The casual things that wealthy people take for granted

[KaleQueen]

Inspired by a thread that’s gone totally off topic….where someone suggested a £400 watch was cheap.

What’s the most casual (even accidental) brag you’ve ever heard a wealthy person say?

I can start as I know someone who celebrated a big birthday recently and is an absolutely lovely person but during their party (in the wonderful house) they said “oh! Here comes the string quartet. I had completely forgotten about them!”

^www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5174898-to-feel-slightly-suspicious-of-dp?page=35&reply=138771616^

It's all comparative.

Growing up, we were somewhat rich. I lived abroad, I went to a private school, lived in a gated street, and my sibling and I wore designer and wanted for nothing.
But compared to some of the kids I went to school with, we were relatively poor! I'm talking multi-millionaires who have grown up not having to work, where-as I'm now a single parent and cannot afford the lifestyle I became accustomed to 😢
You can bet I'd be first in line for Cartier if my situation ever changed.

What about a £399 watch?

I don’t doubt you haven’t worked hard @Ramblomatic but your post is rather entitled.

no idea of your personal circumstances, but sometimes people end up having a tough financial time through no fault of their own. Sometimes it’s not as simple as ‘working hard’ - some people work 16 hour days on minimum wage.

If you’re in a well paid profession, there’s a 99.5% chance you’ve come from a financially comfortable background. It’s very easy to ‘work hard’ from a position of immense privilege

I say that as someone who had a comfortable, stable upbringing. I’m state educated, but consider myself hugely privileged as I had loving supportive parents who were financially comfortable.

I’m gobsmacked when I hear people I work with who went to top private schools who didn’t think they were privileged because their parents didn’t own huge swathes of country side.

it’s a well known tendency ( proven by psychologists) that people tend to over estimate their own contribution to their own good luck, and under estimate how much their privilege has contributed to their success.

Brilliant post @Butnothingsclear! Thank you.

Keep the Aspidistras Flying is a novel all about having to plan and budget when going out; about those sudden unforeseen circumstances where you have to get a taxi or eat out unexpectedly.

Yesterday I ate breakfast in a cafe. Later that day I had to go to hospital in an ambulance. I'm not fretting about being ill - I'm fretting about whether we've got enough money for a taxi even to the station. We walked and then got a Rail Replacement Bus which cost almost as much as the breakfast in the Cafe. We walked home the other end too.

Having money means you eat out without fretting about not having the money for the more expensive dishes (they always add a charge if you want sourdough) or if you go to hospital you just get a cab home without thinking about it or the cost of the extra food you had to buy whilst you were there which you hadn't budgeted for either.

There was a guy with his leg in plaster and they offered to call him a cab... He thought they were paying and you could see the panic about having enough money in his eyes when he realised they didn't.

Oh come off it, nobody is saying that nurses don't work hard, or that people on low incomes are lazy. If you're going to have a go at me, at least have a go at me for something I've said, rather than something I haven't 🙃

Recovering addict here btw, so I'm acutely aware of hardship. I just chose to do something about it, rather than making excuses 🤷🏻‍♂️

‘Rather than making excuses’

There you go again. Get off your high horse and stop judging everyone worse off than you as ‘less than’ or lacking in some way.

@Ramblomatic, you said "we work hard enough that food banks will never be a reality for ours."

So, you say nurses work hard. Why are some of them going to food banks then? Do they not work hard enough?

No, I think they're horrendously underpaid.

@Covidwoes They work very hard, but in the wrong job. My neighbour's a nurse and is out the door at 6am and isn't home until gone 8pm (allowing for childcare drop offs). The NHS doesn't pay well enough.

Wealthy people take for granted the fact that they can do things without it throwing out their budget - because in many cases they don't have a budget .

However many people who are just comfortably well off are also in the same space but not necessarily wealthy

Or you could stop putting words in my mouth? I haven't judged anyone 🤷🏻‍♂️

That doesn’t change the fact that wealth doesn’t necessarily come from hard work and hard work doesn’t necessarily create wealth. For those with the privilege of wealth, to imply that those without it simply aren’t working hard enough is dreadful.

