'I make £120,000 but I can’t recall the last time we went out for dinner’

redux

MrRee wrote: »

There is NO better investment than to invest in your own childrens education and future.

I know someone who works long hours, together with his wife, drives a 15 year old car he got from the scrapyard and has the soles of his shoes flapping as he walks.

Both of his children are in private education .... that's how important it is to some people and how generous some people are.

All I ever did was to make sure they had a house to start with ....

Go back a generation. What about his own education?

Conrad

the_flying_pig wrote: »

much more importantly, only the torygraph could describe a £120k p.a. city worker [comfortably in the top 1% of earners] as part of a 'squeezed middle':rotfl:

I earn about this and feel fairly badly off, we do not even have Sky, but we are keen investors.


We have not been skiing for years yet most around us go at least once a year.
We have a 2008 Audi and SAAB, not too extravagant.


Not been able to update our thinning carpets etc etc.


We rarely eat out but I do have a takeaway once per week.


Kids in state education.


I always lack enough clothes and buy shoes say once every 3 years.
Last trainers were knackered and about 5 years old.


We have basic wine and cheap IPA beer, no badger brewery for me.


We have fairly limited things in terms of gadgets. Such as a basic £15pm Samsung phone.


Always careful with money.




Most people within a 50 miles radius of us seem to have a lot more.




In my 20 years as a broker I find people earn significantly more than official stats would indicate.

GeorgeHowell

Conrad wrote: »

I earn about this and feel fairly badly off, we do not even have Sky, but we are keen investors.


We have not been skiing for years yet most around us go at least once a year.
We have a 2008 Audi and SAAB, not too extravagant.


Not been able to update our thinning carpets etc etc.


We rarely eat out but I do have a takeaway once per week.


Kids in state education.


I always lack enough clothes and buy shoes say once every 3 years.
Last trainers were knackered and about 5 years old.


We have basic wine and cheap IPA beer, no badger brewery for me.


We have fairly limited things in terms of gadgets. Such as a basic £15pm Samsung phone.


Always careful with money.




Most people within a 50 miles radius of us seem to have a lot more.




In my 20 years as a broker I find people earn significantly more than official stats would indicate.

Unless that post is totally ironic, you must either have a huge mortgage that is bigger than you can afford, or a massive spending indulgence that you haven't mentioned, or you are absolutely crap at managing money.

Trust me, £120K is not by any stretch of the imagination anything other than a very comfortable income indeed for anybody.

Conrad

GeorgeHowell wrote: »

Unless that post is totally ironic, you must either have a huge mortgage that is bigger than you can afford, or a massive spending indulgence that you haven't mentioned, or you are absolutely crap at managing money.

Trust me, £120K is not by any stretch of the imagination anything other than a very comfortable income indeed for anybody.

Resi mortgage costs £850 pm.
I wish I did have an indulgence - I'd love to add to my aging electronic recording 'studio'.


Possibly we spend more than average on the summer holiday, but certainly no more than most we know.
About £6k all in, but a lot less this year as driving to the Alps but even then the property is £950 pwk and you can spend vastly more than this.


We always save into ISA's and are slowly building a B2L portfolio. I guess if we spent the rent we'd feel better off.


I know plenty of people like me that feel they just about make ends meet but I realise this could sound crass.




We even got a wood burner as our oil heating bills were high.




Lots of very wealthy people we know have basic cars, yet the wannabees one of who is a middle aged guy in rented property have flash cars.




We spend about £650 per month at the supermarket. Expensive items include a nice joint of beef on sunday, and lots of fresh fruit. We do not eat battery eggs etc, animal welfare is more important than our guts and wallets.

[Deleted User]

Oh well Conrad, at least you'll die with a nice rich portfolio

BillJones

captainhindsight wrote: »

Why do ex comp students have such a high opinion of themselves? Is that a joke or do you seriously discriminate against people who went to private school?

All it does is highlight your jealously of the opportunities you never had.

Oh dear, where to start?..

No, I was making the point that I don't discriminate in favour of private school pupils, not that I discriminate against them. I also, rationally, understand that their grades at school should be discounted a little relative to pupils from a state comp, as the same ability child will tend to score a little higher with the very best education.

