To be amazed at how much money some people seem to have?

[EverythingTurnsToSkittles]

I'm talking about people who just do totally normal, average/low paid jobs, but just seem to have money coming out of their ears!

Someone that I know has one child and lives with her partner, who works in a manual low skilled job. She doesn't work. In the past year they have been to Dubai, flying first class, Cyprus, Center Parcs three times, plus several foreign weekend mini breaks in Europe. They also live in a really nice house and certainly don't seem to go without in terms of clothes, eating out, cars, etc.

Do a lot of people who live like this on a seemingly low income have family money? I have come across quite a lot of people like this recently and am intrigued about how they do it?!

Hmm. People's finances are made up of all sorts of complexities of incomings, outgoings and previous investments.

I have had at least two people tie themselves in knots trying to understand how we managed to buy our house/ could afford to consider independent schools etc, both asking all sorts of funny questions, it was so transparent it wss hilarious really. I will say that both seemed to think that because they were oldrr than me / senior to me at work, it was somehow a given that they should be richer. In one case, it was clear they had no idea what we earned, she made comments about the cost of hiring a nanny and how they earn the same as [DH's job] but she was way off with even the basic salary let alone the extras he can earn by teaching courses and consulting. She also asked me if my designer handbag was a present not realising I easily earn enough to buy my own fripperies. In the case of the other, she was well aware of our earnings being in a similar field herself, but didn't know about our family money/ DH's inheritance and the fact we save loads and invest it wisely. I'm the only one of my professional peers who hasn't had a fancy holiday in years.

As someone who is hiring a lot of tradesmen at the moment, the day rate of manual workers isn't all that low, you could live quite well if you had managed to buy a property at the right time. In fact, the time somrone managed to get on the property ladder seems to be a massive predictor of wealth down here.

I have a friend like this, hot tub, nice house, so many clothes she has no room for them. Everyone thinks they're well off, but I know different.

They are up to their eyes in credit card debt and store card debt. Not all is at seems sometimes!

People probably look at us and wonder how we afford things but we have no mortgage or rent to pay and that means we save a lot of money which gets directed elsewhere (such as hobbies for the dc, a new car, a cleaner and a gardener although the latter 2 my pip pays for). We dont have any debt and I live by 'only buy what you can afford' so refuse to have any debt or borrowing because dh has been made redundant a number of times and I don't like how tight things get when it's only my income.

Most of the people I know that seem to have loads of money have either inherited it, or get given money regularly by their parents.

People think we must have lots of money, dd in a private boarding school, 1 large and one small house paid for, a sahm for 25 years.

We bought in the early 90's, have made money doing houses up and investing in property, moving areas, live on one min wage, holiday every other year, only change car every few years. DD is almost totally funded at her school.

People say things like I bet you don't have to worry about xyz, or it's alright for you etc.

Women I know with lots earn it themselves actually rather than inherit it. I think my little bit of London is jammed with very hard working entrepreneurial types. My son just told me a school friend's parent earns £1m a year so may be he is a City law firm partner or in business. I haven't quite got there yet but one keeps trying and it's all good fun. Apart from our house which is quite nice I suspect people would think we earn less than we do as I don't like fancy cars. In fact I've had work men offering to tow the family car away (as they cannot imagine anyone would choose to drive one like that even though it gets from A - B perfectly well which is all I want in a car). Nor surprisingly when we had 3 cars broken into locally recently no one came near ours.

Deo

That's the funniest thing I've ever heard you say
Many years ago I worked for a very wealthy family and even though I was only there for a few hours it was surprising what I learned.
When I arrived she was covered in horse muck, wellies, and looked a million miles away from the well groomed woman I saw later at her party.
If somebody is rich they don't spend lots of money, that's how they stay rich.
You can only spend it once.

I love the idea of a dinner lady and a painter decorator having loads of forrin holidays, cars, nice clothes and house, with everyone in the area speculating how can they possibly afford that lifestyl.... when they've gone and won the Euromillions. It like, bloody good luck to them, there's only one life!!

It really appeals to my warped sense of humour somehow!

My dsis and bil are very ' life is for the living' with their money. They frequently treat themselves to takeaways, breaks away, meals out and clothes. But then something big will come up like a family wedding weekend or holiday and they are always skint and cant go. Then they ask us how we have so much money- we don't constantly spend it!

Poss explanations:
Debt
Crime
Inheritance
House prices increase.
Insurance payout
Interest only mortgage
Winning or settling court case.

Apart from being lucky with house prices the others would not be things you'd want.

My DH wonders this sometimes. He sees people in pretty trucks but I used to be a debt collector so I can tell you that "keeping up the with Jones's" is very much alive and well.

On paper we look pretty rosy, but that's because it's taken years and we work hard and rarely spend on frivolous things.

I know someone else who's husband earns about double what we do (together!) and they went on so many European holidays (from the US), own multiple houses, pretty cars... they're getting a divorce now and are so upside down and so in debt it's an absolute mess. They were using loans to pay for loans to pay for loans. Ugh :(

I think people can spend their money as they want but most of the things people buy are not for me even though I could afford them and that includes business class travel, expensive cars, expensive hair cuts, personalised number plates and all the rest. However it is their choice and my choice of a big house and school fees is not everyone's choice either.

