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Maybe it's just my experience, and all people are different. These are just some things I've seen that are total red flags for me.
TLDR: Constant bragging, criticizing people they thing they are better than, putting money making ahead of time with you, passive-aggressive insults on your apearance, always expecting payback for anything they spend on you.
1) CONSTANTLY bragging about their money, all the expensive things they've bought, vacations to expensive places, etc. My last attempt at internet dating never got past the first couple of months, because he started out right away talking about his cars, his travels, the expensive gifts he buys everyone, blah, blah, blah. I asked him why he bragged so much about money, and he seemed shocked. He said he would stop, but he couldn't. I live on a very low income, but he never once offered to help me (not that I expected or wanted him to), just went on about how much he spent on himself and his family.
2) Criticizing people who are "below" them. One guy would take me to fancy restaurants and spend the whole time being a total ass to the wait staff, then leave a small tip. On our last date, I just got up to walk out and he asked why. I said in a very loud voice, "Your money does not give you the right to treat people you consider below you with disdain or order them around or be rude, crude and socially unacceptable to them. I'm DONE!" He screamed after me, "Fine! You're trailer trash anyway!" As I was outside calling for an Uber, a nice lady who had been at a table near us came out and asked if I needed a ride home. I took it, and we are still friends to this day.
3) Being on their phone the whole time they are with you talking shop with whoever, making deals, etc. If they can't put their work away to spend a couple of hours with you, then you don't need them.
4) Passive-aggressive comments on your appearance, like making comments about your outfit being last year's fashion or asking if you bought it from Walmart/Target/ etc., then offering to take you shopping. Or saying "Is that what you're wearing?" when you're going out somewhere, like they're ashamed of you.
5) Expecting to be "paid back" for things they do for you, but not with money, if you get my drift, and getting mad if you won't do it.
It's good to know what you will and will not put up with in a relationship. You'll never be mad at yourself for not taking **bleep** from other people.
For number 5 though, it's an **bleep** move to *expect* to be paid back in those ways, but is it an **bleep** move just to ask? ![]()
I'd say to ask if it's attached to "Well, I did this and this for you," is bad. Otherwise, you'll never know if you don't ask, right? Just don't make someone feel like it's payment for services received. That makes it prostitution.
In the past 30+ years in business of having clients from all walks of life, I can tell you what my experiences have been. My clientele has consisted of everyone from your everyday Joe/Jane, to a few famous Actors and TV personalities, professional athletes and coaches to people wealthy enough to have "vacation homes" all over the planet, several private jets and their own chefs/personal staff that traveled with them virtually everywhere they go. Most assuredly, there are arrogant, narcissistic, superficial, opportunistic, entitled people from every economic class. Just as there are kind, humble, generous, inherently good people from among the same groups.
Sometimes money, or success can go to people's heads. It's been my experience that some people just posses questionable traits regardless of their status in life. I believe, and have experienced that one's inherent character and morals don't fundamentally change because of wealth.
If they were people with questionable character and morals with no money, then acquiring money, success, or power only exacerbates what was already there to begin with.
In my experience, people who brag about things usually can't back that up. Bragging about things, in my opinion, goes back to our early ancestors. Imagine some caveman going "Me important! Look at all things me collect!" A lot of behaviors persist into the modern world, and that's where you get things like shopping holidays where you show others your "black friday haul".
My sister-in-law brags about how much money they have and they had to take a credit card cash advance in the middle of a trip to Singapore.
They work and work, and it's just to make debt payments. 80 hours of work, each, per week, missing their kids growing up, so they can "accumulate things".
The Millionaire Next Door surveyed millionaires, actual millionaires, and found that most of them had never paid more than $50 for a pair of jeans, or $300 for a watch, and many of them drove late model Honda and Toyota cars.
There are two ways to accumulate money. You can work yourself to death earning it, or you can control your spending. It's much easier to control spending. You need to do both, but these are the choices to bring things into balance.
But the "work yourself to death" crowd is usually not doing it to accumulate money, they do it because they're like my in-laws and they have to service the debt, or get sued.
If you think that actual wealth building means strutting around like a peacock in a $600 pair of sweat pants from Burberry, you need to go back to the lab and get your bolts tightened. ![]()
You don't accumulate wealth by buying new cars with a car loan. That's like saying I took $80,000 and turned it into $20,000 in only five years. I made money! (There was actually a person here on these forums saying he made money with a car loan.)
As an aside from the money issue, if you can't even get them off their stinking $1700 iPhone at the dinner table, is this going to be marriage material? I'm going to go ahead and say no. If you can't get them to pay more attention to you than a skinner box, get up and leave and let them keep playing with their iPhone.
I've been on dates (pre-getting married) where the person couldn't look up from playing freaking Candy Crush and so I just slipped out of the restaurant and drove off with them sitting there playing their phone. There's no shame in ditching a bad date that can't even be bothered to pay you some respect.
