British Expats - Financial poll(s) results

ok... time for the completely unscientific, unacademic reading of our completely unscientific, unacademic recent polls!

The current circumstances poll got 54 votes and the expectations poll got 49... of course there is no telling if the 49 people on the expectations poll also voted on the current circumstances poll or vice versa, but having a quick look anyway....

There were 7 categories on each poll, ranging from being skint and owing money to being financially better off than in the uk (and lets ignore the fact that you could still be skint here, but not as skint as you were in the uk!) ...

if we split these basically into 4 categories (from skint and owing money to managing to save for the basics like medical and dental) meaning you would like your financial circumstances to be more comfortable to the other 3 categories (from saving regularly for the basics and for holidays etc to being financially better off than in the uk) meaning you are comfortable now, then we could interpret the results like this:

Current circumstances poll
56% of respondents would like their financial circumstances to be more comfortable
44% of respondents are financially comfortable

so roughly a 50/50 split... we could suggest that if you asked any self-selecting group of people in the uk to describe their financial circumstances you would get a similar result..

Expectations poll
18% of respondents thought they would like their financial circumstances to be more comfortable
82% of respondents thought they would be financially comfortable

hmm.... we could argue then perhaps that a lot of threads and discussions about 'wanting financial circumstances to be more comfortable' (as interpreted by me, in this poll!) arise because of the difference between the expectation and the reality ... now who would have thought that?!?!:rofl:

personally (and in my personal experience), i don't think it matters how many times you do your sums (though you really must do them!) and how organised you are with back-up plans, fail-safes and emergency funds, unless you really are rolling in it, something will still cock your finances up at some point... (though that may of course just be us!)

now, does anyone fancy funding me to work from home for the next few years doing further research?!?!?! ;) (reckon $500000 pa would come up with some reasonable results...:fingerscrossed:)

<steps back and waits for everyone to rip apart the unscientific, unacademic polls and biased reading of the results>