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The royal family

Harry had little access to money

621 replies

babsanderson · 13/01/2023 11:37

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.

OP posts:
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00100001 · 14/01/2023 07:43

Interesting how the narrative about his mother's money has changed. It started "without the inheritance, we couldn't do this" and has now morphed into "can't spend the inheritance, because we want Archie to have it".

oohokay · 14/01/2023 09:01

Patineur · 14/01/2023 07:29

he actually has a defence of monarchy but in the epilogue where he recites how it only costs the average tax payer the equivalent of a ‘pint a year’ (pint of what and purchased where) to fund the monarchy

He's so blind to reality. Does he not realise that there are people going without food in order to feed their children? Does he think they can spare the cost of a pint to keep him in luxury?

I actually have this great plan to crowdfund my loafing existence too. A mere pound a citizen, and I'd have £67mil to spend on my custom Batman themed mansion staffed with thousands of servants attentive to every one of my whims.

I'd even plonk it in Central London to draw the tourists in.. Tourist tax deffo goes right back into public services, as that's such a government priority! Just think: with every crappy Batpalace shaped magnet a tourist buys, the NHS gets stronger and stronger. I'm feeling quite touched by my largesse as I type this.

Benefitting the nation all while I get my feet bat-massaged! Win win for me and the nation. What a clever, multi-tasking genius I am really.

HaroldeVwilliam · 14/01/2023 09:18

How did the Queen mum owe money but simultaneously have some to give after her death?

I'm interested in the in and out of the trust's.
It could be that the money stays as capital and Harry lives off the interest/dividends or whatever earned.
So he wouldn't have access to say 25 millions but whatever it had earned that year obviously still a larger amount.

However I expect his investments like everyone else's have taken a hit recently. He probably can't touch that actual capital and that's the problem.
Or a problem of sorts!

I find the general money allowance interesting though, why don't the royals carry money?

HaroldeVwilliam · 14/01/2023 09:20

I strongly suspect the to Mx/sofa .com... humble cottage/ no access to million's are his way of heading off the gold digger rumours.

Eg I wasn't living in a huge palace with million's sloshing around.

HaroldeVwilliam · 14/01/2023 09:22

@Justbetweenus ..do you know what he received from his granny?

He probably wouldn't be scourge to touch the investment though.

And i expect they dived during COVID.
So re capital for Archie that's his protected Captital.

Blossomtoes · 14/01/2023 09:23

How did the Queen mum owe money but simultaneously have some to give after her death?

Asset rich, cash poor. The Queen paid off her overdraft at Coutts on more than one occasion when they returned her cheques.

HaroldeVwilliam · 14/01/2023 09:35

What assests though if they all belonged to the crown?

StatisticallyChallenged · 14/01/2023 09:51

HaroldeVwilliam · 14/01/2023 09:35

What assests though if they all belonged to the crown?

At the time of her death the palace issued a statement saying she'd left her estate to the Queen. However she'd already put Castle of Mey in to a trust years before, along with 2/3 of her estate for her Great Grandchildren.

Hence both inheritance and debts

Eyerollcentral · 14/01/2023 09:55

HaroldeVwilliam · 14/01/2023 09:18

How did the Queen mum owe money but simultaneously have some to give after her death?

I'm interested in the in and out of the trust's.
It could be that the money stays as capital and Harry lives off the interest/dividends or whatever earned.
So he wouldn't have access to say 25 millions but whatever it had earned that year obviously still a larger amount.

However I expect his investments like everyone else's have taken a hit recently. He probably can't touch that actual capital and that's the problem.
Or a problem of sorts!

I find the general money allowance interesting though, why don't the royals carry money?

She used to run up debts everywhere but because she was the queen mother no one liked to press her too hard. Then when they really needed the money they’d have to get in touch with Liz and she’d just pay it 🤷‍♀️ Clearly taught Harry well re not spending your own money! Wasn’t there a bit about it in the Crown? She was notorious for it.
He was able to access the capital before he got married.

CathyorClaire · 14/01/2023 10:28

Sovereign to sovereign bequests are free of IHT meaning the queen saved an estimated £20m when QM died.

