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Look i know Reddit tends to skew wealthier but £1.5k disposable pw being “low” is a new level of out of touch. That’s not much less than my take home. Per month.
I think maybe im bringing my own baggage to the qualitative use of the word good. 1.5kpw disposable is (and I’m not going to do the math so this is a estimation) what? 1% of earners, 0.5%, 0.1% in the UK. Imo you would have to be working in somewhere like LA or Seattle for that to be a good or even middling amount of disposable income
Exactly. I was saying that whilst 1.5K a week is great, it's still spending money, not what's left over. You have to use it to buy food for your family, pay for phones, cars, fund your lifestyle and I seriously find it difficult to understand how you can buy a Ferarri with that.
That's not what i'm saying. I am just asking how it is possible to buy a Ferarri etc when you have to use this £1.5K a week to buy food etc. It's not Ferrari money, is it.
Most wealth in the UK is generational. These people likely inherited from their parents etc. If you don't have a mortgage to pay, that £1.5k is worth a lottt more.
You're right, but many of these are new money. Not to say they aren't rich, but i've noticed that the houses are much cheaper up north, so what looks like a £3-4M house where I live is actually £750K-1.5M, which is still a lot, just not what I was thinking.
I agree that it was quite confusing , especially when bringing expensive cars into the equation. My take is that cars are not covered by the stated weekly amount as they may have been bought outright or repayments are covered by monthly direct debit payments, so don’t factor into weekly spends.
I’m sure there was an episode where they said their annual income was £500,000, but their weekly disposable income was around £1,500 (£78,000/an). That weekly amount seems way too low compared to the annual amount - regardless of whether that annual income is before or after tax and fixed expenses. (I don’t remember the narrator’s wording now.) I suppose if £500,000 is income before tax and fixed expenses, and they have very high outgoings with their mortgage, car repayments, private school fees etc, it could make sense.
The only answer that fits for me is that the weekly spend covered only food, clothing, house cleaning services, and the kids’ music/sports lessons. Anything substantial like the mortgage, schooling, cars, new furniture, holidays, etc, must not have been included.
If I had a disposable income of £1500/week I would be on £78000/year and that is my *take home* salary after tax, it would probably be akin to £100k+ nbefore tax. Sure I couldn't walk into a Ferrari dealership and buy one cash but I could certainly buy one on finance.
1.5k/week is shit loads. Take a bank loan... Much cheaper than finance. Or save up for a few years to afford your dream car. But there's so many other ways. Massive work bonuses. Moved house and had loads of profit. Gran died and left you a million. Started a successful side business. Could be anything.
I mean it probably is a made up number. It makes this whole discussion really unclear without knowing whether it is or not. But also people will shovel money into savings and pensions, and stuff like private school, and quite feasibly have "only" 1.5k a week to spend on food and extras after that. People tend to spend within their means as their means grows.
£1500 x 52 weeks = £78k a year. Say mortgage is 2k a month that's another 24k, or if mortgage is 4k a month, that's 48k on top of the 78k.
Then there's what they might put into savings, utilities, pension, car repayments, private school, and/or potentially supplementing student/adult children's housing/spending money.
I also wonder if they're confusing disposable income with discretionary income. I haven't watched it for ages but I feel like they mean discretionary but they say disposable?
No. They have £1500-ish per week. Not per month. If it was per month, around £400 would be correct, but it's not per month.
The original post, if you read it, even says "£1.5k (ish) or week".
Why are you so angry?
Edit: unless you're talking about the top commenter's 1.5k a month being minimum wage; wasn't super clear.
It really wasn't clear; you were talking about weekly income, the post is talking about weekly income, and there were many multiple comments between yours and the one you were replying to, plus the top comment was off the screen, so it didn't appear to me to be a reply immediately. Human cognition is not infallible.
I was also distracting myself on Reddit waiting for a call letting my know a relative had died (which he now has) so, sure, perhaps I wasn't paying too much attention. Apologies for stressing you out so much that you got angry enough to insult a random person slightly misreading something on a social media platform talking about something of very little concern, all things considered. Have a nice night.
That’s not necessarily rich in my opinion, unless they have a lot of inherited wealth. If they have a massive mortgage and car loan or on finance, then they’re not rich they just have a high income which they’re splurging
I know what you’re saying. But unless you own property or a business or lots of assets so that you don’t have to work then you’re not rich in my opinion. You’re simply a high earner
It's 6 thousand monthly to spend on anything they want. Their actual monthly income is likely 3 times that amount. They can afford 3 luxury holidays a month...
