Does everyone worry about money?

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Based off the back of another thread. Does everyone worry about money/financials do you think? I know the worries may be different…but do you think everyone does? Do you or do you not? What do you worry about the most?

No I didn’t but you are spectacularly missing mine.

*their worries might differ in scale or nature from those of most people, the principle holds: having a lot of wealth doesn’t entirely remove anxiety about losing it. Everyone worries about money.

I think it is a concern even for those who are fairly well off. They have things like inheritance tax to worry about and Labour's forthcoming raid on savings and pensions the media keep scaremongering about.

I do too. I worry about spending the money I have.

I very rarely spend money on myself even though I’m desperate for new clothes and shoes. I worry that if I spend, something will come up and I’ll need the money I’ve just spent.

No, I budget and live within my means and manage to save a bit. I’ve seen too many people really worry about retirement who then didn’t live that long to really worry about it. I have pension arrangements in place but don’t think about it day to day. Life is just too short - as long as my bills are covered I’m not stressing about it.

No they don’t.

A lot of people feel they have to keep ‘upsizing’ their lives. People who don’t worry about money get more but don’t buy a big house, fast cars and other people don’t even know.

i can’t believe there are people who are so blinkered into insta and expectations that they don’t know this.

@Satisfiedwithanapple "i can’t believe there are people who are so blinkered into insta and expectations that they don’t know this."
This has gone over my head. What does blinkered into insta, mean?

I’m retired on a good pension, but I worry. I earned well for the latter half of my career, and got used to being able to afford what I wanted, as well as saving hard. The thing about being retired is that there’s nothing more coming in. You can’t top up. It’s all taking out. How long am I going to live? How do I spend it all/keep enough back for later needs? A different kind of worry to when I was younger, but still a worry.

I think so. Even those who have it only keep it because they worry.

Have a nice evening hun 👍🏻.

I don’t. Live off investments don’t work. I’ve experienced poverty and money worries when younger .

I can just about make it work normally, but this year there hasn't been enough to put anything aside for Christmas, and I do worry about that.

Making it work means two meals a day though and meat maybe twice a month. I have definitely cut my cloth.

I mean I doubt millionaires do? Unless they 'worry' about their investments performing as well as they could?

I worry that we massively missed the boat with compound interest as we started saving much later in life than we should have. Will we ever be mortgage free. Will our children have an OK standard of living. Will we ever stop spending out on our old house. Will we have enough for retirement. What will my DH do in 10 years time when he will have outgrown his industry...

So yes, I worry!

I agree with this. If you don’t increase your spending to match your income it’s easier to pay off your mortgage and build a decent pension. It also has the advantage of not getting used to a certain lifestyle that you are then trying to maintain in retirement.
These are the people who don’t worry as they are comfortable in their own way of life which is easily affordable.

How much you worry about money is personality based as much as wealth based. Some people will have enough by anyone's standards and will still worry, some will have very little but will have a relaxed attitude to it. Certainly DH and I have very different attitudes to money despite us being very comfortable. I think strategically about it and am the one that has put in place saving plans etc so I guess I feel in control of it, we live well within our means and are saving regularly and I don't waste energy panicking about things that are beyond my control. He tends to forget about all those savings and then get randomly grumpy about e.g. the cost of an meal out (an insignificant cost for us). But he is much more of a worrier generally than me, it's not just a money thing.

I worry every day. My biggest fear is retirement. I’m doing ok for now and will have paid my mortgage off about 6 years before I retire. But I have no idea whether my pension will be enough to live on. By the way, I realise that I’m actually very lucky to own my own home but it doesn’t stop me worrying if I’m prepared enough.

I worry about money short term. Long term I think we will be fine as the mortgage is paid off and we both have pensions.

But…

My husband earns approx £150k and I earn around £22k part-time. Our monthly outgoings are the same (50-50) and I live in perpetual debt. It prevents me from sleeping at night!
He paid the mortgage off, has savings, and pays for holidays, meals out, home renovations etc. I can barely get through the month because food shopping is so expensive, and the interest on my overdraft/bank loans.

I honestly can’t work out if I am being short changed or not. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I’d go so far as to say you are being financially abused.

I'm careful, look for the best deals, and do think about what things cost. But I'm fortunate to be in a position that I don't worry about it. I am mortgage free with a very good income. If e.g. my boiler broke I'd think "that's annoying", pay for the replacement from my salary and think no more about it.

Even if I lost my job, we have sufficient passive income that we'd be able.to pay the bills and live fairly comfortably with savings for unexpected costs. Albeit we probably wouldn't be able to go on holiday and would need to meal plan etc.

We didn't grow up with much, so I am very conscious of how fortunate we are and will never take it for granted.

A lot of people feel they have to keep ‘upsizing’ their lives. People who don’t worry about money get more but don’t buy a big house, fast cars and other people don’t even know.

But it's inevitable that you upsize as life goes on. In my 20s I lived in a single room in a shared flat and had no car. Then I got a job that required me to drive so I needed a small car, got married and bought a house (mortgage was bigger than my share of the rent), got pregnant so had to use up savings to cover maternity, needed a 5 door car (bought with cash), had 3DC, needed a bigger car (also paid for with cash) and a bigger house, had to pay for DC sports clubs/ music lessons/driving lessons and holidays/food shops/meals out became very expensive. I spend far less on frivolities or days out for myself than I did as a single woman in my 20s but DH and I now have to pay for the essentials for 5 people from 2 salaries. It is easy to be sniffy about lifestyle creep but it would be a sad life to live like a student for your entire life, some lifestyle creep is desirable and a sign of a life well lived. And I say that as someone who lives well within my means but spends far more each month now than I did 30 years ago).

Our mortgage is paid off, we only ever have a small second hand car and we live pretty cheaply. I like to make sure we have money to give DS to help save for a deposit and to go abroad several times a year. I don't worry about money but I am careful with it and am always planning for the future.

Not one tiny bit.

In the past I’ve lived in poverty, I don’t think I ever actually worried about it but thinking about money took up a lot of my energy.

Now I don’t have to think or worry about money.

@Veronicasharmonica you must know the answer to this, surely? What is your husband playing at.

You honestly can’t work that out? I suppose you could go full time. But doesn’t sound like a marriage to me.

No, it's just not part of my personality. I've been very poor and wealthy, been in lots of debt and had lots of assets, it doesn't make a difference. I've just always had confidence that it would work out, even when I've been dependent on benefits, and it has. I think about money and how I'll manage it, and strategies for dealing with tax etc. But to me that's not the same as worry.