Blog 76: Differences Between Old Money & New Money.

One of the first ever kings of England, King James VI & I, ascended to the throne in 1603. By my calculation, that gives the current royal family of Great Britain 417 years’ experience of wealth and asset management.

Some call it old money, but I prefer to use the term “real money”.

The new millennium saw a huge spike in a new type of wealth created through businesses, tech and entertainment labelled “nouveau riche” or new money.

These new millionaires and billionaires are typically the first to earn substantial sums of money in the family lineage, and as such are not afraid to show it. A notion that is not part of the doctrine of those who have amassed generations of wealth.

Old vs. New money have been a topic of discussion throughout the years. The old often times contempt the wasteful new rich, equating their lifestyle choices to decadence.

The new on the other hand see old money as stuck up and arrogant. So I have put together some examples (with the help of Alux tv)  to highlight the differences in lifestyle among  “The Have Had Long Before The Haves Had“.

New Money Spend By Trend, Old Money Spent By Tradition: While the new are into the high street name brands, old money have legacy brands i.e. brands that the family have been shopping with for generations. For example, the royal family only bank with Coutts and generations before her consistently did so for centuries. Their children attend the same schools as their forefathers, but the new rich is not so keen on keeping such traditions.

New Money Talk About Money, Old Money Don’t: A millionaire businessman once told me, that the seriously wealthy with traditional values see money and sex as two important subjects that are very impolite to discuss. Old Money teach their offsprings at a young age three vital rules: 1- Don’t tell anyone you are wealthy as they may treat you differently. 2- Never show you have wealth and 3- Don’t spend it senselessly. The new rich is the opposite, the are loud and adventurous with money often times breaking all conservative traditions.

New Money Loves Publicity, Old Money Hates It: In other words “Money Talks, Wealth Whispers”. Kanye West recently became a billionaire and had heated argument with Forbes magazine for not publishing the article sooner. Disney, Rockefeller, Carnegie, Rothschild, Vanderbilt and Agnelli families steer clear of the media as often as possible. Old money don’t really care what people think, whereas people’s opinion means a lot to the nouveau riche.

New Money Embrace Change, Old Money Don’t: 90 year old Warren Buffet still live in the same simple five bedroom house he bought in 1952, in a middle class suburb. Despite having more money than earth, he said he could not fathom living anywhere else. I can attest to blue and white collar workers who reside in more upscale neighbourhood, and much glitzy homes than Mr Buffet’s.