Old Money

"I made my money the old-fashioned way; I inherited it."

— John Raese

The funny thing about wealth is that it tends to have a sort of inertia to it: It can be very hard to gain, but once you do have it, it can be ever harder to lose. Having the resources to make investments means that it is easier to keep what you have and even make more. And what do you do with all that wealth when you are old and gray? Pass it on to your children, of course, and the cycle will continue on from there. "Old money" refers to families that have been wealthy for many generations, and maintain their lifestyle through stewardship of an existing family fortune.

Often goes hand-in-hand with Blue Blood, especially in countries that have a tradition of social stratification, with nobility granted formal titles which elevated them above commoners. Even in places where no such formality exists, Old Money will tend to know "their sort" and keep to the same social circles, to the exclusion of the Nouveau Riche. In the United States, the "oldest" of money will brag about their family arriving on the Mayflower (1620), or their families being on the list of "the 400" that early New York socialite Mrs. Astor made.

Such families tend to display their wealth in Simple, yet Opulent ways (such as having unwritten style rules, like which kind of High-Class Gloves to wear to which event), in contrast to the Conspicuous Consumption of the Nouveau Riche. They are often Idle Rich, but sometimes will get a job they do not really need, just in order to avoid Rich Boredom. Of course, sometimes making sure their fortune is not frittered away by incompetent underlings or their own Inadequate Inheritors is a full-time job in-and-of-itself.

Compare Blue Blood, Remittance Man, and Uptown Girl. Contrast Impoverished Patrician, someone who has titles but not money; Nouveau Riche (AKA New Money), someone who has money but not titles or social graces; Nobility Marries Money, an intersection of the previous two; and Self-Made Man, someone who made their money through hard work rather than inheritance.

If you are thinking of the phrase "But what's that in old money?", see Old British Money.

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Examples

Advertising

• In an ad for California Cheese, an elder society lady was calling other people "Johnny-Come-Latelies" and bragged about knowing Monterey Jack personally (Rule of Funny, considering the real origin of the name).
• An online ad for Smirnoff Raw Tea is a rap music video titled "Tea Partay", ostensibly performed by a band called Prep-Unit (or P-Unit), who sing about their New England WASP lifestyle and the fact that their families run the nation.
  • Another video was released later called "Green Tea Partay" by Boyz In The Hills, who are the Hollywood California-based children of actors (i.e. the Nouveau Riche), obsessed with working out, New Age gurus, gadgets, plastic surgery, and acting. Apparently, this is supposed to play out like the East Coast vs. West Coast rap rivalry.

Comic Books

• Veronica Lodge of Archie Comics is part of an old money family from New York (based on a real life family from Boston), and her father moved to Riverdale to try (unsuccessfully) to avoid her being a Spoiled Brat like her peers.
• This is where Batman gets the money to fund his crimefighting. The Waynes are one of the oldest, richest, and most respected families in Gotham, and often depicted as having been involved in its founding.
• Charles Xavier, founder of the X-Men, apparently funds the whole operation (which if anything would put the Batcave to shame) with the money he gets from being born into a wealthy family.
  • With his Ultimate incarnation, however, this turns out to be a filthy lie, with Charles actually getting money from a group of secret financial backers, something his ex-wife Moira MacTaggert snarkily lampshades when she first meets the X-Men.
  Moira: Who did he tell you his parents were? Bill and Melinda Gates?

Fan Works

• In Origins, several of the large weapon-makers (Tediore, Torgue, Jakobs, and to a lesser extent Maliwan) exist because of this trope. Family ties gain one much power in Jakobs and Tediore circles since both companies are controlled by wealthy families. Jakobs is your typical Self-Made Man story while Tediore was created to give the lazy Upper-Class Twit Thalia something to "do" (pretend to run the company while other more competent people do the real work).
• crawlersout: Many of Tom's friends come from old money (at least, for America), as he attends a very prestigious and very expensive magical academy. Most prominent are his friends Ruth and Washy, the latter of whom is a direct descendant of George Washington himself. Fem!Harry also come from old money, being a member of the Potter family (which still exists in the 1930s), but still has a job in her own time to supplement herself.
• Mythos Effect: Some of the Asari on Ilium hailing from old money, being part of a race that lives for 1000 years, are trillionaires.

