Rich or not?

[StevieB]

This poll stems from a conversation I had yesterday with some colleagues, about what constitures being 'rich'. The actual discussion was around child benefit / tax credits and at what level they should stop being paid to families but then evolved into a discussion on what level people would consider someone rich or not (apart from the obvious anyone who earns more than I do!). There was quite a variety of responses and I was curious to see what a wider audience considered to be 'rich'.

To steer clear of politics and the original discussion of when tax credits should be applied or not, I will simply ask - what level of income would you need to consider yourself 'rich'? If it spirals into politics or the original question is too close to the wind then I am happy for the mods to lock the thread!

Steve.

 

[Woodmagnet]

For me as someone who cant work it's £20,000,
we live on under £10,000.

 

[BradNaylor]

It's all relative to one's outgoings.

Someone unfortunate and/or daft enough to have bought their first house on a 125% mortgage last year will probably have to find well over £1200 per month just to make the repayments. That equates to a gross pay of £20k just to pay the mortgage.

Someone who bought their house 20 years ago however, may have no mortgage at all. They may very well feel quite wealthy on £20k.


Ultimately though, I don't think anyone on less than £150k a year can be thought of as rich.

'Well off' might start at around £50k if the house is paid for and the kids have left home!

 

[bugbear]

apart from the obvious anyone who earns more than I do!

Actually that's quite a good definition.

Really.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/ja ... inancenews

BugBear

 

[Cowboy _Builder]

For me as someone who cant work it's £20,000,
we live on under £10,000.

How can you do that ? ....That's around £192 a week ,we live a frugal life in Spain and only return to UK to work ,the way things are going up in the UK i don't know how you manage ....I'm not knocking you ,I admire the way you survive.
Our main yearly outgoings are .
Gas 220€....£171.
Electric 400€...£312.
Water 200€....£156.
Council Tax 420€...£328.
Basura (rubbish collection) is extra 120€ a year £93 .. but it is collected everyday and you can put what you like in the bin.
We spend around 6000€...£4687.00 on Food .
Fuel
diesel 99c...£0.78p
Petrol1.10€...£0.85p.
I run a new Transit and the boss has a Seat Ibiza.
Road tax 72€...£56.25p for the van and 40€...£31.25 for the car.
A car ITV ( Spanish mot ) is 35€ ...£27.00 every 2 years and the Van every year .
My van has to be serviced by the main dealer (still under warranty )but i service the car myself .
Allan (Cowboy Builder)
ps ...No morgage or kids ...

 

[maltrout512]

Kevin I take my hat off to you as you said we I assume you have a partner. I as a single person no girlfriend either, find that I struggle and I work. (I sometimes think that if living with someone the bills tend to be halved, but I'm not so sure) There is a saying grass is always greener on the other side. My problem is that I find it hard to cut back, be it socializing (pub) metal detecting (hobby) or spending money for the workshop (work) well sort of in a roundabout way. That's my opinion anyway.

 

[Maia28]

It's an interesting question. All the time I have to work, I could never consider myself rich. Rich, to me, would mean that I had the money to not have to work and could more than cover any expenses I might want to make. If I had to think where the money was to come from then I couldn't possibly be rich. Perhaps a more relevant question is how little does one have to earn to be poor?
Andy

 

[Grinding One]

People are rich if they have their health.....pills can bankrupt you very fast.
People generally spent what they earn
People who have the silver spoon in their mouths worry about losing it...
I`m rich because I have what I need and do not need more...Money is something one uses to get from here to there.So you are wealthy if you do not need more.

 

[PowerTool]

I think Dan has summed it up very well - £50k is what I would class as being "well-off",but not necessarily "rich" - and obviously,it's all relative

Andrew

 

[tnimble]

I have voted for £20,000, becasue that must be very rich in most cases. For some years when I was only a chld we where forced to live on benefits, we managed, where able to pay for my education and books, where able to buy a good computer (when they where still very expensive, it costed about two years of income).

A few years ago my mother had an accident, she was hit by a car. She now has trouble with her back, shoulder, hips and memory loos and had to give up work. She now has to live on no more than £7,500 a year and manages, she can even buy me a tool for my birthday.

How? by not spending money on unnecessary things like tobacco, alcohol and other drugs, an expensive and space pouting car, having fun other then going on holiday in a different country staying in expensive horels, not buying everything that is new, or chaining wardrobe every other week to play popular, etcetera.

People should have food so they don't starve, have fresh water to not dehydrate, have clothes to protect them selfs.

Then when ontop af that you have a roof above your head, which is not leaky, windy or damp, have some furnature, have a light to read a book before bed, have heat in the room you sit in, and have money left to add luxery, then you're rich.

 

[Karl]

Surely this question is impossible to answer. The question of somebody's wealth is surely to do with surplus income, rather than their income pre-outgoings.

A single, childless, mortgage free individual may be considered rich on £20k. But a family like mine with 4 children, 2 cars and a large house to pay for wouldn't be able to make ends meet on the same sum.

