The number of must-have items the super-rich covet just seems to keep growing. Click or scroll through some of the current status symbols the world’s wealthiest just have to own, including the latest digital craze.

Mansions have always been a pretty good indicator of a person’s wealth, but recently micro-mansions have become all the rage among the wealthy. They may be small in size but they're packed with state-of-the-art gadgets. Some go deep underground too. The one pictured is the Flex House in Zurich, Switzerland and was created by Evolution Design. It boasts panoramic views of the city, floor-to-ceiling glass panels, a spacious veranda and, of course, the "look at me" status.

It’s expensive to raise kids anywhere, but for the wealthy there are certain expectations, including paying for a first-class education. From top private schools to full-time childcare, and sometimes multiple nannies, education is often a status thing for the wealthiest families. From the Kardashians to the royals, if you really want to flaunt your wealth, your child's school is a key indicator.

Memberships of exclusive bars, gyms, golf clubs, cruise ships and hotels has always been, and continues to be, a clear sign of a high-flyer.

Another new symbol of being part of this elite group is multiple passports. The wealthy are now investing in other countries in exchange for citizenship, in what has been dubbed 'black American Express syndrome'. Achieved through Citizenship by Investment Programs (CIPs), the super-rich can acquire passports by a host of means, including buying property and investing in enterprise projects. As well as showing off to fellow ultra-wealthies, two or three passports provide easier travel access to other countries, diverse business opportunities and useful tax planning strategies.

If you’ve got so much money you’re not sure what to do with it all, then investing it is usually a good place to start. But for those who really want status, buying Class A stocks in companies such as Berkshire Hathaway has become the ultimate symbol of wealth. Why? The price of one share will currently cost you a cool $380,000 (as of 24 March).

To get one of these titanium cards you’ll need to be invited to apply for one. While American Express is selective about what it takes to get an invitation it’s thought you need to spend at least $250,000 per year. Once approved, the initiation fee will set you back between $5,000 and $7,500 and after that there’s a $2,500 annual fee. This plastic certainly doesn't come cheap.

Alternative transport has become one of the biggest status symbols as the super-rich cast aside their Lamborghinis in favor of Teslas and other electric cars with increasingly high performance. The new Tesla Roadster 2020 (pictured) will be the world's fastest car, with a top speed of over 250mph, when it goes on sale. However, while it was meant to be ready to buy in 2020, the supercar has now been delayed until 2022. The car, which is expected to have a $250,000 price tag, has apparently not been pushed back by coronavirus but because Tesla has been focusing its attention on other car models first.

And it's not just the adults that want an expensive set of wheels. Cars for kids aren't only popular, but also very expensive. Vintage, child-size cars such as the Ferrari pictured are proving popular among collectors and cost between $10,000 and $80,000. That's some spend for a toy!

Private islands are becoming more and more popular for the elite, and particularly so during a global pandemic. Some of the best private islands in the world are up for sale for anywhere from $400,000 to over $64 million. 

But to get there, you’re obviously going to need your own private jet. From Bill Gates' extensive private jet collection to Kylie Jenner's $72.8 million pink Kylie Air jet, private air travel has long been a must-have of the super-rich for its ease, speed and status. One company, the Aerion Corporation, took its first order in 2016 for its $110 million supersonic private jets, which carry up to 12 passengers at one and a half times the speed of sound, and cut flight times from London to New York to less than three hours. Jealous? Well don’t worry as they won't be in the air until 2023, so you’ve still got a couple more years to get saving. 

While the pandemic has put travel on the backburner (and increased the use of private jets), in normal times when the wealthy fly then first-class is the only option. One of the ultimate status symbols is getting your hands on an AAirpass, which provides you with unlimited first-class travel for your entire life. Membership starts from $10,000 per person.

Like many things on this list both money and power are the key to receiving the best perks and the same goes for limited-edition luxury cars. Just 106 of these McLaren Speedtails were made ready for dispatch in early 2020, but all of them had already been bought in advance for $2.27 million apiece by the super-wealthy. The hybrid hypercar has self-tinting electrochromic glass, airplane ailerons at the rear and your name woven into the carbon fiber body, as well as many other impressive details.

For the super-rich, it is quite possible (and as it turns out, increasingly common) to purchase your very own private submarine. This became a reality in 2013 when the ‘Spymaster Orcasub’ (pictured) went on sale at Harrods for around $9 million – although there is a ‘cheaper’ $3 million version available too. This extravagant toy will allow you to remain underwater for 80 hours, traveling as far as 6,000 feet under the ocean.

Submarines might by the new way for the mega-rich to travel, but superyachts aren’t going anywhere. Wealthy CEOs, Russian oligarchs and Saudi royalty all want their own superyacht as a way of flashing their status, and they don’t come cheap. One of the world’s most expensive superyachts, the History Supreme, was made in 2018, and is worth $3.6 billion. Covered with 100,000kg of gold, platinum and jewels, and with a $88,000 dinosaur bone in the bathroom, you perhaps can understand why.