Film

• In Beaches, Hillary and CC have a fight (which later gets reconciled), and Hillary calls CC new money, due to CC being a stage actress instead of being born rich like Hillary.
• In My Favorite Year, this sets up a Literal Metaphor gag. Alan Swann is drunkenly hanging off a ledge, and two Old Money stockbrokers are on a balcony above.
  Stockbroker #1: [looking over the edge of the balcony] I think Alan Swann is beneath us!
  Stockbroker #2: Of course he's beneath us. He's an actor!
• This sets up the Uptown Girl tension in Kitty Foyle, as Kitty is a secretary who falls in love with Wyn, the son of an old money "Main Line" Phildelphia family. Wyn's snobby family is not pleased.
• X-Men Film Series:
  • X-Men Origins: Wolverine: Judging by the refined manners of John Howlett and the grandeur of the mansion, James Howlett was born into wealth. However, he learns when he was around 13 years old that his mother Elizabeth had an affair with Thomas Logan, his family's groundskeeper, and is their illegitimate child. After the death of both his legal father and biological father, James runs away from home, and he has been scratching a living ever since.
  • X-Men: First Class: Charles Xavier was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He lives in a very Big Fancy House, there are servants (a maid is mentioned), and his mother is a snobby British Socialite who thinks so highly of herself that she never enters the kitchen of her own home. Charles' taste in material goods is often expressed in classic, Simple, yet Opulent ways, in contrast to the gaudy Conspicuous Consumption that we normally associate with the Nouveau Riche.
  • X-Men: Days of Future Past: Past Charles can afford not to work for a decade because he can simply mooch off his inherited wealth. The Xavier family crest on the tail of his personal plane, his plane's elegantly decorated interior, and even the design of the chess set he brings along for the trip are a visual cue to the audience that he is this trope, and not the tacky (or so the stereotype goes) Nouveau Riche.
  • X-Men: Apocalypse: This detailed look at Xavier's mansion practically screams this trope. The narrator introduces it as, "In its near 300 years of service, this estate has been the primary residence for New York's elite society." She later adds, "...every effort has been made to preserve its historical and architectural integrity of the above-ground structure." It is estimated to be worth◊ $75,850,000 USD (2016)! Charles owns a collection of beautiful vintage cars which are in pristine working condition, and that takes a lot of coin to maintain.
• Tracy Lord of The Philadelphia Story (and the remake High Society) is part of an old money family (as was her real life inspiration, Helen Hope Montgomery Scott). When reporter Mike and photographer Liz show up, Tracy and her younger sister decide to troll the magazine people about what they think old money people are like.
• The Social Network: The Winklevoss twins are depicted this way, with membership in an exclusive social club and a very old-fashioned impression of how to conduct themselves as "Harvard men."

