High earners - how do you spend your salary?

@RosesAndHellebores I just don't think a £100 bag is a sign of anything, it's quite different from a 3k plus watch. Can you even buy a good quality leather bag on the high street for that these days? my fabric rucksack was about £60

I don’t suppose he’s a data architect by any chance is he ? I could have him a new job by lunchtime.

@SofiaSoFar exactly, hence my virtue signalling comment

Don't ever talk to even your close friends about money. Makes for envy and resentment in this climate. We have a financial advisor and she is the only person who knows what we earn ( except MN!).

The poster who asks why people are saving, there is a massive recession coming. Worse than 2008. Layoffs have begun at DH's workplace and I expect my work to be affected too. High earning jobs also tend to be very volatile.

@workintums absolutely nothing and I have several but at work I blend.

But what response do you expect to the loaf of bread comment?

What can the high earners say? What should they say?

I wouldn’t take a £100 handbag to work or wear a tank.

What's wrong with a £100 handbag?

@burnoutbabe no, it is adding some perspective to the thread. Not being able to buy food is a real problem and we should all try to have empathy for that person.
The reality is, most people don’t think that the question of how to spend excessive disposable income is actually a problem. And clearly a number of people think presenting it as one in the current climate is a bit insensitive.
Having an irreparable argument with your mum is a genuine problem, so I don’t see how the two are comparable.
We all need a perspective adjustment sometimes.

We had paid off our mortgage by 2005. Because I experienced interest rates at 15% in 1990/91 and prior to that regularly 12%. Our home has always been as safeguarded as possible despite high earnings.

Inflation hit 9% on Friday. Interests rates will move relatively swiftly. As they go up, property values go down.

Nobody where I work is aware of DH's job, or of our finances. I dress appropriately for my senior role in a casual environment. I wouldn’t take a £100 handbag to work or wear a tank.

Yep!

So they talk about holidays, trips and outings and you can't work out the likely costs? Or you could simply ask.

When I was your age rent, mortgages, living costs, nursery costs, wedding costs, holiday costs were all pretty hot topics both at work and with friends. Amongst peers so were investments as I work in a high paying sector. This also had the advantage of knowing the likely reality rather than asking randoms on the internet.

My kids are at the same stage and also discuss these things with friends and peers.

You can also pay for financial advice and future planning which has the advantage of being qualified and experienced, also something you won't find in randoms on the internet.

@Katypp

So you think extra qualifications are worth the extra money rather than job role /worth to society?

An ANP (band 7) will have extra qualifications (masters, prescribing). Top of a band 7 isn't 85k. Its around half that.

Google tells me the average for a lawyer is 70k.

More than double the average wage for a nurse

@burnoutbabe have you really just compared a problem where someone has fallen out with their mum, to someone who's problem is having more money than they know what to do with.
Yeah, ok.

It needs to come from school. Many parents do not have the experience themselves to give guidance.

I agree in part but for the majority money goes to money & for most what your parents have will determine your prospects. We already see this with housing, dc with parents who own their own homes & have parents who can help eg live at home to save or a cash gift are more likely to own their own homes.

isn't it similar to anyone posting on a thread where someone has a falling out with their parents for good reasons.

And then someone posts "mine is dead, you are lucky to have a mum"

it is just a bit dickish to post that isn't it? it is not helpful to the OP who has the specific issue.

Weird there’s no reference to those 13 years of debt repayments in the op

Forgot about my lovely designer handbag collection. How could I forget that.

I spend it! I'll be a long time dead and I want to enjoy my life now.

Of course I pay my half of the mortgage and bills. Some goes into my work pension.

The rest I enjoy. I don't have my own DC. So no need to save for anyones future but my own.

Don't know what DH does with his, separate accounts.

@lancsgirl85 if you took a poll of the general population of who was being a bigger dick - the person who told us all they are sad because they can’t afford to buy food, or the person who said that person was a dick for making rich people feel bad, I think we know which way it would go!

@Perplexed0522 a relative of mine was a textile engineer and a high earner. They developed their love of sewing at school…. Because of HE…….

Not so pointless for them was it.

Also, many working class people do not have pensions, are in massive amounts of debt and have no clue about money management or wealth building.

It needs to come from school. Many parents do not have the experience themselves to give guidance.

@lancsgirl85 whatever. We'll agree to differ as long as you have the last word. Go on, be my guest...

yes knowing a lot of soon to be trainee lawyers, they go from broke student to high earning london lawyer very quick.

So not sure when they would suddenly get the investment/saving buzz.

With lots of big employers like lawyers/accounting firms there are often LOADS of non-work chats/events organised. LGBTQ etc and diversity and menopause. So maybe its worth suggesting to HR that one on pensions could be arranged. And then maybe suggest for some of those people an "investments club" for people who want to pick shares etc. bound to be some who are investing in Bitcoin?

a post on facebook to friends to ask if anyone knows about "investing in shares" to find a few like minded people who can form a FB group.

And I find it hypocritical of you to bang on about my "interpretation" when you used the phrase "well meaning virtue signaller" to summarise what was my genuine empathy for another poster.

You're doing a fair bit of dodgy interpretation yourself.

@Katypp

No "interpretation" needed, you literally said:

*The posts from those struggling on threads like this are clearly plopped in to make the poster and others in the same position feel shit. So I would be open to the possibility that they were being a dick, actually.
*
So you are "open to the possibility" that the poster who can't afford bread, is a being a dick by posting here.

🙄

@lancsgirl85 wow indeed. If you choose to interpret it that way I agree, let's leave it there