No longer content with a multimillion-dollar mansion (and mini-mansion), now the super-rich are ploughing money into underground bunkers for "ultimate survival". Able to withstand a nuclear blast, armed attacks, earthquakes and tsunamis, and pandemics, hardened facilities such as the Vivos Europa One (pictured) in Germany will keep its billionaire owners safe. This particular one is a five-star, invite-only survival complex, and is valued at around $1 billion.

The super-rich are the first in line for the latest tech. For example, Segway, Ninebot and Intel joined forces to create the Segway LOOMO, which acts as a hoverboard but can also be instructed via voice command to follow you, park up on its own, and even learn new tricks that you teach it. It currently retails for $1,499.99 in the US, or £2,069 in the UK.

As billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson compete to launch and then dominate the commercial space travel sector, there are plenty of super-rich people ready to pay for a space flight in advance. Billionaire Jared Isaacman, founder of Shift4 Payments, has spent millions on buying the first SpaceX flight, which is currently scheduled for later this year. Isaacman has bought four tickets, giving away three of them to a health care worker, raffle winner, and a business owner who uses Shift4 Payments to accompany him on the historic flight. Virgin Galactic has been selling tickets for flights on its SpaceShipTwo, a spaceplane designed to carry six passengers and two pilots, for $250,000 each, although the flight date keeps changing. Currently Virgin Galactic passengers could hit outer space this year. Jeff Bezos is also hoping to send tourists to space through his Blue Origin company soon, after another successful test flight this January. Tickets are thought to cost $200,000.

For the super-rich who have everything they need on Earth, items from outer space hold great allure too. In fact, the great interest in meteorites from rich and famous collectors has meant that the rocks have gone up dramatically in price. Film director Stephen Spielberg and Elon Musk are both said to be meteorite collectors, and Indian millionaire Naveen Jain has the largest private meteorite collection, which is currently worth $5 million. In February an auction of 75 meteorites at Christie's auction house generated millions. The top lot was the fourth largest slice of the moon that likely fell to Earth after an asteroid or comet hit it; it sold for $525,000. Pictured is a Muonionalusta meteorite, formed deep in the iron core of an asteroid that resided between Mars and Jupiter, that has since been fashioned into a sphere. It sold for $350,000, more than 19 times its top estimate of $19,000, at the Christie's auction.

You don’t have to be a child to enjoy a treehouse anymore. Adults are building luxury condos in trees all over the place. But, of course, these come with a hefty price tag. A garden hideout like the above will cost some $200,000, and this is at the cheaper end of the scale!

In Spain, meanwhile, ancient olive trees have a rich cultural significance, meaning the wealthy have started snapping them up for as much as $40,000. You can even build your own bespoke enchanted forest – there are plenty of companies out there waiting to plant these (and other) ready-matured heritage trees for you. Other choices include Yews, for around $47,000, and American Sweet Gums for $33,000.

No longer solely the realm of museums, a growing number of wealthy individuals have bought dinosaurs for their private collections. Stan the T-rex (pictured) is one of the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeletons ever found, and went up for auction in October 2020. With an estimated sale price of around $8 million, Stan was expected to become one of the most expensive dinosaurs ever sold. In fact, Stan defied all predictions and sold for a whopping $31.9 million, the highest price ever achieved by a fossil. However, the sale to an unknown, private bidder upset the scientific community, with Tyrannosaurus expert Thomas Carr describing it as "terrible for science".

Last month, Canadian singer and artist Grimes (pictured with partner Elon Musk) sold 10 pieces of digital 'cryptoart', which she had made with her brother Mac Boucher, in an auction that generated $5.8 million in sales in total. Some pieces were sold as editions, and two video pieces both sold 300 copies for $7,500 each. The huge figure generated by the online auction is all the more surprising as the art doesn't actual exist in the physical world and other people can copy and share the works online as copyright is not included in the sale. However, the art is sold as non-fungible tokens (NFT), a branch of cryptocurrency that acts as a digital certificate, and means that buyers know that they own the authentic version of the work, which gives them the social kudos of 'owning' the piece.

And there's a bit of an NFT art boom happening, as on 11 March records were set when artist Mike Winkelmann, who is known as Beeple, sold a piece of his work via NFTs for $69.3 million in the first-ever auction of just digital art held by Christie's. It's the highest-value NFT sale to date. The work was a collage of 5,000 digital pieces he had made over more than 13 years, posting one piece online everyday since 1 May 2007. It is called EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS. But it's not just art that NFTs are allowing people to buy into...

This month Twitter's co-founder sold off his first ever Tweet using NFTs. Sold to a Mr Estavi, the chief executive of technology of Bridge Oracle for $2.9 million, the proceeds of the sale of the Tweet, which said "just setting up my twttr", are going to charity. Some questioned how the Tweet had been bought if it was still visible on the social media platform and could be shared, but as with Grimes and Beeple's artwork the sale was by NFT, meaning that Mr Estavi receives a certificate, digitally signed and verified by Jack Dorsey, as well as the Tweet's original metadata, but it remains on Twitter. Tweeting after the sale, Mr Estavi likened the purchase to buying the Mona Lisa. 

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