Have you ever lived next door to someone much richer or poorer than you?

[ColdcoffeeHotface]

As I posted on another thread, my neighbour had an extended rant at me today. He kept repeating that I was 'in a bubble' and didn't understand 'real life' and also that I 'flaunted my wealth.' We live in a house identical to his, my children have a second hand trampoline and swing set. We sometimes buy them toys for their birthday. I have a ten year old car.
But it made me think, is there anyway of not 'flaunting your wealth' or lack of it? People earn varying degrees of money, yet in many areas we all live side by side (especially in cities.) Can you really not show in any way that you have £500 more disposable income per month than your neighbours? And what would flashy look like? My relatives just bought a hot tub but I would be mortified to put it up in my area, especially after today, same with getting an Ocado delivery. Is this why people move to 'naice' areas?

[Lndnmummy]

Interesting thread. We live in a converted flat in London, most of our neighbours live in houses. Some of our neighbours are wealthy now as they have built up a lot of equity in their homes (as have we). Other people are cash poor as they have bought a terraced house for £1M.
As we decided to stay in our flat, we have a small mortgage and so our disposable are greater than many of our neighbours. We spend money on holidays/clothes/socialising and tutors and they spend their money on their mortgage.

[Chicchicchicchiclana]

I live in a terraced house and have been here for 16 years. One one side of me is a single woman in her 70s. She is a retired nursery nurse and she rents the house from a housing association. I would guess she had lived there for about 20 or 30 years before we moved in.

On the other side we have a much younger couple with very well paid city jobs. They moved in 6 years ago. They paid over £800,000 for it and immediately spent about another £200,000 on converting the loft, extending the ground floor, landscaping the garden etc etc. All of that was done within a year.

It's quite remarkable that such a variety of people can live in "identical" London terraces.

[Purpletigers]

I live in the countryside. My road has a huge mixture of people . There’s a family in a quaint two bedroom cottage with 3 children, a heart surgeon , a couple of farms , an accountant , a primary school teacher .The houses are all detached but range from small cottages to bungalows to large architect designed places with electric gates .
We have a lot of space between properties so I don’t have much knowledge of what they own , buy etc and neither do I care . Your neighbour sounds unhinged.

[Peonyinbloom]

anothernamechangeagain it’s just the branches that grown in to our garden.

[Ariela]

We know our neighbours earn a LOT more money than us, we just laugh at how they waste it on a dog walker (gets dog goes off in van, back 35 minutes later) that supposedly walks Bennie for an hour a day, a gardener (who supposedly does 2 hours a week in their garden - well he mows the lawn and goes most times) and a cleaner for 3 hours once a week (biggish house) , she comes, she goes about 2 hours later.
They have people in to do all manner of tiny very easy jobs, must cost them a fortune to get a lightbulb changed.

[GoatyGoatyMingeMinge]

I find this genuinely bizarre! Surely if you live in the same street ,then you must have similar income surely?

Hi @dottiedodah

In London certainly, it's quite common to find this in streets of Victorian terraces. London boroughs often just bought up old housing stock in the post-war decades to use as social housing. But from the eighties onwards those streets and inner London boroughs started to become "desirable". The houses are (or were until recently) worth seven-figure sums. In number 32 you'll have Mr and Mrs city worker, who have extended and had the interior designers in. And in number 34 you have an overcrowded family renting from the council with fluorescent strip lights and a bit of rising damp.

[Winnipegdreamer]

We are millennial renters, everyone’s richer than us 😂😂

[ABucketOfShells]

How bizarre. I’m pretty sure our neighbours have more money than us, based on their car. Kids all have their own laptops (seen them in the garden - presumably doing school work).
Doesn’t bother me. Would never dream of saying anything, certainly nothing negative if it somehow came up in conversation.
I’d think they’re probably going through a patch of financial difficulty, feeling beyond stressed and took it on you. I imagine they’re mortified.

What do you mean sometimes buy them toys for their birthdays? Birthdays tend to be books, puzzles and a toy or two here. Mostly toys for Xmas. Similar set up? Nothing wrong with buying toys for birthdays or whatever, most people do.

[Xenia]

One of my offspring had a flat which cost about £750k in ex council block. I met one of the neighbours once - been there for 50 years, over 80 years old, council tenant, lovely old lady. Very nice neighbours but certainly a contrast. in that particularly block that you would have young couples with massive mortgages never mind huge childcare costs and neighbours paying almost nothing (due to state i.e. tax payer subsidy) for the same flats.

[NoIDontWatchLoveIsland]

I live in a small road in a 4 bed detached. Our house & the one opposite have both been extended - huge extra room out over double garage, bigger kitchens, extra reception room to one side. Our house & theirs have young families in - we are all high income as the village is expensive these days. The neighbours to either side are much older & live in the original footprint houses. They paid relatively far less to buy in the 80s, and im pretty sure they have a bit less money. The decor is very old & shabby and the garage doors on my next door neighbours house has been broken for ages and never gets fixed - she told me over the fence the quote was too expensive.

In the UK atm I tend to see that people over 50 who bought 20 years ago could afford much better houses on relatively lower incomes. I'm in my mid thirties and it's the same again for younger friends, they are struggling to buy a one bed working in the same jobs that afforded DH & I a two bed flat.

[SimonJT]

@dottiedodah I live in a flat, small complex in an ex industrial building, I’m a higher rate tax payer but I’m definitely not rich.

One of the flats is for sale with an asking price of £5.5m, another one of the residents is an actor worth a few million.

[NoIDontWatchLoveIsland]

In London certainly, it's quite common to find this in streets of Victorian terraces.

Absolutely. DBiL has bought a huge 4 bed terrace in a naice SW London borough, well over £1m. Lots of the neighbouring houses were split into 3 or 4 1 & 2 bed flats, so while DBiL and his fiancee are rolling in it (city lawyers) some of their neighbours are much worse off.

