Upper class habits to stay rich

[publicsectorlife]

What habits do the upper class have to stay wealthy? What would they never buy that they would consider a waste of money?

Our household income is very good. But yet we seem to be haemorrhaging money with high mortgage, commuting and childcare costs.

But yet our friends with generational wealth (ie small mortgage) seem to be living such a different lifestyle with about 6 holidays a year.

We can’t do much about having no inherited wealth but I think we must be missing a trick.

There is one sneaky trick that rich people use. It’s called ‘having more money than you’.

Mortgage and childcare - getting rid of either of those makes most people at least 2 holidays a year better off for a start.
Friends of ours defo don’t have generational wealth but they’ve made choices that wouldn’t have worked for me around lifestyle and are now mortgage free and go on multiple holidays per year with their 2 school age kids. They have both also taken steps back at work to gain more flexibility, so no childcare costs for those kids either.
For the last 15 years however, they lived like monks! never went away, didn’t eat out, only shopped in Lidl, walked everywhere to save car costs, clothes only from vinted/charity shops, day trips were free things where they always took water bottles and packed lunches. My friend has still never been into a Starbucks!
Not everyone can do it (I couldn’t) be they really do show that watching the pennies closely and living to a very strict budget can work to clear the big expenses earlier in life

🤣🤣🤣

Upper class?

Have ancestors that were friends with Wiliam the Conqueror I guess.

When choosing a partner and deciding whether to have children, your aim should be preserving wealth and land ownership.

Be a man, a firstborn son.

That's all I can think of for the upper classes.

Weird post. You've answered your own question.

They don't have a big mortgage as they've got inherited wealth, so they have smaller outgoings and can spend their extra money on holidays.

It's not "a trick", they just have more money.

I don’t think you’re missing anything. It’s much easier to stay rich than to get rich.

Eating the poor.

Saves on supermarket bills.

Investments on significant amounts of capital. Money generates money when it’s properly invested, which requires discipline and careful management

Long term thinking and planning like pensions, staying out of debt and repaying your mortgage early.

They don't generally have mortgages do they

generational wealth

that's the clue!

Reducing monthly expenditure helps a lot but only possible if you can say, buy you car outright rather than paying for it monthly. Or pay off a large chunk of mortgage so you pay a low interest rate and pay it off fast (so less interest paid overall).
We have been lucky to have some inheritance. Not totally life changing amounts but being able to do those two things has significantly lowered our monthly repayments on things so more money for holidays etc.
But as the PP says, basically having more money is the key 😬 and more money up front and sooner!

My incredibly wealthy bosses are both in their 80s, still working 7 days a week, 12 hours a day during the week and 6 hours a day at weekends. They live a very frugal lifestyle - rarely buy anything like clothing or household stuff, and if they do, it will be from a charity shop. They hoover up all the yellow stickers in the supermarket and freeze them. Whatever they bring for lunch gets eaten, even if they don't like it. Nothing gets wasted. They have basic cars, but use the bus if going into town because it's free with their bus pass, even though it's less convenient.
They are worth millions, but live like they are on the breadline. I don't think it's a lifestyle most people could enjoy, it always seems very miserable to me, and I have visions of them counting their millions by candlelight of an evening and being very satisfied with themselves!!
Money and the acquisition of wealth comes above all for them.

Having barns and corrages full of stuff saves a lot of money - kids need a bike - there’s 20 old ones in garage. Need a sideboard? Take the one from the gatehouse. Want to be a sculptor? You can use the top barn so don’t have to rent a studio. Want a horse? No need to pay livery

@MangeTrout 😳Your bosses sound like they have walked out of a Dickens novel!

My brother is very wealthy, but yes, he still works at his very high paying job at age 71. He is financially very savvy and owns 3 properties. Although his pension will be a lot more than the average salary, he has shown no signs of retiring yet...

That isn’t “living like monks.” It’s sensible.

Are you upper class OP, I ask because just having a lot of money doesn't make you upper class. A lot of people on the telly have a lot of money but they are not upper class.

Well the obvious answer is that with no or a small mortgage they have money to spare for other things

No inherited wealth here, but paid off our mortgage early and take several holidays a year. We were smart about what we spent our money on, never went without but also didnt spend massive amounts when it wasn’t needed.
Some of the things that shock me on MN:
how much money people spend on their weekly food shop. I can only imagine they are regularly eating caviar and wagyu steak washed down with expensive wines. People spending thousands on Christmas. I am gobsmacked on the style and beauty board how many suggestions you get for everyday dresses over £300 and shoes over £100. Etc I’m not saying people shouldn’t spend that much, entirely their decision but it all adds up over the year / years / decades.

Ah I thought the ones about older bosses were going to go a different way, that they just loved what they did and were very unconsumerist. A shame if they are just sitting gloating over essentially pointless bank balances (though at least if they need care…?)

I have elements of the above- drive a banger in very good condition, adore Lidl as mostly cook from scratch, always looking for stuff on Vinted (why not?), probably not good enough at bring lunch into work on my two days - but after years of cooking from scratch i deserve an M&S sandwich surely.

But yes I do splurge in other areas!

invest

ummm for us historically always a second had car, I think my latest one was £600 five years ago, it has an electric fault whereby if you lock it it won’t start unless you reset it with a spanner. Annoying as we did spend £500 fruitlessly trying to have it fixed but ultimately I wouldn’t change it.
Inherited furniture, for example baby’s cot was 17th century and pram 1950’s I can’t think what we spent on her arrival beyond a new mattress, nappies and vests.
Key parts of my wardrobe and jewellery are from family.
Big events I got married at my parents home walking over to church wearing an inherited dress and ring only needing to really pay for food and flowers.
Food bills are low because we grow our own in the main.
No debt, passive income from businesses and working on investments to provide funds.
We mainly use cash for purchases as keeps it real.

Definitely not upper class, I guess I would originally be classed as middle and DH working but this lifestyle means we holiday frequently, looking forward to five weeks before Christmas.

I can’t emphasise enough how much even a small amount of family cash in the beginning helps to compound everything.
I see it for DD now in her mid 20’s compared to her friends.

ummm for us historically always a second had car, I think my latest one was £600 five years ago, it has an electric fault whereby if you lock it it won’t start unless you reset it with a spanner. Annoying as we did spend £500 fruitlessly trying to have it fixed but ultimately I wouldn’t change it.
Inherited furniture, for example baby’s cot was 17th century and pram 1950’s I can’t think what we spent on her arrival beyond a new mattress, nappies and vests.
Key parts of my wardrobe and jewellery are from family.
Big events I got married at my parents home walking over to church wearing an inherited dress and ring only needing to really pay for food and flowers.
Food bills are low because we grow our own in the main.
No debt, passive income from businesses and working on investments to provide funds.
We mainly use cash for purchases as keeps it real.

Definitely not upper class, I guess I would originally be classed as middle and DH working but this lifestyle means we holiday frequently, looking forward to five weeks before Christmas.

I can’t emphasise enough how much even a small amount of family cash in the beginning helps to compound everything.
I see it for DD now in her mid 20’s compared to her friends.

It’s a bit of a side point but really that is what people should be paying for good quality clothes. The clothes on the high street are such poor quality and wear out so quickly. It’s a false economy to buy cheap (buy twice obvs!). And the people who make the clothes are not paid fairly. We can’t continue on this cheap clothes model for the sake of the environment either.
Not everyone can afford it and that’s a wider point about the economy and society.
Patrick Grant has written a really interesting book about this called “Less”.

Inherited furniture, for example baby’s cot was 17th century and pram 1950’s

How did you fit your 1950s pram into your car?