Fun on Friday: Extreme Bling

Bling isn’t really my thing. But a lot of people enjoy sporting gold jewelry. Well, a 36-year-old businessman in Vietnam takes bling to a whole new level.

Tran Ngoc Phuc wears a total of 13kg of gold wherever he goes. If you don’t have your kilograms to pounds calculator handy, that about 28.7 pounds of gold. 

Not only is Tran super-stylish. He enjoys the added bonus of never having to work out. He gets his lifting in every time he stands up. If you watch the video, (sadly it has been removed) you can see the sweat on his back. Sporting bling is hard work!

Here’s the rundown of Tran’s golden wardrobe according to MyJoy.com. A 5kg gold chain and medallion, two large bracelets weighing 5kg each, four 500g rings and a gold waistband. All of this cost him an estimated 13 billion Vietnamese dong. That’s about $550,000.

Now, when I saw the headline, the first thing I thought was this dude needs a bodyguard. And he does indeed. Actually, five bodyguards.  At least. Everywhere he goes. I hope he’s paying those bodyguards a pretty penny…because…well…think about it.

Now, this probably won’t come as a shock, but the guy who walks around wearing almost 29 pounds of bling is also YouTube famous. I’m just going to go out on a limb and say Phuc probably likes attention. The story I read confirms this.

Tran Ngoc Phuc’s obsession with gold has made him an overnight celebrity, and he seems to be enjoying every minute of it, as he continues to give interviews and even invite people inside his home to show off his prized collection of expensive drinks.”

Drinks?

OK.

On a side note – I’m not sure how you pronounce his last name. But if it sounds like it looks -LOL.

Anyway, Phuc started getting attention when videos of him showing off his gold went viral.

Some of the commenters on social media had the same thought I did — isn’t it a little wearisome wearing that much gold. Phuc admitted that it is, but said it was worth it because all of the gold has boosted his good luck and prosperity. Phuc started buying the gold after a feng shui consultant told him that it would increase his good luck.

I’m not certain that a guy that can afford $550,000 worth of gold jewelry really needs help in the prosperity and luck department. But yeah, OK.

Phuc admitted that the jewelry was uncomfortable. In fact, he had to go to a doctor due to neck pain caused by the heavy chain and medallion. According to the story, the doctor prescribed him medication. This struck me as odd. If I were a doctor, I would say, “Dude, just stop wearing the chain.” But what do I know? I just write stuff for a living. If you ask me though, he’s going to need some luck not to permanently damage his vertebra.

Phuc owns a luxurious karaoke club in Ho Chi Minh City, but he made his fortune trading oil. He said he grew up very poor, but borrowed money from friends and family to buy oil when it was cheap. His gamble paid off when oil prices skyrocketed from 5,000 dong, to 8,000 dong, and then 10,000 dong almost overnight.

No, if you’re like me and don’t want to deal with the hassle of wearing pounds of jewelry everywhere you go, but you like the idea of owning gold, you should call one of our SchiffGold precious metals specialists. They can’t give you fashion tips, and I’m pretty sure they don’t know anything about feng shui. But they do know about precious metals and how they can help preserve and grow your wealth.

Fun on Friday is a weekly SchiffGold feature. We dig up some of the off-the-wall and off-beat stories relating to precious metals and share them with you – with tongue firmly planted in cheek. Click here to read other posts in this series.

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