Do you consider this ‘wealthy’?

[haleeeee]

Two kids in private school since primary. Two buy to let’s of around 250k value each. One holiday home value 280k. Own home mortgage free. Income allows for a few holidays a year circa 3k each time.

Wealthy? Well off? Or just better than average?

Depends how much you can afford to spend on a watch really.

I think that’s wealthy.

also I bet the holidays are more expensive than that, there aren’t many family holidays left for £3K!

OP, your initial message leaves out that they their main home is 700k and mortgage-free.

So 700k free and clear
A further 780k in three rental homes, only 50 percent mortgage but lots of rental income
Private school for two and a few holidays a year costing 3k

Do you mean 3k each? You don't get many holidays for four costing just 3k. And is the private school a cheap one or an expensive one? There's a huge variation.

I'd call them very comfortable/well-off indeed. But if they have several holidays a year costing 3k pp and their private school is a top one like Stowe, Marlborough etc - and they are boarders - then I'd say they're wealthy.

You haven't really given enough info. And you can never know, because they might have lots of financial assets.

Clearly owning £780k of secondary property plus the own home (no indication of value but I assume it's non a 2 bed terrace) plus two children put through private school is a case of massively wealthy in comparison to the average person struggling with their mortgage on their own home and their children's state education.

However coming on to MN and saying "hey everybody see how massively wealthy I am " is definitely a case of "cash but no class".

Top 1% more like. OP why not send them this ifs.org.uk/tools_and_resources/where_do_you_fit_in#:~:text=Introduction,do%20you%20fit%20in?%22.

So many weird materialistic class-and-money obsessed posts on MN today.

It’s her in laws. Not OP. She did give the main residence value – £700k.

Well off, wealthy is more like some of the celebrities, for example Beckhams are wealthy

They sound asset rich but cash poor due to all of their bills - although they probably wouldn’t be cash poor if the kids weren’t in private school and they weren’t leasing cars!

They’re probably struggling because they spend too much.

They spend money on holidays. Several a year at 3000 a pop. They are NOT cash poor.

Its obviously not average. The average income in the uk is around £35k and clearly that doesn't buy you multiple properties, private education and several holidays on top. People will come on here and pretend to think its not wealthy to give the impression they are used to much more and its normal in their circles but you'd have to be pretty ignorant to not know that objectively in the UK that is not an average level of wealth.

They are not struggling. They spend 3000 on a holiday several times a year.

2 mortgages
4 homes to maintain
2 sets of private school fees

You’d need a lot of income to cover all that. How much do they make OP? They could easily be struggling with cashflow.

Perhaps they prioritise holidays though? Maybe they can only afford them if they limit other costs. Unless you are ridiculously wealthy then at some point you’re going to have to budget

Well they probably don’t have any money because they spend it all on shit like that.

if you spend everything you earn then you end up in the same boat as if you hadn’t earned it and not spent it.

Agree! Many wealthy people are frugal , sometimes to the point of meanness. A colleague was telling us recently about his friend’s parents who are multimillionaires but shop in charity shops & never eat out. He said they save every penny they can and are always on the lookout for supermarket bargains, coupons etc. They just want to accumulate as much cash as they can!

Buy to lets aren't great these days and if mortgaged aren't ready cash. Same for holiday home. £3k isn't much to spend on a family holiday. I would say 'comfortable' rather than 'wealthy'

Comfortable, not wealthy. Most of it isn't liquid.

At 50%, they have a £250000 BTL mortgage (often at a much higher rate than home owner ones), the sharp rise of interest rate in the last couple of years means that some months they could be in the negative, depending on whether the properties are fully tenanted and the rental receipt. Also private schooling isn't something you take on lightly as kids wouldn't like being move in and out of it so that's another long term fixed expense. The fact that they opt for car lease, the most expensive way to have cars, probably means they can't afford to buy them outright... I'd believe them if they say they struggle sometimes: not in the "worry about electricity bill" way, but in the "need to watch the penny to keep up the lifestyle / investment" way.
If they annoy you with their penny pinching, don't go out with them!

Wealthy

They have close to a million in assets and equity, and can expect those to hold and increase in worth, and have the liquidity to pay school.

If what they mean by struggling is that they are living beyond their means - that might well be true.

But as one half of the couple was gifted their home they are likely to come from a much wealthier background, which will have contributed to their obliviousness - skewed their perspective.

Very well off or wealthy. I wouldn't know how to quantify either tbh but they are way beyond friends I'd describe as comfortable.

If their peers have more money, it's possible they don't feel rich, or maybe they don't have a lot of disposable money on a monthly basis because it goes straight to investment or savings - but they are certainly well off and would have many options to free up money if they wanted to.

https://equalitytrust.org.uk/scale-economic-inequality-uk/#wealthinequality

No mention of pensions but looks like the top 90% or so presumably because they dont order dessert!

BUT look how much richer the top 1% are

780k doesn’t even include their own mortgage free home! What a ridiculous Op