To think people’s idea of what ‘a rich’ person is, is totally skewed?

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For example:

Who do you think of as rich?

When the government talk about wealthy people who do they mean?

Tax the rich. Who are ‘the rich’? Etc

‘But generally MN want to lump everyone in a £750k terrace house in London and two professional salaries in the same bucket as Bezos’

🤣🤣 it does seem like that sometimes

In personal terms it's relative. We actually had this conversation with our son earlier who was moaning about us not giving him more money for something.
We could be rich to anyone with less money than us. We are certainly not poor, but we have very little spare cash. To me rich is having assets over 1million without debt.
But they are unlikely to be living a very lavish lifestyle, and are hardly rich compared with someone who has 5million in cash in the bank plus an unmortgaged house.
However, I actually know people in that position and they also don't feel they are 'rich' either, still stress about money and think they are just comfortable.
I think the government thinks 'rich' is anyone with a household income of over 100k, which we have, but we are pretty much on the breadline most months. We live in an expensive area and our monthly outgoings are 100 percent of our wages.
But totally appreciate that our income is huge compared to many, many others.

anyone with more money than them is mythical creature “the rich”. Specially despair with the privately educated thing. I know a family with double income, 1 child going to a 15k per year school with a lot of sacrifice; and also know another family, single income, with 4 children studying in Eton and Cheltenham ladies - that must be around 240k per year just in school fees. Apparently both families are part of the same category according to most people here.

That’s too 10% of earnings which is very different to top 10% of wealth.

"Rich" is attached to all sorts of personal circumstances, cultural contexts and life choices. Most people quietly resent paying tax.

Rich, imo, is excessively wealthy. Well beyond the means of most. An exclusive group of people who can control and manipulate others, even lawmakers, due to their wealth and values. Your average lower-end 6 figure earner in London doesn't yield that sort of power. To lump them together, just because the latter can (just about) afford a 3 bed in Crouch End + weekly Gail's pastry, is weird.

Yes, that's very true.

There was another thread going where the op was earing (form memory) about £150,000 and posted an AMA.

I was thinking given the numbers on MN with dc at "top tier" private schools which can cost around £60,000 per year for just one child, many people were probably thinking "how do you manage?"

The same salary can be tight or super-abundant depending on the circumstances.

Wealth is such a very relative concept - and that's before you start thinking of it in terms that are not exclusively financial.

Agree.

According to a recent survey questionnaire thing the telegraph did against figure from the ONS I am in the top 5% of earners (based on salary) I expect if you asked the general public what someone in this percentile earned they would give figures of double or triple what I earn. The same assessment questionnaire however also assessed cost of living in the area you live in, disposable income and assets. As well as household income. Despite being a high earning individual, as a single parent household I drop to the top 35% for household income, down further to top 42% for disposable income and came out as in the top 48% for overall wealth including assets. (I don’t have any).

I am very aware that my income and all these factors still place me ‘above average’ in all ways and I have a comfortable life and can afford holidays and nice things which I recognise as being luxuries. However to get here I also spent a decade dependent on benefits and support, ive been through huge financial difficulties which I compounded through ignorance and have had CCJs and the resulting horrific credit score. All now thankfully in my past.

but I do think that people don’t realise how much the top 1-3% skew the data for everyone else.

I think what’s clear is the ridiculous housing inflation we have seen has vastly skewed people’s spending power. It’s so damaging yet none of the political parties seem willing to address it.

Im comfortable, I can buy the things I need without worrying about it and have some left over. It’s an incredibly privileged position I think and it’s a combination of earning a reasonable amount and having inherited a modest amount so my housing cost is low. I pay a fair amount of tax and I’d be happy to pay a little more, but I’m not ‘rich’. Those people with big houses, new cars, expensive holidays and somehow paying school fees, those people are rich.

I was euro millions dreaming last week, looking on Rightmove for what I’d buy if I won (found the perfect house, gutted i didn’t win) and there’s a huge amount of property in London for many, many millions of pounds. Vast areas of the capital chock full of multi million pound apartments. People in this country have enormous wealth, while a massive number are struggling for the basics, it doesn’t seem right.

We have a measure for poverty, it’s less than 60% of the median income. I’d say more than 10x median income is rich. Maybe less. But there are a lot of very rich people and some of them definitely aren’t paying their fair share. We have the most complex tax system in the world I think, and it’s not like that to support poor people. It’s not just individuals, but big corporations too.

I feel I am rich. I don't worry about bills, buy whatever food I want. I have a few holidays a year, though I have to budget these carefully. That's fine though obviously, as I am so lucky to be able to afford them, and I am very grateful for my good fortune

I should have said, I have zero interest in private education, but I'm Irish, it's less of a thing here.

I think rich means having money that a profession won't usually provide. I know someone who is worth €200 million. Another friend's son is worth £75 million. They're both self-made and became wealthy selling their startups.

An old college classmate is a teacher, but he is very well off as he came from a wealthy family.

"The rich" aren't a monolithic blob.

Private school is used heavily by those with SEN kids because they are failed so badly by state. People who choose to send their non-SEN kids to private school despite having an excellent state school on offer - now they are rich!

Well ... were! The fees invoices soon fix that!😂

Worth it though wasn’t it, for all those benefits passed onto state schools? Ahem

Wealth is about what you own, not what you earn. If you need to work for a living, you’re not rich. Rich people make money from their assets, not their labour. Those assets could be property, land, companies, equities, intellectual property or other investments which produce dividends.

‘Taxing the rich’ means taxing their assets, not their incomes. For example, properties & land worth >£1m could be taxed at 1% of their value annually. So the owner of a £5m house / factory / farm / shop / hotel / whatever would pay £50k per year. The advantage of taxing assets in this manner is that you can’t pick up a Knightsbridge apartment & move it to Dubai.

The top 1% of earners account for 30% of income tax collected. Seems like the top earners already pay more than their fair share. Do you disagree?

I think im rich if I have more then $500 left in the bank at the end of the week hahaha people's finances arnt my business and I stay in my own lane. But honestly if you have enough money in your bank to never have to worry about where your next meal is coming from, you can pay for your mortgage or own your house, your bills are paid without worrying how they are going to be paid and you can go anywhere you like without a budget and still have enough money in the bank to live, then your probably rich or at minimum, very comfortable.

They have raised more than they predicted through the tax, I am one of those scrimping to pay for a few years of private school for a child let down by state. I’m not entirely against the tax (I work in state so see the need for investment there) but I am only being hit for year 11, and only funding 3 years. I genuinely feel the tax I’m paying is fair. It’s rich people avoiding taxes that makes me cross.

But what proportion of wealth do the top 1% have? It’s grown disproportionately over the last decade, while the bottom 50% have seen living standards decline. The economy hasn’t grown much, but there’s been a significant shift in where that wealth is held.

Well about 10years ago the conservatives called my family one of the richest 1O% in the country when our family of 6 was living off one income of 60k so took away our child benefit.
We definitely didn't feel in the richest 10%!!!
Probably David Cameron and his ministers were but my family definitely wasn't, driving around in a 10year old zafira and going on camping holidays!
So politicians will use the term to serve there own purpose.

For me signs of being rich are things like
Living in a large beautiful house
Having a second home or property portfolio
Sending DC to private schools
Several holidays a year
Expensive jewellery
Driving luxury cars
Having horses
Professional job
Having parents that gift substantial sums of money
Not having to worry about money

People really seem to struggle to understand that when it comes to tax ie; that the same percentage of a much bigger number = a much bigger number!

It's not the same percentage though

It is above a certain point.

I think it's people who don't have to work for money.