How the Rich Can Buy Time

Big room, brilliant view, fawning staff ... you name it

(NEWSER) - What's $1,000 a night, when you can keep out the riff-raff, eat high on the hog, and get tickets to American Idol? That's the thinking these days at smaller chi chi hotels, where ultra-luxurious grand-a-night rooms are becoming more common, the Wall Street Journal reports. So just how do they pamper the 1% while 99-ers are lumping it at the Holiday Inn?

• Big room, gorgeous view, and fawning 24-hour staff are givens—as are spas and top restaurants with short waiting lists.

Suburbs of Washington, DC, lead the way

(NEWSER) - Forbes rounds up the richest counties in the US, with the DC suburbs in northern Virginia again dominating. The top five:

1. Loudoun County, Virginia: $115,574 median household income
2. Falls Church City, Virginia: $114,409
3. Fairfax County, Virginia: $105,416
4. Los Alamos County, New Mexico: $103,643
5. Howard County, Maryland: $103,273

Some people, apparently, can still afford this stuff

(NEWSER) - Looking for the perfect final touch to trick out your Manhattan penthouse? Consider a 700-gallon, $200,000 aquarium. Such high-end systems are the new status symbol among the “what recession?” set, reports the New York Times . These aren’t your 50-gallon waiting room tanks: They can be 14½ feet long, weigh 6,000 pounds, hang from the ceiling, include complicated lighting systems and antique statues, and one will cost you at least $50,000—plus $1,000 a month in maintenance. More»

Yacht fuel eating up too much of your budget? You're not alone.

(NEWSER) - Still looking for ways to cut costs in these tough economic times? Let these actual rich people, as overheard by Nell Scovell, guide you. She recounts their advice in Vanity Fair :

• “With diesel at the marina up over $3 a gallon, we’re trying to keep the Hinckley’s motor off and let the sails do more of the work.”
• “We got rid of the dog-walker; I like to run with the pinschers on the beach for exercise, anyway.”

Actor 'spent money like it was water,' friends say

(NEWSER) - Nicolas Cage’s money woes aren’t all his money manager’s fault. Cage “lived like a sheik,” a friend tells the Daily Beast . “Spent money like it was water.” Here’s a sample of what he spent it on:

• More than a dozen homes, including a castle in England, an 11th-century estate in Germany, and two entire Bahamian islands