To be absolutely fucking amazed how much money people have?

[HiggsBoson]

I thought we were in a recession.

I thought people were genuinely struggling.

DP and I certainly do as we are on low incomes, but we try to be grateful for what we have.

How is it then, that so many people can afford ipads, clothes from the likes of Joules and Boden, Mercedes and Audis, Hunter wellies for their kids ffs, expensive overseas holidays and huge 10/20/30K weddings?

Honestly I'm quite baffled. Everybody seems to have an ipad - they're £500!!

What's going on?

Not rubbing anything in. You asked!

Interesting thread! This is a topic that my sister and I often talk about. My DH and I have a high income, as do my sister and her DH, but some people, that seem to have very average jobs/incomes, seem to be absolutely rolling in the cash, and to be honest it is baffling. Two people in particular that I know spring to mind:

One friend is a SAHM. Her DH works in a skilled manual job. I have known her for about 5 years and every year without fail they have been to Euro disney, and also had at least one foreign holiday too. Just the other day she posted a FB photo of her on Venice Beach in California! They have 3 children, all decked out in nice clothes, and my friend has no shortage of clothes; all Topshop, River Island, Fat Face, White Stuff etc, no Primark or New Look stuff! Plus she is always, always having her hair done, and not just a trim, things like a colour and straightening treatment, plus nail extensions at the same time. Oh, and the kids do so many activities. Different (costly!) things every single night of the week.

The other is also a SAHM, and her DH works as a civil servant earning around 20k (she has told me his salary). They get tax credits and housing benefit. And just give the appearance that they are rolling in it. Kids dressed in Boden, Fat Face and Joules. She's just decorated her eldest's bedroom in a Cath Kidston wallpaper with matching bedding, which isn't cheap. Constant photos on FB of days out on the train, statuses about shopping trips. Not to mention numerous weekends away, to places like Center Parcs, London, Paris, and various others.

I dont' begrudge anyone having anything, and I'm not jealous, but I am genuinely intrigued as to how some people afford so much. As I said, we have a high income, but we don't splash the cash, and I don't have/do half as much as some of my friends seem to.

Despite having just moved to a bigger house our mortgage is quite small as we had a lot of equity in our old teeny tiny house which we bought before prices got silly.
DH has been promoted twice in the last 5 years.
Childcare costs are dropping for us now that our youngest gets funded sessions at nursery.
Dh drives a fairly new car, it's a company car though which he needs to do his job (ie not a perk)
We don't have many expensive gadgets but we do have a couple - no ipad though.
kids have boden, joules etc but it's all second hand and I will sell it for almost as much as I paid for it.
I think that to the outside world we probably look better off than we actually are - if dh were to lose his job things would be different. We have been able to save a bit if a buffer and have redundancy insurance. We can afford our life, which is cheaper than it might seem.

Ironically you can also buy things cheaper if you are well off. From big to small.....

We have a decent amount of equity in our house so our mortgage rate is really low.

We also have spare money so when nappies, toiletries etc go on offer we buy a ton of them. I think I worked out that by buying the biggest pack available, only on a really good offer, we got nappies on a per nappy basis for less than a third of what it would be if we bought them in a small pack. Currently there is enough shampoo in the bottom of our wardrobe to last for about a year as there was a really good offer last month.

That doesn't explain the £500k house on £40k income though.....

Could they have bought somewhere pre 1998 so got all the benefit of the rises?

We do save a lot and we do spend a lot on holidays, have iPad, clothes, new car etc but if one of us was to lose job there would be drastic change of lifestyle

Since 2008, when the recession bit, OH and I have done well financially.

The multi-national company I work for (until 1st June when I move on) has bought out 2 competitors who were going to go under due to the downturn. That's meant that as well as securing the jobs of the vast majority of employees I've effectively been promoted twice due to the additional regions/departments which now fall under my remit as a director. As a result of that I've had several substantial pay increases.

