Hands up please

Having wealth doesn't bring happiness or take away loneliness

Of course most of us worked hard for what we have - we certainly did. But times are difficult. We bought our first home before we got married, and we could afford it without too much difficulty. Our daughter and her husband, who live in Buckinghamshire, have good, well paid jobs, but can't afford to buy a property. Instead, they pay what seems to me like an crazy amount to rent. Yes, well educated, with good degrees, but not able to start paying into pensions until recently. In spite of their own 'hard work', I doubt that they'll ever be as well off as we are!

I have won £75 two weeks running on my PBs! But........that still leaves quite a way off the £million of assets! Hey ho - every little helps!

My SIL has a couple of buy-to-let properties and they are his pension fund. It is also a help to the young couples who rent them who could not afford a mortgage. He charges a fair rent and is a good landlord, so in a sense these young couples are able to live in a house they could not afford themselves, and they seem very happy about this.

House prices round here are much lower than in many other areas, so I would guess that few of my friends are sitting on £1million in assets. Though maybe a couple of them who came from London and Home Counties might have benefited from the lower prices here and made a profit on the move.

Iam64 I often went to help people who were in situations that could be resolved if they would behave as other people could see would clearly be in their best interest. But none of us are entirely rational in all our decisions.

I visited many people (not in expensive homes) who had nest eggs set aside for a rainy day, who were, metaphorically, standing outside in a deluge but refusing to touch these nest eggs inc case a greater need came along late .rMany older people in valuable homes are frail and not well and do not have the energy, mental or physical to cope with the whole process of moving, especially if they do not have close family support. Moving could kill them.

It evens out because Inheritance tax has to be paid on the house after they die. People like this do not have Inheritance tax avoidance arrangements.

Not wishing to be unkind but honestly, if you're sitting in a house worth a million is it fair to claim pension credit rather than sell up and buy something smaller, leaving you with cash to supplement your pension.
Houses in the south east may be worth 4 times what their owners paid 20 years ago but that isn't the case is so many other areas. Property prices are either static or decreasing in many areas, with buy to let taking over as few younger couple's are earning enough to get mortgages.
Talk about a divided society.

If you live in the south of England and started on the housing ladder in the 1960s/70s it is not difficult to find you are now living in a house valued at £1 million or more. Our current house is now worth more than 4 times what it was cost when we bought it 20 years ago

Many elderly 'millionnaires' are capital rich and cash poor. There are a lot of them in Oxfordshire, where I live, and in London and other parts of the south east. I have several friends there who bought modest houses in unfashionable areas of London 20 or 30 years ago and are now living in desirable parts of London in houses worth well over £1 million. All without ever moving house.

Many, if not most, elderly millionnaires are accidental millionaires with all their wealth coming from the increase in value of their houses. They have just been fortunate to have bought homes in areas where prices have increased way beyond average. They have not spent their lives living in luxury and privilege , they have held very ordinary jobs and have lived all their lives on modest salaries. I have visited occupiers of very valuable houses to help them complete Pension Credit forms because their pension income was so meagre

NTO, you may be surprised how much my ukuleles cost me (as would MrsP )

Well, no half a million pound houses here, noone has nowt. But we do have a good neighbourhood, caring people. I have a lovely home, big garden, nicely decorated with love in every brick. I wouldn't like a big house, my parents had them and they seemed cold to me, I like smaller, snuggly houses. But each to their own.

I received a letter from the premium bond people with a cheque for £50 this very morning so I am going to take my time deciding. I do not intend rushing into anything
H and I are another couple not blessed by well off parents,quite the opposite, but we (H mostly) worked so hard to get a professional qualification and build a better life for us. We lived within our means always and we have helped our family. Now our D is a single mum we help out financially so that our GC can enjoy something approaching the standard of life they had before. I am not feeling smug here it is something we feel strongly about and as we don't go out now we are happy to do it now when they need it than when we are dead. Off the point really, just an observation that it has been hard worked for.

I always thought that to be a millionaire you needed an INCOME of £1m a year, not just assets worth a million.

I love the idea of Charleygirl's cat paying fees - that must bump up your income a bit, Charleygirl?!!