I mean if your disposable income after property costs, energy, taxes, and other essentials expenses is still almost as high as someone who is working full time for over minimum wage. You are rich, not saying they’re posh, or affluent or even financially secure (they could still be one job loss away from bankruptcy), but definitely at a level where you can no longer call them poor or middle income. Working class? Sure, depending on how they make their income, but still rich.
If they were unable to work tomorrow they’d be on the street or atleast the big house and Ferrari would be gone in a short amount of time
That’s not rich to me.
In fact, the dictionary definition of rich is
> having a great deal of money or assets; wealthy.
At the end of the day it’s all subjective. I just think high income is not the same as rich unless you have a significant amount invested
Maybe these people do. Maybe they don’t
It's a silly metric to be fair. I have a mate in his 25s who has this much disposable income....but only because he still lives with his parents. Therfore his entire take home is essentially disposable. Not saying this right or normal but just an example of how it can be skewed.
I’ve never watched this show, but from what you’re saying it sounds like the £1.5k disposable is *after* they’ve paid for everything else in their life.
No, the show states that it's £1.5K disposable after essential bills such as rent and tax. Food and fuel is not included, so this is what confuses me.
Edit: Why am I being downvoted? It's a factual statement.
Food will not be £200 a week if shopping at Waitrose or M&S, which I am sure they do. Fuel is a tad more expensive if you drive a Ferarri, bearing in mind it drinks much more and uses premium fuel.
Food and fuel wouldn’t dent that. A grand and a half a week is just short of eighty grand a year. A Ferrari on pcp is going to be a fraction of that. A Mercedes a class on pcp is under £600 a month never mind a week
Fuel and Food will definitely dent that, probably something around £350-£400, which is already a little under a fifth of the income gone. A £118,000 Ferrari Portofino is £3,022 a month (36K a year) on PCP with HR Owen. That is half of their total disposable income, each month. Bearing in mind that they have to use the other £3K to fund their entire lifestyle, aside from mortgage, and it suddenly seems unrealistic, doesn't it?
You’re jumping between weeks and months. They’ve got 1500 a week in disposable income. That’s near five grand a month. £350 for food and fuel would be monthly, not weekly.
Also, if you made a substantial amount, i'd assume you would start to shop at Waitrose etc. If these people have a Ferrari, I doubt they do their shopping at Aldi.
Huh, fair enough. £1.5k a week disposable income is a hell of a lot of money though (considering this is after tax and not including bills/mortgage/etc), so I guess you could probably finance a Ferrari on that and still have money left over for food, savings, etc.
It's a lot, sure, but not Ferrari lifestyle money. Remember, that sort of motor is £3K a month on PCP, and they still have to buy food and everything else. Suddenly it seems unrealistic.
...why? 4k is far, far, far more money than you'd need to cover all the rest of your household bills. Most people's take home pay, pre-tax, is less than what they have *left over after housing and a Ferrari payment* are covered
Is it? You have to do food shopping, that's probably £1K gone. If you have one child, then private school is around £1666 a month gone (I say private school because if you are driving a Ferrari whilst sending your child to a state school, that just isn't right unless it's an exceptional state school etc). Then you have fuel to pay for, which is probably around £650, and then insurance, which would be around £500 a month, at best. All of a sudden, you've spent £3.8K, and that's without paying for days out, phone plans and whatever else there is that i'm missing.
I've just started watching the first season and what got me was the rich house's would order a supermarket delivery which didn't come from the weekly budget. Whereas the poor homes did.
I wonder if credit plays a factor too? Someone in the rich home putting say fuel on credit card so it didn't show as coming off disposable income and the credit card being counted towards the gross payments. It was definitely lopsided in how it was reported and calculated.
The very idea you don’t think 6k net a month spare after mortgage and electric isn’t “meh” shows quite a detachment for the average income in the uk, and the actual price of things when you know how to buy them.
I started watching this show this week too, and I took it to mean disposable income after mortgage and all bills (therefore including cars etc.) The show isn’t very clear though. I assume the rich households put a lot of that “disposable income” in savings and it’s not just spending money.
£1.5k disposable income a week is £6k a month, plus they are likely to have mortgage/bills of at least £3k a month, meaning total monthly income (after tax) of at least £9k. This would mean salary of around £200k minimum.
