To ask what people consider rich....

[Imoen]

I'm possibly going to be flamed but Im genuinely curious. I keep reading on thread about its ok for the "rich" or the rich are getting richer etc....

I've also had several conversations with friends/family and often the throw away comment is "its ok for you, you're rich".

Thing is, I don't think we are. To me rich is not having to worry about working again.

WE both have very very good salaries which I'm grateful for an I know we're lucky (me 90K, him 60K) and we have a mortgage on a 4 bed house worth 280K. (130K left to pay).

But I would not say we are "rich".

I think people’s perspective on what is rich, is two levels above them financially. We have had some really tight times but we are comfortable now - many would consider us well off, , though I would not classify myself as rich .

I have a close friend who I think of as wealthy - lovely house in an expensive spot, very pricey holidays, bought a flat in central London for children to live in when at uni, drops £500 on a restaurant bill without blink.

We have a mutual friend, however, who both of us define at Rich with a capital R - there was a newspaper profile of him when his company took over another which speculated that he was worth personally £75 million. We both snorted at that - ‘ .....and the rest !’ That was on the low side by a huge margin.

He, in turn, would consider himself not particularly high on the rich list - a couple of houses but not huge tracts of land, never in Economy but not forking out for First( though often upgraded ) , a driver/handyman/gardener in the cottage , but not live in tutors and full time staff in each house. We both know of people who are several steps richer than him and - it’s a parallel universe ( though a) you would never know it from outward show and b) they give very generously to charity, so there’s that ....l.)

NC for this obviously and it’s anonymous so....We would be classed as “rich” in that when DH sold a company, we received £40 million (around £20 million after tax). We have property worth around £9 million in total, mainly in London

Yup, I'd say you just about scrape in. You're rich. Not super rich obviously, but rich. As so you should be. It must take a huge amount of work over many years to build up a company to £40m value. Or it takes a short amount of time and not much work, but you're very shrewd. Either way, good on you.

There seems to be a lot of resentment on this thread towards those who are doing well. Not from me. Good luck to all of you, and enjoy your wealth. I haven't got any poorer by reading about people who are richer, so it has no ill effect on me at all.

..except the poster didn't build up a company. She marreid someone who did and is able to share his money. So I am not sure congratulating her on something she didn't do is quite right.

You have your health and your loved ones, that's all the wealth you need.

We should find a way to tax that.

What does it matter?

It's only in this country people are obsessed with classes and status and what people have got and haven't got.

It absolutely rules people lives worrying they haven't got as much as so as so and being thankful they have more than the wotsits.

I come from another country and it just doesn't register there.

Nope, not rich but comfortable and secure in the knowledge that we are both very well educated and chose this life (NHS and education).
I would say we are happy!

I would define rich as having resources well in excess of your needs and wants. Therefore the amount will vary from a couple of hundred thousand to millions/billions

If you enjoy museums/cooking growing your own vegetables reading and local history then I believe you may only need to be earning the average wage and have a couple of hundred thousand in assets

But if large detached house with two staircases, super cars holidays several times a year school fees and expensive tastes are your needs then to be rich would require north of £15 million or a £1m a year (at least)

im from South Africa, my mother is on state pension grant (+ me and my siblnngs give her a total of 200 gbp monthly). always has food, is able to fix things in her house if they breakdown, eats nandos 2 times a month, family visit her every xmas for free food, pays towards extended family funerals, buy their kids school uniform.
this is considered well of in my small town as most people survive on state grant only!

It’s all relative. I think we are rich, DH doesn’t. Household income just shy of £1m last year. I work in the public sector and contribute about 6% to household finances. Many of my colleagues have a take home of £18k (and quite honestly how they survive in London I have no idea) . Most of DHs colleagues earn multiples of millions, so he feels poor.

45% tax is a fucking disgrace, that's all I am saying. Unless EVERYBODY pays the same rate, but that won't happen because then people wouldn't accept, would they.

I think it's entirely fair that people who earn shedloads contribute more, pro rata, than those who only earn a bit more than £155 pw, which is where NI (12%) starts being paid.

