To not understand the wealth in London?

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Posting this for traffic. I genuinely don’t understand how “normal people” in London are so wealthy. I went to university with some people who now at age 40 live in multi million pound houses. Send their children to £40k a year schools, and have amazing holidays, skiing, etc.

Lots of them became lawyers or consultants, I don’t understand how they seem to have so much dosh.

There are streets and streets and streets with houses and families like this.

They earn a lot of money. Those are high paying jobs. Then they meet someone also with a high paying job I expect. So two very high incomes.

What’s difficult to understand about that?

I don't know if they are, I live in London and we are far from wealthy neither are all of mine and my partners friends who live here too.

Of course there is the opposite as well however there are an awful lot of people in london struggling.

I mean, I’m a nanny, I work for these families. They have top careers and earn a lot.

I earn very good money (40k +) myself, and my partner a bit less but still good, and we can’t afford that lifestyle or area, I commute in from zone 3. So I imagine they earn a hell of a lot more than me!

They work hard an earn a lot. It’s not like the jobs you’ve mentioned are badly paid. Not sure what’s hard to fathom.

I’m probably one of those people. But neither DH or I earn loads in London terms. We got on the London property ladder young as we lost parents young so inherited enough for a deposit on a small flat each. Then property boomed and we each sold at good times and brought again and repeated the profit cycle. now aged 40 we own a 2.5 million pound house. We send one kid to a £19k a year school but have a 50% bursary as we both work in public sector. We pay the other 50% by air BnBing the house while we go on holiday.

My point is that it’s not all down to people working in the city and earning loads.

In addition to high paying jobs (the London salary weighting can be significantly higher compared to a regional one):

• inheritance or parental gift for deposit to buy multi-milliom pound house

• flipping properties; I've seen friends buy in East London or south of the river in the mid 2000s and basically doubled their capital in a decade.

@Namedrama - case in point (inadvertently!)

We also have friends who flipped properties in London up to way more than they would normally be able to afford. They’re in good jobs but not as good as their current home would make it appear. Had we bought our rented flat for the £249k in 2006 which was offered to us first refusal, and had the ~ £100k to invest improving it as is someone else obviously did, we would have been the ones to have a nearly £1m flat in a now-desirable area! It can happen. We just weren’t in a position to do it.

These chippy threads really bother me. “Posting for traffic” okay but... why? Some people have money and earn money. And?

hmmm well.. I'm normal and always been poor and haved lived in London, in social housing and earned min wage managing a charity shop. There are all backgrounds in London you know....

@alltoomuchrightnow exactly. Also there are rich people everywhere. I love the idea that they just pop up in London clearly undeserving.

@Namedrama gets today's stealth boast award.

Lots of them became lawyers or consultants, I don’t understand how they seem to have so much dosh

Because they are in top jobs eating top money?

rosehip how is that even a stealth boast? She is giving a perfectly logical reason of how people live in expensive properties when they don't earn mega money. I truly think people that call stealth boast are just showing their jealousy. I'm sure they would swap the house to have their parents back. Nothing really boastful about both parents being dead at a young age

@Rosehip10

No, you win for the most crass and insensitive comment I’ve seen

I was priced out of london/surrey and had to move.

I looked up prices of the houses down my old Road, they are going for 800,000! So any of my friends/people I grew up with still living there will get their parents houses. So inheritance is key.

Another is house prices. My brother bought a flat for 60k. Sold it for 180k. Bought a house for 250k. Sold that for 600k!

That will never happen to us.

No inheritance and no profiting from insane house prices.

There are places in London where house prices have quadrupled in the last 15 years. You could have doubled your money in a year or two, even, around 2008 buying distressed property at auction.

Also if you have two people on six figure salaries, well, er, that's lots of money.

Lawyers, consultants, bankers well into the six figure salaries with bonuses on top. Climbed the property ladder or as a poster upthread inherited money. It's not really a mystery.

A lot of those jobs pay a lot more than you realise!!!

And many people got lucky with housing. Prices shot up and people who bought just I the nick of time were extremely fortunate and have made millions

I read somewhere, ie on here that there are a lot of people in London earning a lot of money for doing not very difficult or demanding jobs. That might explain some of it.

How much do you think lawyers and consultants and bankers earn? And for some add a bonus or money from private practice on to that. Then factor in that they may have profited on previous house sales (our flat increased in value by 300K and we didn’t do a thing to it in 5 years)- and our house has increased by another 250K but we did do the loft and renovate it a bit. But without these I wouldn’t be living in a home worth nearly 900K.
People spend what 4K in school fees a month (by your calculation) and a mortgage of say 4K takes us to 8K which is probably one person’s take home pay sans any bonus.
Then the other person earning a similar amount pays for all the bills. Bonus etc covers savings.
It’s not that complicated.

my sil works in a niche area, earns 7 figure sums when he gets paid (sometimes 5+ years till payments).
he has an office in london and lives in zone 1. home paid outright.
interestingly he grew up in the north on a rough council estate, his educational experience was very negative. so he sends his dd to an independent school.

• Luck
• Family money/contacts
• Highly paid jobs
• Tax avoidance

Schmoobarb Wed 09-Jan-19 00:57:14
I read somewhere, ie on here grin that there are a lot of people in London earning a lot of money for doing not very difficult or demanding jobs. That might explain some of it.

That too ^

How much do consultants earn?