• The world’s ultra-wealthy spend money on things that most people can’t even fathom buying.
  • One tech billionaire bought his own Hawaiian island, and a hedge fund manager spent at least $8 million on a 14-foot preserved shark.
  • From private islands to dinosaur fossils and tickets to outer space, here are 10 things you’d only buy if you had more money than you’d ever need.

When you have more money than you know what to do with, it might not seem like a big deal to spend $8 million on a preserved shark, $2.2 million on a gold bathtub, or millions more on luxurious superyachts and private islands.

Business Insider previously calculated that the typical billionaire can afford to spend $80 million a year.

Here are 10 outrageously expensive things millionaires and billionaires spend their money on.


1. Tickets to outer space

Foto: The cabin of a prototype Virgin Galactic spacecraft in 2007.sourceGetty Images

Celebrities Ashton Kutcher and Katy Perry are among those who have reportedly bought tickets for a space tour aboard Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic spacecraft.

Foto: sourceVirgin Galactic

Source: Business Insider


Kutcher put down a $20,000 deposit for his $200,000 ticket in 2012.

Foto: sourceFrazer Harrison/Getty Images

Source: Business Insider


Perry bought a $200,000 Virgin Galactic ticket as a birthday gift for her now ex-husband Russell Brand in 2010.

Foto: sourceAP Images

Source: New York Daily News


Branson said in May 2018 that Virgin Galactic was two or three test flights away from taking passengers to space.

Foto: sourceFred Prouser

Source: CNBC


2. Fossils

Foto: sourceGetty Images

When money is no object, what's a few hundred thousand dollars spent on the remains of a long-dead creature? In 2007, Nicolas Cage outbid Leonardo DiCaprio for a $276,000 Mongolian dinosaur skull. The skull turned out to be stolen, so Cage later had to give it to US authorities.

Foto: sourceGetty Images / David Livingston

Source: INSIDER


At an auction in Paris in June 2018, an unidentified buyer spent about $2.6 million on the fossil of a dinosaur thought to be from the Allosaurus genus.

Foto: The fossil of an Allosaurus dinosaur in New Jersey in 2007.sourceAP Photo

Source: Wired


In 2014, billionaire hedge fund manager Steve Cohen bought a 14-foot preserved shark for between $8 million and $12 million.

Foto: The artwork by Damien Hirst is entitled "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living."sourceReuters

Source: NY Mag


3. Gold toilets and bathrooms

Foto: Maurizio Cattelan's "America" installation at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.sourceKristopher McKay

One way to show that you're ultra-wealthy is to surround yourself with as much gold as possible. A Hong Kong jeweler spent $3.5 million building a bathroom made entirely of gold and precious jewels, including a 24-carat solid gold toilet.

Foto: sourceAP Images

Source: Guinness World Records


Built in 2001, the room still holds the Guinness World Record for most expensive bathroom.

Foto: sourceAP Photo

Source: Guinness World Records


Former professional boxer Mike Tyson once bought a 24-karat gold bathtub for $2.2 million.

Foto: sourceLintao Zhang/Getty

Source: INSIDER


4. Private islands

Foto: sourceShutterstock/Karen Grigoryan

The ultra-wealthy love buying islands. In 2012, billionaire Oracle founder Larry Ellison bought 97% of a 90,000-acre Hawaiian island for $300 million.

Foto: Lanai is known as the "Pineapple Island" because it once produced 75% of the world's pineapples.sourceShutterstock/MH Anderson Photography

Source: Business Insider


Sir Richard Branson bought Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands for about $320,000 dollars in 1979.

Foto: sourceFacebook/Necker Island

Source: Business Insider


And Blackadore Caye, a small island off the coast of Belize, was purchased by Leonardo DiCaprio for $1.75 million in 2005.

Foto: Blackadore Caye (not pictured) was 104 acres of wild, unpopulated land before DiCaprio bought it.sourceShutterstock/Simon Dannhauer

Source: Travel + Leisure, The New York Times


The actor-turned-activist, who's worth an estimated $29 million, has been building an eco-resort on the island, which will be powered by 100% renewable energy and is set to open at the end of 2018.

Foto: sourceGetty

Source: Business Insider, Forbes


5. Luxurious superyachts

Foto: sourceR_Pilguj/Shutterstock

Some of the world's wealthiest people are owners of superyachts. Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich bought his yacht, Eclipse, in 2010. Reports of its cost vary, ranging from $600 million up to $1 billion.

Foto: sourceREUTERS

Source: Business Insider


The Eclipse has two helipads, a missile defense system, two swimming pools, a cinema, hair salon, and restaurant.

