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!

the really rich people I know all made their money because they had a good business idea and put it in practice. Usually nothing innovative though, just either saw a gap in the market or thought that they can do something better.

The even richer people I deal with at work, the ones buying private planes etc, did the same, just on a bigger scale.

i agree with doing something you love!

I worked hard at school and uni but couldn't get a job after uni and was working part time in a pub. I went through the company Equivalent to graduate programme, became youngest female manager (one male younger by 2 months) and got my own unit.

The company then started selling off pubs so i had the choice of another unit or voluntary redundancy.

I thought i ought to go back to field i had initially trained in so took the redundancy. Managed to get a job in my field but i hate it! :( wish i'd never left the job i loved where i would now probably be earning double what I do now! I have no motivation or drive to go anywhere in my current job and feel now we are in too sticky a situation for me to leave and do what i want to do!

DP didn't go back to uni till he was 30, he is in a job now but is only starting out. We do struggle but i think the problem is not watching the pennies. I think that is the key, so am going to make a conscious effort. No more coffees etc and only buy presents etc that we can afford and not because i feel we have to! Will keep watching threads for more tips!

I know people who've risen from a middling background and found a particular niche in IT - not the programming-databases sort of job - they have brains the size of planets, PhDs etc. They're probably the most 'self-made' people I know, but lucrative jobs at Microsoft helped them along the way so I don't know if that counts.

I'm fabulously wealthy.

I have hot and cold running water, a roof over my head, and warm carpeted floors. I always have enough to eat and it's often whatever I feel like, not just whatever I can get. I have my own bed to sleep in with enough linen to always be clean, and I have lots of clothes. I was able to go to school and then to university and I can pay for prescriptions to keep me healthy.

sorry to sound sanctimonious but we're all ecstatically rich in comparison to most of the rest of the world and I seem to spend a lot of my days with home-owners looking around their beautiful houses complaining that it ain't big enough/they need a better car/their oven is 10 years old .

I think on those official scales we are rich. Certainly we are very comfortable indeed.

DH is a lawyer in the city. Like Xenia he is a senior partner and once you eat what you kill the rewards can be fab...though of course, they can be awful if you have an awful year.

I am a writer. Most writers earn diddly squat, but I have been very lucky (the key to making cash as a writer is NOT to worry about sales in the UK, but look to foreign rights sales, audio rights ,options etc)

I also set up a number of businesses...blogs, websites etc which have made me tidy sums, though the arse has fallen out of this market now and I am looking to buying/setting up some online publishing companies.

I have a roof over my head and the man I love in my bed.

I'm rich.

Most people I know who can afford that lifestyle have been together 20 years, got on the property ladder early, have small mortgages (income related I mean) and have worked their way up the career ladder. Its not an instant fix, we/they are not RICH but they are comfortable enough for new cars/holidays/move up the property ladder if we wish etc but are in our 40s and only really been in this position for the last 5-10 years.

Doesn't bring happiness though :( Divorce/unhappiness in marriage rate amongst my peers is pretty high/average!

The rich people I know have bought property young and rent out a few houses or holiday homes

Agree with EttiKetti - we are comfortable (I think 'rich' but depends how you value you these things) - ie: no mortgage, nice holidays but drive old bangers, (totally uninterested in cars), reasonable savings and investments. We've always had relatively small mortgages compared to a lot of our friends and in many ways are a little 'frugal' compared to a lot of people - ie: I would never spend money on clothes/hairdressers/mobile phones/techno. gadgets etc. One big thing in our lifestyle is that we had our DS very late in life so that we were practically mortgage free by that time - and it enabled me to be a SAHP - which I still am 10 years later . DH works for himself so the business has its ups and downs but gives us a very good lifestyle.

There is always someone richer (in monetary terms). If you want to feel rich all you ahve to do is plonk yourself down amoungst those who earn less than you do , most studies show that. The human race is riven with the sin of jealousy.

Ihate is right above about a lot of things which make some people earn more money than others. Liking what you do helps a lot too and most people are not employees who have a lot of money.

I was asked Xenia - "could you possibly expand on this a bit ?? It only started being better when I did that and eat what I kill. If I don't kill we starve". I just meant it was when I began to work for myself and found as I had made as much from my employed salary as from other things and therefore took the risk to work for myself that I became better off but I am definitely not rich compared with loads of people in London. I might own an island nad have paid 5 lots of school/university I have a mortgage because I funded an expensive divorce. Most people who are well off halve their fortune every time they divorce as unlike many of the women on this thread they didn't marry someone who earned more.

I think another great way to feel rich is to start poor.

I had a very impoverished childhood and every day I have to stop myself doing cartwheels when I remember how I live and how well my children live.

I see the greatest sorrow among the middle classes who were brought up comnfortablly and now can't provide that for their own children. They seem gobsmacked by it.

