To think most rich people don’t understand how the rest of us live?

That makes no sense at all. The more curious you are about other people and the lives they lead, the more you talk and listen to those outside your lane, the more knowledge you accrue and the broader your mind becomes. Sitting in your bubble with your blinkers on leads to a very narrow outlook. Doesn't matter where you sit in society, you are dependent on other people within it for one reason or another and so their lives and concerns will impact you.

Yeah, I have a friend like this. She's lovely but utterly oblivious to the concept of being skint. On the day I was busy receiving a charity grant from Women's Aid to put towards a deposit on a rental property so I could escape my abusive marriage, she was musing in the group chat about whether to buy a pony or a reformer Pilates machine. She also posts regularly about her and her husband's massive pension pots and savings and sends Rightmove links to £1 million houses (not exaggerating) and asks for opinions on whether they're big enough for her completely normal sized family.

The other day she said something about her shock at finding out a friend was in several grands worth of debt, the entire concept of it was just completely alien to her. I'm happy that she's comfortable and I'd never say anything because it's not her fault, but as someone who's never had it easily financially, it does grate on me sometimes.

You really need to stop wasting time on TikTok reels, or whatever platform, or paying attention to interviews with “influencers”.

I can assure you that in real life, the people who actually have money, or are
perceived as wealthy, aren’t out here telling other people to “just go buy a flat” or “go traveling.” That’s not how it works outside of social media illusions

If they’ve got two kids then generally (except in a very few tragic circumstances) those two children have at least one other parent, and that parent will also receive child benefit and top up benefits, not to mention subsidised childcare and council tax discount. Just a quick benefits calc gives about £1700 a month UC entitlement, giving that poor mum £46k a year. Rich, right?

I think a lot of people lack empathy in general. And empathy when you haven’t actually been in that situation is even harder, for some.

No, some people on very low incomes get benefits and some of those people may live in council housing. You really think people on incomes lower than 100K are getting an easy ride of things because they receive some support and don't need to pay for repairs to what are often shitty housing conditions?

Haven't read the whole thread but this doesn't seem true of the current Cabinet at least - good proportion of them grew up in poverty, or at least very modest circumstances eg. Starmer

I think the crux is caring too much what other people say or do. That, IMO, is the small mindset.

I agree with this.

Here's an example.

Last week, the government announced a £3.5k grant to encourage people to buy an electric car. So a selection of new cars are now getting a £3k discount. But that's still assuming that someone has the remaining £25-30k available to pay for a new car!

I'm in need of a new car, but there's bugger all incentives available on used cars, so I'm sticking with my current one until it dies!

It's like the 'incentives' to get people to pay for an air source heat pump. It's all very well if you have the money upfront, but if im faced with a choice of £5k for a boiler, or £15k for a heat pump that's discuonted by £2k, i'm still going to go for the boiler!

The person on the higher wage will have housing security, and will be paying more into a private pension, and is not at the mercy of various governments mixing up the benefits system, and freedom of choice, ultimately. Where to live, what to prioritise.
I'd rather have the 900 and feel a tad hard done by than live at the mercy of the government and landlords forever. But thats just me. (Although I appreciate im coming from the angle of growing up in low wage communities and am now on a decent wage myself, and I spend every day grateful for the money that is in my bank account, rather than obsessing over what isnt)

Why would it matter how much my shoes cost (or were listed at) when i was giving advice? I buy loads in TKMaxx and have got £400 boots which cost nowhere near that, and I’d advise eating porridge for lots of reasons, one of them being cheap, filling and easy to prep.

We used to take the kids blackberry picking, apple scrumping, picking cobnuts and grew a few bits in tubs in the (yes, we were lucky to have one) garden. My mum used to do similar, otherwise we'd rarely have had fruit.

I have never heard a rich person say what you’ve indicated in your OP!

Sorry, but most of us in the West are rich by global standards compared to the other 8 billion people. And then whine about all the other small percentage of people globally who are richer than us. People always look one notch above themselves, rather than showing empathy towards the vast majority of the world below themselves. So be grateful for what you do have and not envious of what you do not!

How can they save it when they need it to pay off the credit card?

Any fool can spend all the money they have, no matter how much, and then moan about being hard up.

Agreed. I'm certainly not on £100k, but I earn above the average and I know full well that I am extremely fortunate. Yes, I'm still down to pennies at the end of the month, but if I needed to change that I absolutely could: I could take DD out of her after school clubs, I could start shopping in Iceland and Lidl instead of Sainsburys, I could never get a takeaway coffee, I could stop buying any alcohol, I could cancel my Disney+ subscription... the list goes on. Higher earners often lose sight of what's actually an essential and think that they don't have any spare money when in actual fact, they just spend it on non-essentials.

It doesnt matter if they earned it personally. Somebody earned it at some point or it wouldn't be there. There isn't such thing as unearned money. Even if they inherited it their parents earned it for them as anyone would for their kids

That is the crux of every issue, really, isn’t it - people not caring about anyone else. What a small mindset to have.

Yes, i've had don't rent get a mortgage, then i say I can't get a mortgage as I can't save a deposit and I have debts, why do you have debts and surely you can put a bit away each month, because I can't afford to live on the money I earn, why not you earn above the minimum wage - I get so frustrated

Im juggling money every month just to keep my head above water, I feel like i'm drowning and when I think I have a handle on it something else comes along and it's like 'ha ha, not this month sista!'

I think it depends if the rich people earned the money themselves or married into it or inherited it. Anyone who had to work to get where they are, no matter how rich, will remember the struggle. I do find that women who have never worked a day in their life can be very judgemental and clueless. As for those who simply inherited...well, they really can't relate at all.

"Rich" is also relative. I also think that by nature, some people just lack empathy and cannot imagine how anyone's life could be different than their own or why anyone would make different choices, etc.

But if Vimes had had a rich friend, someone to give him good advice, then he would have borrowed £50 for the good boots and, even paying back at a high 50% interest rate, could have paid them off in seven or so years (probably sooner as we’d expect a pay rise somewhere along the lines, certainly in the modern equivalent). That would have been the rich person’s advice and would have not only given Vimes a great pair of boots, but also saved him a considerable amount of money. I actually did that when i was younger and used to walk to work in all weathers because there was no public transport. My boss asked why didn’t I just borrow the money to buy a bike, and i did which made my 10pm finish commute home feel much safer.

This is an interesting example actually.

Assuming both are single and work full time:

• Person on 26k would have £650 left per month after taxes and rent, but they are entitled to £210 per month in benefits, so 860 total. With renting they don't have any renovation/repair costs.
• Person on 70k would have £1760 left after tax and mortgage but also have costs of property maintenance.

So it's only 900 per month difference for almost three times higher salary. Yes, 900 isn't a tiny amount, but still.

Before you jump about having property paid off eventually - yes of course, but benefits will pay rent for the first person when they retire.

You don't get it, do you? If you can afford to send a child to private school, even if you're doing it on a scholarship, you are not broke. Broke is a different category altogether and until you've been there you don't understand how frightening, depressing and exhausting it is.

But then does that not mean that when they do finally pay, you have a great week with unexpected income? And then why not save that so that you don’t have the situation again?
That’s the bit I don’t get, doesn’t it all work itself out in the end?

You're forgetting the influence of a peer group that probably doesn't learn this. I've had a lot of friends and colleagues who went to public schools, some of them to very big public schools and what they have in common is that they find people who are broke irritating and genuinely think of themselves as special because they always had plenty of money and the best of everything.