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?

@AnneValentine have you been on the gin?

In a nutshell:

OP has one household income (DH's). Savings. But not a small emergency fund, because something like a plumbing repair comes out of that month's pay packet. Which she believes is what is known as "savings."

I do t think you understand the difference between rich and wealthy.

wealthy people don’t need monthly income - they have assets that generate wealth.

you are taking about rich people

”we have a very expensive house (given how wealthy we are) which of course has a brand new roof which will not leak for years!*

This whole thread makes me sick. The boasting and goading.
bully for you OP you have money for nothing it seems and live the life of Riley. Maybe get some humility with that wad of monthly cash.

Wow - poor cat! Saying you would rather kill it than pay to restore it to health! If you have decent pet insurance a lot of treatment costs would be taken care of. If not, then you have indicated that you have the means to cover unforeseen expenses without needing an instant access emergency fund.

This. You don't sound very financially literate. Investments and pensions are savings. Money in the bank is just cash flow. I'm guessing you are not the one in the relationship who manages the money op!

No, but you could borrow against them very easily.
if you own property outright without any existing debt in it it can be used as security for a loan if you need money in the short term.

And if any of your investments are in the form of stocks and shares that you hold in your own name(s) these can be sold and the proceeds credited to your account within a mattter of days.

Even some fixed term bonds may be able to be cashed in early, albeit forfeiting some interest.

@AnneValentine

I feel like you're being deliberately obtuse on this thread.

I'll accept that investments aren't savings, they're not as easily accessible etc.

But people who aren't rich have savings so they have something to dip into on a rainy day. They generally put it in a savings account so that it doesn't get spent accidentally, and it earns them a tiny bit more while it's sitting there.

You have that too, you just leave it sat in your current account, because to you it's a miniscule amount to money. Let's say your current account balance never goes below £5k. To you, that's just sat there, it's a miniscule amount of money, but to someone who's scrimped and saved to get that money, it's everything.

For both of you, it's savings. (As in it's money you both own that you've not spent, you've saved it.). For both of you, it's available to use in an emergency.

The money serves the same purpose for both of you, but for the poor person it's everything, and for you it barely matters. If they spend it, they've got nothing for years, if you do, then you'll just build it back up in the next couple of months.

She's certainly very vulgar. But I guess that's the nouveau riche for you.

I absolutely agree it is. Which is why I find it weird when people who don’t have that income are emphatically telling me that (a) we have to have savings and (b) that my husband is definitely squirrelling away money because there’s no way he isn’t because of the salary.

Wealthy people get to have whatever they want, not just what they NEED.

Basically you’re living month to month, which is the same lifestyle as folk on a regular income.

Lots of people on a good income could afford a week in Tenerife, that’s no marker of real wealth. The telling part is that you can’t afford a big ticket holiday without spreading the payments.

Of course there’s nothing wrong with having to spread out payments for a holiday - but if you’re wealthy you don’t need to do that.

How do you afford a new car - say a Landrover or a luxury family sedan? Or a sporty number?

And what happens if there are two big expenses in one month? You’d have to defer one. That’s what non-wealthy folk have to do. Wealthy folk don’t need to budget.

And you didn’t answer about where the money comes from but last month there was a big bank hacking issue where money couldn’t be paid in. What happens if that occurred again on a larger scale? You’d run out of funds rapidly with no back-up savings to draw from.

What happens if your DH’s company was hacked and it took a couple of months to sort (which is feasible)? You’d be shafted.

I can see that many emergency expenses are covered but don’t you think we all have insurances and warranties too? You’re describing a lifestyle which is the same as the rest of us.

As I said before, the way you’re living your life is no different to everyone else . Spreading payments out, having to rely on insurance to cover costs (and making a claim etc) - that’s not the lifestyle of the wealthy. As PP have said, you’re high income but your lifestyle and need to budget doesn’t reflect someone of real wealth.

It's fake and batshit, and upsetting for those of us who have lost our cats. Reported.

As far as pointless threads go this has to be right up there! I genuinely don't know why I've bitten but there you go.

OP it sounds like you are living within your current means and also have some "savings" you and your children can rely on in the future.

