£1m house but “on the breadline”.

BigMac400

Just because I live in a £1m house doesn't mean I'm not on the breadline: Ursula knows she'll get little sympathy - but says trying to match her parents' comfortable lifestyle has left her in penury

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2841450/Just-live-1m-house-doesn-t-mean-m-not-breadline-Ursula-knows-ll-little-sympathy-says-trying-match-parents-comfortable-lifestyle-left-penury.html#ixzz3K9eNrN00
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Does the obsession with owning houses in the UK damage lives? Does it mean we don’t diversify our investments enough or save enough into our pensions? Does it hurt the economy by damaging labour mobility? Damage entrepreneurship by putting people off risk?

I think we all know the answers to these questions (yes, yes, yes, yes)


http://moneyweek.com/merryns-blog/how-our-obsession-with-owning-houses-kills-happiness/

Generali

I have some sympathy. Reducing your lifestyle is a real wrench, I can assure you from person experience, and things which you were brought up to consider necessary (private schooling, bedroom each) it is difficult to consider to be luxuries all of a sudden.

I realise most people will sneer at her, 'Poor little rich girl'. She seems to be under no illusions about her situation however.

michaels

Doesn't look like any of them are starving <meow>

And what is the levitating bar stool all about?!

chucknorris

Serious subject I know, but it did remind me of an old joke from the Mike Yarwood show, doing Prince Charles:


It was only the other day I was asking my wife 'where is the letter opener?' she replied, 'don't you remember, we can only afford him part time now, and today is one of his days orff'.

LydiaJ

Generali wrote: »

I have some sympathy. Reducing your lifestyle is a real wrench, I can assure you from person experience, and things which you were brought up to consider necessary (private schooling, bedroom each) it is difficult to consider to be luxuries all of a sudden.

I realise most people will sneer at her, 'Poor little rich girl'. She seems to be under no illusions about her situation however.

It's natural, but not entirely reasonable, for each of us to judge this woman's priorities against our own life stories, rather than hers.

I find it easy to sympathise with her desire for a spacious house in which each of her 4 kids has a room of their own. I grew up in a house that fit that description, and have managed to provide the same for my kids (although I've only got 2).

I find it easy to sympathise with her regret about private education. I too was privately educated but can't afford that for my kids.

I have no sympathy at all with her insistence on staying in London. Is that really because I think a sports equipment manufacturer and a free lance writer could do what they do just as well a bit further out in the home counties, or is it because I've never lived in London, either now or as a child, and don't have a feel for why Londoners like it so much?

I've also no sympathy with her choice to put her finances at risk by doing up the house to such a high standard so quickly. But then I grew up in a house that, although spacious, was also largely unmodernised and filled with second hand furniture. I feel similarly about the foreign holidays, because when I was a child the only holidays we could afford were staying with friends and family in other parts of the UK. Would I feel the same if I'd grown up in a house that had been done up, and taken foreign holidays for granted? I doubt it.

mystic_trev

There's even a name for us: we're the 'dumpies',

Sorry I don't mean to be rude (but probably am)and could do with losing a few pounds myself, but I do think she could have used a better turn of phrase.;)

vivatifosi

I don't understand why they did it all in one go. Surely, being married to someone who runs their own business, at least one of them understand cash flow. Just not doing one thing, such as not landscaping the garden, would have meant that there would be money for replacing broken shoes. Odd priorities.

Joanthebone

No sympathy whatsoever, they are living beyond their means.


I never had a bedroom to myself until my elder sister left home to get married, I was about 14. Its no big deal, thousands of kids share bedrooms.


Ok rebuilding the extension was probably a bit unexpected, but if they did not have £20k to spare why were they buying a house in that price bracket? Did they have to do the kitchen up quite so lavishly? No, its just greed.

Bantex_2

Choice of educate my children or have a flashy kitchen to show off to my friends?

Tricky one.

Jonbvn

BigMac400 wrote: »

Does the obsession with owning houses in the UK damage lives? Does it mean we don’t diversify our investments enough or save enough into our pensions? Does it hurt the economy by damaging labour mobility? Damage entrepreneurship by putting people off risk?



http://moneyweek.com/merryns-blog/how-our-obsession-with-owning-houses-kills-happiness/

A bit lush coming from Merryn the house owning hypocrite.

sulphate

I don't have any sympathy for her.

I was also privately educated and won't be able to afford the same for my children, but I accept that and we choose to live within our means.
I also will want my children to have their own bedroom, and that's partly why we plan on only having two. If our second pregnancy turns out to be twins/triplets then that won't be possible and obviously we will accept that if that happens. Regardless, having children is a choice, she could have quite easily only had two children, meaning she would only have "needed" a three bedroom house (in her mind).

I don't understand why they have to live in London. It also seems like they spent a fortune renovating their house - £4,500 for a pair of doors? Really?

She made her bed and has to lie in it. Her situation is a result of her choices, nothing more.