As to "jealousy", I gained a physics degree and a masters from Oxford, and then a doctorate in High Energy Physics from CERN, and now run a trading desk in an investment bank, so don't quite understand what it is that you think that I should be jealous of.

I've heard of the stereotype of te pompous ex private school pupil, by the way, but this is the first time I've ever come across one actually willing to state that they are upset at a state school pupil having a decent opinion of themselves. I suppose you'd prefer that I doff my cap to you, and am sorry that you are upset that I don't know my place.

After all, your parents paid all that money, it must be terrible that it didn't buy you the superiority that they obviously craved.

Conrad

ringo_24601 wrote: »

Oh well Conrad, at least you'll die with a nice rich portfolio

Mad in a way eh. All this effort for what, 20 years of a retirement income of say £4-5000 pm after tax, is it really worth it? Could be spending more now.


Thing is we wont get the huge inheritances that many folk we know will so we have to make a sacrifice or live fairly poor in retirement.


We want to travel the world and cannot abide less comfort when away than were used to at home. Being mse has it's limits.




I get the feeling those not in the SE would find this all a very odd outlook / model.
Where we are many are money making dynamos always investing, always hussling and you get caught up in it.


I find it to be like this in many parts of the SE.
Part of me would sell up, and buy and run a holiday property in France, keep chickens etc, get off the hamster wheel.

Principia_2

Conrad wrote: »

but we are keen investors.

Are you perhaps choosing to spend your money in the hope of accumulating future funds?

Nothing at all wrong with that but if so then obviously you are choosing what you hope would be future wealth at the expense (or opportunity cost) of buying things today.

If this is the case then you only lacking things because you have decided that's how you want to live your life on the income you have, you choose to spend your money on other things instead of clothes/home entertainment or holidays.

Put another way - it's not that you can't afford new clothes/sky or skiing holidays, it's just that you'd rather spend your money on something else.

This is a marked difference between the person who after paying for necessities may have very little to spare and could say with honesty, I can't afford a skiing holiday.

Conrad

Principia wrote: »

Are you perhaps choosing to spend your money in the hope of accumulating future funds?

Nothing at all wrong with that but if so then obviously you are choosing what you hope would be future wealth at the expense (or opportunity cost) of buying things today.

If this is the case then you only lacking things because you have decided that's how you want to live your life on the income you have, you choose to spend your money on other things instead of clothes/home entertainment or holidays.

Put another way - it's not that you can't afford new clothes/sky or skiing holidays, it's just that you'd rather spend your money on something else.

This is a marked difference between the person who after paying for necessities may have very little to spare and could say with honesty, I can't afford a skiing holiday.

I feel I'm caught in a race and I don't feel great about it as it seems shallow.


For example you find out your good friend with what you thought was a modest job is on £160k pa and his wife on £30k, that he has share option in his employer worth upwards of £500k, no mortgage and both his and her parents are very wealthy so the inheritance will be huge.


Now the press would have you believe this is exceptional but it absolutely is not. This would be a fairly typical scenario in my reasonably well off area.


Then I'll meet the client who you thought was a humble kebab shop owner only to discover he owns the street worth many millions.


Next I'll get a client who you thought was humble barber to find out he got planning permission to build out the back of his shop 15 flats, all let out.


Then I'll go to a seminar where there happens to be a contingent of folk from somewhere you thought was a middling sort of area such as Stanmore and learn they each own a main resi worth £2m not to mention their other property.


Then you go to a party and meet a couple where she is an eye surgeon and he civil engineer and you figure out they must be pulling in £400k minimum.




Next your looking at a potential property investment and find out the seller owns 300 London properties despite only arriving in Britain 25 years ago.


Then a fireman comes into my office wanting mortgage info. Turns out his salary is just an add-on to his significant self employed income. Again just an ordinary guy and his wife makes £60k working in the NHS, so thier true income based on what they take home (not what the tax man calculates) grosses up to £150k.




As I say I'm average at best. Poor ole me, silly sod.

[Deleted User]

Conrad - it's called 'selection bias' - you are seeing a far higher proportion of people with money than other people do