To ask if you are rich, and if so how you made your money?!

[jinglebelly]

I run a small ebay business but after DC 3 starts school I'd either like to retrain/get a degree or start up a larger business... I don't know any very well off people hence why I'm asking on mumsnet!

In that case OP, I would be rich in your terms. I don't have a huge house though, butit is nice one in a good area. But I am not rich. I am very comfortable. But we don't have everything on a plate and we have to save up and work for things.

How did we become so comfortable? Well, in the earlier days both DH and I went to university to qualify in certain professions (DH - solicitor; me - teachher) and worked full time, waited a while to get married, waited til we felt we can almost afford a child, and only then did I reduce hours. And then we have been very very fortunate. DH is very good at his job and has also been in the right place and the right time career wise, so became a salaried partber quite young and then an equity partner - meaning we have a decent income from his work, allowing me to change my job, reduce hours nd be there more for DD as she grows up.

My DH is also very good rgarding financial stuff - saving, pensions, investments, etc.

I want to be super rich, Oligarch style.

Alouise - you and me both

I have always done reasonably well through my parents success but have recently hit the jackpot myself in quite a big way ....

Can I ask you what type of jobs you have bethelbeth?

Indeed Duchess - lets not forget 'marrying well'

Most people I know who are wealthy got a good start because their family were well heeled. It is easier to make money when you have got money.
One man I know came from very rough background but excelled at mathematics, was nurtured through school and then headhunted whilst still at uni and is now one of the bastard bankers with million pound bonuses.

I think the internet is always a good possibility for making big money because you have such a potentially huge customer base.

It took me a while MrsCb but I got there in the end!

Sure atswintwolengths

I work part time as a credit controller in insurance, I also do about 2 days a month at vintage fairs selling jewellery.
My DH is a part time stock room dude for a dept store.

I joined the criminal underworld. It's very lucrative.

rich really is subjective.
I don't feel rich, I know to friends they think we are rich

Skiing can be quite cheap too OP

Thanks, bethel; I'm very impressed you have managed to own your own home whilst still being in your twenties!

Not rich but very comfortable. 6 years of double income no kids. Hard work in good professional jobs. Moderate bonuses. Plenty of help on property ladder from parents.

We don't have much money. But we have our own house with a large yard, always enough for food and clothes, and (knock wood) our health. I'll take it. :)

I was a very savvy teenager- had a job as a dj when I left school (typical rebel) but stuck all the money in a bank account so that years later when I had a proper job it was a lot easier! Jammy sod I guess!

I have nevefr had any debts. That helped.

I suspect everyone will say a) I'm not rich and b) people think I'm rich, but I'm not, and it's purely down to hard work.

the internet has made me rich.

have name changed

rich? Hmm well
when I met DH he had £4million (just under) we had an amazing life, he worked hard as did I, we bought a few houses ( I know that sounds flippant sorry!) moved into a lovely house,
then things changed,
the first tech crisis happened and the £4 million crashed. Thankfully Dh and I enjoy work and have just plodded on but with no more first class flights to gorgeous destinations around the world.
Since then things are making their way up again but DH and I are very much still stuck with the idea that we need to be careful.

From an outsiders point of view , we have 4 houses, 2 sports cars, 2 holidays a year we seem well off.

PeterS said above of her husband " He has the drive and the ambition that I've never possessed plus he does something he loves whereas my job is just that to me. I think to succeed at something you have to enjoy or at least believe in it, "

That is exactly how I am. For some reason i was born with that drive, I work much harder than most people and I love what I do. I did also look at books as a teenager in the library such as "what people earn" and picked a profession which is quite well paid because I wanted to buy an island (which I bought about 5 years ago). Am I rich? Not by a lot of people's standards as I had to pay so much out on my divorce (never marry a lower earner... advice most women seem to manage to follow). Why did we have so much to divide? Because we worked hard - we both worked full time even when we had 3 children under 4 and we worked consistently hard over 20 + years, because I think I worked smart and work for myself now. It only started being better when I did that and eat what I kill. If I don't kill we starve. I am a terrible optimist. I always think things will go well and if something fails as plenty of my plans do all the time I just pick up and get on with something else.

Not sure I'm rich though, The richness is being mentally stable, 100% good health and 5 lovely chidlren, those are the richnesses really, anyone reasonably well off will say the same.

I know a lot of very well off people and they have varied routes into being wealthy so it's quite hard to generlalise. Most women under 40 are millionaires than men although sadly a lot of them got that money on their backs by marrying a rich man they then divorced so it's not as much progress in that statistic as some of us might have hoped. For some women the best way to get a fortune can still be by being slim pretty and young and getting a wedding ring on their finger and then provide sex in return for money (and then divorce).

Leaving that route aside what about your Ebay business? I know people who have made a lot starting from that. Roughly what do you sell and how an you market it further? You may not need another degree or to qualify as a doctor or accountant or whatever. You might do jsut as well building up the business you already have.

Make the most of your education, start as early as possible accumulating if not wealth, then knowledge and find something to do as a business which fascinates you, so that you can spend limitless time on it and not begrudge the it. And have self belief.

My uncle, for example, started as a financial journalist, made his pile from starting a financial magazine, sold it at 35 and made more money from investing. I'm a lawyer but not at my best making money for other people, and my real interest is in buying and selling property, and I've made far more money from that than from the legal profession. Although I've lost count of the number of people who doubt my wisdom in doing so!

What industry are you in Xenia? If you don't mind me asking....

I'm thinking you could be my new role model