You certainly don't meet any criteria for being "wealthy" though as you seem to be implying. You can live within your means as a nearly-retired couple with a good upcoming pension, no mortgage and no kids. That doesn't make your "wealthy" though.

If you need to "save" for Disneyland or a new car or roof or whatever you are not "wealthy". The top 0.05% don't live anything like you do. They certainly don't live without access to a considerable sum of liquid "savings' to use whenever needed. Private school fees / villas at 15k a week are not "saved up for" over months.

Like many before, I've no idea what point you are trying to make.

At the risk of being pedantic I don’t agree that money we have left over is the same as someone making a conscious effort to put money aside in savings.

First thing I thought. Wealthy people don't have to work. They may choose to do whatever, but they don't have to.

We didn’t save for Disney. Although apparently I should have. Even though we could just pay for it.

Earning £200k on PAYE doesn’t make you wealthy. It’s makes you well paid. If you earned that amount through assets and investments alone, then you could be wealthy. The wealthy do not need to worry about waking up in the morning to show up for a job to keep their lifestyle.

Unpopular view on MN, but people’s expectations have fallen so low in the last 25 years in this country that anyone earning above minimum wage is considered privileged.

I consider myself reasonably intelligent but I still can't read the OP and have it make sense. Anyway. What sort of stupid idea is saying that rich people don't have cars that break down. As if new cars are bulletproof? It seems most of the cars you see broken down at the side of the road are under three years old. Like everything else, that new thing isn't as well made as the old one you replaced it with.

Good for you! Do you not understand that most people live in a rather different worlds and most people outside of Mumsnet don't have the luxury of having 'some cash on deposit' or earning £250,000 a year? For the vast majority of my life, we had no savings at all. If the boiler broke down, it was paid for using whichever of our credit cards had the lowest outstanding balance and we got loans for larger purchases or work to the house. I'm not complaining about our financial position over the years at all - I feel fortunate that we were able to buy a house that suits us well, but we worked bloody hard to buy it, at a time when mortgage rates were very different to how they are now. At the time we exchanged contracts, our mortgage interest rate went up to 18% - thankfully it came back down to 16% by the time we completed, but our mortgage repayments were well over 6O% of our combined take home pay and remained like that for many years. We're now in our mid/late 60s and have been mortgage free for some time so I do realise though that we are still much better off than a very large proportion of the population, but we've never been in a position to accumulate savings, and Ive not retired yet because I'm trying to put off the inevitable fall in our standard of living when I stop work.

I really do find bragging, goady threads like this very distasteful.

You and your husband have chosen not to have emergency savings. Ok fine.

I am not sure that many people with your level of income would make the same decision however. I know 3 people who were paid £350-500k pa who were canned in the last 12 months.

The ice we’re standing on can be thinner than you think.

So if you don’t have a year’s worth of school fees readily accessible that is not very prudent.

I wouldn’t consider you particularly wealthy @AnneValentine

In reality the mortgage company owns your house.

You would be in a very precarious position if you/DH lost your jobs through whatever reason.

You make financial decisions I don't recognise as sensible.

Why insure almost new appliances? They rarely break down. Better to stick a thousand quid into a savings account and gamble that they don't break down and after a few years you have a couple of thousand pounds to add to your investments (that oddly you don't count as savings).

Critical illness/ Ill health income protection policies are notorious for finding reasons not to pay out. I wouldn't rely entirely on them for future financial security.

I know a lot of high income couples everyone has access to cash savings (aware that if I type cash you are going to quibble as that isn't savings) to cover temporary cash flow issues. Also, everyone has easy access to short term credit but it's expensive.

We haven't discussed this in detail but I expect most of it sits in a high interest savings account and if the balance gets too high it gets shovelled off into a longer term investment.

"At the risk of being pedantic"

That ship sailed 18 pages ago love

If you are so obsessed with being called wealthy, then you are wealthy. There you go. does that give you what you want from this thread?

In the real world however, wealthy does not mean what you think it means. The wealthy would not get out of bed in the morning for £200k (pre tax).

How bizarre. And unusual for someone to insist that they are wealthy.