To think this is classed as being wealthy?

I’d call that ‘comfortably off’ - not ‘wealthy’.

Yes they're wealthy.

Definitely not wealthy, that would mean not having to worry about money at all and being mortgage free. 500k would just about get a modest 2/3 bed terrace in near me or a nice sized 2 bed flat. 50k in savings although nice is only a couple of years of living expenses, it’s not enough to never work again.

Wealthy for me would be a large 4/5 bed detached house in a nice area and enough in savings/secure income to have a few nice holidays a year, eat out a couple of times a week, run a car, do home maintenance as required etc without worrying about the cost.

However it doesn’t matter what your friends say, like others have said they are trying to sympathise with your friends drop in income / financial security which sounds like it will be significant if she had a higher earning partner pre-divorce.

It depends who your peers are.....

So your friends have upset you but I suspect they were trying to empathise with the newly divorced mum - it's not all about you, other people are allowed to have sympathy - would you rather they excluded you from certain conversations? Do they know you have massive debts and no savings? I know the financial situation of some of my friends but not all. I'm quite sure it isn't foremost in my mind either unless they are going through some financial upheaval.

You can't include the parents in her wealth, they're separate people with separate finances. I'd say she is comfortable.

I’d say not wealthy but maybe comfortable. Wealthy is a whole other league. Why compare yourself anyway. Be happy with who you are and what you’ve got or make changes that will make you happy. Others will always have more, others will always have less. It doesn’t matter.

very very comfortable

Another one saying comfortable rather than wealthy. I live in an average to low wealth city, in the suburbs which are more wealthy (comfortable). £500k would get you a very decent 4 bedroom house overlooking one of the local lakes. But if you are a single parent, particularly to a young child requiring childcare, and have a big mortgage, £75k is not as much as you think.

Sounds like comfortable rather than wealthy - their parents sound fairly wealthy but not really enough information to gauge that either. Depends to some extent on age too.
Definitely wealthier than most people though. Maybe top 10% (no idea) but not top 1% or above, which would be more where I would think using the term 'wealthy' would start to be appropriate.

Wealthy no.
Comfortable yes.

It depends on how much their mortgage is. If £450k of the house is mortgaged, no, but if they only owe £50k on it, yes.

Half of people in the UK have no savings at all and (iirc) the average amount in savings is about £10k or something. Having £50k in the bank and an income well above average is a pretty good place to be in, financially speaking.

Agreed. This sounds like 'comfortably off' to me.

I'd say well off. To me wealthy means house over 1m, landowner, massive salary or old money types. It's subjective though.

I would class that as comfortable rather than wealthy. You still need to budget on a £75k income so income would have to bd over £100-£150k for me to consider someone wealthy (not me ).

I suppose parental wealth IS relevant to those who think in terms of the 'bank of mum and dad'. The actual offspring might not benefit from it, but their 'friends and acquaintances' often assume they do.

A college fund?
So you dont live in the Uk although you quote £s and ISAs

I do live in uk. I refer to it as a "college" fund because when we started it our financial advisor was of us origin and referred to it as that and it stuck!! Also it seems less common in the uk to have a specific fund for uni fees so there isn't really a term for it in the uk.

Parental property irrelevant. No guarantee of inheriting it. No info here on equity in the house or size of mortgage repayment. An income of £75K is indicative of a successful career, but as a single parent with a mortgage, this person might have little disposable income.

Comfortable yes, wealthy no. Wealthy imo is being rich enough to comfortably live off of your assets.

High income is useful for building wealth, but is not an indicator of wealth it itself because you rely on someone else for that paycheck, and a lot of high earners completely burn through their paychecks every month, especially in expensive areas. They never actually use that tool to build wealth.

Parental wealth is helpful as a safety net, but not as an indicator of one’s own financial situation. That money could all be willed to a donkey charity.

I wouldn’t label other people or describe my situation as ‘wealthy’ as it’s judgemental and has obviously led to a dispute.
Everyone compares themselves to others and it depends upon what they’re used to having and their disposable income.
£75000 is a higher income though saying that!

To me wealthy means you don’t need to work. I’d say you were comfortable. Parents houses are irrelevant.

It is about the same as you would get on some working benefits with children and a high London rent/childcare. We saw that when someone posted their working benefit income on another thread and it was over £4k a month (take home and £75k is just over 4k take-home)

It's very hard to feel wealthy in London. You'd be struggling to buy anything more than a one-bed flat on that salary. That for most people does not look like wealthy.

A £75k salary is "not particularly high"? Really? Even in London, what you say is not true.

According to the Office for National Statistics, that puts her at the 90th percentile for all full time female employees in London.

She earns more than 90% of all female full-time employees in London. Or, in other words, she is one of the top 10% earning women in London.

I'm similar and no I'm not wealthy at all. I'm comfortable but not wealthy.

And when I split from my ex and became a single mom I felt the drop in income.

I grew up in poverty. I know what it's like to not have food or even toilet paper. I still feel financial strain. I'm far from where I was but I also now how a mortgage and a child and have less money than I once did.

I could easily look at what you have though and my childhood self would see you as wealthy.

It's all relative to our experiences.