Apparently I'm a millionaire

[Flatheads]

Which goes to show its nothing special anymore?

I live in the SE, in house I bought 20 years ago, have been employed all my life, but in fairly ordinary lower/middle management jobs and have the pension schemes that go along side them, plus some savings.

My current household income is c. £45k, which I live very comfortably on, but definitely not "like a millionaire"

And yet apparently I am, as my net assets are £1m+

No you are not a millionaire. You need a million in the bank. Or maybe in stocks and shares. Property doesn't really count.

Sounds to me like a job well done OP! I would love to know I would one day be in your position, maybe one day who knows?! It must be a lovely feeling x

Congratulations!

It's better than living your current lifestyle and not being a millionaire!

I find that quite easy to believe. Younger pensioners could likely have nearly that in their pension plus the value of their property and any other savings.

Everybody in the SE ends up a millionaire when they pay off the mortgage :)

I can believe that.
Mortgage paid off so you have the asset value of the house.
Value of final salary pension
Savings

It all adds up

Dh and I have assets worth around £10 million, the house we live in was recently valued at 2 million.

However we have mortgages and an expensive lifestyle. I’m not talking about fancy holidays and flash cars but dcs in private school, 2 at university etc. Interest rates mean mortgage payments are through the roof and dh is constantly juggling everything and works 12 hour days.
We are fortunate - we have a nice house (that needs new kitchen/bathrooms but no extra cash to do the work) in a nice area, have enough to eat etc but I certainly don’t feel like a millionaire. We haven’t been abroad for years, our cars are old and we don’t really have any savings - it’s a constant juggling act.

Being asset rich isn’t being “properly” rich IMO - I think you’re only a real millionaire if you have a million in the bank. Obviously we hope as property values rise and our debts stay the same we will in the future have more cash - but it’s a looong game.

The issue is it’s your home and it’s all about those liquid assets really. My house has increased by 400% but as I live in ‘The North’ it’s only worth 350k. Where DH grew up it would be a million and where I grew up about 600k to 700k.

A million in assets with housing combined really isn’t a huge amount these days. We bought our house on 2.5 DH wages only. He was on 26k as a junior academic, those posts are now about 38k. It’s dreadful for young people these days.

Cheers to you!

Which is why she said net assets.

Depends on where in the country you are though, doesn't it? I'm in the north east and there are vanishingly few properties worth £1m in my town, so you won't find 1 in 4 there. In fact, the places with the highest council tax have the highest number of band a properties. This 25% doesn't stack up at all.

I think a lot of people would like 1m in assets.

We have a million pound house , no debt and a lot of savings . Are we millionaires ? Maybe but I need somewhere to live 🤷‍♀️

Don’t be ridiculous. Nobody with £10m in assets could possibly seriously consider themselves not rich and having to scrimp and save and not have a holiday

Why do you have all your portfolio tied up in property? Leaving you liquid poor?

Well done! You are richer than 99% of people on this planet

I don’t think you’re in a particularly fortunate position. Do you mean liquid assets of a million? So that wouldn’t include your home or pension. It’s about cash, short term bonds and accounts receivable.

Me too, i can sympathise completely. My home town is full of people who have sat on houses for 20 to 30 years and found themselves to be accidental millionaires. I'm sure, like op, they are tickled pink.

Renting the properties out provides our income, if we sell them the bank takes the money to pay off our debts with not enough left over for a decent lifestyle. Dh has borrowed a lot of money which he’s obviously paying back but high interest rates mean the repayments are huge which leaves us able to pay our bills/school fees/rent for dcs at uni etc but no money left for house renovations/expensive cars & holidays etc.

As I said, we are fortunate and I’m not complaining but we definitely don’t have the money to be living a millionaire lifestyle. We eat out and go to the cinema once or twice a month and have the odd weekend away but I’m not buying designer gear or drinking champagne. If I want something for the house I have to save up and we had to say no to a school skiing trip for ds next year. I shop at high st shops and try to keep the food bill down etc.

As I said, assets are not money in the bank - not saying we’re not fortunate to be in the position of owning property however dh has to work so hard I worry he’ll burn out - it’s not an easy business to be in.

£5m in basic savings accounts (so not requiring any thought or effort, that's before you even think what it could make with active investment) @ c.5% a year = £250,000 a year. You couldn't retire on that? Blimey, it's so much more than I make now I couldn't imagine still thinking I needed to work.

I know a lot of older people who have assets in that range but are not living the high life at all. My own parents own a house that is worth near enough that but have a very frugal lifestyle. In their case they just happen to live where they were born and bred, bought their house when they were early twenties and now they are in their 70s it is worth a lot (Cambridge). In theory they could sell up and move to a cheaper area and have a much better lifestyle on the proceeds, they won’t due to not wanting to leave their family (not me, I live in a much cheaper part of East Anglia!). A millionaire to me is someone that has assets but also the cash to live a very high quality lifestyle.

Ya think? Have you read some of the posts on Mumsnet? 😄

First of all if they live in London, 2 million is quite a small house. If they have multiple properties with BTL mortgages the rent will simply be paying the mortgage so it’s not providing them an income for the moment. They may have a relatively small amount of equity in each property.

Being a Millionaire is a concept, not whether one has a million, 5 million or more. It means different things to different people. IMHO, it is simply how one would describe someone who is very well to do financially, usually accompanied by a very swish lifestyle, whatever the actual net asset value.
OP, by your own description, you have an "ordinary job" (subsequently ordinary income) and a "comfortable" non millionaire life style, so you are not a Millionaire.
Looks like you don't have a lot to worry about which is no mean feat in this day and age, happy for you!

A million is basically the cost of a weekly grocery shop now