Despite a boon from Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” billionaires faced higher prices last year for everything from racehorses to private jets to caviar.
By the time the final gavel fell at last fall’s Keeneland Yearling September Sale, wealthy buyers had smashed through records at the world’s largest thoroughbred auction, spending $532 million on racehorses, driving up the average price of a yearling to nearly $650,000, the most ever and 23% more than 2024. A major reason for such largesse: among the tax breaks in President Trump’s sweeping One Big Beautiful Bill Act was a provision cementing the ability to write off 100% of a racehorse purchase in the first year of ownership.
“[The bill] has been a big thing for a lot of people, to know that they can turn around and write off a substantial amount of what they’re spending, depending upon what the rest of their tax situation looks like,” says bloodstock editor at equestrian publication BloodHorse Eric Mitchell. “Over and over again, we heard that from people who were buying at the auction.”
Mitchell says this kind of growth in Kentucky, the country’s hub of thoroughbred breeding, is comparable to the mid-1980s, when the federal tax rate was high, but tax shelters and write-offs for losses were abundant.
Racehorses aren’t the only aspect of the billionaire lifestyle that are getting more expensive. Since 1982, Forbes has been tracking the ultra-luxurious goods and high-end services frequented by the richest of the rich, ranging from Gucci loafers to sailing yachts, to create our Cost of Living Extremely Well Index (CLEWI), essentially a Consumer Price Index for billionaires. This year, CLEWI increased by 5.5%, up from last year’s 4.7%–and double that of the CPI, which rose by 2.7% in 2025. In other words, inflation was roughly twice as steep for billionaires than regular folks in 2025.
The True Cost of Living Rich
Of course, they can afford it. The record 3,148 billionaires around the globe are sitting on a record $18.7 trillion in combined wealth. The average billionaire is now worth $5.9 billion, up 5% from 2024, roughly in-line with CLEWI’s uptick. There are now 19 centibillionaires who have amassed fortunes of $100 billion or more, versus just one six years ago. As the billionaire population has exploded, companies catering to this super-rich set have been cashing in.
Luxury spending was nearly $1.7 trillion worldwide in 2025, about the same as in 2024, according to a study by Bain & Company and Altaggamma. But the consumer base has shrunk to an estimated 340 million shoppers, down from 400 million in 2022, as the big spending is increasingly coming from the very well-heeled.
Experiences such as fine dining and hospitality services were particularly hot with high-end consumers in 2025. Take, for example, luxury concierge services. Clients looking for someone to handle tasks like booking private jet flights, secure VIP concert tickets or plan an African safari, are driving up the cost of luxury concierge services. Canada-based Pure Entertainment says a one-year membership runs $200,000, up from around $180,000 last year. CEO Steve Edo says the price bump was carried by an increase in European and Middle Eastern customers, who are often more willing and eager to pay premium prices for a travel service–seeing the more expensive options as better indicators of quality.
“The more expensive some services cost, the happier they are,” Edo says, although he notes fewer clients in Asia and North America share the same sentiment.
Yachts, meanwhile, are getting more expensive to build, as inflation has hit both the cost of materials and financing costs—but billionaires are still indulging. The price of a British-made Oyster 595 sailboat, for example, is now nearly $4.2 million, a 7% increase from a year ago. “Ownership is increasingly experience-driven,” says Oyster Yachts CEO Stefan Zimmermann Zschocke. “Clients are drawn to the opportunity to explore the world.”
Other big-ticket items included in our CLEWI basket that have gotten much pricier over the past year include private jets (+3%), Olympic-size swimming pools (+6%) and sporting shotguns (+26%). Dinner at three-star French restaurant Le Bernadin now costs 5% more, while Ossetra caviar is up 9%.
But billionaires’ wallets aren’t being hit from all directions. A dozen bespoke dress shirts from London’s Turnbull & Asser still run just shy of $12,000, flat from last year. A set of cotton sateen sheets from Italy’s Frette remains $3,700. And a Rolls-Royce Phantom with the extended wheelbase still costs about $600,000, roughly the same as a year ago.
One extravagance tracked by CLEWI even costs substantially less now than in 2024: an estate manager. The minimum salary for someone hired to oversee an estate in the San Francisco area through British American Household Staffing—which provides everything from nannies and governesses to personal assistants, private chefs and chauffers—is now $380,000 per year. That’s down by about $20,000 from 2024. The Bay Area is seeing a weaker market for estate managers, says Anita Rogers, British American Household Staffing’s CEO, as managers left the city amid the pandemic and did not return, and many ultra-wealthy Californians have left the Golden State. Other regions of the U.S., and Europe and the Middle East, however, have fared better. After all, for billionaires some expenses are a must—no matter the cost. “We got one couple around Covid, the man sold his company for $2.4 billion,” says Rogers. “I had to climb over the gate [to his new estate]. He didn’t know how to open it.”
ENTERTAINMENT AND TOYS
Opera
Piano
Motor Yacht
Sailing Yacht
Sporting Shotguns
Thoroughbred
Train set
Cigars
Magazine
FASHION
Necklace
Shoes
Dress
Dress Shirts
Loafers
Perfume
Watch
Handbag
FOOD
Catered Dinner
Caviar
Champagne
Chateaubriand
Dinner
HOUSEHOLD
Flowers
Sheets
Sterling Silver Flatware
Sauna
Swimming Pool
Tennis Court
SERVICES
School
University
Face-lift
Estate Manager
Psychiatrist
Lawyer
Spa
TRAVEL
Hotel
Airplane
Concierge
Car
Travel Bag
