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.

@FridayFeelingmidweekim also curious about this. What’s the point of money if you don’t do nice things with it?

Most of these replies aren’t wealthy. If you can’t have holidays so you can save the money that’s not wealthy. Wealthy is not having to work.

On MN that is a really valid question. Pretty sure someone was calling other poster wealthy last month because they can have couple of holidays a year and have a mortgage. My last AI were 900 for two... That's not particularly a wealth sign...

You realise poor people lose their parents too? Sure, it’s not ‘lucky’ to lose your parents-I was orphaned at 18 but you are lucky if they have assets for you to inherit. I had to leave our council house with a suitcase.

It's always going to be subjective, but to me, over a million in assets & a regular income to easily support yourself/any dependants plus 'extras' like hobbies, holidays.

Wealthy is not needing to save or needing credit for something you want/need and living without worry about funds; life with financial security.

Super wealthy though is not needing to ask the price of anything (you want it, you buy it).

A combination of luck, good timing, careful investment and lack of ambition. We bought our council house (luck) and rather than chase ever bigger mortgages we stayed there for 50 years.

At a time when mortgages were 9/10% I was in a job with a very low fixed rare. My employer went public and was very generous with share allocation. Also matched pension contributions. I invested all my money on the company’s shares. It was a case of go without foreign holidays to invest in shares and pension. I have never gone without anything I want but I enjoy a modest lifestyle.

I was able to give all my three children substantial sums. I have enough to pay for a very good care home should the need arise.

Very hard work. Put work ahead of all else in our 20’s. No kids pre 30. Purchased a property asap. Didn’t overspend. Saved.

I think it depends on your definition of wealthy.

Personally, I wouldn’t think someone living frugally and not going on holidays to live comfortably is wealthy.

Wealthy to me - can choose to not work, can travel freely & purchase anything without checking the account, paid off property / properties.

I know a lot of people who are comfortable (our family included), but the only really wealthy people I know are coming from generational wealth.

What I think of as being comfortable - we are fine living on one salary, while I extended my maternity leave, we can afford various holidays every year (usually a ski holiday + summer holiday, and a few long weekends) and we make investments every month that we plan to retire when time comes.
We are not from the UK or live in the UK though at the moment, so there might be a cultural difference.

Thanks for this. I agree holidays are great and have value for children beyond just going away. My two are only 7 and 5 so we felt that going away with them was wasteful and they could get as much enjoyment with a day out locally or a day trip to the coast/London. We have both also had long term COVID health issues which has made things harder anyway.

I have family members who have tried going away with young children expecting to have a lovely relaxing time but of course it's just not the same with young kids.

Now they are getting older we will probably go away more but holidays simply aren't a priority and I do think this should be the norm. It's very easy to compare yourself to the kids on YouTube who are away every week but you need to consider the environment and healthy expectations. They have been on a plane to an all inclusive beach holiday. We go to amazing swimming pools, we go to soft play and have enjoyed visiting all the best playgrounds/castles/parks/wet play within an hour of us. At their age they are delighted going out litter picking or den building and we are trying to keep it that way.

It won't be long until teenage/tween year grumpyness starts and at that point we might have to spend more.

Most people I know who are wealthy (or at least comfortable) through work, have done it by not standing still and switching jobs every few years (really just staying as long as needed to not look flaky and then moving on), usually just going up a tiny bit in salary each time, but doing it enough times to end up in higher paid and more senior roles.
They weren't necessarily any better at their jobs than anyone else though, nor any harder working.

By working in high paying industries, saving and not having kids!

Please can you tell me more about the ‘free nights’ on hotels.com @Cerialkiller

Not wealthy, but very financially secure. DH didn’t go to Uni, but straight into the City as a currency trader at 18, in the 80’s when the money was good. I did go to Uni and went into investment banking, which is how we met. We had both bought property young age 20/21, when houses were still affordable, so we had 2 good deposits when we bought together.

I now earn about 3 times what he does, and we have an expensive house in London with the mortgage nearly paid off, 2 DC in private school and a healthy amount in savings. We both have great pensions. Both our jobs are very insecure, we’ve had 3 redundancies between us over the last 15 years, so we prioritise savings to cushion us for when the next one comes (which it will). We don’t live a particularly extravagant life (apart from the school fees). One holiday abroad a year, we’re not into designer clothes, eating out etc. DC are expected to work hard at school and their sports. We should be able to help them with Uni costs and a house deposit but we’re careful not to spoil them.

Wealthy is about having choices. Not going on holiday as a choice not because you can’t afford it. Spending money where you choose I very liberating.

It is very liberating.

We are about to become mortgage free with a £700k property when we do our final downsize. We both run our own businesses, take massive risks, have made ourselves very financially uncomfortable at time and both employ lots of people. It’s not been easy but it was all by design, stretching to the very limit of our home buying capabilities, borrowing money where needed and leveraging assets inside our businesses to create more income.

Now at 45 I’m planning ten years of business growth before a very comfortable retirement and everything I do now is towards that aim.

For most people, it'll be some combination of (1) buying property young, before prices shot up, (2) well paid jobs, (3) inheritance (4) spending carefully. My family have good holidays but don't tend to fritter money on 'stuff"

We’re not wealthy but definitely very comfortable. No family money, both went to state schools. We’re not in high flying careers but we’re in ones with very good pensions. We’ve both worked full time, also paid AVCs and saved a lot.

Now in our late 50s, we’re thinking of both stopping work and will be able to live very comfortably on our occupational pensions, cover all necessities and afford to travel a lot, eat out whenever and not have to worry about money.

