Attaining an income that will provide us with a life of comfort is what most people desire in life. Whether it is through investing, hustling, or a 9 -5 job, we are all hoping to get to a place of comfort and luxury. In this article we are going to share with you, 10 luxuries things rich south Africans enjoy in life with all the money they possess.
1.Quality time with family
Family is not important, it’s everything. But in today’s fast-paced world it’s very easy to lose track of the things that really matter. Life is expensive, quality family time and social lives have been sacrificed on the altar of progress.
Quality time matters but of what importance is it when they is no food on the table. Being rich means you have no pressure, your family’s financial needs are sorted and your financial future is secure.
That leaves plenty of room to enjoy life’s greatest pleasures like enjoying time with your family.
As a parent, you may find comfort in buying presents to make up for the lack of quality time with your spouse and kids, but your presence matters more.
Family time is an essential factor that helps to create strong bonds, love, connections, and relationship among the family members.
Spending quality time with family helps in coping with challenges, instil a feeling of security, inculcate family values, fill kids with confidence, and much more. It’s these times of deeper connection that will sustain families during the lean times.
Kids may outgrow the toys but they will never outgrow the love and affection. And in truth, no one will ever look back and say “I think I spent too much time with my wife and kids” OR ‘I wish I had spent more time at the office”.
While the rest of us are hustling for that extra dollar, the rich can afford to take time out to be with their families in meaningful ways.
Imagine putting food on the table and still being able to spend quality time with your family, it’s the ultimate luxury. Talk about having your cake and eating it!
2. Feeling safe & Privacy
Privacy is a fundamental human right and feeling safe is also fundamental to our wellbeing. It’s primary, it’s primal and it’s the springboard from which we can create the life we deserve to live.
Whatever the challenges we are facing or the chaos surrounding our lives, we all have a basic need to feel safe. When we feel safe, we find it easier to relax, do the things that comfort us, and focus on the work or study we need to do to help ensure our stability.
Unfortunately, with the advancement of technology, it seems privacy is getting very expensive. More so for the well-to-do members of society.
If you strive for wealth and fame, then you also have to be prepared to pay for your privacy and to ensure your safety.
Wealth often creates as many problems as it solves. Riches attract so much attention from the public, and such interest compromises privacy. I don’t know about you but the thought of someone else intruding on your privacy and knowing every detail of your life is pretty unsettling.
Violation of privacy brings about anxieties and threatens a person’s security. For this reason, the affluent have gone to great lengths to ensure they protect their privacy and confidentiality.
Since the rich are mostly very famous people, it is easy to trace where they live. To maintain privacy and security, most plutocrats invest in fortified homes located in gated communities’, private jets with high-tech security, luxury armoured cars and personal security detail.
Having various estates also helps them live a private life as they can move about as they will and settle in whichever place they feel secure and undisturbed.
A rich person with one home will hardly enjoy the privacy of his or her home as they will always receive unnecessary visits and scrutiny from the media, the public, stalkers, and even burglars.
Moreover, being rich opens you up to a world of enemies so all personal and sensitive information must be safeguarded at whatever cost. Leaking of personal Information like health reports can lead to a mogul’s demise or create so much trouble or open room for scrutiny.
It is for this reason that the well-off pay large amounts for private clinics. These medical institutions not only provide high-end medical care but the package comes with guaranteed maximum patient confidentiality too.
Regrettably, children are the weakest link and thus more vulnerable. Being born rich may be a blessing but it certainly does come with its woes. That is why the moneyed invest fortunes in private schools.
Expensive private schools provide a safe space where the children can learn and interact with other wealthy and celebrity kids without feeling out of place.
Such schools are very secure and uphold the confidentiality of their students. These kids easily fit in such schools as they are treated as normal students and not as “trust-fund” babies.
The digital privacy industry is also booming as more and more members of the affluent society seek to protect themselves from cyber-attacks and maintain their privacy.
3. Not having to wake up to go to work
Luxury is not having to do something just because you have to. Sacrificing sleep, just to shower, put some clothes on, be stuck in traffic until you eventually end up in an office, doing an unfulfilling job just because it pays the bills. This doesn’t seem to us like it’s something anyone wants to do. But it’s the reality of many.
