Who are the people who are actually doing well financially in the UK right now?

[BeAlertBrickFinch]

I feel like I'm living in two parallel realities. Everyone I know — including dual-income households in London — is struggling. Struggling to pay rent or mortgage, worried about job security, cutting back on holidays, etc.
And yet... I see people who seem to be thriving. They’ve got two properties (sometimes more), their kids are in private school, they go on multiple holidays a year, and they don't seem particularly high-earning on paper — not doctors or bankers. Some even appear to have fairly average jobs or are self-employed.
So who are these people? Is it inheritance? Family money? Do they just hide their real incomes well? Or is social media creating illusions?
Genuinely curious — not bitter, just trying to understand the mechanics behind it all. Because in real life, everyone I talk to is barely staying afloat

I don't see tradespeople flashing the cash, 'loadsamoney'. The many that I know are quietly reinvesting their profits back into the the property market with an eye on long term security.

I’m in Ireland and doing fine….new house worth 500k, two cars (one brand new, one ten years old), 2 dc but not in private school. We earn just over 120k between us. We’ve been on one city break so far, a week away in Ireland with the dc, and another 5 days away in sept. I’ve also been on another city break with one dc. We get a take away once a week…I don’t have to scrimp anywhere.
we save 2k a month. Mortgage is 1900. We have nearly 100k in savings.

Late 30’s

@BeAlertBrickFinch

everyone is worse off due to brexit

I know very few people that haven't complained about mortgage increases, food, holiday prices etc. We are still able to save etc but I still notice my money doesn't go as far....

Natural savers
Those with family support

Halloween? It’s the start of August! 🙄

Investments, you won’t get rich off just a job, even a well paid one. People who have multiple streams of income from property, stocks & shares etc started & built up before the shit show. I also tell my adult SD don’t think you’re going to get rich by working & encourage them to put even just £20 pm away in a S&S ISA, benefits of compound interest, pensions etc. buying cash generating assets, stuff they should be teaching in school but don’t.

We're not "barely staying afloat". We're fairly comfortable, but aren't living it up like we might have thought we could on our salaries.

We:

• have a mortgage of only £500 per month on our 4-bed detached house in a desirable market town. We have such a small mortgage because we bought our first flat (without help) in 2009 before prices went nuts, refurbished it and sold it at a decent profit - and then did the same on a 2-bed terraced house.
• have earned around £150k this year (DH is self employed, so it's never consistent. My share of that is £75k).
• don't have kids.
• have modest tastes, so we do one nice holiday a year but still find ourselves eating street food and staying in budget accommodation as we cant help ourselves. The rest of the year, we don't do anything particularly 'showy'.
• drive 8/10 year old cars, paid for in cash, and don't have any debts other than our mortgage.

This provides a life where we can sleep soundly at night, knowing that we can replace a car or put in a new boiler if we need to, and it wouldnt dent our finances, but our lifestyle probably looks pretty average to outsiders.

I wonder how so many people can afford to eat out and shop. Our local shopping centre is rammed at the weekends, you have to queue to get in. The restaurants are full to bursting.

Having said that we are doing ok. But we’re probably at the older end of the scale - dh is 50. Made some sensible choices and sacrifices before children. Also, both of us have parents still working. One set full time and the other part time. They are gifting money to our kids annually which will give them such a leg up when they turn 18/21/25 ish. Again, that’s choices as they run from 70-85 and could easily afford to retire. I think there’s a lot of this about unspoken.

Right ok…

This. We're fine. We chose to spend what spare money we had reducing our mortgage a bit while interest rates were low.

We watched as friends took out pricey car leasing deals (hundreds per month) with both of a couple driving brand new luxury cars. Others took several hols a year to expensive destinations, and redecorated in the latest trends all the time - often paid for by increasing the mortgage because rates were cheap.

Now they are all moaning about how much prices have gone up, they are saddled with high payments every month for cars, renovations, mortgages, meanwhile energy and food costs have gone up a lot.