That might sound a bit complacent but it really isn’t.: the absolute key thing is that it’s been two of us working full time, which in the early years meant paying shed loads in childcare. Many women either give up work for several years or remain on part time forever after maternity leave and tbh if that had been me, we’d no way be such a good position because my pension would be decimated. Also, quite a few couples we know who’ve divorced have been affected quite badly financially. No judgement btw, obviously better to split if the marriage isn’t good, but it does explain why some people aren’t comfortable. If you’ve built a life, bought a house etc as a couple, and then you split and need two houses, two sets of bills etc, it’s hardly surprising it’s going to affect the finances long term.

I’m describing being very comfortable though: no longer needing to work but having no financial worries, and it’s been a very clear path to that point: two of us working hard, paying a big chunk of earnings into pensions and investments over many years. People who are truly wealthy, never needing to work at all, have obviously inherited or been given money by someone else.

We both had support from parents to get us on the housing ladder and then started paying down the mortgage aggressively in the early years. Both high earners. Money into pensions early on. Lived below our means (but didn’t deny ourselves treats.) Inherited in our 40s to finish off the mortgage. So a combo of hard work and support.

Got lucky with early stock investments. I'm from a poor council flat/benefits background with no family help, DH is from a more middle class background but no family handouts. Both of us have degrees and postgrads, but honestly I've not really used mine for a career and I haven't needed to. DH has a sensible high earning career, I've had a bit of a patchwork combined with lots of child caring with health issues. We saved the initial amount for investments from earnings, and would live on a low percentage on income to allow us to save a lot. So we always had a simple lifestyle and held back on discretionary spending while we were accumulating wealth. Our luck with investments involved a level of skill and mindset - it came from being comfortable with risk, doing careful research, and holding rather than selling early.

Definition of wealth - London house with no mortgage, dcs in private school, 7 figures in investments mostly in stocks and liquid assets. No interest in buying an overseas property but financially it wouldn't be an issue.

@CuriousGeorge80 and @Lalaine We are mortgage free and have considerable liquid assets. Holidays overseas every year sometimes multiple, eat out often

@Novotelchok We could buy a few houses outright.

@Mirrorxxx We retired early, passive income last year was 82k.

One educated privately to PhD level one state educated to A level and professional exams. No inheritances yet but we may have one coming our way of about 300k. Solid careers with no periods of unemployment, housing was cheaper then, good at reading markets and had luck investing.

Because DH got jobs at tech start ups before they IPOed and part of his pay was stock options - in two cases these ended up being worth a couple of million.
He got those jobs by being really good at his job (always learning) and by in the early days being quite self promotional, speaking at a lot of conferences, organising meet ups etc. and also by being prepared to relocate.
I just earn pretty normal money and am not ambitious re career.
We both come from WC backgrounds, but he had a bit more money growing up than me (I was on FSM & my parents struggled). His family always encouraged him in whatever he wanted to do - as a kid he did coding evening classes for example. His step dad & family's main income was ill in DHs late teens and they lost what spare money they had just as he was going to uni. I think this really motivated him to 'solve money' and be able to buy security for his mum, which we have done.

Not wealthy but have both moved from working class (me very much more so) to middle class. Weexpect to be in a position whereby our only child will inherit around 1 million.

We've prioritised:

• paying off mortgage by 40/45 (overpaying consistently)
• gaining a few promotions and not spending promotion earnings - they go straight to mortgage
• less days out, using the money for holidays instead
• no takeaways. We make from scratch or go to a restaurant a few times a year
• replacing clothes as they wear out and often secondhand.
• run a single older car
• earn points on credit card which we pay off in full.each month for cheap travel
• I didn't stop working after maternity.

Despite this sounding a bit boring and frugal, we actually dress well, get out in the garden and woods most weekends, have nice holidays and do the usual kids swimming and exercise clubs.

People talk about being here for a good time not a long time, but nothing will goce me more comfort than knowing my child will always be secure, which is what morltivates me when I want to buy something really pricey just because I want it.

Absolutely agree. Wealthy to me means able to spend money without thinking too much about it. Yes they still save and invest a decent amount but have enough income or inherited wealth that there is still plenty left after saving to go on holidays or whatever they choose.

There's a big difference between being financially comfortable or even very comfortable, Vs wealthy.

We own two properties, go on a couple of holidays a year, have healthy savings, but I'm still not sure I'd count myself wealthy as we'd not be able to buy that Spanish villa without destroying savings. Though I guess we could afford it if we had sacrificed the holidays over the years.

In our case my DP inherited from a parent when very young and a grandparent in his 20s, which helped with our properties. He is also in a high paying job though both talent and hard work. I'm also talented and work hard but my sector is much lower paid so it's partly about the career you choose not just the work you put in. But fundamentally the amount of people who are truly wealthy without some kind of family wealth or support or inheritance is very very small.

I am going to perhaps controversially contradict a pp and say 1 million in assets (property, savings, investments) is comfortable rather than wealthy due to inflation in recent years.

generational wealth and inheritance being from a 1 or 2 child family I think is a large factor for wealth for many people. It also in the normal course of life only make a an impact when someone is in their 50s and so possibly have already accumulated large pensions and have had time for equity investments to mature. It maybe mortgages are paid off you can property to this as well.

the millennial are maybe quite naturally becoming the new boomers with that accumulation of generational wealth. I know a lot of comfortable late 40 and 50 year olds who work because of job satisfaction or just an enjoyment of a good standard of living not out of absolute necsssity.

Exponential investment growth is the secret lesson for middle class kids. The doubling time for investments can be a little as 8 years on average. If your kids are given day 300K when they are 16 then it's 600K at 24, 1.2M at 32, 2.4 M at 40 and 4.8M at 48.

Compound interest, a buoyant stock market, patience and time are all your friends.