Cheers

Karl

 

[mailee]

I agree with the above but it is all relavent on your lifestyle. It becoming more difficult to make ends meet with the economic climate at the moment. Everything seems to continue to rise in price apart from wages. There has to come a point when the outgoings exceed your income and unfortunitely it is not far away. My earings are £12,000 per year and we used to survive on that easily with money to spare. My wife worked and we had plenty of savings for lifes little ups and downs and of course for our little luxuries. Now we are down to one income, mine as my wife is in full time education and it is difficult to survive on this. Now my incomings are just above my outgoings and if it wasn't for my woodwork there would be no little extras. So I consider we are slipping from being 'rich' to becoming poor. Isn't life strange? :roll:

 

[Rich]

Every morning I wake up, I know I am a mega rich multi millionaire, you see there are some folks who don't wake up, however, as a family of 4 and myself and my wife working full time, we get by on average with £32k per annum, but that does not allow us to save, we do not go hungry and are not cold in the winter, oh and 2 very hungry 4 legged friends as well, I don't consider us to be rich but I do consider us to be "well off" as we don't want for anything and if we do we we have to go without in one area to afford what we want as an "extra" to our essential needs, I have purchased some expensive machinery of late, but I have worked much overtime and weekends to achieve the purchases.

Rich.

 

[busy builder]

Me and SWMBO used to earn in excess of £80,000 pa between us. That was before we moved from Redcar (North East) to the Highlands (25m north of Inverness) 4 years ago. We now survive on less than £20k (no mortgage though).
Kids are all over the world (Canada, Germany, Redcar) and we love where we now live, its like going back 30 years compared to our previous life...as they say...money isn't everything.

 

[harryc]

"My earings are £12,000 per year"

Hey Mailee if you can afford earings that expensive you are rich by any bodies reckoning

Harry

 

[Rich]

The word "poor" denotes that you have nothing and worse still have no access or recourse to obtain finance in anyway, in short you are destitute, one may be needy or hard up or even short of a few bob, but in this country with it's welfare system in place, NOBODY should be poor, I hope this does'nt sound grandiose, but that's what the welfare system is for, the only way that you cannot claim is if you "don't exist"/ should'nt be here.

Rich,
sorry to go offtrack here but I just wanted to define "poor" no political slant intended.

 

[Escudo]

The tax credit system is easily manipulated. I could organise my affairs to receive the maximum amount if I so choose.

Don't forget tax credits are not based on savings (capital) but income and not all forms of income count in the calculation.

This is clearly wrong, yet I hear of examples where very wealth families and individuals look to exploit this terrible system and organise their affairs to manipulate matters.

All those wealth ex wifes who receive thousands each month in maintenance payments which as income do not count for tax credit calculations. :shock:

Terrible isn't it.

Tony.

 

[Woodmagnet]

I'm not sure exactly what we get per annum (SWMBO runs the finances),
but i think it's £8,500. This is for just the 2 of us (kids have left home ). We dont pay rent or council tax, we have a 3 bed council
house, and the car is paid for a "w" reg ford ka, very economical.
We don't go out socialising, or have holidays (we stay at s.i.l's house
once every 2 years).We drink only occasionally and do both like a smoke . We only use the car when we shop once a week,
and to pick one of the grandsons up 3 times a week from nursery.
We dont have any credit cards or debt either, or savings. Are we poor, yes we probably are, but we are better off than a lot of others.
The only luxury we have apart from the car is the cable t.v. and internet.
My eldest daughter gave me £10 today to buy a pair of trainers from Asda, because we can't afford it at the moment, they only cost £5.
Any spare money is used for gas and electricity. X-mas is not looking to good at the moment but like i alway's say "something will turn up" :wink:

 

[Raggy]

I used to consider me and the wife well off, both of us working on 20 -25k a year each. Nice house nice cars. Then the wife became ill, no longer able to work therefore no wage so now we are trying to survive on my wage alone which we are only just about managing to do.

So as said by several people being rich is relative to what disposable income you have

 

[StevieB]

A range of responses then! We came to the conclusion that being rich was effectively what we have now minus mortgage payments - ie if we didn't have to pay the mortgage but took home the same pay packet that would make us feel 'rich'. Looks like my poll was a little low, with most people wanting an income over 150k.

Personally I would define 'well off' as not needing to look at the bank balance before making a purchase - be it a book or a holiday, knowing there was enough for anything you wanted. Rich would be defined as having the luxury version of everything AND not having to look at the bank balance ie driving the 45k Merc to work from the 4 bed house in an acre of its own land (no mortgage) and sending the kids to private school without worrying about the cost. Skiing trip in February, foreign hols to somewhere hot and exclusive etc. Knowing a few medics (I work in a hospital) and gauging their lifestyles, that equates to an annual household income of between 100k - 150k per year for a number of years to reach that level.

Thanks for the link bugbear, made interesting reading! Its nice to dream, but I guess there is always a rung further up the ladder we aspire too, often without looking down below to see how many rungs we have climbed.

Steve.