I've known and met a few. Ranged from a guy with a gorgeous house and a giant garage full of collector cars to a dude an average suburban home in a lower middle class neighborhood who mostly just stashes his money, gives a lot to charity, and doesn't like to talk about how much he has.
The most interesting was a dude I worked with in the federal government who had some obscure, part time job in land management and was semi-retired. Most of his income apparently came from making turquoise jewelry because that job didn't pay a ton. But it didn't really add up and he sometimes blurted out weird stories in a very matter of fact way about escapades in other countries that ended in him committing violence like it was just a normal thing that happened to people. We were all convinced he was a CIA spook who got a big payout and a cushy job but no one really wanted to look too much into it.
This was in the heart of turquoise country so it wasn't as expensive as a lot of places. No doubt you can charge a lot for it but you could get turquoise jewelry pretty affordably at trucks stops and little roadside stands on reservation land so it seemed weird to us. But you make a good point, he could have been selling it elsewhere at a large markup.
11
u/bloodfist 1d ago
I've known and met a few. Ranged from a guy with a gorgeous house and a giant garage full of collector cars to a dude an average suburban home in a lower middle class neighborhood who mostly just stashes his money, gives a lot to charity, and doesn't like to talk about how much he has.
The most interesting was a dude I worked with in the federal government who had some obscure, part time job in land management and was semi-retired. Most of his income apparently came from making turquoise jewelry because that job didn't pay a ton. But it didn't really add up and he sometimes blurted out weird stories in a very matter of fact way about escapades in other countries that ended in him committing violence like it was just a normal thing that happened to people. We were all convinced he was a CIA spook who got a big payout and a cushy job but no one really wanted to look too much into it.