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?!

So, which manual jobs are most lucrative for an over 50s female? Serious question, actually, as I really need to earn money to build up my pathetic pension pot.

My DSD is like this. Her DH works but she doesn't. They have two infants, are in a cheap rental so no mortgage, and are in a ton of debt (credit cards and loans). Whenever they pay a loan or card off they see it as a license to treat themselves to a holiday or new TV (by taking out another loan). The children are always immaculately dressed in the best brands (Hunter wellies etc) and the 2 year old has an iPad on a contract. From the outside you'd think they're loaded but they don't have a pot to piss in.

I do sort of envy the way they live. We have always been very cautious, but I couldn't sleep at night knowing I was in debt.

I knew a couple like this. They did all kinds of shit, taking cash out of the business, fiddling VAT, running a 50k p.a mortgage through the accounts and getting credits cards in his name, her name and her maiden name.

They filed for bankruptcy and somehow did the same thing again.

They described us as "poor" because it took us a couple of months to save up for carpets.

At the time we had no debt and an emergency cushion of £1000 but didn't want or need to break into that, but these people who owed a six-figure sums for years and continued to go abroad / get expensive pets / engage au pairs / send the DC sporadically to private schools could not understand that DH and I were actually better off. Mad.

Being cash rich is different to having actual assests such as property.
if your mortgage is paid off and your kids are set up in property then you can chuck cash about with abandon. otherwise it sounds like a risky strategy - but I am super panicked about money so am not normal about these things.

Interesting thread. DP and I are both in the same looked down on job. We are perceived by most as comfortable due to our lifestyle. Regular dirty weekends away, 2 cars one of which is a Mercedes, holidays, plenty of clothes and tech and redoing bathroom plus new double glazing etc. Truth is the mortgage is tiny. 25 quid a week each. We have no big debts or credit cards and search for bargains everywhere. Plus our jobs pay way more than people think. For the west of Scotland it's a great household income when combined with the small mortgage. We have probably 23k in disposable income so it looks like we live the life of Riley but the actual income isn't huge. We also have savings in the bank, and savings in the credit union so we don't sweat over unexpected bills either. It could be that. Sometimes it's just how the chips fall.

"When you say a manual job though, carpenter, electrician, plumber, what are you meaning? Because those jobs can be extremely well paid."

Those are highly skilled trades. The OP said manual and low skilled.

Laurie - it's only £10k if you are paying full wack, and some people won't, and then theres the people who aren't paying for any of it because their parents are...

It's possibly all on credit, but it's not always the case. It's amazing who quietly has a flat they couldn't sell 20 years ago, so rented out and now it's mortgage is paid off and it's pure profit each month, or a great Aunt who died leaving them a £250k house with some particularly collectable antiques in it, or who might have a job title that sounds like they should be earning around £20k but is actually earning £90k, but are too polite to talk about it...

"Road workers"

I'm sure it's not the case for most road workers, but I do know someone who used to do this and he made good money because he didn't pay income tax. Not sure exactly how it worked, but it was some kind of scam.

Also, men have physical strength that we don't have and can be paid well for physically demanding jobs. That might be one of the reasons bin men used to be paid a bit more than the skill level would have led you to believe (though not enough for holidays to Dubai!)

People prioritise different things. People often commented about my family taking a lot of trips, but as a family, we scrimped and saved all year, because that holiday was important to us. So whilst it may look like some people have a lot of money, you don't know what they are doing to be able to save up for those items.

"a friend at uni had a pension as her dad had died when she was young"

I worked at a call centre from someone who was injured while in the army. Her pension was enough to pay her rent so most of her wages were disposable income. She wasn't disabled so you'd never know unless she told you.

"They don't fritter money away on things like takeaways, cigarettes, buying sandwiches at lunch. "

Not convinced by this at all. If I spend 3 pounds on a pre-prepared sandwich for lunch every working day, it would come to 750 a year. Not enough to go to Dubai.

Yes, you never know. We've been in a situation recently where outsiders would be speculating how we were surviving financially. Few people know I had an elderly aunt I cared for distantly at first, then moved her near to me before she passed away. I was her only living relative and beneficiary. She left me a small, modest sum but it's helped keep the wolves from the door.

Well good for them, provided they are paying tax. I agree that manual jobs can be very well paid. It's also a matter of choices and priorities. I am always amazed at how many people have flashy new cars. We earn plenty and don't buy new cars. But we spend a lot more on school fees other things.

Re the Dubai flights enigma DH stacks up tons and tons of avios using a credit card for work expenses. We use the same card for all our spending but work expenses dwarf that. We could go to Dubai first class for the cost of the taxes if we chose to spend our points on it.

Lots of ways or reasons e.g
Dsis- dbil has a very average job got left a huge inheritance, paid off mortgage, have flash holidays, loads of savings dsis- said it was like a lottery win.
My friend is single and works in a shop her dp's are loaded and they both inherited a ton of money which they didn't need so shared it amongst their dc. She bought a 3 bedroom house in a nice area for cash and has 3 holidays abroad a year.

