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!

I think that richness can be in the eye of the beholder.

DH and I live in a new build HA property have a car (not new) and manage to keep the house, feed us and the 4 DC and do our best to give the DC a good life. We don't holiday abroad as that is out of our budget (well, sort of, we're planning on keycamping next year) and sometimes we struggle to make ends meet but on the whole we manage.

A friend of ours thinks we are loaded! Constantly round with his hand out and making remarks about the house (which we were offered after years on a waiting list) and car and heaven forbid we buy anything new for the house. We are faaaaaaaar from loaded.

My brother is loaded. He did it by purely working extremely hard.(He used to begin every single day at 7am, even Sunday (shock) and worked every day until late.) He has a double-first, and qualified as a management accountant. He managed to invest in property that more than doubled in value.
He now lives in Oz, and is the CEO of his own company and on the board for two others. He owns properties there and has made a mint
So yes, hard graft and canny investment.

Xenia "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."

Good points, I've never thought about it like that. I never had any money from my parents but they managed to bring me up so that I was never limited in my thinking or doubted that I couldn't achieve anything. I also never suffer from depression or self doubt, learn from my mistakes and move on but I pressurise myself as I suffer from anxiety if I don't think I'm "doing enough". I'm also physically and mentally tough - I never moan that I'm tired - and do some of the dirty jobs in renovating properties myself.

Until this thread I've never really thought about being rich or not at all. I just sort of exist. My aim has always been to own a house with land mortgage free and live off the income from my assets. I'm nearly there. Plus there is the future possibility of selling access land I own in strategic locations for devlopment.

I've always been a deferred gratification type person and able to see the long term gains. I must admit to viewing the recession as a wonderful opportunity and consolidated before it arrived. I've never got into debt except for property, DP and I might have two Mercs but they were all bought second hand and for cash. Ditto my horsebox. And while I have many holidays each year, inc maybe 3 abroad including a month in winter, I am so obsessed with property I entertain myself on holiday by studying the local property markets, studying the home market on the internet and keeping an eye out for any bargains.

If I had stuck to the legal profession, I might have done equally well, but not in this country. I see so many clever female lawyers in Scotland working so so hard for reasonable gain but they end up having to live such an expensive, non-cost effective lifestyle for it. And whats the point of all that stress for 70k a year? I don't like the business model of the typical Scottish legal firm either, looking at it in partnership terms. If I'd stuck with the legal profession, I would have done a Masters abroad, got into an EU institution or patents, met another rich lawyer and done it that way. As it is, I might branch out into other fields once I get more disposable cash - asset stripping and futures and options appeal.

Njinsky- You sound like my uncle and DH's best friend. In terms of looking for opportunities they're always "on"; always checking stuff out and seeing if there's something that might be worth investing in. It's paid off for both of them.

Have to admit I'm not great like that. I understand the stock/bond markets and trade a fair bit, but with property I don't think I know anything that anyone else doesn't so I tend to steer clear.

We are well off but not " rich". DH runs his own business and is also a Company director of a larger multi -national. We are just about to buy a house with lots of land and I will be expanding my own small business. Money begets money. The bank say to you, " How much of a mortgage do you want?" when you get to a certain level too, which obviously helps.
We got here because DH works longer and harder than probably 99% of the population and he is exceptionally good at what he does.

We have investments, stocks, shares and a pretty bloody good lifestyle but we have earned every single penny of it. DH came from poverty and a shit school but is blessed with ferocious intelligence and is pretty much a workaholic.
We know plenty of wealthy business people and each and every one of them work like dogs. You don't get wealthy working 9-5 .

Oh, and take risks.

That's key. Risk money on the markets and risk branching out on your own career wise. Don't play it safe.

We are also comfortable,
worked very hard, dual income for 10 years prior to having ds.

Both very good savers and neither of us are frivolous.

Dont have debt, because if we dont have the money in our pockets, we save until we do then we purchase.
Dont mind waiting for a couple of years whle we save for things like a new sofa.

We have money left over at the end of the month and we save it.

We go on holiday abroad once every couple of years, again we are very careful while booking.

I do hold back allot, for instance, if i see a dress that i like and its £25 i walk away and say to myself i will get it on payday. Then tend to forget!

We have a gorgeous house which is a good size, but we bought it 11 years ago when we had a good dual income and were able to save for a substantial deposit. Our mortgage is small and we are actively trying to pay it off early.

This all cmes from the fact that i have been on my own since i was 16, had no one in any position to help me out financially so got a poorly paid job and saved weekly from my wage till it built up, this was my emergency fund. I have since then always had an "emergency fund".

Dunno, im just very good with money and so is dh. No matter how little we had, we saved.

Absolutelyfabulous "Oh, and take risks.

That's key. Risk money on the markets and risk branching out on your own career wise. Don't play it safe."

Yes, calculated risks but risks all the same. And being comfortable with dealing with large sums of money. I lost count of the number of times people said to me in the early stages when I was buying, doing up and selling a house every year or less, "But wouldn't you be happier settling down in one place?" As if there was something wrong with what I was doing! Alternatively, being advised by nearly everyone not to buy certain properties, which invariably turned out to be little goldmines!

I also remember being advised to keep it quiet while I was working as solicitor - apparantly the partners wouldn't like it if I lived in a better house than they did, or had a source of alternative income. So I used to either pretend to be poorer than I was, or that my DP had all the money and did all the work.

Have name-changed for this.

