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.

Apologies for my earlier post, investigating further, I discovered I am wrong. I thought class was down to birth but apparently it is categorised on the basis of education, assets, career etc.
Must be my working class roots that taught me I might get educated and/or richer, but I could never change my class whatever I achieved.

Capitalist class (Top 1%)
Upper middle class (Next 14%)
Lower middle class (Next 30%)
Working class (Next 25%)
Working-poor class (Next 15%)
Underclass (Bottom 15%)

I think it’s a myth as well that decently paid professional jobs are the preserve of those with degrees. I didn’t go to uni although that was more as I was an anxious mess rather than ability and I earn c£95k.

however you will I expect have a better pension and if you had time off for children better maternity pay and also robust job security. You’ve chosen lower paid jobs, or you could have chosen higher paid jobs.all about choices.

They are the same, it's deluded to pretend they are not. All this crap about your accent, what school you went to, where you grew up blah blah blah - it's just a coping strategy to distract from the raw numbers. We are all getting poorer, the average Brit has lost out massively on their earning and purchasing power over the last few years and will continue to do so unless something drastic happens.

I hate all this class shit because it a) deludes people to their actual circumstances (which is why there are so many of these posts like this atm - people who grew up with parents in 'professions' are not able to replicate this lifestyle as adults even if they are in similar job roles because wages are in the toilet) and b) it just reinforces and makes acceptable soft snobbery and prejudice towards each other. All the crap about accents and what your parents did, like it's a symbol of your moral worth. It's exhausting and stops us from approaching the economic problems we face with any clarity.

That is nonsense, I'm a single parent getting UC top up and my income is nowhere near the OP's, it's less than half. Stop generalising.

It also depends on what you spend your money on.For example, my late DH and never holidayed abroad until our children were in their teens; we chose to spend our money on having excellent health insurance and building up savings rather than on consumer goods. We also followed the old adage of only live up to your last pay rise, not the current one. Not saying one lifestyle is better than another, merely that knowing someone's income or "class" actually tells you the square root of bugger all.

Money and class aren’t the same. You’re middle class because you’ve got degrees and are doing professional or white collar jobs. Income is a whole other matter.

Plumbers etc earn over £100k round here. My ex owned a motor mechanics mit testing station turning over £5m he was always fi.thy and driving a banger, noone would know he has money unless you check companies house

Greater London, if it makes a differenxe. That's fairly standard imo. Most of my friends are what I'd call MC. Some are in director level jobs, finance, law etc and making good money. But more are in public sector, teaching, middle management level, or creative roles making more average incomes and living modest lifestyles (3 bed semi/iold car/camping holidays).

The friends and acquaintances wirh the big houses, flash cars, multiple foreign holidays a year, abd private school in a few cases are mostly from working class backgrounds and either work in trades or insurance.

It's always been the way. It shouldn't be any new surprise really.

Public sector pay hasn’t remotely kept pace with inflation. Those I went to uni with who went into private sector earn far more than I do, even the pension doesn’t begin to close the gap. DH dropped out of uni but is in private sector and earns far more than me as a middle management teacher at the top of my scale.

I reckon half these self employed people are on the fiddle and do cash in hand jobs. One of the reasons there's so little tax revenue coming in. In the office I work in , it's openly talked about, no one has any shame in admitting their husbands/ partners do cash in hand.

Are you saying your total income is the equivalent of a £20k annual salary, not take home? because I find that incredibly hard to believe. Especially factoring in if there are any children on FSM.

As someone 'not middle class' I would love to live in a semi (instead of an over crowded damp rental terrace) and have holidays in Spain and Greece (we are lucky if we get a discounted uk caravan holiday).

That's not bog standard life, thats what millions aspire too and will likely never achieve.

As for 80k a year thats 3 times our family income.

