To wonder how they have so much money? Or is it just social media?

[Spice22]

I understand how older people have money ; they work for it. But I'm just puzzled by how people my age (and younger!) have so much? I'm in my early twenties.
Whenever I go into Instagram or snapchat, I am sure to see lots of pictures of people "popping over to Australia" or beaming with pride because they just a bought a Range Rover. I am not exaggerating!
Don't get me wrong, I'm not envious - though I am jealous of course. I don't blame them at all for the pictures/posts because I would/probably will when i acheieve these things too. I just don't get how they can do this at 17-24 ?
It's small stuff like eating out twice a week, multiple designer handbags a year, to large stuff like new cars and long distance holidays multiple times a year. How??

I know some these girls have 'blessors' but not all. Anyway, I'm just wondering if you guys know people leading such lives and how they do it ?

As previously mentioned on here, I am not exactly poor. I have always kept a very low profile on FB and in RL I am that person who ALWAYS brings in their lunch, makes their own tea/coffee etc. I do live in an expensive home, but half of it is rented out. When I was 22 I was making about GBP80k a year and I made more in the following years. I didn't blow it on a new car or fancy holidays. I saved every penny I could because I knew it wouldn't last. I bought myself a nice apartment in London which I paid off before I moved over to the US on a company transfer.

People who flash their cash with things they have bought for themselves are doing it on credit normally or it is their parents buying it for them. I have a stupidly expensive watch that DH bought for me as a push present/substitute engagement ring. I would never buy something like that for myself. Not in a million years.

My brother lives in a flash apartment these days. Deposit came from my Dad. My PIL live in a nice modern waterfront apartment in Denmark, beyond what they would ever be able to afford on their own. DH paid for them. SIL has no mortgage on her home. DH paid it off for her. She now has a cleaner and driver because she is sick. Again DH pays for it. My PIL and SIL are very humble about the help given. My brother, not so much. My brothers wife... well that is a whole new thread regarding her $2200 coat paraded on FB!

Depends on the job. My first grad job out of uni probably didn't sound remotely impressive to people not in that industry (I'm pretty sure most people thought I'd just found a pretentious way to say I do data entry), but it paid about 75k right off the bat. If I'd been seeing someone making similar (as many of my friends were), we'd have had A LOT of money to splash around.

I also inherited young, so I bought a house
and thus didn't have to worry about rent.

I also think many people overestimate how much money you need to have some flashy things, because they have such different priorities. Let's say a couple has 50-60k between them. If they afford all the basics on half that (which is easily possible), that leaves 25-30k to go crazy with. That'll pay for a few designer bags, some expensive tech stuff, a very nice holiday or two and also cover the payments on a luxe car. It's not the smartest way to spend (though plenty of people manage to blow similar amounts on worthless cheap tat too), but it doesn't necessarily signal someone's going into debt.

As pp said, it can be an inheritance, not necessarily debt.

My teenage DC got a very unexpected inheritance 2 yrs ago - almost 6 figures. Add that on to the 10K plus we had already invested for them since little, and invest it further, and they will have a nice tidy sum by the time they leave uni/start work. Plus we are building significant savings ourselves, so may well pass some to them in a few years, to reduce eventual Inheritance tax.

They both want to use it for a house deposit, but should they decide to 'splash' some of it, then people may quite well assume they are getting credit, which won't be the case. We have told no one outside family about the inheritances, and I have suggested they don't tell any friends about it too.

I was thinking company car, fake or second hand handbags, credit cards, loans, overdraft or simply just disposable income due to low outgoings.
But when the car is knackered and the handbag tattered, will these things really have enriched or improved their lives?

I know people in this situation. They live with their parents (so have no bills) this means that they can afford to travel and have a car on finance. If you're taking home £300 a week and have nothing to pay for its easily done

"I'm not envious but I am jealous?"

Depends on your priorities as well - I'm not an instagram user but I have my own (mortgaged) house, have just purchased a "luxury" car (ancient and under a grand but looks smart), and will be going on at least 2 possibly 3 holidays. However those holidays will cost less than £1000 in total inc spending money and I save a third of my income every month. So I guess my life could look "instaglam" if I photographed it right but I'm still being pretty frugal.

Use your head... vast majority... credit, dodgy money, inheritance, spoilt brats or still living at home not an hard one

Genuinely well off people generally live quite modestly. My old boss drove a 10 year old Passat and although he lived in "The old Vicarage" worth £2m he bought it in the 60's for £2k. Mind you, he was old, but one of my sons has a friend aged about 20 who is very well off, he just shares his mother's ancient Fiat. If you want to be flash you can leave a Range Rover Evoque from Lings for £383 a month, foreign travel has become relatively cheap and with clothes you can always find bargains or ebay purchases. I think you can create the illusion of being well off for less than most of us would think, though why you would want to is another matter.

kmc and want2be what do you do if you don't mind me asking?

trix I worked 3 jobs when I graduated. Job 1 was making sandwiches at Pret where I was paid GBP20/hr and worked 5am-8:30am Monday - Friday. Job 2, I worked for an investment bank making about GBP30k a year in a back office job. Job 3, I worked 6pm-11pm Monday - Friday and 8am-8pm Saturday and Sunday as an assistant for an American lawyer who was insane.

