AIBU to be baffled by colleague on same wage living lavishly?

I’m not in the uk, I’m in the rep of Ireland.

My colleagues would say this about me. My lifestyle doesn’t match my salary, but my parents were extremely wealthy and left it all to me and my sibling when the died far too young a few years ago.

Top 2% of earners in the UK.

Only fans?

It could be a lottery win but she didn’t want the publicity of it being made public.

You never know other people's financial situations.

I work for minimum wage. My colleagues on my level all claim UC top ups. My husband is a very high earner, we unfortunately inherited a nice sum recently and we moved from the SE to a much cheaper area a few years ago with a massive amount of equity.
I work with absolutely minted people and I am happy in an entry level job which i have no desires to climb up from. I am available for the children and i have a work life balance ive always dreamed of
Nobody knows i have 2 degrees and a holiday home abroad.
The men at work were all admiring the lovely Ferrari in the car park last week, I drove it there as my little vw was being MOTed so I took my husbands car in. I could be a stay at home wife if I wanted but I would rather work. I might retire early though.

We earn 140k ish combined, not mega mega bucks but more than enough yes.

Wow you must be on mega bucks or very careful!

Possibilities:

• Foreign Spy
• Found gold bars in the attic
• Backed the winner of the national at 100:1
• Has 20 million followers on YouTube
• is a member of the Illuminati
• is a secret hand model appearing in many well known jewellery shops
• Family trust from the profits of the creator of Scrabble

....

£50k is double my salary. With an extra £2k a month in my pocket I could absolutely afford everything she is doing, and more.

She could be living wildly beyond her means, on credit, high income DH, family cash, lottery win. Or she could be prioritising holidays, weekends away, meals out. You never know op.

I bet you could scrimp some of your monthly salary and head out on a 'just because' weekend away?

My friend has a rich aunt with no children of her own that helps her a lot. She is on a similar wage to me and her family situation is the same. They have 2 houses and a nicer home than ours etc…. However, I’ve been putting a lot away for my pension, whilst she will only have a small private pension and her state pension. I have also paid for my funeral upfront and some other things to make sure my child never has to worry about finding the money for things like that. She hasn’t even given it a thought because rich aunty will leave her money

Maybe She has a high-earning partner or was able to put a big deposit down on her house so her mortgage is very small? Perhaps she’s inherited from her grandparents?

My husband and I are both public sector workers and I am part time so we only earn about £80k between us, but we live in a circa £1m house, have horses, drive two cars that we own outright, have 2 skiing holidays a year and a long-haul villa holiday in the summer. Plus our children go to a very good school and go on ALL the school trips. The secret? My obscenely wealthy (and thankfully generous) parents. As simple as that. I’m sure people have wondered about our lifestyle (we’re far from flash, but work colleagues I suppose would largely be aware of our children’s school, the holidays etc). I’m always honest if asked though, it’s not down to anything I or my husband have done, it’s just luck of being born into a wealthy family.

Secret OF account 🤣 probably inheritance or loaded hubby

Only fans?

Are you single? If not, what does your DP earn? How does that compare to hers?

You're wondering how she can afford all of this, say she's on the same salary as you, yet fail to mention the bloody obvious reason that there's a disparity between your DP's salary and her DP's. Otherwise it could be an inheritance from a grandparent or an aunt, or someone on her DP's side, or parents have helped them out wth a deposit on a house so they only have low monthly mortgage payments.

Anyway, you've disappeared now so I just wonder if you posted this purely as click bait.

I would assume her husband works, even if he makes 30k a year that is still 80k joint which is enough to have weekends away/holidays etc.

50k is a good wage. I'd expect somebody earning that to be able to go on holiday and go out for dinner at the weekend. I don't think she's that much of a jetsetter.

I also don't think there's any reason to believe she necessarily has debts.

I have passive and portfolio income streams. For anyone looking in, they may assume that I’m up to my eyeballs in debt, and/or living off my husband.

Not all money comes from a job.

She may own several BTL properties. Our income is well above our friends in similar warming brackets because of this. We've never mentioned it to anyone.

Just ask her. I wouldn’t mind if I was living the high life and someone asked me how I afforded it. Assuming I wasn’t trying to hide illegal activity I might just tell you the truth and the truth will set you free.

I worked with someone like this! Always in designer labels, self confessed Jo Malone candle addict with a huge collection, two hold a year with kids- she actually worked 0.8 while I was FT. Her husband is an artist and is extremely talented but of course income is very up and down and overall despite his obvious skill not huge. I can only assume his family have gifted them a house so nearly all their income is disposable?!

Your matching salaries don’t really mean a lot. You may have different outgoings. Husbands/partners may earn different amounts. She may have savings/inheritance.

For much of my working life Ive had a cash in hand side hustle of sime kind which added another 50%+ to what I earned through employment. Unlike your friend I seldom discussed my holidays or private life with the likes of colleagues and certainly not with neighbours. I dont post on social media or even have a public profile as it promotes jealousy.

As speculated here there could be many explanations. I personally don’t understand the obsession with what others have.

She'll have family money or something similar, she might own loads of properties with rental income- anything, just because you are colleagues doesn't mean your backgrounds will be similar.
Stop it comparison is the thief of joy.