NEW YORK

The trip was an exercise in luxuriant male bonding. Tachman, who is 38, and his friends got around by private jet, helicopter, Hummer limousine, Ferraris and Lamborghinis; stayed in VIP rooms at Casa Casuarina, the South Beach hotel that was formerly Gianni Versace's mansion, and played "extreme adventure paintball" with former agents of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

Tachman, a manager for a company that executes trades for hedge funds and the owner of "a handful" of buildings in New York, said he has not felt the need to cut back.

"I always feel like there's a sword of Damocles over my head, like it could all come crashing down at any time," he said. "But there's always going to be people who are trading, and there's always going to be a demand for real estate in New York."

He is hardly alone in his eagerness to keep spending. Many businesses that cater to the super-rich report that clients -- many of them traders and private equity investors whose work is tied to Wall Street -- are still splurging on multimillion-dollar Manhattan apartments, custom-built yachts, contemporary art and lavish parties.

Buyers this year have already closed on 71 Manhattan apartments that cost more than $10 million, compared with 17 apartments in that price range during all of 2007. This month, a New York art dealer paid a record $1.6 million for an Edward Weston photograph at Sotheby's. And the GoldBar, a downtown lounge, reports that bankers continue to order $3,000 bottles of Remy Martin Louis XIII cognac.

"When times get tough, the smart spend money," said David Monn, an event planner who is organizing a black-tie party on May 10 for dignitaries and recent purchasers of apartments at the Plaza Hotel; the average price there was $7 million. "Short of our country going on food stamps, I don't think we're doing anything differently."

Many extreme spenders say they have not cut back on their impulse Bentley or apartment purchases because they have made so much money in the good times from the Internet, stock market and real estate. Some have been able to move their money into investments like private equity that are only available to those with extensive capital. Some rationalize cars and home renovations as "investments." And some simply don't want to skimp on the weddings and anniversary parties that they see as milestone events.

"We're trying to spend on what we feel is important," said Victor Self, an executive with a fitness company who, with his partner, is planning to spend $100,000 on a commitment ceremony in St. Barts and a dessert party for 200 to 300 guests at Jeffrey, a clothing retailer in the meatpacking district.

Many economists warn that the nation's financial troubles may spread far more widely and could, ultimately, touch even the wealthiest. The financial sector could lose as many as 20,000 jobs by the end of 2009, according to the Independent Budget Office of New York City. And at a March 18 policy meeting, Federal Reserve board members raised the possibility of a "prolonged and severe economic downturn," recently released minutes show. That threat has undoubtedly caused plenty of affluent people to consider some degree of frugality.

But that still leaves plenty who are consuming away, and one of the things New Yorkers love to consume is real estate. In October, Marc Sperling, the 36-year old president of an equity-trading company, bought a new condo on the Upper West Side in a building where four-bedroom apartments like his cost more than $4 million. When he moves into the completed building next year, he plans to hold on to his other two apartments in Murray Hill and Miami -- each of which he values at about $2.5 million apiece.

Sperling views the recession as a temporary problem, and is grateful that it has yet to affect him. "I think if you have the means to ride it out, that's what you do," he said.

His view of the subprime mortgage crisis seemed to reflect a sort of inverse class resentment.

"I don't want to sound harsh, but the people who were buying million-dollar houses with a combined household income of $70,000 or $80,000 were the ones who were chasing easy money," he said.

Days before the collapse of Bear Stearns, the bank's chairman, James E. Cayne, paid $25 million for a 14th-floor condo at the Plaza Hotel.

He is also invited to a May 10th party that Monn, the event planner, is billing a "voluptuous" affair to celebrate the new buyers and the reopening of the Plaza. It will feature a dozen female string musicians painted to look like statues and clothed in dresses of fresh flowers, like roses and gardenias. There will be caviar and cognac bars, as well as a buffet designed to visually replicate Dutch Master paintings from the recent Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibit.

Even high-end rentals are going at a fast pace. In just three weeks since it arrived on the market, a four-bedroom apartment at 15 Central Park West advertised for $55,000 a month has gone to contract. The broker, Roberta Golubock with Sotheby's International Realty, said she showed the apartment to eight financially qualified prospects.

Eric Lepeingle, a yacht salesman for the Rodriguez Group, said that since January, three New Yorkers bought yachts worth $8 million to $35 million. Although the weak dollar does give some pause to buyers considering Italian-built yachts, Lepeingle said they eventually give in. "They want the product anyway," he explained.

All sorts of products, actually.

"They want their Jeroboam, or Methuselah, or Nebuchadnezzar," said Ronnie Madra, referring to the sizes of champagne bottles served at 1OAK, a lounge on West 17th Street where he is a part-owner. A Nebuchadnezzar, weighing in at 15 liters, costs up to $35,000.

There would be no Nebuchadnezzar for Tachman and his friends in Miami, but they somehow soldiered on until the moment the wheels of their private jet returned to the tarmac of New York.

There were hand-rolled cigars, massages, guided rides in racing boats and fighter jets -- all arranged by In The Know Experiences, a travel and concierge service in Manhattan.

"It was just all out -- it was insane," said Tachman. "I'm not afraid to spend money like that."