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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask what people consider rich....

651 replies

Imoen · 06/06/2019 11:51

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".

OP posts:
Zbag · 10/06/2019 18:12

I owe 19k on credit cards, 22k on a loan and 110k on a mortgage. I have about £30 in my bank. I dont know what rich is, but I do know what the bottom of the barrel looks like.

KneelJustKneel · 10/06/2019 18:14

If you have 30k in the bank wouldnt it make sense to put most of it towards the debts ? How you are woth all that would depend on income. If you stated that then declared you're on 100k youd be laughing! If minimum wage its really tough isnt it...

MorondelaFrontera · 10/06/2019 18:14

you will get a lot reply that you are not at the bottom if you have a mortgage, don you hard hat!

MorondelaFrontera · 10/06/2019 18:15

KneelJustKneel I think the poster wrote 30 POUNDS, not 30k.
I don't think it was a typo!

Youmadorwhat · 10/06/2019 18:20

@Peachsummer but pay for a job is not just based on how hard you work. It’s based on qualifications and supply/demand and how easy it is to find a person to do/be qualified for a specific job. So professional footballers are paid more because theoretically they are harder to come by and they retire earlier so they haven’t really got much longevity in the career technically. So they peak faster. I’m not saying they deserve it I’m just saying it’s more than the hours you put in...

KneelJustKneel · 10/06/2019 18:21

Ah sorry Morondela you're right. Was getting antsy about the "Im not rich really" posts. £30 in the bank and debts is obviously really really tough.❤

Zbag · 10/06/2019 18:21

MorondelaFrontera my partner died and I was left with the mortgage. Not a lot I can do, I'd certainly be better off renting and getting help with housings costs. But its hard to let go of a home you shared with someone who is no longer.

KneelJustKneel · 10/06/2019 18:22

((((Zbag)))) so sorry for your loss, and for misreading your post Flowers

PettyContractor · 10/06/2019 18:23

It’s beyond me how having a higher household income than 99% of the population can be construed as anything but rich.

I think the problem with this thread is that people think it is about economics or relative wealth, whereas it is about the meaning of an English word. Now, to be fair, there seem to be a lot of people who think "rich" means "not poor", or "wealthier than average", but that is not how I have ever understood rich.

To me "rich" has always meant having so much more money that you live in a different world. You're not frustrated by driving in traffic, or where to park at your destination, because your chauffeur worries about that. You don't worry about the transfer time from the airport to the ski resort, because you can afford to go be helicopter. (I'll allow you to charter the helicopter, you don't need to own it. But you better not have flown to the airport on a commercial flight, in my imagination rich people never share transport with other paying passengers.)

If that means "rich" only describes 0.00001% of the population, so be it. There's no requirement for the word to mean any particular quantity of people.

mindproject · 10/06/2019 18:25

Zbag owes 151k in total. There are people with huge mortgages who a lot more that. All it would take is a property crash (fairly likely in the not too distant future) or a job loss and they are in serious financial trouble. The bigger the mortgage, the bigger the risk. Meanwhile, the guy in a bedsit with a £200 overdraft will probably be ok.

PettyContractor · 10/06/2019 18:27

OK I went a bit far with never sharing transport, it's not absolutely compulsory to have your own plane. I'm sure there are people worth hundred of millions who do take commercial flights. Smile

I was really just trying to paint a picture.

MarshaBradyo · 10/06/2019 18:28

I wouldn’t sniff at first class, small jets would make me nervous. Too many stories

MorondelaFrontera · 10/06/2019 18:32

Zbag
I am sorry about your situation, I honestly do not believe for a second that having a mortgage is a privilege, as you get less help it must be some scary times. People have to live somewhere! and in my area 110k is nothing on a mortgage Flowers.

KneelJustKneel · 10/06/2019 18:42

Petty thats more like "filthy rich"!

Peachsummer · 10/06/2019 18:44

pay for a job is not just based on how hard you work
I completely agree it’s about more than just the hours you put in. But pp specifically said “I work more, and most higher level people do”. Which is incorrect. Working more does not correlate with being paid more.

Justanotherlurker · 10/06/2019 18:55

We have no way of knowing for sure what happens to an economy that tumbles out of the EU, for the simple reason that no one has ever tried it before.

Even in absolute worst case scenarios the fall takes us from 5th/6th biggest economy in the world to 6th/7th.

