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?

Bottom line is I think OP is jealous or has some other issues with them. I have plenty of relatives who constantly say they can’t afford things when they have plenty of money. Some people like to moan or are very tight.
for me the family doesn’t sound particularly cash rich, private school for two costs a bomb and only one person is working.

For Christmas buy them a book on Money Management, sounds like they need one.

No it’s not. If you look at the global population and how the whole of humanity lives, lots of us in the UK are considered wealthy. You are talking about the super rich.

They have three holidays a year. They are not cash poor.

Can you afford a £400 watch though?

that is roughly our situation and i consider us wealthy and would not be so crass as to claim i were struggling.

I have no doubt that anybody in the top 10% of wealth ownership, or income, or both, is wealthy, and anyone in the bottom 10% of both is poor.

You can quibble about quite where the line ought to be drawn, but the family described are wealthy.

You do not mention the value of their home but one can guess it is more than any of their other properties.

She said it’s 700k

They sound horrible, OP.

With this sort of situation, I always think 'how do you know they have BTLs and the loan-to-values'

Not at you, OP, but how bloody crass to share that sort of info as general knowledge, especially with people who might have less income/options.

We have a couple of rentals and the only people who know about them are us and our tenants.

They sound shit, to be honest. Anyone with that lifestyle who actively says they can't afford starter/sides/dessert when out for meal, shouldn't be out for the meal in the first place, in my book.

they'll feel skint because of their expensive lifestyle choices (private school, leases, second home) and their investment properties

obviously they are not skint, they've just chosen to spend their money (on things that many people couldn't dream of in their lifetimes.)

they are likely hanging round with people who have a lot more than them which distorts their perspective.

so, yeah, wealthy - but they've spent it all.

FFS

Erm wealthy!!!!

https://www.statista.com/statistics/416102/average-annual-gross-pay-percentiles-united-kingdom/ Top 10% is something like 66K and top 5% is 80K. I suspect they are in this bracket if they are paying for 2 children in private school... they may be chosing to spend their money on education, property investments and holidays rather than desserts.. but they sound rather unaware of how well off they really are and somewhat insensitive to your situation.. I am not sure how I would respond..

Wealthy.

Anyone who says otherwise is mad.

I work with people who genuinely don’t know where their next meal is coming from.

I'd say that's a working class family.

I don't know, wouldn't think about it. I've known a couple of people in that category and they seemed much the same as anyone else, they certainly weren't ostentatious. I suppose they are well off. or 'rich', one who died a few years back was a millionaire. Good luck to them. As long as they're decent people, who cares? It doesn't impact my life, I'm content with my lot.

wealth beyond my wildest dreams

Well off to me. I think of wealthy as being in the £10s of millions range and £100m+ is super rich

Bloody hell, if this is not wealthy than I mist be a pauper... proper destitute

Yes of course they’re wealthy. Not ultra-rich by any means but definitely very well off. Four properties, one owned outright and the rest with 50% ltv mortgages. Presumably income generated from those three properties. Kids in private school, 10k per year on holidays - these are choices in how they spend money. Ridiculous to suggest they’re struggling, insulting to families just getting by on a fraction of their money and without multiple assets to fall back on.

They are very wealthy.

They can afford cake.

Its the fact that they play poor, when they are not and when OP is genuinely struggling that pisses OP off, like it would anyone.

If they just admitted they were wealthy then I assume OP wouldn’t have an issue with it.

Its lying and very insulting of them to act like they can’t afford something when they can.

It would be like a housewife/husband saying they have no free time to do the washing up, even though they don’t work or have kids but saying it to a single parent with 3 kids who also works FT and manages to do the washing up still.

I'm pretty sure they know they are well off but they have stretched themselves so don't have a lot of spare money

That's fine. That's their choice. It doesn't sound like they constantly go on about it. If they do then they are weird. If they just say 'eh, not for us. We are tightening our belts' then that's fine. It makes sense to cut out the frivolities so they can afford the school fees and property. That's just smart

Yep wealthy but probably asset rich cash poor. Plus if they really can’t afford dessert then they have over stretched themselves. I mean even a billionaire can overstretch themselves, anyone can.

The real issue is their behaviour, if I wanted to eat dessert when out with them then I would and I would not be paying for theirs.

People that are well off and whine about money are the bloody worst.

That's fine. That's their choice. It doesn't sound like they constantly go on about it. If they do then they are weird. If they just say 'eh, not for us. We are tightening our belts' then that's fine. It makes sense to cut out the frivolities so they can afford the school fees and property. That's just smart

This.

I do think we should make a distinction between ‘hard work’ and ‘complex work’. Yes someone doing a 12 hour shift in an Amazon warehouse is working hard. However, someone going in to do one 3 hour heart transplant is doing a complex job.

Its not about how long you are working for in a day or how much you’re sweating, it’s about the knowledge you need to have and the number of other people who can do what you do. That’s what determines your wage in most cases.