Are the majority of people on here well-off?

[ThisBloodyNoiseInMyHead]

As the title says, are most people on here financially well-off?

I've read about a woman who earns £32k a year, another who decorates every year, one who has got 1 4 bedroomed detached house, anther who has got a "budget" of £1 million to buy a house.

I live in a 1930s semi (mortgage paid), my husband earns £25k, I don't work (recovering from being very ill last year)and we haven't decorated for about 6 years. Am I the only working-class -strapped for cash- person on here?

TheSmallestGiraffe Yes, I would be able to buy this house now - it's valued at £180k, was £44k in 1991 when we moved in. The interest rate then was 12.5%. We didn't have a holiday for a few years (and then it was a caravan), didn't have mobile 'phones of course. I don't think we were lucky, we struggled financially. We're lucky now, if that's what you want to call it.

On about £140k combined.

Renting as not 100% sure we want to buy in the UK.

The quality of the housing stock is awful and don't really want to spend another £50 to £100k on improvements due to poor quality house build and low quality builders.

The UK is in a right mess right now, so being internationally mobile has advantages. We do own property abroad so we are still in a decent position.

In the UK,

We are upper middle class. Its a very expensive country to live in, specially with children.

@Whiskersonkittens21

Me and DH are just shy of 30, we both earn 25k each for a round number, mortgage paid due to inheritance. No kids. We don't have a car and we WFH so not much outlay either so I'd consider us comfortable but not exactly "well off" as well off to me would be someone earning double what we do. I do appreciate I'm in a privileged position to be mortgage free though.

Though a household earning on paper double, but where it is one income so taxed a lot, with kids and nursery fees plus other child related expenses, cars because they dont WFH (possibly 2 needed if the worker works away from home at times or non family compatible hours), and a decent sized mortgage might actually feel a lot worse off in terms of what is left to play with each month.

I think outgoings have a lot to do with it.

I often look at people doing my job who have huge houses and lovely cars etc and think how?! But then I have a tiny house and crap car yet put quite a bit into my pension and savings so I guess if I lived to my means I would have similar to them. But I have more disposable and perhaps then am better off in terms of cash but worse off in terms of asset?

@ValerieCupcake

I take home £3300 pm and am always skint - high mortgage repayments (but that ends this year). Paying back a car loan (also finishes Christmas). Just paid off loads on Visa, which I had to use for emergencies. There is just me, no inheritance, no family, no partner. And the house is a rabbit hutch not a big one.

Sorry if I missed How many children and ages?

I wouldn't consider ourselves well off - in terms of flashy purchases - but we're very comfortable due to low outgoings. Two adults, two good incomes (not London level, but combined 70k) We were late to get on the housing ladder and only have a small 2bed but I see the difference now as our mortgage goes down whereas rents always go up.
Not paying childcare, only needing one car, having a relatively small mortgage payment etc does make life a lot easier, though obviously wouldn't be everyone's preference.

I grew up in a household where money was a constant stress - my mum used to make me count up the prices of the shopping as we went round to make sure she had enough cash for when it came time to pay - so I've always tried to live modestly. I've not been ambitious/clever in terms of getting money, but I do feel lucky not to have to worry about unexpected bills.

Not well off.
I'd put us comfortable. Income under 50k, I'm sahm with 6 kids and a dog. Don't stretch finances if we can make do with stuff we have, crammed in a 3 bed semi.

We’re better off than a lot of people, two good salaries, we own our own home in the South East. But we have a significant mortgage on a £500k property and are really stretched by nursery costs, which down here are prohibitive. So that money doesn’t go as far as it should.

Working class. 4 bed detached small holding. Both of us work part time. Mortgage, youngest car is 8 years old. We have another 2 houses we rent out for well under what it should be, because who we have there are desperate but great tenants.

We could easily kick them out and sell both places then be hit with capital gains tax. Id rather live as we are than sell and pay a huge tax bill so we’ll stick to how we are and oass the houses on to the kids.

On paper we look great, in the bank we get by monthly.

We're definitely not well off. Our combined income is 45k after tax. There does seem to be an unusually high number of high earners (or people who at least claim they are), on MN though.

