To be so annoyed at this woman's financial incompetence

[LovingLimePeer]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/mailplus/article-14476595/six-figure-salary-rich-comfortable-heres-why.html?ico=mol_mobile_home&login&signinStatus=registered&signinMethod=google&dataCaptured=true&flowVariant=social_registration_nosubscribe#

For 1 person:
£500 on food
£750 on car expenses
£650 on cost of dog ownership
'a few holidays per year'
£250 cleaner

£200 pension (not enough!)

I'm just so fed up of all these well-paid financially illiterate people writing sob stories for the telegraph/daily mail about how they can't survive on their salaries.

This woman complaining about her £100000 salary not being enough could save £2100 per month if she bought a sensible car, didn't have dogs/a cleaner and took in a lodger.

With £2100 she could pay off her 23 year mortgage in just over 5 years OR
Retire at 68 with a pension pot in today's money of ~£1460000 (i.e. retirement income of £58000 per year in today's money). Not including money already saved in a pension.

If I assume she has saved £200/month into a pension for her whole career, she would have ~£427000 at retirement, enough for £17000 a year private pension, which given her extremely high expenditure.is simply not enough.

She thinks earning £20000-£40000 more would be enough but this is an expenditure, rather than income issue.

I'm just fed up of these people complaining. I suspect they'll end up poor in retirement, having never learned to live within their means with the rest of us paying for their stupidity.

I really don’t get the whole car thing. We bought a 2nd hand Skoda Octavia 8 years ago second hand, 2 years old. £10k. It has only needed the tyres and break pads replaced. Our pre tax income is about £250k a year so we could probably afford anything but why? What’s the point? Why are people spending so much on financing ludicrous cars? Is it the female equivalent of a man with small bits buying a BMW? It’s still the same person in the car. Still the same person getting out of the car. Just a somewhat less rich person.

What is the strange obsession on here with taking in a lodger? It’s become the new “take in ironing”

My initial response was that she is self employed so should be able to walk and care for her dogs around that. But her two dogs in daycare are still a lot cheaper than even one child in full time nursery.

Her point about single people paying more tax is about the only valid one. Everything else is just lifestyle choices she has made, which makes her a very poor (pun intended) example of the point. Far more relevant would have been to find someone on a more average income, with more typical outgoings and lay out how tight it can be. That would not fit the DM schtick and desire to provoke frothing in the comments section though.

I suspect she has seen this article as a PR piece for her business. I hope that doesn't backfire for her.

I dont understand how someone is clever enough to earn 100k yet stupid enough to sell yourself looking like an idiot for the daily mail

If a friend or relative was earning that sort of money and then trying to tap me up for a loan, then yes, I’d be angry. A stranger whose choices have no effect on me moaning in a paper I don’t have to buy? Who cares?

I respect that. Money buys a lot of freedom with sensible choices and delayed gratification.

i would go further than that. Guardian, BBC, Mirror, Express etc, Journalists are paid to make folks read their news. They are never going to tell you the truth as no one wants to hear that..

God it annoys me when someone is on a good salary but they (voluntarily) increase their living costs then moan they're broke.

If you had £100million but spent £90million of it on a house you’d be complaining you were broke because you can’t afford the upkkeep.

You cut your cloth whether you're earning £20k pa or £500k pa.

And you can guarantee the vast majority of people saying it won't do it themselves - it's another one of those things that "someone else" should do, like all the cries for higher taxation - it's always "someone else" who should pay more!

But you could say that about anything, you don’t understand why she’d want to go on holiday in a touring caravan or why people have dogs. It’s just a choice, some people like cars

She is a silly twit after a bit of fame.,

I have a dog. I doubt he costs me a huge amount to keep though he does need grooming once every 8 weeks (doesn't moult, which was a deal maker for me in buying him), is insured, and fed, of course. He has lots of toys. My car will cost me over 1k this month (tax and insurance) but I like it and I choose to pay for it - and I do not complain that I cannot live on my income. I do not have a cleaner.
Poor financial management takes no account of intelligence or income, sadly.

Agree with this. We have a household income of £190000 and I drive a 16 year old hatchback because the cost of insurance/tax/depreciation/repairs and opportunity cost compared to investing that money elsewhere works out so much better for me than buying a newer car.

I voted YABU because although you're not wrong you've fallen for the ragebait and driven clicks towards the site, meaning that there will be plenty more articles like this in the future.

Honestly this. Your blood pressure will thank you. And I'm not being snarky. I used to wind myself up reading it.

It isn’t actually. Spending your savings on a depreciating asset is far more foolish. There are lots of 0% lease deals so leaving your money in an interest bearing account and paying for your car out of income is much more astute. As you never own the asset someone else is taking the depreciation hit.

Yes YABU to waste your precious time and energy worrying about this stranger's financial situation; she certainly isn't spending her time worrying about yours!

That’s the total cost of running the car, she won’t have anything flash for that.

Well done, you're reacting exactly the way this pathetic excuse for a newspaper wanted you to react. Stop reading shit and you can save your annoyance.

hahaha same, musn't let my dog see the daily mail, he'll be putting in all sorts of expense claims

@LovingLimePeer I am just agog at the food! £500 per month for one person???? bloody hell! she must be having caviar every night!

I think the point is swapping your car every 3 years is for mugs, whether you buy or lease. Buying and keeping for a longer period of time is a much cheaper way of having a car, especially if you look after it by driving properly/carefully, having it serviced regularly etc.

The average lifespan of a car today is 13-14 years.

And despite what people would have you believe, most "older" cars remain perfectly reliable and don't cost a fortune to repair, at least to around them being "middle aged", i.e maybe the 7/8/9 year mark.

Leases are typically 3 years because that's what makes the lease firm the most money!

Trying to work out the dog thing - we have 2 spaniels, and allowing for pet plan, insurance, food/chews plus 2 group dog walks a week (so that they know both the other dogs and the walker/sitters when we go on holiday because we are totally soft), it’s £240pcm per dog. It would be half that if we stopped the walks, so £250 pcm for two very dogs.

Maybe she has a Burmese mountain dog on a raw food diet?

I voted YABU - for reading this FUCKING TRASH

"I take a few holidays each year." That makes you comfortably off.