We're going to rebuild/recover from there, it's insanity to suggest that we won't.

The facts are that it definitely won't be as bad as the Rabid Europhiles tell you and it's unlikely to be as good as the most optimistic Brexiteers tell you.

Whats ironic especially on MN is all the people with innocent questions concerned about GDP where shouting down anyone who raised similar issues regarding labour during the last GE. They are also citing the same economists who ridiculed their manifesto and also didn't see the 2008 crash coming and yet now treat economics as an exact science.

NeverSayFreelance · 10/06/2019 19:00

Yeah, you're rich.

bebeboeuf · 10/06/2019 19:19

Radio 2 had a brief moment today where apparently in USA yoiu are no longer considered wealthy if you have property worth 1million dollars. You have to be at 2.5million for people to consider you wealthy.

That in UK values would be just under £2million.

I live in SE (as mentioned on my pp) and that would be some considerably wealthy if someone had bought it recently, but it’s also easy for any house that was purchased at circa £300k 25-30 years ago to now be worth that an mortgage free.

The owners are typically normal baby boomers who might have had decent but not excessive salaries and now are sitting on huge capital (despite it only being releasable if selling and downsizing before tax man gets to it first)

It’s so not clear cut to values of property or earnings or money in bank.

bebeboeuf · 10/06/2019 19:22

Maybe the times has defined being rich in the best way.
They have a list for it after all.
If you’re on it you are indeed rich.
If not, even by a £1 you are not.

Easy peasy Wink

MLMsuperfan · 10/06/2019 19:22

How the farage did this become a Brexit thread?

bebeboeuf · 10/06/2019 19:25

Wow I just have missed that

Shame

TeacupDrama · 10/06/2019 19:38

while the dictionary does say rich is having a lot of assets / money /wealth that is still subjective as "lots" or "plenty" can mean simply more than you need, it does not necessarily or even obviously mean more than you can even dream about The dictionary doesn't strictly define lots, if a child is said to have lots of toys it probably only means 2-3 times more than normal,
so you can quite easily and justifiably say that the top 10% (probably 30% -50%) in UK have more than they need
the top 1% have a great deal more than need
the top 40-10% probably just a bit more than they need hence they are generally described as comfortable not rich
@petty your definition is just as subjective if not more subjective than those who say the top 10 /1/ 0.1% are rich because it is your opinion on what riches are

breadwidow · 10/06/2019 20:17

Posters are saying it's not that some people are paid too much, just that others are paid too little

I disagree. There is not infinite money, and in societies where the very richest earn the most the poorest tend to earn the least (eg USA). Inequality breeds poverty. It's also not just pure lack of income for some that causes the problems, it's the inequality.

And what about the poor cleaner cleaning the office of the partner who earns the company millions? The partner could not work in a dirty office but that cleaner will still likely be earning the minimum wage.

Pollaidh · 10/06/2019 22:32

Some PP say that wealth makes no difference when you are hit with illness or tragedy. Up to a point, yes, no wealth can make up for a sick child, or serious illness, however it's not that simple.

Objectively we'd be classed as rich in the UK, high income, high assets, though we're quiet and scruffy and drive a fairly old car, so don't look it. We're not mega-rich, super yacht, private jet rich, but still pretty bloody lucky. We and DC know we're lucky, probably helps that we do volunteer work that keeps us in touch with how most of the world live.

I'm also disabled, and DS was born with a serious health problem. Money doesn't make up for that, or protect us from having it. But... it DOES make a difference. I can't imagine dealing with all that whilst having no/limited financial resources to fall back on. Our wealth allows me to work PT (I could stop if I had to), private physio, therapy, private pilates, taxis when I can't drive, a cleaner to do the housework, nanny to help me do bath time etc when DH working away, ability to afford a good mattress, lots of hot baths, more costly short-cuts in the shopping like chopped frozen onions etc...

Meanwhile, no money or private health insurance would help DS directly, but again wealth just removed so many other worries, allowing us to concentrate on looking after him, e.g. Buying deli ready meals or get takeout, nanny to help with DD back home, home help that freed our time up, the ability to afford to take unpaid leave to be with him...

MLMsuperfan · 10/06/2019 23:52

I am rich because I have the love of my family. And a salary of £125,000. Win win.