I dropped Jobs 1 and 3 when I was promoted to the front office at the investment bank and I made about the same in my first year. After that my income took off because the bank was doing well and I was making money for the bank.

Credit cards or loans or they earn a lot of money. I know of one couple like this but I also know years before she was very upset as she'd found out the house they rented was rented not mortgaged and she'd assumed it was mortgaged.

DH & I met at uni. Together, we were earning about £60K in our mid/late 20's and this was back in the late 1990's. This shot quickly to over £100K within 5 yrs by which time we had got married and bought a house together. We had a huge amount of disposable income - just because we had 2 decent incomes and no children. I would say that we were cash rich and time poor back then. Skiing. diving, longhaul trips, sports cars, motorbikes - we could afford it all with cash! I remember being able to save my entire salary and I was earning £40K+ back in 2002. That lifestyle all disappeared with DC1 in our early 30's.

Pret pay £20 ph for making sandwiches ?

I also have never had one source of income. I have a job, DH has a job, we each have a business plus we have rental income from the half of our home rented out.

When we didn't have kids we had very low overheads. Now with DC childcare is expensive and living here in the US life is more expensive especially for food and activities for the DC.

could be buying at discount stores or even ebay and not disclosing the fact.

This was me (minus the posting photos thing as that didnt really exist all those years ago!).

I lived at home then cheap flatshre, spent what I earned, never saved very much. Had 2/3 holidays a year, loads of meals out every week, bought whatever I wanted. Some on credit cards.

Nowadays with 2 young children, credit cards gone a long time ago, I dont feel the need to spend on meals out, my cooking over the years has vastly improved and I enjoy it more a lot of the time, we try and manage 1 main holiday in the year.

And we save very minimally because after childcare costs it does not leave me with very much.

Never been into designer goods but def into being spending whatever I wanted to spend my money on after the bills and kids are paid for.

I am always curious to know if people save the majority of their monthly income if working but that's a question for another post.

Barb not anymore. They pay NMW and its all non-brits doing the work. I saw what happened in the shop I worked at. When I left, the new manager, who was italian, insisted on a Polish person being hired. They couldn't keep up so they halved the salary and hired a second Polish person to make sandwiches. It was the early 2000's so the Poles had just been allowed in. Within six months of me leaving every employee was foreign. Management then decided to drop the wages because sales slowed. The service levels and quality of food went down but because they were paying NWM the profits are the same.

Back then the sandwiches were made in the back every single morning in each individual shop. I would make up to 300 sandwiches and place them into the cabinets or fridges in the back in 3 hours on my own.

I think you clearly are exaggerating.

what is a blesser?

My IG is full of kid pictures and cakes i like to bake.

Are u referring to very very z list 'celebs' if so I know exactly what u mean op!

I wonder about this myself, I remember reading blogs 10 years ago or so and wonderinghow all these beauty / lifestyle bloggers managed to buy all that expensive skincare, fancy food, supplements, clothes and treatments. It took me forever to workout that a lot of them were being given a lot for free or where being paid to review things. I think the big money days of that are kind of over now as people have to disclose when they are advertising but it still goes on. Like pps have said a lot of them are nice middle class types with a degree and still living at home so they have a lot of spare income. Being left money by relatives is another income source a lot of us don't have but something others take for granted. I went to a posh uni and my friends and flatmates were forever being left a few thousand here and there. One had a grandfather who each year would rotate between his 4 grandchildren and make a "dream come true" for each of them so it would be things like money to pay for a post grad or to buy a flat etc.

Finally credit cards and loans, I find it shocking as I myself managed to run up nearly £20,000 of debt in my 20s and had very little to show for it so if people are funding a lifestyle with it and buying big ticket items like cars and designer bags then they must be in massive, massive debt and they will regret it, I nearly threw the towel in over my £20,000 worth. All paid off now but ruined my life for many years having it hanging over me.

cheap last minute holiday deals. My dad used to do it all the time.

Parents
CC
Some inheritance or savings that had been put together for them for years by well meaning relatives and are spent recklessly. (That's one reason why my parents will incl something for my dcs that they can NOT touch until they are 25yo - hopefully they will be much older before they will get that anyway)

And yes a few people like a couple of previous posters who worked, worked and worked. No spare time, Extremely long days. So they managed to put a lot of money aside young, invested it so they can now reap the benefit.

Last minute holidays out of term time were very cheap. If you live at home and are working. I went back home for 2 weeks between a house move, had to be out of one house 2 weeks before we could complete on second. I went back to parents and got paid day one. Normally80% of my salary was gone immediately as all direct debits came out of my account. I paid mum the same board as my brother, put £20 petrol in car. Mum made 3 meals a day including packed lunch. At the end of the two weeks I'd spent £20 on a takeaway one night. I'd never felt so rich. My db who earned a similar amount to me was always complaining about being skint. I was tempted to not to move!