Foto: sourceRobert Johnson/Business Insider

Source: Business Insider


Entertainment mogul David Geffen owns a $590 million superyacht know as the Rising Sun, which includes a basketball court and space for 18 overnight guests. In April 2017, Geffen hosted the Obama family on his yacht.

Foto: sourceFlickr/Creative Commons/Steve Crane

Source: Business Insider


Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, president of the United Arab Emirates, owns the world's largest motor yacht, which is 590 feet long and cost $600 million to build.

Foto: The Azzam yacht docked in Casablanca, Morocco, in 2014.sourceShutterstock/Andy Ginn

Source: Business Insider


6. Private planes

Foto: sourceScott Olson/Getty Images

Private planes are another luxury on which the super-wealthy love to splurge. In 2007, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia spent $319 million for a double-decker superjumbo jet nicknamed "The Flying Palace," made renovations that put the value at more than $500 million, and then promptly sold it to an unknown buyer.

Foto: sourceReuters

Source: GOBankingRates


Businessman Alisher Usmanov, one of the wealthiest people in Russia, owns a business jet Airbus A340-300, a plane that costs at least $350 million and can seat up to 277 people.

Foto: An Airbus A340-300 (not Usmanov's) during its exhibition flight near Paris in 2009.sourceAP Photo

Source: Business Insider, Airbus, Air Charter Service USA


Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world, owns a $65 million Gulfstream G650ER private jet.

Foto: sourceREUTERS/Aly Song

Source: Business Insider


Bill Gates owns a relatively modest $40 million Bombardier BD-700 Global Express plane.

Foto: sourceBombardier

Source: Business Insider


7. Movie props and memorabilia

Foto: The Lotus Esprit submarine car from James Bond's "The Spy Who Loved Me."sourceAP/ Lefteris Pitarakis

If you had millions (or billions) of dollars to spare, would you buy props and other paraphernalia from your favorite films? Many do just that. In 2013, Elon Musk bought the Lotus Esprit car from James Bond's "The Spy Who Loved Me" for $886,000.

Foto: SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk speaks after announcing Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa as the first private passenger on a trip around the moon, Monday, Sept. 17, 2018.sourceChris Carlson/AP Photo

Source: INSIDER


In the movie, the car turns into a submarine. "I was disappointed to learn that it can't actually transform. What I'm going to do is upgrade it with a Tesla electric powertrain and try to make it transform for real," Musk said.

Foto: sourceDon Griffin via RM Auctions

Source: INSIDER


8. Massive car collections

Foto: sourceKelly Sullivan/Getty

Many of the world's wealthiest people like to collect cars. Bill Gates is an avid luxury car collector, with his first big splurge after founding Microsoft being a Porsche 911 supercar. He has various garages that fit 23 cars.

Source: Business Insider


Perhaps unsurprisingly, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has owned many different vehicles in addition to his James Bond submarine car. His past cars include an Audi Q7, a Porsche 911, a 1967 E-Type Jaguar, and a Hamann BMW M5 sports car.

Foto: A Hamaan BMW M5sourceWikimedia Commons/Spanish Coches

Source: Business Insider


9. An entire town

Foto: sourceShutterstock/Leigh Trail

If an island isn't your thing, you can always buy a town, like Kim Basinger did in 1989. With other investors, she bought 1,751 acres of the 2,000-acre town of Braselton, Georgia, for $20 million. She wanted to turn the town's farmland into a tourist attraction and film studio, but it was later auctioned off as part of her bankruptcy.

Foto: sourceGoogle Maps, Alberto E. Rodriguez/ Getty Images

Source: INSIDER


10. Second passports

Foto: sourceShutterstock/elbud

Yet another mark of the wealthy comes in the form of second passports. "It's a status symbol — it shows friends you can afford it," Nuri Katz, president of international financial firm Apex Capital Partners, told Business Insider. "I call it the black American Express syndrome."

Foto: sourceTyler Olson / Shutterstock

Source: Bloomberg


Many countries, including the US, require you to meet certain criteria before obtaining citizenship. But in others, including Austria, Cyprus, Malta, Turkey, and certain Caribbean islands, you can simply buy it — for a minimum $100,000.

Foto: A yacht docked in Portomaso Marina in Malta.sourceShutterstock/Razvan Ionut Dragomirescu

Source: Bloomberg


Becoming a citizen of Malta will cost you about $1 million, while Cyprus runs about $2.3 million. An Austrian passport will cost you a whopping $23.7 million.

Foto: sourceBrian Kinney/Shutterstock

Source: Bloomberg