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| Lifestyles
of the Rich and Shameless |
| What can you give people who have everything? Gregory Patrick makes a nice living off knowing the answer. Patrick runs DreamMaker International, a travel company that specializes in creating unique “experiences” for the ultra-rich. How unique? For one wealthy couple vacationing in Italy, DreamMaker arranged a quickie charter jet to Vienna for a Sting concert, followed by an all-night party with the band. Back in Italy, the company set up a shopping trip for the wife with a member of the Gucci family and placed the husband in a luxury car race from Florence to Portofino. Patrick also knows what the wealthy don’t want: any contact with the hoi polloi. For his deep-pocket clients, taking a jaunt on a cruise ship would be “out of the question.” Notes Patrick: “They'd rather have a red hot poker shoved in their eye.” October 15, 2007 |
| Yachts could be such fun, if only the oceans cooperated. But oceans can get rough, and traveling any ocean distance, even over smooth waters, can get awfully boring. Dockwise Transport to the rescue! This Fort Lauderdale-based company will freight your yacht across the Atlantic or just about anyplace you’d like your yacht to be. Last year, Dockwise ferried 1,200 yachts to global yachting hotspots. The typical fee to plop an East Coast yacht in the Mediterranean: $200,000 — and $200,000 more, of course, to plop it back. The ships in the Dockwise yacht-carrying fleet stretch longer than football fields and feature decks that can submerge below sea level, a thoughtful touch that lets yacht owners steer their boats into storage. May 28, 2007 |
| The first space race of the 21st century — the competition to place the awesomely affluent into orbit — is heating up. In April, billionaire Charles Simonyi touched down two weeks after a Russian rocket dropped him off at the international space station. Simonyi, the fifth tourist in space, spent over $20 million on his heavenly seat. Space Adventures, the Virginia company that has so far dominated space travel, booked Simonyi's trip. But Space Adventures now has rivals. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and Virgin Air mogul Richard Branson are developing their own spacecraft to shoot deep pockets up, up, and away. Space Adventures CEO Eric Anderson, for his part, is making plans for the first tourist jaunt to the moon. The target date: 2011. The price per seat: $100 million. Retired NASA astronaut Norman Thagard, an Anderson adviser, sees only upside in the effort. Explains Thagard: “I think there’s already a market — there are hundreds of billionaires in the world.” April 23, 2007 |
Would you pay a quarter-million to have Dan Quayle as your neighbor? About 300 intensely affluent  Americans already have. These affluents have all shelled out the $250,000 membership fee for the invitation-only Yellowstone Club, a 13,000-acre private resort in Montana “where the super-rich can relax.” Former U.S. VP Dan Quayle, a new press report notes, is enjoying the club’s “Big Sky” ambience. So may be Brad Pitt and Bill Gates, but no one quite knows for sure. The membership remains secret. Yellowstone Club members, on top of their $250,000 initiation fee and about $10,000 in annual dues, must purchase a home on club property. The minimum price: $2 million. The maximum? The club developers are now building “the world's most expensive” mansion. The asking price: $155 million. March 5, 2007 |
 Why do CEOs need such huge take-homes? A new USA Today report suggests an answer: How else are they going to afford multiple golf club memberships? At least 25 top U.S. CEOs belong to at least three different clubs — average initiation fee, $60,000 — and that total, USA Today notes, “likely understates the multiple memberships.” Indeed, Golf Digest estimates that 45 percent of Fortune 1,000 CEOs belong to four or more clubs. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts belongs to five. Comcast says Roberts pays his own way. But other CEOs have their $80,000ish annual dues paid, as an executive perk, even after they retire. The current executive golf club king? That has to be Cardinal Health's Robert Walter, with six to his name. November 13, 2006 |
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