More than enough to pay off the bar bill and trouser a lovely nest egg to boot.

Bakeacaketoday73 · 14/01/2023 10:29

Tripofalifetime343 · 13/01/2023 14:21

I agree with those of you who are saying he has immense wealth which is alien to us!

But Harry was born in to a completely different cosseted world and has now, thanks to his wife, moved to an even flashier one of celebrity wealth!

Yes he inherited wealth from his mother. And perhaps the Queen has left him some.

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!

I am not saying that his view is correct, I am just explaining his different perspective. A lot of the privilege that comes from being royal comes from
status rather than cold hard cash. Therefore, him moving away from UK, exposes him to, as he sees it, a cash deficit.

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!

The timing was very difficult though because he married just a bit too soon before the death of the Queen.

But he was getting apartment 1 in KP and would have got and "Anmer Hall" like property in due course.

The only issue I can see is that these were "normally" gifted on marriage and/or with growing families. Harry was quite late in that regard, he didn't marry until 33. (William married at 28, five years "earlier" than Harry)

Equally William rented his own "country place" in Anglesey while waiting for 1A and Anmer, so why didn't Harry? He had plenty of dosh....but then maybe he was happy dossing around until he needed to impress a girl then was full of "they won't give me that" and "I have no money" to justify his "frat house" lifestyle.

We are back again to "It's all everyone elses fault"

RedToothBrush · 14/01/2023 10:45

00100001 · 14/01/2023 07:43

Interesting how the narrative about his mother's money has changed. It started "without the inheritance, we couldn't do this" and has now morphed into "can't spend the inheritance, because we want Archie to have it".

Daddy didn't want to spend money because he wanted his son to have it.

Is this Charles or Harry we are talking about?

Having money in the bank is kinda pointless if you are pleading poverty. If you buy a house and furniture rather than scabbing it off others, it's there for your child. It's what's called an investment.

Jesus Christ this man is hypocritical, tight, out of touch and omg is he thick.

limoncello23 · 14/01/2023 10:54

Equally William rented his own "country place" in Anglesey while waiting for 1A and Anmer, so why didn't Harry? He had plenty of dosh....

He did after getting together with Meghan and it won't have been that cheap. They had a house in the Cotswolds, which we know about because, among other things, some newspaper sent a drone to try and film them through the windows (which is truly intrusive and awful awful regardless of how much money you have).

socialmedia23 · 14/01/2023 11:05

RedToothBrush · 14/01/2023 10:45

Daddy didn't want to spend money because he wanted his son to have it.

Is this Charles or Harry we are talking about?

Having money in the bank is kinda pointless if you are pleading poverty. If you buy a house and furniture rather than scabbing it off others, it's there for your child. It's what's called an investment.

Jesus Christ this man is hypocritical, tight, out of touch and omg is he thick.

To be fair, celebrity homes with all the requisite property tax doesn't appreciate as much in value . Much smaller market. There are many examples of such homes which have sold at a loss after a few years. Celebrities buy them because they have the luxury to write off losses for the sake of living in an extravagant place.

Historically the FTSE has outperformed real estate in America. This is probably partially because property tax is so expensive in the. USA (my uncle pays 10k per annum for a 2 bed townhouse in California; god knows how much tax Harry's house attracts) and this would put a cap on any house price appreciation.

Coronateachingagain · 14/01/2023 13:55

Oh and who paid for his polo ponies, polo training and all?

QueenSmartypants · 14/01/2023 14:48

HaroldeVwilliam · 14/01/2023 09:20

I strongly suspect the to Mx/sofa .com... humble cottage/ no access to million's are his way of heading off the gold digger rumours.

Eg I wasn't living in a huge palace with million's sloshing around.

Indeed. More aimed at the US audience, I think, as it seems to be more expected there that the rich live as much as like celebrities as possible.

See Oprah's reaction to the cottage. 🤨

A couple of points regarding management of his trust funds: he came into his mums inheritance at 30, the implication being that's when he took control of it. Iirc, the trustees were his aunts and I'm sure, terms allowing, they'd forward a one off amount for a property if he wanted to buy one. I also doubt the terms were strict enough so as to prevent this.

