Man divides internet by creating Forbes-style rich list for his friends

A real estate investor has whipped up a storm on social media by revealing that he’s created a spreadsheet of his friends’ income, relationship status and other personal details.

Tom Cruz (@tcruznc) shared his very own “Forbes Friend List” on TikTok, which ranked his pals by income: from “Shawn, my top earning friend who makes over $5 million, to who we call ‘Broke Bob’ who makes $125,000.”

Cruz explained that he and his mates had devised the chart – inspired by Forbes magazine’s annual ranking of the wealthiest people in the world – to help them plan outings together.

Details in the spreadsheet include how much paid time off each person has, their marital status, and how much they are willing to spend on a seven day trip.

It also sets out whether they’d be keen to share a private jet to travel somewhere, whether they’d be willing to visit a “third world destination”, and whether they’re “degenerate gamblers or not”.

The TikToker wrote in a caption to the clip that they all “still hang out regardless of income”. However, he added: “It allows us to avoid awkward situations within our friend group – inviting certain friends that may not want to do what we want to do, especially when it comes to gambling or spending a lot of money.”

He stressed that a lot of his friends found the “pragmatic” list “very  motivational,” adding: “It works for us.”

But thousands of viewers of the video were not convinced, with one branding it “as shallow as shallow gets”, and another saying: “Imagine setting up a class system inside your friend group.”

Cruz eventually deleted the clip from his TikTok account, but it was widely shared on Twitter, after user Karim Alammuri posted it with the caption: “What in the wealth is this?”

A number of users focused on “Broke Bob” pointing out that most people can only dream of earning $125,000 (around £91,400) a year:

Others honed in on other parts of the spreadsheet, including the description of one friend’s relationship status as “70% single”:

Meanwhile, others condemned Cruz for posting his friends’ personal details on social media:

Still, one commentator was more understanding, describing the list as a “dope concept”.

But, he added: “Personally [I] wouldn’t be comfortable giving out that much information even to friends. My full name, my annual income, my pto, my bonuses, & my gambling habits? That’s a lot of personal information to share, I’m sorry. I don’t trust [anybody] that much.”

Cruz introduced his followers to the ‘Welfare 10’ in a subsequent video @tcruznc/TikTok

Despite deleting the original clip from his TikTok account, Cruz went on to post a follow up video listing his lowest earning friends, “who call themselves the Welfare 10”.

In the video, which was still available at the time of writing, he pointed out that a couple of them are unemployed, and all of them earn under $100,000.

"We don’t even do a seven-day trip here, it’s mostly three day trips, a couple of them are already tapped out,” he explained.

However, this version of the spreadsheet featured some new columns, including whether or not they were happy to eat at “non-chain restaurants” and if they “have the ability to do first class for hotels or flights”.

Cruz went on to stress: "Big thing to note, I don’t care about my friends’ income, it’s just very helpful when we are planning day trips or road trips to see where everyone’s at money-wise.”

One fellow TikToker was so dumbfounded they asked explicitly: “Is this satire?”

Cruz responded simply: “No.”