I don't consider us rich, but many people would (net worth £x,000,000) because we don't live a lavish life-style, more like a very middle class one (5 bed semi in London, private schools, 4x4). We don't struggle financially, but we certainly aren't tossing money around (buy most things discounted and spend carefully carefully). We have no debt and spend our money wisely - no business class tickets or lavish holidays for us. Sure, we could live a more champagne lifestyle, but then we wouldn't be able to invest for our future and the future education of our children.

DH comes from a working-class European background, but worked hard in school and managed to get a full scholarship to an American University. He did well there, got a job in finance, got a masters from an Ivy League business school, and went into banking.

I grew up upper-middle class, but was given no handouts beyond having my education (undergraduate and graduate) paid for.

My parents are even more wealthy than we are (net worth $xx,000,000), but they definitely don't, and never have, viewed themselves as rich as the bulk of their net worth is tied-up in investments. My father emigrated to the US with a graduate degree and worked extremely hard. My mother also worked until her third child came along. There were no foreign holidays for us and every space cent was re-invested, resulting in them having the net worth they do, and a retirement annual income the same as when my father was working.

I think that education, working hard, investing well, and spending frugally have been the reason we have been able to acquire our net worths.

I've had some ups and downs. A few suggestions:

spend less than you have coming in, or you'll always be poor.

Don't just "take risks." Only take decisions where you have worked out the worst and the best that might happen, and the chances of them happening, and what is most likely to happen, and what you can do to influence them, and what you will do if things start going wrong.

Don't make the mug investor's mistake of buying things as an investment after they've gone up, then losing heart and selling them after they've gone down.

Have something tucked away for a rainy day. It will come, believe me.

Don't put all your baskets in one egg.

Don't bet your house on a wish or a hope.

Don't take anybody's word for anything. Always do your own research.

Hard work certainly comes out again and again on this thread (and liking what you do). it must be a rare day if I'm not thinking about work at 7am and that includes 7 days a week and it's not that I'll work all day. (I've just been out in the sun and earlier was on the phone and did music practice with tbe boys) but that if work is there I want to get on with it. I remember when a little busier using 5am to 7am on a Saturday morning before the baby twins had woken - they would have fed at midnight and 3am as "working hours" - it just happened to be a busy period., But it's not hard if you like it. It's huge fun.

There was a study of luck on Radio 4. The lucky people are the optimist. If something is out there as a possibility I will assume I might win it and go for it. Usually I'll lose but I'll have another go the next time and just always assume things will be fine and if 1/10 they are that's great whereas the eternal pessmist, I am useless, oh woe is me miserable type will never even try as they "know" they would never succeed.

My oldest won a luxury cruise down the Nile when she was 10. Why? She picked up the entrance leaflets from the air port floor when our flight was delayed. She didn't pick up one, she spent well over an hour picking loads and loads of them up one after the other sure she'd win. She ended up by chance getting the top prize simply because of continuing to try again and again - the hard work in a sense and optimism again.

Of course let's not forget £20k is the average wage and loads of women earn less and many work very hard but never earn much either. It's not a certainty that anyone will earn more than another.

Yes, hard work is a major factor. We live very comfortably, we own 3 houses, a boat, no debt, 2 kids in private school, great holidays etc but DH works like a demon in a tough industry. He works 13 hours a day 5, sometimes 6 days a week, public holidays mean nothing to him and he travels 2 weeks out of every month. His company is very generous and bonuses are 6 figures but they get their pound of flesh....

I get annoyed when I hear politicians giving tax breaks to rich people and calling them "hard working families"

Working hard and being rich are sadly two entirely separate things.

Though if you are in business on your own you have got to work hard if you are to make a success of it. Until you become a capitalist employer.

Working hard for someone else makes them rich.

I have a part time job and work like a bloody trojan for it. This includes those long hours decsribed by others above. I will never get more than my £45K a year (pr) for that though. The nature of the job is such that this is the case.
The hard working theory is well and good but you are on a hiding to nothing if you are slaving to a set wage that will never increase.

"Working hard and being rich are sadly two entirely separate things."

Well yes and no.

eg. You can work hard and be rich, you can work hard and not be rich, but there aren't many people who don't work hard and are rich.

Pigletjohn, what rich families are getting tax breaks?
Last time I looked we'd lost CB and were paying 50% tax .

In my DH's case, he DOES work harder/smarter and longer than most other people .

"You can work hard and be rich, you can work hard and not be rich, but there aren't many people who don't work hard and are rich"

Yes there are

They got it without working for it

I would say I work at least 25 hrs a week over the hours I am paid. Sucks really.

I don't think we're talking about inherited wealth are we? In which case SOMEONE way back in history will have earnt it, no doubt.

I don't think working hard is the only factor - there are millions who work very hard and don't necessarily get there. I used to work in a job that kept me awake most nights, I was working a PT job in higher education but in reality was sending emails at 2am, clocking up 80 hours a week. The cap on my wages was 35k.

However, my DH works in a high paying, high risk industry. He's been lucky too for sure, but comes home, plays with the kids, helps put them to bed and then signs in to video conferences or fine tunes contracts or specs for a couple of hours. He has responsibility and accountability that a cleaner doesn't have and never really switches off. A rare holiday for us is one when only the iphone comes along (and not the laptop and case of files). We also live abroad ... uprooting their family is something a lot of people wouldn't do for their job.

Hello anon, thats me lol I work in HE