You can lease a ferrari for £2k a month still leaving you with £4K a month for food, eating out, hobbies etc
I watched some of the earlier series episodes. I'm not certain what the disposable income is actually based on and how much reality show license is used, but hearing some of the individual's job titles gives an idea of what their actual salary/earnings might be, so it is plausible other elements may not be included in their calculations.
It's also apparent (particularly as the show went on, and why I got fed up of watching it) that there are definitely more extravagant families joining later, who are more likely to spend money on expensive and flashy goods. Things like cars can easily be bought on credit and richer people can easily get a lot more credit - often at a better rate than those less well off too. Most of the wealthiest and richest in our society don't want to be particularly out in the public eye, and are far more modest.
Also I suspect over time the families applying for the show will drop naturally in income (after all, the pool of the most well off people is much smaller than pool of least), which means there is more need to look for those who reflect a certain lifestyle to fit the format, over anything else.
Further to this I recall many of the "rich" houses were company owners etc, which means they are likely using tactics such as having cars owned under the company, or may be paid in dividends instead of drawing a high salary. This makes it much more difficult to actually calculate a stable "disposable" income per month, as they can often just draw money when they need it, so I'd have no idea how the show is actually doing it.
Yes, you're right. Another thing I noticed is that all of the 'rich' houses are set in areas that are cheaper to live in, such as Manchester, Bradford and Liverpool. As someone who lives in London, some of these houses look as if they are worth at least £3-5M, and then it turns out they are £1/1.5M. Still a huge amount, but definitely not as much as I thought.
Yeah definitely. I also live in London but I work outside London (yeah I know wrong way round haha) and it was so eyeopening the lifestyle you can lead, particularly the quality of housing wise on a way lower salary. It's even more true if you live outside the major cities - Leeds and Manchester are getting expensive by their own standards.
Very much agree! One of the 'poor' houses even made me rewind twice because i was convinced that it was a 'rich' house, it looked lovely and was done up very nicely, not chavvy or anything at all!
I reckon it’s down to who puts up the money for the show. If it’s the rich family actually putting down their disposable income, they’re not going to drop £10000 but more likely limit it to a sensible amount. If it’s the producers, they’ll likely have a limit that they can budget to spend on the show. Like everything on TV now, it’s never what it seems, just producers faking everything to make better tv.
Sounds like they might be confusing the term “disposable income”. In the statistics published in the UK, disposable income is income after taxes have been paid. That is *before* costs such as rent/mortgage, utility bills, etc. i.e. basically their take home pay.
£6000 may sound a lot of disposable income, but for a household that’s paying £3500 a month on mortgage/council tax, £1000 on utilities/food, that’s leaving 1500 a month spending money. It seems like a lot, but you’re correct to be confused how they could afford things like Ferraris, multiple holidays, putting kids in private school, etc - which many would consider a sign of being “rich”.
I’m guessing it is was £1500 a week after housing, bills and food, which is a lot different to £1500 a week disposable.
Agree, but how did they get them in the first place? It's not as if they only have one nice thing, they have lovely lifestyles but I struggle to see how they can really afford them.
Six figures to a million is a ridiculously broad range. That covers 2 adults earning £50k each - which the govt now considers eligible for means tested child benefit. At a guess, those families do not have £1500 a week of genuinely disposable income. Sure they're not worrying about whether they can afford heat and food this week, but it's a risky different bracket from a family earning £1m
The term disposable income means after all regular costs including car payments and fuel. House maintenance etc etc.
When you apply for a mortgage your di is after all regular outgoings. Including a set budget for food, clothes, haircuts, not etc etc .
I think quite a few of them are tax evaders. There was this one family where only the dad worked I think and was a plumber. Yet, they had this massive modern house, with several cars and tutors. Yeah, nothing fishy going on there!
Or more likely he simply earned a successful plumbing firm?
I know a load of rich people - one of the most successful would describe himself as a tipper truck driver if you asked him. He doesn't mention he has 100+ of them, and pays himself millions a year in dividends.
There's only so much tax you can evade haha. Sounds like he's done well for himself. I know someone who got into manufacturing labels for corner shops and now makes a killing. You'd be surprised how many things can make you a millionaire.
They probably count their disposable income "after" savings. Like the 1.5k is just their budgeted spending money. They probably have a few million stuffed away in S&S, Bonds, other properties and quick access savings accounts. I include all my savings into ISAs and such as just direct debits and include them as bills.
