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.

Working at a dominos it was always the big posh houses that never tipped drivers, even those ordering huge deliveries

But its not state controlled so we've gone out of the frying pan into the fire.

mum and dad buy to let generally if they only had one or two had a human touched to them. They may not have had particularly deep pockets to do all of the repairs, but generally they were Legal
These big corporate’s will be legal and compliant, obviously with tweaks made to the Law in their favour
But it will be a case of a renters register being compiled and any blips reported and people will be stopped from renting. Homelessness will increase

I’ve never tipped a delivery driver and I’ve never seen friends do so either. Genuine question but why would you? I don’t tip the Amazon driver etc so what makes it different someone delivering pizza?

@HRchatter we rent - nice big quality houses too , renters come in all kinds of packages - there are some awful landlords and some awful renters - and actually I do think some kind of ‘dodgy’ dossier of both would be damn useful .

I just have a feeling it will apply to renters not LL
We rented a property £850 a week, they were still awful

Vast generalisation obviously:
Stingy - rarely buy gifts for others or spend others
avoid heating the whole house

One thing the upper classes do have is the courtesy and good manners to return to a thread they started and respond to other people's replies.

It's no surprise that the people who have the most money are expected to pay more tax than the people who have the least.

nor that some rich people moan about it and convince themselves it's not fair.

I've always found that it's preferable to have plenty of money, and pay some tax, than not.

Perhaps the moaners have never experienced the alternative.

Understanding interest, and how you either earn it, or you pay it. Because compounding can work in your favour, or against you.

Avoiding any financial product at all cost if possible aside from a mortgage.

Investing as early as possible, so compounding can work for you over the years, whilst you sleep

Having fewer children, if income isn't high.

Not discussing finances generally unless with family or friends, who are astute and similarly financiallly minded, as to not cause issues.

Using quality items for longer, no cheaper purchases unless second hand quality items.

because the employment scheme is based on the American model. When slavery was mostly abolished, employers in service industries found they could get poor people to work for nothing, dependent on the generosity of customers who knew how it worked and might, or might not, contribute.

the American tipping culture is not liked in other countries, especially in Europe when the concept of fair pay is customary.

It's pretty extreme never to go out or on holiday unless you really can't afford to. Living beneath your means is sensible yes, but it's also sensible to live as rich (in the broad sense) a life as you can within your means.

Yes, so you’re agreeing with PP that pizza delivery drivers in the UK do not need to be tipped. They will be on at least NMW, the same as some of the customers who are treating themselves to a takeaway. I live in the US now, and while I didn’t like the tipping culture at first (preferring an ‘all in’ price for food and services), I’ve come to realise that service workers can make a lot more money this way compared to their UK counterparts.

"Yes, so you’re agreeing with PP that pizza delivery drivers in the UK do not need to be tipped"

No, I'm not.

Okay, so can you explain why they should tipped in the UK then? And not, say, other delivery drivers dropping off an online shopping parcel? What is it about pizza delivery staff that means they should be tipped?

They are generally poor people with no option but to take a job with poor pay and conditions, on the understanding that they will make enough to live on if they get decent tips.

This is a nonsense. Who accepts a job as a delivery driver in the UK and expects to make decent tips? Never heard of this. What is so special about pizza delivery staff that they should get a tip versus the guy who drops off your ASOS order?

In which case I assume you tip everyone who's a delivery driver. Also, anyone collecting your rubbish, at the supermarket tills, young people in their first jobs, and those collecting trollies say in a car park.

The people you quote are not all employed on a pay model that requires them to earn tips to have enough to live on.

I don’t know what this means. In the UK, all these jobs have the same pay model: they pay National Minimum Wage. I’ll ask again. What is so special about pizza delivery staff that they should be tipped versus the guy who drops off your online shopping parcel?

The only sensible post on this entire thread.

i dislike the US system of this intensely ( and creeping in far too much in UK) because I’ve paid pretty high prices in the US in recent years and then the expectation is I will pay 20% on top too - almost to be at the level of being chased out the door if you didn’t pay it and for not very great service too in a few places. When you have paid 120 dollars for an ok meal for 2 plus a glass of ‘ok’ wine then I think an expectation of 24 dollars tip on top, when they may be serving 4 or 5 others at same time is really pushing it . I do like going to US but must admit last time we went in 2023 it really felt people were ripping you off unless at the really budget end of the market - just come back from
Netherlands , not a single service charge on any bill - and yes we tipped around 10 euros directly to server-regardless of bill size and was graciously thanked and meals were amazing quality too and superb wine at 8 or 9 euros a glass max!

"all these jobs have the same pay model"

No, most jobs have pay and conditions based on the convention that your pay is what you try to live on, topped up with some benefits that may allow employers to get workers for low pay who are partly paid for by the taxpayer.

It is quite rare to have jobs where the worker is expected to think that his income is partly made up of tips.

I know not everyone tips takeaway delivery drivers/taxi drivers/hairdressers and so on.

But it was completely normal for drivers to get a few tips on each shift. It was just always commented on that the big posh houses in affluent areas never ever tipped. Even if the driver had driven through ice/snow/it was a huge order of twenty plus pizzas/it was Christmas Eve.

Well it’s just the price of things broken up. I automatically add 28% to any price I see on a menu in a sit-down restaurant (no tipping required for takeout): sales tax plus tip. I would prefer to see an ‘all-in’ price and avoid the mental arithmetic, but I’m used to it now. Eating out is more expensive here than when I lived in London, yes, but not that much more expensive and it’s more than made up for by the much higher salaries here.

@Crushed23 that’s the difference isn’t it - when we lived in Copenhagen tourists went on about how expensive it was and yes it was for us too as we were paid in sterling , but locals were mainly on higher wages than uk or lower regular expenses ( cheaper childcare, no NI, no council tax, lots of good social housing) it is indeed different when not a tourist using your own currency and income levels to spend