I totally agree wordfactory. I had rather a priviledged childhood. We had a beach house a farm, all went to prep and private schools, had all our uni fees paid for us (I got an £1000 pound cheque each term for spends- back in the 80's) and had all our cars and petrol paid for on the family account. I didnt feel spoilt but am now thinking maybe we, (my siblings and I), were a tad. .
I have had quite a few monetary gifts (wedding etc) but am a terrible squirrel and a bit of a miser (with myself mostly) when it comes to money. I have no idea why. Im loathe to spend when I am trying to build something. My husband will never be a rich man, he "caps" himself and is fearful of risk. So, Im the hardball one in our family.

We are comfortable now - but it took years of hard slog to get there.

Did the large house bit and ran it as a guest house after 10 years down sized and invested in property which has worked out well.

Don't think I would care to be seriously rich - OH and DS say I would give it away ! They are probably right too !!

You do need to take risks and accept the outcome whatever may happen. As my Mum used to say "You need to speculate to accumulate ".

I would describe as as very comfortable but not rich. I was successful in my twenties, and have a capacity for very hard work although never shone at school, and became a Eurobond Salesman and for a few years earnt a 6 figure sum which I sensibly ploughed into property owning outright a house worth 150,000 by the time I met DH in 1988. DH was just starting out in a niche sector of the law - so niche that it takes 20 years to become a real expert in and we are only just reaping the dividends. DH could not have done this on his own - or would have found it very difficult. In 1994 we bought a large London terrace for just under 300k in a very good part of town which is now worth between 1.6 and 2m. We have educated the children with a mixture of private and cofe state, soon to be both private. We can afford two good holidays and pretty much what we want. I was a sahm for 8 years and then retrained and have a good managerial level job in the public sector and a masters degree and do that for me. I enjoy earning my own money although it is less than 1/2 what I used to earn but far more satisfying.

I think we have a lot left every month, our tastes are modest and we live a lifestyle that is far from extravagant. For the first time I am having a brand new car next month - my present one is 10 years old. Many will think we are rich I don't. We have worked hard and fortune has favoured us but we have made good and sensible choices. In some ways we are poor, we wanted at least four children - after five pregnancies we managed two and are lucky to have them.

I do consider our family to be rich but mainly because when we started we had absolutely nothing- I'm talking really dirt poor. Now we live in a large house in an expensive part of Hackney (a lot better than it sounds), I don't send the kids to private school but easily could, we take 4 week long holidays each year and lots of weekends away and live what I class as being quite luxuriously. However, DH works in law and I work in fashion, our jobs are very pressurised and mean that we work long hours, often on weekends and are expected to give everything to our jobs. DH earns slightly more than me and his positions is a lot more stable so I would suggest law or finance, even if your working on a local basis in those sectors you stand to earn well. Fashion is a tough thing to break into and very fickle also my career has taken nearly 20 years to build I would not recommend the industry.

I haven't inherited a lot, but what I have has given me a big opportunity, so I'm very very grateful for that leg up.

In late 2003 my parents gave me £10k. I used that to buy a £210k flat in London (mortgaged the rest). In 2007 I sold it for £300k (cleared £100k) as wanted to move in with DH. We were going to buy another house but didn't get around to it, so in April 2009 (post crash) I took a deep breath and put that £100k into a basket of natural resource stocks which doubled. Therefore, £10k became c.£220k. However, if I hadn't been given that money, I wouldn't have been able to buy a flat till probably 2 years later when prices would have been much higher so I wouldn't have had so much equity when I sold. Also, I exited the housing market at the right time but that was just flukey timing- flat was too small and I couldnt be bothered to rent it out because of the potential hassle factor and we were thinking about moving overseas anyway.

I also worked in the City for 15 years before kids and didn't waste my bonuses on stuff like designer handbags and cars I would barely have driven. Glad I did as now I am a SAHM and I can relax knowing that if DH runs off tomorrow and I find out he's spent all his cash on an eighteen yr old Hooters waitress , I have enough of my own cash to see me through.

I agree with the other posters who have said that self-employment is the way forward, unless you're in the handful of salaried professions that pay well. However, with self-employment, you're only going to make money if you can think of something in which you have a sustainable competitive advantage.

I'm not rich, but parents are, and I know if I'm struggling finacially I can turn to them.

Parents made their money, by inheriting a well run family business, and making it bigger, and increasing profits.

A lot of people have got rich, on paper, because of the noughties property boom.

I have relatives who got rich from business but were bad with money and it gradually frittered away.

I have much more disposable income than other mothers of my age because I bought a property when I was young instead of blowing my wages getting pissed every weedend.

I've read that self-employment is the best way for women to get v rich, as they dont face employment discrimination.

If you are looking at a new career path then stick to male dominated rather than female dominated fields, they pay much better for the same level of work/qualifications.

We're comfortably off, rich compared to many people but we'll never be super rich as I don't have the drive or necssary attitude to risk in investments. When we were both earning we were in the top two percent of household incomes in the UK. But we weren't earning six figures. We now have only a 25% mortgage and close to £100k in the bank. However the two are offset so if we clear the mortgage most of our saving are gone instantly. I also don't work now so our income is halved.

