rSlash - r/Askreddit When Have You Seen "F-You Money?"

Episode Date: September 9, 2024

0:00 Intro 0:03 Todays question 0:09 Howard Hughes 2:36 Medical donation 3:54 Lamborghini 5:11 New truck 6:06 Resort 7:25 Fries please 8:26 No mortgage 11:01 Kerry Packer 11:51 Prius 12:34 Kerry Packer part 2 13:06 Net worth 14:09 Limo 14:40 Air travel Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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for Business at cibc.com slash Aventura Business. Terms and conditions apply. Welcome to r slash ask Reddit where people answer the question, what's the best example of F you money that you've ever seen? Our first reply is from Saucy Fingers. Billionaire Howard Hughes reserved the top two floors of the Desert Inn in Las Vegas for 10 days. When his 10 days were up, the hotel asked him to check out. He wasn't ready to leave, so he bought the hotel and stayed there for four years. Beneath that, Ismael Wrozinski replies, My favorite thing that Howard Hughes did was buying a local television station so he could

call them up at night and tell them to play whatever movie he felt like watching. Kinda like it was his own private Netflix decades before streaming existed. He made them play Ice Station Zebra over a hundred times. Yo, buying a VHS probably cost, I dunno, five bucks back then? But instead this guy drops who knows how much. Five million, fifty million on a TV station, that's nuts. Alright, man, I dunno if this is true. Yo, these stories are pretty crazy. He would watch movies completely naked with a napkin covering his crotch and had an army

of personal assistants coming in and out to get things for him and take notes on how to run his business empire while refusing to see anyone else or leave the room. And someone else replies in response to the TV station thing, one time he fell asleep while watching it and he made them restart it. Imagine watching a movie, then all of a sudden it restarts halfway through. Wow, okay, another story about Howard Hughes. Later on during his extended stay, he decided that he wanted some Baskin Robbins banana nut ice Cream, so one of his aides had to call up Baskin-Robbins to order some. Unfortunately, they discontinued that flavor and the smallest amount that could be ordered

on a whim was 350 gallons of ice cream. It seems that Hughes wanted it badly enough, so they shipped several hundred gallons of Banana Nut Ice cream to the desert inn. However, only a few days after they received that ice cream, Hughes decided that he preferred some other flavor. French vanilla, I think. So the hotel had copious amounts of banana nut ice cream that they had to now deal with.

Apparently, they gave it out free to hotel guests for a year or two. Or so the story goes. The dude was eccentric. Alright, hold on. I gotta look this guy up. Howard Hughes. He is an American aerospace engineer and business magnate. How'd he get rich?

Oh, just inherited money. How boring. His dad patented a drill bit that transformed the oil industry. Okay. Our next reply is from Am I the Fake One? I am an employment and contract attorney. In my younger days, I was a corporate counsel for a large hospital. We were in the midst of a fundraising campaign and were a few million dollars short of our goal. We got a call from a wealthy, young guy. He offered to cover the remainder, plus 10% with two stipulations.

He used to work at this hospital when he was younger and he got rich with a medical device company that he started. So he wanted a voting member board seat. And he wanted to fire the vice president who was his supervisor when he worked there and had made his life miserable. That vice president was the reason he quit and eventually went into business for himself. So I took the offer to the board and the CEO. They agreed to the board seat. I couldn't advise that they fire the vice president for liability purposes.

However, the CEO decided to reorganize certain departments and coincidentally this VP's position was eliminated. So this rich donor was now a member of the board and he was on the committee that reorganized the hospital. So he was the guy who got to call the VP and tell him that he was fired. That was the biggest F you long-term grudge that I ever saw. Nice! We're getting some r-slash-pro revenge here. That's unexpected. Our next reply is from Gadgetman. Ferruccio Lamborghini. Back in the days, he got rich building tractors,

and he bought himself a Ferrari because he's Italian and it was the thing to do when you became successful. Unfortunately, sports car clutches back then were garbage and failed often. Lamborghini went to Ferrari himself and said that he could fix the clutch problem, and Ferrari told him to go back to his tractors because he knew nothing about high performance cars. Lamborghini's Wikipedia page says that he made cars to compete with Ferrari and others, but in reality, he did it to spite Ferrari. Starting a car factory to spite someone is an epic level of F-U.

Beneath that, we have a similar story from Corridor. At one point, Henry Ford was in talks to buy Ferrari, but Ferrari had no intention of selling to Ford, and instead used the talks with Ford to drive up the price when he sold to Fiat, but the deal ensured that Enzo Ferrari would maintain control of Ferrari's racing division. Out of pure spite, Ford spent an absurd amount of money to develop the Ford GT40 to end Ferrari's winning streak at the 24-hour Le Mans. Basically, a lot of development in motorsport and sports cars has been done purely to give Enzo Ferrari the middle finger.