Also the fact that Pompa includes his ukelele amongst his assets!

Regrettably I am not a millionaire as Lord and Lady NotTooOld spent what should have been my inherited wealth on cigarettes and whisky.

Seriously, it is bl**dy annoying that rags such as the DM don't appear to take into account how hard most of us baby boomers have worked to achieve our current status, whatever it is.

I'm firmly of the belief Nonnie that 'whether you think you can or think you can't - you're right!' In the words of Henry Ford.

maggie and Anya no, I didn't have the loving and stable background either, quite the opposite but somehow DH and I still made it work and got on with the life we had been given. We have done our best to make life better for our children and grandchildren and not gone through life bemoaning how hard it has been for us. Givers not takers.

No-one will want my furniture though, even though I like it.

No, I still can't do the maths

Statistics are strange and can be twisted to suit any agenda.
House prices in the South East are through the roof, and if you add in all your furniture, cars, jewellery, gadgets, and modest nest egg, then I can see it reaching a million or nearly so in a lot of cases. Not a mill in ready cash though is it?

I'm not sharing my £25 win [selfish]

Remember, most more expensive houses will probably be owned jointly. So that would only be twenty five hundred thou each. There's a difference between being a half (shared) millionaire and having it all to yourself.

Yes, let's hear for those 'lucky' pensioners, from humble backgrounds, the first in their family to go to university/have a career/save for their old age
Anya - presumably the same ones who are helping their children, if they have them, through their education and possibly on to the housing ladder if they can and/or with child care to enable them to work.

Although I am awaiting a cheque from the Premium Bonds this month

(£25)

with average house being 200-500k, it doesn't take much to top 1m
Even if your house is worth 500k (and mine isn't) it does take a lot to top 1m!!

I don't know if any of our friends are millionaires - it's so undignified to talk about money

I never had that safety net (a stable loving family) Maggie and anything I achieved was by taking advantage of the opportunities offered to me through the state education system.

I've met people who came through the private and public school school system and have had all the (seeming) advantages, but have failed in every way.

Strange, ain't it?

It's a difficult one. Yes, the harder we work at things the luckier we get - and I've been called lucky many times and thought about this. It's like the person who complains they never win anything, but never enters the competition. But even though I came from a humble background, and was no stranger to the horrors of an earth closet in the back yard, yadda, yadda, I count myself lucky from the start because I was born into a stable family full of love and encouragement and knew that if I took chances and failed I always had that safety net to run back to. Some people just never have that. Most of us do realise this and empathise, but I have met people from well off backgrounds who give themselves far too much credit for their good fortune.

Much of the time we make our own 'luck' anyway. Yes, let's hear for those 'lucky' pensioners, from humble backgrounds, the first in their family to go to university/have a career/save for their old age, and let's stop assuming they have no 'empathy at all for those who have been less fortunate than them' (sic)'

GJ what gives someone 'fortitude'?

I agree with what Petra says about luck although it is also partly down to spotting opportunities and having the courage to take them. If you are not prepared to give up some of the things which make your life easier then you may well not be 'lucky' enough to improve your circumstances for the longer term. If you are not prepared to forgo some of life's treats in the short term you may not have them in the longer term. If having 'things/stuff' is so important you can't wait to save for them and go into debt then in the longer term you may well be worse off.

Those of us who have worked and saved hard for all we have should not be made to feel that we have in some way been luckier than others who could have done the same.

Yes, I get you Nonnie, same here. Get you too Petra ...And yet ...

For all sorts of reasons, we know many pensioners who are multi-millionaires- and have no empathy at all for those who have been less fortunate than them. Yes, partly hard work involved- but also 'luck', fortitude, and so much more.

One relative of ours is always saying how well their son has done (he is indeed a multimillionaire).. and I agree... and yet. Both went to expensive 'Public' schools- and they were given a 4 bed- 2 bath detached house in a posh part of London as a wedding present. Denying it helps hugely to be born with that golden spoon in your mouth is dishonest!

nonnie I know exactly what you mean. Some years ago somebody said to a close friend of ours: A & B are so lucky ( that's us) My friend answered: yes, funny that the harder they work, the luckier they get.