James' money (was: James, a paragon of virtue?)

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 123696


 
Phoenixgod2000:
There is no evidence that James is actually rich. Harry might just 
happen to have a lot of money because he had access to accounts 
which haven't done anything except acrue interest. Of course for a 
child who grew up with nothing and his only other vault example 
being that of a poor family, Harry might have false impression of 
exactly how much money he actually has. 
 
 
SSSusan:
Sorry -- not so that there's no evidence James was rich.  We have 
this from JKR in an AOL chat from 2000:
 
J.K. Rowling: Well, I can't go into too much detail, because you're 
going to find out in future books. But James inherited plenty of 
money, so he didn't need a well-paid profession. You'll find out 
more about both Harry's parents later.
 
Tayla:
 
Not to mention that I don't think that Goblins are much into 
the "interest" thing that Muggles may be inclined to.  Even in RL, 
if you put something that is of value into a vault, it doesn't 
accrue interest, it just sits there...and sits there.  Maybe that is 
the American in me and things are different in the UK, but here, you 
can put diamonds into a safety deposit box, but you don't get 
interest on the value of the diamonds.  
 
OTOH, what would the interest rate be on something like the 
Sorcerer's (Philosopher's) Stone?



Alla:

Susan, thanks for typing the quote. I agree that James was rich ( 
another circumstantial evidence to that effect is his invisibility 
cloak). I am not sure though why being "rich" should necessarily say 
something negative about your character. (Susan, I know you did not 
say that, I thought it was implied upthread) I sure hope that if I 
ever become rich, my friends won't think that I changed for 
worse. :o)

By the way, I am pretty sure that both James and Lily worked. The 
quote says " didn't NEED " not "didn't have" well paid profession.

Didn't JKR also said that their jobs will turn out to be important 
for the plot?


About the interest - I don't think we know much one way or another, 
but why not? Maybe Goblins count interest totally different way than 
we muggles do.

JMO,

Alla