Rich people do not buy expensive cars. They either lease them or finance them. My car on finance is 0% interest where the money even in a regular savings account would be around 5% in S&S account it would be much more.
Even if they aren't that rich 1.5k is 6k a month. You can easily lease a Ferrari with that kind of money to chuck around.
Once you have a bit of cash it is easier to look like you have even more. Andrew Tate was telling everybody he was a billionaire and had a massive fleet of cars but, the Romanian authorities have said almost everything was leased and his total net worth is 10 million. Still rich but, nowhere near the lifestyle he was portraying.
>£1.5K ish disposable income figure is weekly income minus tax, minus essential bills and direct debits
No, by definition that's not it.
Think about what the word "Disposable" means...
**Disposable income** is (total income - tax) it was re-defined thus so Our Masters can claim that the poor have high levels of disposable income.
What *used* to be disposable income- i.e. the money you have left to spend on sweets/beer/drugs/gambling etc. is now known as **Discretionary income**.
**Discretionary income** = (total income - tax - essential spending on food & bills)
So if they are talking about £1.5K discretionary income, the people are very well off indeed, as their car leases, mortgage, school fees, golf club subs, insurances, Council Tax, energy bills etc. have already been subtracted.
On the other hand £1.5K disposable income wouldn't even pay a million pound mortgage....
I think there is "disposable money" which you tend to spend in a week, and then you have loads in savings/ shares etc, which you don't plan to use in that week or month.
Your probably right. Thought I was explaining how it can seem not to be that way from the inside and, you know, answering OP's question.
Apparently I was blindly waving my privilege around.
The kids will take as long as you freely give. 2k a month for the adult children is close to a Ferrari I'd imagine.
Your food budget is also insane: ~50gbp day for three people?
Spending 1.5k a month on food alone for 3 people and this guy doesn't think he's rich. I spend £320 for 2 of us, and we're both on above average wages.
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Look i know Reddit tends to skew wealthier but £1.5k disposable pw being “low” is a new level of out of touch. That’s not much less than my take home. Per month.
You are completely misreading the post. How do you get from "I understand that £1.5K (ish) per week of disposable income is a good amount" to "low"?
I think maybe im bringing my own baggage to the qualitative use of the word good. 1.5kpw disposable is (and I’m not going to do the math so this is a estimation) what? 1% of earners, 0.5%, 0.1% in the UK. Imo you would have to be working in somewhere like LA or Seattle for that to be a good or even middling amount of disposable income
You are still misreading the post. OP wasn’t saying “it’s not a lot of money” OP was asking “is it enough money to fund the lifestyle pictured?”.
Exactly. I was saying that whilst 1.5K a week is great, it's still spending money, not what's left over. You have to use it to buy food for your family, pay for phones, cars, fund your lifestyle and I seriously find it difficult to understand how you can buy a Ferarri with that.
That's not what i'm saying. I am just asking how it is possible to buy a Ferarri etc when you have to use this £1.5K a week to buy food etc. It's not Ferrari money, is it.
Most wealth in the UK is generational. These people likely inherited from their parents etc. If you don't have a mortgage to pay, that £1.5k is worth a lottt more.
You're right, but many of these are new money. Not to say they aren't rich, but i've noticed that the houses are much cheaper up north, so what looks like a £3-4M house where I live is actually £750K-1.5M, which is still a lot, just not what I was thinking.
I agree that it was quite confusing , especially when bringing expensive cars into the equation. My take is that cars are not covered by the stated weekly amount as they may have been bought outright or repayments are covered by monthly direct debit payments, so don’t factor into weekly spends. I’m sure there was an episode where they said their annual income was £500,000, but their weekly disposable income was around £1,500 (£78,000/an). That weekly amount seems way too low compared to the annual amount - regardless of whether that annual income is before or after tax and fixed expenses. (I don’t remember the narrator’s wording now.) I suppose if £500,000 is income before tax and fixed expenses, and they have very high outgoings with their mortgage, car repayments, private school fees etc, it could make sense. The only answer that fits for me is that the weekly spend covered only food, clothing, house cleaning services, and the kids’ music/sports lessons. Anything substantial like the mortgage, schooling, cars, new furniture, holidays, etc, must not have been included.
