i never got the impressionm that James was rich in the books though i know they were kind taking Sirius in and stuff but still!

there is a lot of money that harry has his hands on!

Well I also think that is was because James was rich and spoiled and his parents were already dead.So James inherited the fortune and the Potters knew voldemort was after Garry so more reason to start saving lol

lol see i totaly disagree with the whole rich thing

well,the potters must have been one of those old pureblooded rich families..and lily and james themselves must have had very very high paying jobs in the ministry probably. they did thrice defy voldy,maybe they were high profile aurors. i like to think that james was MoM,but maybe not..

How can they have hogh paying jobs at like 20 i doubt they worked for the last year of there life as they were in hiding! if they worked at all since they left school!

It's either inheritance on James' side or Lily and James did something awesome and got a huge BONUS. Maybe they captured some DEs and were rewarded with some of the DE's $

when was it ever written that lily and james were 21. i always thought they were a bit older maybe 26/27. however the money has probably come from inheritence from james family

I read somewere that in Book 7 that Jo will tell us how the potters got so rich

James Potter was the only son of a couple of 'older' parents from a pure blood family. He inherited their money, perhaps inheritance tax laws are more lax in the magic community. If so, it is safe to assume that James inherited a small fortune. Similar to Sirius, though the fact that Sirius' family still gave him money after wiping him off their tree baffles me. Go figure.

It is interesting to note that willing someone your estate in the wizarding world seems both simple and immutable, whereas strict laws concerning willing estates and the legal quagmires experienced in the United States that make it almost impossible for someone to make a will that will stand up to legal scrutiny without only the best lawyer all come from great britain's inheritance case law. Seems like Jo is wishing for a simpler world heheh.

i guess wiyth his parents beoing older they would have had some money! but i mean harry is loaded poss they have interest in the magical world! and like 10 years of interests but still

I think it's just inheritance... I mean James must come from a wealthy family or something like that... By the way, how did you know that they were only 21 when they died ?? Wow, the got married pretty young then... hehehehe...

see i dont know if they were after all as i said above they were only 21 so only a couple of years out of school.

Hmmm...well, the first thought that I had was that they were aurors, which I'm guessing is a profession that earns quite a great deal of money. Like, they must be paid a lot because they're battling against evil, which is one of the most important jobs in the wizarding world.

YA, how do you know that they were only 21? ya they were young, but not that young! they would've had to get married right after they got out of Hogwarts, because then Harry would come soon after, and then they die. not much time to do anything... i think they must have been older. where are your sorces? how do you know this?

sorry about all this, but how does the HPL know that? i'm just kinda doubtful that they were that young, they would've had to get married when they were like 19. but still, they were really rich, i think from James's family, i mean, come on!! look at their family tree... http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/im...ackfamtree.jpg
or here: http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/MTarchives/008301.php
James was related to Sirius, and some bulstrodes, longbottoms, and technically a crouch, and Phineus Nigellus(not spelt right i don't think), ooooo,ooo and a flint, and how many of them were rich? so ya, the Potter's were rich because of James's family.

yes but we know when they were at school, when harry was born and how old they were when the died and i think the lexicon got info from JKR

• Jo said that Snape was 35 or '6 in an interview where she was referring to Goblet of Fire (Comic Relief chat), so that would be 1995 in Harry Potter time, which would make him born in 1959 or 1960.
• Then she said in an FAQ that Sirius was "around twenty-two" when he went to Azkaban, which would have been in 1981, and that points more to 1959.

I thought they were aurors, which meant they must have got a bit of dosh. Or like everyone else said; inheiritence. Or, maybe they had a bit of money which increased by interest. Life insurance. lol It really doesn't matter.

that is it we have no idea what there jobs were JO hasnt said

Aurors are sort of the equivalent of wizard police, or at best bounty hunters. Furthermore, they are government employees. Considering Arthur is also a government employee and the Weasley's have a very tight budget, I think we can asume the Ministry of Magic probably pays as much as the real government. As such, aurors probably make around the muggle equivalent of ~$40,000.
There doesn't actually appear to be life insurance in the wizarding world. Otherwise, Harry probably would have recieved it from Sirius.
The money is almost certainly from inheritance. Even if the Potter's had excellent jobs, starting salaries are typically pretty low. The starting salary for a well trained lawyer is only about ~$70K to $90K, compared to their later salaries of ~$120K - $250K. As the Potter's were only out of school for maybe 5 years, they would not have had enough time to save that much money.

Perhaps it was just a good life insurance policy

Fox that is what i have been saying they died aged 21! how many 21 year olds do you know who have that much money