Do Britons feel rich or poor?

dogkennel

h**p://w*w.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/sep/14/do-britons-feel-rich-poor

Replace ** with tt, and * with w, can't post link as new user.

Thought this was an interesting read.

eyeopener2

Saw this yesterday. Thought the woman with the £100k plus income moaning about being skint was funny. Tell you what love, ditch the nanny.

The managing director, 34, London

Married to a freelance photographer, two children. Household income: £100-150,000. She earns £60,000; he can earn more, but it's variable. Have a mortgage on a six-bedroom home and rent out a flat worth £500,000. No savings.
Do you feel rich or poor? "Rich on paper – but in reality we're poor."
"What we are is the forgotten middle. By no means do we have a flash lifestyle. We went to the cinema the other day and spent £50. It was easy. You have two cinema tickets on a Friday night, you have a cheap meal; by the time you've bought yourself a drink and paid for parking, it's £50.
"We couldn't even afford to buy our home, just my husband and me; we had to buy with my brother-in-law. You're going to laugh now – it's a six-bedroom house, but that's because we took on a doer-upper. The mortgage is crippling – £2,600 a month. Once you've paid the mortgage, your nanny, bought food and fed everybody, there's really nothing left.
"A travel card is £112 a month. The commuter belts have become very expensive, too, so I'm not sure you gain anything by moving outside London. You feel like you're being swallowed up by the cost of daily existence.
"This is absolutely universal. I went out for dinner with a friend recently and we spent a lot of the evening talking about how difficult it was to make ends meet these days. Her husband's a banker; she doesn't work"

E2

eyeopener2

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/sep/14/do-britons-feel-rich-poor

Happytogetdebtfree

Interesting article

Nottoobadyet

I really liked the article - I was afraid it would be a Christmas carol story of how the poor are really richer, but it was more rounded and interesting than that.

I can't decide if I feel rich or not.

DD265

That was really interesting to read! I think that the article highlights that no matter how much you earn, there is always room for improvement in how you can use that money.

I agree with the MD who said that on paper they should be rich but that the reality feels different.

With what I earn and my necessary outgoings, I should be loaded but the reality is that I am still an idiot when it comes to spending money so time and time again I leave myself short!

YoungBusinessman

Britons as a majority all seem to feel poor and beleat on about being poor yet everyones definition of rich/poor varies and are all completely different.

Good read though, thanks for posting.

PasturesNew

I hate it when anybody with "loads more money" than me complains they've no money. Like as quoted above ... £50 for the cinema.... yeah, well us poor types wouldn't DREAM of spending so much on going out anywhere. Find a free film on the telly and put some toast on!

YoungBusinessman

Someone on £10k a year thinks £20k is rich. Someone on £20k however doesnt. Its all about lifestyle inflation and something i have witnessed first hand as i started out at 16, 5 years ago i took home about £7k. It has progressed each and every year since as has my lifestyle. Its just the way it goes. The more you earn, the more you tend to spend meaning that surplus isnt there that should be as you managed on a smaller salary before so you still should after getting onto a bigger salary.

The trick is living well withn your means,whatever your salary. Anyway my definition of rich is not just how much money you earn/have in the bank.

Tommymax81

Despite my debts (20Kish) I know that I am not really poor. We earn about 55K a year between us and have our own home, nothing flash but ours. We have a lovely son who has what he needs and we can put food on the table and have the odd treat!

I remind myself of these things when I am feeling fed up about my debts ( which I am tackling)

I work with families who have absolutely nothing so I know that I am actually very fortunate

somethingcorporate

Great article, I really enjoyed it.

It's all relative and that is something that the family bringing in £1m a year shows. Compared to people they rate as peers it could well be quite a small income.

I remember a few years ago when my wife qualified as a solicitor when all her peers were bumped up to £60k and they were all still moaning how little money they had! It was a fortune to me back then, now I bring in broadly a similar amount it does not feel so much after all and still find myself moaning about not having much money!