How Wealthy are you?

Albermarle

You've misunderstood the table, the text preceding it says: "excluding physical possessions" means houses are not included.

Property is included - physical possessions means cars, furniture , jewellery etc
Here is a link to the original ONS report
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth/bulletins/wealthingreatbritainwave5/2014to2016

Albermarle

Most people shouldn't count home equity as wealth.

If I have a house worth half a million quid and you have one worth £100K , I am clearly wealthier than you, all other things being equal .
What you are referring to is more about disposable income and there are separate surveys about that I have seen in the past.

steampowered

MaxiRobriguez wrote: »

Most people shouldn't count home equity as wealth.

Do you not see the absurdity of this statement?

MaxiRobriguez

steampowered wrote: »

Do you not see the absurdity of this statement?

Oh yes, completely.

But - as per previously stated - for the vast majority of people the nominal cash value of their property is only used to buy another property of equal measure. They have a nicer house, sure.

Audaxer

adonis10 wrote: »

Surely it can't be that hard; establish a comfortable level of income for the basics (housing, clothing, food, occasional holiday etc.) and then see what is left over and spend x% of it accordingly on whatever floats their boat (expensive hobbies, cars, lavish holidays etc.). If they then live longer than planned they will still have the regular income to deal with the basics but not the excess for the lavish extras.

I just think it must be difficult if you are relying on drawdown from a DC pension in addition to State Pensions, to cover the basics. I wouldn't like to be in my 80s and there is a bear run for a few years, which means things are maybe going to be a bit of a struggle to pay for even the basics. As you do not want the added stress at that age, I would think you would still want a healthy balance of investments, or maybe convert to an annuity in your 80s for peace of mind.

If I was relying on a DC pension, I would want the peace of mind as I got older, even if it meant I left a fair amount of capital behind.

danm

MaxiRobriguez wrote: »

Which makes sense but the opposite direction of freeing up cash from the house gives reason not to include it,

Why? the equity is asset (house value) less the Liabilities (mortgage debt).


if I borrow against the property and then spend it on something which would not reasonably be considered an asset (i.e a holiday) my wealth has gone down.

Stirfry

We sold our long term family home and moved to a smaller property in a cheaper but nicer area. It took 3 months and I do think if you are realistic about the price the property will sell. When people say property is an illiquid asset do they consider investments in a 40% crash which would then become illiquid for 1 to 2 years.
Current house is worth 500K no mortgage and would consider downsizing/moving area if savings investments low in say 10/15 years time.

ian1246

I've just turned 30, wife is 27, turns 28 in January - so still in the age group category which apparently only has £2000 per Adult!

Fortunately, we re doing a bit better than that. Currently we ve got about £80,000 Equity in our house & about £6,500 in Cash (Emergency Savings). No idea on how much my accumulated Emergency Services DB Pension is worth (4.5years done, another 24-29years to go, depending on when I plan on retiring!) & Wife has a small Teaching DB Pension (Worth only a few hundred a year currently) & now a DC Pot of £2700 currently for her current job.

vacheron

How I think of wealth.

You decide to emigrate abroad and start a new life. You sell all your material assets, pay off all your debts take all your remaining cash and investments (including pensions) with you.

How much does this add up to at the time you are sitting on the plane!

ProDave

do 10% really nave a net worth of under £3?

And according to that I might just scrape into the top 10% which I find astonishing, given that I hardly have 2 pennies to rub together at the moment.