If you earned $1 per second then to make one million dollars would take you about 11 and a half days.

But to make one billion dollars would take you over 31 and a half years.

You see it's easy to think of wealth in terms of

Rich 

or

Poor 

But broadly speaking there are arguably 5 different levels of rich and at each level things change very drastically.

The difference between what a millionaire can do and a billionaire can do is simply staggering.

Today I’ll talk about what life is like on each of these different wealth levels and delving into how the ultra rich spend their money (including some of the most bizarre and extravagant purchases you've ever heard of ).

But as you're reading you'll realize that one of the biggest changes that happens at each of these wealth levels is perspective.

Because prices feel relative to how much you earn.

So if you compare someone who's earning $40’000 a year with someone earning $400 million a year

it's 10’000x more.

Which means a lambo that costs $300’000 to them is the equivalent of spending $30.

A $10’000’000 piece of art feels like a $1’000.

A $50’000’000 home in the hamptons feels more like $5’000.

So whilst to us each of those purchases would feel so major, to a billionaire, it's not even something they'd really need to think about.

And of course when you're that wealthy it's not just items and experiences that you can buy but we'll get to that.

Let's instead start off with the first level of rich.

The top 1%

Even though this phrase is synonymous with being extremely rich, if your income is over about $200’000 a year, you would technically be part of the top 1% of worldwide earners.

And so being in the top one percent may not make you feel quite as rich as you would think.

Because sure you can typically afford a nice house and car.

But with those things comes higher costs.

And so you probably don't feel very financially secure and you're likely still working a full-time job which is why beyond this level wealth starts to be measured in

net-worth 

rather than

income.

Because the more wealth you have the more assets you have.

And you're probably not making your money from a normal salary.

So the next level of rich is a net worth of 10 million dollars to 30 million dollars

Level 2

At this level your needs are met.

You can live a very comfortably.

You have a really nice house.

You often fly first class internationally.

If it's a special occasion you might book a 2 000 suite.

You can afford any health care you need.

And in fact no emergency financial situation can destroy your life.

And yet

You're still not rich in the way that money doesn't matter.

You still have to be sensible and careful when it comes to big decisions.

And in the banking world you're still not classified as having an ultra high net worth.

Which brings us to our next level.

Level 3

A net worth of 30 million dollars to 100 million dollars. 

At this point you start playing in the big leagues and most likely you run or have a controlling interest in a very large company.

You always stay at five star hotels and you have multiple residences all around the world that you can stay in,

As well you take holidays during prime time for example going to monaco for the grand prix or cans for the film festival.

And you won't bat an eyelid when the place you're staying at costs 10 to 20 000 per night.

You have personal assistance and are starting to have people that others have to talk to, to get to you.

You can buy pretty much anything that normal people think of as stuff rich people buy.

You can buy any cars you want, the fanciest jewelry and so on

Instead of flying first class you'd fly privates,

Although having said that you typically charter a flight or own a private jet (fractionally through a service like netjets instead of buying it outright and having to maintain it)

But still at this level another big change that happens is your social circle.

You probably start socializing with congressmen, senators and community leaders. You're likely very well respected within some very high-class circles.

Interestingly though since you're likely surrounded by other ultra-wealthy people you may start to feel you don't have enough.

Sure you may have just bought a new ferrari but your friend has a limited edition version where only five were ever made.

And

Sure you had dinner with a local governor but your billionaire friend just had dinner with the president.

Even at this level people are still looking above them.

Which brings us to our next level of wealth.

Level 4

A 100 million dollars to a billion dollars net worth.

To be at this level you likely have ownership or control of a business that most of the public have heard of.

Even if they haven't heard of you directly at this point you can likely socialize with movie stars, rock stars and the corporate elites.

You can go pretty much anywhere you want and always in style.

You have multiple residences with staff all over the world with elite cars at every residence.

If it's your thing you might have a private island and of course a private yacht to get you there.

Almost any experience you can dream up you can have.

Wanna play tennis with your favorite star?

Call his people for a donation of a hundred thousand or more to his charity. You can probably play a match with him.

Want your favorite band to come and play at your private party?

Well for the right price they probably will.

What about if you love art.

Your people could arrange for the curator of the louvre to show you around and show you some masterpieces they haven't exhibited in years.

If you can dream an experience up,

you can likely have it.

Donations and fees can get you to anyone and once you have many hundreds of millions of dollars it's the same when it comes to buying things.

You may hire people specifically to find you the most extravagant versions of items you can think of.

For example the australian company toilet paper man produces 22-carat gold toilet paper for a cost of over 1.3 million and if you are going to quite literally flush money down the toilet why not get a gold toilet or an entire gold bathroom to go with it?

In fact if you're ultra wealthy you can literally have gold everything.

How about a 24 karat gold water bottle which in itself is a piece of designer art and comes with spring water from france and fiji combined with glacier water from iceland?

or

Alternatively how about the world's most expensive iphone that has 24 karat gold casing and more than 600 white and black diamonds plus sapphire glass for the screen?

This obviously isn't available to the general public to buy one.

You're going to need over 15 million dollars.

But this is the key at this level.

