History Main / NonIdleRich

* VideoGame/{{Story of Seasons|2014}} has Elise eventally become this. She starts out as IdleRich, with the entire farm practically being run by staff and servants. Her entire rival arc has her learn how to become hands-on and develop a love of farming and animals, rather than being hands off, and kinder to her staff.

* ''VideoGame/StreetsOfRogue'' allows you to invoke this when playing as an investment banker or [[spoiler:upper cruster]], which are both implied to be quite wealthy by the standards of the setting and have advantages that reflect this.

* ''Anime/TheBraveExpressMightGaine'': The Senpuuji Zaibatsu runs several firms of industry and has accumulated enough resources to not only build a personal army of the world's most advanced battle robots, but to support all of them in combat through mission control or development of other weapon systems. The sole known heir to the fortune, Maito Senpuuji, actively pilots many of the robots in battle himself, while also taking on vigilante activities alongside business work and attending school. Unlike his grandfather, who had an iron-fisted rule and is generally selfish and lavish, Maito is a generous and humble BenevolantBoss who ''hates'' opulent spending, meaning any time his grandfather forces himself into the picture causes him no small deal of stress and annoyance.

** ''Manga/The100GirlfriendsWhoReallyReallyReallyReallyReallyLoveYou'': The morning after she joins the harem, Hahari invokes this trope by buying out Rentarou's school to become the new chairwoman. Her family is also mentioned to run several large companies across the country.

--->'''[[Comicbook/IronMan Tony Stark]]:''' Genius. Billionaire. Playboy. Philanthropist.
* Mento of Comicbook/DoomPatrol. Wealthy enough to make Franchise/{{Batman}} look middle-class, runs his own research and development firm, designed his telepathy-and-telekinesis enhancing helmet just to impress the girl of his dreams, but still puts it on and kicks butt - [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity when he isn't having some... mental health issues, that is.]]
* [[Franchise/{{Batman}} Wayne Enterprises]] and [[ComicBook/BlueBeetle Kord Industries]] are controlled by people who use their companies to do lots of good as a MegaCorp and a R & D company respectively.
** Batman's late father, Thomas Wayne, was a practicing surgeon as well as heir to the biggest fortune in Gotham City, his mother Martha was a social worker. His ancestor Solomon Wayne was a judge and one of the founders of Gotham; bonus points for him being a SelfMadeMan.
** He raises his son, Damian, to be this way as well. He’s still a kid but he’s been shown to have chores and such like a normal kid, rather than one who’s an heir to two huge fortunes.
* Herschel Clay from ''ComicBook/{{PS238}}'' is implied to be the owner and main stockholder of Clay Industries (which makes sense, [[spoiler:since he's eventually revealed to be an {{expy}} of ComicBook/IronMan]]). His day- night- and apparently only job? A janitor at a grade school, who eventually teaches a shop class as well. At a grade school for superheroes, mind you, but a janitor/shop teacher nonetheless. [[spoiler:It's eventually revealed that the entire teaching staff of the school belonged to an old superhero team and had to hang up their capes and become teachers as part of a non-disclosure agreement over an illegally elected metahuman president. Said president became the school's headmaster for good measure.]]

* In ''ComicBook/AstroCity'', Starfighter observes he doesn't need the money from his writing career, not when he's married to an empress, but [[RichBoredom he likes to keep busy.]]
* ComicBook/{{Sunspot}}, Brazilian billionaire turned [[Franchise/XMen mutant]] superhero. At one point he's deported back to Brazil and has to temporarily return to a 'regular' rich lifestyle, and he finds that he hates being idle and not helping people. When AIM, in an attempt at becoming [[VillainWithGoodPublicity an outwardly legitimate organisation whose members the Avengers couldn't legally punch in the face]], made themselves a publicly listed company, he performed a hostile takeover and basically performed a massive MookFaceTurn via bribery and far more [[BenevolentBoss pleasant management policies]], before running it as his own super-spy organisation. Even when unable to use his powers [[spoiler: without CastFromLifespan]] thanks to Terrigen poisoning, he casually runs rings around the still evil version of AIM, WHISPER (run by the Maker a.k.a. Evil Reed Richards), and SHIELD, despite being what Maria Hill described as "a lounge lizard with a nasty cough".

