{"id":805,"date":"2008-06-02T09:00:46","date_gmt":"2008-06-02T13:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/harryallen.info\/?p=805"},"modified":"2008-06-02T09:00:54","modified_gmt":"2008-06-02T13:00:54","slug":"brother-can-you-spare-ten-mil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/harryallen.info\/?p=805","title":{"rendered":"Brother, Can You Spare Ten Mil?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Let<\/a>
\n“Be vewwy quiet. I’m hunting duckets”: Poor old rich guy<\/em><\/p>\n

I find the nuances of wealth endlessly fascinating. But the aspect of it that I find most intriguing is the carefully maintained illusion of limitless capacity the rich apparently work to maintain.<\/p>\n

By this, I mean the appearance that, when a rich person spends a lot of money on something, even with as much as they spend, it doesn’t mean anything to them, because they have a lot of money.<\/p>\n

\"Obese<\/a>For example, we’ve heard announcements that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt recently purchased the $70 million, 880-acre Ch\u00e2teau Miraval<\/a> in southern France, right. (Though, some reports say they bought it<\/a>, some say they’re renting it<\/a>, and some say they’re leasing it for 3 years<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Did Brad and Angelina sweat<\/em> to do this? Did they stay up late nights, pace the floor, call banks for loans, etc.? By the time we hear about it, the deal is done, and it appears effortless: Two glamorous stars just bought a big French estate. But from their end, are they just like us, but with more money; calling in favors, juggling bills when they need additional cash?<\/p>\n

For a person, like me, with those questions, this New York Times piece\u2014”It\u2019s Not So Easy Being Less Rich”<\/a>\u2014is platinum.<\/p>\n

The wealthy don\u2019t generally speak publicly about their finances, in good times or bad. It\u2019s in poor taste, for one, and their employers could fire them for talking even a little. But people who provide services to the wealthy \u2014 lawyers, art advisers, personal trainers and hairstylists \u2014 say they are getting an earful about their clients\u2019 financial anxieties.<\/p>\n

Interviews with the people who actually see the bank statements, like divorce lawyers and lenders, say their clients are definitely living on less than they did a year ago, regardless of how expansive the definition of \u201cless\u201d may be. Hairstylists and private jet rental companies say the wealthy are cutting back on luxuries like $350 highlights and $10,000-an-hour jet rentals. Even nutritionists and personal trainers notice a problem. The wealthy are eating more and gaining weight because of the stress.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The key issue, it seems, particularly in a downturn, is appearances.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey fear their kids won\u2019t get invited to the right birthday parties,\u201d said Michele Kleier, an Upper East Side-based real estate broker. \u201cIf they have to give up things that are invisible, they\u2019re O.K. as long as they don\u2019t have give up things visible to the outside world.\u201d<\/p>\n

So New York\u2019s very wealthy are addressing their distress in discreet and often awkward ways. They try to move their $165 sessions with personal trainers to a time slot that they know is already taken. They agree to tour multimillion-dollar apartments and then say the spaces don\u2019t match their specifications. They apply for a line of credit before art auctions, supposedly to buy a painting or a sculpture, but use that borrowed money to pay other debts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Meanwhile,<\/p>\n

Other wealthy clients are cutting luxuries that they think their friends and relatives won\u2019t notice, according to Mr. Del Gatto of Circa. At Circa\u2019s midtown offices, he said, the seven consultation rooms have been busy with customers selling their precious gems. Some older couples, he said, are selling estate jewelry to help support their children who have lost Wall Street jobs. Bankers are paring down their collections of Patek Philippe watches. Wives from Greenwich and Scarsdale are selling 2-carat to 35-carat single-stone diamond rings. One recent client explained to Mr. Del Gatto that she was selling $2 million in diamonds she rarely wore, because her friends wouldn\u2019t notice that they were gone.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe said, \u2018If I sold my Bentley or my important art, they would notice,\u2019 \u201d he said. \u201cThat we hear, in differing examples, every day.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Amazing. More money, more problems. Less money, even more<\/em> problems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Be vewwy quiet. I’m hunting duckets”: Poor old rich guy I find the nuances of wealth endlessly fascinating. But the aspect of it that I find most intriguing is the carefully maintained illusion of limitless capacity the rich apparently work to maintain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[33,40],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/harryallen.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/harryallen.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/harryallen.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/harryallen.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/harryallen.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/harryallen.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/harryallen.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/harryallen.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/harryallen.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}