We're fine. Years spent being quite careful have meant we're in really quite a decent position now so can afford to spend a bit more and do some nicer holidays (still not the sort of thing some do - we aren't paying thousands for AI in posh hotels), have done up some bits of the house, little by little, saving up and paying each time. We're saving lots in case our kids need/want to go to uni to make sure we can afford it.
We could easily afford to move to a more expensive house but we don't want to - what we have is more than enough for our needs as a family and we are comfortable, so would rather not take on more debt.

Pretty much every month on here, this dumb or disingenuous question is asked and the answers are always the same:

Some people have more money than you.

Some people are smarter with their money than you.

Newsflash: these people have always been around.

I’m not in the U.K but we have similar issues here (Aus) and I think to an extent it’s age based. We are late 40s so we’re simply fortunate to buy a house when they weren’t extremely expensive. So our housing costs are not much, and our mortgage is almost gone.

We’ve also had 20 years + of working so are kind of settled into our habits. We are past the age of caring about things like what car we drive (I have a Nissan X Trail which is 6 years old and we bought cash).

We also don’t go out a great deal as we still have high school aged children, and work, so we’re up early! So I guess we just live fairly modestly (apart from paying for private school which is our big luxury) and our means were set when things were cheaper.

The likes of this woman and her peers:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/aug/03/yorkshire-water-boss-pay-offshore-parent-company

It's amazing how a little injection at the right time can snowball (inheritance, bonus etc) if invested or spent wisely.

It's also amazing how much difference a decade or so can make in terms of house prices and mortgages. Someone who bought in the last 5 years just can't catch up with anyone older who bought say 10 years ago. That gravy train has dried up.

But we're doing OK. South East, 3 bed, 3 kids, holiday every year or so.

Maybe all those weord posts about the water in MN had a point.
There seem to be a lot of bonuses going on in the water treatment industry....

The only two people I know at work who can afford private school (Civil Service) have multiple BTL properties.
Both from families where both parents work full time and live with in laws so there’s free childcare and lower housing costs overall as multiple incomes in one house. Both also invest their money. Both have new Mercedes and multiple holidays. Any renovations are done by people they know from their community and much cheaper than I can manage. Their children work in the family businesses.

They are very canny and work hard.

Some of these people are spending every penny and living off loans, fancy cars on finance and/or lying through their teeth (particularly people on social media), it will come back to bite them.

This is hugely true. We bought our house 11 years ago and it was just under $950,000 (about £450k). Our neighbours house is very similar (built at the same time) and they sold it last year for $2.5million but no way would our salaries have increased that much over the same time. So timing is very much the problem when it comes to houses.

Even the costs of other things - we did up the kitchen and it was around $40k but now double that seems normal.

To be thriving, you either have:

• modest expectations and budget carefully - double income in moderately paid jobs still won’t get you private school, two houses and holidays. Or/
• you’re in a professional job (law firm partner, big4), very senior in industry, or self made and probably worked bloody hard to get there (perhaps not even appreciating early career that your career direction had big earning potential)

some will be inheritance but in my experience that’s not a majority

I dont know for all cases but I think many of those who are doing OK are those who are 45 plus who bought property early in their career. In my case I bought in areas which were at the time considered less desirable and then hung on until they got better and sold and repeated. I made quite a bit through the years and then finally bought my current home (which I will stay in) with a small mortgage.
I have also been very well paid (in my former career) but never spent to that income, I saved and so now that I earn a lot less, it doesn't matter as much as I am able to use my savings for things like holidays. But although I am less well paid now, I still am above average salary. I think in London it's extremely tough if you dont own a property and you dont have a decent salary

I also tell my adult SD don’t think you’re going to get rich by working & encourage them to put even just £20 pm away in a S&S ISA, benefits of compound interest, pensions etc. buying cash generating assets, stuff they should be teaching in school but don’t.

They aren't going to get rich putting £20 a month into a S&S ISAs though. I think the majority understand the compound interest etc but the majority don't have hundreds to squirrel away every single month for decades.

I am mid 50’s and all my friends are doing well, 500k to one million pound houses, no mortgage, not worrying about food costs, various spending on cars and holidays depending what we are into.
20 years ago we were all struggling, massive mortgages and bills and hardly any holidays between us.

The usual suspects: bankers, solicitors, accountants, hospital consultants, MPs, big landlords with multiple properties and corporate bosses.

And of course those with inherited wealth who don't have to work at all.