You only pay 45% on taxable income over £155k, so £167k a year, or more if you're paying into a pension.

The person on an income of £12k - £46k has a marginal rate of deduction of 32% (12% NI and 20% tax). You'll only be paying 2% NI, so, so your marginal rate is 47%, not a massive difference given that your income may be 10 times higher.

I think it's entirely equitable that people on very high incomes pay a higher rate of tax. They can afford to contribute more to the services that a civilised, post industrial society relies upon to function effectively. It's part of the social contract.

And tax rates are relatively low. The first time I recall knowing what the income tax rate was, it was 8s 6d in the pound, ie 42%. The top tax rate was around 90%. So it could be worse.

What does seem daft is deducting tax from someone on £15k and then topping up their income with housing benefit & tax credits, or UC.

@breaker can you please answer the question that is literally a million pound one, are you happy? Does having that kind of money, aid happiness? Do you not worry about losing it all? I think you can be financially stable and practice humility too but, maybe that's an expensive thought. People that have real money simply don't discuss it. Op asking if people think you are rich based on the numbers you have divulged, is still a humble brag, but you already know this I am sure.

From my POV being rich is not having to check your online banking before buying something non-essential (like clothes, gifts, a not-from-home lunch etc). Right now we just have enough to do food shops and petrol. Everything else is a luxury

@Serin 👏 🌟! We are definitely not rich but as you say we feel we've chosen our careers and life( NHS ) well educated and quite content with our lot.

We don't struggle but nor do we have/ own anything in the "luxury" category that so many view as essential to a good life.

I think its relative to how you are at that moment in time.

We are not rich, live month to month but didnt used to be like this - redundancy and children knocked us down a peg or two.

Now i remember how we were before - both decently paid jobs, little outgoings, plenty of savings - we were "rich" enough to not have to worry about unexpected bills.....now something even like a replacement part on a household item can empty our account!

Having said that, some people would still call us well off as we can get to the end of the month without living on beans on toast for the week.

@1624 how can he possibly feel poor? He earns one million a year. Does he know that there thousands of people going to foodbanks in England? That is an awful statement that you said. "I earn one million a year, thousands are starving and homeless on the streets , yet I feel poor". Awful! He should go on one of those rich people go skint programmes

@LakieLady at a salary of over £125k you have no personal allowance at all.

I have a roof over my head, two healthy young boys and always have food in the house. I consider myself extremely rich to be that lucky. Haven't had a holiday in years and always look forward to pay day!!

@MangoMummy19 I'm not happy because I'm rich. I'm happy because I have 2 wonderful, healthy, happy children, a supportive and loving husband and I've achieved everything I've ever wanted in my career. Sure the nice house and things and holidays and never having to be worried about money help a bit as it removes stress/pressure and the source of many marital arguments but I could lose the money. I grew up poor and lots of my life is lived as if I don't have money so to lose it would be disappointing and someone would have to have done something wildly irresponsible but it wouldn't tip me over the edge!
TLDR: I'm very happy but money is only part of it. Being honest on this thread may be seen as a brag by you but it's anonymous here, I could be a deluded homeless woman, I have nothing to gain. I'm just sharing my perspective which I realise is likely to be different to that of most posters.

Rich to me is those with obvious - typically 'old' - wealth. I would consider Breaker rich from a numbers perspective. OP is doing well, well off, and comfortable.

I earn above 200k, have no mortgage or debt. No DC at home, and DH has retired. We are very comfortable ,and are very lucky that when emergencies arise there is no question of affording to deal with it. I have several times had to catch same day international flights for family emergencies, and don't look at the cost (much) when making arrangements. That to me is rich.

In our social circle we are about average. Most have double income, so even though mine is higher, it may well be less than the combination. AND then I am surrounded by the new rich, double income tech workers with huge bonuses and high flying (literally) holidays, lovely cars, nice homes - many before they are 35! Socializing with them is way above my comfort level. Have had to spend thousands attending destination weddings, etc. It makes me feel a little poor, comparatively. And that is just nonsense given how well of I am. I know that, and count my blessings.

