To ask if you're wealthy, how did you acquire your wealth?

[PinataHeeHaw]

I'm sat here in the early hours looking at luxury Spanish villas, wondering how I've never got rich.

We are certainly very comfortable.

we both went to state schools worked hard at school got good exam results went to university and now work many many many hours in a highly paid profession

Comfortable but not wealthy. Dual income household, we both have Masters degrees and specialised jobs. No plans to have children, moved up to rural North West where houses are much cheaper so mortgage is small which means we can both work part time. Would rather work not many hours than have enough for a Spanish Villa I think.

Both my sister's are wealthy to the tune of tens of millions.

One her partner sold his business, the other her partner inherited from his parents.

What was his business?

We are just getting to the point where we are comfortable and hope to expand on this. Our aims our overpay mortgage, invest savings and move jobs/get promotions

Most people I know who are comfortable and family money & a leg up

I’m not wealthy but comfortable. Down to studying my arse of for 9 years after leaving school with nothing and doing self study and evening classes to get GCEs then A levels then 5 years for chartered accountancy qualifications, all alongside a crap low paid full time job and having to work at weekends in our family shop. A very hard time, but I was determined to make something of myself, after five years of bullying hell at our local crap comp.

Our son is already in a well paid job in one of the uks biggest insurer and well on his way to qualifying as an actuary at only 23. Likewise he worked his arse off at secondary school to get all 8s and 9s at GCSEs A stars at A level and a first degree in maths at uni. He’ ll be wealthy!

Education and getting a decent profession is often the key to wealth - just takes a lot of effort and some sacrifices.

Few people inherit large amounts of cash when they’re young nor given businesses, they’re the lucky exceptions.

Same here

I can see how people become wealthy through their families. If I have two sets of grandparents who are home owners, and my parents were both only children, and then I’m an only child, and I manage to buy a house, I then inherit the equity from three houses, which if in a desirable area could make me quite rich. Not my scenario (I have £2.10 in the bank) but I have seen it happen.

I have enough for everything I need, most things I want, and a bit over for charity at the end of the year.

I did well academically in a nice state school and then a reasonable uni. I built my own business from scratch and sold it. I now work part time self-employed in a consultancy type role.

I also inherited young (my aunt died) and used the money to buy a flat well before most of my peers were on the property ladder.

It’s nice to see that people are financially comfortable on here because of hard work both in education and now. That’s how it should be.

Unfortunately, a lot if the older generations financial comfort is down to unearned housing wealth,. Some are very comfortable having never been through the stress, long hours and hard work younger generations are faced with today. I think the generational wealth gap is very large in this country and it feels very unfair.

We are probably wealthy by most people's standards. We own two properties and plan to pay off both mortgages in the next 5 years.

I would say it was a combination of luck, timing, frugal living and yes, some family money. I inherited a few thousand from a grandparent in my early 20s. I used it to get a mortgage on a cheap house (92k 3 bed) in Northamptonshire in 2012. We were there for 2 years and worked hard updating everything, doing lots of work ourselves.

We sold it for 130k a few years later so both saved on rent and more then covered out renovation costs.

My bf, now husband had done something similar before we were together and scraped money together to buy property which has doubled in price over 20years.

We both have a big savings mentality, have been on one cheap holiday in 6 years and otherwise take advantage of free nights on hotels.com or staying with family.

We don't have expensive hobbies, buy a lot of second hand stuff. I do a lot of DIY and DH is in IT so can do things like changing my smashed laptop screen.

We both have degrees as it was expected by family. As a result I have an ok part time job WFH, DH has an ok job in IT. We don't actually earn that much between us (about 50k) but because our housing costs are so low from buying early and we have second income from rent plus childcare was minimal because I was so flexible with work.

Define wealthy….

Very few people have insight into their wealth as you can see already in the replies. Most wealth is inherited, in property, in the UK, and property has been inflated in price by cheap debt. Likewise few will acknowledge their money comes from others eg buy to lets. Some of us have high incomes (maybe "hard work", luck in my case after a higher education at the state's expense) but even then if you don't buy assets early doors or inherit them you are rarely wealthy in Britain.

Mostly dh, he earned well and then we took a leap and started our own business, which has delivered financial benefits - we won’t inherit to any great extent if anything. We want to sell the business, the balance has shifted, the hours and hassle associated with being an employer and a business owner aren’t worth it. It has stopped being fun.

Inheriting large amounts of money when you are young is not ‘lucky’, as the inheritance is likely to be from a parent.

I'd have given up all my inheritance for my parents to have lived longer.

As a millennial, even in west Yorkshire with 2 established professional careers we are scrimping to pay very average nursery fees and a very basic mortgage! Previous generations actually could earn their way up the ladder. Impossible nowadays unless both earning at least 6 figures!

I've worked hard, got a degrer in a 'in demand' subject, moved out of London, and always lived within my means.

However none of that compared to the family money that has allowed me to be mortgage free by 30. Its an absolute game changer that allowed me to build savings and has allowed both my current partner and ex to pay off tens of thousands of pounds of debt they had before meeting me.

Through property, lucky investments and inheritance.

Not super rich but I'll never have to worry about money and I don't need to work, but I choose to, as well as volunteering.

Is there anyone on this thread who can actually afford to buy a holiday villa abroad? If that's the definition on being 'wealthy' I'm guessing the equivalent is being able to buy a second home for approx. £400,000 - quick look online suggests you need at least 20% deposit plus fees plus be able to cover the mortgage. I'm well paid but I can't stretch to that!

I'm not wealthy but all the people I know that are have one thing in common : family money. Except one, my cousin who did a dual degree in finance and science and is now the ceo of a big company.. but he first had to work hard and move around the globe to advance in his career. His wife sacrificed hers for his to move with him and take care of the children. He divorced her for a 20 year younger model and is now having a baby at 50 while his kids are grown. I feel sorry for his exwife...

I'm interested in the few comments where people (who have children) say they are partly wealthy as they rarely have holidays. Genuine question: do you feel your kids are missing out on memories and family time? My parents were like this and, honestly, yes they are wealthy but my only memories of summer holidays were playing with friends the whole time. I remember desperately wanting to go on a plane, or Disneyland, and it just never happened. Just feels like they never really had a life but now have money (and still never go on holiday).

Whereas we decided (albeit we are comfortable but not wealthy) to do yearly holidays so our kids had a great time, saw new places and made family memories.

Yes

Comfortable via a redundancy and quick to find a new job but also via inheriting small amounts from parents allowing us to overpay mortgage which - because we are in 50s - was low compared to house value. But mainly through not having kids (not telling you whether we wanted them or not).

Curious on how people define ‘wealthy’