There are times when getting out of bed in the morning feels overwhelming. The difference between the ordinary person and the wealthy person is the ability to stay in bed a bit longer but still owe no one an explanation.
On days when waking up is a drag, and sleep is beckoning more seductively the rich, unlike the rest of us can afford to sleep in savouring a comfies-style morning.
The great thing is for most, the grind continues even as they sleep. Millions are being made on their behalf even as they enjoy that extra hour in bed.
While sleeping in isn’t something you can do every day, it’s a pleasure definitely worth enjoying every once in a while. The best part is, on the days they wake up early, it’s by choice so they have every reason to jump up out of bed every morning, thrilled to greet another day with nothing but love and light in the heart. The world’s richest people only sleep around 6 hours a night, but by choice. Money works for them.
4. Spoiling yourself to indulge your passion
From the very minute you wake up, life’s troubles hit you. There is always something need to be fixed, to be paid, something important to be done. In the midst of all the buzz and hype, it’s very easy to forget to enjoy yourself.
Unless you are part of the lucky few whose passions are both personally fulfilling and a means to a financial end, then you know pursuing your passion is a luxury you can’t afford.
As the notion goes, “looking inward and finding the things that give us pleasure and fulfilment is a luxury that only the rich can enjoy or a pleasure that only the retired can indulge in”.
Honestly, you don’t talk about passion until you’ve made enough money because until then, whatever you do, you do it for the purpose of surviving.
The good thing about wealth is it allows you to pursue your passion and do the things that really intrigue you even if they don’t have a point.
Making more money might always be a priority but it’s no longer all you live for. Money affords you time to enjoy smaller, personal indulgences.
Indulging in random, mediocre passions is good for developing your unique skills and style. You can play around, collaborate, experiment and do weird things.
Your money is working for you, and your financial obligations are fulfilled so no one is going to tell you its wrong or a waste of time. As an elite member of society and most probably an executive, you have to carry yourself with excellence.
Your passions outside of work give you room for mediocrity, they are one of the only places where its okay to be mediocre. There is no agenda behind what you are doing. You’re just having fun and learning something new.
5. A comfortable home
There is no place like home. Our homes are the anchors of our existence as human beings. They are our centring, a place we leave every morning and are happier to come back to at the end of each day.
Home transcends just being shelter, it’s a sanctuary, the place we can relax, grow and just be. It provides identity, security, belonging, control and privacy.
The only difference is while everyone else is settling for whatever is affordable, the rich are advantaged enough to buy the best houses on the market and settle for nothing less than comfort and luxury when it comes to the choice of a home.
The environment in which people live is closely linked to their well-being. Comfort helps people to be happier, and happier people tend to be work hard and produce better results in the workplace. Not only does a comfortable living environment increase our happiness but it also supports success.
Not only does money buy you comfort, but you can enjoy that comfort under secure conditions living in the safest areas where the escalating crime rates are no threat to your peace.
6. A supporting inner circle
According to John Maxwell, “A leaders potential is determined by those closest to him.” This refers to both personal and professional relationships.
When you become successful, you’ll find yourself surrounded by chancers and people who are with you only for what they can gain from that relationship.
Most successful people, however, keep an inner circle of people who are committed to seeing them grow, are genuinely interested in their growth, support them and are loyal.
Life has meaning when you’re surrounded by people who are willing to take the journey with you, through the good and bad times. People who drown out the negativity through the dark times and help you see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Oftentimes, most of the people in your life are those who stand to benefit from the relationship they have with you. To be successful, one needs a select group of people who make up their “inner circle “.
Life is so much better when you have a supportive inner circle, people you can share your doubts and fears with, people who can listen without judging and cheer you to be the best you can be.
Most affluent people don’t need a support system that only motivates them personally, but extends to professional matters too. Highly successful people aren’t selfish in nature, they’re generally willing to share knowledge and tips on what it takes to make things happen.
This way you can grow and achieve success by learning from the mistakes of others. Such a support system will motivate you to higher levels than you imagined were possible.
