Subtle displays of wealth and low-income in academia

Along with the disappoint every academic inevitably feels that being a professor is not all about the "life of the mind," the second most taboo subject I've noticed is money/salary amongst faculty. I know in some cases, employees are not allowed to discuss salary, but our public institution makes all faculty salaries public. But there seem to be a huge number of other codes that suggest the socio-economic class people belonged to.
But I was wondering if other people noticed subtle displays of high wealth or low incomes with their colleagues and how did you notice it?
For example, I am from a (lower) middle class family and I had a scholarship for my undergrad degree. It was a fluke that I was in general proximity when the dot com wave hit, which then allowed me to go to a prestigious graduate program, funded by a research assistanship. To be honest, I never knew my family was "poor' until I was much older.
So there was a big learning curve - in addition to the field I was in - to essentially adopt some of the more priviledged ways of knowing (and likewise, being able to make an informed choice if I decided to resist it). For example, I never knew anyone who would hire someone to clean their house when I was growing up. My parents took care of us the best we could but they hadn't save for their children's college fund.
An ex of mine (who's still a good friend) made a nice chunk of change with his business and from a family that had done well, and he would always wear hoodies & tennis shoes, but he never wore slacks that were less than $800-1000 and they were always impeccably tailored and wore very expensive watches. He enjoyed looking casual but he said that other business people would recognize the cost of his wardrobe and accessories without having to point them out and they would immediately know he was successful.
In another case, a friend in grad school was one of the nicest, kindest people I met - she stayed with me for three days after my precious kitty passed to help me through the grief - and she seemed like any other grad student, coming to potlucks to save money, etc. When I had to go to a conference back east in a city that has high hotel rates (and grad students had limited funding), so said I was welcome at a place her family had. When I got to the place, it was essentially a penthouse...although I don't really know, the closest I had ever come to a penthouse before was a publisher's party. Later, another friend said that she was from a hugely wealthy family, but never talked about it.
I had come across some awful, entitled people before and generally thought the rich to be insufferable fools, and it was a major learning lesson for me.
On the other hand, there seems to be a converse situation where people want to display how little they make, as though it's a badge of honor to have a meager salary. I'm not talking about hardworking adjuncts or instructors who are grossly underpaid by the university, even though they do outstanding work with few resources. I'm talking about the loud mouth fellow faculty who loudly proclaim (complain) that they can't afford the cost of repairing their car or they have to clip coupons. I should say the ones who spout out "Well, I could be making more but then I'd be selling out." When I hear them say this, I wonder if they are trying to assert some type of authenticity to being poor or that they are too smart to worry about things so trifling as money.
There's a whole range of people who were rich and creepy/arrogant and had low-income and were nice. I was just thinking of the aberrations that were clear examples. 
What are some of the codes you've noticed?