How did you get rich?

[Roxetta]

I'm 29 with a lovely DH & 2 gorgeous children. We live month to month, getting into small amounts of debt and then getting back out of it and this cycle repeats itself.

I don't mean to sound boastful but I'm fairly smart and a massive underachiever. DH is in the army and my career has been sidelined while the DC are young but i'm in the process of looking at qualifications I can complete to give myself the best chance at a really good career.

I am massively driven now (wasn't during my teen years due to life events that went on at that time) but basically I want a good lifestyle, I want us to be able to enjoy the finer things in life and to go on long haul holidays and enjoy all that life has to offer without money being the huge barrier that it currently is for us.

I'm so far away from being where I want to be in life. Can you share your experiences of how you managed to become wealthy? I'm just hoping to hear some positive stories because I sometimes feel quite defeatist that I'm 29 and I've achieved so little. I know there is more to life than money and I'm very lucky to have my family but I want to be able to offer them more. Thanks.

Me and DH both studied hard for our Degrees and went into well paid grad schemes in the financial sector. We both kept working hard and progressing in our roles. I have children now so have taken a career break but still have my own savings and a decent private pension. We pretty much buy/do what we want (within reason) but save each month.
Unless you are going to go into a start up or sales type commission role, I would look at the AAT and then do an accounting/tax/ qualification. The math is very straightforward and it’s more about being able to remember things.

Both had jobs. Went for careers that paid well and we liked rather than the jobs where you have to work hard all hours. When I didn't have appropriate qualifications, I studied in evenings and weekends. I was academic though and started with a degree - which got me into the right field.

How do you define “rich”, OP?

There is mortgage free at one end of the continuum and Helena Morrissey at the other. (I bet Helena earns a lot less than her male peers at the same level though). Also rich slackers - people who receive, for example, a fixed or rental income from a family investment. It may only be £20k pa but if they’re content to live simply it means they can paint or garden everyday of their lives.

Unless we are talking multi millions I think rich is quite subjective. Once all your basic living costs are covered different people will have different wants with their disposable income. Contentment & having choices makes you rich.

Proud to have reached a financially comfortable position without parental support, wealthy husband or family inheritance.

Corporate blue chip - climbed the ladder in a demanding career and secured future pension
Live frugally and well within means
Never carried credit card debt or loans
Overpaid mortgages wherever possible
Turned hobby into online sales business for additional income
Building up property portfolio of BTLs

However this has been based on 20 years of solid saving and investing, and prioritising that over flash cars and exotic holidays.

It's a balance between enjoying what you've earned today, and providing for the future.

In short for me, a safe regular salary hand in hand with limited spending have been the key enablers.

Start your own business. Be the best in yoru field. Pick a niche where there's need and you know people will spend money on it. Pick up clientsd until you are at full capacity then raise yoru fees a little. Keep at that level until you are at full capacity again then raise yoru fees again.

I'm not rich because I like a LOT of downtime. I get motivated to work to full capacity only when saving for a really good holiday for DC. If I was a workaholic, we'd be rolling in it as I get well paid for what I do, generally, and have plenty of work offers. But what I put above is how I built up my business from zero, and I do love love love my job, second only to my family.

sorry for typos.

I also agree about frugal living. We spend almost nothing on stuff that we're not bothered about. No status symbols. I don't give a toss what label people wear or car they drive. We spend our money on what matters to us: DCs education, holidays, theatre trips etc. But could just as easily spend it on designer handbags and remodelling the house every two years if that's what made us happy.

Coming from a farming family who struggled and parents who worked a number of jobs education was prioritised. My DM would probably be accused of being a pushy helicopter mum but she taught me herself for 11+/ exams.

Worked blooming hard at school/ uni with little partying as not academic, worked summer jobs when at uni, got accepted onto a grad scheme with a corporate bluechip and moved to opposite end of the country. Worked very hard when in my 20s , very long hours, lots of travel, did any job I was asked to do in the company and established my reputation.

Kids in my 30s and continued to work very hard, often into early hours when they were asleep.

Like Botanica, savings were prioritised over holidays, cars, overpaying pension and mortgage etc.

Haven't rtft fully so apologies if this has been mentioned, but can we acknowledge that it's possible to work extremely hard but not be rich? I work with disabled children, me and my colleagues work exceptionally hard for the children and their families. None of us will ever be rich.

Sorry, I didn't mean that to sound sanctimonious, but I did mean it genuinely. There are many many people who work hard in various ways who have no hope of ever being financially rich.

Need to be comfortable with debt. Mumsnetters are - erroneously in my opinion - obsessed with paying off mortgages early, whereas gearing (maximise borrowing and steer the equity into another investment vehicle, be that BTL or stocks or shares) is probably more sensible in the low interest scenario we’ve had for the last decade.

Best thing we have done financially is never increase our spending based on income increasing. We increased spending when we had each DC, when we moved to a more expensive town and when we made the decision to hire help in the home. It has never been 'oh I got a pay increase of £10 a month so let's spend it on xxx' If the extra money didn't go to pay off debt we would be paying it into our savings.

The other thing is that we have been very strategic about negotiating certain work benefits. Our car is a company car attached to DHs job. They gave him a budget of $2500 a month. We spend that and own the car after 2 years. It's still a lease which is in DHs name but we pay off $1 at the end and then sell the car back to the dealer. Current car is a Volvo XC90 and next year we expect the dealer to pay us about $40k for the car at the end of the lease. We do this every 2 years. Others on the same deal are driving much more expensive cars or they don't spend the whole budget. With our TV each of us get $40 a month for the internet. We spend $70, making $10 a month. The router rent was $10 a month. We used airline miles to get one without it costing us cash. We now make $120 a year from our internet and we don't bother with cable TV. It's a completely different mindset to most people.

