A Short Anecdote on Looking Rich

I always joke that I won’t fly first class until I have $5 million in investable assets. That might be a bit extreme, but for now, I value the money more than an upgraded seat on a plane.

I was thinking about this as I shuffled past the first-class passengers and squeezed into my seat in row 36, wondering if I should lower that threshold to $2.5 million instead. A man sat down beside me, and like most reasonable people on airplanes, we sat in silence until the last few minutes of the flight.

I had my laptop open, attempting to get some work done. Answering emails mid-flight? No problem. But analyzing properties and working in spreadsheets? Nearly impossible. I need at least two screens for that, but work had to be done. So when the flight attendant announced that all “large screens” had to be put away, I was relieved to close my laptop.

The man next to me in the middle seat, dressed casually in blue jeans and a t-shirt, struck up a conversation. “Hey, I saw you fumbling around with that spreadsheet—what do you do?” he asked.

I gave him my usual spiel: “I’m in real estate. I do land acquisition for residential development and allocate my own and investor capital into various private market real estate deals.” That caught his interest, and he mentioned that he does a lot of accredited investing. From there, we started discussing specific deals he had invested in.

Based on the amounts he mentioned and his comments about portfolio allocation, I estimated his net worth to be somewhere between $5 million and $10 million. The guy in the middle seat, way back in row 36, was worth a relatively large sum of money.

It’s easy to assume that wealth always comes wrapped in designer suits and first-class tickets because that’s what society conditions us to believe. But that’s just not reality all the time. The guy in row 36 was a great reminder of that.

I mean… just look at AJ Brown. The guy signed a $100 million contract and still chooses to drive a Honda to the game. Come on, AJ—get yourself a nice car. Live a little!