I got a small inheritance (though it was all they had) when my parents both died in my teens which, in combination with dh's lucky first house purchase that cleared 100% profit, allowed us to put a substantial deposit down on our first joint house of over £80k cash. That's probably the biggest single thing that has helped us over the years, lucky property returns.

I have friends who are much, much richer than us and always will be, and can tell you exactly why. They work for themselves, are seriously driven & ambitious, work scorchingly long hours, and invest very wisely & widely with a sideline in high risk/high return opportunities. Everyone I know with lots of wealth has followed this pattern. And, even where it has been inherited, the family wealth has always started out this way.

So:
Work hard and smart, work long when necessary, invest wisely.

On a side note, to me super rich, never have to worry again rich, is probably £5m+ net worth with at least £1m+ cash in the bank.

What we see above is women who work very hard and like their work tend to do quite well.
If you're advising your teenagers then it's sensible to tell them what certain jobs earn so they aren't deluded. i remember one of ours saying XYZ had a good job (in fashion) as she got free clothes. The fact her salary was £14k or something and not comparable to some other graduate salaries didn't seem to register or they'll say XYZ is rich because he's an estate agent (on not much more than minimum wage) but has a great car. So I think you need to look at the headline salaries in particular jobs.

So if you pick something which tends to be fairly well paid - doctors tend to earn more than nurses, accountants more than cleaners that gives you a better entry point but the real wealth tends to come from owning and then selling a business (which I have never done but I see all the time with my work).

I also think self employment if you're any good at it gives you power and control. If you're a woman it also enables you to avoid any sexism if you think you're in an industry with sexism (as someone mentions above).

Why do I earn quite a lot? A huge range of actors. I would put hard work at the very top of that list and hard work over 25 years.

I would add to that ability to take risk and be prepared to fail, fail and pick up the pieces and be sure the next thing will be better - so optimism in a sense.

Then luck - the family you're born into - I wasn't helped to buy a property or anything like that but I had a good education and parents who weren't sexist. Other luck is I don't look too bad and my IQ seems to be rather high and I seem content to defer gratification to a later point. All those must help a bit. And luck in that I never seem to be ill and have good mental health and the children are virtually never ill.

Another factor coming out of the thread is that a lot of us who don't do too badly financially don't over spend. I'm not into consumer goods. I love that I sleep in a bed bought 24 years ago, use a kitchen knife I bought at university in the 1980s etc, and drink only tap water, have my father's old car (like someone else above I've never had a new car in my life despite what I earn and I don't particularly want one). However you don't get rich by spending nothing in a low income job. You need to ensure you income exceeds your expenditure and ideally that income is reasonably high.

Like Bethel we're comfortable. Bought our first home when we were teenagers. I've never had a high paid job, earn just above minimum wage being a sales assistant. DH has the drive though, he has the uncanny knack for finding good jobs that pay well and train well.

I am not rich, so am slightly gatecrashing, sorry.

It is my observation that rich people value themselves highly and charge lots of money for their labour (in fields of highly subjective value like the arts).

My parents were quite comfortable, if not rich. My mum grew up in a caravan on benefits, was expelled from school, and at thirty was a single mother working nights at a bar. When she died she was earning easily £80k as a highly successful educational consultant/superhead type. She ended her career leagues ahead of where she began it by applying for jobs continually. She had a stack of rejection letters in her office, but was of the opinion that you can be rejected a million times. It doesn't stop you getting the next job.

She also found a way to turn her person struggles into advantages, I suppose, by capitalising on her ability to relate to and motivate underprivileged and challenging children. And she was good at her job, which I think helps, though is not always essential.

Certainly helps not to divorce. My solicitor said children of single parent mothers are likely to miss out financially. After 20 years of marriage and willingly putting everyone else first, it is very difficult to find meaningful employment. I have 6 jobs and we do ok, but if I had still been with Ex DH, my 3 teenage DCs would not have to fund themselves through uni. We had money saved but went to Ex to enable us to stay in the house.

You never know what is around the corner.

I agree with all of the above especially about picking your sector/career - it may not be fair but it's a reality that certain areas simple earn more than others. ( jinglebelly if you're going to retrainmake sure its in one of those areas, if not don't bother build on what you already have. )
It also is important to like - if not love - what you do because you'll probably have to work long hours to succeed.
I'll add two points -

• if at all possible fall in love with someone with the same values about work and money! Yes it may end in divorce but the chances are that in the early years you supported each other either financially or emotionally - or at the very least accepted the impact on family life in return for success. (The alternative is to make sure you don't fall in love with someone who will drain you of your motivation or worse money!)
• expect to make sacrifices. I've moved house more times than I can think of because of a better opportunity somewhere and currently we're living in a relatively obscure part of the world but its paid off and our next move pretty much sorts us but would have been unlikely to come about without this current move. I miss family and I miss friends but money allows me to see them as much as I can. But I do know I sacrificed time with them to be successful.