premium bonds.

[Taipan]

Had a win email but will see how much when it hits the bank account. Probably £25.

Bank account!

All ours automatically re-invest. It's like a proper savings account.

Not if you're maxed out. It automatically sends it to your registered funding source.

[KungFooBob]

Had a win email but will see how much when it hits the bank account. Probably £25.

Bank account!

All ours automatically re-invest. It's like a proper savings account.

Not if you're maxed out. It automatically sends it to your registered funding source.

I'm still £15k off max, that's a lot of £25

[Count Steer]

Had a win email but will see how much when it hits the bank account. Probably £25.

Bank account!

All ours automatically re-invest. It's like a proper savings account.

Not if you're maxed out. It automatically sends it to your registered funding source.

I'm way off maxed out. I just opted to have wins paid into the bank when I first bought some, rather than into more bonds. If I want more I buy them in chunks but the £25s and £50s are for little treats.

[Mr. Dazzle]

It's like they planned it that way!

Where have you seen 5% BTW? Is that on an instant access account or one where you have to lock it away for X years?

[Count Steer]

It's like they planned it that way!

Where have you seen 5% BTW? Is that on an instant access account or one where you have to lock it away for X years?

Most of the 5% accounts in the UK seem to come with conditions. 3% seems typical on instant access. Interest is taxable. Some ISAs are close to 5%. By comparison, dividend yield on Legal & General is 10% Others like GSK, and Vodafone aren't bad. A mix of savings inc ISAs, Premium Bonds and the more boring income shares isn't a bad option. (Some shares are high income but may be higher risk - Persimmon, Rio Tinto, Antofagasta etc).

Markets will probably drop but if you can buy during the recession and then hold you can hope that it doesn't last for ever.

[weeksy]

I've got a portfolio that's pretty diversified

Now that's when you know you're wealthy... When you call it a Portfolio you have very little in the money world to trouble you

[Mr. Dazzle]

I've been spanked on quite a bit of it recently.

Me too, and not in a good way

Still - lookin' on the bright side, I'm paying into my pension at bargain rates

[Count Steer]

It's like they planned it that way!

Where have you seen 5% BTW? Is that on an instant access account or one where you have to lock it away for X years?

Most of the 5% accounts in the UK seem to come with conditions. 3% seems typical on instant access. Interest is taxable. Some ISAs are close to 5%. By comparison, dividend yield on Legal & General is 10% Others like GSK, and Vodafone aren't bad. A mix of savings inc ISAs, Premium Bonds and the more boring income shares isn't a bad option. (Some shares are high income but may be higher risk - Persimmon, Rio Tinto, Antofagasta etc).

Markets will probably drop but if you can buy during the recession and then hold you can hope that it doesn't last for ever.

There are going to be conditions if you want 5% today. And despite what I said I don't plan to solely rely on high street banking as a pension, it's safe and quite possible, but you need at least a million quid cash to bring in £50k a year - and as you rightly say you'll be taxed on it.

Over the next couple of years I don't know if I'd consider any shares as safe as two years guaranteed fixed 5% interest from a high street bank though.
I've got a portfolio that's pretty diversified and I've been spanked on quite a bit of it recently. Hopefully like you say, just hold on and hope it doesn't last forever.

I haven't seen 5% on ISAs, which ones are close to that?

I thought I'd seen a 5% but the best 2 year fixed seems to be 4.65 and Virgin do a 4 .35. There should be better ones after the interest rate hike and after the predicted future hikes. 5% from the bank is a good, low risk 'base-load' investment. Risk is everything retirement-wise. Even 'safe' places get spanked - one of my pension pots is in a 'lifestyle' fund where the risk is reduced as you approach the point where you plan to retire/move it into SIPP so it's ended up in cash funds and bond funds. Got a statement dated a few days after Kwarteng's fiscal intervention - he/the markets knocked 30% off the value I won't say what that means in £ terms but it made my eyes water a bit. Hopefully the statement was on the rock bottom day...I can't bring myself to look. In comparison, my 'Plucky Little Portfolio' , that I run for (hopefully) pocket money, of income shares dropped 10% and recovered half of that in the last few weeks. So I'm reinvesting the dividends during the drop, normally I'd be spending them.