I remember a thread once where OP said she felt 'poor' on her husband's 250k a year salary

I think I'm well off although not a high earner by any means. But I don't live in London, benefitted from house price increases and downsized, so mortgage is small with repayments less than £200 a month. I don't have any credit debts, drive an old car, so no car loan, and have no dependent children anymore. I buy what I want and go where i please, because my tastes veer towards the cheaper end anyway, definitely high street rather than high end, and Aldi not Waitrose. I'm often shocked when people on here post pictures of clothes they're thinking of buying, jumpers for £50, dresses £100 or more, as I'd not pay that. I could afford to, but habits of a life time have me exclaiming 'how much???' On the other hand, I'm not worried that I'll have to turn the heating off or not be able to afford petrol, so relatively that makes me very well off indeed, and I'm grateful.

Where I live a 1930's semi is currently costing £1.2 M and to have that with no mortgage would feel very nice indeed.

Intelligent men generally want to find similar, independent, intelligent women with careers, IME. But that's based on my industry. In others, perhaps some just look for the "little woman" to be the maid at home. You have a very simplistic way of seeing relationships...two categories, that's it? Career orientated or maid? Reductive - you think?

Well off is subjective.

We're mid 30's. I work for a bank and earn £35k. DH is a taxi driver, self employed, and earns about the same. So household income about £70k.

So we out-earn you as a household...but we rent. And have no real chance of buying the size house we need (3dc) in this area. We could move 10 miles to a very, very undesirable area with awful awful schools and buy. So we have options...but it's not an option we'd take with the dc.

So chances are we'll be renting forever. Not much chance of a relaxing retirement in that case as we'll never be mortgage or rent free.

@Freemymind

Intelligent men generally want to find similar, independent, intelligent women with careers, IME. But that's based on my industry. In others, perhaps some just look for the "little woman" to be the maid at home. You have a very simplistic way of seeing relationships...two categories, that's it? Career orientated or maid? Reductive - you think?

She is not wrong on the whole.

Assortative mating definitely happens. You choose a "partner" who you consider to be a peer in the social, economic, and educational sense.

The higher your income, the more you tend to look for.

No you're not. There seems to be a lot of high earners on here, but I'm sure there are many on less too. There was one poster the other day with a household income of 70k and worried about increases in bills. Honestly some people need to live in the real world. I now await loads of people saying 70k really isn't much to live on.

@Babyroobs

No you're not. There seems to be a lot of high earners on here, but I'm sure there are many on less too. There was one poster the other day with a household income of 70k and worried about increases in bills. Honestly some people need to live in the real world. I now await loads of people saying 70k really isn't much to live on.

70k is little if you live in London and you have kids.

Nursery fees are astronomical here.

I would consider us extremely comfortable and I'm very thankful .

Combined income of 116 (we just both had our annual 2.5%pay rise)
But we also have no mortgage or car payments.

The only bill that we HAVE to pay in the house is electricity. The rest is all by choice

We only pay for childcare if we need it. Do it is very little also

@SouperNoodle

We're an odd case as DH earns good money, I'm a SAHM, we live in a big detached house and are comfortable.

At the same time, our mortgage and bills are stupidly high, nursery fees are ridiculous and we can range from well off to extremely strapped for cash depending on what month it is.

If it's not a stupid question why would you be paying nursery fees if you are a sahm??

@Babyroobs

No you're not. There seems to be a lot of high earners on here, but I'm sure there are many on less too. There was one poster the other day with a household income of 70k and worried about increases in bills. Honestly some people need to live in the real world. I now await loads of people saying 70k really isn't much to live on.

It depends where you live. ~The op sees herself as working-class living in a 1930's semi, her house is worth £180k, a 1930's semi would cost you £1.2mill where I live. £70k would comfortably buy the OPs but £70k around here would get you a one-bed flat if you were lucky.

@notanothertakeaway

On MN, a lot of children seem to attend private school, and lots of SAHM's with high flying DH

My heart is bleeding for these posters managing month to month with only a couple of rental properties to fall back on !!

I earn decent money but am pretty cash poor. Once childcare fees are done, I'll be in a much better place. I don't think my situation is at all unusual.

@qualitygirl

I would consider us extremely comfortable and I'm very thankful .

Combined income of 116 (we just both had our annual 2.5%pay rise)
But we also have no mortgage or car payments.

The only bill that we HAVE to pay in the house is electricity. The rest is all by choice

We only pay for childcare if we need it. Do it is very little also

What about council tax and water?

Assortative mating definitely happens. You choose a "partner" who you consider to be a peer in the social, economic, and educational sense. Sure you may be all that when you are child-free but when you have kids things change quite a bit - usually, someone pulls back and stays at home more and hence becomes a little less career-orientated - I know people from lots of different industries I don't recognise the pattern of either career focused or the 'little woman' maid...it's nonsense stereo typing

@ufucoffee we are not in the U.K.