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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Are the majority of people on here well-off?

332 replies

ThisBloodyNoiseInMyHead · 04/03/2022 20:13

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?

OP posts:

GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 04/03/2022 20:41

I always wonder about this. Everyone seems to be so well off! Oh we own our home and have savings of xyz of course, wouldn’t dream of not having a buffer of at least 6 months salary etc

Could be a certain amount of fabrication I think. Or those people who aren’t well off don’t usually post on the “how much money do you have” threads

JellybabyGina87 · 04/03/2022 20:41

No, me too. Husband on low income and we get benefits as well.

TheDuck2018 · 04/03/2022 20:42

Going by the 'what you couldn't possibly give up' thread, I'd say yes!

DrSbaitso · 04/03/2022 20:42

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

Most people on here are middle class, but not as middle class as they want to be or think they should be.

buttercupbumblebee · 04/03/2022 20:43

We are asset rich but cash poor. We have two properties (one we rent out as we got absolutely screwed on the property crash in 2008 so can't sell it) we have a holiday home on the coast and we have top end cars. Now reading this back I know I sound loaded! We are definitely definitely not! We are very careful throughout the week and don't have loads of disposable income. We have worked really hard and that plan is to sell our rental property as our retirement fund.

tyoy · 04/03/2022 20:44

Age is important too though as many young people won't get the opportunity to be asset rich but cash poor.

Porfre · 04/03/2022 20:47

Very, very luckily comfortable.

Live in the NW. But if I lived down South I'd be struggling.

momtoboys · 04/03/2022 20:47

@MiniDaffodils

On the internet you can pretend to be anything you want. I myself am a millionaire. You can’t ever know if the majority or minority are well off as only a select few will reply to a thread.

I am 5'10", weigh 125 lbs and have long, flowing locks!

ShipwreckSunset · 04/03/2022 20:49

This is a national website and there are huge differences in wealth around the country, and what standard of living you can get with that wealth. I read something the other day saying that those in the rural north had a comparatively higher standard of living than some in inner london despite much lower average salaries, simply because their salaries go much further in that area mainly due to housing costs.

Having paid off your mortgage sounds like bliss to me!

Merryoldgoat · 04/03/2022 20:52

My DH and I have a biggish income but we aren’t living in luxury, have no significant savings and a big mortgage.

However I have no complaints and feel that we’re luckier than many.

Fernandina · 04/03/2022 20:54

I'm not well off, no. We are frugal from necessity rather than inclination.

Merryoldgoat · 04/03/2022 20:55

Also we have ‘middle class’ salaries and jobs but I grew up in poverty on a council estate so there’s an element to which I’m better off than I ever imagined being.

sleaf · 04/03/2022 20:56

I posted something similar recently. It seems MN is mainly middle class and full of high earners. 5 or more foreign holidays a year, cleaners, shopping at Waitrose...it's like peeking into another world sometimes and is easy to feel inadequate on here if you're working class and poor.

birdglasspen2 · 04/03/2022 20:57

I don't see the point of pretending....anyway I'd say we were comfortable but off the back of extremely hard physical work and demanding hours by DH in self employed business. I'm grateful for all I have and don't take it for granted. Certainly don't have money to decorate!

EmpressSuiko · 04/03/2022 20:58

We live off one 20k salary, we have two kids and we don’t own a house.
Right now we are facing homelessness if we can’t find a new place to rent so no, not everyone on here is well off.

MrsSkylerWhite · 04/03/2022 20:58

We are on paper because we have an asset we bought some years ago. Salary wise, we still live month to month, though, nothing in the way of savings.
Yes, we could sell our house but don’t want to because if all goes tits up it’s a safe harbour for our whole family.
If we make it to pension age, we should be ok then.

HootOwl · 04/03/2022 20:59

@countdowntonap

I've read about a woman who earns £32k a year that’s not massively beyond the realms of normal.

Indeed. I was very confused by that part of the OP's post. The average UK full-time salary was £31,285 in 2021 per the ONS, having fallen during the pandemic. So £32k is bang on the average pretty much.

ifoundthebread · 04/03/2022 20:59

Very very far from cash Rich or asset rich for that matter. I work part time and my dh full time, together we come out with 32k. We live in a HA property, lease a car, have approximately 10k debt. But you know what, we live in what feels like a safe neighbourhood, have friendly and caring neighbours, have miles of green space on our door step, have beaches within 20 minutes drive, healthy/fed/warm/happy children, I may not have much cash or anything to show for what I work during the week but I go to bed and sleep soundly. And having that happiness is being well off to some, so for that I'm grateful.

Camomila · 04/03/2022 21:10

It's all relative. Our household income is just over twice the national average and we live in a rented flat that always feels damp.

(We are millennials that live in the South East)

mizzo · 04/03/2022 21:11

I'm rich now, but have been posting (under various names) since I was poor. When we first moved in together we lived off £12k a year it was a long time ago but we were really skint.
I remember DH getting a promotion and his wage went up to £18k, it was like a lottery win.

StarsAndSugarlumps · 04/03/2022 21:21

People answer the threads that are relevant to them, so of course on threads e.g. asking where you can buy for £1M in London you get a lot of people answering who have a similar budget.

I never understand the thinking that if anyone has money they must be making it up.

ddshocker · 04/03/2022 21:24

@StarsAndSugarlumps I know I never understood that either. There was one not long ago where a poster said she earned over 10k a month for others to not believe her and she then put Up a picture of her payslip...that put a stop to that!!

HootOwl · 04/03/2022 21:25

[quote ddshocker]@StarsAndSugarlumps I know I never understood that either. There was one not long ago where a poster said she earned over 10k a month for others to not believe her and she then put Up a picture of her payslip...that put a stop to that!! [/quote]
🤣🤣🤣

ninnynonny · 04/03/2022 21:26

Strapped for cash with a mortgage paid off?? That is our dream!

RobotValkyrie · 04/03/2022 21:28

I've read about a woman who earns £32k a year

I agree this part of the post feels completely incongruous.
A budget of 1 million for a house is very well off. A salary of 32k is very average. No one on that sort of salary would be able to afford a million pound house. On their own, they could probably just about afford a mortgage for a small flat?

I also wonder why the post says "a woman" as opposed to just "someone".
Is the number supposed to look big just because (in OP's mind?) women are not supposed to earn much money at all? (am genuinely wondering. I've noticed some woman who don't work, or only earn very little from casual work, sometimes only socialise with women in similar circumstances, and have a very skewed view of women's earning potential in general)

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