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The Biggest Waste-of-Money Purchases in the Whole World

Drew Wood

Published: February 18, 2025 12:22 pm

Last Updated: February 20, 2025 6:56 am

Most people waste money in one way or another. In a family budget, if you don’t get that under control, you could go bankrupt, or worse. When it comes to ultra-rich people, there seem to be few consequences for flushing money down the toilet—sometimes a golden toilet. Here are some of the most outrageous, over-the-top, disgusting waste-of-money projects in the whole world. What could you have done with that amount of money if they gave it to you instead?

$325,000 For a Dog House

Socialite Paris Hilton spent six figures on a doghouse for her chihuahua to kick up his heels after a hard day of riding round in her purse. It’s a scaled-down version of her own two-story mansion with a Spanish-style tile roof, wrought iron railings, a balcony, air conditioning, comfy doggie beds, and a chandelier. Oh and of course, the walls are Barbie pink. There’s plenty of people who wouldn’t mind living in that dog house.

Diamond-Covered Mercedes: $4.8 million

This is one car you don’t want to scratch when you’re parking. Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal has a Mercedes-Benz SL600 completely covered with 300,000 diamonds with mink interiors. By law, anyone who touches it incurs a $1,000 fine. No need to drive this one around as an uber to try to make the payments, just park it on the street with a hidden camera and take down names . . . 

A Solid Gold Public Toilet for $6 Million

There’s more than one solid gold toilet in the world. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia gave one valued at $3 million to his daughter as a wedding gift. Another, now worth an estimated $6 million was designed as a sculpture named “America” and put on display in a museum. It was fully functional and guests were allowed to use it, with about 100,000 doing so. President Trump turned down an offer to install it in the White House. It was later stolen while on display in England. 

$10 Million+ for a Private Forest

Bidzina Ivanishvili was the former Prime Minister of Georgia and a clearly successful businessman. The billionaire spent tens of millions of dollars to plant a forest on his property, but when you have that kind of money, you don’t have to wait for a forest to grow. You just move one there. So he paid crews to uproot hundreds of gigantic, centuries-old trees, ship them in, and replant them where he wanted them. And also built a private zoo there with exotic animals. Because, obviously, what’s the point of a forest without penguins?

A $12-Million Dollar Rotating Statue

Turkmenistan’s former president Saparmurat Niyazov was anything but humble, putting his image and name on everything all over the country to make sure no one forgot who was in charge. His most notorious memory-maker was the 246-ft-tall “Monument of Neutrality” that served as an oversized pedestal for a golden statue of himself designed to rotate so it always faced the sun. Which is no way to get a good tan of course.

The 42-Million-Dollar Clock

Jeff Bezos spent $42 million on “The Clock of the Long Now,” designed to keep accurate time for 10,000 years from its lair in a remote mountain in West Texas. The purpose? To encourage people to think about time. Like maybe . . . every other clock in the world?

The Bridge That Never Was: $53 Million

What a nice idea! London made plans to construct a pedestrian bridge covered in trees and plants. Beautiful, healthy, ecological. What’s not to love. Well, we’re not a fan of them burning through $53 million of public and private funds studying the idea and preparing and then never building it. Yep. After torching all that money, the project was cancelled. 

Palace Price Tag: $300 Million and 1 Historic Synagogue

In the impoverished Central Asian country of Tajikistan, the per capita GDP is just $1,441, in the bottom 11% of the world. That didn’t stop its president from spending $300 million to build himself a ginormous neoclassical palace with an area the size of 5 1/2 American football fields. Oh and to build it he tore down the country’s only Jewish synagogue, a 19th century architectural treasure. And a kosher butcher shop. And several Jewish schools. And didn’t reimburse the community. And put a picture of his palace on the country’s money. Now that’s Cold. As. Ice.

A (Possibly Fake) Big ‘ol Boat for $4.8 Billion

Allegedly, the most expensive superyacht ever created is the History Supreme, which is rumored to cost an unthinkable 4.8 billion dollars. It’s covered in gold and platinum and even has a real t-rex skull (which of course you need when you’re sailing). Rumor has it, uber-wealthy Malaysian businessman Robert Kuok bought it. However, his estimated net worth is only about $11 billion. It seems like a pretty poor business choice to spend a third of your wealth on one ship. And industry specialists say that a yacht actually covered in as much gold as this is rumored to be would be too heavy to be seaworthy.