Some people just seem to have unlimited money

SandC

If I had an OH earning £50k I would be living in the lap of luxury too! That's not average, that's way over average.

I guess it depends on circumstances and attitude to money really. Me and my friends don't talk about those sort of issues but they must have household incomes higher than mine. We did actually touch on mortgages a while back and I was shocked to find that every one of them is on interest only with absolutely no payment vehicles to pay them off. Some of them are paying very small amounts due to the deals they got, some are paying high amounts due to treating equity like a cashcard. We are all similar age and could have had very similar lifestyles. I stayed in my ftb house and never borrowed any more. They bought what they could and borrowed as much as they could.

They act like I have loadsa money but actually I just live within my means.

claire16c

mrcow wrote: »

You could be dead by then. Or worse. You never think it will happen you you, but trust me, 2012 has taught me that it can and will.

Why would you overpay on a mortgage when it is preventing you from fufilling ambitions of travelling and seeing the world?

Stop overpaying on the second mortgage for 12 months (it won't kill you!) and do something extraordinary.

I agree, you cant get that time back. Someone I know who is 27 has just been diagnosed with leukemia and its not looking good - 6 months again he was absolutely fine. You never know whats going to happen.

Me and DH saved for 3 years and then went travelling for 8 months. Obviously if you have kids that type of things is harder to do, but now were back we can start saving for a mortgage. If wed got the house first, wed probably never ever in our entire lives have gone travelling.

My other friend is always saying she wishes she could go on the holidays I go on - but they took out a massive mortgage. Im happy to live somewhere smaller and rent until I can afford a mortgage more easily, and make sure I visit all the places i want to on the way.

If I get knocked over by a bus I know Ill have made the right decision!

Callie22

I think in many cases it's probably credit - I work with someone who's always having rows with his partner about money (very publicly at work lol) and they're living a very 'nice' life. Lots of holidays, meals out, kid at private school, nice clothes etc. However they're up to their eyeballs in debt - he was talking about the minimum payment on one of his cards the other day and it was pretty much his entire wage. Seems to me to be a dangerous way to live nowadays, when nobody's job is safe, but it's his choice.

I think too that some people can look as though they're 'well off' when they're not - it's all about priorities and what you choose to spend your cash on. You can pick up designer stuff for very little on ebay, for example (and some convincing fakes lol). Someone with a bit of a flair for interior design can make a house look great on very little. Someone might have a 'nice' car, but it might be secondhand and that's what they spend their cash on rather than (say) a few nights at the pub or five or six packets of cigarettes a week. It's hard to know unless you really know someone's finances, and you rarely do.

Danili

OH earns around £50K a year and I am on maternity leave. We have 2 children and a sizeable mortgage, although have decent equity in our house (the joys of London living!) and I probably will not return to work until the children are older. Other than our mortgage we have no debt.

People frequently comment on what a lavish lifestyle we lead and imply that we are getting in debt to maintain it. We love expensive holidays, clothes shopping, designer handbags and normally eat out twice a week. What they don't see however, is the mse-ing that goes on behind the scenes. OH and my clothes are financed through selling our old ones on ebay, I take part in online and face to face market research, we save all year round for holidays and christmas and although I shop in Waitrose, I only spend £70 a week maximum and top this up in Iceland/Aldi.

We are always on the look out for deals, money off vouchers and any savings that can be made anywhere. We don't hoard anything at all and do a car boot sale every year. I would never pay for parking unless I absolutely have to, even if this means walking quite a way and avoid buying chewing gums, drinks etc. when I am out as I know the massive savings I can make by buying multipacks from Poundland.

Quite a few friends are constantly pleading poverty, despite having tiny/no mortgages and having decent wages. They live in old clothes, don't go on holidays and never eat out. They then waste their money (in my opinion!) on things that can easily and painlessly be avoided. Would love to give them a money makeover!!!

Spendless

Do they have a low mortgage? Does the wife also work and they don't pay for childcare (eg a relative helps out for free)? I agree that people see what they want to. Yesterday my SIL queried why we had cc bills (we've just paid them off due to a lump sum) when in her words 'you're both working and my DH has above national average income'. I pointed out her brother is a 40% tax payer on a k code and I only returned to work last year on very part time hours initially. My DS is often clothed in 'labels' that I just don't shop in. I just have a lot of friends who had boys years before I did and they pass on.

**Juice**

Or they could be living a secret life of crime

TimBear

Spidergirl76 wrote: »

Thank you everyone.

The thing is, the people that I know don't seem to be the type at all that would save money/compromise on anything. I think that's why I'm quite baffled.

But you don't know that.

I'm a keen saver and save most of my money so that I will be able to buy a house in the not-too-distant future.

However, I still go out to eat, have holidays, run a car and rent a house with my partner etc., so I guess to an 'outsider' I may look like I spend lots, but what they don't know is that I don't spend a lot on my food shopping, or that I use a freecycle-style site for lots of things, I take a flask when I go out so I don't have to buy coffee, I don't put the heating up high and so on...you just don't know what goes on behind closed doors!

Pollycat

I think my post #48 and those from Danili (#55) and TimBear (#58) just go to show that what you see on the outside (nice clothes, holidays etc) often comes from people working at doing MSE things with their income.

And post #54 from Callie about her workmate's finances shows that the same thing (nice clothes, holidays etc) on the outside can sometimes be hiding debts of enormous proportions.

FBaby

JC9297 wrote: »

I think any family with 2 children and an income of £50K should be able to have a nicely fitted out house and be able to dress well, unless a disproportionate amount of their income is going on debts (including those that overstretch themselves with their mortgage). .

I bet you don't live in the South East and don't pay the same mortgage we do for the same house

SandC

People presume a lot too about what they consider essentials.

I have a mobile phone but no contract. I'm down to about £2 credit but on checking it.... it was Feb when I last topped up. And that wouldn't have been any more than £20, more likely £15.

Plus, people think nothing of paying finance on a car, forgetting that some of us save up to replace our motors when they are nothing short of knackered.

Nor do we consider it necessary to replace household items until they are beyond use. Or decorate every year or buy new tellies, game consoles etc.

And I personally have never had a credit card, I do as my dad taught me - save up for stuff.