7. The time to enjoy art
In the words of Maher Baba, “art is a divine thing”. Art, in all its forms, is pure magic. The more you observe it, the more it transforms the way you experience life.
A work of art can make you find and lose yourself at the same time. But, in all its beauty, art is an amenity reserved only for the affluent. They are certain schools of thought that argue against elitism and claim art is for everyone but we all know that’s not true.
In such hard times, every cent matters to the average person. But the rich splurge more money in art galleries over one night than the average person makes in their lifetime.
The COVID19 era has been no exception because the art industry has been on the rise even during the pandemic. While others are cracking heads thinking of where the next meal will come from, the rich are picking up art to stare at during Lockdown.
In recent years art has topped the list as the rich are spending more money on art than anything else. Art is money and if you want people to know your wealth, you must buy art.
For the very wealthy today, it’s not fine not to be interested in art. Imagine the glory of having an original Irma Stern hanging on your wall.
It’s no wonder the joy of ownership is the biggest motivation for buying art. Other factors for buying art include status among peers, capital appreciation and investment portfolio diversification.
In all earnest, art is the ultimate luxury. To some, it beats the best car, the best helicopter. “For the very wealthy today, it’s not fine not to be interested in art”.
8. Reinventing yourself
Time flies but you are the pilot of your future. That means you can choose to either let every opportunity to be a better, improved version of yourself pass you by or you can grab every chance you can to reinvent yourself.
The most important thing in self-reinvention is that you ensure that life doesn’t become stagnant. You don’t wait to find yourself but you create yourself, and when money is on your side, you can do it as often as you want
When what made you successful at one point no longer works for you or your job is not fulfilling enough and your life simply feels like being stuck in one great rut, a reinvention is what you might need.
Reinventing yourself will make you feel alive and vibrant, the change will shake things up in your life and allow you the possibility to face your life, career and work with renewed enthusiasm.
While reinventing oneself should be something everyone practices and does once in a while, it’s a luxury reserved mostly for the rich. The average person better prefers conservation, conformity and security which brings peace of mind the assurance of a secure future.
Adventure and the bliss of recreating yourself is a pleasure reserved for the rich who can afford to make mistakes, have fallouts and take journeys that might lead to nowhere without jeopardizing their financial security.
9. Heritage
We are what we are we because of those that came before us. The past and cultural heritage are a key cornerstone to understanding your heritage and it gives you a sense of personal identity.
While the rest of the world is caught up in a frenzy of following trends and losing themselves to every new trend to a point where they no longer know where they came from or what they stand for.
It takes a select few to remain true to who they are and embrace their heritage. Mostly, the rich are the trendsetters so they create their own heritage and celebrate their roots.
Moreover, if you are rich, you can live your life with honour and leave a heritage for your children’s children. A good man leaves a legacy for those who are to come after him.
One wise man notes, if I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. The rich can afford to be the giants on whose shoulders their descendants stand.
Unlike the children of the poor, the rich South Africans give their children a head start by taking them to the best schools, exposing them to the best the world has to offer and leaving them with trust funds and businesses to inherit.
10. Feeling like you’re in control of your life
As humans, we have a deep-seated desire for control and certainty in life. Life has more meaning when you feel that you are in charge and not under someone’s else’s control. Feeling in control has proven to be directly co-related to setting and achieving loftier goals.
Social and financial obligations dictate life patterns for most of us. You wake up every day and rush to work where your daily schedule is determined by your superiors and then go back home, only to carry on with the same routine for the entire week.
90% of our lives we are just reacting to the situations that life has thrown on our paths. Life just keeps happening to us and we can’t help it until one day we are at the end of our journey on earth.
And you realize, very little of the things you did were by choice. Your talents, abilities and skills have been wasted and your dreams will remain just that, dreams.
Conclusion
While taking charge of one’s own destiny, is a choice we all have, the reality is that it is a privilege mostly enjoyed by the affluent. All it would take is to recognize your own worth, step up and take charge.
When you’re rich however you can afford to be the master of your own fate. No one dictates your life. When you’re at the top you have the luxury of feeling and actually being in charge of your own life.
