It's Still Good to Be Rich

According to Forbes magazine, anyway, which has just published a "survivor's guide for the affluent."

Some plutocrats still have it but aren't flaunting it quite as much. Society photographer Patrick McMullan says rich folks in Manhattan are toning it down at parties, hosting birthday blowouts only at the decade mark and putting out less impressive food when they do. "There used to be caviar; now we are seeing a lot more carrots," McMullan says. In West Palm Beach, Fla. "people are just not as showy as they used to be," says a businessman who spends a lot of time in Florida. "A Bentley used to be like a Chevy down here; now you don't see as many."

. . .

There's the problem of bearing up under a different sort of adversity--when your yacht builder goes broke. A Las Vegas health care executive has paid $20 million toward completion of a 145-foot, $27 million yacht--the world's biggest sailing catamaran--only to have Derecktor Shipyards in Bridgeport, Conn. stop work after it filed for bankruptcy last summer.

The grand project recently resumed, but the boat won't be delivered anywhere near its originally scheduled launch date of November 2007. Things could be worse: Nearby sits the partially completed hull of a gigantic aluminum sloop once intended for Tyco International ( TYC - news - people ) chief executive Dennis Kozlowski, who went to jail for stealing company funds in 2005.

Maybe he could take up painting.