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.

Depends where it was invested. Some people’s investments did very well in the pandemic.

Very true. I imagine harry has access to the best advice money can buy. He isn’t a forex trader

He wouldn't have needed to touch the capital to buy a couch.

The interest on those millions would have paid it.
He maybe didn't have access to millions of pounds, I get lots of it will be in long term investments etc.
However few people do have access to millions but most of us still manage to furnish our house 🏠 and buy a new couch as required.

If he can shop independently in TK Maxx he could also manage to purchase a sofa.

My personal feeling is he was a typical guy. Not overly interested in how his bachelor pad looked. As long as it was clean and food in the fridge (housekeepers will have sorted it) he was quiet happy.

It all feeds into the view I've held for a while Meghan thought Royal life was all fancy frocks and tiaras. Not the mundane opening community centers, and living as close to a normal life as possible.

Maybe William is more grounded because he lived away relatively independently at St Andrews, before going into the Army where Harry never had that time of independence, was institutionalised at school then the army.

This isn't true. In fact Harry complains about this story in Spare. The true version is that William asked for the ring when Diana died. And was given it.

Do you understand investments? No, they are not usually linked to an atm.

So you're saying all his money is in 'investments'?

He literally couldn't access £500 to buy a sofa?

You can withdraw all or part of the capital sum usually and deposit it in a bank account with a bank card and then withdraw from an atm though can’t you?

Also as has been explained at length throughout the thread he had the benefit of the income from the Trust(s) which presumably he could use to buy any of the things he needed

eyerollcentral fair enough, i suppose it doesn't have a great deal to do with how Harry deals with his funds.

I don't believe for a minute he couldn't access funds to buy a sofa either.
Who bought the bean bag?

Just the same as he was able to access funds to go on holidays, fly round the world.
He must have been getting some form of 'salary or wage' as a working royal. If he wasn't he would needed to have earned his own money.
It's reported on here he donated his army salary (I thought it was just Williams air ambulance money that was donated) why would he do that if he wasn't getting any money from elsewhere?

We've seen photos of Kate and William shopping in 'ordinary' shops, however much the departed OP likes to pretend they are fakes. Presumably they were paying with card or cash? But that was not possible for poor Harry?

I know someone who works in a shop in Chelsea (a chain, not exclusive boutique) and Kate has definitely been there, as have several other celebrity customers.

I imagine Harry went to restaurants a lot, how was he paying for that then?

Of course he had access to money, how did he pay for his drugs?

I'm sure Meghan wanted to make some decor changes at Nott Cottage and make it 'her own' and being the independent and financially successful woman she is she decided to sort it out herself, rather than demean herself asking for money from Harry.

Harry was obviously impressed by her ability to look after herself financially, and reassured she wasn't a gold digger, he already stated he found it attractive she wasn't in awe of him. It must've been a breath of fresh air for him. Every move she made made him more besotted with her.

The cynic in me thinks 'Well played Meghan' but that's probably a bit harsh.

@Liorae If we accept that all his money was tied up in investments and not readily available, fair enough. All he’d need to do is what other people do when they need to access their investments-talk to their financial advisor. I’m sure the RF have top notch financial advisors and so he’d set up a meeting, explain that he now needed to regularly draw an income (or perhaps he just needed a small lump sum to buy furniture, etc. ) and ask them how to achieve this.

They’d advise him, do the paperwork, he’d sign it and the money would be available in however much time it took to make the adjustment to his portfolio. It wouldn’t be rocket science to his financial advisor!

It would only require H to arrange/ask his assistant to arrange a meeting with them. Again, it’s remarkably similar to his inability to arrange a therapist for his struggling wife…perhaps he simply refuses to do anything like that?

I'd be interested in hearing garrys version of events

Princess Diana used to shop in M&S on Kensington High St. You'd literally see her in the queue for the till. This idea that he can't shop normally is bollocks.
Also, the Royals publish their finances & there were newspaper articles quoting them to show that Prince Charles was giving his sons several million a year right up to 2020. Harry was rolling in money. He took Meghan to Botswana on their third date FFS.

Exactly poor Harry.

I know Kate shops like normal people, maybe part of that is having a privileged but relatively normal background. And probably went shopping with her parents.

Could part of it be Harry was raised in such an odd way that shopping is an alien 👽concept to him?

A bit like kids who are leaving care need to be taught how to do the weekly shop because its just not something they normally experienced.

Oh in the best of cases, poor him, he had his money in investments.

That's why (before Daddy cut him off remember????) Daddy paid for Botswana, the rent in the Cotswolds, the pony hobby, the ski trips, the wild trips to the US and whatever else.

I don't says this usually but FFS

@HaroldeVwilliam Yes, that certainly comes across in the book. I actually have a lot of sympathy for him, it sounds like he was very lost and unhappy for a very long time. Nor do I think the royal family is an easy family to be a part of- and he certainly won't be the first Prince to struggle with it. I also understand family dynamics where one child is held up as the golden child, but I had the distinct impression that Harry's sense of abandonment led to an oversensitivity in this area (understandably). The book is notable by the things not mentioned too.

But none of this excuses the sheer ignorance and entitlement of his attitude to finances or his ignorance of the laws regarding royal finances. Especially when you consider that William and Harry have arguably been exposed to social differences and their privilege more than any previous generation of royal.

If you are professing to be broke whilst having a trust fund you have a cash flow issue not a poverty issue.

You also should be able to plan for this or work around it if you take responsibility and are financially competent. Trust funds might time to access but can be accessed. That's the point of them. They aren't there to sit there indefinitely.

Now if you want a new sofa - and it sounds like a want rather than a need, we all have the option of either trying to find credit (various options available according to your credit history including being declined after seeking it - a scenario unlikely to happen with Harry) or we save up in advance and buy once we have accumulated the funds, making do with what we have in the meantime.

All the guff about investments not being instantly available doesn't add anything new to the conversation. The conversation is still that Harry is tone deaf to people facing financial hard times ATM and that he's clearly inept with his own financial management which he should take responsibility for rather than constantly blaming Daddy and the family. Harry still retains agency. Harry didn't have to take the free cottage. He could have moved abroad at any other time if he wished. He could invest in different ways.

Sorry but that violin is fucking tiny.

I now have an image of Harry being declined finance in DFS

I thought the story about Harry giving William Diana's ring was absolutely lovely. It made Harry look like a decent sort. So it wasn't true?

(For what it's worth I much prefer the aquamarine ring that belonged to Diana. Meghan got the better deal there)

I’m sure Harry left out a big chunk of what actually happened ,
with all big properties , and it’s multiple properties here , theres a system that is applied to all interior and maintenance expenses in all residences , you can’t just call The property manager office and ask for a sofa or a lamp, not even a kettle , new or old.
there are request forms , then quotations to be approved , then ordering and delivery , minimum 3 months in total ,
they wanted something very quick , so their only choice is to buy one themselves ,
even if they’ve asked for the actual money instead it would take weeks to release it ,

this sort of thing I’m very familiar with and I bet it’s the sort of thing followed in all royal residences .

That's probably true, he might well have had to ask if he wanted the royal purse to fund new furniture.

But the whole "we had to use meg's credit card to buy from Ikea" is very deliberately trying to create an impression that he had no money, no cards of his own, no control, was living on a shoestring. And that just is not believable.