half brother was a total prick. His dad is one of the top lawyers in the UK, so naturally, he likes to argue, in a very condescending way.

So one time we got into a debate, his stance being that we shouldn't use tax payer money to educate the general public on safety, and that if those people weren't educated, they should just die, etc etc. It was getting a bit ridiculous, so I finally asked him straight up, thinking it would be a turning point for him, "So do you think the actual lives of people who were born in less fortunate circumstances than you are not valuable enough to save?"

He said yes without hesitating. This man genuinely believes his life is worth more than others just because he was born into wealth.

1_ghaith-harstany-v9NYB0Vvcxc-unsplash-200x300.jpgGhaith Harstany

60. No sweat off his back

I have a friend of a friend, more of an acquaintance. He's not rich anymore but he grew up with rich parents and was super spoiled and misbehaved all the time till he was 25ish, then got kicked out.

Nowadays he lives on my buddy's couch and he's a nice enough guy but he tends to get trashed and when he's trashed he becomes an animal. Breaks things (usually accidents, sometimes on purpose), gets real nasty, sometimes starts physical fights. I don't know how my friend deals with it.

He also is slowly learning the value of a dollar. Before he would wreck a car his parents bought him and completely shrug it off cause they'd buy him a new one the next week. Nowadays he's at least a bit more financially aware even if he blows all his money on liquor.

One time he got arrested at like 3am when he was banging on the windows of a closed taco bell and the cops got called on him after he tripped the alarm somehow, and he's still trashed in his mugshot but smiling as if he just won a million bucks. The dude is an enigma, consequences are all but lost on him. Makes for some funny stories I suppose though.

1_valery-tenevoy-d4N23dB5I-4-unsplash-300x169.jpgValery Tenevoy

59. Nice if you can get it

I was in a theology class where we were talking about compromises.

Teacher: What are some compromises your parents have made?

Very rich girl: My mom wanted to go to Hawaii and my dad wanted to go to Mexico so we went to the Bahamas instead.

​Going to private school makes life full of these stories, like earlier this week when I asked why this girl who I sit by was gone. Her friend then told me "She's skipping this week because she wanted to go to the Bruno Mars and Pitbull concert in Hawaii." Or another one last year this girl got too stressed out with school so she went to Lithuania with her dad for a month... I have no idea how she made up all her school work.

david-vives-ELf8M_YWRTY-unsplash-300x201.jpgDavid Vives

58. Back to driver's ed

I had a scholarship to private school for my secondary education (11-18.) We were by no means poor, but compared to the people who were paying full school fees I was a peasant. The vast majority of the students were wealthy, and about half of them were spoilt little brats.

Most of the kids got given cars for their 17th birthday in anticipation of passing their driving tests. One boy in particular in my year had a September birthday, so was one of the first to take his test; and he had a huge house/garden, so he already knew how to drive (you can drive on private land at any age here.)

On the day he passed his test, he got dropped off back at his school in his shiny new sports car (I don't know what type it was, but everyone else seemed impressed.) He picked up a couple of friends to go for a spin, and before he got ~100m up the road, he completely wrecked the car.

His dad bought him a new one the next day and he complained that it was the wrong colour.

michael-jin-mCj7atG0nEc-unsplash-200x300.jpgMichael Jin

57. A charmed life

My ex best friend. I remember that when we were fourteen, she lost her Pandora bracelet, which was full of charms, at school (for a total of €500). So she called her mum and was like: "Mum, I need a new Pandora bracelet," and the mum just answered: "Okay, sweetie. We'll go buy one this afternoon alright?" and then she hung up.

This happened twice a year, for three years. I don't talk to her much anymore, so I don't know if she has lost any more bracelets or not. I wouldn't even want to know to be honest. I feel like I could choke.

Oh, she also broke something like...every phone she ever bought after only a year? And they weren't cheap ones either.

I mean come on. You should treasure the things your parents buy for you. My family doesn't exactly have a lot of money so maybe I'm too touchy on this subject, but still. Usually, when my parents buy me a phone, I keep it for three years or more, because it's an expensive item. I'd feel too bad if I ever were to break one.

Don't know what it's like to lose a Pandora bracelet though. I don't think my parents could afford one.

martin-de-arriba-uf_IDewI6iQ-unsplash-200x300.jpgMartin de Arriba

56. He had a free ride

I knew these twins in high school. On their birthday, I think it was 17, they get matching pickup trucks. Like the suped up larger than life cool-looking black ones.

Twin #1 is the brat, and smashes his in some remarkable timeframe, I want to say same day. It was crazy though. His parents decide not to get him another one (though I'm sure insurance probably covered it even if it was his fault) but regardless he is going to learn a lesson.

So he took his brother's truck and crashed it ON PURPOSE. If he can't have one, neither can his brother.

So much recklessness, spite, and downright illegal to boot.

colby-ray-ljYXYyz_Kf8-unsplash-225x300.jpgColby Ray

55. She's a keeper

I live in a town that sits on the shore of a really big (not great, but still big) lake. My friends and I decided a few years ago to buy a boat we could take out onto the open water. None of us are "poor" but none of us have a lot of extra money on the side so we did it as cheap as we could. We bought a decent boat that was over 30 years old and spent two years rebuilding the engine, refinishing some of the interior, and generally getting the thing ship shape. We were super proud of the fact that we managed to get a fully functional and reliable boat together for a little under 5 grand.

Here is where the story starts: We were out on the boat on a beautiful Saturday drinking beers and cruising the beaches for girls that might want a ride on our new boat (this is why any straight man owns a boat). We pulled up to a beach and anchored and eventually a few girls waded out to us to see if they could have a couple beers. One thing led to another and they were climbing aboard to head out for a spin.

This is when I notice one of the girls was not really excited to be on the boat. We got to the middle of the lake and started swimming off the boat, having a good time, except for that one girl. My friend asked her what was wrong. She replied "I don't even feel safe on this piece of crap! That's my grandmother's island over there, drop me off NOW!" We were hurt that we had put so much effort into the boat and she dismissed it as a piece of garbage but whatever it is kind of a beater.

We dropped her off on the island... the dock had over 5 million dollars in boats parked at it. The girl sucked but grandma was awesome, she brought us all ashore for beers and food and berated her granddaughter for being such a snob. Little old lady (80+) lives out there alone all summer. We go back to the island all the time to help granny with the yard work and such (in exchange for hanging out on a private island) but I haven't talked to the granddaughter since.

claudio-trigueros-gF7hhMIC3vo-unsplash-300x199.jpgClaudio Trigueros

54. Fool us once

A guy I met in my early 20's was the richest person I've ever known. His dad was CFO for a big bank, but died when my friend was 14. He grew up in a massive mansion, had his rent paid for in a luxury rental building, and had unlimited funds for illegal substances.

Eventually, his mom forced him to go to rehab, which he did for a couple of months. One day, while he was at rehab, my roommate got a call from him. He said he's outside and didn't know where else to go. He had been cutoff from his money, knew that we had an extra room, and asked if he could stay with us while he learned basic life skills (getting a job, buying groceries, cleaning, budgeting, etc...). We let him, against our better judgment.

About a month in, he had managed to stay sober, keep a job, and not be such a parasite. His mom thought he was doing better to, so she reconnected him to his money. His whole attitude and demeanor completely changed. All of a sudden it's "I don't have to stay in this apartment, living like I'm poor. I don't even have to stop using. I've got my money back!"

