Gabriel Yap
In my 19 years in investment banking and stockbroking before I retired in 2009 in my early-40s, I have met many seriously rich Asian billionaires and millionaires. It would come as a big surprise to many that the consumption pattern and the wealth philosophy of many of these billionaires and millionaires do not differ much from middle-class people of normal wealth standards.
Most of the really affluent people are highly-educated, they had inherited or were going to inherit assets in millions of dollars. Most of them have wealth that put them in the top 10% in assets or income or both.
It is not surprising that many believe that the wealthy are unconflicted about their wealth and are eager to display them. Impresssions of the scions of newly-minted Asian billionaires flaunting their fast cars and popping champagne probably dominate the images for many. In actual fact, the billionaires and millionaires that I know (And I do know far more now that I have lived in Melbourne for the past 10 years where surprisingly, Melbourne has been a great locale for many to buy summer or winter homes or just homes to house their school-going kid) tend to be more ambivalent about their wealth status and many would seek to tone down such image in their everyday life.
It does seems that it the newly-rich tend to be the ones that undertake conspicuous consumption like splurging on flashy cars, private jets, private boats, penthouses and so on. Perhaps it is their way to show others that they have arrived.
However, most of the truly rich that I know are not the kind that show off their wealth in the glitziest way possible, but are rather glaringly alert to distancing themselves with stereotypes of wealth like conspicuous consumption, selfish or ostentatious. Most are actually very prudent in their spending and investing habits.
When asked to describe themselves, most of these wealthy people tend to associate themselves as “ok la” and “comfortable” as opposed to “rich” or “wealthy”. Most do not really identify themselves as wealthy and would rather associate themselves with the middle-class.
In the past 2 years, I have hosted the Fortune Times Reits Pinnacle Awards and Asia Entrepreneur Awards. Fortune Times is a 13-year old publication catering to the Billionaires and Millionaires. Over drinks once, I was told by a multi-millionaire himself that he can’t call himself wealthy as he does not have a private jet waiting for him at Seletar airbase. So the connotation of wealth is really different with the real wealthy.
Most people also assume that wealthy people never worry about money. In fact, in my dealings with many, the preservation of capital is topmost in most affluent families. The other chief worries centre around their kids’ education and proper upbringing, surprisingly towards how to handle their wealth not as an-entitled class, but to relish and enjoy the life that wealth bestow.
In fact, the usual challenges of life – getting good grades, love and family life dominate the problems of the affluent. The only difference with others is that the rich have the money to make an annoying problem go away or move away physically to where the problem does not exist.
For example, if you are overweight, join a gym or even better, get a personal trainer.
Being rich allows many to avoid spending time with people that they do not like, be it their bosses or neighbours.
Over a gala dinner, one billionaire seat next to me describe to me his bucket list – “actually the goals I have identified do not really require a lot of money – become a good salsa dancer, learn Spanish an learn to cook Thai food,,,,,,,,and the list goes on”. What was striking was towards the end, he said “actually I would have been able to do all this even if I was not that rich”.
So what does it mean to be rich?
For the rest of us, I guess living humbly and regularly refinancing to save money will hopefully bring us to a better retirement.
