How to know if someone IS actually wealthy?

[K1 Lambo]

I'm doing this to identify if some of my potential prospects have money or the purchasing power to purchase/buy my products and services. Would love to hear what you guys have to say about this. Not a millionaire myself yet.

Here are some observations of mine from meeting/knowing wealthy individuals ($10m net worth and up) offline and online, and from analyzing their behaviours and so on:

Social media​

From social media, you can't really tell if someone is wealthy because there are just so many pretenders that are out there. However, most of the guys that I know in my town who are wealthy barely use their social media. In fact, most of them have private Instas with less than 1,000 followers or no FB/Instagram at all. Some use LinkedIn too. Maybe because most of them are 40 and up but I've noticed it's a very common trend with the sort of "underground" very wealthy people.

That doesn't mean there aren't wealthy individuals who don't show their lifestyles on Instagram or TikTok or whatever. Of course, yes they do exist. If your lifestyle is your brand aka think of Tai Lopez, Grant Cardone, Manny Khosbin, Ed Mylett, Andrew Tate/Tate brothers and so on then it's a necessity.

However, as a rule of thumb(from what I've seen), the more someone flashes their stuff on social media(FB, Instagram, TikTok etc), the higher the chance that it's all an image thing for them and they're pretending to be rich. Or they're just trying to sell you on whatever they're selling.

Cars​

Cars are a very interesting thing because this is a mix from my experience, depending on where you live. In Norway/Sweden in general, most wealthy people do not really care what they drive unless they're into cars, then they might drive a Ferrari, Bentley, Lamborghini, high end Porsche models and so on. But it's difficult to tell in Norway. A lot of people drive their hybrid/electric Volvos, Audis, Teslas, Mercedes Benzs and so on, including wealthy people. For example Arne Fredly who's a Norwegian billionaire who lives in Monaco said that he only drives his Tesla in Norway because everything else doesn't make sense.

Whereas in eastern europe(Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Russia, Romania) I found it to be the opposite. A lot of people care about their image there and because these countries are growing quite well economically, so experiencing wealth is a new thing in Eastern Europe. But in Eastern Europe, every wealthy person that I know over there drives something very nice, usually a car that's worth $100k and above.

Clothes, Electronics​

With clothes, I found that the wealthiest people tend to wear normal clothes from H&M or Zara, Nike, Adidas etc. They rarely dress in suits or super "professionally" or wear any of these fancy brands like GUCCI, Supreme, Armani or Tommy Hilfiger. That's usually all on credit cards to look like someone has money.

In fact, one Bosnian guy who owns a car dealership near me told me that the people who can afford a brand new Porsche in a dealership dress normally, usually in a normal t shirt with some jeans on and that's it. Or they wear tracksuits. But it's nice. THOSE are actually the guys who walk in and buy the car right away. They can walk in with flip flops and be worth $60m whereas the guy who looks all macho with a suit will never buy the Porsche. That's an interesting observation.

Same deal with electronics. They won't have the "newest iPhone" or be obsessed with the new 70 inch TV that's on black friday. That's usually something that the middle/poor class is obsessed about. Again, are there exceptions to the rule? Yes, but let's not base our rule on exceptions.

​

Physical Appearance​

In Norway/Scandinavia in general, people take their health very seriously. That's something that I actually really like with Norwegians, they are outdoors almost all the time compared to us Poles, which explains why they're so healthy and can walk normally, even at an old age. So your typical wealthy person in Scandinavia will not be overweight or obese, they'll usually be slim built for both men and women. Well groomed, good teeth/hygiene and so on.

If you travel to Eastern Europe and look at all the babushkas who are 70/80 years of age, they can barely stand alone with no assistance.

In Poland/Eastern Europe I found it to be a mix. Some might be really healthy or fit, while some might be obese and still have a lot of money. Sort of like with wealthy Americans or Latinos. They can have bad teeth from smoking, wear 10 year old torn clothes from Walmart and walk into the casino in Monaco and have $15m in the bank. Very difficult to tell.

Behavior​

You know what they say: "The wealthy are evil or rich people are greedy" or what you see in the Wolf Of Wall Street where everybody is screwing each other.

I found it to be the COMPLETE opposite in real life. These people(the ones who I've met at least) are some of the most caring, cool, humble and trustworthy people to be around. You can ask them for advice and they will give it to you. They got real manners, are punctual, positive and NEVER gossip or talk shit about anyone. It's like they're extra friendly on purpose but it's just WHO they are.

It's rare to encounter this type of mindset/thinking on a daily basis where 99.9% of people talk about X person or Y celebrity, war in Ukraine or that "Norway" is a horrible country with no future(comes often from my family).

Actually, it's the guys in the middle who are the worst people/customers from my experience. You know what they call them, the $40k-$60k millionaires or the guys who are putting a front on, these are the WORST people you can encounter.

BONUS TIP: The people from the top are amazing. Surround yourself with them as much as you can or try your best to interact with them and obviously, make sure to give something back to them.