He left right before rent was due and basically told us to screw ourselves.

Two months later, he had the exact same situation happen. His mom cut him off again, forced him to go to rehab. He left again and called us, but this time we figured he'd rather not live in our apartment living like he's poor.

pablo-padilla-B0U_OFXXSNo-unsplash-200x300.jpgPablo Padilla

53. The guitar antihero

As a kid, I was super poor. Like we had no money, and barely kept the lights on. My mother did an awesome job, and even worked 2 different jobs AND went to night school at one point to make a better future for us. I grew up without a lot of things, but It taught me a lot about what you really "need" in life, which is a roof over your head and food in your belly. Everything after that is a plus really.

I had a lot of friends who where waaay better off than me, but one kid in particular had EVERYTHING. He was a Jehova's witness, so didn't do birthdays/christmas, but would often just get stuff to kind of make up for it. At times he would whine to his mother for buying him something that he thought was "crap" or wasn't the right model of something, despite getting loads of stuff which was awesome all the time. He was that kid that had all the games/consoles/toys in the world but would moan about it.

One of the last times I hung out with him, he was shouting at his mother because she had promised him that she would buy him a new guitar [he was learning] but the time of the day had gotten late and she wan't able to go. Like it was when all the stores were shut, so it was litterally impossible. But this kid just kept chewing her out because of it, and speaking to her like she was some kind of moron. It was painful to watch, and I was like 14 at the time.

I stopped hanging around with him after that. I later heard his mother cracked and had enough of him, then kicked him out of the house. He later ended up being a shoplifter and lived in the local YMCA for a bit. In fairness I think he's back on track now, but as a kid he was a bit of a jerk.

jefferson-santos-fCEJGBzAkrU-unsplash-300x200.jpgJefferson Santos

52. High and dry

I grew up with rich kids and still keep in touch with a few of them. One guy's father owned the most prestigious law firm in town. He said his life changed the moment he called his father from jail, the second time it happened. His father said "Well, sorry to hear you got arrested, good luck", then hung up.

He said getting locked back into his cell was the singular moment that completely turned his life around.

1_dollar-499481_960_720-1547408740950-300x212.jpg Sharon McCutcheon

51. Left without wheels

I knew this rich kid from high school that went off to college and partied every single night. His parents found out that he was failing basically all of his classes, so they secretly drove up early one Saturday morning with the spare set of keys to the car they had bought him and just drove off with the car.

1_darwin-vegher-IAc1x02D9K0-unsplash-300x200.jpgDarwin Vegher

50. That was sudden

Somewhat distant relative spent all of his university years and twenties partying hard with the ~100-120K allowance his rich company owning father gave him each year. He'd travel the world each year going to Bali, Thailand, Europe, every year Oktoberfest, just rampaging.

At 32 or so he decided to settle an upscale ski resort area of the US and open a business with his hot gold digger fiancée. When he went to transfer his money to his US bank account he noticed it only came to a few thousand dollars. He angrily asked the bank worker why she hadn't transferred the entire amount only to be told that that was the entire amount. His father had cut him off without saying anything and he just hadn't noticed.

Absolute flatline.

jake-allen-7Q1lhdgbyNU-unsplash-300x200.jpgJake Allen

49. So satisfying

Rich guy in our college dorm thought he was untouchable cause his dad was some NFL player from the 90s and had not blown all his money yet! He would get freshman girls to do humiliating things, film them, and then show all his buddies the next day or so. Well one buddy was not as close as he thought and went to the RA who then went to campus police and then real police (some of those girls were underage).

It was a fun night watching the parking lot fill up with the bored cops on duty that night and haul him out of the dorms while they went and gathered his evidence!

gene-gallin-J6CrteOz8HM-unsplash-300x200.jpgGene Gallin

48. Poor kid

I had a roommate my freshman year of college that came from an incredibly rich oil family from the Middle East. I remember him having the hardest time adjusting to not having someone else prepare him food. I remember waking up one morning and going to the kitchen and seeing him try to eat eggs and toast he had just prepared himself. He asked me how I normally prepare fried eggs because his tasted really crunchy. Turns out he had just cracked the egg whole into the pan and prepared it shell and all. I couldn’t stop laughing but felt really bad for the dude.

melani-sosa-5KYnLhwRO8Y-unsplash-300x200.jpgMelani Sosa

47. It doesn't buy everything

Administration and faculty at a university refused a substantial offer of endowment money from a couple that wanted their son enrolled as an art major.

Their son couldn't meet the minimum scholastic entrance requirements and he had little aptitude for art. Still, with their millions, he thought money would buy his way to an "easy degree" as an art major.

He was dumbfounded to receive a notice of non-admittance.

jake-oates-3Q99-tS-Yho-unsplash-300x168.jpgJake Oates

46. Cardboard money

I knew a guy in high school who bragged that he didn’t have to pay attention in school because his grandfather was a Vice President of the corporation that supplied the cardboard for cereal boxes for General Mills. Real gravy train, ya know.

Last I checked (since deleted Facebook) he was still working at Best Buy five years after high school, same job he had in high school.

mufid-majnun-LVcjYwuHQlg-unsplash-300x200.jpgMufid Majnun

45. Best outcome they could hope for.

My best moment was when I got hired by a pair of Woodside, CA parents to transition their horrible 18 year old into the realities of "real life", something that evaded both of them. My first action was to take away his platinum, limitless, credit cards. He threw a tantrum that lasted several days. "Where am I going to get money? " Get a job. "My parents will fire you." They didn't. When he realized that boundaries & budgets had been set in stone, and that he not only had to pay the bills, the rent, but taxes too, he headed straight to college to wait out the next 4 years. He is still a little jerk, but at least he has a job and an education now.

1_midas-hofstra-tidSLv-UaNs-unsplash-300x300.jpg Midas Hofstra

44. Glad there was a happy ending

One of my college roommates told his parents the trip we were planning (that they were paying for) was $400 more expensive than it was so he could buy a really nice set of headphones for himself. In addition, they basically paid for everything he wanted - he had their credit card and ordered food on it at least once daily. He also would make 50$ purchases off the card pretty regularly.

Long story short they found out he lied about the cost of the trip. For whatever reason they still paid and let him go, but after the trip he could not use their card anymore. This dude acted like he lived the hardest life of all time afterwards, but eventually sucked it up. He actually acts way less entitled now, it ended up having a lasting positive effect for him (even though he wouldn’t admit it).

1_towfiqu-barbhuiya-3aGZ7a97qwA-unsplash-300x200.jpgTowfiqu barbhuiya

43. Hit the wrong car

Back in high school this kid got a brand new Chevy Camaro. I had an old 80's Pontiac Phoenix that had the straight six. It was by far not a racing car but this tool was just looking to brag at what he got compared to the busted cars we got. About 2 days later, while we were waiting at a stop light this idiot tries to race us as I am in my car and I pull up with my friends. He does starts by revving it really loud and tries to do a burnout. Mind you the light was red and the roads were not wet. So he managed to get a tiny burnout going, some smoke and what not...When his tires did catch traction, he went barreling into the intersection and smashed the car of the wife of one of the VERY FEW cops in my small city. Needless to say, that didn't work out for him very well.

