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?

@BottlingBurpsForGrandma

I guess so - I didn't try and hide who I meant, and it's not personal - as we've all said, anonymous forum etc. I guess it's just an illustration of the point above - that most of us spend pretty much what we have. I hope your Mortgage free-ness and your decent household income brings you security and freedom (freedom from financial worries, if nothing else). After all, what's it all for otherwise?

Thank you, very kind 😊

Well off its depend isnt. My husband earns 68k. I’m stay at home mum. Maybe 68k for some people is a lot. But we are quite tight. We have 2 mortgages, my mum lives in different country and totally depend on me financially, so i have to send money to my parents, i have little sister and have to pay for her university aswell. 68k not a lot in my household. Really depend on how is your outcome.

[quote tyoy]@JTK392 how would someone on 32k get an interest only mortgage on a 1m house though? [/quote]
With a very large deposit, from previously inherited/ earned/ invested capital. E.g. Bought a house in certain areas for peanuts 20-30 years ago.

@Disneyblueeyes

32k is quite a good wage where I'm from, for one person that is. For household income, it doesn't go far.

Maybe there's just a lot of women on here who are housewives/SAHM with hubbies who earn the big bucks, and have a lot of time to spend on Mumsnet as a result. Just a thought.

Lol!!!! Some of us actually earn our own money, you know.

32k is hardly a massive salary, even by northern standards.

@Waxonwaxoff0* A massive mortgage is a choice though. I'm on a low wage and I purposely chose an affordable mortgage to me, because I don't want to be skint all the time.

Totally agree with this outside stupidly inflated areas like London where there are no other options. This is what I did

I think I earn a very good wage on my outgoings but even I’m starting to get twitchy on the food and energy increases

@NRRK28

Well off its depend isnt. My husband earns 68k. I’m stay at home mum. Maybe 68k for some people is a lot. But we are quite tight. We have 2 mortgages, my mum lives in different country and totally depend on me financially, so i have to send money to my parents, i have little sister and have to pay for her university aswell. 68k not a lot in my household. Really depend on how is your outcome.

Is paying for family members who would not normally be considered dependants through no choice on their part or no perceived choice on your part

Why on earth would anyone even want to decorate every year? Cost aside - think of all the upheaval and hassle! Reckon whoever said that was living a bit of a fantasy...

We are very comfortable now (although I'm sure half of MN would jump on to tell me they could never life on my very decent salary), but we haven't always been.

I'm the child of an immigrant who shared a room in a terrace house with the 8 other members of his family when he arrived here and their financial situation wasn't great until around the time when I left to go to uni.

We had very low salaries when we graduated at the height of the recession and scraped by by living in house shares and working our way up in jobs. My husband always remembers one of my friends buying a CD because she wanted it and me being in awe about living the sort of lifestyle that meant you could just go out and buy something from a high street shop when you wanted and at full price as well!

Now, I eat at the best restaurants, stay in the best hotels, go on lots of holidays but also have very average cars and live in very average 3 bed house that hasn't had any work done to it bar some paint on the walls in the whole time we've lived here.

We might pay off our mortgage soon (hence not doing any work) because once we've done that it's ours and no one can take it away. We can afford to pay our bills many times over but DH was checking the meter because I had the dryer on during the day today. Rich people wouldn't act like that if they've never been poor, because no matter how wealthy you get, some things never leave you.

So whilst you might think you aren't wealthy, having a roof over your head that's actually yours is something many people can't ever contemplate, so it's all relative.

It’s all relative
I’m on a decent salary (45k) but pay £1k a month mortgage and am only wage earner in my household
I also subsidise DS DD and DP who don’t earn as much
Until recently I was paying care home top up fees for DF until he died - DM has Alzheimer’s and will need more paid for help soon so am having to budget for that

It's funny because it's definitely the impression I get, especially when I see threads about what people judge in others houses ( some people have libraries etc ) or how to improve their rooms.

Our household income is around 80kish but after mortgage, nursery fees with 2 DC, bills and cars (all average and relatively appropriate) we haven't much left over for savings or other luxuries. Not that it matters but I'm the higher earner.

@BoredZelda

It all depends on a persons own definition of "well off"

ifs.org.uk/tools_and_resources/where_do_you_fit_in is as good a gauge as any.