OH is a partner in a business planning consultancy. It seems that during the downturn, their services are more in demand than ever as companies look for ways to improve and therefore survive (or otherwise take advantage of their competitors' demise.) He's therefore been well rewarded.

OH's car lease, which he pays for out of an allowance, is now in the region of £500 per month less than it was 3 years ago. Many companies can't afford to lease the sort of cars they were previously funding so rates for some high-end ones have plummeted.

We have 2 small mortgages on property here and in France (both UK mortgages as we bought the French property using money secured on a UK asset). The quite high fixed rates have now dropped to base rate +0.29% so as you can imagine, they are significantly cheaper than they were at the start of the recession.

I sincerely hope that my post doesn't come across as gloating; it's genuinely not meant to do. I'm just hoping to explain why some people seem to be (and are) doing well in the recession. Not everyting is more expensive than it was 5 years ago and some people are better off than they were, too.

We're doing ok. Mainly due to me returning to full time work after being a SAHM for 5 years. No ipad, just lil 'ol "Netty" (netbook). We were lucky with selling a property at height of boom though so have a small (ish) mortgage.

It's not an easy juggle because of shifts but we have a flexible nursery and GP's in an emergency.

Eat out infrequently, I hardly buy clothes new, very few gadget-y type things, one holiday a year.

I'm hoping that we continue in this vein until retirement looming large but DS is only 5 so a way to go before there's any nest fleeing. I worry about education costs in the future so trying to save a bit as well.

'I dont' begrudge anyone having anything, and I'm not jealous, but I am genuinely intrigued as to how some people afford so much.'

Parents?

Plus half of our income is put into savings each month. Some people don't save or not to the same degree.

It is hard not to be jealous sometimes, I understand. I have a friend who married a man who "dabbles" in video game production, but his family has a huge trust fund from his great grandfather.

They all have loads of money because they employ someone to invest a certain percentage every year. So they have brand new cars, holidays all the time, cleaners, etc, without actually working for a dime.

But, you know, it is what it is. That's her lot in life, not mine. We have our own little house and almost no debt (what debt we do have is from college; DH and I have never had credit cards). I'd like to go on a holiday someday but we do lots of camping, hiking, little day trips, etc, and that's fine for now.

We have enough for extras like lessons for DS in different things. Both of my parents work in areas that make them very good at home decorating/building/repair, so we've never had to call a professional when anything breaks, and my mom keeps my house looking nice. :o I wouldn't bother myself, but she's done all the projects possible in her house and started on mine, so more power to her.

I don't drive so we've only got one car. DH isn't a "car guy" and doesn't care what he drives, so the car we have is older.

My FIL is a hobby farmer and keeps us in eggs and veggies, and my SILS/BIlS and DH and I all take turns working on each other's projects, so we never have to hire people to do things like paint the house. Or babysit.

It's a lot of little things but they do add up over time.

We do not rely on anyone but us.

Also the company DH works for is doing very well, actually, and he got a promotion. In pounds he makes about 39,000?

It would nothing in some cities but in our little town it's quite enough.

It's got fuck all to do with "priorities".
Interest rates couldn't be lower. Yes. This, exactly. If you bought a home 15 years ago, and you have a job, or a couple of jobs between you, you are probably going to be OK. If your parents gave you a substantial deposit to buy said house, then, yes, you will have extra money for I pads.
I wish people would stop going n about how wonderfully frugal they are, and that's why they are loaded. It's not. When rent, and food and essential utility bills consume 100% of your income, it doesn't matter how you prioritise. None of those things are optional.
I don't begrudge anyone having lots of money. I just can't bear the smuggery.
OP, I had no idea my username was as song! I have googled it, and, thank heavens, it is a nice song

It's a gorgeous Tracy Chapman song :)

You have better articulated what I was trying to get across re 'prioritising'. How can you 'prioritise' when the basics take up 100% of your income?!

Reading this thread makes me wonder where all these people who are struggling due to Tory Government cuts are? You wouldn't think it from the reading.

Give it a rest, Chocolate, it's not a benefits thread, everyone on it is answering with posts about their FT job(s). Keep trying to hijack, though .