* Creator/HowardHughes. After he flew around the Arctic Circle, he even said, "What's that they say about the idle rich again? I must not have heard." Though born into money he greatly advanced his personal wealth by ventures into a variety of fields. First, he financed and directed ''Film/HellsAngels'' the first multi-million dollar production, and one of the most successful movies in history. Then he ventured into aviation, patenting and inventing a number of innovative concepts like powered control surfaces and grounded in rivets. As a pilot, he set numerous records, some of them in planes of his design. Hell, no one was able to build a more massive aircraft than the Spruce Goose for decades. In his later years, he became a reclusive hermit who pretty much owned Las Vegas. Many speculate if he didn't have such horrible germophobia and other mental illnesses that he would have made much more than Rockefeller.

* In ''Series/{{Castle}}'' wealthy novelist Richard Castle spends a great deal of his time [[NoBadgeNoProblem with the NYPD]], [[AmateurSleuth participating in murder investigations.]] This is initially so he can use them as source material for his books, but he grows attached to the work and also falls in love with his partner Detective Kate Beckett.

* Shinobu from ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'' is an {{Ojou}} who works as a dishwasher at the local cafe owned by her boyfriend's parents.

A SisterTrope to RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething and AffluentAscetic. Contrast SpoiledBrat; RichInDollarsPoorInSense; UpperClassTwit; IdleRich.

* BillGates left his position as CEO of Microsoft to work full time at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Would actually have qualified as this ''as'' the CEO, given that someone worth $54 ''billion'' doesn't need the work.

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* Dr. Emmett Brown of ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' was this before blowing the family fortune on his inventions. He still has enough to have a ready supply of period cash for any time. He could easily get the money back, but [[TheFettered refuses]] [[ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules to misuse time travel]]. Still, he ends up happy.

* In ''Film/TheDuellists'' Armand D'Hubert's father-in-law is introduced as a wealthy and gentlemanly old aristocrat...who happens to be a bootmaker because that's what he worked with during the French Revolution and he just doesn't feel like stopping.

* ''Manga/KenganAshura'' has Sayaka and Retsudo Katahara. Being the children of the chairman of the Kengan Association and [[Fiction500 one of the richest men in Japan]], the two can live in comfortable luxury without doing anything, but both work in the Kengan Association respectively as an announcer and TheCaptain of the security taskforce. Sayaka frequently works together with people who are far less priviledged (e.g. fellow announcer Jerry) and isn't shown to exercise any more power or authority than any regular employee with the same position. Retsudo does regularly exercise authority as a Commander, but he's more than earned his position, and he takes his duties as missions as seriously as his subordinates does--working just as hard, if not more, than them to ensure safety.

* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamIronBloodedOrphans'': This sums up Kudelia Aina Bernstein. Ever since she was a little girl, she's been interested in helping the lower classes of her poverty-stricken home of Mars. And while she's a bit naive in how the world works, one certainly cannot fault her for effort. This results in her becoming a symbol for the oppressed and a heroine of the common people, giving her a measure of political influence that she intends to use to correct the problems with her society.

* ''Manga/PumpkinScissors'': It's this part of Alice Malvin's personality that usually wins over those still consider her just another of the idle rich.

** There's also Ami/Sailor Mercury's mother Saeko, who also comes from a very wealthy family but works full time as a doctor. Ami herself intends to follow this path as well.

* In at least one of the continuities of ''Anime/TenchiMuyo'' Mihoshi might count, as in the OAV, her and her family are Nobles in Seniwa space, yet most of them still work for - and run - the Galaxy Police.

** Scrooge [=McDuck=], in any incarnation. Aside for running his own company, he cannot live without undertaking a ridiculously difficult treasure hunt or a potentially fatal adventure at least twice a week, and nearly shows signs of depression if he's idle too long. The Creator/CarlBarks comic ''The Status Seeker'', later adapted into an episode of ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'', had Scrooge deal with his rich peers looking down on him for not "acting rich."
*** Before their falling-out, Scrooge's sisters could count on his fortune... And ran the company's daily operations while Scrooge was traveling the world to become the world's richest duck. They also followed him in his travels to Panama and Africa, the latter leading to their falling out.

*** Andrew Quackett, Henry and John's father. He's a filthy rich British duke, and is known to administer his fortune personally while being involved in politics. It's implied that Henry got his work ethics from him and influenced John to get over his slacker phase.