1_kenan-reed-S5CUECZa8gw-unsplash-300x199.jpgKenan Reed

42. Stays in Vegas

While working in a casino here in Las Vegas, a herd of girls came to my window, & one proceeded to tell me about her great birthday party itinerary that her dad had paid for. For her 18th birthday. With no adult in the party. Just a bunch of teenaged girls, out in Vegas.

Where none of them could do anything because none of them were 21. I couldn't even check them into their reservation. They start yelling & screaming at me, I calmly call security - and security tells them they can either "go play in the arcade" or leave & try to find a hotel off the Strip that will take them in w/out being 21. The anger turns to tears, the security guard is unmoved.

mike-boening-iKlafvet_w0-unsplash-300x243.jpgMike Boening

41. New to commerce

I was at a Starbucks and the girl in front of me apparently thought people gave her parents free drinks and such for her all these years. Like the cashier told her the total and she said, "Wait, I don't get it for free?" She never realized her parents swiping their cards all those years was paying for her things I guess.

tr-jy4t6SY9Ax0-unsplash-1-300x200.jpgTR

40. Some people have no manners

A kid from my high school came from a well known family that was very involved in politics. He slacked off in school and was mostly a condescending jerk for years. After graduation, he didn't really do anything, but eventually decided to run for office as he had the same name as his father. He won easily, because people didn't realize it was the kid.

As a state rep, he posted on Facebook about "Enjoying his women battered rather than plain" and asking to join the black caucus because he liked hip hop. He also dropped a loaded gun on the floor in the middle of a session after fighting for the right to carry a gun in the state house as a "responsible gun owner". He kept getting elected despite these issues because his family was well-connected and he had a dedicated following from some political groups.

After 6 years in office, he gets busted for soliciting a minor over the internet. They arrested him. The worst part is that his family is actually super nice and genuinely made the community a better place, but now they have to deal with all the issues from him. He was an apple that fell very far from the tree.

joshua-hoehne-Uo2ZXh4XOLY-unsplash-300x179.jpgJoshua Hoehne

39. Entitled to grand theft auto

When I was a teenager my sister and I saw through our windows that there were two guys getting into her car. We ran downstairs as fast as possible and caught them in the act of stealing it. One managed to run away but the other one froze and didn’t run away. He couldn’t have been much older than me.

My sister called the cops and the kid kept looking at us and trying to find a way to escape. My sister said “run if you want. My brother will catch you.”

The cops came and so did his parents. His mom drove an amazing car and the lady looked furious and sad. She was dressed really nice and looked like she was pretty successful. As soon as she got out she began yelling “Why?! We give you everything! You have everything! Why would you try and steal?! Don’t we give you enough?!”

The kid just seemed to shrink and get smaller. I hope he turned his life around and began to be around better people.

1_luis-villasmil-S2qA7JhjI6Y-unsplash-208x300.jpgLuis Villasmil

38. To dumb to commit fraud

Freshman year of college, the guy across the hall from me is a spoiled rich kid from a big southern city. Old money, clearly. A couple weeks into the second semester he and a buddy found a checkbook on the sidewalk. Stupid decided to write themselves a check and cash it in the bank that the account is in. The teller immediately called the cops and they both got arrested.

We talked the night he got arrested and he laughed and said his dad would "take care of it" and everything would be fine. That weekend we met his dad as they moved everything out of the dorms since he got expelled. Guess daddy didn't take care of it.

nicate-lee-kT-ZyaiwBe0-unsplash-300x169.jpgNicate Lee

37. A vacation for some

I taught at an international school in Africa and we would take the high school students camping one week out of the year. Many of these kids are not used to camping at all and have never even taken public transport; they have full-time drivers bring them to school and pick them up. Some of them are from very wealthy and politically connected families. Having to set up tents and get dirty, not be able to shower every day, and sleep on hard ground is new to them. Some of them actually love it, but others are sad pathetic wretches the entire week.

jack-sloop-qelGaL2OLyE-unsplash-300x200.jpgJack Sloop

36. The horse and pony set

I went to a very rich, predominantly white Catholic high school. One moment I remember was the wind absolutely being taken out of a girls sails when I explained to her why our school dominated the area's skiing, golf, and equestrian competitions, but never anything else. For a lot of kids in that school, the moment they learned they were rich was the moment they learned that most girls don't have their own horses growing up.

1_silje-midtgard-0F9oVQ3x2ak-unsplash-300x200.jpgSilje Midtgård

35. Don't mess with the angels

Local rich kid had his SUV parked in a no parking area at a club, tow truck shows up to tow it away and the kid goes ballistic “do you know who my dad is” etc. to the driver. After a minute or two of this the passenger gets out of the tow truck and is a 250lb power lifter. The biker “politely” tells him it doesn’t matter who he thinks his family is and the SUV is towed away.

maksym-tymchyk-bb6NaemzpGY-unsplash-300x158.jpg Maksym Tymchyk

34. The cost of eating

I knew one girl who apparently couldn't fathom how people live on a budget.

We used to hang out a lot at her insistence but she liked to eat at expensive places whereas I'd have no issue having my meals somewhere cheaper.

However, she kept pouting and insisting I stay. I said I couldn't unless she wanted to spot me. She didn't.

I then walked her through the math and showed her that the cost of my meals with her, everyday, totaled my entire wage for the month.

She didn't stop pouting but from then on I could eat by myself in peace.

1_atikh-bana-_KaMTEmJnxY-unsplash-300x200.jpgAtikh Bana

33. No more toys

Guy from my robotics group had his entire life handed to him. his dad was stupid rich because he bought shares is an oil field that turned out to have 40x the expected yield (making his $100,000 investment become around 3 million) then he dumped that into real estate rentals.

He decided it would be fun to go to a school trip in Philly and act like a rich jerk to everybody. Soon after, his $90k SUV got stolen. The best part? He didn't have insurance on it yet because he "can just buy the other person's car if there's an accident."

His dad flipped out over it and cut his allowance to $200 a month and forced him to drive a beater till he saved up his own money.

justin-jones-RTTvJkZG8TE-unsplash-300x200.jpgJustin Jones

32. Learned a valuable lesson

One of my college roommates was very rich growing up. I didn't realized just how rich until I had to explain to her what a coupon was in very extensive detail. On multiple occasions she bragged that she wasn't even interested in her major (philosophy), or college in general, but she was at uni because her parents were requiring her to get a degree, any degree, in order to get access to her trust fund. I don't remember ever seeing her go to class and she eventually got expelled sophomore year over academic dishonesty. I guess this was the last straw for her parents because they cut her off pretty soon after that.

This actually served as a wake up call. She somehow managed to get a public health degree at a different school in spite of the academic dishonesty listed on her transcript. She's doing pretty well for herself these days. We've kept in touch and last we talked she was considering grad school.

kyle-broad-P9rQn2qcEV0-unsplash-300x200.jpgKyle Broad

31. He took himself down

This rich scummy injury lawyer’s kid was in my class in high school. Goes to college (mid-size school in the Midwest) and gets plastered (parents bought him and his friends booze since freshman year so nothing new) and RA says he has to write him up for drinking in the dorms. Punches 2 RAs, then gets cops called on him and knocks a cop’s tooth out. Long story short his parents have to drive back 6-7 hours after one day to get him and he’s not even allowed to leave the state until his hearing. Last I heard he’s working at a fast food establishment.

