To ask if you believe you’ve lived a luckier life than most?

[MyAmusedOpalCrab]

Whether it’s down to circumstances, timing, support, or sheer chance - do you ever stop and think, “I’ve had it easier than others?” Or do you believe we mostly make our own luck?

I think the older you get the more you are able to appreciate what it means to have been born in a particular time & place, and with that perspective of course I feel lucky

I think that I’m luckier than average and definitely don’t believe that you make your own luck- some people have so much bad shit happen to them for that to be true. If we made our own luck crappy things wouldn’t happen to babies and children.

Yes, I drew quite a short straw with my upbringing but was academic (which is luck) and got out and up.

I'm not rich or perfectly healthy and my DC are all ND so it's not smooth sailing but we're all well enough and comfortable with no major worries.

I worked bloody hard for all I have but I know plenty of people who work really hard and struggle through life.

Yes I feel lucky. We are both still employed so we have money for most things. Both my parents are still alive. I have an adult son who has just graduated so got him that far! Neither my son, husband or I have ever had a serious health issue.
I work for a charity and every day there is client who is having a rough time. Gives you perspective.

Of course I’m luckier than most people in the world- born in a developed country, had a free education, free health care, no health issues, supportive family and never experienced war, famine or poverty.

Plenty of people experience poverty in the U.K.

I was taking about my experience and how lucky I am.

It's very sad but I feel incredibly lucky to never had been sexually abused as a child or raped as an adult. I know so many women who have.

Yes, very lucky and also fearful, as other poster said, of it running out. I’ve also had some bad stuff happen, but doesn’t this happen to most people.

luck: nice parents, decent upbringing, had brains, got out of small town, got a good job where I have worked my way up and been very successful, met DH who has also been very successful, mostly ok on health, three happy kids, still have my parents.

not so good: awful bullying as a child, self harm, suicide attempts, sexual assault and rape, I’ve been cheated on.

But, I absolutely think of myself as very lucky indeed.

By global standards, nobody in the UK is even close to poverty.

Try this:

https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/how-rich-am-i

Lucky beyond belief. Theres been some stuff along the way (my dad went bankrupt in my teens and if he wasn’t so well spoken would probably have died in jail; my late Dh took his own life) but honestly I’m otherwise the luckiest bastard you can imagine - genetics, upbringing, politics, the lot). I even win Tombola prizes as a rule (though not money prizes - tbh that’s also lucky as I could easily have been a gambling addict if I ever won anything.)

Whichever country you were born in, cruel parents and years of sickness ain’t fun.

I just feel that "lucky" feels like a nasty word in those circumstances.

Instead of saying "i was lucky to be born into a rich family".

People should be saying "i benefit from an incredibly unfair system that keeps rich families rich, and keeps poor families poor".

People born into rich families shouldnt be saying "im so lucky". They should be helping to fix the inequalities in the system

I think I’m incredibly lucky to have been born in the 20th century in a relatively rich country at a time when medical advances have meant that most of us will make it old age. I’m lucky to have had parents who loved me and to have been intelligent enough to go to University. I was very lucky to have a free education and to have children easily. I haven’t inherited property or a huge amount of money, and I was a widow at 45, but in the grand scheme of things, I’d say I’m fortunate.

Brainy - lucky
Went to Cambridge - hard work
Bought a house in 2000 - lucky/timing
Left London 2007 - hard work/knowledge
Had a child at 42 - lucky
Very successfully self employed - hard work
Good partner - self confidence and thought outside the box.

It's all relative. You can either compare yourself to someone living in a war zone or to someone who seems to have it all (house, job, family etc). I think there a mix of luck and hard work in everything. My husband is in a really good job for example, he worked hard to get there but he was also born with intelligence and grew up in a stable home.

"Nobody in the UK is even close to poverty."

Its strange how so many people are using food banks in the UK then.

If you cant afford to eat, that is true poverty

It's not nasty just because you don't like it. Luck isn't fair, that's literally the definition.

Being born into a wealthy family isnt luck.

Its being born into a family that benefits from inequality.

Rich people in the UK could make life better for poor people. They could insist that everyone has a basic standard of living.

They don't. They keep the money for themselves.

Yes, I’ve had people say I always land on my feet. And I usually do. But I also work at a positive outlook, invest emotionally and socially in relationships and generally am kind.

Yes, very much so. Because I had the enormous good fortune to be born in a wealthy, democratic, peaceful first world country with all of the public services, laws & protections which go with it. Billions of people who live in absolute poverty in the developing world are much less fortunate than me. Tens of millions of normal European people just like me are currently living in the daily hell of a war zone in Ukraine. Of course I’m luckier than most.

I’ve had very bad luck and very good luck. Bad with my ex dh and a disability for me that came out of nowhere, but extremely good luck in meeting my dh and still having my parents in their 80’s and 90’s.

I feel very very lucky. We have a house, 3 healthy now adult children and I've reached the age of 54 and have my health (I think!,). We don't have much in savings but work hard and have what we need. My mum died at 40 and my mum and dad lost a baby at a young age so yeah I definitely feel very lucky

Absolutely luckier than others but equally have experienced loss early than others

That's quite lucky in my book. Luckier than being born into a family that is disadvantaged by inequality.

You getting offended over people saying they're lucky is weird.