This takes no account whatsoever of the varying cost of living around the country. It doesn't consider mortgage/ rent costs, or childcare costs, the biggest outgoings for most households. These are not luxuries or "nice to haves" but basic necessities. Therefore it is essentially meaningless. A tool like this that then incorporated those figures would be interesting, but this is meaningless nonsense I'm afraid.,

@Moonface123

" Some people are so poor all they have is money " l have learnt to live on what is considered in this country a little, yet l read some of these threads and l know l am rich in other ways.

Nailed it. ❤️

Who can afford Mumsnet Premium?

I think it really depends at what point people who are posting are in their lives. I only started reading mumsnet when i started to TTC in my late 30’s. I have way more money than I did in my early 20’s. If I were to post in ten years time I imagine We’ll have more income and if I post again in 30 years our household income will have fallen but wealth would have increased. If you have kids etc chances are your money doesn’t stretch as far, if you live in London you may feel pretty poor on 60k a year etc.

I’m not rich but what I consider to be pretty comfortable and I absolutely believe that people are on crazy salaries, we’ve all met some. The people who own the care home your granny is in, the CEO, CFO, directors of the company you work for etc etc. personally it gives me a warm glow of satisfaction when a woman posts about her mental salary (thats not me btw, SAHM and definitely not a go getter).

It is relative.
Im no high earner. Some may say 'asset rich' (I own 4 houses with other people, all mortgaged, mind) and my own (also mortgaged) but if I didn't have a lodger I'd struggle as a single person. 29k salary, small side business making a bit of extra pocket money but not much. I own a lot of expensive clothes so may 'appear' rich but I'm really not and have had a lot of expenses this year that have had me quite worried at times.
Rich to me is having no money worries at all. Being able to spend whatever you want. Private health care, spontaneous extravagance.
BUT! I appreciate I am very privileged and that to the next person I will be what they call rich and hve things they could only dream of. I am very mindful of that. I don't like ignorance and never don't appreciate what I do have. I'm not religious but I do make sure I actively think about how lucky I am at times.

Being mortgage free is a huge advantage in my book. Our income (DH self employed and me p/t not for profit) is massive by most people’s standards but we have a big mortgage, live in a very expensive city and until recently paid school fees. When I was diagnosed with cancer a few years back I literally stopped working overnight and DH’s business suffered as his focus was elsewhere and even with private healthcare we had medical bills so we are just recovering financially.

You have no mortgage so surely that puts you in a more well off position?
My dh earns a good amount but we have a big mortgage. Its all relative and varies so much on location too

Everyone interpretation of cash strapped is different . My oh earns roughly 50k I earn about 11k so sounds a lot but we rarely have much space money (3 kids, 2 cars) we go on holiday every couple years (Spain cheep n cheerful) our cars are over five years old. We shop at Aldi to keep food bill down . Some months we might have couple hundred spare to stick in savings others we are getting money out of savings. We have a 4 bed house but it's in a rough northern town so lot cheaper than average.

No I think the opposite. Many posters compete over how poor they are. I’ve seen threads descend into attacking people who have a mortgage and earn a little above the average as being rich’, accused of lying, being out of touch. Nobody is allowed to have anything nice, apparently nearly everyone is a food bank regular or a couple of steps away from it.

The posts you refer to always make me laugh and shudder in equal measure - posters either outright lie about their £1m+ a year salaries, or massively exaggerate.

Of course there will be some posters on huge salaries with huge expensive houses but I don't believe the vast majority of them!

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

This. A nurse or teacher can easily be on this and more, and there are lots of other jobs where you can earn that amount- an accountant, working in HR, an office manager, most trades.

@JackieWeaverHandforthCouncil

No I think the opposite. Many posters compete over how poor they are. I’ve seen threads descend into attacking people who have a mortgage and earn a little above the average as being rich’, accused of lying, being out of touch. Nobody is allowed to have anything nice, apparently nearly everyone is a food bank regular or a couple of steps away from it.

It's the odd flip side of a money and class obsessed place.

Of course you are the only one. I'm a self made millionaire, model on the weekends, and own a yacht.

Or you could just not believe everything you see on the Internet..

As someone else said its amazing how many people on here earn so much, live near London yet have such small mortgages..

Some people will be telling the truth of course. Many won't be. Can't tell of course, it's the Internet, I just go with they are all lying.