Things I have learnt since becoming rich (a.k.a. fuck you: Nigella and Jamie)

[TheAutumnHere]

1. Having an oven that holds temperature stops cakes falling
2. A stand mixer simplifies baking by a factor of at least 4, and improves the results
3. Branded vacuum cleaners actually remove dirt from the floor
4. Le Creuset pans don't stick, and just wipe clean
5. Baking with children is delightful japes, when timed the morning before the cleaner comes
6. Corn fed chicken is the bomb

Just leaving a note to my past self - who never cut herself any slack and thought she was a slattern and a crap cook.

You don’t need a zone 6 flat (where even is zone 6? ) I sold my London flat and bought a small house with the proceeds in the burbs. 25 mins into London terminals boom. Faster than when I lived in Westminster

The idea that the fat cats are the people who are earning high salaries, rather than the people who are asset rich is ridiculous.

As a Pp kindly pointed out - my 'rich' - love it as I do - does only run skin deep - only as long as we have the strength to keep working.

A 4 bed house in Northwood Hills zone 6 would be 900+ so what have you gained exactly?

I’ll tell you what you’ve gained. The ability to look for a house somewhere that isn’t Northwood Hills 😭😭😭😭

I’m not rich, but although I now have a kitchen aid and a lovely Neff oven, I was still a good baker when I had a crappy wee hand mixer and cheap oven.

I started my family off in a flat in Beckton.

The transport links are pretty good. The alt right simmering tensions less so.

@TatianaLarina

Why would anyone want to live in Northwood Hills?
Many, many years ago it was slightly posh but not now.

I used to live in beckton just after the DLR opened. I have very fond memories. There was an amazing estate pub next to the ASDA that had some brilliant characters

I have no desire to live in Northwood Hills - it’s just a zone 6 location on the tube, there aren’t many.

Northwood Hills/Ruislip, Upminster/Epping, Heathrow...

Who would want to be that far out on the tube? You need to be on an overground. Zone 6 is just the most bizarre reference to somewhere to live I’ve heard. I take it you’re not from London originally

Besides which you can easily live in Northwood or Ruislip in a 4 bed for far less than £800k. Plenty of choice for £600k. Not to mention the billon other areas you could live

I'm sorry - but the responders are making my point better than me.

The idea that 4 beds is your benchmark for a London family home 🤣.

Even the council won't give you more than a 3 bed - barring disabilities or an insane number of kids.

And when you rent private - you can't always afford to be fussy about opposite gender siblings sharing. Sofa beds and the like.

2 bedroom flat darling.

The house prices in London & the SE are not sustainable imo, you can only have the cycle of growth if ftbs are constantly able to get on the bottom rungs. That rung is too high now & lending much stricter. The days of buying a flat for 300k & selling it three yrs later for 600k are gone hence why so many people who are on the ladder can't move up.

It's crass to refer to yourself as rich unless you have a yacht and a golf course?

No. It's crass when you do have a yacht and a golf course. When it's because you have the ability to "buy a washing machine outright" it's crass and bizarre/delusional.

A London property portfolio makes you the squeezed middle?

Again, no. And PP stated a single mid terrace costs £1m+ not a portfolio. If you have to resort to invention to try and justify your stance, well, that's a predictable shame. That's what houses in London cost now. It makes you a London homeowner. Everyone is "rich" on that scale.

Bored of "mansplaining" the obvious to someone pretending to have no comprehension when it's clear they do, they just can't think of how else to respond because they've been called out on some nonsense.

Enjoy your "riches" OP.

Zone 6 was OP’s idea.

Londoner born and bred.

The Metropolitan is a fast line as is the Piccadilly, you don’t really need t mess with trains from there.

The idea that 4 beds is your benchmark for a London family home

Nope that’s just a typical bogstandard family size home anywhere.

Rather less affordable in London than elsewhere.

@Courtney555

That's what houses in London cost now. It makes you a London homeowner. Everyone is "rich" on that scale.

No. No they're not. Not everyone owns a London home. Very few people, even from those who live/work in London own their home.

Weren't you the poster with a couple of BTL investment properties? Or were those your friends?

You can’t really have it both ways OP. Start a thread bragging about being rich and then play the victim you’re not richer.

If you actually gave a stuff about people who can’t afford their own home you wouldn’t have framed the thread the way you did.

I'm not a victim - I'm doing really well.

I am however genuinely taken aback by how much easier small details of life are now I have money.

I knew about the big things - but I never knew about all of the little things - and what they'd do to my self esteem.

Buying a washing machine outright is certainly not normal in my social circle (not a brand new one anyway). You buy things like that on payment plans and pay it off monthly over a couple of years. Same with furniture. Most people I know don't have a spare couple of hundred in the bank.

Equally nobody I know can afford to buy a 4 bed house so that is not a "bog standard" family home to me. The only person I know in a 4 bed is in a council property.

MN isn't really indicative of the country as a whole, as a very working class person (hate to use "class" descriptions but it's the only thing I can think of) I've found that most on here are middle class (or if they were born in a working class family they have been more successful than their parents).

These things are all relative, but the UK average wage is £29k so I think my experiences are probably more indicative of the majority of the country. (I'm bringing in £20k per year for context).

I binned my le creuset pots last year - expensive rubbish. I replaced them with a great set from dunelm mill probably for the cost of one le creuset pot! And these are the best pots I've ever had. Lightweight, and actually non stick.

Sometimes more expensive means better quality, but sometimes it's just paying for the name.

"You can’t really have it both ways OP. Start a thread bragging about being rich and then play the victim you’re not richer.*

If you actually gave a stuff about people who can’t afford their own home you wouldn’t have framed the thread the way you did.

Yup.

And yes, we have a few BTL. Tiny places. As do two of my four cousins. My aunt. My parents. Some with one. Some with a few. Some with huge mortgages, some with none. And categorically, none of us are rich, or would dream of calling ourselves as such. The way we live is incredibly common place. If I were forced to place any of us under some kind of label, I would say comfortable. At an absolute push, well off. And it makes my teeth itch to say that.

I shop at Lidl, and love a good rummage in a carboot. I don't think that makes our life any "poorer" as such. If I shopped in those places out of necessity, I wouldn't consider myself disadvantaged at all. I think we live very sensibly as a family, and I get a lot of joy from being bargainous. I did a town centre shop in Waitrose this week for the first time in months (because I couldn't park anywhere else central) and a bag of shopping cost me £59. I'm still really annoyed about that. And the salad was shit. My "quality" supermarket was inferior to my budget one by far.

Anyone with a million pounds of equity is a millionaire. It takes you out of the one pay check from disaster scenario.

If things go horribly wrong for you, you can sell you property, buy in a cheaper part of the country and live off the investment income.

As a PP said, wealth gives you a safety net.

Well it really rather depends how big your mortgage is as to whether you have a safety net in your house

I said a million pounds of equity not a million pound house.