Harry had little access to money

[babsanderson]

Harry was given Nottingham Cottage a 2 bedroom cottage presumably rent free. He was given security paid by the taxpayers. He was also given a clothing allowance from Charles to pay for clothes for formal public occasions.

But he obviously had little access to money. He bought his casual clothes cheap from TK Maxx and talks about drying shirts on radiators.

When he told Charles he was going to marry Meghan Charles said he could not afford to pay for Meghan and Harry as he was already paying for William and Catherine. Charles suggested Meghan continued working to pay for Garry and Meghan. Meghan paid for furniture from Ikea and sofa.com to improve the furnishings in Nottingham Cottage.

Charles paid for Harry and Meghan's wedding. Although Meghan paid for her own wedding dress. The taxpayers paid for the security.

Remember Harry and Meghan were working Royals.

The taxpayers paid for the renovation of Frogmore Cottage. A cost that Harry and Meghna paid back when they left the Royal Family.

The Civil List used to give a defined amount to each working Royal. But that was changed and all the money went to the heir to dole out.

The Queen and Charles appear to be remarkably stingy towards their own child and grandchild.

@Tripofalifetime343

I think people are discussing his finances before he moved to the States. Obviously, now he is paying his own way and living in a nice house but before he met Meghan and before they moved abroad why was he living the way he was living?

For what it’s worth, my brother is single and very tight with money. He only uses hand-me-down phones from his daughter, uses his friends Netflix account, etc. He can afford to buy things but he just doesn’t like putting his hand in his pocket.

Wise. Up. He had at least 20 mil in inheritances from his mother and the queen mother. He’s probably got a few mil more from Phil and god knows what’s coming to him from liz.
500,000 with no housing costs, no cost of security, no cost for clothing yourself for your work, no costs of transport, no costs paying for your staff. He even goes so far as to say his father’s chefs kept his freezer stocked with home made meals so he was wasn’t even feeding himself a lot of the time. I would love a forensic accountant to calculate what his income would be scaled up to taking in to account the freebies that everyone else he knows has to pay for.
Make him Duke of Edinburgh??? What has Edinburgh done to deserve it. You are deluded sorry

Say for arguments sake he has £10 million invested for him in a trust, and the trust earns him 5 %, which gives him £500,000 a year. That is obviously a very good wage to us ordinary mortals. But if he is mixing with film stars and celebrities, who could be spending £500,000 a month on their outgoings!

So in other words, he's living outside his means. Living in the most exclusive part of California isn't a human right you know. If I bought a house in Knightsbridge which I couldn't afford, would I get the right to complain that I was a pauper compared to my neighbours and demand that my estranged family subsidise me?

If Charles had treated him properly and brought him a beautiful stately home somewhere which brought him and Meghan some cachet and had conferred on him a couple of really decent appointments like Duke of Edinburgh, or Commonwealth Envoy or some serious honorary appointment in the military, then I reckon Harry would have opted to stay at home!

Was being Captain General of the Royal Marines, an appointment previously held by Prince Philip, not 'serious' enough, do you think?

And you seem not to understand how monarchy works. Harry found freedom before Charles was king, so he didn't get to 'confer' anything. Only the monarch has that right.

I'm sure Charles would have given him a very nice home when he became king. But they found freedom. That's what they wanted, isn't it?

Lots of people do not take Cocaine, Harry is this you?

Perhaps they kept a tight hold of Harry’s budget cos he was spending on partying, drug taking and alcohol, plus god knows what else!

Why does he have to take her on posh dates? Dates that he can either afford or can't. Why should the taxpayer fund his jollies to get his leg over?

Tmaxx shirts were sufficient for him. Something tells me he's not off down the Target Black Friday Sale in LA....

Why did he suddenly go 'oh I'm being financially mistreated?' and decide that the sofa he'd been sat on for the last couple of years was suddenly insufficient?

Did it not occur to him - the bloke who thought he'd marry before his brother - that based on the income he had that actually pissing it up the way partying every night at high end establishments wasn't a good way to save his money and perhaps he should save for a sofa for when he'd settle down?

The Royal Family generally have started to grasp that they have an image to uphold, but that image also includes value for money and not just pissing it all on every whim either. Redecorate at expense but do it in a way that's 'preserving heritage' or performing some other public function (environmentalism and teaching traditional trades seem to be royal favs) and don't do it too often - only when necessary. Going out and getting wasted at parties, not so much. Spending a fortune on clothes is frowned upon but there's also been an emphasis on it being part of service, it being reused and high street so not so ridiculous either.

If Harry wanted a goddam expensive sofa and furniture he could have had them. He chose to prioritise other stuff one way or another and his expectation was the taxpayer should foot the bill.

Why should the taxpayer pay more than a perfectly good IKEA sofa. He wasn't going to have visiting dignitaries to Notts Cot. It was private and had no reasonable justification other than he didn't like it. Same criticism that was levelled at Johnson and no10. There's an allowance to do up no10 but it's doesn't stretch to gold fucking wallpaper.