Literature

• Alice Adams: The Palmers live in a grand mansion, throw balls, and they hold grasping Social Climber Alice in contempt.
• Daddy-Long-Legs: Judy's college roommate Julia Pendleton comes from an old money family; Judy satirically describes them as having come over to America on Noah's Ark and being able to trace their ancestry back to a particularly high class of monkey. Judy eventually becomes somewhat friendly with Julia, and gets on very well with her uncle Jervis — the white sheep of the family, who has Socialist leanings and gives a lot of his money to charitable causes "instead of spending it on such sensible things as yachts and automobiles and polo ponies" — but finds the rest of her family stultifying on the one occasion she visits them.
• The Da Vinci Code: Robert Langdon's eccentric colleague Sir Leigh Teabing is a descendent of the first Duke of Lancaster. His inherited wealth is such that he was able to move to France on a whim, purchase a historic landmark mansion, and bribe guards and officials in his search for the Priory of Sion's keystone.
• Discworld:
  • Discussed in Making Money with the Lavishes, who are this. Moist is pretty snarky about the fact that a long-distant plundering ancestor becomes a Lovable Rogue and a license to look down on the Nouveau Riche, who probably got their money through some disgraceful method like honest work and inventiveness. He calls it out quite loudly near the end, naming their family founders as pirates and slavers.
  • Lady Sybil is very old money; she is in fact the richest woman in Ankh-Morpork. Through a combination of simple tastes and old stuff never wearing out, she also manages to never spend money on personal items. She is, however, very generous to various charities including a dragon sanctuary and a hospital. Shortly before meeting her for the first time in Guards! Guards!, Vimes reflects that Old Money is supposed to be better than New Money, but he's never seen enough money to tell the difference.
  • In Maskerade, Madame Downing, owner of an expensive dress shop, knows that old money is better than new money. But beneath the snobbery she's still an Ankh-Morpork merchant and knows the best money is the kind that's being given to her, wherever it came from.
• Early Autumn: The Pentlands have been rich for a long time, and they trace their ancestry back to the Pilgrims. They are the type of people rich enough to name their house—"Pentlands". Aunt Cassie looks down on anyone who isn't Old Money. One of the central themes of the book is how the old Pentland family is getting squeezed out of their New England village by Nouveau Riche Irish Catholics.
  What could it mean to Olivia that Mr. Longfellow and Mr. Lowell and Dr. Holmes had often spent weeks at Pentlands?
• The Forsyte Saga: The Forsyte clan is shown becoming "Old Money". The old generation (Old Jolyon and his brothers James and Timothy) gained their money in business. Their children (Young Jolyon and Soames) are a transitory generation, but already fully genteel. Soames' daughter Fleur is considered a good match for Michael Mont who is an aristocrat. They are definitely Old Money at that point and contrasted with people who gained money in World War I and are the new Nouveau Riche.
• The General Series: In The Heretic and The Savior, the Land is ruled by the First Families who own most of the farmland, industry and all the major trading houses. Some of them adopt more aristocratic trappings while others prefer to act as merchant princes. Few people even know that the First Families are actually descendants of barbarians who conquered The Land a few centuries ago. Since the planet is under a strictly enforced Medieval Stasis, there is very little room for New Money to arise through normal means. The books' hero is only First Family on his mother's side which puts a ceiling on how far he can advance in the nation's military.
• The Great Gatsby: Tom Buchanan and Daisy come from old money and high society. It's put in contrast with Jay Gatsby, who is Nouveau Riche and must engage in Conspicuous Consumption to appear to fit in.
• Harry Potter:
  • The Malfoys, being the series' most visible Blue Bloods, have also been fabulously rich for generations and have connections in the highest echelons of government, business, and high society. According to Pottermore, they obtained their lands and riches for (questionable) services lend to King William I (aka William the Conqueror).
  • It was never exactly stated where the Harry’s huge inheritance from his parents in the first book comes from but Word of God later revealed that his paternal grandfather, Fleamont, invented several cosmetic potions that made him a fortune.
• A Song of Ice and Fire: All of the Great Houses count, but the best example is the Lannisters, who control the richest gold mines in Westeros and have been known for their wealth since Lann the Clever swindled their ancestral castle from House Casterly.
• The Widow of Desire: In this Cold War thriller, Natalie Stuart is a New York socialite who marries a Russian furrier and helps him start a business selling coats to her peers. He even brags that a coat he gives her (although posthumously) would be too grand for one of her "junior league lunches". Also, when one of her friends asked if her family came in on the Mayflower, she said they were Scottish Presbyterians who had their own boat.