1_sasun-bughdaryan-e11Oa3kvx4c-unsplash-300x200.jpgSasun Bughdaryan

30. Family saga

This local business owner put his son through college and more. When the  kid graduated with multiple degrees dad decides to retire and turn over business to son. Son brings college cronies on board, has management all wear white cowboy hats and drive white pickups, begins revamping business. Dad comes out of retirement pronto, gets rid of son and cronies. Years later bankrolls son's run for state rep. The son lost. Dad dies and leaves business to daughter.

1_jason-leung-SAYzxuS1O3M-unsplash-300x200.jpgJason Leung

29. Public transit, how awful

Knew a rich kid whose parents bought a car for and he treated it like absolute garbage. Purposely driving it really hard and generally abusing it, confident in the notion that his parents would buy him the one he wanted after he destroyed the one they got him. Well they didn't buy him another one, ever. He rode the city bus and bummed rides off of friends after that. He was the most entitled person I'd ever met, if he was over at your house he would just help himself to whatever was in the fridge like it was some sort of paid buffet.

mollie-sivaram-Byx-FleBDns-unsplash-200x300.jpgMollie Sivaram

28. It's called tough love

My grandfather was an attorney. A favorite family story is when my uncle called him from a police station on a Friday night. He was in high school at the time and got caught drinking. My grandfather answered the phone and simply asked "what'd you do?" and my uncle responds "nothing." "Great, tell them to let you go" hangs up the phone and goes back to sleep.

Both my uncle and the police were stunned but it being the weekend my uncle ended up having get transferred to the county jail until Monday morning. The police from the jail called my grandfather on Monday morning and said you've got to pick the poor kid up. His time in jail wasn't particularly traumatic but it taught him a pretty valuable lesson in how principled my grandfather was. Had he been honest and just admitted what he did he wouldn't have been in that situation.

1_niu-niu-5HzOtV-FSlw-unsplash-300x200.jpgniu niu

27. Street justice

Saw a college guy with a ridiculously expensive car (can't remember the model) rear-end this woman who drove an absolute beater. Her car was definitely totalled and his wasn't looking that hot either. He got out and started screaming at this woman. She was in tears. He kept telling her that she was going to pay for this.

When the cops came, I saw each of them give their statements. After that, me and like 10 people came forward and gave our witness statements. It sounded like each and every one of us put complete fault on him (which was the truth). When the cops went back to him, I saw his face just sink. He probably told them it was her fault and just found out that two handfuls of people just confirmed that he's full of lies.

I've never seen that many witnesses stick around for a simple traffic accident. I think the other people felt the same way I did: that kid was a douche and should be punished for what he did.

ken-wyatt-Bt02pzZSlsk-unsplash-300x200.jpgKen Wyatt

26. Coming soon, from Pixar...

Not a person, but a whole community. We live in a VERY rich school system, with loads of big money parents and their cocky “do you know my dad” kids. I’m one of the few who isn’t. Now, our baseball team has a team A and a team B, one which plays in an upper league, and one that plays in a lower league. Me and a few of my friends, who had all played since we were little, played team B, like we always do. But this year, our A team was filled with the richest brats, all of whom had $700 equipment, and bragged about how good they were. We won our league, and team A placed in the bottom of theirs. Now, to feel good about themselves(at least I assume), they scheduled an exhibition match with us. We got badly trash-talked during the whole pregame, about how all of our regular metal bats didn’t even COMPARE to their beautiful wooden ones with their names carved in Ana’s everything like that. Our coach told us not to hold back. We didn’t. Fastforward 4 innings, and it’s a forfeit from their coach, with a score of 13-0. They’ve gotten 2 people on base, but other then that, it’s been shutout pitching from my brother (I’m his catcher). We had stellar batting all around, and BOY, did we feel good about that retribution.

1_eduardo-balderas-UVxd5b-_tw8-unsplash-300x200.jpgEduardo Balderas

25. This apple fell far from the tree

There's this kid that lives in a house across the street from mine. It's a pretty large place: house is made of concrete, high ceilings, pool in the back, etc. Over the years, my brother and I have hung out with him a handful of times, but it's not so fun to hang out with a kid that's barely 11 when you're 14.

His mom is fairly wealthy, upper middle class. She's an engineer and makes quite a bit of money. So he benefited from this by being able to spend a majority of his free time staying inside playing video games when he wasn't at school. He didn't want to pursue a career, he just wanted lounge around all day. Long story short, he crashed the car that his mom gave him. His mom refused to buy him another one, and instead, used that situation to try and motivate him to get off his butt and work.

She sent him off to vocational school, since he doesn't want to go to college. We'll see how that goes.

1_jakob-rosen-RovD_vs2KaU-unsplash-200x300.jpgJakob Rosen

24. Some things are still based on merit

I attended a very small middle school where most of the students were rich. There was one white girl in particular who was dropped off every morning in her parents Range Rover or huge Cadillac, was the first to have the first Juicy Couture Sidekick (we were so jealous lol), and had mini LV bags, Coach bags, and Dooney & Bourke bags when they were super popular (don't ask). She would always scrunch her nose when other classmates brought lunches that weren't pasta salads or sandwiches, she'd make it KNOWN that she was always chosen first for sports games and made those chosen last feel terrible, and would hand out invites to her exclusive birthday parties to just her friends in front of the entire class.

Anyway, in the area we lived, there's an exclusive all-girls high school that was notorious for being very selective with their students. Naturally, she wanted to get in super badly. Probably because she thought she was smart enough but also because her parents expected her to. 4 girls in our class (including me) took an extensive entrance exam and it turned out that we all got in except her! She lost it. She legit sulked in class and cried when our teacher made an announcement to congratulate us. I heard rumors that her parents tried to pay her way in, but she ended up just going to another school, so I'm not too sure how legit that rumor was.

Guess money can buy a lot of things, but not brains!

1_cody-gallo-Rs2k_vlhkoA-unsplash-200x300.jpg cody gallo

23. Doctor no feel good

A friend of mine from college whose parents were rich enough to have a multimillion dollar home in America and in Europe used to crap on me for saying I was happy to go to whatever medical school I could get into. I ended up getting into my state school and she responded by saying that she could get into that school in a second because her mom has connections in the admissions department but she would never bother applying there because it’s not even a good school. She also made the same claim that her mom could get her in to a specific top 20 ranked school. All through college she had this attitude with me about how even though I was doing better than her in classes, I was going to go to whatever school would take me and she was going to go to her dream school because that’s just how the world works. I checked up on her on Facebook this year and... she’s not exactly at her dream school. It turns out she is at her state medical school which is actually significantly lower ranked than the one she was making fun of me for attending. I don’t want to say I was hoping she wouldn’t get in anywhere because that’s a little harsh, but I was happy to see her get put in her place a little bit.

freestocks-_3Q3tsJ01nc-unsplash-300x200.jpgfreestocks

22. Small fish, big pond

Me. My family's financial situation was weird, so there was a time we were really doing extremely well. We had nannies, drivers and all that jazz but at the same time was super sheltered by my fam so I had zero social cues and tact. This equals to me being a mix of a spoiled brat + have really no clue I was acting like one. I also was very rude, didn't say thank you or please... Not because I didn't want to, I was just stupidly lazy to say them.