Our next reply is from Scruffosaurus. This is more of a you should reconsider rather than a proper F you. Growing up, our neighbor was incredibly wealthy, probably in the low nine figures. He owned a tremendous amount of land and could probably influence the price of beef with the amount of cattle that he had. And oil of course. He was in his 80s and his health was deteriorating, so his kid showed up while he was recovering from surgery and explained to him that they didn't want him driving anymore and took his truck.

As soon as they left, he called a local dealership and had a brand new truck dropped off an hour later. His kids came back the next day and he just told them that he decided he wanted to keep driving and he was fine buying a new truck every day if he had to. Alright, let me do the math on that real quick. Let's go with, I don't know, $50,000 buying a new truck every day if he had to. Alright, let me do the math on that real quick. Let's go with, I don't know, $50,000 for a new truck. I don't even know if that's accurate. Times, 365, comes out to 18 million bucks a year.

Our next reply is from Rob of the North. I worked at a high-end resort some time ago. We spent weeks preparing for some guests who had booked up half the resort for him and his family. We did a bunch of renovations and changes in the cabins and rooms because the guy was very picky, but he was spending a lot of money so whatever. We even rebuilt the motor on another boat and outfitted it for down rigging because they needed three fishing boats. The guy shows up for his reservation and the first thing he does is start cussing out and belittling the girl at the front desk.

The hotel owner walked in to see what his problem was and the rich guy proceeded to dump on the front desk girl to the owner. The owner just said, I'm terribly sorry you feel that way. We'll give you a full return on your deposit so you can find someplace better to stay. The rich guy's face goes white and he starts apologizing and pleading with them, but the owner didn't care. So the rich guy had to go out to the parking lot and explain to his entire family how his garbage temper screwed up their one-week vacation.

And now they'd have to find somewhere else to stay. The owner didn't care how much extra money he'd spent. He wasn't taking that garbage. And more importantly, he wasn't going to make his staff take that garbage either. He wasn't my favorite boss, but that is something that I respect. Our next reply is from Jetplane. This story's lore grows with every retelling, but it's one of my favorites from growing up. There was a restaurant outside of my small town. A billionaire was eating there without showing his status whatsoever at all. He asked for fries on the side of his meal instead

of mashed potatoes. The waitress made a big deal about how the restaurant didn't do substitutions. He politely pointed out that they had french fries on their menu, so he wasn't sure what the issue was. She reiterated that mashed potatoes were the assigned side for his meal and they wouldn't switch it. He escalated that mashed potatoes were the assigned side for his meal and they wouldn't switch it. He escalated to a manager who said that fries were no problem. That probably would have been the end of it. But the waitress wouldn't let it go, haranguing him throughout the meal, doing the thing where you talk loudly about someone with an earshot of them, really talking to them. Just generally being obnoxious for no reason, making a big deal out of nothing.

So he quietly bought the restaurant for twice what it was worth, allowing the owners to retire early and fired this woman. Our next reply is from MrCertainly. Not a case of genuine F you money, but this is a lesser situation that sticks out in my mind. So this happened to a close friend quite some time ago. He and his wife were looking for a decent home in a particular area, something to grow into and raise a family.

He didn't ever find what they were looking for, so they bought a nice sized parcel of rural land after doing a ton of homework and built a home on it. My friend was self-made, he paid cash for it all, and he owned it lock, stock and barrel. They built up the house over the years years so it wasn't all at once. They also were a bit eclectic and liked to work on different art projects. They eventually built a couple of workshop garages. They liked to paint the place different contrasting colors, they had a garden out front etc. It wasn't ugly, but it would not be considered normal. The house was pretty out of the way at the time so it wasn't really a big deal. Practically no neighbors, very minimal zoning and permit laws.

That's one of the reasons they chose that plot of land in the first place. Fast forward 25 years, and the entire area is becoming developed. Their kids have grown up and moved out. A massive housing development now circles their property, like a big ol' lopsided U-shape nearly surrounding it. And they start to get harassed by the development owners, the HOA reps and their lawyers. They said stuff like, you're dragging down the value of our development. It's not their problem that they made a bad investment. Your property doesn't conform to HOA guidelines.