I almost never brag about how much money I've managed to save up, especially not exact figures, and certainly not around family members that have nothing but debt and everyone in Indiana lined up to sue them over debt (which is pretty much everone on my mom's side), but they're constantly eating out, and in my house we eat our leftovers, and they're going to Starbucks every day and in my house we make coffee in the coffee maker, and in their houses, they have $300 Verizon bills because everyone has to have phones and tablets on a data plan, and at my house we have $7.50 a month Mint Mobile. In their houses, they drive a new car and trade it in every couple years, and I'm rocking a 16 year old car.
I have money and no bills, they have FICO scores that are probably not lower than they are just because they only go down to 300.
They go to Disney and Hawaii, and I don't have any evictions on my record.
They make $200,000 or more a year and go to freaking payday loan stores. We make about a quarter that and I've never ever been in one.
They get a new Apple Watch every year or two. I wear a Casio.
They have kids, I don't. (Expensive vanity project.)
Most people who "Have stuff." just have debt. They spent the bank's money, not theirs, and now they're in debt. Normal, in this country, is "messed up". We live in a consumer culture that has given people incorrect priorities.
A guy I met through online dating started every conversation with talk about his expensive cars, lavish trips, and extravagant gifts. I once asked him why he felt the need to show off so much, and he was genuinely surprised by the question. He said he’d stop… but didn’t. Meanwhile, he never showed a hint of generosity or empathy, even knowing I live on a tight budget. It wasn’t about wanting his money — it was about realizing his values were completely different from mine.
"It wasn’t about wanting his money — it was about realizing his values were completely different from mine."
Sounds wise
With mismatched values a relationship can't seem to withstand daily interactions long-term, at least nothing beyond surface level. That's exactly why I purposefully avoid friendships with those who flaunt their wealth. Males & Females. From afar, I'm so happy to see them enjoy their toys though. I've had mine & was there once upon a time. It is fun, but there's so much more to being alive.
One basic comment ... "walk away" and don't look back if you have any doubts! There are over 350,000,000 people in the United States alone so there are more fish in the sea.
Thank the lucky stars today, we can be single, married, partnered and so on. Unlike the 1950s with Ozzie and Harriet we have choices rather than totally being driven by societal norms and the one size fits all. Keep your self free if that is what works.
Getting 'stuck' with some one you end up despising is a no go. Not all of us need to be strapped down with just one person and we do have the freedom to roll with the moment.
All about choices. ![]()
I think you nailed some of the biggest relationship red flags; especially when it comes to people with significant wealth. Money itself isn’t the problem; it’s how someone uses it. Constant bragging about purchases, trips, or possessions isn’t just annoying; it’s a sign they may be more focused on status than genuine connection. Treating others; like wait staff or anyone they see as ‘below’ them; with disrespect is a huge character flaw; because sooner or later that lack of respect will show up in how they treat you.
Being glued to their phone or work instead of being present shows misplaced priorities; and it sends the message that you’ll never come before their business or image. Passive-aggressive comments about your appearance, your clothes, or where you shop are all about control and eroding your confidence. And expecting to be ‘paid back’ for gifts or favors; whether in money, attention, or something more; isn’t generosity, it’s a transaction, and it can quickly slide into manipulation.
A healthy relationship should feel safe, respectful, and equal; no matter the difference in income or lifestyle. Someone who truly values you won’t use money to keep score or to hold power over you; they’ll use it to build shared experiences, not to measure your worth.
My version or opinion of being wealthy or rich, is being thrifty, and what can you accomplish or acquire using so little. Finding satisfaction through simplicity. A skillset, that anyone of any monetary status can accomplish, and it only requires information, knowledge, discernment, and effort. Free and available to anyone that wants to put in the time. Fair. Balanced. To me, it's not about what significant quantities of objects or monetary value one accumulates in life, and yes I would consider this a red flag among anyone that would brag about that valuation. I respect accomplishments, creativity, and capability, not so much monetary value or items.
Anything of monetary value is just an added perk, nothing really to write home about. One of lifes pleasures is about finding contentment in one's own life. That statement can be a challenge to someone that wants more, and more, and more. Not everyone, but many.
Having drive and ambition is a good thing, but there's a line between motivation and an unhealthy endless obsession of accumulation. When you have enough, what does more do? It doesn't quench the thirst.
I'm reminded of a gamer, who plays a game for the first time and experiences all the exciting sensation, character growth and progression, and difficulty that comes from it. After the game is beat, or maybe even before they start playing, they use a cheat mode. A mode that allows all items, currency, levels, objects or status, to instantly be made available to them. For the next hour or two, the game is a blast. Until it no longer is , hardly to be picked up ever again afterwards. Replay value crumbles to near nil. All drive and motivation towards that title is lost or minimized.
Having acess to everything in life, or large quantities of "things" of monetary value, that thirst doesn't usually quench the soul. Those people will still need to search for something else in life that does, if they ever find it at all. Finding contentment, that's the real wealth and riches within life.