AIBU to think my adult life is average rather than privileged?

That's because on £71,000 you're going to end up with a fairly unprofessional butler.

Clearly it does for you.

Imagine working in finance and not knowing how to do a bit of research on your own about how many in the rest of the country ... and world ... lives out side your safe little bubble. Instead, you find mumsnet and pretend to not have a clue that you might be rather privileged.

This is fascinating.
I grew up on a council estate. In my "bubble" it wasnt irregular to be out at 16/17.
Then we werent our parents financial responsibility and we had to fend for ourselves.
No financial input from then onwards.

I think both your and my experience are different ends of the scale that dont represent the norm, even if we both know of quite a few others in similar positions.

Maybe their butler omits the grimmer parts when reading it out loud to them over breakfast.

Why do you care about how others are in relation to you?
Obviously you know what the average wages are in the UK
And the reality of life on minimum wage and benefits
So you can do your own comparisons.
Seems like you're looking at people that have better circumstances than you.
It's all relative right?

It’s the circles you live in. You are privileged.

Nobody I know has gifted their children a house or a deposit on a home.

Many are just getting by and feeling the pinch on COL.

Believe it or not, most people don’t ever get a Costa or Starbucks and only eat out on Groupon offers.
How the other half lives eh OP?

Yes you are privileged.

clearly not intelligent though

Blimey you've been very very well looked after - 50k handout and 2k or 3k gifts every year? I know a couple of people who had help from their parents to get on the housing ladder but nothing like this. Thing is most people do not have anything like this and i expect you're gonna get roasted on here with this post. You are priviliged and you do earn much more than average.

Come on guys, if this was genuine the OP would have had to have not read a newspaper, watched the news, listened to the radio or even read Mumsnet for at least a decade.

It's a wind up post.

This is rage baiting, right?

OP, it is privileged and not at all average. I don't know anyone, whose parents gifted them £50K for a house and give them thousands for a holiday each year.

If you have friends that are the same as you then they are privileged too.

OP you seem to be average/below average relative to those around you which irks you so you are trying to make yourself feel better by inviting reactions from people who have not had your advantages so that you can feel reassured/superior. Your responses to posts are painfully disingenuous. Either that or you are just very emotionally and intellectually dim despite having what I assume was a decent education.

OP, have a watch of this. It helps define wealth across the world.

you are incredibly privileged, as many of us are, but if you don't know the reality of how many people across the world live it can be too easy to lose sight of that truth. Remind yourself once in a while and count your blessings, you'll feel a lot better.

Prepared to be told otherwise

I don't think you are, OP.

YABU. Stop boasting and get a life.

Haha hilarious. I would say I was very privileged and we earn less than you, no help towards house deposit (don't own a house) no generous yearly financial gifts...but we can pay bills and eat with a small margin left over, our kids are happy and getting an education, we have the great good luck that they are so far healthy, and we live in a safe place. That is privilege. You are very privileged. "I have friends who are richer than me" doesn't change that. I'm honestly a bit shocked that the stuff about council housing is news to you tbh, maybe you should take more of an interest in things outside your immediate range of experience.

Therefore, you're from an over-privileged background AND have similarly over-privileged friends.

Not a single one of my friends got subbed by parents when buying their first home. My dad was a coal miner, so not even my parents owned their own home. You need to cast your eyes and mind around and see that life for a lot of people is one long fucking struggle.

Well aren't you lucky. Sorry I'm all out of medals.

I consider myself extremely privileged because I will inherit a property. Thanks to my dad who did a horrible stressful job to give his family a decent quality of life. Sadly he died when I was 13.

Day to day I'm totally broke. And I would rather not experience losing my mum than have a property anyway.

Perhaps the OP should volunteer to be a participant in the TV programme "Rich House, Poor House"

Might learn a thing or two . . .

Is this satire? 😅

@Finchell If you look at what privilege actually means: Unearned advantage, not available to others.

Privileged doesn't even have to mean above average, or hugely wealthy etc. etc.

The fact is that anyone who has received financial help, in any form, is financially privileged because it was unearned by yourself, an advantage, and not available to others. Clearly extents and circumstances vary hugely.

It was hurtful when someone told you that you were privileged, because it makes you feel like you perhaps did not work hard for what you have, and that isn't a nice feeling, and that's okay.

However, to not understand or recognise that having received financial help is privilege, is very oblivious and why so many people have been hurt by your post.

Long story short: Financial help doesn't make you a bad person, and doesn't mean your life is unusual or even better than others. But it is a form of privilege, and it would make you a more open minded, empathetic person to recognise that.

Well the majority are working class and usually get nothing. I received absolutely nothing from my parents, everything we have we had to build ourselves.

You’re comparing yourself with other wealthy people.

OP, you said you had a good education - did you go to private school? I’m asking this due to the way you’ve described your friends/social circle. For context, only 6-7% of UK children attend private school - the other 93% don’t. If you did, and if most of your friends did, then perhaps this answers your question about the relativity of privilege.

I was in the 93% and had zero help from my own parents. Do you know what though, I’d much rather be self-sufficient as a fully grown adult and am grateful that I’ve never been dependant on parents/others to maintain quality of life. I agree for younger generations it’s much more difficult to get on the housing ladder, and so we’ve helped our own children with this, but modestly. It’s not healthy to be over-dependant on others financially.

Definitely privileged.

Your good (private?) education probably helped you get your job that pays more than double average wage

You got a huge deposit for your house

You get large cash gifts every year

Your DD has a house?!

I get it - I have friends who have been given gifts of several hundred K, who have had houses bought for them, who are given 50k to do work on their house, whose parents have second homes where they can go on holiday for free and pay their GC school fees etc. And compared to them I definitely don't feel privileged.