Does wealth cause a disconnect with people?

[mids2019]

We are doing moderately well with a net worth of £1.4 million. In the West Midlands (house,pensions,investments) in our very early 50s. We had about a £60K growth in one of our funds last year and our financial advisor seems to be getting 10-12% returns on investments pa regularly.

In do feel now it's difficult to talk about money with friends and people we know in the same town (a little down trodden on general) as some of them have real money troubles and the cost of living crisis is really biting. When do missions get round to money we stay diplomatically silent and remain vague about wealth and financil goals to not needlessly antagonize people.

Does anyone feel the same and do they tend to discuss investment etc. with those with similar amounts?

I really don't think the small group of people who have large amounts of money would be willing to listen to the larger group of people who have none!

I think there’s a big difference between talking about investing and financial planning in a general way and just telling people how much money you’ve got or that you made more in investment gains than they earned last year.

@Heereforagoodtime "Eesh. That's rough. I can understand people not planning for retirement but not realising they haven't is something else, altogether."

i'm not sure I've understood this right

People know that they're going to want to stop working at some point?

Anyway, I've learned my lesson and I will never mention it again but it's gonna be awkward when I retire

I talk about finances with a few friends. No-one knows my net worth, but several people know I’m mortgage free, the value of my house, that I have shares, my salary, how I plan to fund retirement. Some of it I volunteered, a lot of it people actually asked. I don’t think it’s helpful for people to think everyone is going along not actively planning for retirement (I’m in my 50s), as there is already so much ignorance about the subject. I wish I’d started planning earlier.

It reminds me of backpacking abroad in my youth, when I had very little money and was just earning as I went. Everyone gave the impression they were in the same boat. But when it came to the crunch it came to light they had cars they could sell, parents giving them money, savings etc. So I think some transparency is ok re finances, rather than a disingenuous ‘oh we’re all broke together.’ It can be done without bragging. Though thinking about it, most of the people I have discussed it with are considerably better off than me anyway.

I think you’re overthinking a bit OP. Also surprised you’re thinking in terms of luxury cars etc, unless you’re both planning to work until retirement age.

As they say, money talks, wealth whispers. We’re financially very comfortable but we don’t discuss investments etc with anyone.

God yes! With dh's family - we don't mention anything to do with money - forget about financial goals, investments etc we avoid talking about purchases, holidays, lunches, they don't know I've retired, we didn't tell them when the dcs got good jobs - even a day out to a garden show resulted in some pretty shitty comments - and we had no choice but to tell them about that because we could be available to care for MIL.
It wasn't always like that - their lives got worse financially (divorce and unemployed kids) and ours got better and as time went on more and more topics became no go areas. We all used to get on so well - it's a bit tragic but too much has been said now to ever go back to the way it was.

It's this sort of thing that is difficult. Different trajectories for different people. On and envy.

I despair of the nonsense middle class British idea that you never talk about money. Money is something we all interact with everyday, why is it such a taboo topic. Investing is complex, some of us find it interesting, comparing with what others are doing can be useful.

But as others have said read the room - talking about how hard it is choosing what to invest in in front of someone who is struggling to pay the bills isn’t going to play well. Just common sense really