The millionaire binman

N1AK

chewmylegoff wrote: »

I think it quite unlikely that London is full of millionaire street sweepers and bin men riding the property boom. More likely that the people sitting on property boom cash are a bit more middle class professional.

Anecdotal I know but I know someone in their late-50s who has never done 'skilled' work who owns in a property worth most of £1 million which they were able to buy in the 80s.

I doubt it's anything close to the norm, but I expect it's not that uncommon. London property used to be relatively affordable on non-professional wages.

Thrugelmir

Graham_Devon wrote: »

and live the life of a millionaire

A millionaire quid doesn't go that far. Even if the guy invested every £. At say an average 4% interest rate. That's only £40k a year. Many families have a higher household income that that.

Mids_Costcutter

wotsthat wrote: »

Average Joes are just that - average.

And also from North America not the UK! What happened to Joe Bloggs?

Graham_Devon

I don't know if the story is true, I don't know his background. But like others have said, it's well within the realms of possibility. The fact his neighbour was discussing it kind of suggests the man had told his neighbour how he ended up where he is. He could be making it all up, of course.

Interesting though that when we discuss the mansion tax of houses worth £2m, people pour out to say these people are not neccesarily rich, they just bought houses years ago, and therefore the tax shouldn't go ahead. Seems it's very viable then.....

A million might not go that far, but it goes a hell of a lot further than a binmans salary! My point being that he has afforded a lifestyle that his salary could never have bought.... As NIAK points out, the very same person in say Sheffield doing all the same things wouldn't end up in the same scenario.

And no, to the poster who asked, I'm not jealous. I just thought it might be worthy of discussion on here. Theres not much going on on the board afterall!

Be interesting though if it did happen again, and I must admit, I never thought about it happening in say Manchester, I was solely thinking about London. But Manchester is a great example.

I'm just wondering what the catalyst could be. Credit over the last 30 or so years has obviously helped prices up a lot, but I'm not sure how far credit has left to go, considering many are already drowing in it!

Loanranger

Maybe he inherited his parent's house, in London. Maybe he won the lottery. Perhaps he got compo from somewhere or other. There's quite a few scenarios you could think of to account for it, that's if it's not just apocryphal.

captainhindsight_2

There is a lot of money in waste, depending what level this guy was, dealing with waste management can make a lot of money and people can very easily become millionaires in the rubbish business.

armour

My uncle was a security guard at the BBC in the 50s, 60's & 70s. As an irish immigrant he was able to buy a house such as this:

http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/houses/london/godolphin-road/?include_retirement_homes=true&include_shared_ownership=true&include_sold=true&q=Godolphin%20Road%2C%20London%20W12&radius=0.25&results_sort=newest_listings&search_source=facets
So yes, your binman could have lucked in similarly.
To extend the point, how about the Dutch settlers who 'bought' Manhattan island from the native Americans for $24 worth of trade goods? It may not make you a million but it's difficult to lose out 'long term' by investing in property.

neverdespairgirl

armour wrote: »

To extend the point, how about the Dutch settlers who 'bought' Manhattan island from the native Americans for $24 worth of trade goods? It may not make you a million but it's difficult to lose out 'long term' by investing in property.

Apparently there were lots of people who bought nice seaside pads in Dogger, or in Dunwich, who thought exactly that!

Jason74

I don't have much to add to this topic beyond saying that if the story is true, good luck to the bloke . . .although perhaps he's had plenty of that already

Thrugelmir

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Theres not much going on on the board afterall!

Plenty happening elsewhere.