AIBU to think most people have no idea how wealthy people live their lives?

[AnneValentine]

Just that really off the back of a lot of threads but most recently one where multiple people were adamant that the only way it’s possible to have no savings if you have salaries of £200k plus unless one of the couple is squirrelling savings.

Followed up with how do they pay for a broken down car with savings? Hasn’t even dawned on them that people on those salaries don’t have cars that are breaking down.

Is it so hard to believe that money literally eliminates money worries? That you can create a level of security that means savings and such aren’t needed?

I used to work for some extremely wealthy people abd they all told me that they still worried about money as your lifestyle lifts to your income level.

I think it's probably just you doing it this way op...

If you want a big cost item like a swimming pool or a lavish party or a yacht or a mega 5* holiday in Bora Bora, so anything from 10,000 to 300,000 +. How do you buy it?

Most of us would save up for our £3000 holiday or £10,000 car. How do you purchase your equivalent big cost items? What big cost items do you buy and how do you purchase them?

I don’t think what you describe is representative of how most folk on similar salaries choose to manage their finances.

Whilst it may work for you, I’m not sure why you feel the need to preach that it’s a superior way to manage money. Filling up ISAs and using specific savings accounts is higher yielding way to have accessible funds when you need them over keeping your surplus in a current account.

Furthermore, senior folk absolutely do find themselves at higher risk of redundancy as they represent a huge outlay for their firm and thus a very simple way to cut costs. I’ve worked in the city my whole career and observed it time and time again.

This.

OP you are financially illiterate. This thread is embarrassing to read, I'm cringing for you.

You're selling the old flat you had as house deposits for your children. Poof. Property investment gone.

This is one of your very small pool of assets. You need a proper financial advisor. Seriously.

"Methinks Anne Valentine from Mumsnet is not the oligarch she is trying to make us believe she is 😄 "

hahaha.. THIS! :)

I think OP is cosplaying being a wealthy person with her heavily insured home - boiler ? Insured. wall paper ? insured. bed sheets? insured. lol

OP - An income of 200k is by no means wealthy. Rich? yes, but not wealthy. If you have to rely on a monthly income, you are not wealthy. period.

"People at this level are rarely made redundant. They make others redundant." Another statement that makes me doubt whether OP has even met someone making 200k.

There are 2 types of jobs I know of (I'm sure there are more) where you can make over 200k in salary - You are CXO level at a start up / small business or director level in an industry like finance which pays highly even for starting level jobs. In both these instances there is a high risk to your job. If the business takes a slight down turn your job is the first one to go. You are held to a very high level of performance that justifies your salary to the company.

Well that's a very poor use of money! It could be earning you some money in a higher interest account.

We’re comfortable with decent cars but we’re not wealthy. If the car has an issue then I don’t have another one or two to pick from Beckham style. Life still throws up inconveniences even if you have the money to buy yourself out of the problem.

We are flush because we don’t live up to our lifestyle at all. Never holiday abroad, don’t buy fancy clothes. I cut my own hair etc etc. I want to be in a position where if the high earner is made redundant we aren’t completely fucked in two months. Right now that’s the situation and I feel relaxed about life.

Of course it is. I manage Trust funds for children with disabilities. They pay an income to provide care. With special tax rules it is an advantaged position. This can be saved… if you really are wealthy.

OP sounds to me that you need some proper advice.

Also pensions are savings, savings for your retirment. The fact you cannot access them until later in life just means it is not a good idea to tie every spare penny up in them

I thought we established that several pages ago!
OP#s just bored in hospital (or so she says) and rambling at this point.
And even if 'most people' don't know how the real real wealthy live so what. It's not like we can do anything with that knowledge anyway.

Everyone should have savings. Life can change in the blink of an eye and just because you earn a lot doesn’t mean you can escape that.

what if you the company you worked for was suddenly caught up in a legal matter and shut down?

what if a family member needed expensive on going medical treatment?

what if you partner died and their life insurance didn’t cover the reason?

Generally wealthy people don't replace things for the sake of it. You sound like someone who has suddenly found herself well off.

I’ve come across you before claiming the school you work in is perfect, has no behavioural problems and you don’t understand why any other school would need to enforce no coats. You actually said children should be able to sit with their hoods up in classrooms because why not?

