Despite the historical use of the Deutsche Mark in 1991 Berlin, we will use the Euro currency. To allow for simpler estimations of the worth of money, we have corrected the amounts mentioned in the Resources background. This correction takes into account the publication date of the source book (1998), corrects for changes in purchasing power over the years (including inflation) and converts the amounts from USD to EUR.
Furthermore, we have also extrapolated these ratings into the 6+ range. The resource rating and descriptions below sketch a style of life. The noted allowances for all ratings are “spending” money that is available for things beyond the indicated style of life.
See also the more extensive Sketch of Ratings and their associated style of life, and a little bit of Perspective of Money.
● Small savings: a small apartment and maybe a motorcycle. If liquidated, you would have about €1,200 in cash. Allowance of €600 a month.
●● Middle class: an apartment or condominium. If liquidated, you would have at least €9,300 in cash. Allowance of €1,400 a month.
●●● Large savings: a homeowner or someone with some equity. If liquidated, you would have at least €58,000 in cash. Allowance of €3,500 a month.
●●●● Well-off: a member of the upper class. You own a very large house, or perhaps a dilapidated mansion. If liquidated, you would have at least €580,000 in cash. Allowance of €10,500 a month.
●●●●● Affluent: a multimillionaire. Your haven is limited by little save your imagination. If liquidated, you would have at least €5,800,000 in cash. Allowance of €35,000 a month.
●●●●● ● Independent: you are insulated from personal financial stress. You run or could have a controlling interest in a big company. You have multiple residences, can fly private, have personal assistants, and are starting to have 'people' that others have to talk to to get to you. If liquidated, you would have between €30 million and €100 million. Allowance of €125,000 a month.
●●●●● ●● Prosperous: your ability to buy things becomes an art. The world is full of 'yes men'. You definitely have 'people' and staff. If liquidated, you would have between €100 million and €1 billion. Allowance of €500,000 a month.
●●●●● ●●● Billionaire: you can buy access, influence, and even time. Governors look up to you. Fortune 500 CEOs look up to you. If liquidated, you would have between €1 billion and €10 billion. Allowance of €2,500,000 a month.
●●●●● ●●●● Ridiculously Affluent: If liquidated, you would have between €10 billion and €100 billion. Allowance of €15,000,000 a month.
●●●●● ●●●●● Tiny Country: If liquidated, you would have over €100 billion. Allowance of €120,000,000 a month.
This proposal would have been much more difficult without the insightful What do insanely wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? post, which sets out categories of wealth. Based on those categories, we sketch the following styles of life:
Resources ●●●●● (worth $10mm-$30mm) (liquid, exclusive of value of primary residence). At this level, your needs are met. You can live very comfortably at a 4-star/5-star level. You can book a $2000 suite for a special occassion. You can fly first class internationally (sometimes). You have a very nice house, you can afford any healthcare you need, no emergency financial situation can destroy your life. But you are not “rich” in the way that money doesn't matter. You still have to be prudent and careful with most decisions unless you are on the upper end of this scale, where you truly are becoming insulated from personal financial stress. (Business stress exists at all levels). The banking world still doesn't classify you as 'ultra high net worth'
Resources ●●●●● ● (worth $30mm-$100mm) At this point, you start playing with the big boys. You can fly private (though you normally charter a flight or own a jet fractionally through Net Jets or the like), You stay at 5 star hotels, you have multiple residences, you vacation in prime time (you rent a ski-in, ski-out villa in Aspen for Christmas week or go to Monaco for the grand Prix, or Canne for the Film Festival–for what its worth, rent on these places can run $5k-20k+ per NIGHT.), you run or have a ontrolling interest in a big company, you socialize with Conressmen, Senators and community leaders, and you are an extremely well respected member in any community outside the world's great cities. (In Beverly Hills, you are a minor player at $80 million. Unless you really throw your weight around and pay out the nose, you might not get a table at the city's hottest restaurant). You can buy any car you want. You have personal assistants and are starting to have 'people' that others have to talk to to get to you. You can travel ANYWHERE in any style. You can buy pretty much anything that normal people think of as 'rich people stuff'
Resources ●●●●● ●● ($100mm-$1billion) I know its a wide range, but life doesn't change much when you go from being worth $200mm-$900mm. At this point, you have a private jet, multiple residences with staff, elite cars at each residence, ownership or significant control over a business/entity that most of the public has heard of, if its your thing, you can socialize with movie stars/politicians/rock stars/corporate elite/aristocracy. You might not get invite to every party, but you can go pretty much everywhere you want. You definitely have 'people' and staff. The world is full of 'yes men'. Your ability to buy things becomes an art. One of your vacation home may be a 5 bedroom villa on acreage in Cabo, but that's not impressive. You own a private island? Starting to be cool, but it depends on the island. You just had dinner with Senator X and Governor Y at your home? Cool. But your billionaire friend just had dinner with the President. You have a new Ferrari? Your friend thinks their handling sucks and has a classic, only-five-exist-in-the-world-type of car. Did I mention women? Because at this level, they are all over the place. Every event, most parties. The polo club. Ultra-hot, world class, smart women. Power and money are an aphrodisiac and you have it in spades. Anything thing you want from women at this point you will find a willing and beautiful partner. You might not emotionally connect, but damn, she's hot. One thing that gets rare at this level? friends and family that love you for who you are. They exist, but it is pretty damn hard to know which ones they are.
Resources ●●●●● ●●● ($1billion) I am going to exclude the $10b+ crowd, because they live a head-of-state life. But at $1b, life changes. You can buy anything. ANYTHING. In broad terms, this is what you can buy:
Some perspective for a worth of $1billion or more.
Impact. Your money can literally change the world and change lives. It is almost too much of a burden to think about. Clean water for a whole village forever? chump change. A dying child need a transplant? Hell…you could just build and fund a hospital and do it for a region.
Respect. The respect you get at this level is just over-the-top. You are THE MAN in almost every circle. Governors look up to you. Fortune 500 CEOs look up to you. Presidents and Kings look at you as a peer.
Relative values. The wealthiest person I have spent time with makes about $400mm/year. i couldn't get my mind around that until I did this: OK–let's compare it with someone who makes $40,000/year. It is 10,000x more. Now let's look at prices the way he might. A new Lambo–$235,000 becaome $23.50. First class ticket internationally? $10,000 becomes $1. A full time executive level helper? $8,000/month becomes $0.80/month. A $10mm piece of art you love? $1000. Expensive, so you have to plan a bit. A suite at the best hotel in NYC $10,000/night is $1/night. A $50million home in the Hamptons? $5,000. There is literally nothing you can't buy except:
Love. Sorry to sound so trite, but it is nearly impossible to have a normal emotional relationship at this level. It is hard to sacrifice for another person when you are never asked to sacrifice ANYTHING. Money can solve all problems for someone, so you offer it, because there is so much else to do. Your time is SOOOO valuable that you ration it. And that makes you lose connections with people.