But they weren't part of the HOA so what difference did it make? We'll buy your place out. No, they're not selling. You need to join the HOA. No, F you. They get approached by the HOA's lawyers with official looking letters that essentially said,

In this jurisdiction, we can compel the bank that holds mortgage on this property to force you to join the HOA and abide by their guidelines. It's the same laws that compel homeowners to carry homeowners' insurance for the duration of the mortgage. My friend researched it, and yeah, apparently they could force that. But my friend was like, lol, go ahead, compel away, bitches. Remember, they bought this place in cash all those years ago. They have zero mortgage. The developers in the HOA couldn't do a damn thing.

That was the best use of F you money that I've ever seen. Last I spoke with them, they were hiring a lawyer to ensure that if the property changes hands, a no HOA exclusion is put into the deed. That way, their kids can inherit it or sell it without any HOA nonsense. Our next reply is from Nico Colonis. Carrie Packer. He frequented a particular casino often. One night, after a good run, he wanted to tip the dealer.

She declined as per casino policy. So he asked to see her supervisor, who affirmed that it was against company policy for employees to accept tips from clientele. He demanded that they fire her or he would never come back. They obliged and he said, Well, now she's not an employee so I can tip her. And he gave her a ridiculous sum of money. The supervisor obliged.

Carrie… Carrie then said, Hire her back or I'll never come back to your casino. She got her job back and pocketed the tip. Alright earlier we got a dash of r slash pro revenge, now we're getting a dash of r slash malicious compliance. Our next reply is from Ryan is real lame. A former boss of mine was going through a contentious divorce. Her husband had skipped town to Florida with some skank, ditching my boss and their son.

Eventually, when the divorce was being finalized, it came to the point where they had to divide assets. She was the primary breadwinner and the judge ruled that she had to either give him one of her vehicles, she had several large trucks, or buy him a new one. Her husband was no small fry. He stood 6'7 and was a former bodybuilder. So rather than give her one of her mini trucks, she bought him a completely brand new Toyota Prius. This huge guy looked like he was driving a clown car around town and it was hilarious. And we have another story from Cary Packer. Cary Packer was playing

poker in Las Vegas when a Texan approached the table and was being a nuisance. The Texan was asked to calm down and he responded with, don't you know who I am? I'm worth a hundred million dollars, you know. Wow. Packer apparently interjected with, I'll flip you for it. Cary Packer was worth $4 billion when he died. Man, okay, gotta look up this guy. I've never heard of him. Does he own the Packers? He is an Australian media tycoon. Our next reply is from FavoriteSportAndBirthyear.

My ex worked at a very expensive, very private golf course. One day, a few members are playing poker in the lounge for like 5 or 10 bucks a hand. In walks this hot shot new member who asks to play. When he hears what they're playing for, he says something like, What the hell is the point of that? We're all rich. Let's play for real money. Nobody's really interested in this.

They just want to play for fun. But the guy won't drop it. Finally, the oldest guy of the group says, Okay, let's play. What's your net worth? To which the younger guy smugly replies, $2 million. The older guy goes,

Alright, let's play the next hand for $2 million. Straight up. The younger guy gets all huffy saying that he just wanted to have fun. Why is the old guy being such a dick? The old guy responds, I'm worth $30 million, but I don't need to be such a turd to prove fun. Why's the old guy being such a dick? The old guy responds, I'm worth 30 million dollars, but I don't need to be such a turd to prove it. Now shut up and play or get the F out. The younger guy didn't want to play, and apparently canceled his membership a week later.

Our next reply is from HM Fittlesworth. A guy I used to work for thought it'd be funny to hire a limo to take a friend out to lunch. The restaurant was literally next door to where they were. The limo company refused to rent by the hour and said that he had to rent it for the entire day. The guy was so angry that he just bought a limo. After lunch, he was still angry, so he decided to just buy a few more and start his own limo company. A month or two later, he bought the company that refused him an hourly rental.

Our next reply is from idkplatipus. I met a dude in rehab who was so rich that after group session, he flew the rest of us across state lines on a jet that he just had ready to go. And he took us skydiving and got us back home before our sober living curfew. When we landed at the other airport, the instructors already knew ahead of time and they had our parachutes and gear laying out ready to get everyone prepared as if he had just told them, yo, me and 10 friends are gonna skydive in a few hours. Be ready for us.

He did all this on a whim that day too. Some of the people we went with totally had warrants and were not supposed to travel at all, especially across state lines, so the house manager was not happy. The dude was a homie. Some of the other people totally tried to abuse his generosity, but I genuinely just liked that dude. He tried to buy me dinner one time, but I refused and paid my half because he was just so generous

and caring that I felt bad. It was sad that he was going through stuff because he was so nice and generous with his money. I went to his giant expensive Orange County mansion with him too and he made the best steak I've ever had in my life. I hope he's doing good. That was r slash ask reddit and if you like this content be sure to follow my podcast in my life. I hope he's doing good.