Quote: (03-06-2013 01:08 AM)bacon Wrote:
i had a friend who worked for amex. anyway the black card thing is more about marketing status. you can definately apply for one just be willing to pay the 7k or so in yearly fees. many people use the card for their business since it does include various benefits and the status attachment. so while its possible a person only uses the black card on clothes and vacation trips its also and many times more probable that person is using the card for his business.
That means your business, if you paid everything on the card, when all is said and done, has 250K in cash to pay the balance. And that's just the minimum spend requirement and has nothing to do with creditworthiness.
Maybe you guys are just much bigger ballers than I am. After all, I'm happy to play the miles/points game by getting 50,000 sign on miles, ala "Million Mile Secrets." (Though I could have a friend put me on his for the $2,500 annual fee.)
In my view, if your business is running 250K on the card alone, I'd say you have a pretty good business. Keep in mind that you can't put rent - which is huge for a lot of businesses - on a card. So if you're putting 250K on the card your revenues are much higher.
If you have a black card, a mansion, cars, and shoes worth 250K plus, I'm not going to question your net worth. Odds are you are doing "OK."
That doesn't mean the lifestyle is sustainable. It does mean you are currently making enough to live it.
Mike Tyson burned through 200 million. But at his height of fame anyone who said he was "fronting" would have been wrong.
Now if you wanna say those people would not be able to sustain that lifestyle if, say, the guy got hit by a truck and was disabled...,you might have a point.
But those people on the show - as much as we are inclined to have a visceral reaction of hatred for them - are earning more in a year than the vast majority of us combined.