Do you ever look around your peers and think "where do you all get your money from??

[lovelydaffodils]

This is in chat not aibu so could do without a massive pile on

Feeling a bit blue and frankly a big dose of the green eyed monster as I look round my peers.

We earn well enough between me and oh but so many ppl in our peers have second homes and massive new cars frequently and big holidays and kids at private school
Where on earth does it all come from?
What do they know that i don't?!

@Heatherbell1978 we couldn't afford it for two. One potentially but likely because we were gifted a chunky deposit. However I still wish I could have bought in the early 00s as I would be loaded now, shouldn't have bothered going to uni!

My son is a construction apprentice. Many of his work colleagues use vans for work but have really expensive cars as well. They have the skills (or have friends who do) to be able to buy cheaper properties that require renovation or to build their own . Some bricklayers can earn over £100,000 a year .

I don't have any peers that have second homes and kids at private school. I'm working class as are all my friends. Nobody in my immediate friend group owns a house at all, we all rent.

We earn well as London professionals (senior teacher and lawyer, me part time), c.£125k joint. Could afford most of the things on your list (school fees probably a stretch), but live quite a frugal life as it's ingrained in us, and don't really see the appeal of those things.

We're environmentally focused in our choices, so definitely wouldn't choose a new car every few years (have an 8 yr old focus that we bought outright, second hand). We have family with second homes and they seem to spend all their time maintaining them, not enjoying them - not for me.

Not keen on private schools for social / community/ diversity / equality reasons - I experienced both systems as a child (Inc private with bursary), and wouldn't recommend it if you can access a good state school. We're also homebodies so not constantly going on holiday, and it's not that relaxing with young kids in any case! We do like independent travel, but that tends to work out cheaper than all inclusive resorts.

I guess I'm saying that those are markers of wealth for you, but do you / would you really want them? There's contentment elsewhere 🤷‍♀️