[weeksy]

How much is wealthy? Serious question btw, how much in the bank would someone need to be considered wealthy?

Depends what you class as 'in the bank'.

You seem the sort of guy who has both money in the bank and money in 'investments', that already IMO makes you way better off than 99% of people i know. But maybe i just know mostly not wealthy people.

But i also think what i'd consider wealthy and what you'd consider wealthy would massively differ.... massively !

[Mr. Dazzle]

Anyone who's in a company pension scheme and has a savings account probably has a portfolio, they just don't call it that.

[weeksy]

But i also think what i'd consider wealthy and what you'd consider wealthy would massively differ.... massively !

That's why I wondered because I bet it wouldn't, we'd probably be fairly close.
I worked with a few nationalities who have no issues talking about money, they earned it and they don't mind discussing it. It's a little odd that we are very coy about it.

Well for me, if someone has a job still and £50,000 in 'cash' they have in the bank they're in my book pretty healthy... Partly because of £50,000 and partly because they're likely to also have a fair pile of slower access money they could get to if they needed. I'd class £100,000 in the bank they can instantly access as wealthy.

I do understand that things can change in minutes.. but by the same account, even if you lost your job and have £100,000 in the bank you've instantly got 12 months to find a new job... Most people i know would need to find a job within weeks, not a year.

[weeksy]

Wealthy for me is never having to work again, that means >£1m, more if you're under 45.

I literally don't know anyone who fills that criteria... Well, if you split it in 2, i don't know anyone who fills either

never having to work
more than £1m.

no-one... but i guess that's not a massive shock as that's not the world i live in. I live in a world where a mortgage of £300k and a savings in £0000s is far far more likely.

[Mr. Dazzle]

I've now worked for two start ups which have sold up and netted the owners alot of money....millions. >£100m in the case of my current place. The owners still work.

The (former) owner of my current place literally has £100m extra now but he still drives to work in an 8 year old Nissan Leaf wearing an M&S suit.

Wealth is a funny old thing.

[weeksy]

I think in general, as a sweeping statement, in my humble opinion, from watching those people, anyone I know with more than a million quid in the bank seems to get back on a downwards trajectory of unhappiness, and the richest people I know are some of the angriest I've ever met, I wonder what it's all about, all the money in the world and they don't seem to be happy very often.

It's something i'd sure struggle to understand as a concept... but i do get where you're coming from.

For me though, heck my life would be incredible if i could just give up work and have the same level of income i have now.... let alone being 'rich'.

Paying off the mortgage would literally be life-changing for me. It's a dream, but will of course eventually become a reality...

If i lived in the world where i could have £1m in the bank though... jeepers, i can't see how i'd be unhappy.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Realistically, what does money get you? Once you've got enough that you don't need to worry where your next meal is coming from the rest is down to you.

What do you want to do with it? If you don't know that, all the wealth in the world won't help you.

There have been loads of studies which show paying people more doesn't motivate them. Paying them enough so that money isn't a worry is all you need...after that, motivation and ultimately happiness come from other places.

[Count Steer]

Realistically, what does money get you? Once you've got enough that you don't need to worry where your next meal is coming from the rest is down to you.

Reminds me of a job interview cartoon I saw recently.

Why do you want this job?

To pay for my hobbies.

Oh. What are they?

Eating hot food and sleeping under a roof.

[Yorick]

To retire, you don't need anything like your previous wage. No mortgage to pay. No need for expensive holidays or cars etc

My mate's still working for a 5* pension at 66.
I settled for a 5* pension at 54.

Make your choice.

[Taipan]

Anyone who's in a company pension scheme and has a savings account probably has a portfolio, they just don't call it that.

I will be from now on!

[weeksy]

To retire, you don't need anything like your previous wage.

That's assuming your mortgage is paid off..

Make your choice.

It's not always a 'choice'.... It's time and circumstances too. I can't magically make the mortgage go away currently

[Yorick]

Like I said, having seen everything I've seen, I reckon the sweet spot is a modest but nice house all paid for, a car of your choice each, your bills all paid and a couple of grand a month in your hand to enjoy life. Any less and you think about money/income too much, any more and you'll still end up thinking about money too much.

That's about right.