* ''ComicBook/IronMan'': Tony Stark. Sure, he attends parties all over the world (though, for [[TheAlcoholic understandable reasons]], he no longer drinks), gambles, plays sports and dates glamourous women. Still, the other half of the time, he is either holed up [[GadgeteerGenius working on some new invention]], negotiating deals for his company (sometimes overlapping with the playtime above), ''putting on a suit of armor and kicking ass for justice'' or, sometimes, ''running major government agencies'', having been appointed once to head the Defense Department, and later to lead [=SHIELD=].

--> '''[[ComicBook/CaptainAmerica Steve Rogers]]:''' Big man in a suit of armour. Take that away and what are you?
--> '''[[Comicbook/IronMan Tony Stark]]:''' Genius. Billionaire. Playboy. Philanthropist.

* In ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/15503106/chapters/35989521 The Question Volume 01]]'' Victor Sage and Oliver Queen are teenagers who live in a small town that have an unnumbered fortune that is worth billions from tech companies that are global giants. They are so non-idle rich neither of their parents know they have that much money. The fortune was actually left to them by Richard Dragon who was non-idle rich as well have made the original investments into the newly rising tech companies decades before the present story takes place.
* Skye Stark - yes, [[Series/AgentsOfSHIELD that Skye]] - from ''Fanfic/SometimesIHateTheLifeIMade'' is the only daughter of one of the richest men in the world. She needn't ever do anything worthwhile. What does she do with her life? First, she becomes and anti-government hacker trying to hold S.H.I.E.L.D. to account, then she becomes a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent herself. The whole premise of the fic is that she is willing to pretend to be a supervillain siding with Ultron in the hope of saving lives.

* In ''Film/TheDuellists'' Armand D'Hubert's father in law is introduced as a wealthy and gentlemanly old aristocrat... Who happens to be a bootmaker because that's what he worked with during the French Revolution and he just doesnt feel like stopping.

** Another of Christie's detective, [[Literature/ParkerPyneInvestigates Parker Pyne]], is similar, though that may be due to the fees he collects from clients.

* ''Literature/BazilBroketail'': Although from the noble Tarcho family Lagdalen's also very capable of handling herself in dire situations and ready to get her hands dirty when a need arises. Most of the series has her off running around on work for the Argonath Office of Insight intelligence service with her mentor Lessis, far from the comfort of a high-class life.

* Lady Sandrilene fa Toren in the ''Literature/CircleOfMagic'' series is filthy rich, but, as a stitch witch, loves to work with cloth. Her foster-siblings Briar and Daja both start out poor but end up making money with their powers as well, and they all continue their humble work.

* In ''The Edge'' by Dick Francis, the main character has enough money not to need to work, but does anyway (as a private investigator) because he doesn't want to be useless. Turns out the villain is rich and idle.

** Harry has ''plenty'' of gold left to him from his parents in his Gringotts vault (inherited from his paternal grandparents, who were old money but his grandfather compounded the wealth by inventing and patenting several potions) but as a kid, he didn't like to rely on that cash. Therefore when he grows up, while he could have become one of the Idle Rich, he instead takes on the job of full-time Auror (Wizard Police). His wife Ginny could likewise have easily stayed at home with him and their three children, but she decides to become a Quidditch star instead and, once she retires, she keeps working as a quidditch reporter.

** The only time they had to be still was when in-hiding from the Death Eaters. James took this harder than Lily, though namely because he couldn't be with his friends (which given the subtle implications they were falling apart and how everything went to hell, is much more serious than it sounds.)
* The titular heroine of the ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' series cannily invested much of her prize-money from capturing smugglers early in her career, took advantage of the investment opportunities (among other things financing a company set to [[DomedHometown build domes over cities]] on the DeathWorld Grayson) when she was made a member of the Grayson nobility, and was awarded some rather rich territory when she became a member of the Manticoran nobility, making her one of the richest people in the Manticoran Star Empire, but she still goes to work as a military officer every day.

* Literature/JackRyan in ''Literature/TheHuntForRedOctober''. He is considered a more valuable analyst because he has tons of money he gained speculating on the stock market and tons more from marrying the daughter of a multi-millionaire (who herself works as a very high paid ophthalmologist). The reason that makes him more valuable is that this makes him invulnerable to pressure when he gives an opinion.

