Secretly Wealthy: Difference between revisions

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In [[Real Life]], there is an advantage to attempting this, being rich makes members of your family a target for kidnapping or yourself a target for lawsuit.

Compare [[King Incognito]], where the secret can be wealth, but must be that the character is powerful in some way or another, and [[Slumming It]], where this is done [[Just for Fun|for fun]]. See also [[Non Idle Rich]], for when the wealthy person works a "regular" job for fulfillment and/or helping others. Contrast [[Mock Millionaire]].

Compare [[King Incognito]], where the secret can be wealth, but must be that the character is powerful in some way or another, and [[Slumming It]], where this is done [[Just for Fun|for fun]]. See also [[Non-Idle Rich]], for when the wealthy person works a "regular" job for fulfillment and/or helping others. Contrast [[Mock Millionaire]].

== Anime and Manga ==

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** Susan Sto Helit is technically a Duchess, but has no patience for the job, and instead takes jobs like governess and school teacher. Her employers, a wealthy couple in their own right, were rather shocked to discover they one of their servants was more posh than them.

** A minor [[Running Gag]] in Discworld is that the ''really'' rich can afford to act poor. Those who are only pretty rich will buy fancy clothes and jewelry and homes to try to make themselves seem much richer, but those who are supremely wealthy don't need to. Why buy new furniture when the stuff your grandparents bought was so good that it has lasted all these years? Why dress nicely when you don't need to work so you can devote all your time to messy hobbies like raising swamp dragons? And ironically, this allows them to ''stay'' rich. Sybil Ramkin is the best example, but Lady Margolotta and the Dowager Duchess of Quirm also qualify. And Sybil's husband Sam Vimes was born poor, but is now the richest man in the city. So naturally he prefers dented armor and cheap boots to the finery his station allows.

* In ''[[Percy Jackson and The Olympians]]'', [[Full Name Basis|Rachel Elizabeth Dare]] is pretty much an enigma, but one time she walks up to a random chauffeur, says a few things, and suddenly he ditches his customer and takes the Olympians where they want to go. Turns out she's this trope

* In ''[[Percy Jackson and The Olympians]]'', [[Full-Name Basis|Rachel Elizabeth Dare]] is pretty much an enigma, but one time she walks up to a random chauffeur, says a few things, and suddenly he ditches his customer and takes the Olympians where they want to go. Turns out she's this trope

* In Fear Nothing and Seize The Night by [[Dean Koontz]], Christopher Snow's best friend Bobby is this.

* This genre convention was mocked in ''[[The Grapes of Wrath (Literature)|The Grapes of Wrath]]''. Two Okies discuss a Broadway play about a rich man and a rich woman who pretend to be poor in order to find true love. The entire premise confuses the heck out of the second Okie, who doesn't understand why a rich person would screw out with such a ridiculous [[Zany Scheme]]. There's a depression going on, and the Okies are standing in line hoping to get work so they don't starve to death. The second Okie explains, very annoyed, that if he were rich he'd just sit in his penthouse eating steaks all day and he's incredulous that an actual rich person would do anything different.