Are you rich?

Poll: Are you rich?

Total Members Polled: 535

Yes my net assets are above £120,000: 88%
No my net assets are below £120,000: 12%
Author
Discussion

Shnozz

27,675 posts

274 months

Thursday 6th June
quotequote all
Zolvaro said:
Shnozz said:
Zolvaro said:
You two are a charmingly judgemental pair aren't you. It's his money his life, if he wants to live it differently to how you would that's fine. He's not got his hand out asking for anything.
Au contraire. It very much seems as though he expects a hand down.

Harsh as it may sound but he started by saying he’s never been able to save anything and in the next sentence says how they went through a not-unsubstantial sum of redundancy pay in a jiffy. With that approach to a windfall it’s little surprise that they’ve never saved anything. As dull as the 50/30/20 rule is or even just a 10% save what comes in rule, you could have surely stuck aside 10% of a £40k sum to give you a better float.
He said it would be nice if his mother made the same sensible estate planning as her parents. which is a pretty reasonable position in my opinion.
And to quote you; it’s her money and her life. Pretty reasonable I’d say.

Zolvaro

129 posts

2 months

Thursday 6th June
quotequote all
Ken_Code said:
Zolvaro said:
You two are a charmingly judgemental pair aren't you. It's his money his life, if he wants to live it differently to how you would that's fine. He's not got his hand out asking for anything.
He literally wants a hand-out from his mother. Were you responding to the wrong post?
No I very much meant you two, you've been snarking on the last couple of pages about how he's spent his money because it doesn't conform to how you would have done it.

Edited by Zolvaro on Thursday 6th June 15:49

Zolvaro

129 posts

2 months

Thursday 6th June
quotequote all
Shnozz said:
Zolvaro said:
Shnozz said:
Zolvaro said:
You two are a charmingly judgemental pair aren't you. It's his money his life, if he wants to live it differently to how you would that's fine. He's not got his hand out asking for anything.
Au contraire. It very much seems as though he expects a hand down.

Harsh as it may sound but he started by saying he’s never been able to save anything and in the next sentence says how they went through a not-unsubstantial sum of redundancy pay in a jiffy. With that approach to a windfall it’s little surprise that they’ve never saved anything. As dull as the 50/30/20 rule is or even just a 10% save what comes in rule, you could have surely stuck aside 10% of a £40k sum to give you a better float.
He said it would be nice if his mother made the same sensible estate planning as her parents. which is a pretty reasonable position in my opinion.
And to quote you; it’s her money and her life. Pretty reasonable I’d say.
I don't recall saying she should do it, just that I understand his position.

Ken_Code

1,566 posts

5 months

Thursday 6th June
quotequote all
Zolvaro said:
No I very much meant you two, you've been snarking on the last couple of pages about how he's spent his money because it doesn't conform to how you would have done it.

Edited by Zolvaro on Thursday 6th June 15:49
I haven’t, I’ve said that I wouldn’t be confortable if it was me.

It’s clearly struck a nerve with you though, given your idiotic post above.

Why so triggered by other people preferring to have some savings? Have you just realised what retirement’s going to look at, and shat yourself?

Zolvaro

129 posts

2 months

Thursday 6th June
quotequote all
Ken_Code said:
Zolvaro said:
He said it would be nice if his mother made the same sensible estate planning as her parents. which is a pretty reasonable position in my opinion.

He spent money he had on things he believes he needed, people do a lot lot worse than that with money that don't even have.
You said he doesn’t want a hand-out, but he does. He wants his mother to give him money.
He said it would be nice if she gave him some now the way her parents did for her., that isn't the same as wanting a handout.

bmwmike

7,077 posts

111 months

Thursday 6th June
quotequote all
Byker28i said:
RDMcG said:
It’s a bit of a meaningless exercise- if you are 25 and have accumulated £120,000 you are probably on your way to wealth ( I was not BTW). If you are 75 and on a modest pension then that £120k is a lot less comforting.Do you have dependents? Working spouse? Do you live is a cheap area or in an expensive location?

I think a better way to measure this is cash flow. If you are making more than you are spending consistently over years then you are either rich or on the way.

I live in Toronto where an average house is over £500k so you have to have a good income to be comfortable . When I came to Canada first I bought a house for $50k which represented about 3x salary. No more.
Nice, I liked Toronto on our Canadian trip last year, some very nice areas
Agreed, I lived in Toronto (North York) for 4 years and loved it, would have stayed but family reasons brought me back to the UK. I still miss it and hope to get a decent stint of a holiday back there soon.

On the subject of being rich, isn't primary residence normally excluded from such calculations? I know many moons ago when I worked at a startup courting "high net worth" individuals the criteria was something like £4m excluding main home equity.


Zolvaro

129 posts

2 months

Thursday 6th June
quotequote all
Ken_Code said:
Zolvaro said:
No I very much meant you two, you've been snarking on the last couple of pages about how he's spent his money because it doesn't conform to how you would have done it.

Edited by Zolvaro on Thursday 6th June 15:49
I haven’t, I’ve said that I wouldn’t be confortable if it was me.

It’s clearly struck a nerve with you though, given your idiotic post above.

Why so triggered by other people preferring to have some savings? Have you just realised what retirement’s going to look at, and shat yourself?
I can imagine seeing everything you worked for for a lifetime spent on a new sofa and a week in Cyprus for someone else wouldn’t feel uplifting

Snarky!!! and now you are being judgemental about me and my finances, which you clearly don't have the first clue about.