We live in a big house now because we both had bought properties dirt cheap at the right time. We were both skint at first though. So now we have £100 pm mortgage and decent jobs therefore we can afford holidays, meals out etc. When I needed a new car last year dils just got out their cheque book. We had saved up the money, but they insisted.

Who knows. I don't know my friends incomes though. What seems like an average job could be highly paid? DH and I earn 6 figures but we can't afford loads of holidays. Well we are putting a fair bit of money into our house I suppose but even so we aren't mega rich and we live in a 3 bed semi . The only people I know who live the way you describe earn a lot of money though. Your friends must be up to their eyeballs in debt. We have none bar our mortgage.

I know how you feel. I'm a sahm and she has a good job but it's not megabucks. We do ok so I'm not complaining but a friend in similar circumstances has just bought a new
Massive house, a new car, new furniture for the house etc etc: however I've just realised through a few conversations that ALL of it is on credit / finance.

Some not-that-close-friends of DH and I came to see us recently and asked if we would loan them some money- £5000 to be exact. They wanted it to go on dream holiday to New York (5th wedding anniversary) and to treat her to some Tiffany jewellery while they were there. They could not afford to start repaying us straight away but would start in September when they are both due a rise at work at which point they could manage 100 a month. It seemed an entirely reasonable proposition to them.
Our outright no resulted in tears from her, anger from both of them, accusations of selfishness and us being mean and then us being told we could easily afford it and are 'shit friends' and they would not be able to go and it was our fault and she is suffering from stress and depression and needs the treat. Eh?
We were almost speechless but not quite. DH was able to show them the door with a few choice words. We couldn't believe it. They then tried the same thing on her sister and got the same response. We have all been mentioned in a Facebook post as 'selfish shits'. They are considering a Go Fund Me apparently
We really do not know them well, have never discussed our finances with them (never discuss them with anyone except each other), we have never loaned or borrowed money before so not sure where their idea came from but their sense of entitlement was amazing. We were quite surprised when they asked if they could 'call round' because they never have before. They certainly will never be welcome again.

What I don't get is the cheek of it. Where do they get the cheek from to ask people they hardly know for that amount of money and clearly expect to get it and then be so horrible when someone says they would prefer not to? I am staggered by it.

Lulu im at the brass neck of your 'friends'.

With regard to the OP's friends no one has suggested they may have won the holidays, toys, cars etc from competitions my SiL wins loads and loads of stuff from comps.

Don't underestimate salaries. My DH is 'just' a car salesman. He happens to be the best in the region and earns almost 6 figures

I second this.

Dh works for a big fast food chain (it's not but lets say Maccy D's).

Whenever he mentions that he works for McDonalds he will always, always get the pity face. Once, someone said 'Ah well never mind, at least it's a job' with a very sympathetic hand pat

He's an area manager, earning £65k plus a really decent bonus, company car, all expenses paid etc. Yet always he gets that bloody hand pat! People hear McDonalds and think that = skint.

By the way Id quite like to go to NYC and Tiffanys and as im 25 years married shortly am I 5 times more entitled to the £5k?

Lulu I don't think they would have paid you back. They're the type who just go around ripping people off.

I agree, Lulu would never have seen a penny back. Some people are amazing though, that they think its even ok to ask!

There could be a lot of reasons. I was an older bride (36) so I already had my own house and had worked for 16 years before having ds at 38. Dh and I never based our lifestyle on two incomes, only one. I work now part time (ds is 14) but I don't have to because we still live on one income. I also inherited when my parents died so we paid off our house, then moved several times and made money each time we sold. Currently our mortgage is low and we own 3/4 of our house.

We save and pay cash for our cars so no car payments, we have two new paid cars. Ds goes to private school we pay from interest we make on inheritance money that we are saving for ds university. Dh makes a good living but I use coupons galore, we have no debt except mortgage, we go on nice holidays but we save each pay period a percentage for them. Prioritizing is key. My luxury is no debt.

Im self-employed, its outreach a couple of days a week (not office hours, it varies, sometimes evenings), then the paperwork bit is from home. However I bought my place many years ago so mortgage is low. As well as my "main" self-employment Ive worked on a chatline for years so thats also from home & whilst that part alone doesnt earn me loads, it does pay the mortgage and some bills. Which means I do have money spare for nicer things, holidays etc BUT Im a very good bargain hunter, I check Wowcher etc a lot and will always find deals online. I won't buy any clothes shoes or other items if I know I can find on ebay or amazon etc cheaper, & I tend to wait for sales.

Yet a neighbour who I know to say good morning to stopped me in the street the other day, passed pleasantries for a bit then said "oh have you found anything yet or are you just having some time out?" turns out she thought I was unemployed. I can see how she thought that (I don't know why she's interested or even noticed, I barely notice what others comings & goings are) but she's wrong, isn't she? I may not be SEEN to go out to work but actually I do work, and have incomes.

It could be the same for others. Or it could be a low mortgage, parents have money and are generous, they're good at finding deals, may earn more than you think they do, anything at all. & some people manage their finances far better than others. I wouldn't think the worst unless or until I knew the worst