Just because someone isn't struggling to make ends meet or living paycheck to paycheck doesn't mean they are rich. They're comfortable for sure. I believe the OP may be upper middle class but by no means rich. She still has to budget and carefully spend money. She still has a mortgage. Just because she can successfully put enough money aside to go on vacations also doesn't make her rich. I know people who make so much more money than I do but struggle with these things. They spend recklessly and suffer for it. I own my house outright - no mortgage. I make way less than OP. I have two kids in daycare so essentially my mortgage was replaced by childcare. I cannot afford to quit. I do not consider myself rich but I also don't consider myself poor. There is a gray area! Just because you aren't poor doesn't mean you are rich either.

Does having that kind of money, aid happiness?

If money doesn't make you happy, it allows you to be miserable in comfort.

We are in the top 5% or higher of UK wealth and have the benefit of not having to worry about money, which is of course a massive benefit.

House worth over £800k (mortgage has 14 years to run but is likely to get paid off earlier), mainly afforded due to family property (all on my side). The main benefit of which, at this rate, will be for downsizing at retirement, as years of DH freelancing (recently ended) and about 6 years of childcare costs mean our pensions are rather underfunded.

It's not surprising that ideas of rich have changed - consider that my dad bought our family home (4 bed, detached) for 1.3 times his (very good for the time) salary in the early 1980s. We bought out 4 bed terrace for the equivalent of 8 times our combined salaries, though we were able to put down most of it in deposit.

In the 80s, when around 10 years younger than us now, my mum could buy designer clothes, my parents could regularly go to the opera and theatre, raise 3 kids and send one of them to a private school (indeed, had things not gone south financially in the 90s they could have sent all of us, but sister and I preferred local grammar anyway).

Not expecting any little violins at all, but to put it in context we'd be pushed to afford more than the 2 kids we have, we couldn't have educated any privately even if we'd wanted to while paying a mortgage, I can only get designer clothes if they're in a charity shop, and with West End theatre/opera £50+ a pop for a ticket we can only manage that a few times a year. I'm happy with our lot, but I'm conscious that we have it less good for the same sort of income my parents had 30 years ago. And I'm OK with it as everyone's in the same boat.

The sad thing is this of course goes double for the poorest - an 'honest living' barely pays for living now.

I wouldn't say we were rich, but reasonably well off. House worth approx £745,000 but £520,000 mortgage. Own a flat in London worth around £400,000 with an £80,000 mortgage (rented out and will be paid off in 9 years unless re-pay earlier). OH has a flat which is about to be sold releasing approx £87,000 equity. Combined wage (excluding bonuses) of £128,600 but offshore so much lower tax. Savings of about £80,000 (we only bought current house 2 years ago so lots of savings went into deposit for that) plus 2 x private pensions. No debt other than mortgages.

Don't really have to worry re bills or unexpected disasters day to day, several nice holidays per year, don't have to think about what put in trolley in supermarkets/how much bill in restaurant is, but compared to some of our friends (easily on combined wages of £350,000+ per year) we are the poor cousins.

But I know how lucky we are. And I used to be in bad bad debt at Uni/early 20's. So I do try to be frugal where I can be, just because I guess I am conscious I was there once, and so could be again.

@Lifecraft yy. What's that quote?

• money doesn't buy you happiness but it sure takes the sting out of being miserable.

Anyway, I have worked out what is going on with this thread and many like it.

I was always confused by the sheer number of people on here who will vehemently state that earning £200k doesn't make you rich. I thought there can't possibly be so many people on one website who earn that much that they would between them fill fifteen pages of comments, given that so few of the population fall into this bracket.

But actually, I've realised, of course this is the aspirant middle classes. Of course most people on here don't earn that much. However they sure as hell want to align themselves with people who do. And so they talk about how hard it is and such a struggle, because they think if they adopt the attitude that they perceive very high earners have, it makes them have something in common with high earners.

See also: all the outrage over inheritance tax when only a small proportion of estates are affected by it. Most people won't have to ever worry about it, but they like to think they will.