I have a cousin who is less privileged than me, she didn't like how I was spoilt obviously. We had a fight where I left her out on a playdate. And my stupid response was I'll buy her a chocolate milk and we should be friends again. She snapped at me publicly how I will never have friends if I think I can can just buy people off. At age 11 those words stuck to me. She also never grew close to me since then no matter how mindfully I tried.

Cruel twist of fate, I went to a private school with classmates who are millionaires or trust fund babies, 20x more richer than I am. because I was less white and less richer than them + fell into some financial hardships, I got bullied a lot for it.

channey-4pUmLUGDMEI-unsplash-200x300.jpgChanney

21. Going on a joy ride

I went to school with a kid who always had a new fancy car or truck because his dad owned one of the biggest construction companies in the area. This kid was a major douche and double/triple parked his big trucks all the time. Once he got some sort of fast fancy car and went over 110 mph and was getting chased by state police. He had friends in the car that were telling him to stop and slow down but he wouldn’t. He ended up crashing into a business doing a ton of damage. He got hit with 3-4 felonies. Driving over 100 mph is a crime in most states and he got multiple kidnapping charges because the passengers were freaking out and he refused to stop when they asked. Dude never came back to school and I have no clue what he’s doing now.

1_neonbrand-JXg7Yq5b1wE-unsplash-300x200.jpgNeONBRAND

20. Downgraded to economy

Friend in high school had two parents with pretty good jobs. She had a lot of name brand clothes, bags etc. She got a big solo trip abroad once a year. Her dad would buy the plane ticket and her mom would upgrade her to business class. I once invited her to come on a family vacation with me to Disneyworld. Note that this is a huge deal because we live so far away it takes 20+ hours and multiple airplanes to get there. She said "No thanks, it's really far away and I can't spend that long in economy class." Last time I invited her anywhere.

She was all set to go to a really prestigious, expensive university in Switzerland too, paid for by both her parents. Then her mom died. Her newly single-income household wasn't poor by any means, but all the little luxuries just weren't there anymore. She still gets her big trip abroad (barely), but it's only ever economy class now. She didn't get to Swiss university because her dad couldn't pay for it on his own.

suhyeon-choi-tTfDMaRq-FE-unsplash-300x200.jpgSuhyeon Choi

19. Worth it

When I was little, my dad owned an exotic pet shop in Texas. A college girl comes in and tells him that she needs a sloth so her sorority can win a contest they were having to get the weirdest animal.

My dad says, "No, you don't want a sloth, it will destroy everything" but she insisted and said her daddy owned the city and would have him shut down if he didn't get her the sloth. So he told her to come back the next day.

So he talked to a lawyer and they drew up a long agreement saying he wasn't responsible for any damages, blah blah, and made her sign it and told her if she brought the sloth back, she'd have to pay shipping for it back to Brazil or wherever it came from.

So the sloth comes in and the girls come get it, and they're so excited, because they're gonna win.

The next day, she comes in crying. It had shredded her clothes, carpets, wallpaper, beds, furniture, everything. She tried to get my dad's shop to pay for the damages, tried not to pay the shipping going back, but she'd signed the contract. She tried to use her daddy about that, too, and mine said he could come down and see a copy of the agreement if he wanted.

1_javier-mazzeo-GTXvpZ2eTdA-unsplash-300x169.jpgJavier Mazzeo

18. No sweat off his back

Friend of a friend totalled his brand new luxury car by driving 2-3x the speed limit, plowed into some metal railings, and destroyed the front of several storefronts in a plaza. Fortunately this was the early hours of the morning and nobody was around to get hurt. He got out of his car and decided to just walk it off as he didn't care about the several hundred thousand dollars that the car cost. Cops found him, arrested him, you should have seen his shocked face when he realized that you can't bribe the cops as easily in Canada, and he got deported because he was on a student visa.

michael-jin-zI_R7sUQVF0-unsplash-200x300.jpgMichael Jin

17. Weird way to get a new timepiece

I recently had a kid I suspect was trying to commit insurance fraud call the police on me. There are "protected bike lanes" on the campus my partner lives on, and they are full size lanes and to be treated as regular motor vehicle lanes. He was traveling against traffic on a boosted board. He was supposed to stop at an intersection and yield to me as the first to arrive. I started my turn from a complete stop as he suddenly flew into the intersection, got all the way past my car without an issue, and then threw himself on the ground. He jumped up and cussed me out yelling about how I, "Busted his watch," pulling some expensive watch out of his POCKET. To shorten the story, the police came and reprimanded him for being in the wrong lane and going out of turn, then apologized to me for wasting my time.

daria-tumanova-Dz0meyisQfk-unsplash-300x200.jpgDaria Tumanova

16. What's yours is mine

I had a snobby preteen come up to me once at a shopping center and tell me to give him my hoodie (nice wool knit I got for Christmas). Obviously I said no and started to walk off, then he offered me money. Still I said no and he started getting aggressive. Told him to go back to his parents and leave me alone.

He comes back to me with his mom who said she was calling security for "harrassing her child." I said sure, do it. Kid was real smug and told me I was screwed. It was kinda surreal to see someone like this IRL.

Security had the obvious response. Told kiddo and his mom to leave me alone. Mom argued about how the "staff" shouldn't act this way and how I should be fired for not directing her child to where to get my hoodie. Security guard told her to think hard about if I worked there or not.

She started poking him in the chest and demanding to speak to his superior. He had to lead them out of the mall.

Weird experience overall. Not a great ending but still a story I used to tell on dates and stuff.

1_sunyu-kim-Rj6vvs8N4Qg-unsplash-300x200.jpgSunyu Kim

15. Not on the menu

When I was in Americorps NCCC, we had 'houses' that had 6-10 people living in them (all from wildly different backgrounds) and a weekly grocery budget for the entire house.

One week, this rich vegan/granola-type kid was sent to do the shopping for the entire house and came back with like 3 bags of vegetables and 1/3rd of the grocery budget spent on Portobello mushrooms for a house of 7. Three roommates who all had poor upbringings and were facing the prospect of having a 200 calorie diet of luxury mushrooms for the next two weeks (a white kid from the Southside of Chicago, a black kid from Dallas and a Hispanic kid from Florida) all immediately formed a rainbow coalition and came within an inch of beating the kid up... but didn't. They did "explain", however, if that if you're feeding 7 people with $110 a week, you don't get to buy certain rich people foods.

He did wind up using his own money to keep everyone in Hot Pockets, Ramen and SpaghettoOs for the next week until the next grocery money was issued, but you did definitely see what happened when naive ran face first into reality.

jordan-arnold-Ul07QK2AR-0-unsplash-300x200.jpgJordan Arnold

14. Nothing worse than public humiliation

I had a kid in my senior class of high school who was an absolutely terrible person. His dad owned a construction company, and they had contracts with our city so they did very well for themselves. He was always talking down to anyone he wanted, but also he got his butt kicked a few times cause of it. Well he never did school work, was always getting kicked out of class for being a disturbance etc.

