High earners - how do you spend your salary?

I genuinely don’t mean this as an insult, but why are you all sat around on Mumsnet if you’re loaded?

I come on mumsnet because I’m bored and I guess I don’t have much of a life since having young children. I like to think that if I had plenty of money, I’d be busy living my best life and not sat on a forum where half the users are miserable sods😂

We hire out a fair amount of labor. Cleaning, mowing, weeding, etc. I have some health problems so this isn’t entirely a luxury and we strategically did this even when our budget was tighter.

activities for dc. Being able to provide her with these opportunities brings me great joy. I didn’t have the same options as a child.

saving for university.

Is that you Molly-Mae? 🙄

Tax
Maxing out pension
Savings
Expensive Food
Exercise classes
Taxis

I pay £750 pm into mortgage which gov tops up. I save different amounts each month (self employed) into isa/savings for us as a family. I save a smaller sum pm for the kids. We overpay our mortgage every month.

I mean, I understand people are nosey curious. Sometimes I have these questions too, I wonder if I could spending differently / better. Buuuut, there are lots of forums like MSE and financial boards that would surely be a better place to ask.

And at the end of the day, what does it really matter. You could be at the top of your career, living in central London, sending your kids to private school, jetting off for a weekend in Monaco and be as likely to be struck down with incurable cancer as someone who is left with 34p in their account a week before payday.

At the moment, when we are in the midst of a very real cost of living crisis, I can see why a few posters are less that impressed.

I've found self employed friends less interested in pouring money into pensions and more open to investing elsewhere to grow their money off their own backs. Pensions are created by folks following the activities of entrepreneurship and buying in when you think about it

However saying things like one has that they don't think it should be classed as high earning is just extremely naive or deliberately goady.

We lived overseas, went on a lot of holidays, saved a lot to retire at 52.

If you bother to read the OP, she quite clearly says they donate around 10% of their income to charity. But then, this is Mumsnet, and people often read what they want to read and not what is actually said.

Mortgage & school fees, thats about it apart from usual household bills etc

I totally agree. When I heard how much Brooklyn Beckham's wedding cost I actually went up two whole social classes! I was languishing as manual unskilled before but now I'm a professional!

And yes seems pretty insensitive to me during a widely publicised cost of living crisis.

I have to agree. I'm not living in poverty myself, nor am I high earner - I'm somewhere in the middle. But I still find it a bit "off" given the current economic climate.

We have a take home pay around £100k and don't pay rent or a mortgage.

We don't have kids yet (infertility), but once we do we'll probably try and keep our day to day living costs the same (so live a bit more sensibly).

We live off under half of our take home pay (maybe around £40k), which includes:

• Takeaways multiple times a week, foreign holidays a few times a year (we live abroad and fly back to Europe to see family around 1-2 times a year as well as one trip just for us to somewhere new)


• We pay a portion of DH's father's care home costs


• Used some of our money in recent years for cosmetic work (hair transplant, braces), also a Masters, driving lessons etc.


• Charity payments (10%)


• Paying off my student loans (DH has paid his off)


• We don't own a house yet, so half of what's left goes towards our house budget as cash savings (I know this isn't the best in terms of interest rates etc but we want it to remain easily accessible to us as we may move back to the UK quite soon)


• The remaining half we've invested in Index Funds, ETFs, a bit of Crypto etc - due to our current setup we're treating this as our pension fund (but don't have an actual traditional pension setup as we're abroad). Once we're back in the UK we will contribute as much as we can towards a proper pension fund whilst continuing to invest at least £1k a month into ETFs and Index Funds)

@Fizbosshoes how does reading about how other people spend money change the readers situation

Well, quite. It doesn't. It's just something that people tell themselves to justify their vulgar behaviour..

'Of course it's all right to boast about my wealth! It makes poor people less poor! I'm actually doing something for the good of society!'

Can people please stop bitching about the thread topic? If you are likely to be upset or annoyed by the topic (which is a completely valid discussion BTW) then keep scrolling.

DP and I are not high earners. A million miles from that but we're not on the bare bones of our arses either.

High earners, by the vast majority, get to where they are by working extremely hard at their chosen career. That's not to say lower skilled or manual workers (I hate talking about 'social classes') are not exceptionally hard workers - of course most of them are and they are crucial for society to function as well as it does!

If you're in a situation where a loaf of bread is unaffordable then chances are you've had some extremely bad luck in life but only you can change that. Yes it takes time but there are ways to improve your life and finances that don't involve bitching at others who are in a more privileged position than you/I/we are. I hope things improve for everyone struggling to get food on the table or keep a roof over your family's heads - the situation with the rising cost of living in the UK is at crisis point and many are clinging on by their fingernails through no fault of their own. Attacking high earners who've worked hard to EARN (note - not inherit, steal etc) what they do is not going to change things for people in a less privileged position.

@Woundabout this is Mumsnet. There is a very high possibility if someone is on this site they are going to come across posts that mention children. Not so much possibility of, "I have more money left over at the end of the month than I know what to do with, anyone give me ideas?"

Don't see the point of this thread. And yes seems pretty insensitive to me during a widely publicised cost of living crisis. How does it benefit the op exactly to get lists of spending from well off people? The info listed here is not exactly helpful for financial planning or in any way at all is it? Is the op going to go shit! horses! I forgot to buy a couple of those. What about regular donations to causes or charities etc?

We are no longer high earners due to the recession and will always be grateful that when we did have money, we paid off our mortgage. Our family income was 150k. The only other significant outgoing we had was holidays in far flung destinations.

Why?

My dh is paye and a 45% tax payer
I am self employed and a higher rate tax payer on dividends

For you maybe @CockSpadget but what if someone else is rich but devastated they can’t find a partner or have a child…

@justasking111

True. I get that. Just find it incredibly sad not to be able to even buy a loaf of bread.

I didn't understand that comment either

how does reading about how other people spend money change the readers situation. Tbh I was just nosey but I'm not expecting to find myself any better off from knowing the info!!

In the same way I also dont understand the "how much are you spending on your DH/toddler/teenager for xmas?" If I've got £130 to spend between all 3 of them, knowing someone else is spending £800 doesn't help!!

I've the philosophy there's always folks richer than me and folks poorer. Fretting about it doesn't achieve anything

@Woundabout looking for advice on parenting or relationships is one thing, asking strangers how to spend your sizeable disposable income is another.