I've changed my name for this one, as it's not what I normally post about and I might be opening myself up to a few negative responses.... so, here goes:
What is a normal family income? I live in a relatively affluent middle-class neighbourhood. I work hard and think I've done reasobnably well from life in many ways. But I feel like we as a family are the poorest people in the neighbourhood - we can only just afford our current mortgage (on a medium-sized semi), never mind moving on to something bigger, yet everybody around here seems to be able to spend on bigger houses, more expensive holidays etc - and usually only one person per household is earning. I work part-time and my partner full-time and our joint income is just over £70K per year. To me, it sounds reasonable. Yet there is no way we can afford the lifestyle our friends, relatives and neighbours lead. Apart from the odd high-flier, they seem to be in similar middle-mangement roles to us.
So - what do other people think? What's the secret to moving onwards and upwards? Is it that people inherit money from wealthy relatives? Are we just crap at manging the money we have? Or is normal to earn a lot more than we do?