** Alleyn's high-bred manners tend to confuse non-police people he interacts with, especially since while he has no troubles using his inheritance for things like buying his mother an overpriced painting, he's almost religiously by the book with little regard for the sensibilities of the people he questions; correspondingly, people tend to peg him for an upper middle class background and are surprised to find he's hereditary gentry.

* A good many of the characters in the ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga''. Many are Vor nobility who devote their time to defense, administration or judging civil and criminal cases, one or two are entrepreneurs or industrialists, the Emperor's wife was a lobbyist from a family of {{Merchant Prince}}s and the commanders of the Dendarii are mercenaries. Even poor Ivan isn't really idle rich although goodness knows he tries hard enough to be.

--> '''Rossi:''' I don't have a house, I have a ''mansion''.
* Medical examiner Sid Hammerback from ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' makes millions from selling the patent on his specially-designed neck-support pillow. Not only does he keep on performing autopsies, he ''never even tells most of his co-workers'' he's become a millionaire, and gives most of the money away to a university for a forensics school.

** Mr. Stone, the head of the Board of Education. In TheMovie GrandFinale, Mr. Conklin notes that Mr. Stone not only owns a prosperous insurance company, but has left the running of it to his son.

* Harold Finch in ''Series/PersonOfInterest'', hacker, software engineer, businessman, para-legal insurance executive uses his uncounted billions to fund his own crime-fighting organisation.

* Wrestling/{{SHIMMER}} and SHINE menace Made In Sin have ditzy tendencies but tend to be ruthlessly effective at anything they set their minds to and were at least part of Valkyrie's high jacking of the latter promotion. They also like to think themselves [[LadyOfWar high-class ladies]](Wrestling/AllysinKay especially).
* The sailor [[Wrestling/DaltonCastle Ashley Remington]] of Wrestling/{{Chikara}}, who inherited a fortune from his uncle, Darkness Crabtree, and decided to use his new found wealth for the good of pro wrestling. He gives his defeated opponents fruit baskets.

** Most high-level characters have the gold to just retire and get fat. But then again, that ancient tomb isn't gonna raid itself and ''someone'' has to slay the dragon ruining the neighborhood.
* The default background for a PC in ''TabletopGame/LegendOfTheFiveRings'' is this. As members of the samurai class, no player ever needs to worry about affording food, shelter or clothing, and every samurai starts with enough money to sustain a normal person for roughly three to four months (on top of their starting gear). However, every samurai is expected to serve their Clan and the Empire in some capacity, even if it's as simple as negotiating or politicking in the court, and most have at least rudimentary combat training [[RandomEncounters just in case.]]

* ''VideoGame/TombRaider2013'' has us discover that Lara Croft learnt her first aid skills via a "late shift at The Nine Bells". While there is an in-story reason for her seeking employment, the concept of Lara Croft''', a '''literal aristocrat''', pulling pints in a dodgy boozer is rather amusing.

* ''WebAnimation/EtraChanSawIt'': [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrYQooqKDY0 Katsura]] works part-time at an convenience store despite owning several lands and is rich. He does it so that he can have something to do and show his daughter a good example.

* Athina Roussel Onassis could have easily lived from the money inherited from her maternal family, being the last living Onassis. (There's still the matter about her actually inheriting only her mother Christina's money or the whole Onassis fortune, though). She, however, is a show jumper and a sponsor/patron of the Global Champions Tour.

* Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York 2002-2014, is the 20th richest person in the world. He's also a very popular (if eminently easy to to make jokes about) and, by most accounts very effective, three-term mayor (although his connections to Wall Street and incessant nanny-state policy proposals started to chafe by the end of the third term). Also probably incorruptible, for the simple reason that it's hard to bribe a man who has $22 billion.