MummytoKatie Nope they have bought these homes from 2008 onwards and didn't own before then. They are 32/33, their OH's are all the same age and none of the OH's owned property from before 1998.

Chocolatecake We are living abroad. Our lifestyle would be downgraded by quite a bit if we lived in the UK.

Hijack? I was commenting on the thread - from what you read in the papers and see on the news, everyone is struggling which is why i said you wouldn't think it on this thread.

Priorities are relevant - to a point. Obviously if your income only covers your essentials, it is meaningless. but if you have any disposable income, then it is relevant.

Frankly, even though my disposable income is quite high, I have never been one for buying lots of material things because I don't know when my circumstances may change. So I prefer to save instead.

As some have said, it's important with those with money to keep spending it in this sort of economy. We have shops closing left and right as it is. We should want people to continue to spend frivolously if that floats their boat. They're keeping other people in work.

Another fact of an economic downturn- you will see people shift their spending patterns to different luxuries, whilst reining in spending elsewhere. Sales were up at M&S and Waitrose during the holiday season, which might not make sense given the economy, but people are looking for small luxuries such as more indulgent foods to make the holidays more enjoyable. They might not have spent as much on gifts to compensate for this spending.

Ipads, well, that's just the new thing. Sales of PCs are down 11% or something this year. Tablets are the future.. for now. They're getting cheaper now, though, hence seeing more people with them. We have two HP Touchpads, which retailed for about £500, but we purchased them for 99 USD each when HP decided to sell off their stock and we happened to be in the US at the time to take advantage. Our DS has a very small tablet he plays with sometimes, that was £50 in a Boxing day sale.

Expensive prams , well, that's the sort of thing which is often a gift, often from grandparents who traditionally have more money than a young family just starting out. We bought ours secondhand, and it wasn't a name brand fancy one.

We are fortunate in that we can afford what we like, when we want it. We are very very frugal. I'd list our frugalities here but it will start a pissing match. Suffice to say, we prioritise certain things as luxuries, and shop like paupers for everything else. :)

Reading this thread makes me wonder where all these people who are struggling due to Tory Government cuts are? You wouldn't think it from the reading.

That's the thing, Choc, those of us lucky enough (and yes luck is involved) to be making our own way through life without the need for any assistance will/should do ok under the Tories. Woe betide anyone who falls on hard times, though.

We've been lucky enough to be able to put some money aside just in case. I know many, many people who are already in the shit and can't even hope to do that, though.

On the tick & in denial maybe...

One of my friends had in the past year bought a new kitchen, a new en suite, a new main bathroom, new flooring throughout, new huge TV, new iPad, new sofas, converted her garage at 6K probably bought more oh and she's going on holiday to Florida.

Her joint income is less than 50k yes she is one of these people who tells you every financial detail whether you want to hear them or not. What she did do is borrow against the equity in her home, so remortgage to free up cash. Probably not the best thing to do long term really but loads of people just live in the now.

I think it just highlights the crazy house price situation where people think because their house is doubled in value lets borrow against the equity.

two words: interest-only

I was to find out how many acquaintances are interest-only with no repayment vehicle.

There are lots of families in this country who are struggling at the moment, but you wouldn't necessarily notice them. People don't wear money struggles, nightmares about debt and lack of luxuries like holidays and days out like a badge.
When I had nothing, and was completely down to the wire I would carefully time buying groceries, and pay by cheque (20 years ago!) knowing that by the time the cheque hit the bank, my wages would be in. If I got off the train one stop early and walked 2 miles I could spend the 70p difference buying a large bag of chips for a bargain supper. These were the days before the Internet, and I couldn't afford a daily paper, and I Love the news. I would walk the length of the train at Charing Cross, where it terminated in the hope that another commuter had left a paper behind.

No one knew these things I didn't advertise how poor I was. I worried into the night alone.

Just because these people aren't immediately apparent to you doesn't mean they are not there. They are just not so noticeable as iPads Hunter willies and smart cars.