Live-Action TV

• Bones: Dr. Jack Hodgins is a Conspiracy Theorist who believes the Old Money families secretly control the world. And he should know - he's the scion of one of the most monied Old Money families in the world. He ends up losing it all to a criminal who siphons all the money away. He has a chance to stop the process, but at the cost of not being able to trace the bad guy. He chooses justice over money.
• Downton Abbey: The Crawleys are hardly a subversion of the trope, but they do show how precarious the position can be when mismanaged. Even before the Great War upended the social hierarchy and caused the collapse of many "Old Money" families, Robert's father was running low on money when Robert was young. In fact, the only reason they were able to maintain the eponymous estate was through through Robert's marriage to Cora Levinson, a Nouveau Riche American heiress whose father made his fortune in dry goods.
• The Gilded Age: The divide between Old Money and Nouveau Riche is one of the main drivers of plot and tension. Heightened by the fact that the Old Money Van Rijns live in a Simple, yet Opulent brownstone right across the street from the Nouveau Riche Russells in their 19th century equivalent of a McMansion.
• Gilmore Girls:
  • The Gilmore clan are considered Connecticut old money as they can date their ancestry and money back to the original pilgrims on The Mayflower, as Rory once mentioned that fact to her boyfriend, Logan (also old money guy).
  • Logan is society old money. His family, the Huntzbergers, are portrayed as even older money or actually wealthier and having more influence, owning several newspapers, and they considered the Gilmores to be below them.
• Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: In a 2014 episode, Oliver argues that the increasing concentration of wealth in the hands of a rich elite coupled with fewer taxes on inheritance may lead to America developing a "landed gentry" reminiscent of the one that traditionally ruled Oliver's native England.
• M*A*S*H: Charles is a Boston Blue Blood whose family's wealth goes back at least to his grandparents' generation, as his grandmother actually owns half of downtown Boston.
• Law & Order: In the episode Release, a young Manhattan socialite named Samantha Beresford comes from Old New York Money and after dating the episode’s suspect for a bit, breaks it off because he is a Noveau Riche who made his fortune from making porn - something her grandma would never approve of.
  • The episode Merger is about the murder of a teenager, Christy Garrison, from a wealthy family. The older Garrison daughter, Mercedes, is engaged to the son of another wealthy family, the Vances. When it starts to look like one of the Vances may have committed the murder, the Garrison parents are resistant to the idea. They say the Vances are "old money," and Lenny Briscoe surmises that "the ink isn't dry" on the Garrisons' fortune. It eventually becomes clear that the Vances are no longer as rich as they once were, so the whole engagement and marriage are basically a business transaction; the Vances get an infusion of cash from the Garrisons, and the Garrisons get to take advantage of the Vances' social standing.
• The Punisher (2017): William J. "Bill" Rawlins III, the CIA Director of Covert Operations who is targeting Frank Castle, is said by David Lieberman to come from old Virginia money.
• Royal Pains: Hank operates a medical practice in the Hamptons and gets to treat various Old Money and Nouveau Riche patients. Boris, Hank's benefactor, is Old European Money and is a very nice and generous person who has to be Properly Paranoid due to his relatives' Chronic Backstabbing Disorder. Later in the series Evan runs afoul of a woman who is a member of one of the oldest Old Money families in the Hamptons and she makes a lot of trouble for HankMed.
• Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: The wealthy Vorhees family has roots in the first Dutch settlers of America.

Radio

• In the radio adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Jekyll inherited a fortune from his father, who made most of it on the stock exchange.

Theatre

• In Kiss the Boys Good-bye by Clare Boothe, Cindy Lou Bethany is proud of belonging to a "very old Southern family," and freely boasts of having such fine old families among her relatives as the Albemarles, Covingtons and Culpepers. Her father is a Congressman, by the way.

Video Games

• Hitman World of Assassination Trilogy: Providence was founded by and ran by powerful men and women with affluent and influential families whose dynasties can be traced back to centuries ago. Arthur Edwards, the Constant is a Self-Made Man from a middle-class family, and after he realizes he's unable to raise higher in rank because the leaders would deny him because of his lack of a prestigious lineage, he shifts his attention towards bringing down the leaders and snatching their positions from underneath instead.
• StarCraft, part of the backstory is that the Terran Conferacy's government was controlled by the Old Families, rich and powerful descendants from the original colonists that founded the Confederacy. When Arcturus Mengsk and the Sons of Korhal overthrow the Confederacy, the Old Families don't survive the power shift. Many of them also die prior to the "power shift", since the overthrow involves luring the Zerg to the Confederate capital world of Tarsonis.

Visual Novels

• Lainie and Cecilia from Daughter for Dessert come from this type of family. They offer Amanda her rightful inheritance if she forsakes her father.

Web Comics

• I Love Yoo'': The Hirahara family very clearly has generational wealth, this contrasts the main character, Shin-Ae, who is very poor.

Western Animation

• Like his comics counterpart, Batman: The Animated Series' Bruce Wayne comes from old money and funds his nocturnal activities from the family fortune. He's known to hobnob with other old money types like Veronica Vreeland.
• In the Beetlejuice cartoon, Beetlejuice's parents want to get into a club allowing only the "oldest and moldiest" of families. The episode is about Beetlejuice and Lydia finding proof his family belongs there.
• Jay Sherman of The Critic was adopted by an old money family. His mother, Elenor, after persuading her biological daughter Margo to attend the debutante ball, tries to hook Margo up on a date with a guy who is so old money that he has actual blue blood.
  "He can only receive blood transplants from George Plimpton and Mrs. Walter Kronkite."
• In DuckTales (1987), Scrooge, a Self-Made Man, has had a few clashes with the old money of Duckburg, including one episode where he tries to make good with them by having a status symbol. It doesn't work out and he just throws the item away.

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