Middle class but no money

[roopiea]

Does anyone else feel like this?

We would say we are middle class. Both university educated and privately schooled. In our 50s now. Parents had similar professions to us.

We work for the public sector, a teacher and management in local government. We live in a pretty reasonable part of the country. But we still feel we have no money for being in the middle class? We probably earn a combined 80k a year but live in a pretty bog standard 3 bed semi. Have holidays in places like Spain or Greece.

Whereas our neighbours are blue collar workers but seem to have so much more money than us. My best friend and her husband work similar jobs and they have a nicer house and better holidays than us.

Also many people who think themselves classy are really plebs with just two three more books on the shelves

Dh, who left school with no GCSEs, earns far more as a conservatory builder than I ever have as a teacher (GCSEs, a levels, degree and post grad plus a 2hr ECT programme). On the other hand, my pension is far superior than his and I will reap the rewards if I'm lucky enough to make it to retirement age.

Qualifications do not equal better salary. They offer more options and more choices to find something you enjoy, but not financial reward anymore.

I frequently point out this anomaly on the never-ending supply of 'class' threads, so I rejoice that I've found like-minded people who also believe that money doesn't buy class.
🙂

By your vocab I bet you are MC. Simply flabbergasted 😁

This is just me, but it’s not solely about income. I see myself as middle class due to a lot of other, less tangible things. Mostly family background, parents, grandparents all educated to university level, speak a variety of languages, value literature and ideas. My husband has none of the above, not interested in books, most happy reading his biking mags, however has skills none of my family could fathom and an instinctive affinity for repairing just about anything, as well as good emotional intelligence.

By your vocab I bet you are MC. Simply flabbergasted 😁

we aren't.

Good article in the FT this weekend that points out that as measured by GINI coefficient, inequality in the UK is reducing - but it’s because the floor is rising, so the distance between the middle and the less well off is increasingly small.

I wouldn’t ever say I was middle class due to my upbringing. However, have been a high middle income one person earner as a single parent.
it is pants as 1 good income seems to be really not enough.

i pretend that I am not annoyed when I see numerous FAKEBOOK posts from peers with their lovely trips away and all looking glam. I know that is not real!
Also made me laugh that two of them both said their daughter was offf to uni - when asked - both said Cambridge 🤪
what they failed to say was said children ( because I taught them and I know!) are both at Anglia Ruskin University, which happens to be in Cambridge! 😆

Yes, while the gap between the 'middle' and the top is increasing at an exponential rate. We are going back in time essentially.

Agree. But I disagree there's very little abject poverty.

Are you implying that working class people are illiterate?

80k in the North of England is very good!

Assuming every builder, plumber, electrician and other tradeperson earns way more than that, it really isn't.

If it’s for two people it’s average. Which is fine.

£80k for an individual is well above average.

There is no working, middle or upper class any more really in the way they used to exist 50 years ago.

There is the asset-owning class, who get all of their money via passive income or simply by borrowing based on their assets. They do not actually need to work, in the real sense of the word.

There is the 'modern' working class, which is anyone who actually works for a living and could not live without that income.

And finally there is the dependant class, which is anyone else who the state is subsidising either because they can't work, won't work or whose job does not actually pay them enough to survive otherwise.

Obviously there can be a bit of blurring between them - most people get some kind of benefit for example - but that's fairly much how it works these days.

I am a trainer in beauty and aesthetics. DH is gas certified plumber. Joint income just over 150. Had no desire to do university or nonsense as no point

Er no just that we don't use the word "flabbergasted".

MN gold. Pure gold

My two non privately educated DC earn a fair bit more than that between them and they are 24 and 26. It sounds like the OP and partner haven’t really progressed in their careers.

Plumbing and electrical work requires a lot of training and are physically demanding jobs where certain standards have to be met in order to do them correctly and the person doing the job has to be able to manage those risks. I doubt many people who embark on those careers are working less hard or are less intelligent than most of those who chose university instead. They are just different types of training.

We earn the same as you roughly and we feel like we’ve got a really comfortable life - nice 3 bed house in quiet area, car, 3 hols a year (one abroad and two UK breaks), very little debt,
small amount of savings. Just average and happy, feel very lucky compared to people struggling to heat their homes. It’s all relative.

I think housing costs make a lot of difference too - maybe their mortgage is paid off or very low.

Or maybe they have multiple streams of income - for example are landlords.

I have similarly-aged friends (a couple) who earn 1/3 of what I do from their employment, but because they inherited two small houses they are mortgage free and have rental income on a mortgage-free home. This gives them approx. £2500 a month more disposable income than they would have otherwise - for example if they bought their first horse in the last 2 years (like I did) and they didn't have rental income. Additionally, they've had this set up for 10+ years so they have managed to accumulate a lot of savings.

You wouldn't know this looking at their job titles and their lifestyle wouldn't match their apparent income.

Depends on children’s ages etc too - lots of people in my profession start late so are raising young families in their late 30s/early 40s with the accompanying childcare/hobby bills. I have one DSD and we’re going through IVF, I’m 34 now so best case scenario I’m looking at uni support etc into my 50s. However on the other hand my mortgage will be gone at 51, and I’ve had my 20s to buy my house and trade up to a bigger house etc. There are pros and cons however your financial situation looks.

What funny notions - middle class. Do you have to work for a living? If yes, you are working class. There are only 2 classes - working class and non-working class (landed gentry-aristocracy and capitalists) who do not have to work to live - they live off their assets.
Well done to your parents for sending you to a private school and university - but what does that have to do with you?