MarketWatch today reported on the burning news revealing how the rich are a different breed of shopper than you and I. And as their headline noted, you might not really want to hear this. However, as your shopping girl, I thought it could be useful info should you ever come into a little gravy yourself. You don’t want to be nouveau gauche, do you?


The jet set unmasked
How do the very wealthy spend their money? You may not want to know

By Thomas Kostigen, MarketWatch
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- Private jet owners have an average annual income of $9.2 million and a net worth of $89.3 million. They are 57 years old. And 70% of them are men.Hannah Shaw Grove and Russ Alan Prince, two researchers, surveyed the group to find out who they are, what makes them tick, and perhaps most interestingly, what they spend their money on. The average jet setter spends nearly $30,000 per year on alcohol (wines & spirits). Grove and Prince note that this amount is about two-thirds of the median household income in the U.S. And that's the smallest category of spending they surveyed. The next smallest was "experiential travel," which includes guided tours, such as photographic safaris, or hikes to Machu Picchu, or eco-tours to the Brazilian rainforest, or kayaking in Baja California during the gray whale migration. For these experiences, jet setters spend an average of $98,000 per year. But these journeys are small potatoes when compared to how much these wealthy individuals spend on hotels and resorts ($157,000 a year), or events at hotels and resorts ($224,000 a year). Spa treatments even fetch more jet-set dollars than wilderness tours. The average jet setter spends $107,000 a year at spas around the world. Not that many of these "global citizens," as they like to be called, would know: Just 34% of jet owners open their own mail and only 19% pay their own bills, Grove and Prince found. This results in a sort of detachment from the world and creates "the low level of awareness that most jet owners have about their finances," they say. Indeed, it would take a curious psychological composition to comprehend spending $147,000 a year on watches, as the jet set do. Or $117,000 on clothes. Or a whopping $248,000 a year on jewelry. These people need serious help with their ... finances. And that is partially why Grove and Prince conducted the survey - as a note to advisers who might be able to help people with complex money issues. More