Probably just semantics but at least to me, what you just described isn't "rich." I'd call that wealthy. Not rich. Almost twenty years ago, I had a buddy who attended an Ivy League university and was later hired as a trader by Goldman Sachs in Tokyo. I never really asked him how much he made, but other friends of ours suggested that in good years he was clearing over $500k. Adjust for inflation and that's basically what you're talking about. My buddy was certainly not rich. Definitely well-off, and from what I remember he blew almost everything he made on women, alcohol and (when he came home to visit) cocaine. Haven't seen him in a number of years but I hear he got burned out and is working some boring office job and living in the burbs somewhere with a wife and kids.
As for rich, I have two drinking buddies who I consider rich. Both middle-aged scumbag perverts. Both divorced with kids. Both live in normal, boring houses in the suburbs. We get together a couple times a month at another friend's house (at least until last March) with a few other assholes and sit around all night drinking, playing Texas Hold'em and arguing over such dumb shit as which cast member of Full House would be the best fuck. One drives an old Toyota Camry and the other a Hyundai Sonata. You'd never notice either guy in crowd.
However, the first guy...his father was a real estate tycoon who built strip malls and shopping centers, and when his father passed he inherited all of them. I can't even venture a guess as to what the estate was worth but I'm guessing upwards of a half-billion dollars. His entire day consists of going into the office at one of his malls at 7am in shorts, tshirt and sneakers and sitting at his desk for an hour going over the ledgers, then hops in his Camry and drives downtown to get a happy ending at some Thai or Korean massage parlor. The other guy inherited a sizeable fortune from his parents which he used to slowly build what I certainly consider a real estate empire, buying up any medium to large size apartment complex that goes on the market. Last I checked he acquired another two buildings this year before the pandemic hit and probably now owns upwards of 600 units. Average 1BR rental unit in this town is valued at around $250k so you do the math. I don't even think he has an office and just works out of a spare bedroom. I know he generally has meetings at different corporate HQs during the day, which he attends solely for the enjoyment of ridiculing the company's officers and sexually harassing the female staff, but at 4pm on any given day you can find him at the same Korean buy-me-drinkie bar with a 50yo mamasan sitting on his lap, rubbing his crotch and feeding him lukewarm Coors Light. I can't stand the place but, unfortunately, a lot of this town's politicians also enjoy frequenting that bar so people in my position are forced to have a lot of "work meetings" in that shithole.
Point being, these are guys with the cash and credit to buy your neighborhood if they wanted it, but you'd never in a million years guess it by looking at them. Just reaffirms a general rule that I've always found true: the guys who are truly rich, never act like it.
