People give off cues as to their economic background all the time. The clothes they wear, the car they drive, how they spend leisure time; all of these things are serious clues into how much income a person has swirling around at any given time.
As such, when we see these people doing these things, we immediately get some information about them, which leads to assumptions.
"What hobby makes you immediately think 'This person grew up rich'?"
Here were some of those answers.
Hangin Round The Skies
"My grandfather was a country club type of guy."
"My uncle, who's incredibly wealthy, has the hobby of building and flying his own airplanes. (There are apparently kits? But he has also bought and repaired little 2 seater planes that went down)"-TumblrTheFish
On Horseback
"Years ago, I worked for Wrigley (gum company now owned by Mars) when it was still owned by the Wrigley family and William Wrigley Jr. was the CEO."
"My second day, I ran into Mr. Wrigley in the elevator but didn't know who he was. During our small talk, it came out that I trained BJJ (still VERY new in the US ~20yrs ago) and I ended up asking him what sports he played."
"His response? 'Oh, I play a little pick-up polo from time to time.' I can't even imagine how the hell a pick-up game of polo might materialize."
"I can't imagine a dozen or so billionaires out riding their favorite polo horse and just happen to run into one another at the park."-WebSmurf
Vrooooooom Vrooooooooooom
"I had a £500 twin engined gokart that I ripped around the track every so often but we go in cheap/free as a mate did some work there."
"You see these kids rock up that probably would rather be somewhere else with these overbearing fathers who are trying to live their dreams through the kids."
"Screaming at them for just having fun and not knocking a thou off their lap time. The set ups, the gear and even the vehicles they transport their karts in are stupid money."
"We used to take their tires as they would one race and bin em but they still go for ages just fine for us. Recreationally if you just want to do it as a fun day out and hire. It's still expensive."-Mardanis
People will do what they love, of course, but will that thing send alarm bells that that person is absolutely loaded?
Mismatch
"Anything that doesn't match the climate of where they grew up. If they grew up in the desert but they're ace skiiers then I assume they had the money to travel a lot and own all the gear etc."
" I should clarify my statements are based on my experience in Australia. I was unaware that Yank geography had so many places you could ski close to deserts."
"In Australia there are only about 2 places you can do it and its super expensive. It was much cheaper in Europe, which is why I learned there, but growing up, the only people I knew who did it regularly were super rich."-Super-Noodles
Oh! Pair
"My fiancé was telling me a story about the 'exchange students' that lived with them and how they were so nice and would help take care of the house."
"I asked her why her exchange students stayed with them for so long, when all my high school exchange student friends had only stayed for a semester."
"It was at that moment she realized that she grew up with Swiss nannies."-mikenyle
The Peak In The Clouds
"Mountain Climbing in remote places in the world."
"Went to a work mandatory motivational speaker whose spiel was climbing Everest 4 times starting at age 22 and other mountains in Africa, Europe, and Asia. Guess I did not land the correct job out of college."-Galoot21
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"As a diver, I can firmly say our sport has two categories of divers. You have tons of rich a**es who drive maybe once a year in some wonderful tropical location they flew to, but suck at the sport because they rarely ever practice."
"These are the kinds of folks who will show up with thousands of dollars worth of gear, but can't remember how to put it on. Conversely, there's also a big contingent of divers who are more working-middle class, and who dive wherever the hell they can locally."
"They usually don't have the most modern gear, but they get a good amount of practice in whatever lake, river, pond, or other body of water they can access locally."
"It still isn't a cheap sport, but doing a few days of diving a year gets a lot less pricy when you're not flying to another country for it."-ColdNotion
The money it takes to get ready to play these sports could have easily fed you for a couple weeks.
Upper Sports
"Being in the upper levels of competitive gymnastics."
"My daughter is only 6 and it already cost us $350 a month (plus another $1k a year for travel and $450 a year for leotards, jacket, pants and bag)."
"If she sticks to it into her middle/high school years and keeps excelling we are looking at $1k+ a month for gym fees and booster club plus travel fees and uniforms (so probably closer to $1.5k+ a month when you factor that stuff in)."
