So I had a bit of time on my hands and did some snooping the other day.
This is by far the grossest, dirtiest and humiliating experiment Iâve ever done yet afterwards besides the smell, I felt proud.
As most things, I convince myself to do weird activities to get out of my comfort zone because we only have 1 shot at life anyway and Iâm just a curious human!
Not sure if I regret it or not but I know I would have regretted not doing it!
Turning garbage into gold is becoming a lucrative business these days as a majority of people are spending the most time they ever did bored and restless at home ordering, delivering and throwing away as much junk they never knew they had deep in the garage or in a room they havenât entered since they moved in!
At least spring cleaning is taken seriously these days.
These residents, those who live in a zip code where the average household income is $400k and typical home price range is from $4M-$20M consider what they throw away junk yet the trash buster, as I like to call myself found some pretty neat yet at the same time mostly boring stuff.
As a heads up, I didnât end up keeping any belongings although some were quite spectacular since I wanted to prevent any covid spread that might be trailing on these items but it was fascinating to uncover and investigate upon all of them.
Belongings
If youâre truly wealthy, you have no reason to flaunt your wealth. You donât care about image and could live like Zuckerberg wearing the same gray U-neck shirt daily driving a Honda Accord to work.
But when you are stupidly rich meaning poor inside but want to look rich, you do the complete opposite. You do everything it takes to show off with brands to cars and would easily go into debt for otherâs approval and aww.
Now that weâve uncovered what the wealthy pay attention to and clearly itâs hard to find out about because they look like the average Joe, letâs uncover what a typical millionaire owns and spends.Â
FYI, itâs in the fine details that count.
-Theyâre frugal-spend below their means
-Prioritize saving over spending
-Spend no more than 3x annual gross income on housing
-Have no more than 2 properties
-Keep costs low and pay attention to what they need not what others have
-Know the grass isnât greener on the other side
-Median home value for millionaires is $850k
-They pay themselves first a.k.a they donât touch their salary just deposit it into a savings account, investment account and retirement plan and bonuses are hidden
-They donât play the lottery
-They work because they want to not because they have to, they live to work not work to live
-They donât budget instead prioritize
-Weekly they check out their expenses and how their investments are going
-They have roughly 5â7 income sources, majority passive
-Real estate is the largest hedger against inflation-they prioritize it
-Low cost index funds are their best friend-less time, work, effort and headaches compared to a day trader picking individual stocks
-On average own 1 sensible 5+yr old car
-Prioritize family gatherings over material goods
-Donât wear flashy clothing
-Eat out more, cook less to save money-understand why here
-The average suit is $200 and dress is $100
-They are constant learners and know the best investment is in themselves
Types of Goods
After examining what core habits keep the wealthy truly wealthy, what is true regardless of net worth is that you always need to own some amount of goods and physical assets so what exactly does the rich hold?
Yes, we all have junk in our homes that we donât need but millionaires in particular believe in the frugal minimalist stealth wealth lifestyle the most.
This means they value:
-Less = Moreâââleads to appreciation and focusing on appreciating assets such as antiques, investments, real estate, improving their health, happiness, vacations, etc.
-No need to impress based on clothing, clothes or furniture
-Minimalist lifestyle = clean and simple space = clear mind
-Less stuff = no trouble cleaning and less money waisted needing to sell items just sitting in the home serving no purpose
So what specifically are these items?
Well letâs take a look at what I found.
Experiment
For the past few hours during the day so I wouldnât be seen as a robber or be too suspicious, I went to 30 homes that were on quiet streets relatively close to the town but still segregated, not near traffic or a busy populated area. I checked out one home in the area I was investigating in and it was just sold for $3M, roughly $200k less than asking price.
I figured this is where the real millionaires lie and digging into what they donât need will uncover what they value.
So what exactly was inside?
-A bunch of food packaging and meal-packaged delivery boxes from relatively priced food chains: Blue Apron, Daily Harvest, Whole Foods and Trader Joes were in the list
-Supplies and stationary items: kids pencils, staples, rulers, clipboards, post-it notes
-Random junk: napkins, clothes, more food, gum wrappers, blankets and a Rubikâs Cub, a bunch of documents, chapstick, notebooks and lots and lots of BOOKS
-Confidential mail ripped up with special documents that were ineligible (itâs important to remove your name from any documents especially your address so someone at the dumpster facility doesnât trace and hack your identity!)
-Containers, shoe-laces, lacrosse sticks and golf balls
-Technology: old monitor, drawer from a desk, keyboards
-A few pieces of cheap jewelry-not real gold or silver
-Wrappers, containers and boxes from various brands
Most popular delivery package box brands:
-Amazon
-Walmart
-Daily Harvest and Trader Joes bags
-Urban Outfitters
-Lululemon
-Banana Republic
-J.Crew
The coolest/most expensive things I found:
-Broken art piece of Venice, Italy
-Cartier Ring
-Ripped up cloud couch from RH
-Stained Gucci pouch
Itâs a shame that these precious luxury items that go for at least a couple thousand have now gone to waste.
Thatâs exactly why I didnât see many of them in millionairesâ trash cans.
They know better.
Believe it or not, there was no gold, expensive or fine jewelry, baseball collectibles, precious medals, champagne classes, fossils, Rolex watches, movie props or memorabilia, just average people stuff to live. Of course the more you have, the more you can splurge but at the same time, the faster you can loose it all.
If you know what you need and what will make your life easier, thatâs all you need and most of the time, itâs all in the basic necessities from food to a soft blanket.
Sure going out to eat is nice but cooking in, trying new recipes and spending time with family in the comfort of your home is never the same in a cramped loud restaurant.
I can almost guarantee you if I snooped in a lower class neighborhoodâs garbage, I would see practically the same thing in regards to food since it is the second major expense behind housing but far more fake counterfeited luxury goods and material goods that depreciate in value. Barely anything related to education or healthy eating.
Health = wealth after all.
To become rich, it doesnât matter how much you make rather how much you spend and what you value.
Wealthy people can buy anything they want and everything they want yet donât because they know that you can loose it fast and value the hard money theyâve earned.
If you want to up your chances of becoming wealthier, here are quick tips on how to spend your time and they will have a correlated affect on what you spend and evidently throw away:
-Donât look at what others have
-Extreme inheritances are very, very rare except for my friend who got lucky
-You can wait at least 24 hrs for a big purchase, if not itâs not a good idea to get it
-The lower your income, the more time you spend with video games + TV
-Luxury brands are overrated and have no fundamentals in price
-Over-price homes arenât always an investment, make sure you know the area will boom in the future and most importantly, the price doesnât go over 3x your annual gross income
-Buying instead of renting if you plan on living in the property for more than 5 years is best. Find out here if you should rent or buy
-Avoid car splurges at all costs-cars depreciate by half the moment you drive it off the lot
If you want to learn more about a person, see how they treat others when no one is looking.
If you want to find out what they value, dig into the trash.
Millionaires are regular people. Letâs banish the stereotype that they are living their best life on yachts, eating caviar and buying an Apple Watch every time thereâs a new model.
In order to attain and stay wealthy, you cannot live like everyone else.
Cheers to spring cleaning!