To think the problem with wealth inequality is that rich people don't know how rich they are?

[Neeroy]

Article in the Times today saying that people earning six figures 'don't feel rich'.

Because they are surrounded by six figure earning peers they are comparing themselves to people who have more rather than the 90% of the population that have far less. This is why the budget is poorly received in the news, because rich people think they already shoulder too high a burden when in fact compared to everyone else they still have far more disposable income. Even if they have to cut down on the number of holidays they go on. They aren't sitting in the dark under a blanket. Or only making food that doesn't require turning on the oven.

I don't think they realise how so many people have to live.

www.thetimes.com/article/1fb46414-8f65-436f-8f95-451d69626148?shareToken=8061d939633164c0dfbd805240c8e008

Yes you are. Next thing you’ll be staring into my front window

Yes you are so reported

Slightly off topic, but I always think of this example. Many years ago I was away with work, group of about 20 of us. I couldn’t get a window blind to stay up in the meeting room. A colleague shouts “just a put a insert fancy knot name in the string”. I look at her perplexed, not even knowing where to start with this suggestion. She replied, “wasn’t that a knot you were taught when you were on the boats at school?” And that’s a defining moment for me that shows some people just don’t have the slightest clue that not everyone had the same lifestyle and schooling they did.

I still laugh now, the boats!! At school!! God she has now idea how the majority grew up.

This thread has taken an interesting turn!😂Sometimes people don't realise just how rich they are!!! Indeed!

I now know what the politics of envy are 🤣

Phew. We can’t afford a £3k/month mortgage. Does this mean we’re not rich?

If you could still get 100% mortgages, how many of you would get one? I think that the fact you can’t get them any more makes it harder for young people to even get a starter home.

A bank manager today would have coronary over how we funded our first mortgage 30ish yrs ago. Interest only, no method of paying it off, not quite 100% but we drew cash on various credit cards to pay the deposit, then used the cashback deal on completion to pay the credit cards . The house itself was a damp wreck which probably wouldn't even be mortgageable in this day and age.
Yet it gave us a leg up, we renovated it on a shoestring, worked our fingers to the bone, sold it on and did the whole thing again (and again!) .
My DD was looking at doing similar, but renovation projects are often cash only or at least a big deposit is needed and then no cash is left for the renovation. It's so difficult for younger ones today.

We had that type of mortgage, but changed it later. Cashed in the endowment and started paying the capital. Three times the biggest wage plus one times the second. My son and partner couldn’t afford this house now at the three plus one and no deposit and their household income is six figures! It’s much harder.

There was no endowment policy, that was the crazyness of borrowing then. It suited us as we saw it as short term borrowing in order to make a profit on the house. We got hammered with redemption penalties, but still came out way, way ahead financially.

Is it though? Maybe during the nursery years but outside of that I don't think that it is that hard. Assuming that most of those posting are in two-parent families as that is still the majority, and most two-parent families these days have both parents working. That'd be supporting a family on anywhere up to 90k, which is an enormous amount of money (to me, anyways)

You sacrifice time with your family to make a better life for your family? That's contradictory, imo anyway.

That reminds me of Wife Swap, the old TV show where they basically took one family which prioritised earning money and swapped the mother with one which didn't.

Both tended to learn something from the experience.

That's life though - you make sacrifices for long term gains, to give your kids things like security and better opportunities. It's not all about being with them 24/7.

Security I agree, but how can you be sure they wouldn't rather have more time with you than what you consider to be better opportunities? And how do you know they will grow up to aspire to the same opportunities you now consider important?

You don't know anything for certain. But you can make the more favourable outcomes more likely, and the less favourable less likely. That's all you can do - I'd rather put the odds in my kid's favour.