Yet affluent millennials — with $250,000 to more than $1 million in investable assets — are going to great lengths to appear wealthy.
Wells Fargo found 29% of affluent millennials admit they sometimes buy items they cannot afford to impress others.
There’s not many of them, and this isn’t the majority of them…
But yeah, this has always happened.
Young wealthy people want to seem like they’re insanely wealthy.
$1 million isn’t nearly as much or as impressive as it used to be. I’m not saying it isn’t impressive, but inflation has eroded the value (and increased wages). Often those who have $1 million have it locked away in retirement accounts that they cannot touch so they are on paper rich, but in practice don’t have as much today (the savings needed to get that much in assets mean they are living on much less than their peers - thus they appear much less wealthy than their peers who are not saving)
This is pretty bog standard human psyche.
Working-class lads and lasses make far more effort to look good when they’re out because no one is going to want them for their pay cheque; wealthy people can afford to look effortlessly casual.
Working-class nightclubs ban trainers and demand shirts with collars; posh nightclubs have no such rules.
Working class lads who earn a decent wedge in areas which still have affordable rents will quite likely be spending more on their car than their rent.
Struggling salesmen go out and buy a new car because projecting success is part of their means to be successful. (No, I do not understand why you wouldn’t look at a rep in a Porsche and think “they’re overcharging, I’ll go elsewhere” but, apparently,this is what they do.)
It’s easy to sneer at the wealthy indulging in these behaviours (and we should, of course, sneer). But there’s nothing strange or startling. They’re just doing it from a much wealthier base with a much stronger safety net because daddy will always be there to pay off the credit card.
As for an addition to the topic I leave this link to a study which gives some insight to consuming behavior:
Signaling Status with Luxury Goods: The Role of Brand Prominence
Even actual wealthy people exaggerate their wealth. That’s why Trump covers everything in gaudy gold paint. He has to appear to be richer than Croesus.
Wait🫸 that’s paint?
He’s not Midas. He’s not even Mansa Musa.
He’s not even Mansa Musa.
Aren’t there like maybe 3 ppl in history richer than him?
I don’t know if anyone has ever been richer.
This is normal for all generations. Back in the 1990s the then popular ‘the millionair nextdoor’ couldn’t find any rich people living in rich areas. They had to go to the poor run down neighborhoods to find people who had real wealth. (their neighbors were mostly the really poor just barly getting buy, but mixed in where some of the true rich)