Secondly, he and meghan had enough money between them to rent a very expensive and large house in the very expensive cotswolds. Meghan was 'only' worth a reported ~£5 mil and even if this was in accessible cash, one wouldn't usually spend so much of it renting such an expensive property. Therefore, it can be reliably presumed Harry's monthly income was significant - and much greater than £50k.

Thirdly, the amounts he inherited from his mother and grandmother will have only increased from their values in the mid 90s and at the millennium, so he will have been worth much more a few years ago then people typically say.

Fourthly, he isn't only the son of the heir to the throne. He is also the nephew of a very wealthy Earl, who by Harry's own accounts in Spare, was deeply protective.

Fifthly, he was and remains one of the very best connected individuals on the planet. There will have been no end of individuals willing to assist him had he made his desire known (case in point: Tyler perry)

The more you unpick it, the more his claims of being comparably hard done by - financially and otherwise - fall apart.

It really disgusts me, every bit as much as the Tory government. If not more, because Harry models himself so much as "man of the people".

I also think Charles comes across pretty well in the book, tbh

Sugarfree23 · 14/01/2023 15:40

Equally William rented his own "country place" in Anglesey while waiting for 1A and Anmer, so why didn't Harry? He had plenty of dosh....

Can I just point out that the place William and Kate rented on Anglesey wasn't very big and William was working with the RAF Search & Rescue. I think of it as somewhere that the young William & Kate could start their married life away from the spotlights.
A bit like the Queen & Philip did in Malta, and probably what the Queen and Charles thought Harry and Meghan would use Canada for.

HaroldeVwilliam · 14/01/2023 18:20

Sugar free I think the point is where exactly Harry was when he met Megan.
William and Kate has a different journey completely. .

Re his his trust's again I'm not sure how much he has actual access to.
If he spends that Captital he won't have an income.
So it's not like he had pure access to 25 millions.
.that's what they mean by passing that on for Archie.

It's what the rich do.
Untill some fool comes along and spends that Captital.

Also everyone who invests has taken a massive hit.... millions have been wiped off fund's values.... so again that would affect him..
Interesting re earl Spencer I wonder if he does get help from that side!

HaroldeVwilliam · 14/01/2023 18:24

Queen, I think it's really hard for some of us to see things from his perspective.

Eg maybe he gets what we would dream of but still for him if William his only sibling is getting money pumped at him....

StatisticallyChallenged · 14/01/2023 18:24

HaroldeVwilliam · 14/01/2023 18:20

Sugar free I think the point is where exactly Harry was when he met Megan.
William and Kate has a different journey completely. .

Re his his trust's again I'm not sure how much he has actual access to.
If he spends that Captital he won't have an income.
So it's not like he had pure access to 25 millions.
.that's what they mean by passing that on for Archie.

It's what the rich do.
Untill some fool comes along and spends that Captital.

Also everyone who invests has taken a massive hit.... millions have been wiped off fund's values.... so again that would affect him..
Interesting re earl Spencer I wonder if he does get help from that side!

He's got 7 kids of his own to fund...

IcedPurple · 14/01/2023 18:24

I don't get the Earl Spencer thing. He has 7 children of his own. Why would he be subsidising a nephew with millions in the bank?

Blossomtoes · 14/01/2023 18:25

IcedPurple · 14/01/2023 18:24

I don't get the Earl Spencer thing. He has 7 children of his own. Why would he be subsidising a nephew with millions in the bank?

He wouldn’t. It’s more fantasy.

HaroldeVwilliam · 14/01/2023 18:39

Fantasy from where?

YouJustDoYou · 14/01/2023 18:42

Have you SEEN what that wife of his spends on clothes? tens and tens of thousands! On just a few outfits!

simplefree · 14/01/2023 18:49

YouJustDoYou · 14/01/2023 18:42

Have you SEEN what that wife of his spends on clothes? tens and tens of thousands! On just a few outfits!

because she can make anything look oh so chic! he said in the book