His dad one day came to the school, walked into his classroom and berated the crap out of him because the counselor told him that he had absolutely no way of graduating, and needed to enrol in a secondary school. He took his car keys, his phone, and all the allowance he had given him minus money for the bus. He left school a couple weeks later, and I believe he moved.

tim-gouw-1K9T5YiZ2WU-unsplash-300x201.jpgTim Gouw

13. Callous prank gets punished

All throughout high school, for alphabetical reasons, my locker was right next to the son of the owner of a 200-store chain of convenience stores in our region. He was incredibly socially inept. I felt bad for him. We developed kind of a weird little friendship where we only ever talked at our lockers, but we had these little two-minute deep conversations. Mostly focused on him getting bullied, and me advising him to just chill out and stop running his mouth so much because that was why it was happening. He was obnoxious to classmates and teachers alike, and he reveled in it. He'd brag about his family's money and just generally play the part of a spoiled rich kid, almost like he felt like he had to. He liked being hated/envied, to some extent, but he also hated being an outcast.

He did listen when I told him about the stuff that was bothering me (I was shy and felt ignored and excluded all the time). There was absolutely a kernel of a good human being in him. He was actually an important person to me in a way... I never told anyone else about that stuff back then.

His behavior came back to bite him the week after what happened at Columbine. He decided to purchase and wear a black trenchcoat to school in the style of the school shooters. After a few days of him wearing that throughout the day, just to be a jerk, he got cornered by some kids and absolutely pummeled. They broke his nose and everything. He'd been basically asking for it, so I'm not sure what he expected.

1_mitchell-luo-vHqHlU8CnVg-unsplash-300x200.jpgMitchell Luo

12. Becoming grateful

I was walking to my car, wondering why my dad was being such a prick and wouldn't give me money to go have fun.

And as I was walking, in my clothes which my Dad bought for me, wearing my one-a-day contacts that my Dad buys every 6 months. I looked at my $14,000 car that I don't pay insurance or maintenance or even gas for, and as I got in, looking at my $300 phone, my life, my privilege.

I realized I had become a spoiled prick. All these possessions and still in my head I was making my Dad out to be the enemy.

I thought about all the money my Dad had invested into my future. He gives and works and toils and if he could read my mind, he would cry, because all I had were bad thoughts about how my Dad wasn't giving me everything I wanted.

He didn't have to read my mind though, to see me walk in the house every day, pass him by on the sofa, without even a glance, and lock myself in my room. How could it have come to this?

I felt truly humbled that day. I went back to the house, and gave my Dad a big hug, and then we spent the rest of the day watching TV. What he wanted all along, my company, I could finally give to him, without my mind being in another room. After that day I made an effort to never think bad thoughts about my Dad again, and I made an effort to treat him like a friend, and not an inconvenience of my life.

That was back when I was 19, now at 25, I just hope I've redeemed myself.

kaysha-Wu-z2EFmXe0-unsplash-300x225.jpgKaysha

11. From riches to rags

There's a kid I went to school with, Saul, who has parents in politics. At one point his father was a senator. His family was super rich, but they also extended fully-loaded bank accounts to their kids to spend money for whatever, so he was always super cocky. He got along well with guys (didn't try to buy friends or anything), but Saul treated women so poorly. He referred to girls as objects and generally talked down to them. He did not respect relationships between other people and considered them doomed to fail at any moment.

Enter Alan, my friend who got a very serious girlfriend in high school. Saul was determined to ruin their relationship by wooing this girl with his money and status. The girl seemingly let him win her over, but in reality she was in it with her current boyfriend to get as much of his money as possible. She made him think she was cheating on her boyfriend with him and this really got Saul off. He never actually slept with her and at most he got a kiss on the cheek.

After 3 months of going on lavish dates to insanely expensive restaurants, doing luxury activities and also buying gifts for her, Saul starts telling her she has to leave my other friend and be with him. Girl tells him to buy her a car and she'll dump Alan. Now in the real world this would never be possible, but since Saul has a maxed out bank account and access to funds in his name, he takes this girl to a BMW dealership and buys her a car. They end up putting the title in her name and he gifts it to her.

Within the next week, this girl skips town entirely and my friends and I never saw her again. We have no idea if she went and sold the car or drove away with it and moved somewhere else. She even left Alan in the dust.

Saul ended up thinking this would be a small consequence at first, but when his parents found out what happened they pulled everything. They went from fully spoiling to disowning this kid. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but Saul spent some time homeless after he finished college. Biggest dose of reality imaginable. I think he's working in sales now and has a decent life. He moved out of state, so all I ever see about him is through social media.

1_artiom-vallat-fN5cVlpaJfA-unsplash-300x200.jpgArtiom Vallat

10. Not maid of money

My mom was the doctor of one of the cleaning ladies at one rich girl from my school's house.

On a saturday, this girl threw a big party at her house while her parents were away. The other rich kids and the cool kids were invited (I was not). It was during X project movie popularity, and she promised that the party would be decadent. The next day, photos started to appear on facebook : everyone was out of it, everyone was kissing everyone, stuff was strewn all over the lawn, you could see a lot of vomit and broken things on the background, some kid decided to "cook" noodles in the jacuzzi and broke it by emptying every pack of ramen noodle in it... A big big mess. The girl replied to every picture with "haha yeah good luck to the maids".

On Monday, she went back to school, and instead of being her cocky self, she was real quiet and went home immediately after class, without saying anything.

When my mom went home this night, she told me she had a great story for me about this girl. Remember her awful comment about the "maids"? Well, the cleaning lady came to the house for her usual shift on Sunday morning and saw the mess. Rich girls barely wakes up from her hangover and tells her to clean it. Cleaning lady refuses, and rich girls says "if you don't, my parents will fire you."

So cleaning lady takes very detailed pictures of the house and send them to the girl's parents. 10 min later, rich girl's phone is ringing, and her parents yell at her that she is a disgrace and needs to clean everything, and that she won't have money, cellphone and computer until the end of high school. They also apologize profusely to the cleaning lady. So she's crying, and asks the cleaning lady to help her because she can't do it. She refuses and leaves, letting rich girl clean everything by herself. She then told my mother that the parents came to her flat during the evening, apoligizing again, calling their daughter an "ungrateful brat", and gave her a raise immediatly. Apparently, the jacuzzi was unusable for four months.

volha-flaxeco-jCPL0oxBhB0-unsplash-300x200.jpgVolha Flaxeco

9. Prejudice doesn't pay

My parents were renovating our house with one mid-sized contractor in our city, the guy was a really nice guy, recommended by one of my dad’s best friends, but he really spoiled his kid (like he bought him a car that was worth half of what their house is probably worth) and the kid was a huge jerk, coincidentally, we were the same age.

Our parents kept trying to turns us into friends but it never worked, we were complete opposites. I was the kid next door kind of type, tall, skinny, a bit nerdy, gay, most of my friends were the smart-popular kind of type that didn’t give a crap about hanging out with a gay guy regardless what other douchebags would say.

The renovations lasted for almost a year and in the meantime his son started picking on me. He kept calling me gay like it was an insult and I mostly laughed it off. He was the type of kid that hung out only with massive dudes with expensive cars that were often uneducated, muscular, often dangerous, even felons. Which was weird because he was actually smart (at least on paper).

Anyway one night he saw me at a party making out with a guy, and he took a picture of us (we didn’t notice).

A few days later my parents met with the contractor and his kid decided to come with him too to deliver them “the news”, he said he was worried about what I am doing so he decided to take a picture of it and then went on to tell them that it’s important that they know so they can cure me.

My father kicked them both out and only paid him for the materials he put in the house because the guy kept insisting to get paid in cash so he evades taxes.

