Moaning about being ‘poor’ when rich

[freetone]

AIBU to think if you are childless, go on 3 holidays abroad per year and live in a 4 bed detached house on a private road then you don’t have the right to moan about being ‘poor’? My DF and his wife have been like this recently. He earns over £150k a year. It shows how far away from reality they are imo. Really gets on my nerves when there are millions of people genuinely struggling. Anyone else experienced people like my Father?

fancy So is saying if you are in the top 4% of incomes you are rich, also too simplistic?

Yes people like this get on my nerves so much I have decided to avoid them as much as possible. I am sick of hearing people bleating on about how hard done by they are, when I categorically know they are very comfortable. It's not the fact they have got money, it's the way they're always moaning about petty things.

ancy So is saying if you are in the top 4% of incomes you are rich, also too simplistic?

Is a household income of 100k in the top 4%?

Yes

I would like to assure everyone that 100k in London is absolutely fine. You might not be living on millionaires row and rolling in it but 100k is absolutely fine.

OP I agree. When I was poor, i had nothing in the bank, lived at my Mum's and scavenged for pennies down the sofa to buy bread. My socks were 5 years old etc.

I would like to assure everyone that 100k in London is absolutely fine.

Not enough to buy though- so would be in rented.

I'm -£250 in my bank account. It's not even a week into the month.

I'm am the holy definition if poor. I hate it, I just want to win a few thousand to get me out of my debts and start fresh

I’m a single mum of four on a income of £22K - a combination of full time wage and tax credits etc.

Although I’m relatively poor when you compare averages etc I’m better off than I was with my ex. Although we had two wages then he was a spender and I spent years dragging us out of debt. Now there are no debt payments and no big spender I feel comparatively rich compared with my past self.

I’m quite aware that I need to be moving away from tax credit help before my children are adults so I’m training at the moment to increase my earning potential. I need to earn at least £24K without help to be comfortable (ie pay my bills and feed myself).

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/voices/70000-john-mcdonnell-salary-hmrc-rich-top-5-percent-denial-a7697561.html%3famp

Some stats on what percentage of high earners we have in the UK
www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-3621852/amp/More-1m-people-say-earn-100k-year-nearly-50-000-make-1m-survey-finds.html

I had a colleague like that
I was forced to say to her,
"Having lots of money and spending it all is not the same thing as being poor"

*I would like to assure everyone that 100k in London is absolutely fine.

Not enough to buy though- so would be in rented*

How is not enough to buy? Assuming 3.5x salary you can get a reasonable flat within commuting distance. Pretty sure if you’re on 100k a bank will probably stretch more too.

100k in london is only not fine if you choose a very central location and rent.

Great response

@clairemcnam

What source?

According to IFS.org a household income of 100k puts you in the top 16%. They want net figures not gross.

@DrCoconut my eldest is 7 and he's never been on holiday , we haven't had a holiday for over 8 years , some people don't realise how lucky they are being able to afford a weekend away never mind Disneyland Paris ! Winds me up so much . I'd love to be able to afford to take my kids away xx

Rich isn't a high income, it's a large amount of assets.

Someone who has a job paying 100K a month may well be renting and have a net worth of less than zero. Someone else with a paid for home in London and 50K a year of dividends from a world tracker fund is well-off. (That's a net worth of maybe £3 million.)

www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/may/03/how-do-britains-highest-earners-feel-about-their-income

This is an interesting article and I think articulates how a lot of high earners feel.

I wouldn’t consider a salary of 100k rich, it’s comfortable but everyone has a different idea of what rich means.

I guess we all are guilty of moaning about something that annoys someone else. Not appreciating health, children etc.

Someone who has a job paying 100K a month may well be renting and have a net worth of less than zero

Still going to be considerably richer than someone with a job paying 25k.

I agree PettyContractor and there are quite a lot of people in that position, also with trust funds which skews the salary surveys too.

My friend does this. Tell me and a friend that we don't get it as we have money. But she smokes 20 cigarettes a day. That's about £300 a month on absolutely nothing!

I think the only people who don't think a salary of £100k plus puts you in the category of rich are the people who earn £100k +

Rich is a comparative- if you are richer than the vast majority of other people in the country you are clearly rich. Whether or not you wish you had even more money is not relevant. How you choose to spend it is not relevant.

Iggly

If you work at Bart’s and start shifts at stupid o clock four days out of seven a zone one home isn’t a choice, it’s a necessity. Unless you’re volunteering for an hour’s journey home after an average 13 hour shift? No? Thought not.

Yea I have two friends like this. Also my sibling is like this, although he doesn't have much in the way of assets, he has a lot of money in the bank, so his moaning about being poor is a bit rich.

If you work at Bart’s and start shifts at stupid o clock four days out of seven a zone one home isn’t a choice, it’s a necessity. Unless you’re volunteering for an hour’s journey home after an average 13 hour shift? No? Thought no

Are you serious? The overwhelming majority of shift workers earn nowhere near enough to live in zone one! For many people even an hour commuting would be an improvement on their current situation!