Minapaws can I ask what your business is?

I was pretty much you at 29, except I had one kid and a husband in the military.

Honestly, very few people become wealthy in the military, as such it's on you, unless your husbamd comes out and works in civvy street as eventually mine did.

I'm the bigger bread winner, and that was more luck than planning, although I never stopped working, basically I started in sales, was good so got promoted, now with the same large corporation twenty years later and been promoted about 11 times. Before that I worked for a handful of smaller or crap companies in sales.

Find what you're good at, do it well, work for a company that has space to move up. Go for the big ones. You'll find when you're in they don't look at qualifications for promotion, more ability to do the job.

But you need to make certain decisions. If your husband is posted will you stay put? How will you manage child care if you're working?

And you do need to manage it, to be able to do the job and put in the hours, plenty of men have wives who manage the kids, so they can move up the career ladder unhindered. As women we seldom have that, but we need to still compete with these men to get the next promotion over them.

So it's not just what you'll do, but how you'll do it. There is tough challenges that will need to be met in the first few years, time apart from husband and children, juggling child care, after school clubs, to get your foot on the ladder, to compete.

For me it was a combination of hard work, being frugal and luck later down the line. V poor in childhood so started working and saving at 14 (paper rounds, Saturday jobs initially). Worked all through A levels, degree and masters and had £15k for mortgage deposit at 25 despite paying for MA by buying charity shop clothes and eating cheaply but healthily. Sadly a death of a close family member resulted in an inheritance of 10k so I put a 20k deposit on my house with a 15 year mortgage (to avoid too much interest) plus overpaid most months by working overtime.

My siblings both frittered the money and still rent so it's often the choices you make. 10k can be life changing. I kept 5k in savings and built it back up saving over next 5 years. Met partner at 30 through career my MA had led to. He was from a much wealthier background and owned a central London property outright. We also have 500k shares and between us £400k savings but I would have had similar if I had not met him. I would still be mortgage free but up north. We choose not to take income from our investments.

I'm very frugal. We have a 15 year old car, holiday usually in the uk, I sew clothes rather than buy new (also because I try to live sustainably)
We could buy a few btl properties but I don't want the stress and don't feel comfortable ethically. We could make ourselves richer but are comfortable. Our shares are in sustainable energy chiefly. We could make more money investing less ethically but choose not to.

I'm almost 40 with 2 kids and being 'rich' (relatively speaking) just means I choose a job where I don't have to work all hours but I made choices in my 20's with no role models around me that are paying off now. Not spending,, being frugal, getting educated, learning to cook and entertain myself etc so I don't need much money to live 'well'.

I have a shit pension though!

Not rich but my DSIS is. She doesn't live in the UK.

They bought their first house so far out of the city they had to get up at 5.30 and catch a train at 6am to get to work. DSis said it was like working in London and buying a house in Norfolk. When interest rates fell they carried on paying the high rate to pay off their mortgage quicker, all the while living very frugally (eating value basic food, cutting their own hair etc) After about 7 years they had paid off their mortgage! DBIL bought a couple of buy to let properties. They moved a bit nearer the city into a nicer house. DBil died suddenly so it all became the property of DSIS.

She is still very tight as a fly's arsehole canny with money, the first thing she does every day us check her bank accounts and shares. And she wears clothes she found on the tip while walking the dog and once used a spare calendar from a previous year rather than spend $5 on a new one - just crossed out the dates and wrote the new ones in.

BalloonSlayer fuck me, that sounds miserable!!!

I mean there's rich and then there's tight!

An awful of people seem to make money from BTL, don’t think it will do easy in the future.

Ah but she's not miserable stroke. She was always "good with money" even as a child.

She was lucky to find a DH who was the same.

Her new partner is crap with money and drives her round the bend ha ha.

I've got to say, I'm just very glad that DH and I have the same mindset when it comes to money! I'm not sure I could be with someone that doesn't share my "pay yourself first" mentality.

How to get rich generally:
(1)Start your own business that turns out to be mega successful;
(2) work in the City in a role that gets massive bonuses

Batshite There are investment fashions in every generation. BTL, and property generally, has done extremely well because of low interest rates on cash deposits, and stock market volatility. There has been capital growth in most cities and high annual rental yields in a few. But property historically has been a low risk/low return investment and now the tax advantages are gone it is no longer so profitable. I can see a lot of people cashing out once their interest-only mortgages become due and they can no longer re-mortgage indefinitely.

Balloon that does sound miserable. We still live centrally for quality of life. That commute sounds awful. We still live centrally in a probably too small for us 3 bed flat for work / quality of life. We could move out but I hate the idea of commuting.

Also clothes, I will treat myself every now and then on something new in the sale but I think it's about spending habits. An occasional treat is one thing. My DSis who privately rents, has 2 kids and has no savings goes on shopping weekends twice a year. It baffles me. A weekend in Birmingham in a hotel with a view to just shopping, her teenage daughter sees this as normal now and goes along. Friends I used to live with got their salary every month and just shopped. New make up, clothes they don't really need. I have never done that. A bargain from a charity shop is still a thrill though. Clothes from a tip is a bit much though!

That sounds judgey. Don't mean to be but I think a lot of people will spend spare cash over saving. I realise many live hand to mouth and can't save. We did as kids.