I get quite a few free yachting magazines and not long ago I read an article about a rich Saudi who wanted an enormous yacht with a hull made entirely out of gold.
No kidding. Yacht designers told him it was impossible, but he insisted, so they hired a metallurgical team to find what metals they could alloy with the gold to have sufficient hull strength while still appearing to be more or less pure gold. And they built it. Showed a huge photo spread on it. I’m not going to even try to remember how much it cost. Of course all the accoutrements and facilities in the yacht were gold and alll the staterooms and decor were gold themed as well.
The punch line is, that golden yacht has been sitting in a Saudi port for years and has not moved one foot from its moorings. According to the article, there is no port in the world with security sufficient to guarantee its safety, the insurance won’t even cover the vessel in international waters without an armed escort. And so, it sits.
I’d heard the slang term “FU” money, but it wasn’t until I saw that boat that the term really defined itself.