Years later I found out that because of this, the contractor had to sell his son’s car to get out of the red. That being said they’re both still highly religious homophobes.

callum-hill-oamw52SCGi0-unsplash-300x200.jpgCallum Hill

8. Professional moocher

I had a brother-in-law (now gone due to his divorce). His parents were wealthy... from the dad's dad. So, grandpa was the original maker of the money.

Anyhow, the bro in law was a lazy piece of work with no ambition except to put an hour or two per week into his own "work" and act as if that was enough, while his mom and dad funded his "passions" (and his house, and his car, etc.) Keep in mind, this guy is 40-something at the time, and has a prestigious law degree, which he does not use. He has no savings, no property. Can't hammer a nail. And would probably drown in heavy rain.

So, his mom and dad got the idea to open a big business using grandpa's money...which they had inherited. They put about $15M into it to create it from scratch, which I believe 80-90% of their entire nugget. It went belly up within 6 months. They lost it all to the banks.

Now, I have nothing against his mom and dad, except for the fact that when we all got together, they relentlessly bragged about the Ivy League educations of their children. Ok, I take it back. They were pretentious. However, when they lost everything and the guy started to experience debt and living by credit card, he freaked out.

He said "I never realized how hard it is to get money". Which I thought was an odd way to phrase it. “Get money”. Instead of “earn money”. Yet he still did nothing for a long time. He moved debt around from credit card to credit card. Now, he has moved off and is practicing law. So at least he is, theoretically, not a parasite anymore (although he IS a lawyer).

1_emil-kalibradov-a4maTFz1QPc-unsplash-200x300.jpgEmil Kalibradov

7. Paying for her father's sins

My wife was evicted from her dorm in college, dropped from her classes for non-payment, and had her car repossessed. Her dad was a CEO of a fairly large company and had an income north of $1 million per year in the late 90s. The company was being bought out and the board members all stood to make a ton of money each. They did background checks on everyone and found out that her dad lied about his experience and education. He did not have an MBA from Stanford. He did not have any college. He did not play in the NFL. He was not a decorated war hero. So they fired him so they could split his slice of the buyout amongst themselves.

He never told his wife or daughter. He continued to run up debt and live the same lifestyle while being unemployed. He forged my mother-in-law's name on all sorts of loan and credit applications. Then, one day, he left them high and dry for a wealthy woman he had been having an affair with. He filed bankruptcy and managed, somehow, to get away pretty clean while leaving most of the debt in my mother-in-law's lap. My wife was completely ignorant of everything going on and her father said he was still paying for everything. Her world came apart and he ghosted her for years.

She gathered her composure and enrolled in community college. That is where we met. I taught her how to live a pretty decent life as a poor person. I had tons of experience being poor. Nearly two decades later, we are both making good money and have a family of our own. She learned a lot from that experience and has even reconciled with her dad. We keep him at an arm's length since he is a narcissist and a pathological liar but at least she has a relationship with her father.

1_mihai-lazar-gPShMkwc-fQ-unsplash-199x300.jpgMihai Lazăr

6. A rough awakening

The first day my mission team drove into Tijuana, Mexico. We were high school students and had spent the first few days in LA "prepping" and most of the team still had this idea that we would spend 5 days in a poor area, save everyone and then go home with something amazing for our college applications.

Krista was this girl whose parents were wealthy, all the parties were at her house since they had a pool, her mom used to buy her 6 or 7 prom dresses and then return the ones she didn't like because it was "easier" than shopping and she was a two-faced witch. So we're crammed into this passenger van and the border crossing into Mexico is fine but as soon as we get to our neighborhood and Krista sees scrap wood with tarps which make up the homes and children playing half naked in streets made of dirt, when she realizes that the "water" coming down from the single bathroom isn't water, when a child happily hands her a gift, his favorite rock, she breaks.

She just completely broke down into tears and disbelief because her entire life had been sheltered from the reality of anything but the rich and spoiled.

I wish I could say it changed her into a better person but she remained a spoiled and self-centered person until I purposefully lost touch with her family. The real world can hit a rich kid but they can ignore the pain if they just focus hard enough on the car daddy promised to buy them.

benjamin-combs-5L4CjNpE3rA-unsplash-300x200.jpgBenjamin Combs

5. The Little Prince

For a couple of years in high school I went to this super expensive American private school in Switzerland. The company my Dad worked for paid for almost all the tuition, so it was an amazing opportunity for me. Most of the kids in this school were either State Department or from American families living in Saudi (Saudi provided expat kids with school up until 10th grade, so you had to go to a school abroad to finish HS). There were however, a few Saudi kids that were there, mostly so that they would be able to speak flawless English to help out their future careers. One of these kids, who I will call The Prince, was somewhere in the line of Saudi succession, but honestly, he was like 1,455th in line for the throne. Not a real contender for King, but his family was rich. Like rich in a way that most of us can't even imagine.

This school had some rules, like you couldn't have a car as a student, even if you were old enough to get a license in Switzerland. This rule was a real buzzkill for The Prince, but he made it through the year somehow. Over the summer after his Junior year, he drove back to the school from Geneva in his Lambo, probably just because he could do it outside the school year. On his way up the mountain (the road is like a endless series of hairpin turns) he managed to flip his Lambo into a vineyard while trying to navigate one of those hair pin tuns. I'm guessing a Lambo has a lot of power, and he took it too hard.

His parents, furious at what he had done, decided to punish him by replacing his Lamborghini with a Porsche. And The Prince was SOOOO angry. He complained about it bitterly when the school year started up again. The rest of us kind of just looked at each other in amazement. Same planet, different worlds I guess.

lance-asper-Wl6OeSGyOf4-unsplash-300x169.jpgLance Asper

4. How the other half lives

I went to a very expensive private elementary school. A friend of mine grew up very wealthy, her father a surgeon and mother a stay at home wife. They were very controlling of her and quite honestly, a little scary. They sheltered her to the extreme and she frequently repeated insane things they said verbatim because that was all she knew. If she was told to clean her room but left an item out upon her parents’ inspection, they would throw the item out, no matter what it was. Once it was something very sentimental to her (can’t remember what it was) and when she told me and I expressed sympathy, she said something like, “Oh no it’s okay, it’s my fault. If I told my children to clean their rooms but they didn’t and had their friends come over, their friends would go home and tell their parents about how much of a slob my family is and that can’t happen.” This was her concern at 10 years old.

When it came time for college, they sent her to an expensive, hard-to-get-into school and told her that her sole purpose there was to find a husband (specifically a doctor or an engineer) to keep her as a stay at home wife. She flat out told me this was her only purpose, which broke my heart because she is a smart person who was able to get into said-school to begin with and her parents should have been encouraging different goals for her.

Well, she found a boyfriend but at the end of her four years of undergrad, he turned out to be a cheating narcissistic douchebag (the narcissistic douchebag part was obvious to me from the get-go but she had no idea what a healthy relationship looked like, however the cheating was obvious enough to be a deal-breaker).

So instead of going straight to marriage (which disappointed her parents and they kicked her out of the house), she suddenly had to become solely independent, find a job and an apartment and is doing well for herself. She’s a totally different person now and has come a really long way.

mateus-campos-felipe-zd8px974bC8-unsplash-1-300x200.jpgMateus Campos Felipe

3. A heartwarming tale of redemption

Not spoiled by any means, but a best friend of mine, extremely down to earth, a family of millionaires, suddenly had all his dad’s years of hard work and struggles taken away the day his grandfather was on his deathbed and named all his father’s companies to his uncles.