The crown walks this line between imagine and value for money which Harry will have had drummed into him. Hence tkmaxx (if it's true) in the first fucking place. Then he decided it wasn't good enough.

Why?

That's the question. And why didn't he plan his own financial security / outgoing either. There has been a drive in recent years to make the royal estate self sufficient and to downsize the monarchy. Did he not stop and think for a second that actually the IKEA furniture was sufficiently functional.

Nope. He lost the plot somewhere along the line.

@Tripofalifetime343
Why should Charles buy him a stately home?
He didn't want to work for Charles so why should Charles fund him and buy him a house?

Why couldn't poor Harry and millonare Meg buy their own?

NO ONE was controlling Harry’s finances. He isn’t a victim of modern slavery getting his wages confiscated

Was being Captain General of the Royal Marines, an appointment previously held by Prince Philip, not 'serious' enough, do you think?

Didn’t he blow them off to go to the Lion King premiere? That’s how much his military appointments meant to him.

I'm sure I read that Charles offered Harry and Meghan a country house which they declined, preferring to rent in the Cotswolds as they frequented Soho Farmhouse.

Of course I've no idea if it's true. But Cinderella of the royal family seems a stretch.

Lots of people on MN take cocaine.

Excuse me??

He's a multi millionaire, his mother left him millions as did his GGM. Maybe the QM gave the RF some control I absolutely do not believe that Diana gave Charles or any other member of the RF the ability to control that inheritance. I assume he didn't like spending his own money, I understand that because I'd be better off if someone else paid for everything for me, no one has offered though.

Maybe the problem here partly though is when Harry got married... The larger apartments/country homes are usually handed out on marriage (which I'm sure Harry was well aware of!) However Wills is 2 years older AND got married 5 years younger...hence a perceived he has more than me.

Harry was still a bachelor in Nott Cott, (and probably not taking good care of it nor himself) while his brother is in KP and Anmer, married with 3 kids.

He's "not getting" why Wills wants to be at home with his family instead of spending the night with him on his wedding. Wills is waaaay ahead of him in terms of maturity and life status.

£20million from his mother, £14million ish from the Queen Mother (who left the bulk to him) plus an allowance from his father. HE IS & WAS NOT SHORT OF CASH. Unless he wants to live like a Hollywood superstar billionaire……..and there you have it. Spoilt little rich boy.

Where did he get the money to fly back and forth to Canada when they were dating?
How did he pay for the trip to Botswana?
How did he pay for the engagement ring?
How did he pay for trips to Soho house and everything else?
He has plenty of money but he wants all of it.

Drying shirts on radiators? Gasp! How traumatic!

Yes - we only have half a story.

There was also concern that he was the first in his position to have a chunk of money in their own name, due to his inheritance from Diana.

Even if you go back to the Queen and Prince Philip, their first house was miliary quarters in Malta and then Clarence House, and Buckingham Palace (which nobody really seems to like) when she became Queen

He came in to £10m when he was 25 from his mother. He earned whilst in the forces.

He was paid when he was a working royal.

Then he had money from the Queen Mother's estate. I doubt he ever paid living expenses in his life.

Don't think he was broke...

Again it's a different thought process! I am not saying it's right but how do you think the aristocracy maintain their status as aristocracy? By passing on their inherited wealth to their DC. And like a good aristocrat, Harry will be preserving a good chunk of his inherited wealth for his children. It will have been drummed in to him that big chunks of his inherited wealth is off limits.

I know, I'm not sure how he coped...poor bloke😆

Say for arguments sake he has £10 million invested for him in a trust, and the trust earns him 5 %, which gives him £500,000 a year. That is obviously a very good wage to us ordinary mortals. But if he is mixing with film stars and celebrities, who could be spending £500,000 a month on their outgoings!

Tough. We'd all like to have unlimited amounts of cash, but we haven't. Many of those celebrities started out with normal lives and have earned their millions so yes, now they can spend. Elton John, for example, is supposed to be a big spender, but he couldn't be when he was struggling musician Reg Dwight.

Again, you don't seem to get how these things work.

The aristocracy maintain their status not by "passing on their inherited wealth to their DC." It pretty much all goes to the heir. If Harry is a 'good aristocrat' then he knows how it works. The heir gets the lot.

And I thought he'd found freedom from all that? Didn't you say he's all about keeping up with the Hollywood elite now?

A multi millionaire with no money? Oh stop

That little anecdote won’t even be true, laundry and housekeeping will have washed and pressed his shirts, they will have been returned to him ready to wear, maybe he put it on the radiator to warm it up, but then again as he has no money maybe he can’t afford heating? Oh wait that’s paid for too…..

Well he'd also know that spending a load on sofas was a dipshit idea then, because if he's spending daddy's money he's also pissing his own children's money away too.