Hard to know why OP but likely either debt, inheritance or outgoings. I can only speak for myself, but DP and I are blue collar workers and uneducated, but seem to be in a similar position to our friends who have the kind of background you describe. For us it's purely outgoings (no debt apart from a small mortgage, and no inheritance) - we have nothing on finance, no phone contracts, no tv etc subscriptions, we keep food costs low, no money on hair/nails etc, very rare cheap holidays, rarely buy new clothes. I know the old "skip the coffee a day" to save money in itself is mostly bollocks, but all of these things add up.

And are both you and your husband working full time and one of you university educated?

My plumber recently went to the Caribbean for Xmas, and his wife who doesn't seem to work drives a new BMW. He charges a lot, but he's really good and is always busy. I think trades can earn a heck of a lot if they are really good.

Good for them. Why should tax evasion only be for the royal family ?

Those salaries are low for an experienced teacher and management for a local authority. They won't buy you a lifestyle you would consider to be middle class, you definitely couldn't privately educate children on those salaries, so you earn less than your parents did for their generation

Exactly. Our plumber always has a long wait for his services and never needs to advertise. He's on 100k+

Me and DH are mid 50s never went to university, educated to O levels. DH is semi retired, pension and salary combined is £1000 pcm and I earn £1700 pcm we bought our home in 96, 1940s 3 bed end of terrace and the mortgage is paid off. We save for holidays, in rotation UK one year, USA next, Europe third. If we can’t afford something we don’t have it. We have a 69 reg VW Golf that we bought 18 months ago and £25k savings, inheritance from DHs parents which we’ve not touched for 5 years. Maybe you’re just bad at budgeting, £80k is a huge income which even when we both worked full time we didn’t earn, Lord knows what you spend it on.

To echo others, money doesn’t equate to your class.

my extremely working class husband earns double your combined income in his manual job. I earn over half of it myself with no “proper” education, although I’ve worked myself up in my field from the near bottom. We’ve both worked very hard to get here.

It does highlight how low paid jobs like teaching can be - which is really a shame as imo it’s one of the most valuable jobs you can do.

No, I’m not bothered by it.

I’m similar age, university post-grad educated, decent job (though frustrated as I’m capable of earning more), being totally ripped off in a rental, unable to afford to buy a family home to accommodate kids as a lone parent on half your income. Can’t afford annual holidays.

I’m constantly worrying about our precarious situation and how best to solve it. But I feel so blessed all my kids are (now) healthy and thriving, as I am. I’m blessed with fantastic friends. I love our neighbourhood, where my kids grew up. I love my job. I enjoy life, despite limited means to socialise. I feel so lucky.

Some people I know who are much more financially better off than me have partners who need 24/7 care after serious illness or who’ve suddenly died. Some people I know have lost children. Others have disabled kids. I work with people who’re struggling so much with both grinding poverty and health problems/disabilities, that I admire them for getting out of bed every morning and facing another day of it, with no conceivable end in sight.

I recommended a gratitude list every morning. If you compare yourself to others, you’ll always find people who seem better off than you (though it could all be an illusion, as we never know what’s really going on for people or how much debt they may be in). Happiness and health are what’s really valuable.

You will have way better pensions
Not necessarily.
People seem to be more savvy about putting money i to pension funds.
Even my 27 year old son has had a pension for 10 years. Now when he does overtime it is more tax efficient to put extra earnings into his pension fund.
We are definitely working class but we seem better off ( I.e. have more disposable income ) than my middle class friends the same age as me. Many are worrying about the COL and struggling.

I would typically expect privately and university educated people in their 50s to have used their advantages to climb the career ladder in their fields - Headteacher, and Director level in LG, for example.

Your middle class background isn’t a guarantee of a comfortable life if you are reliant on salaries you haven’t maximised.

How likely is it that 30 year old teacher and public sector middle manager would be able to afford a three bed house in your area, without family help?

I have encouraged dc to never consider public service and have highly supported educational attainment to so they can aim for a finance/Stem career if possible. We're also getting them EU citizenship so they can up sticks if things worsen.

The public sector has advantages particularly as you get older, better job security, far better pensions - teachers for example get 28% employer contribution, and often better sick & maternity pay.