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 feel I have too much money but nothing to spend it on. I've lived a very frugal life and have my own home and plenty in the bank. The problem is i'm at the stage when all I crave is a cuppa, telly and books. Can't go away because I have an incontinent cat. Feel content but just think 'what a waste'.

What do you earn, @Led921900 ?

R they fibbing?

I am retired.

Nope. I'm a cleaner, my friends are either teachers, council workers and one is a driving instructor. None of us rich.

We live in a painfully middle class area and our household income is very average so I do feel quite poor most of the time. It doesnt help that the average house price in the town I grew up in is over £600k 😫

On the other hand, dp grew up very poor, so he feels like we're doing really well! It's all relative

An interesting read, but it's all relative - low bills mean a comfortable life even on a low/average wage. People on higher wages generally have higher bills.

Where the real problem starts I think is retirement - no one seems to plan ahead or work out:

1. that they need 35 years of contributions to get the (very low) full state pension of c.£950/month). Most get less as they haven't got the contributions. And it's from age 68 rising to 70 in future - so if you retire early you need to fend for yourself.

2. how much they should put into a private pension to afford the retirement lifestyle they want or retire before 68.

A lot of people we know are doing ok now, but have nothing saved, paused contributions or do none at all and admit to worrying when they mull it.

If you take one thing away from this thread, think about how you'll pay for your retirement and at least start the journey. I fear a lack of knowledge/education around this will lead to many being destitute in old age.

But how are they your friends? You must have grown up or lived in an expensive area for that to be the case? It wouldn't be the norm around here.

I'll own my house this year and be mortgage free. I don't earn a crazy amount but I have a much smaller house than many of my friends who earn half of what I do because I wanted to be in a more comfortable financial position. I also have health issues so it feels like I'm on borrowed time. Having a roof over my head that no one can take away will make me feel mega rich.

My husband is on 52k and I earn 11k. We never have any money.

We don’t have a high income, however we don’t have high outgoings either. We live modestly, but don’t feel poor. We don’t have expensive tastes, and don’t feel envious of much. Of course if everyone around us was flashing their cash, I may feel like that.

I guess that we would like a bigger house, and a driveway. But, that is unlikely to happen, so we are happy with our lot.

I have known a few acquaintances who worked so hard on earning to create their ideal lifestyle that they neglected their relationships. The result was the breakup of the marriages, the dream home was sold and they ended up worse off than if they’d focused more on the important things, but been relatively poorer.

Of course everyone needs enough money to not worry about money

You don’t need to be “rich” to not qualify for help with childcare etc. The thresholds are low. DH and I had joint income of £70k with a SE London mortgage and two dependant children but no child benefit because most of those earnings were his (I worked part time as one of the DCs has special needs). Yes it’s a healthy income but we are not “rich”.
Put in context - if we wanted to buy our house at current prices we have enough income to get a mortgage for less than half the value. We are “poor” compared to many of our neighbours in terms of income but we do own our home outright having bought in the 80s.

More Often than not it’s smoke and mirrors OP. A lot of people will have a big fancy car on finance, holidays on credit cards, children’s clothes on drip at the designer boutique, robbing Peter to pay Paul…!

I wonder this too. We live in what used to be a bit of a rough town (NW area) but it's had a huge influx of new builds and new people. Most of the parents of the children in my DC's class drive range rovers, Tesla's etc. Most of them live in big detached properties (we've been to lots of parties), always off on holidays. We're on around 32k each, have a mortgaged small house..I've worked all my life for what we have, we haven't been gifted anything.

I try not to think too much about what others have, but you can't help but notice and wonder how they do it.

On the other hand, I know a couple with a shiny new 4 bed detached, brand new cars, but both all heavily in debt and struggling to buy the basics, so I know it's not always quite as it seems.

I feel like this too. Our income is average I'd say. My parents, sister, 3 cousins and other family members are all on at least 150k. One of them is a millionaire lawyer. A couple have had 7 figure inheritances on top of the big jobs.

I don't feel jealous though as I see the work they've had to put in for it.

We will probably benefit from inheritances from at least 6 family members too so it will trickle down to us.

Also people might wonder how we can always afford to be on holiday too on average wages (I'm public sector so they could look up my salary, H is on a better private sector wage).

The answer is we get a lot of help from parents. They pay for holidays for us as they want us to enjoy the money while they're here.

The median fulltime salary in the UK is £38k. The median household income is actually lower at £35k.

So no.

It is, and although it’s still well below OP’s friends I think it’s worth noting 1) that’s measured after tax, NI and council tax so gross is obviously higher, and 2) it includes retired households which skew the average down.

Good for you, but I was asking @Led921900

Read the post. Shes talking about free childcare not child benefit.

It does suddenly happen in quite a lot of career paths over 15 years or so and also salaries in some jobs have gone up a lot since Covid more than the decade before. In the space of the last 3 years I’ve gone from 27k to 100k. It’s the result of 15 years hard work but has been a very sudden shift

My husband's circle of friends are all in what I would describe excellent jobs - one is a pilot, one is a company director one is high up in finance just to name a few and not one is over the £100,000 per annum for their own salary added their partners in one or two are touching it but certainly it's an exception not norm, won't say where I live but not a dissimilar area to mersyside.

I got divorced from a high earner and wanted to keep my standard of living, so I got serious about work and I doubled my salary in 3 years. I now earn £42,000 as a single mum (by choice). I think we have a good lifestyle, a couple of holidays every year, but I am definitely feeling the pinch and now applying for higher paid jobs. I also had breast cancer 2 years ago at 39, and I stacked up loads of debt while I was off sick so I'm currently paying that back at a pretty high rate.

I am so jealous of 2 income households, I wish I had someone to share it with! But I think we do ok, we save in some areas and splurge in others. I drive a 4 year old SUV which I regret buying so much, but now I'm stuck with it so I'll drive it until it's dead!!

How does that saying go...? Comparison is the thief of joy......I try to remind myself of this daily!

It depends on your social circle but no, most people do not earn over £100k.

We're in the South East in a pretty affluent area. DH earns around that (senior IT) as do two of my best friends (one high up in Finance for a Pharmaceutical company and another in Employment Law.) All of my other friends and family do not (including me) despite most being in professional roles e.g. HR, teaching, NHS managers, social workers, accountants etc.

In certain circles with lots of people working in London in senior jobs then yes but I work in payroll and despite working for a professional company in the South of England I assure you that the vast majority of people's salaries are nowhere near £100k.

Nope. I'm.a teacher. I don't know anyone who is minted, but many people I know get inheritances or helping hands.

Median gross f/t salary is £35,464 (2023 ONS figures). Average household income is lower.