Is everyone rich?

[Led921900]

Is it just me or is everyone minted? I think I’m the only one of my friends bar a sahm who isn’t on over £100k?! We were talking about kids free hours and we seem to be the only family able to qualify, everyone else earns too much.

My partner earns £38k and is by far the lowest earner I know.
I come from merseyside, it’s not like any of us come from money.

When did everyone get so rich?
And yes I’m totally jealous!

I would reply but my butler is having the morning off and I can't be arsed

😂😂

Let me assure you, no.

It’s not normal, most of my friends work and I only know one family with a SAHM and a husband earning £100k plus. We must hang in different circles

Are you sure they do? I’m always staggered at the credit card debt some people have in order to keep up a certain lifestyle.

I've noticed this recently - several school parents who each earn over £100k each. We don't! Quite a few others who earn similar to us or less but have been given property by family (or live rent free) so don't have mortgage or rent to pay. I think we are doing OK but it does feel a struggle sometimes.

Hmmm interesting. It depends what field you're in. Your friends must earn significantly over to not qualify as pension payments take most in that region, under the threshold. So I do think your friends are unusual if lots don't qualify. I think it often depends on bonuses- so people in banking, pharmaceuticals, sales, computing, these sorts of industries and contractors are often quite high earners now. But a lot of these jobs aren't that safe and you earn a lot for a couple of years, are made redundant or contract ends and end up earning less for a few years.

Er no. Isn't average household income thirty something?

However I am feeling rather less than average in other similarly educated circles and regretting my lifestyle choices!

The area I live a lot of people make this sort of money and I feel very out of place as a disabled single mum on benefits. DC friends parents all seem to be happy families, with 2 very good incomes and still have flexibility to do things with their kids after school and be very involved in their school life. I feel jealous at times and out of place and I can't give my kids the kind of life their friends have. They're good people, but they live in a very different world to mine.

I don't personally know anyone who is rich. I am working class and so is everyone I grew up with. My mum earns £27k. I earn £23k. None of my friends earn over £30k.

I'm about to start a new job paying £28k and my DH earns about £25k... I have friends who are engineers each earning around £100k but I'm just happy for them, they worked hard at uni and reap the benefits now. Wish I'd have done that tbh.

Yes, they are.

We are all grammar school educated so maybe that’s a thing. One is a patent solicitor, one has a phd and now works in pharmaceuticals. My sister works in aviation safety but she is a hard worker and gets on very well with everyone she meets and got promotion after promotion. My other sister is a managing director, is 41 and earns over a million! I know she’s an outlier but still! they’re all driving Teslas or Volvos and head off to Florida for February half term… whilst I’m booking glamping again! (Well not in Feb half term 😂).

TBH it would be nice to not have to count our pennies which we do with three young children but otherwise we’re ok. We are feeling slightly left behind though.
Also had friends who’ve had inheritances coming in, whereas grandparents on both sides were in council houses. So that’s a big leap for other people too!
I am jealous of their house and extensions, refurbs and holidays but just tell myself if we’re all happy and healthy we’re all good!

I earn significantly lower than all my friends. So does DH. We are permanently struggling for money while all my friends go on posh holidays and out for dinner, theatre etc.
I don't know how we managed to get it all so wrong tbh.

100k is in the top 4% of earners (in the UK), so isn't that common at all.

It depends how you define rich. Our joint income is £120k but do I consider that we're rich? No. Comfortable? Yes. But we're in our 50s and have taken years to build up to that level of income.

I DID work hard at uni but it didn't translate into knowing how to progress in career. At all... and worried for my kids that I don't know how to support or advise either.

Again no inheritances and it all makes life very unequal!

It’s fairly common amongst my group of friends to have at least one person in a couple earning over £100k. All late 30s/early-mid 40s, lots of nhs consultants, lawyers and director level professionals. There are also teachers on £45k and others on that sort of range, so it’s varied.

The biggest difference in wealth amongst people I know is down to inherited wealth. First homes bought for them, no debt from university, grandparents paying for private schooling of the grandkids, large family ‘loans’ for huge renovation projects. These people are the ones living mortgage free with significant investments for their retirement and they have a lot more flexibility on what to spend their income on!

Yes op, everyone is rich. Even those in council housing. The admins, the nhs staff, the postal workers, the teachers, the bin men, the police, every job has over a 100k as a min starting wage.

yup. Totally.

I’m guessing you live in South England.

What do you earn, and what do you both do for a living?

There is a huge amount of luck involved as people whose grandparents lived around London and bought their council houses will have had completely different estates on death to those who had exactly the same job & bought their home living in another area.

No not all south England, two are down South but two are in the North West and as I say we’re all from merseyside.

I have another friend who’s a program manager at a charity and she’s probably going to move back to Lancashire and commute to London because on £60k and her partner on probably similar… they can’t afford to save and buy a house in the South East? That’s crazy?! (They have a baby so said even if they could afford the mortgage they can’t save a deposit and don’t want to spend 10 years renting).

I never used to be aware of such a big gap but I guess the rich get richer hey?!!

I’ve followed a few Instagram accounts that are in 3 bed semi’s etc just so I don’t feel so “left behind”!

Ha! Ha! Most people I know think they are rich if they hit 25k. So, a couple earning 50k between them.

No! But every time someone starts another one of those obnoxious 'how much do you earn?' threads, you can mentally see the 200k+ posters lining up to share, thus creating the impression that's a picture of the UK. It isn't. But it still makes me laugh every time a new thread like that starts...here they go again.

For me, 'richness' is about disposable income. Do you have enough when all the essentials are paid to save some, give some and have some fun too? That's my general rule of thumb! And of course, I'm stating the obvious by saying that richness is rarely to do with money anyway.