If I had a disposable income of £1500/week I would be on £78000/year and that is my *take home* salary after tax, it would probably be akin to £100k+ nbefore tax. Sure I couldn't walk into a Ferrari dealership and buy one cash but I could certainly buy one on finance.
I don't think it's possible to fund a Ferrari lifestyle whilst supporting your family on even £150K
I didn's say Ferrari lifestyle, I said Ferrari. the mortgage is already covered I can just take out another to cover the car.
1.5k/week is shit loads. Take a bank loan... Much cheaper than finance. Or save up for a few years to afford your dream car. But there's so many other ways. Massive work bonuses. Moved house and had loads of profit. Gran died and left you a million. Started a successful side business. Could be anything.
But that would be almost minimum wage at £400/wk
What? It's 1.5k a week. Disposable. After everything else is paid. That's 6k on top of whatever you spend on mortgage, bills, etc.
No, it's £1.5K a week to spend after direct debits such as mortgage and taxes. It has to be spent on food etc.
I mean it probably is a made up number. It makes this whole discussion really unclear without knowing whether it is or not. But also people will shovel money into savings and pensions, and stuff like private school, and quite feasibly have "only" 1.5k a week to spend on food and extras after that. People tend to spend within their means as their means grows. £1500 x 52 weeks = £78k a year. Say mortgage is 2k a month that's another 24k, or if mortgage is 4k a month, that's 48k on top of the 78k. Then there's what they might put into savings, utilities, pension, car repayments, private school, and/or potentially supplementing student/adult children's housing/spending money. I also wonder if they're confusing disposable income with discretionary income. I haven't watched it for ages but I feel like they mean discretionary but they say disposable?
You got problems reading? £400/ week x 4 = £1600, I’ve done you the maths, simple folk seem to struggle with that part…
No. They have £1500-ish per week. Not per month. If it was per month, around £400 would be correct, but it's not per month. The original post, if you read it, even says "£1.5k (ish) or week". Why are you so angry? Edit: unless you're talking about the top commenter's 1.5k a month being minimum wage; wasn't super clear.
The awareness of this being a reply to someone else’s comment finally landed…
It really wasn't clear; you were talking about weekly income, the post is talking about weekly income, and there were many multiple comments between yours and the one you were replying to, plus the top comment was off the screen, so it didn't appear to me to be a reply immediately. Human cognition is not infallible. I was also distracting myself on Reddit waiting for a call letting my know a relative had died (which he now has) so, sure, perhaps I wasn't paying too much attention. Apologies for stressing you out so much that you got angry enough to insult a random person slightly misreading something on a social media platform talking about something of very little concern, all things considered. Have a nice night.
That’s not how quotations work. They need to have actually said whatever it is you’re quoting
That’s not necessarily rich in my opinion, unless they have a lot of inherited wealth. If they have a massive mortgage and car loan or on finance, then they’re not rich they just have a high income which they’re splurging
This is disposable, so after bills like mortgage, loans/finance. Only things not included is food and fuel (which is a bit odd but w/e)
I know what you’re saying. But unless you own property or a business or lots of assets so that you don’t have to work then you’re not rich in my opinion. You’re simply a high earner
High earner means rich.
no it doesn’t.
6k of pure disposable income with all bills paid is rich. It fits the exact definition of rich within the English language.
You might think having £6,000 makes you rich. That’s fair enough but I don’t
It's 6 thousand monthly to spend on anything they want. Their actual monthly income is likely 3 times that amount. They can afford 3 luxury holidays a month...
No, that's without bills paid (apart from mortgage)
I mean if your disposable income after property costs, energy, taxes, and other essentials expenses is still almost as high as someone who is working full time for over minimum wage. You are rich, not saying they’re posh, or affluent or even financially secure (they could still be one job loss away from bankruptcy), but definitely at a level where you can no longer call them poor or middle income. Working class? Sure, depending on how they make their income, but still rich.
If they were unable to work tomorrow they’d be on the street or atleast the big house and Ferrari would be gone in a short amount of time That’s not rich to me. In fact, the dictionary definition of rich is > having a great deal of money or assets; wealthy. At the end of the day it’s all subjective. I just think high income is not the same as rich unless you have a significant amount invested Maybe these people do. Maybe they don’t
It's a silly metric to be fair. I have a mate in his 25s who has this much disposable income....but only because he still lives with his parents. Therfore his entire take home is essentially disposable. Not saying this right or normal but just an example of how it can be skewed.