No, I agree. But it really comes down to choosing the right profession.

My neighbour barely see's her child, and for what?

‘Rather than making excuses’ suggests that those struggling to stay afloat financially, not as wealthy as you or using food banks are ‘making excuses’. That’s a judgemental statement.

A friend of mine was a police constable and a single mum. Due to her shift work, she had no choice but to employ an au pair as she obviously couldn't afford a live-in nanny. She certainly wasn't particularly wealthy!

@Ramblomatic It’s very clear from your posts that you think you work harder than others and that’s how you have money, the implication is there that others aren’t working hard enough or should stop making excuses. I agree about the nurses, I’m a teacher and have worked bloody hard and barely have a pot to piss in most of the time. I’m not lazy, I work hard…
What about people cleaning toilets all day long..,are they lazy, do they not work hard? It looks a hell of a lot harder cleaning 8 hours per day, than many wealthier people sat in an office somewhere or at home…the idea that they work harder is Bs, it’s often the other way around. Life isn’t fair

Now read the first half of that sentence, a sentence specifically about me, and my situation.

But we need nurses, we need refuse collectors, we need people in the factories and out delivering stuff, we need shop keepers, chefs and waiters, we need police and firefighters, teachers, carers, mechanics etc. None of those jobs are going to make someone wealthy. So if everyone chose the ‘right profession’ (what idiots eh?!) then we’d be in a proper pickle wouldn't we.

Yes, we need those people. But if you CHOOSE to be one of them, you're signing yourself up for the long hours and little reward.

When I was at uni I shared a house with one girl who complained she had no money one day and now was she going to afford things. I felt sorry for her until I saw her bank balance. It was something like £4k. This was back in the 90s. I was skint, my bank account was in its overdraft all of the time and I was also working a part time job. Apparently she was told by her parents to keep her money above the £4k mark for some reason. But that’s not the point. She was skint and had £4k!!

No, no implication. I have a certain lifestyle because I work hard, in an industry that rewards it.

I couldn't care less about anyone else's situation, until they call me 'delusional' for thinking a cheap watch is cheap, because they can't afford it. It's not that deep!

Now if you'll all excuse me, I need to finish myself off with this diamond dildo before the caviar goes room temperature 🥳

A colleague once didn’t believe that another colleague didn’t have any money to hand to pay the deposit for the staff Christmas lunch. I distinctly remember her saying ‘everyone can find £10 if they have to’. Apparently didn’t occur to her that some people live pay check to pay check and genuinely have nothing spare. She worked part time to keep herself occupied but didn’t need to work so I think her understanding of money was very different to others.

I’ve been in that position of literally having no access to funds, overdraft at its limit, no cash, nothing left to sell. It was really scary but I was fortunate it was a very brief period and I had family who were able to help me out, I know not everyone is so fortunate.

At the end of the day it’s all relative. What’s considered wealthy to one person and their circumstances is different to what others might perceive as wealthy.

But I absolutely hate the envy and dislike sometimes shown on this forum towards people who work hard, earn decent money and have stressful jobs and are despised by those that don’t earn the same, don’t have the same level of job and don’t have the same stress.

And I despise the way that people who earn a lot comparitively consider that they deserve what they have simply by virtue of having "worked hard" for it. Its suggests that a low earner doesnt work hard.

I would say that actually many low earners work far harder in a physical sense but if we all "chose the right profession" and the country was full of doctors, lawyers and accountants, who would provide the healthcare, the childcare, the deliveries, the refuse collection, the clearning, all those things that so many either take for granted or outsource? There would be no one to pay the lawyers, no one to provide the health care support to the patients after the doctors have done their work.

If everyone was a doctor then you would get your c-section but you wouldnt get anyone helping you to feed your baby or drive your taxi home.