Reading this post it’s exactly the same theme- argumentative and defensive over what? If you don’t need savings because you are super wealthy and are amassing 13 grand a month then great. Some people do because we are not all as fortunate as you- this is also fine.

No doubt you will reply in the same passive aggressive way you did on the previous thread. Quoting some Guardian article. Chill out and enjoy all of your wealth!

Not the point of this bazaar thread (not sure WHAT the point is?)...
But...
" £13k a month is very well off, but it isn't truly wealthy."
I earn 13k a year! The. Mind. Boggles

I bet OP doesn't have enough, erm, #savings' to make that worthwhile.
I don't even know what's going on on this thread anymore.
Just that it has the word savings too many times.
Anyway the PP talking about breakfast has inspired me to get off my arse, just started the bread maker so there's that!

I havent RTFT but I think a lot of people have no idea what its like to live within a vastly different income/wealth bracket.
I know hedge fund managers with multiple properties and 3 children at private school. sometimes they don't work for a year at a time, I can't really imagine what their day to day spending, or bank balance looks like.
Ive had times in the past where money has been pretty tight and Ive had to wait til pay day to pay for new school shoes, or buy some new uniform for DC. But I can't imagine how it feels to be struggling to buy food for example.

On a thread on MN last year there were several posters who didn't think anyone in London earned less than 35k! There is ignorance on all sides.

By the way I think its erroneous to say you don't need money to fix a car because you dont have the type of car thats going to break down. Im pretty sure no cars are exempt from breaking down! Ive seen new ones on tow trucks before.

What is interesting is how much living standards have dropped at every income level. Inflation erodes everyone's lives not just the poorest. I earn only a little less than 200k and all that happens is your definition of "necessary" expands until you have fixed costs you can't get out of, and losing my job would mean losing the house.

Not really related to the thread but did you send the sick person abroad to France or something?
There's no real option in the UK for serious illness private healthcare of any kind.
Or so I thought. Unless you mean diagnostics.

I can't believe you would PTS a cat instead of paying £6k for treatment @AnneValentine

The cost of the treatment doesn't equal the pain of the treatment. We actually had a similar situation a couple of years ago, cat was presumably run over, but may have been an animal attack, the vet wasn't sure.

He was only 18 months old. We had to transfer to the royal vet college as he might have needed a blood transfusion (rare for cats as they have limited blood for donation and only some hospitals offer it). Anyway, he had an op and it came to just over £8k but he's absolutely fine now.

Veterinary costs mount up quickly and it's not always the cost that indicates likelihood of success or pain/trauma. This little cat is now absolutely fine and you would have PTS simply because you didn't think it necessary to save money aside for an emergency. And you couldn't afford it. That's not wealth.

You should at least have pet insurance if you're not going to pay out if one of your animals needs help. It's irresponsible and not fair to the animal.

P.s. yes we just had £8k in the bank as savings. Of course I'd have rather not had to spend it on an op for the cat, but that was my responsibility towards him.

Maybe that’s it. Maybe we are different because we live within our means and are quite happy just being able to have what we can afford.

We purchased one car with husband’s bonus, the other is leased as from a tax perspective that made sense and we wanted one lease car. Re holidays we don’t tend to do package deals, not our preference, so we just book it differently. If we can’t afford it basically we cannot have it. And there is nothing we need to save for.

Boiler insurance is a waste of money, OP.

Will be covered by guarantee in early years

After that, if the boiler breaks down, you pay the emergency call out charge and get a heating engineer to fix it. You can fund that from your income, surely?

I have been here for many years and this is honestly one of the weirdest threads I have ever read.

Why would the fact that you don’t have savings be “a point” that you would need to “prove”? And that others would urgently need to grasp? No one cares?
I think the point here that’s being proven is you’re not great with money. Most of us in your position could envision a situation where we might need 14k urgently, and so we would make provision for it. You can’t, and haven’t. I think that really speaks to your lack of imagination and poor financial sense tbh.

(Not that it matters, but we have 18k coming in to the bank account every month, plus quarterly dividends, and yes we have savings!)

Pointless thread. As others have said you are well off but not wealthy. Not sure why you care either.