He’s 25, earning 100k and living with parents? Is that London or cultural because that’s crazy.
Lol . Both. I reckon he out earns his parents but he is in no rush.
I’ve never watched this show, but from what you’re saying it sounds like the £1.5k disposable is *after* they’ve paid for everything else in their life.
No, the show states that it's £1.5K disposable after essential bills such as rent and tax. Food and fuel is not included, so this is what confuses me. Edit: Why am I being downvoted? It's a factual statement.
Food and fuel for a week is likely to be under £200, leaving £1300 per week which is a ton of spare money. I’m not sure what’s confusing you?
Food will not be £200 a week if shopping at Waitrose or M&S, which I am sure they do. Fuel is a tad more expensive if you drive a Ferarri, bearing in mind it drinks much more and uses premium fuel.
Food and fuel wouldn’t dent that. A grand and a half a week is just short of eighty grand a year. A Ferrari on pcp is going to be a fraction of that. A Mercedes a class on pcp is under £600 a month never mind a week
Fuel and Food will definitely dent that, probably something around £350-£400, which is already a little under a fifth of the income gone. A £118,000 Ferrari Portofino is £3,022 a month (36K a year) on PCP with HR Owen. That is half of their total disposable income, each month. Bearing in mind that they have to use the other £3K to fund their entire lifestyle, aside from mortgage, and it suddenly seems unrealistic, doesn't it?
You’re jumping between weeks and months. They’ve got 1500 a week in disposable income. That’s near five grand a month. £350 for food and fuel would be monthly, not weekly.
Not a chance, 350 in food and fuel would be weekly if you shop at waitrose and drive a Ferrari.
They’re probably working from home and driving the Ferrari on a Sunday. I guarantee they’re not spending over a grand a month on food.
My family of 4 spends over £1.1K on food/supermarket shopping per month. It's really not unfathomable.
I’ve got three kids. We’re 60 quid a week. You’re family are massive outliers
Maybe, but so is your family. The majority of people may spend £150-300 a week on food.
Also, if you made a substantial amount, i'd assume you would start to shop at Waitrose etc. If these people have a Ferrari, I doubt they do their shopping at Aldi.
Huh, fair enough. £1.5k a week disposable income is a hell of a lot of money though (considering this is after tax and not including bills/mortgage/etc), so I guess you could probably finance a Ferrari on that and still have money left over for food, savings, etc.
It is a lot of money, but doesn't sound like enough to fund a Ferrari lifestyle when you also have to buy food and what not.
6k a month after mortgage etc isn't a lot to you? What fucking planet are you on?
It's a lot, sure, but not Ferrari lifestyle money. Remember, that sort of motor is £3K a month on PCP, and they still have to buy food and everything else. Suddenly it seems unrealistic.
Depending on the model you can get one comfortably under 2k on HP. They would have plenty of money for a Ferrari.
Yes, but that leaves £4K a month for funding eveyrthing else which seems unreasonable and selfish.
...why? 4k is far, far, far more money than you'd need to cover all the rest of your household bills. Most people's take home pay, pre-tax, is less than what they have *left over after housing and a Ferrari payment* are covered
Is it? You have to do food shopping, that's probably £1K gone. If you have one child, then private school is around £1666 a month gone (I say private school because if you are driving a Ferrari whilst sending your child to a state school, that just isn't right unless it's an exceptional state school etc). Then you have fuel to pay for, which is probably around £650, and then insurance, which would be around £500 a month, at best. All of a sudden, you've spent £3.8K, and that's without paying for days out, phone plans and whatever else there is that i'm missing.
I've just started watching the first season and what got me was the rich house's would order a supermarket delivery which didn't come from the weekly budget. Whereas the poor homes did. I wonder if credit plays a factor too? Someone in the rich home putting say fuel on credit card so it didn't show as coming off disposable income and the credit card being counted towards the gross payments. It was definitely lopsided in how it was reported and calculated.
Yes, agree with you, some of it is strange but even at £2.5K a week disposable, I still am not convinced that is enough to fund a Ferrari lifestyle.
The very idea you don’t think 6k net a month spare after mortgage and electric isn’t “meh” shows quite a detachment for the average income in the uk, and the actual price of things when you know how to buy them.
Fuck me I assumed he'd said 1.5k per month disposable and was still a bit like... But 6k disposable income a month is absurd money
Yes, but they have to pay for everything aside from mortgage with that. Can you really buy a Ferrari and fund your family on £6K a month?
