The rich are feeling the crunch too...


The average American family has seen its income fall over the last eight years while its expenses have risen. Not so for the top 1%. They've been building 40,000 square foot mansions and flying in private jets to visit their vacation homes in Aspen and the Hamptons and so on. But since the fall of 2007, things have headed downhill for the rich along with the Dow -- which has lost 36% of its value since its peak in October 2007.

They're changing their lifestyles. How so? Vanity Fair provides examples of how the super-rich are downsizing in wine, shoes, fitness training, air travel, grocery shopping, and maid service. To illustrate these changes, the list below contrasts their behavior in these different categories between the fall of 2007 and the fall of 2008:

WINE

  • 2007: $1,950 bottle of 2003 Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon
  • 2008: $15 bottles of wine

SHOES

  • 2007: $600 or $700 pair of shoes as "retail therapy
  • 2008: No retail therapy because "It just doesn't feel good."

FITNESS TRAINING

  • 2007: Fitness trainer three times a week
  • 2008: Fitness trainer once a week

AIR TRAVEL

  • 2007: $250,000 for a private plane from New York to China
  • 2008: $20,000 for a commercial first class ticket from New York to China

HAIR CARE

  • 2007: Haircut and highlights every five weeks
  • 2008: Haircut and highlights every eight weeks

MAID SERVICE

  • 2007: Maid service five days a week to four
  • 2008: Maid service four days a week

As you can see, the rich are not that different from you and me. They just have more money -- even in an economic downturn.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. Portfolio will publish his book about Boeing, You Can't Order Change: Lessons From Jim McNerney's Turnaround at Boeing, on December 26, 2008.

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