Ric Edelman: Get Ready for the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Ric Edelman: It's Friday, Aug. 4, and you're listening to the 200th podcast of The Truth about Your Future. I'm Ric Edelman. I want to thank you so much for joining me for these 200 podcasts.

After a 32-year career on radio, we launched this podcast a couple years ago. We've already hit number 200. Thanks for joining me for all of these, and many thanks to our sponsors for their support in making this possible.

I talked about higher prices and why the cost of stuff is rising. There's one group of people who don't care. They're spending like mad. I'm talking about the world's richest people. Retail sales are down, but spending on luxury goods is up. I'm talking about luxury cars, personal luxury goods, luxury hospitality, fine wines and spirits, gourmet food and fine dining, high-end furniture and housewares, fine art, private jets and yachts. Luxury cruises.

Wow. That's a big list. Cars, hospitality and goods. They're 80% of the total, and they're growing 21% a year. Most of this is by rich people who are members of the Gen Z and Gen Y population. We're talking about people in their 20s and 30s and 40s. Most of them didn't earn their wealth. They get it from trust funds and the boom in luxury sales. It's occurring right here in the U.S, mostly.

In New York City there's a new hotel. The Aman New York charges $15,000 per night. Even people who aren't rich are spending like they are. There are 400 million people who bought luxury goods last year. We don't have 400 million millionaires.

Forty percent of the people who are spending money on luxury goods are earning less than $50,000. And 54% of them are low income and middle income shoppers. They're buying luxury goods. They're not saving for retirement. They're spending it on Gucci handbags. And 21% say they're going to buy even more luxury goods over the next six months.

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