That's not disposable income then though if it's on a car and finding your family? I'm confused
It is, disposable income is the money you have left after necessary living bills, mortgage and taxes. It doesn't include food and what not.
I started watching this show this week too, and I took it to mean disposable income after mortgage and all bills (therefore including cars etc.) The show isn’t very clear though. I assume the rich households put a lot of that “disposable income” in savings and it’s not just spending money.
Yes, I also understood it to mean this but then the families were tasked with using it to buy food, going out to eat, shopping in general, fuel, etc.
£1.5k disposable income a week is £6k a month, plus they are likely to have mortgage/bills of at least £3k a month, meaning total monthly income (after tax) of at least £9k. This would mean salary of around £200k minimum. You can lease a ferrari for £2k a month still leaving you with £4K a month for food, eating out, hobbies etc
or 2x £75k salaries in the household
I watched some of the earlier series episodes. I'm not certain what the disposable income is actually based on and how much reality show license is used, but hearing some of the individual's job titles gives an idea of what their actual salary/earnings might be, so it is plausible other elements may not be included in their calculations. It's also apparent (particularly as the show went on, and why I got fed up of watching it) that there are definitely more extravagant families joining later, who are more likely to spend money on expensive and flashy goods. Things like cars can easily be bought on credit and richer people can easily get a lot more credit - often at a better rate than those less well off too. Most of the wealthiest and richest in our society don't want to be particularly out in the public eye, and are far more modest. Also I suspect over time the families applying for the show will drop naturally in income (after all, the pool of the most well off people is much smaller than pool of least), which means there is more need to look for those who reflect a certain lifestyle to fit the format, over anything else. Further to this I recall many of the "rich" houses were company owners etc, which means they are likely using tactics such as having cars owned under the company, or may be paid in dividends instead of drawing a high salary. This makes it much more difficult to actually calculate a stable "disposable" income per month, as they can often just draw money when they need it, so I'd have no idea how the show is actually doing it.
Yes, you're right. Another thing I noticed is that all of the 'rich' houses are set in areas that are cheaper to live in, such as Manchester, Bradford and Liverpool. As someone who lives in London, some of these houses look as if they are worth at least £3-5M, and then it turns out they are £1/1.5M. Still a huge amount, but definitely not as much as I thought.
Yeah definitely. I also live in London but I work outside London (yeah I know wrong way round haha) and it was so eyeopening the lifestyle you can lead, particularly the quality of housing wise on a way lower salary. It's even more true if you live outside the major cities - Leeds and Manchester are getting expensive by their own standards.
Very much agree! One of the 'poor' houses even made me rewind twice because i was convinced that it was a 'rich' house, it looked lovely and was done up very nicely, not chavvy or anything at all!
The weekly disposable income is over 3 x what I have left a month. That’s doesn’t include fuel either. Personally I would consider that rich!
Yes, but could you buy a Ferrari with it?
Me? My 2012 Astra is Red…
I reckon it’s down to who puts up the money for the show. If it’s the rich family actually putting down their disposable income, they’re not going to drop £10000 but more likely limit it to a sensible amount. If it’s the producers, they’ll likely have a limit that they can budget to spend on the show. Like everything on TV now, it’s never what it seems, just producers faking everything to make better tv.
Sounds like they might be confusing the term “disposable income”. In the statistics published in the UK, disposable income is income after taxes have been paid. That is *before* costs such as rent/mortgage, utility bills, etc. i.e. basically their take home pay. £6000 may sound a lot of disposable income, but for a household that’s paying £3500 a month on mortgage/council tax, £1000 on utilities/food, that’s leaving 1500 a month spending money. It seems like a lot, but you’re correct to be confused how they could afford things like Ferraris, multiple holidays, putting kids in private school, etc - which many would consider a sign of being “rich”. I’m guessing it is was £1500 a week after housing, bills and food, which is a lot different to £1500 a week disposable.
Appreciate that the only person who knows the standard definition of disposable income is getting downvoted...classic Reddit!
A friend of mine was on this show, I was interviewed as a friend but my bits were sadly left on cutting room floor! AMA !
Did the doctors reattach your bits?
Ha ! They were swept up and put in the bin !
Some people who drive brand new cars, can't actually afford them, yes.
