A Birthday Gift Story
Note: Prices reflected the prevailing conditions at the time the article was written (2018).
Chances are, you have seen the video about the birthday gift scenario. You are a smart person if you come here before making a choice. Do you ever wonder how much it will cost to maintain those items? Let’s find out. All prices are in USD.
A. Private Jet
A brand new Gulfstream G-650 will cost your friend a little over $68 million. At first glance, this might be the best choice as a gift item. It’s the most expensive in the list! However, part of the conditions is that you have to use your gift. You are also not allowed to sell or rent it. It implies that you have to spend on maintenance and repair costs. Like any other airplane you need a pilot and a crew every time you use this baby. Be prepared to pay $100,000 per year for the Captain and the personnel. Unless you are John Travolta whose house is an airport, a typical hangar will cost you about $29,700 per year. Assuming you want to fly from Los Angeles to Geneva with a fuel cost of $5.60 per gallon. The one-way trip will take 10.5 hours with a fuel cost of $28,224. Spend the same amount on jet fuel if you want to go back. Can you already imagine the expenses involved in using a private jet?
B. Sports Car
A spanking brand new Bugatti Veyron will cost your friend around $3 million. Here’s the kicker, a not-so-simple oil change costs $20,000. As it turns out, it’s more complicated to prep the car for the oil change than the oil itself. Annual maintenance cost can quickly get to $30,000. The cost to replace a tire set is $30,000. The tires are glued to the rims, and you can only replace it three times. The fourth time requires replacing the entire wheel which will cost you around $120,000 per set. Think of all the other things you can have if you don’t need to pay such substantial maintenance costs.
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C. Castle
Let’s take a small castle in Germany as an example. The Castle Bullachberg is located in Bavaria. It is currently owned by Elisabeth von Elmenau. Maintenance, gardening, heating, and personnel will cost around $10,877 per month. (I hope there are a chef and a butler included in the staff.) Castle Bullachberg is not classified as a “royal” castle. Try to imagine the cost if it was. Fixing or renovating isn’t cheap either. For example, the Buckingham Palace in London underwent a 10-year refurbishment at a staggering cost of $460 million. It costs more to maintain these iconic places than to build a brand new one.
D. Cell Phone
The latest iPhone XS Max 512GB model will cost $1,499. Out of the four choices, this is the only one that does not have a monthly maintenance cost. You don’t have to shell out a tremendous amount of money just to enjoy using it. You can always ask your wealthy friend for a brand new one when your birthday comes again next year. Every year! 😼
At this point, I’m sure you are already convinced that your ‘crazy rich friend’ is not so crazy after all. Perhaps your friend is cunning or tricky. There’s really just one logical choice that won’t cost anything other than a monthly subscription plan that you probably already have.
Now you know the whole story. What do you think? While you’re here, you may want to check the fun facts about your birthday. Just enter your birth date on the form above and click “GO.”