It's not just about buying the fanciest most luxurious items, it's about getting the rarest and most exclusive things you possibly can.

For example you could get a limited edition pen that costs 160 000 has 4810 diamonds inside and only eight are made each year.

Or if you want to go a lot bigger than that many billionaires turn to art and not just rare paintings but things like this dead shark art piece created by damian hirst that sold for 12 million dollars.

Or let's say you like piano.

Well here's the same crystal piano that was used for the beijing olympic games that was purchased at a private auction for a record 3.2 million dollars.

You see when you're at this wealth level your mind is the only real limit to what is available.

But then we have our final level.

Level 5

The 1 billion net worth and above.

Now before we get into what you can do as a billionaire which honestly is pretty insane, it's worth noting that the number of billionaires on forbes's annual rich list has significantly increased in recent years and there's now around 2755 known billionaires.

Of course it's possible there are more who have generational wealth, that simply do a good job of staying very, very private.

But either way forbes have estimated these 2 755 billionaires are worth a combined 13.1 trillion dollars and therefore have more wealth between them than the poorest 5 billion people on earth combined.

These statistics are overwhelming but let's actually visualize it to put things in perspective.

This rice example really highlights that even within this billionaire category the difference between 1 billion and the kind of wealth jeff bezos or elon musk have is insanely vast.

Now let's look at what you can actually do with that.

Because essentially you can buy anything and i do mean anything.

We're no longer talking about luxurious items and experiences.

Firstly you can buy access. You can ask your staff to contact almost anyone on the planet and get a call back.

It's amazing the level of access and respect a billion can get you.

Within an hour you could ask your people to get in touch with someone and they'd be able to do it and i'm not just talking about contacting celebrities it worked the same with powerful people within politics as well.

Especially because the billionaire may well be a donor to their political party and so if you're a billionaire you may occasionally meet with the heads of states and have conversations with them.

Which brings us to the second thing a billion dollars can buy.

Influence

As a billionaire you have many ways to shape public policy and the public debates and this isn't always done in some kind of evil way like lobbying for lower taxes for rich people, although obviously that does happen.

But the simple fact is because of your wealth and connections you can absolutely influence big changes in the world and not just on a political level,

because another thing you can buy is impact through philanthropy and charity.

Your money can literally change countless lives.

The question is how do you distribute them.

Clean water for villages, fund new hospitals, try to save a dying species of animal with money

You can impact almost anything of your choice,

but one of the biggest differences with billionaires that is often overlooked is the ability to essentially buy time. 

You quite literally don't have to wait for anything.

No lines.

No sitting around.

Just think about it.

You've got your own private jet so you just show up at the airport whenever you want sit down in the plane and two minutes later you're in the sky and can go wherever you wish.

When you arrive a driver will have already been arranged to pick you up and take you wherever you want to go.

Your assistant will have already got the best table at the restaurant you mentioned wanting to eat at

or

Maybe your assistant arranged for a celebrity chef to come to one of your vacation homes instead.

At whatever time you choose everything you could need is taken care of.

For you however believe it or not there are some downsides to being this ultra wealthy.

Firstly it's nearly impossible to have normal emotional relationships at this level.

It can become increasingly difficult to have friends and family that love you for who you are.

They exist but it's pretty hard to know which ones they are because your world is likely filled with yes men and people looking to take advantage of every opportunity.

Your trust and connections with people are undoubtedly considerably weakened. Dating also becomes an odd experience.

On the one hand some of the world's most beautiful and intelligent women are all around you.

At parties and events.

But again finding someone you have a genuine emotional connection with, is a different story.

Especially because your time is so valuable that you're always busy and unable to invest in making deep connections with new people and even if you do find someone the relationship balance is skewed in a strange way when you have essentially unlimited money.

Because no matter whether you pay for everything or whether your partner makes their own money.

Either way something about the dynamic feels off.

And finally and most crucially of all.

No level of money can give you truly everything.

Because death is the great equalizer and losing loved ones and losing your own health and facing your own mortality are problems that no amount of money can solve.

The reddit poster who inspired this newsletter and deserves full credit, talks about how he met sylvester stallone at a party who had obviously had a very successful career.

He said he was such a great guy had huge levels of wealth and luxury a smart and beautiful wife.

And yet he also had a special needs son who died young.

In his words:

In fact if you are reading this newsletter and feeling poor

I think it's worth rethinking.

Because in this newsletter we've looked at several levels of wealth.

But the fact you are watching this means you are nowhere close to the bottom of the total wealth pyramid.

It's easy to look up and feel frustrated that some people have so much more than us

but just look down the wealth pyramid for a moment.

If you have internet access to read this +

some food in the fridge

clothes on your back

a roof over your head

and a place to sleep

Than you are richer than 75% of the world.

In fact even if you have one dollar to your name right now you are still richer than the majority of the world, who are either in debt or have absolutely nothing.

What this newsletter really highlights is that rich vs. poor is so arbitrary.

It's not two groups

There are many many different levels

And compared to most of the world you might well be a lot richer than you think.

If you enjoyed this newsletter please make sure you subscribe for future perspective changing newsletters that are on the way.

Cheers

Jonas

PS: You’re still fuck*in poor. So get to Work!