One of my daughters was asking what we paid for our last house so I looked up the estate agent particulars right over those years from 1983 on to see what we bought and sold for and I was telling one of the children when we bought our current house we used every last penny including the last of the chidlren's savings and took out a mortgage of about 4 or 5x my salary. In other words some risk. I had not realised we sold our last house for £25k less than we paid for it having also just sold 2 buy to let flats in the 90s property recession for a lot less than we paid for them too. I thought we made money on every property except the flats. It just shows even in outer London prices go up and down over time.

When I had my small island in Panama for 10 years people thought I must be mega rich whereas they cost about the same as a Spanish flat. Quite a few men I dated wanted to know the value -what a question. They must be American to ask that. I always refused to answer.

..ah and talking of wealth my daughter just called me from Australia to help her get into her lottery account (didn't even know she had one)... she said if she'd won £1m she'd give me £100 for the call.. laughing as I type - we eventually got on to it with a password change and.... £20. Never mind. It isn't a route to happiness anyway.

I've prob been one of these people.

My reasons have been as guessed:

Bought 1st property young so mortgage was only £330 (and int only)
Had a little rental income
Family childcare
Lots of tax credits
Renting vs buying to move into better area/bigger house
£15k credit card debt
Holiday at places owned by family

Tbh I'm happy with my choices.

A few years ago a fairly significant amount of 'family money' from DHs side came our way (long story!) and we decided to put the whole lot into a lovely house in a nice area. I have told some people about it (I don't really want people thinking we earnt it now do I ) but people who don't know must wonder how the hell we afforded the house. I sometimes see the cogs turning when I tell people where I live, and that my house has x number of bedrooms!

We live very comfortably, two cars (although they are in no way flashy) at least one holiday abroad each year, plus smaller mini holidays, but we are really not into having the latest gadgets, designer everything, getting kitchen basic kitchen utensils from John Lewis etc...

People vary a lot in their priorities. I think that people probably think we earn a lot less than we do because we don't have a particularly big house and although we buy new cars, we keep them until they are only good for scrap. We do spend quite a lot on holiday though and other "experiences" (days out etc). We also save a lot and pay extra off the mortgage each month (nearly paid off now).

Prioritising what you spend your money on only gets you so far. We have an old car, are careful with money and overpaid our mortgage so it is now paid off; but we still can not afford the things that those we know who have inherited can.

I know this is a generalisation, but I have found far more people like Deo for example who look after their money, living quite frugally really compared to many who have less money who always want more or the most expensive.

Deo Do you think this may have something to do with your upbringing? Just wondered if you came from a more humble background.
Maybe people who re rich feel as they have nothing to prove. They don't have to keep up with the Jones's because they are the Jones's iyswim.

I come from a very poor background as does my DP. It has made us more careful with money than friends who come from a middle class background, because neither of us wants to be that poor again.

YANBU I am working living wage on a mortgage half a bedsit rent, and struggle to eat a wetherspoons.. My brother in law is in Jamaica with his family, and earns less than I do per hour.. Its mystifying

I come from a very poor background as does my DP. It has made us more careful with money than friends who come from a middle class background, because neither of us wants to be that poor again.

I think it is down to upbringing and whether you are a spender or a saver too. Both DP and I came from very similar backgrounds (grew up only a few miles apart and both our fathers, grandfathers, etc etc did the same job - all families weren't wealthy or even comfortable and our childhoods were positively dickensian by modern day middle class standards even though we are both early 40s) but my family are definitely savers and his are spenders.

He had lots of things in childhood that I never had like foreign holidays, branded clothing and lots of sweets and pop. We only went to the local coast on holiday for one cheap week a year, pop and crisps was for special occasions, clothes were hand me downs, or market stall. My parents didn't borrow and his did - the loan man was always at the house collecting payments.

We are now in a bit of a happy medium - but a lot of that is down to the fact that we have no DCs and both work full time and have a tiny mortgage so plenty of disposable income. As long as our money lasts to the end of our lifetime I will be happy - I'm not bothered about leaving an inheritence but I don't want a poor old age, to have to work when I am too old, due to having lived beyond my means earlier in life.

I think it probably has more to do with personality than background. DH comes from an extremely poor background whereas my family are very well off by most people's standards. We have very similar attitudes to spending money though.

I often wonder about our neighbours. He's self employed in a low skilled manual job that doesnt require any trade qualifications. Not sure what she does, but its part time work and tbh theyre not the sharpest knives in the drawer so it's unlikely to be high skilled or professional. They have a gardener, a cleaner twice a week, someone comes to their house most days to look after their youngest and drops off/collects the oldest at school, their two 65 plate vehicles are collected once a week and taken away and valeted, food deliveries a few evenings a week. We're forever taking in stuff that she buys from Next and other catalogues (or we did, now she's had a huge shouting session in the street at DH we wont in future). No family/friends ever visit so theyve potentially inherited something, but with all those "extras" will burn their way through it in a short time.

I live in a 2 up, 2 down. Bought 12 years ago, 40k mortgage. All paid off now but I still work FT so I can see how people might think I'm loaded. Admittedly, my house is small and not in the best area but I'd rather have that and be able to afford stuff rather than crippling myself with a huge mortgage. It's just horses for courses isn't it?

(Talking about people not knowing - what is very annoying is the vast legions of people who think women don't pay men on divorce and who assume I was given this house by a man after my long marriage rather than that I had to take out at £1.3m loan and pay him nearly £1m as the price to pay to buy my freedom.)