[Littlepond]

I live in a pretty affluent area. I do not have the level of income that most have who live near me. My neighbours are far more wealthy than me I suspect - their house is loads nicer with newer furniture etc, they have a lovely big car and go on foreign holidays. Only one parent works as well. DH and I both work full time, we can’t afford to run a car because our mortgage payments are high, our house leaks a bit and most things we own are either over 10 years old or second hand. But that’s life isn’t it? My neighbours certainly don’t flaunt it and I enjoy hearing about their holidays.

We could have moved further away and live in a less affluent area, had the same size house for a smaller mortgage and own a nice car etc. And maybe we’d be the rich neighbours. But we made our choices in life and we are happy with them.

[Zenithbear]

I also haven't a clue how much money my neighbours have.
I could make an assumption on what I can see, as in everyone has at least one vehicle, the houses are well kept and not cheap but not millionaires row and some people have been here donkeys years when they would've been much cheaper etc.
I know nothing about what other investments, pensions, savings, inheritances, other properties, incomes etc they have just like they haven't a clue about ours.

[OneRingToRuleThemAll]

I own my flat and the neighbour downstairs rents. Long term I'll be better off when the mortgage is paid off but day to day we seem about the same.

I pay about £800/mth in mortgage whereas hers is paid with housing benefit. I pay for repairs but the Landlord sorts any problems she has.

In terms of outward appearance of wealth neither of us look like we have very much.

[Rightbutno]

I used to live in London and think variations in income and house value are very common side by side. Where I am now in a terrace most of the houses are the same value. But some much older couples who have lived here a long time and bought wen prices were v low compared to now in terms of ‰ of income. Also a few rented flats where people probably have lower incomes than us.
But feel we're not up in each others buisness so wouldn't know and haven't really thought about it until now.
However in a terraced street there's probably less to signify your income bracket as no big gardens with landscaping, climbing frames, hot tubs, summer houses etc.
Maybe we're all poor?! But actually suspect this isn't true as we have a good income we're just first time buyers as are most of the younger people on the street.

[TheQueensWave]

Yep, people next door to me. The house is their holiday home, it’s at least double the size of mine! They usually live in London, very high society, party with the rich and famous (and royal!). They’re absolutely lovely, very nice and down to earth. Use this home as their retreat from their usually busy life, so I barely hear any noise from them

[Ratonastick]

I used to live next door to a single who became a very close friend. When I first got to know her she was really on her uppers, husband had left and she could barely keep the roof over her head. Roll forward 15 years and she was very well off, having nearly killed herself by working her arse off. She used to leave at 730am and get home at 10pm most days, work weekends, loads of travel, etc. Her life has become financially comfortable and she is definitely considered wealthy. A few people who hadn’t seen her struggle regularly sneer about her and made comments about how easy she had it. They assume family money or a rich exH. Nothing could be further from the truth. She is so kind and generous to me and my DCs and cheerfully admits that her life is pretty easy now. But my God she has fucking earned it.

[Ratonastick]

Single woman, sorry

[photophinish]

We rent a humble bungalow on what may as well be millionaire’s row – the lowest net worth by a long way! We also have a better view and more privacy than any of them, so I feel rich.

[Dylaninthemovies1]

I have no idea about how wealthy or poor my neighbours are. Couldn’t tell you even what kind of cars they drive. But for the size and type of houses I imagine no one is poverty stricken.

In the last village I lived in we lived in the ex council houses. I was close friends with many of our neighbours and I think we were all probably fairly close to each other in terms of earnings. Some older people were wealthier (they all paid pennies for their houses through right to buy), but as for the rest of the village, there were lots of very wealthy people; and also some people who were very poor, but everyone got on well

[AnnaMagnani]

Forgot, I used to live in a row of massive Victorian villas in a seaside town.

They were now a mixture of Nursing Homes, flats or homes for millionaires.

So on one side of me, there was a nursing home. On the other side it was a single property with Ferraris in the driveway. And in the middle was ours, converted in to rather dingy flats.

Not uncommon in some areas to have a total mixture of properties.

[Meruem]

I’m in a Victorian street in London. Most of my street has been converted to flats, although the old couple next door own the whole house (presume they bought many years ago). Some of the houses are converted into private flats, but mine is housing association. That’s the only reason I can afford it. I’ve seen flats on this street on right move listed at over a million. I know of 2 other HA houses in this street (but there may be more) I know the occupants in one are unemployed. So I would say we have a wide mix of people on benefits, “average earners” (which I fall into) and likely high earners. Although I couldn’t honestly tell you. I know nothing about cars (never driven) so someone having an expensive car means nothing to me. The houses from the outside are all pretty much the same.

[FilthyforFirth]

How do people know how much disposable income neighbours have?! I have no idea!

I live in the nice part of town in a small close (just 6 houses) all 4 bed detached. I would imagine my neighbours are richer in the sense that they are all 60+ and we are mid 30s. But no one has a particularly flash car or anything like that. I have absolutely no idea if I am richer or poorer!

[Elsiebear90]

I don’t think you can know how much money people have by the things they buy or how their house looks, I know couples who literally put everything on a credit card and finance as they earn very modest salaries but have expensive tastes, and rely on their wealthier grandparents/parents to bail them out, so I’m sure to outsiders they look wealthy, but they’re actually not. Likewise I know someone who has £2 million in investments and savings, but drives a ten year old corsa, lives in a modest house and buys clothes from the Asda and Tesco etc (nothing wrong with that, I do as well sometimes). Some people spend all their money and more to appear wealthier than they are and some wealthy people hoard all their money and spend the bare minimum so appear a lot “worse off” than they are.