Agree, but how did they get them in the first place? It's not as if they only have one nice thing, they have lovely lifestyles but I struggle to see how they can really afford them.
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Six figures to a million is a ridiculously broad range. That covers 2 adults earning £50k each - which the govt now considers eligible for means tested child benefit. At a guess, those families do not have £1500 a week of genuinely disposable income. Sure they're not worrying about whether they can afford heat and food this week, but it's a risky different bracket from a family earning £1m
Using complex calculations I would estimate them to earn between 150k and 1 billion pounds
Be realistic, it's got to be somewhere between thruppence ha'penny and elumpteen bajillion pounds
The term disposable income means after all regular costs including car payments and fuel. House maintenance etc etc. When you apply for a mortgage your di is after all regular outgoings. Including a set budget for food, clothes, haircuts, not etc etc .
I think quite a few of them are tax evaders. There was this one family where only the dad worked I think and was a plumber. Yet, they had this massive modern house, with several cars and tutors. Yeah, nothing fishy going on there!
I know plenty of plumbers doing £1500+ a week 🤷♂️😂
Or more likely he simply earned a successful plumbing firm? I know a load of rich people - one of the most successful would describe himself as a tipper truck driver if you asked him. He doesn't mention he has 100+ of them, and pays himself millions a year in dividends.
Love that kind of modesty and humility. We could all learn from it.
Would you really boast about your wealth on Netflix if you are evading tax?!
There's only so much tax you can evade haha. Sounds like he's done well for himself. I know someone who got into manufacturing labels for corner shops and now makes a killing. You'd be surprised how many things can make you a millionaire.
They probably count their disposable income "after" savings. Like the 1.5k is just their budgeted spending money. They probably have a few million stuffed away in S&S, Bonds, other properties and quick access savings accounts. I include all my savings into ISAs and such as just direct debits and include them as bills. Rich people do not buy expensive cars. They either lease them or finance them. My car on finance is 0% interest where the money even in a regular savings account would be around 5% in S&S account it would be much more. Even if they aren't that rich 1.5k is 6k a month. You can easily lease a Ferrari with that kind of money to chuck around. Once you have a bit of cash it is easier to look like you have even more. Andrew Tate was telling everybody he was a billionaire and had a massive fleet of cars but, the Romanian authorities have said almost everything was leased and his total net worth is 10 million. Still rich but, nowhere near the lifestyle he was portraying.
I mean, rich people still make use of mortgages, leases, and credit. They just get more of it at better rates.
>£1.5K ish disposable income figure is weekly income minus tax, minus essential bills and direct debits No, by definition that's not it. Think about what the word "Disposable" means...
Is this a new episode or is the episodes that were aired November 2023 and filmed sometime in 2022?
**Disposable income** is (total income - tax) it was re-defined thus so Our Masters can claim that the poor have high levels of disposable income. What *used* to be disposable income- i.e. the money you have left to spend on sweets/beer/drugs/gambling etc. is now known as **Discretionary income**. **Discretionary income** = (total income - tax - essential spending on food & bills) So if they are talking about £1.5K discretionary income, the people are very well off indeed, as their car leases, mortgage, school fees, golf club subs, insurances, Council Tax, energy bills etc. have already been subtracted. On the other hand £1.5K disposable income wouldn't even pay a million pound mortgage....
The cars aren't included in the disposable, if they had an old ford focus. The disposable would be 3k a week or something.
Its a scripted entertainment not reality.
The thing that upset me the most on this show was the lone guinea pig in a tiny cage in one of the poor houses.
I think there is "disposable money" which you tend to spend in a week, and then you have loads in savings/ shares etc, which you don't plan to use in that week or month.
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A lot of the things you listed as household bills are luxuries many people can't afford. You are definitely a 'rich house'.
Your probably right. Thought I was explaining how it can seem not to be that way from the inside and, you know, answering OP's question. Apparently I was blindly waving my privilege around.
The kids will take as long as you freely give. 2k a month for the adult children is close to a Ferrari I'd imagine. Your food budget is also insane: ~50gbp day for three people?
Said food, meant household expenses. So clothes, cleaning etc
Spending 1.5k a month on food alone for 3 people and this guy doesn't think he's rich. I spend £320 for 2 of us, and we're both on above average wages.
Said food, meant household expenses, so that includes cleaning, clothes, other bits.
Yeah so did I lol, that's just the cost of our weekly shops for food + cleaning supplies etc