High earners - how do you spend your salary?

We have a similar household income.

• pensions - approx £900 a month (pretax; inc 1 public sector pension)

We have around £7k net pay each month combined:

• mortgage and household bills - circa £2000 a month
• car payments - £700 a month (2 cars)
• food and drink - circa £800 a month
• childcare - circa £500 a month
• savings - £1500 a month
• payments toward a couple of pre-booked holidays - £400 a month

The rest goes on eating out, day trips, clothes, beauty treatments, hobbies...

I don't know why anyone would think it's not high earning; we feel very comfortable (and very lucky).

You criticised talking to strangers about how to spend money, I was extending your example.

We have no mortgage. So holidayed a lot when the the DC were younger, top up pensions and ISA's now so can retire at 55.

Why justify yourself to some random peasant on here?

I wouldn’t even bother.

It may not be detailed financial advice, but op is quite clearly trying to get a feel for ways in which people like her are apportioning their earnings to different things. Are other people prioritising pensions or mortgages? What about fun stuff? How much does someone in her salary bracket splurge vs save? It’s not something that is spoken about openly, and we are all curious about how we compare to others.

When I was younger I thought I was doing really well with my savings. And I probably was compared to people around me, but hanging about on the MSE forums told me otherwise - I wasn’t among spenders on there, but people who were allocating proportions of often modest salaries towards savings that were very impressive. I upped my savings game as a result.

Likewise, this forum has opened my eyes to how people are stretching themselves on mortgages. It’s made me wonder if I’m playing it too safe.

So, no, I don’t think it’s all about boasting.

OP in your situation I would definitely save as much as you can. I was chatting to my cousin recently and he and his wife are both City lawyers. They work ridiculously long hours but he told me that they can’t justify a nanny as their other outgoing (mostly mortgage on a London house) are too big. They have no idea how it will work once her maternity leave ends and they have to work around nursery. He’s very much regretting not saving more earlier.

That’s how life is and how society wants it.

You can go to Tesco and have inequality… someone buys value and someone buys premium.

Whist it is a bit boring to me, I don't get why it is "stomach churning". Surely you realise that some people have money? There are always people better or worse or in many ways (not just money). Don't read the threads if it upsets you.

@Useranon1 who said you can't go to a FA? There are also many financial forums online. High earners by their very nature usually interact and/or work with other high earners IRL I'm sure they would be more appropriate to approach around the subject. Don't be so pedantic.

I've enjoyed this thread. Mainly because we have never been particularly high earners but we've still managed to achieve everything we've wanted financially and even better than some of the high earners on this thread.

We've had two or more abroad holidays almost every year plus UK breaks.
Eat out/takeaway weekly.
Own our mortgage free home in great location plus rental.
Have lots of savings and investments.
Lots of disposable income for decent clothes, theatre, good lifestyle.
Nice vehicles including motorcycles.
Have been able to pay into pensions and retire early.
Never had childcare/school fees or big mortgage or debts or lived SE. Never had the stress of a high up job or missed out regards family.

Comparison is not the theif of joy after all.

Lots of people struggle to have children, should threads involving pregnancy/parenting also be banned from AIBU

It's not for you to decide if OP wants their thread moving!

What an utterly tone deaf, pretty stomach churning thread.

Like how?

Can't ask strangers - no going to FAs
Can't talk about it online - no being able to research

You can direct if my way, if your excess cash bothers you 😀

I earn c.£80k which sounds like a lot. But I live in London and can’t afford to buy a flat for instance, so I don’t feel rich even though I’m very aware I’m fortunate.

how are higher earners supposed to learn about money management?

Lol. Is that what's happening here?

Here's me thinking it was a load of rich people swapping notes on how to burn cash.

@MNHQ could you move this into Money Matters or somewhere else more appropriate? Given that a lot of people are struggling to make ends meet I’m not sure we need a thread populated by rich people discussing what they do with their mountains of cash.

@MattoMatto there are ways and means of discussing such subjects and educating yourself on the matter. Is asking strangers how to spend your money because you have more than you know what to do with a usual option?

You couldnt afford 3 children in private school and a mortgage of £3 million on £500k.

The schools outside London would be £50k and £90k inside.

Firstly that would exceed earning multiples ( I have just checked through 3 banks) and secondly the mortgage repayments would be prohibitive

Echos @LabradorsInThePond

I didn’t say the subject was exactly the same, CockSpadget. I mean that some posters want to suppress any discussion of high earnings - not helpful because it feeds into the idea that everyone is on a low wage, it’s impossible to get a good job
and so on. As they say, you can’t be it if you can’t see it.

Also, if it’s always distasteful to talk about it, how are higher earners supposed to learn about money management? Especially as many have parents who have no experience of managing high salaries. Who do they ask? You don’t run to a financial advisor for every query.

Thanks @Citygirly !

Plan on having a full-time nanny when you go back to work op and consider getting out to work locally or in industry. Those sorts of firms are hard to maintain an upward trajectory if you aren't 110% committed and available.

If takehome pay approx £3k his and hers £5k, less pension? Depends on mortgage and other commitments - nursery fees. In London? sounds, like a huge amount but may not be that much left I guess?

Ooh, this was us at 27. It was an absolutely brilliant time in our life together. At that time we spent our money on:

Savings ( and I’m so goad we did, a little careful investing has served us well)
A flat in London and a country bolthole
Going out to restaurants, theatre, parties with friends in the same boat
Amazing holidays we will remember forever
Art and other lovely stuff

Enjoy it OP, you will look back and appreciate what a golden time this is. Make the most of it!

We are now in our forties. Life is still good, and DH is now a senior partner ( so immensely ancient and boring, a a no quite a bit richer). What we spend our money on now is completely irrelevant to your life, unless you are in the market for weekly psychology sessions for an anxious 13 year old, specialist cycling lessons for a dyspraxic ten year old and a profligate plant buying habit (DH)? Apart from that, we spend it on normal stuff; housing ( U.K. and France), school fees, private medical care, kids activities, really good food and wine, dogs, doing nice things with friends and family and visiting amazing places.

Enjoy being 27 and well off. You are very, very fortunate.

£45k pa on school fees and music lessons coming out of after tax income sucks up spare cash quite effectively.

OP - DH and I both used to work for magic circle law firms and had so much spare money we didn’t know what to do with it. Having children in private education and taking on a massive mortgage quickly put paid to that!