I’ve seen first hand at how much his father worked throughout our time in middle school together, through high school and so on. Every time I used to visit his place, his father had top executives at his house discussing business stuff, advising etc. He catapulted everything from one company and turned it into a conglomerate of sorts. My friend’s uncles though, who merely ran comparatively smaller businesses, that my friend’s father had helped them set up throughout the years, were doing decent work with it, but couldn’t compare themselves to what his father had actually built up over the years.

Anyway, everything took a turn for the worse when his grandfather signed the will and gave everything away and by everything, I mean the companies his father built up through decades and even all his properties, the lavish houses worth acres, all given away within mere hours.

My friend’s whole family, which included 5 other siblings, were to vacate their properties with immediate effect and were told to go back to the village they all originated from. They spent years living there, under some of the worst circumstances imaginable, his father tried his best to start off things from scratch but it all didn't go too well as they thought. His father went into depression and was given bed rest for a while.

They visited our city once after years, we hadn't been in touch because they couldn't afford cell phones back in those times. He called me up from a payphone the day he landed and I left work mid-day just to spend some time with him. We met up at a club and one could immediately tell how bad things were by his get up. I comforted him and ensured he didn't lose any hope and insisted that we take me to his rented place so I could meet his family after all these years. My heart sank and I literally held back tears when I entered his place and saw nothing but mattresses lying on the floor. Meantime, his mother walked in, all smiles as always trying her best to hide back those tears and offered me something to eat. I comforted her and my friends father, he shook my hand and all of a sudden, he couldn't hold back and started apologizing to me for the way I was being welcomed by them. As I held my tears back, I told him it was ok and he didn't have to worry about all this and I sat down right beside him and I managed to change the subject altogether. His mother started talking about videogames.

A little sidenote on my friend’s mother: She was an avid gamer, played almost every game they got their hands on back in the good days. Every family member owned a PS1 and had the biggest library of games I had ever seen. She often used to test my skills every time we went at it on Tekken. She was ACTUALLY pretty good!

Anyhow, we started talking games and I told her about all these new releases that I can't remember and that is when it hit me. Since I was working in a friend’s office, I borrowed one of the spare television sets at work, brought in my PS1 and gave her all the games I had. I couldnt recall the last time I had seen her this happy. She was ecstatic, she immediately plugged in and they all started going at it one by one. They stayed for about 12 days in the city before they had to leave and I told his mother she could keep my PS1 to keep herself busy whenever she felt down.

Years went by, his uncles never contacted them, they kept going on with their lives, destroyed all the businesses that were given and eventually filed for bankruptcy about 3 years ago. Fast forward to today, after another struggle that went on for years to come after I met my friend and his family here, today they stand on their own feet once again. Having went into the real estate industry and are regarded as some of the most trustworthy and well reputed people in their line of work. I am yet to meet his family because they’ve moved to a different city and with projects going on in various cities at once, my friend often drops by and we meet up, talk about all the times he has seen and I’m just sitting there beaming with pride on his and his family’s accomplishments after a struggle that people literally give up on. His family never did, his younger siblings, now all grown up, help run the real estate firm and are now just as invested in their business as their father had hoped for. Back on track and living the best time of their lives, yet again! My friend’s getting married in a couple of months too and I’m excited to meet everyone all over again in these times and cherish every moment. Specifically, I’m really looking forward to talking games with his mother, who he still says is playing on the daily!

sam-pak-X6QffKLwyoQ-unsplash-300x200.jpgSam Pak

2. What a terrible roommate

My parents bought me a laptop for my 18th birthday. It was absolutely unheard of in my family to recieve gifts as expensive or technological. I cried when my Mom handed it to me. I was meant to be moving away for university and both my mom and dad had saved up 6 months wages between them to afford it for me. We all hugged and cried and it was extremely meaningful and emotional. I went off to university.

I was in the dorms one night when my dorm mate, who was a rich white boy from long island, brings back like 2 girls and another friend. They start drinking and rolling up weed in the dorm, which I was fine with, it was university etc. I go to the bathroom down the hall, and when I get back, one of the girls has opened my laptop and is trying to log in.

I approach her and I'm like "Hey that's my laptop. I don't mind you using it I guess but let me just log you in to the guest account" - she goes to move the laptop off her lap toward me, and knocks an open bottle of wine on to it, the entire laptop being flooded with wine.

She goes "Oh! Sorry!" I'm FREAKING out!!!!! I can't believe it's happening. My roommate starts telling me to chill out and asks "Can't you just get a new one dude?"

I start patting down the laptop and I ask them, please, if it doesn't work, can you help me replace it? I need it for my classes etc. They start laughing at me! Saying "Why can't your parents get a new one for you?"

It took 2 weeks of demanding them to buy me a new one before they reluctantly did as I had to explain to the dorm manager my situation of my family being extremely poor and it being unbelivable that they were even able to get me into university let alone a new laptop. Luckily he was sympathetic and helped me arrange for a replacement.

But man, that moment of "Can't you just get a new one?" made my heart blow up. It was more painful than the laptop getting damaged itself. I looked at him and wanted to kill him. I'd never experienced rich kid syndrome as succinctly before or since. I hated that guy.

1_ramiro-pianarosa-lTPljjmE-Vo-unsplash-236x300.jpgRamiro Pianarosa

1. Gotta have those baby-back ribs

My friend is a Commercial Pilot and works for a large company that has a "flight department" consisting of several jets and turboprop airplanes. The owner's kids, and a group of their friends, were granted permission to take one of the jets from the central part of the US to the Bahamas. Upon arriving in the Bahamas they were meeting other friends and getting on a very, very large yacht for a week. They realized the yacht was equipped with fine dining food, not the type of food they liked (junk food) They ordered the Pilots to fly back through US Customs and to their hometown in the Midwest. Once there they had to pick up multiple sides of BBQ ribs, burgers, hot dogs, soda, beer and piles of other junk food and fly back to the Bahamas - and do so within a time-frame that still allowed them to leave with the yacht on time. It costs roughly $5,000 an hour to operate the jet they were using. And it never even struck the owners as something extreme.

The BBQ (ribs, pulled pork & sauce) was the main purpose for the return trip to the Midwest. If you’re from the Midwest, or a southern “BBQ city”, you know what I’m talking about. They don’t have this in FL, period. The other junk food was add on requests from other guests. The plane owner’s son had promised, in the months prior, to bring some of the BBQ he had told his other friends (who he was meeting in the Bahamas) about repeatedly throughout college. He forgot, and was getting ribbed for it. In an act of boldness he sent the plane back for it.

This is the most extreme example of how theses planes are used, and wealth flaunted, within this company. That’s with the understanding that wife shopping trips, sending a plane back to pick up a kid after school to come to FL, ballgames, hunting & fishing trips and to dine in a restaurant 3,000 miles away, is commonplace. On occasion these planes and Pilots have been used as “Angel Flights” transport ill children and family throughout the country for medical procedures. The pilots for this company aren’t paid the best, but are permitted to bring family (spouses mostly) to destinations as space and work schedule dictates. Some senior pilots can stay at company owned property nationwide if available.

1_jose-ignacio-pompe-s-Z-h0fEiBM-unsplash-300x200.jpgJosé Ignacio Pompé