Ken_Code

1,566 posts

5 months

Thursday 6th June
quotequote all
Zolvaro said:
He said it would be nice if she gave him some now the way her parents did for her., that isn't the same as wanting a handout.
That’s the second most stupid thing you’ve posted in this thread.

Ken_Code

1,566 posts

5 months

Thursday 6th June
quotequote all
Zolvaro said:
I can imagine seeing everything you worked for for a lifetime spent on a new sofa and a week in Cyprus for someone else wouldn’t feel uplifting

Snarky!!! and now you are being judgemental about me and my finances, which you clearly don't have the first clue about.
Oh, I think I do champ, I very much think I do.

Shnozz

27,675 posts

274 months

Thursday 6th June
quotequote all
Zolvaro said:
He said it would be nice if she gave him some now the way her parents did for her., that isn't the same as wanting a handout.
I must be going insane then as that to me reads exactly as wanting a handout. In fact I cannot see how, “it would be nice if you gave me a slice of what you have” is not desiring a handout.

Zolvaro

129 posts

2 months

Thursday 6th June
quotequote all
Shnozz said:
Zolvaro said:
He said it would be nice if she gave him some now the way her parents did for her., that isn't the same as wanting a handout.
I must be going insane then as that to me reads exactly as wanting a handout. In fact I cannot see how, “it would be nice if you gave me a slice of what you have” is not desiring a handout.
He's not asked for anything, he's not expecting anything. If he went and asked her for some money, that would be expecting a handout.

Zolvaro

129 posts

2 months

Thursday 6th June
quotequote all
Ken_Code said:
Zolvaro said:
I can imagine seeing everything you worked for for a lifetime spent on a new sofa and a week in Cyprus for someone else wouldn’t feel uplifting

Snarky!!! and now you are being judgemental about me and my finances, which you clearly don't have the first clue about.
Oh, I think I do champ, I very much think I do.
No you really don't! I've saved my arse off all my life, but that's my choice, I'm not judging somebody else for making a different one, especially without having anyway of knowing how or why they made their decisions.

IJWS15

1,878 posts

88 months

Thursday 6th June
quotequote all
Most of the last 15 years my death in service benefit would leave around 125k after paying off the mortgage but I didn’t think I was rich.

Retired, sold house, moved in with son and family, lot of money in bank and in pensions, contracting on circa £600 a day - that doesn’t make me feel rich.

What does is the time I get to spend with the grandchildren, riches I didn’t expect to have three years ago.

Tim the pool man

4,916 posts

220 months

Thursday 6th June
quotequote all
Zetec-S said:
This sort of thread always reveals those PHer's who are a little detached from reality, if they think £120k isn't that much.

Average house price in the UK is about £280k, assume split between 2 people is only £140k. Not taking into account the balance on the mortgage, personal loans, car finance, credit cards, etc. Or the millions of people who rent.

To be honest I'm more surprised it is as high as it is, just goes to highlight the size of the wealth imbalance.
But that is why the median is a far better indicator of a community or country's wealth than the mean, because it isn't skewed by massive wealth at the extreme top. It's also the reason the US prefers to use the mean not the median when talking about how rich they are...


GliderRider

2,243 posts

84 months

Thursday 6th June
quotequote all
Tim the pool man said:
Zetec-S said:
This sort of thread always reveals those PHer's who are a little detached from reality, if they think £120k isn't that much.

Average house price in the UK is about £280k, assume split between 2 people is only £140k. Not taking into account the balance on the mortgage, personal loans, car finance, credit cards, etc. Or the millions of people who rent.

To be honest I'm more surprised it is as high as it is, just goes to highlight the size of the wealth imbalance.
But that is why the median is a far better indicator of a community or country's wealth than the mean, because it isn't skewed by massive wealth at the extreme top. It's also the reason the US prefers to use the mean not the median when talking about how rich they are...
Perhaps the mode shows the true picture better than either the mean or median?

Chicken Chaser

7,957 posts

227 months

Thursday 6th June
quotequote all
Interesting this thread popped up when it did because I was thinking of starting the exact same question after watching a video from Gary's Economics on YouTube about what constitutes "Rich"

Age has always got to be a factor but if you add the house you live in, then those in the South will probably have more than those in the North simply from sharp market rises.

I think very, very few people who are PAYE are rich.




ThingsBehindTheSun

515 posts

34 months

Thursday 6th June
quotequote all
Either way, I would rather be 40 with £120K than 75 with £1 million. I am almost certain that any 75 year old would gladly swap as well.

Alex_225

6,415 posts

204 months

Thursday 6th June
quotequote all
It's interesting with everything costing so much and people having £30, £40, £50k cars on their drives without flinching that £120k in assets/savings would be considered rich.

I do fall into this category but I do work hard and also feel really lucky every day to live in a nice house, have the cars I want and be comfortable. I always say to my other half we're luckier than a lot of people out there and don't have debts.

GT03ROB

13,490 posts

224 months

Thursday 6th June
quotequote all
Shnozz said:
Zolvaro said:
He said it would be nice if she gave him some now the way her parents did for her., that isn't the same as wanting a handout.
I must be going insane then as that to me reads exactly as wanting a handout. In fact I cannot see how, “it would be nice if you gave me a slice of what you have” is not desiring a handout.
I’m very much with Shnozz & ken_code on this, There’s some posts here that are exactly about getting a handout.

GT03ROB

13,490 posts

224 months

Thursday 6th June
quotequote all
Chicken Chaser said:
I think very, very few people who are PAYE are rich.
So what do you think constitutes rich?