To think money is mostly about luck, not effort?

Your last paragraph is not about you being lucky though. That's about you using the money you DID have wisely. Teaching yourself about personal finance and investment. There are plenty of people who come into money and fritter it or just leave it languishing in a savings account with a pathetic below-inflation interest rate. To actually maximise that money so that it works FOR you does take nouse, and effort, and care. If you're rich enough to have an accountant and a financial advisor to take care of things for you then that's another thing. But when you're an ordinary person, you're doing yourself a disservice if you think you've done nothing personally to add to your wealth.

Its often skill,hard work and luck
BiIL is good at what he does and very hard working.
he set up as a 1 man band, worked 18 hour days and maybe earnt 50k in 1st couple of years.
the 2007 crash happened, his main client headed a small regional unit of a big national company. The company then massively outsourced work and bils client then headed a massive combined office.
bils workload increased 6 fold in 2 years so he employed more people, got more work and 18 years later works 2 days a week and takes £500,000 a year out of the business.
without the work ethic and skill he would not have been in a position to take advantage of the luck that came his way.

Bad luck means even the hardworking struggle to get ahead. Good luck means the feckless can get ahead, but rarely manage to stay there.

DS has mates that weren’t focused or diligent at school or in further education, and still aren’t getting anywhere now. Spend what they have as soon as they have it. They were given better presents, had better holidays… they arrived at secondary school ahead of him and with more friends. He had challenges to overcome, changed schools and was behind starting secondary. Dyslexia of some kind.

So he wouldn’t agree with you that it’s luck.

It’s much more complicated than that. Privilege can work for or against you. Disadvantage can hamper you or hone your determination.

I have worked hard in a low paid job - 56 years old - no chance of inheritance- small mortgage - no chance of retirement will have to work until I drop - my friend same age - owns house outright in good area - plenty of savings - difference is she was left huge inheritance from her nan - she is now retired and going on lots of holidays!

to build on this really…
pit is really easy to make money when you have money. In fact you have to be particualrly stupid NOT to make more money when you have momey. Just sticking it in a bank and doing nothing earns you 4-5% interest…and thst hapoens if you were asleep or unconscious. 4-5% interest for a poorer perosnal with £1000 is £40 pounds per year let’s say, hardly make a dint in monthly shopping bill for family. But if you have £100000 that’s £4000 minus tax , say £3200 and that is a biggish dent in shopping bill…
And that’s without even doing cleverer things like investments, tax wrappers etc

i get sickened with the superior attitude of the very wealthy claiming they’ve worked so hard for their wealth…it’s bollocks…once you get wealthy even stupid and lazy people can start to multiply their wealth exponentially …or they can afford to pay an expert financial and tax consultant to do something cleverer.

So I don’t think a lot is luck..litcis down to silver spoons giving some wealthy class individuals a head start into thst money creates money cycle, or it’s about the inequality gap, where those in senior positions far outstrip proportionally what average workers are paid, and that gap has grown obscenely over last 40 years with capitalism dominating the worlds economic models. The old trickle down theory was a con.

I’ve been poor and in debt, wealthy , then poorer agian (after divorce) and now am privileged to be retired with good pension and reasonable savings. I know it’s a bloody site easier to become more wealthy when you already have surplus income. It was way more hard to manage debt or recover form debt and build up security.

yes I worked very hard when I was working, it paid bills and paid my mortgage off and allowed me to save…but it was what I did with savings that has really added to my wealth significantly..and none of that was hard work or particularly clever or down to luck. Just needed a bit of reading, some Martin Lewis, and paying it frequent attention.

Of course there’s often an element of luck - some people are fortunate to have a rich relative who dies and leaves them a couple of hundred thousand or more. But there are plenty of people - myself included - who will never see any form of inheritance.

I’m not fabulously wealthy at 55, but I own two properties with no mortgage with my DH, one is our home and the other is a flat that my 92 year old dad lives in rent free. We’ve
got the best part of 400k in investments, still currently both work full time (both 25 plus years in local government so decent pensions) although plan to retire in the next few years.

None of the above had been easy or down to luck. We’ve spent years saving every penny and paying extra off the mortgage to get to this point. It’s been very hard work - seeing others going on three foreign holidays a year and spending money like water but we had our goals and stuck to them. Life is now very comfortable and we can both retire knowing that we are not going to struggle financially. I’m glad we’ve done it but there’s been many years gone by when I’ve found it very hard to be disciplined enough to reach our goals so yes…. It’s taken a shitload of effort and absolutely no luck.

@Ilovegoldiesunless you have learning difficulties or ND, then perhaps you just feel you are not clever due to lacking confidence. Choice of career is important too. Work on your confidence and leadership skills and reevaluate your career choice.

There's always an element of luck where money is concerned. My brother earns ridiculously well and he works long hard hours for which he is rewarded well. His luck is having the 'brain' that allows him to do this. I have also worked very hard in terms of hours and physical labour but in low paid jobs, I'm just not very clever.
I earn better money now but I'll never progress as I lack confidence and leadership skills.