* Howard Hughes. After he flew around the Arctic circle he even said, "What's that they say about the idle rich again? I must not have heard." Though born into money he greatly advanced his personal wealth by ventures into a variety of fields. First, he financed and directed Film/HellsAngels the first multi-million dollar production, and one of the most successful movies of history. Then he ventured into aviation, patenting and inventing a number of innovative concepts like powered control surfaces and grounded in rivets. As a pilot he set numerous records, some of them in planes of his design. Hell, no one was able to build a more massive aircraft than the Spruce Goose for decades. In his later years, he became a reclusive hermit who pretty much owned Las Vegas. Many speculate if he didn't have such horrible germophobia and other mental illnesses that he would have made much more than Rockefeller.
** Not to mention various undercover work he did for US government, many of which remain unknown. His involvement in the Project Azorian, the secret CIA plot to steal a sunken Soviet nuclear missile submarine, is about the only such project that is reasonably well-known to this day. [[WordofGod Word of Stan Lee]] has that Tony Stark is significantly based on Hughes.

* While not to the wealth levels of some of the other examples, Joe Bryant played almost a decade with the NBA and then almost another decade in Italy. After that he coaches basketball internationally, most recently with ''Rizing Zephyr Fukuoka''. His son Kobe didn't have to play b-ball (or do much at all), but he's one of the NBA all-time greats, has contributed to various business start-ups and charitable organizations and won an Academy award for ''WesternAnimation/DearBasketball''.
* Music/BruceSpringsteen's son Sam grew up in a life of luxury thanks to his dad's extremely successful music career. Upon reaching adulthood, he trained to became a firefighter and spent several years doing the job on a volunteer basis before he secured a paid position with the Jersey City Fire Department.
* While not the wealthiest example, Creator/JackBlack does still have a net worth of 50 million dollars. While he could coast through life, or at least just focus on high paying jobs, he does still work in Voice Acting (infamous for being extremely low paying) on occasion.

This may be TruthInTelevision, especially with how some people [[SelfMadeMan earn their fortunes]], or philanthropists. Inasmuch as it contrasts the SpoiledBrat trope, it also overlaps it for the person may think wealth is not a purpose, but a tool for his or her purposes, ''even if the respective purposes may lack sense''. To study and acquire skills which are interesting, but don't pay back is an innocuous example.

** His brother-in-law also qualifies: after marrying the very rich Lady Mary, Chief Inspector Parker remains a detective. (And they even put her money into a trust for their children, just in case Parker is ever tempted.)

* In ''LightNovel/TheIrregularAtMagicHighSchool'', the engineers of [=FLT=] were initially horrified to hear [[{{Nepotism}} one of their shareholders' sons would be joining them]]. Much to their relief, he proved to be a genuinely capable and diligent boy who treats lab work as a refuge from the family that disowned him.

* While not the wealthiest example, Jack Black does still have a net worth of 50 million dollars. While he could coast through life, or at least just focus on high paying jobs, he does still work in Voice Acting (infamous for being extremely low paying) on occasion.
* Similar to Black, Weird Al has a net worth of 20 million or so, but is a regular voice actor for modern Disney cartoons (with televised animation being infamously low pay).

* Bruce Wayne in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' certainly qualifies, even more so than in other adaptations. Though he still has Lucius Fox to do most of the heavy lifting, Bruce is shown several times to be informed and active in the running of his company, catching onto one of his subordinates violating environmental protection laws, interacting congenially with day-to-day employees, and endowing many charitable causes. In the Franchise/{{DCAU}}, his reputation as a playboy is as something he does in his free time, rather than constantly, of the "[[WorkHardPlayHard work hard, play hard]]" variety.

* ''Literature/LockIn'': Chris Shane is rich enough to ruin four expensive threeps in the course of the novel. All of them are wrecked in the course of Chris' duties as an FBI agent.

* Senator H. John Heinz of Pennsylvania was an heir to the Heinz ketchup fortune. Rather than coast along on family money, he served first in the House of Representatives and then the Senate.

* Actress Creator/JuliaLouisDreyfus: Her family owns the venerable Louis Dreyfus Group, a multinational corporation worth twenty billion dollars that dates back to the 1850s; the Louis-Dreyfus clan was known in the early 20th century as one of "the five great fortunes of France". Her father, William Louis-Dreyfus, is the chairman of the company and has a personal fortune of three billion dollars. She could have spent her life not doing a damned thing; instead, she's one of the best comic actors on television (noted in the industry for being a quite demanding job), and is one of the few actresses to have anchored two well-regarded but [[Series/TheNewAdventuresOfOldChristine very]] [[Series/{{Veep}} different]] sitcoms.