"We are upper middle class and right now can afford it but I'm not so sure about when she gets older and once our other kid gets into sports too. You definitely have to have some money to afford it. It's like paying for college."-Poctah
Fur Elise
"20 years ago, piano. They were stupid expensive and the yearly maintenance was too. Also, lessons."
"Now, you can get an electric one for $500 at costco and it will last you 20 years with $0 in yearly maintenance."
"Plus, there are so many online free lessons/inexpensive tutors, I am surprised that more people don't pick it up. It is more accessible than ever."-TooMuchCoffeeQ
Expensive Reads
"Readers/book collectors. I had a friend thru most of my childhood who had tons of books. Pretty much every week she'd go to Barnes & noble and get to buy 10+ books at a time.. for years!"
"Thinking about it now, her parents had to have been spending thousands a year. She never got paper back either. It was always hardcover and a lot of times author signed. About $20-$60 each book. That's a few hundred a week."
"Her parents even gave up their office to turn it into a book room for her when she was about 15 because she couldn't fit any more in her room. The walls had floor to ceiling bookshelves."
"Then there were a few rows of book shelves in the middle just like in a library. I always used the school and public libraries to check out the same books."
"A bunch of the times tho the libraries didn't get them in until months after she had already read them. By then she didn't want to discuss them."-TinyOddEarthling
To the Skies
"Falconry can be as expensive as you want it to be, with a much lower starting cost than you would think. I'm talking a couple grand including licensure to get started if you are crafty and then a few hundred a year maybe. I started in college and I worked part-time with not much spending money. The real cost is time."
"Example, I'm a master class falconer, I have all the gear I need. For $50 I can trap whatever bird I can find essentially, put some anklets, jesses+leash, and a bell on it, and I'm good to go. But then I need to spend about 8 hours a day with it minimum for the next couple weeks moving down to a couple hours a day for the next 4-5 months until I release it back into the wild."-IMongoose
Quilting
"I used to work in the quilting industry (machine sales) and yeah, this. You can absolutely make a quilt with nothing but cut up old t-shirts, some sewing needles, and a vision. The people who were winning the $15k prizes in shows were the ones with a dedicated quilting room, a $20,000 quilting machine, a $2k long neck sewing machine for home, a $500 travel machine, and then also going to the retreats, cruises, and conventions to learn new techniques and try out the latest and greatest innovations."
"Nobody ever believes me when I try to tell them how big a business quilting is or how much money can go into it. I have a luggage tag someplace I picked up at a convention from a company that was advertising a quilting trip to Greece." -standbyyourmantis
Fencing
"As a fencer, yes for the most part. My club had a financial aid application, but those aren't common. All clubs do loan gear, but having your own is much better. The upkeep is also another problem since gear breaks down."
"I guess to lower the cost, I try to do some repairs myself, but I don't have all the tools to do that. Unfortunately, I didn't grow up rich and got started through my public high school's team. When I decided I wanted to get into it more, the prices weren't great.
Looking Up
"Astrophotography. The telescope is expensive enough… but the camera…. sheesh…." -CrackedChelle
"I'm in a group called budget astrophotography and its people with sub 1k worth of equipment. It's honestly kinda impressive." -JordPlaysGames
House of Mouse
"People that go to Disneyland/Disney World at least once a year despite living several states away." -Pear_Jam2
"This is honestly an amazing example. To have such a good time at Disney World that you want to go back every year, or even multiple times a year, is INCREDIBLY expensive. If you just slum it like a regular person, as my family did, it can be miserable and exhausting. Tickets are expensive, food is expensive, lines are super long, rides are just fine but rarely special." [user deleted]
Row Row Row
"Crew." -XnoonefromnowhereX
"Got scouted for crew during freshman orientation because I managed a 2km row in under 7 minutes."
"Then I found out it's like $3.5K a year just to be on the team. No thanks!" -Obvious_Moose
Did you see any hobbies here you wish you had the time and money for? How about hobbies that you love, but aren't super rich and so can't afford the upper tiers of equipment for?
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