EDIT:

Very passionate about certain things​

Whatever it is. For some it might be golfing because they like the joy of chit chatting with buddies and enjoy the peace of it.

For others, it might be cars so you can meet them at supercar/grand turismo events and so on.

While others might be very passionate about donating money to Nairobi etc.

While some may own sports teams, like one guy in my town who owns Stavanger Oilers(professional hockey team).


Any other characteristics that some of you'd like to add?

 

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[Spenny]

I like this post a lot. I'm thinking that a lot of this is the chicken or the egg here. Were they always so nice? or was it because of their experience & crawling through metaphorical barbed wire made them this way?

Thanks for the post again.

 

[snowpl]

Thanks for the post. Agree on most of it. Will add my three cents.

For me wealth is something that you can’t see. Because wealth is the money not spend. Of course if you see someone in Lambo then he was rich for sure because he could afford the car or lease, still you don’t know if he actually don’t have tons of credit. Got friends that have tons of debt but lives in dreams houses and drive AMGs, still they need to work super hard and often spent so much time in work. We all know it’s not the way.

As most people here possibly have enough money, you know that after some amount it doesn’t change much… I would use for measuring wealth of how much a person gives to others and how many people they are impacting.

This often goes along as you mentioned that wealthy people are often good and generous for others, because they don’t have to “fight” for needs.

 

[Ismail941]

You wrote the updated version about gurus and lifestyle which is ok.
But this topic had been discussed already in another mannerism in this forum!

In Short, the best people I know - they are not FANCY just like Demarco, Seth Godin, Andy Frisella etc

 

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[Itizn]

They usually are not just involved in one company. For example managing directors usually have a few other companies that compliment their principle company.

They talk and type succinctly.

They are also a bit out there in ways that might invite others to declare them crazy or nuts. By this I mean that they don't care how they are perceived by the general public. One of the wealthiest self-made guys I know literally shouts and curses at the top of his lungs in public settings (usually over sports gambling results) just because he wants to. When I am with him it is pretty embarassing to have that attention drawn to us.

 

[Damien C]

Determining how wealthy someone is depends on where you live. From what I have seen, the culture is vastly different abroad in the USA compared to here in Australia. Wealth appears to be "flaunted" over there in a much more overt manner, and it's publicly acceptable to do so. Not here. It's considered distasteful and tacky.

In some places you may be able to tell by their car, their house, their clothes. Here, you have to pay very careful attention to ones interests, vocabulary, the company they keep, the places they frequent, and add up all the subtle little "slips" over time in casual conversation that reveal one to be a person of significant wealth and means.

The wealthy here blend in with everyone else, and will engage with everyone too. They'll bitch about a 15 cent increase to coffee grinds, they complain about traffic, they exchange coupons and discount codes with you. And then, one day you accidentally find a document spat out in the printer at work with their home address on it. You curiously look it up on Google Maps and find they have a $7,500,000 house on the hill with like 10 bathrooms. It floors you, and it's a shock. But they seem just like you, just like a regular person? Well, they are! They are a human being.

The only true test of whether somebody can afford your products or services is a sale. I think it's a dangerous path to go down when you start putting people into boxes "has value" "has no value" based purely on their net worth or outward appearance. Market your products and services to a broad group of people, and narrow it down / focus after you start seeing patterns and trends on who is buying. Those who do may very well surprise you.

 

[K1 Lambo]

I like this post a lot. I'm thinking that a lot of this is the chicken or the egg here. Were they always so nice? or was it because of their experience & crawling through metaphorical barbed wire made them this way?

Thanks for the post again.

You're welcome buddy. It's probably a mix of both I think. You know what the say; money doesn't change you, it just makes you more of who you are.

So if you're a very nice person when you have less than $100 in the bank, you're going to be that 100x when you have $20m in the bank by helping your family, donating to charities and lending money to people and so on.

Of course, there are probably some very bad wealthy people out there. I haven't met any of them personally yet though.

 

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[K1 Lambo]

They usually are not just involved in one company. For example managing directors usually have a few other companies that compliment their principle company.

They talk and type succinctly.

They are also a bit out there in ways that might invite others to declare them crazy or nuts. By this I mean that they don't care how they are perceived by the general public. One of the wealthiest self-made guys I know literally shouts and curses at the top of his lungs in public settings (usually over sports gambling results) just because he wants to. When I am with him it is pretty embarassing to have that attention drawn to us.

Bingo. You can even see it in the way they write messages to you on social media. It's very precise and no elementary school "grammar" mistakes like in typical conversations.

 

[Jobless]

This is an anecdotal thread, so:

Wealthiest buddy of mine does martial arts, sleeps in an unfurnished but very expensive house, dresses every day like he's headed for the beach, failed out of school, works a menial job (for fun and exercise), very eccentric and humble character...

Yes, he is from family money. In his case, it is true that the upper class has more in common with the lower class than the middle class. Also, when you have wealth, you realize true wealth is health and family/friends.