Happy Lunar new year! I’m sure many of you’d prefer to read just about the Coronavirus . Here is the WHO’s guidance.
And now back to me.
This month, I imagine that I’m in the top 0.01% wealthy elite, a group increasingly immune to incidences such as deadly viruses, impeachment trials, self-esteem and so on. Billionaires (trillionaires yet?) have a private jet (or likely, a fleet) and can pursue their new year shopping spree outside the PRC.
That’s fortuitous for Louis Vuitton as their annual revenue of GBP 45bn is pitiful. As a reference point, GBP 54bn is more than the GDP of Tanzania, a country with the population of 57 million.
This guide is for the 0.01% who can and do, continue to shop until they drop. Think:
Fit enough for a king or Jezz Bezos, as they are now called? I think so.
Skincare product
My obligatory skincare purchase would be from Chanel, who slipped this into their Sublimage range without much fanfare.
Chanel’s official statement is:
An exceptional redefining serum that helps visibly tighten the look of skin while creating the appearance of firmer facial contours and a toned, radiant complexion. With use, skin regains the look of vitality — appearing 23% smoother, 32% firmer and 30% more refined*.
At US$ 450 or US$10.5 per ml, I hope that’s the bare minimum it does. Although, topical Vitamin C still gets my vote.
Special edition watch
I had a criminally hard time narrowing down the watches I wanted. I settled for jewelled ones: the Dior has the (obligatory) and auspicious red for the lunar new year and the Van Cleef & Arpels watch is to remind me to look up at the sky and dream more often. Naturally, I absolutely adore the shooting star dial.
Source: Van CleefJewellery watches depreciate in value like there is no tomorrow, but that probably won’t apply to either of these.
Portfolio of stock
There are some shares that you want to have in your portfolio so that you can pass them on to your kids. Hermès and Louis Vuitton (jokes aside) are such stock. If I had bought Hermès stock in 2001 for my non-existent children, the price would have appreciated by 1,500%+.
Naturally, luxury stock can be cyclical, but no-one thinks consumer appetite for luxury stock is going to diminish. If anything, Hermès will adapt to simpler tastes.
Jewellery
Who doesn’t need a 15.24 carat natural emerald ring that merely cost north of US$ 60k?
I wanted to buy “The Eternal Twins, a pair of 50.23 carat flawless diamonds” from Graff, but I was concerned you wouldn’t take my shopping guide seriously. Here is the link and price is on application. Snobs.
Set up my own foundation
If I had all the money in the world, I would stop what I was doing and work only for the service of others. There is no doubt that there would be any other alternative choice of career or any other road to self-realisation. However, before that I would definitely read and watch everything Anand Giridharadas, the author of the multi-award winning book, Winners take all, has to say on my course of action.
The publisher’s summary is that its a groundbreaking investigation of how the global elite’s efforts to “change the world” preserve the status quo and obscure their role in causing the problems they later seek to solve.
The reknowned American economist, Joseph E. Stiglitz, (scathingly) writes:
“Entertaining and gripping . . . For those at the helm, the philanthropic plutocrats and aspiring ‘change agents’ who believe they are helping but are actually making things worse, it’s time for a reckoning with their role in this spiraling dilemma. I suggest they might want to read a copy of this book while in the Hamptons this summer.”
The New York Times Book Review
Closing remarks
I believe that’s enough frivolity for one month. Au revoir.