to be disgusted by these wealthy people pleading poverty?

[margerykemp]

www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/sep/14/do-britons-feel-rich-poor?fb=native&CMP=FBCNETTXT9038

eg £118,000 income+ £22,000 savings but 'doesnt feel rich'

£100-150,000 income but "we're poor"

£1 million a year "but it's not enough"

They should be ashamed of themselves.

YABU. People are talking about how they feel, you can't tell Soreen they are wrong to feel something that they just do feel.

Feeling like you are rich or poor is all relative to your surroundings and your peers. It's subjective.

There are people in his country that feel like they are in poverty, and they re by some definitions. But take them to a poor villiage in India where an entire community is sharing one tap, and they won't feel like they are in poverty at all. It works at the other end of the scale too.

I thought the whole point of the article was how people felt and perceived themselves to be not how others see their position. I thought most of this long article was quite well balanced and you have chosen to take out only 3 examples.

YABU

Not having disposable income - basically these people feel poor because they are spending loads of money

tornado woman - is this real? or am I just gullible?

Yes, but they are spending loads of money on essentials like childcare, housing and commuter costs.

I think we could all agree that they aren't actually poor, but if they don't feel like they can have any luxuries without thinking about how much it costs when they are on that kind of salary, there is something wrong.

''Rich because the quality of life is so rich.''

Only someone that practises Homeopathy could say that!

*"The lump sum that I got from selling the house I owned with my ex-husband enabled me to buy a house in the co-housing project. It's 41 eco houses and we share 11 cars. We cook and shop communally. Because we're sharing everything, we'll have three lawnmowers and six electric drills instead of 41. We've got shared laundry facilities. That means that we'll be keeping our costs right down.

"I've done this for the good of my soul, but it's for the good of my bank balance as well. Our joint outgoings, including food and bills, will probably be something like £1,000 a month.

"I strongly believe that you can afford anything. There's a saying, isn't there? Pay the deposit and the universe will supply the balance."*

Oh good Lord!

On the whole I thought the article was quite balanced. The only person who comes across as slightly barking is the 45 year old businesswoman - but she's clearly just plain old greedy and doesn't mind admitting it.

Just imagining asking a 'Cappuccino on Acid to go' at Starbucks (where you need to be considerably rich unless you get 20% discount like i do!) :)

I think you have to be quite careful who you ask latora! its like, a bit under the counter :)

Agree w. Aldiwhore re. reality check. Who were that couple in the Daily(Hate) Mail a while ago who were pictured pleading poverty, wringing their hands & looking sad .... while sitting on a sofa in a house HEAVING with Laura Ashley's latest home furnishings range ... LA ain't cheap. If you want 'Home & Garden/House Beautiful; stylee decor, private education, 2 overseas hols a year and designer cothes, which the woman said they did, then both of them tbh needed a higher income or to adjust their expectation. They were both middle management ..so to me their expectations for what they earnt weren't realistic....

How had I never seen floating Walnut shelves lady before? She's a genius!

Anyway, back to the topic...I'm not sure if feeling rich or poor is all that subjective. You have to apply some logic to it and work out that you are not poor if you can afford a mortgage, a nanny etc.

I'm not poor. I came really close to losing my house when exP left but have managed to hang on to it. It's left me precious little disposable income but I have no debt (apart from the mortgage).
I can't afford to run a car and I'm not sure if I can manage a holiday next year but all the household bills are covered each month and I've got enough savings that if the boiler packs up tomorrow I could replace it. I can afford the odd night out and to take DS on days out.
I'm definitely not rich and I worry about what would happen if exP stopped paying maintenance or I lose Tax Credits for now, I feel comfortable.

To me, poor is having to go into debt to cover household bills, or not being able to afford new clothes for yourself or your children, never being able to afford any kind of treat etc.

There is just no pleasing some people, is there?

Maybe they would like to swap for a week with someone who really is poor and then they will actually have a reason to 'feel poor' and they might learn to be grateful for what they have instead of feeling sorry for themselves.

I work in an area where people are higher earners. Many of my family have significantly lower incomes.

I sometimes ask people around me what they would do if their fridge broke unexpectedly. i.e. could you replace a moderately expensive essential item?

If the answer is order a new one from John Lewis then you are most certainly not poor.

I encounter lots of miserable, wealthy people.
It seems for some people they always want more. It's perhaps that attitude that brought them wealth in the first place.

I think a lot of you are missing what I understood to be the point of this article, which is that absolute numbers in terms of income and savings mean nothing about how well off you feel. IMHO satisfaction in life is about being happy with your lot and not being envious of others. Clearly some of the higher earners interviewed were not in this state of mind.

Oh well done Bobbi

She is indeed real. Well, she exists, anyway.

eurochick
I think that what some of us are trying to get at is that if some of these people had a wider experience of the realities of a lot of peoples lives they wouldn't be so quick to declare that they are poor when they have a higher than average income.

Tornado woman - seriously??!? I thought it was pure satire until I googled Caroline Phillips and realised that she's an actual human being. She deserves to be a fictional character in a satirical novel with such baroque levels of self-absorption and pretension.

The Guardian article is revealing though. I think a lot of the rich people in it who feel poor feel that way because they live in London, which is a magnet for the super-wealthy. It's all about context. Anytime I've been to London I've felt poor as well because there is so much money there, old money as well as Russian oligarch types. A lot of the world's super-wealthy have a base there so if you're a normal, working Londoner, even on a six-figure salary, you might feel the pinch.

We are classed as high earners but as we live in Surrey our mortgage and CT are quite a lot, Dh has to pay quite a bit in commuting costs too. We drive a 10 year old car with dents and haven't had a holiday in 2 years. My friend and husband aren't high earners, live in a council house and only pay £70 a week in rent. They probably have a better standard of life, they've had two holidays this year for a start! It is all down to disposable income and the area you live in.

I think this is about expectations. I always thought that if I was earning a (combined) six figure + salary, I'd feel really rich and be living the high life. The reality is that after mortgage, bills, childcare and travel we have a comfortable lifestyle. One foreign holiday a year. A used car (given to us by family, it's decades old) and own a flat.

I know that we are objectively Not Poor but we are also nowhere near as comfortable as I would expect/hope for given income. It's ridiculous to claim actually being poor though.

I really loved Polly Tiynbee's hard work book too.

Although she was still living in a bubble- buying the guardian everyday for a start!

adversecamber I have that book. It's really interesting and although it's quite old now, still pretty relevant.