To be fed up with all the threads about high earners feeling poor

If high earners feel money is tight they have options. Private school isn’t a basic living cost, nor are cleaners or massive SUV’s.

we have a problem if high earners can’t afford heating or food shopping, but let’s face it, they’re not.

OP this is a stupid post. Scroll on by as MN is for everyone - who are you to say what’s valid and ok? Many on a lower income get top up benefits, often making them equal or better off than someone earning a little bit more. The system is broken. I’m considered a high earner (in itself a joke) but after childcare and mortgage and bill costs, I don’t have anything left to save. I get no CB. I’m not rich and know how to budget but living costs so much. Wind your neck in.

If even high earners are feeling money is tight can we just not admit cost of living is too high?

How do you think those in London not on 6 figure salaries cope?

it’s very rare a salary of any size will stretch to “all the things we’d like”. So most of us cut our cloth accordingly and live within our means.

i lived in London with a mortgage and 2dc. On two nhs salaries. I didn’t feel the need to moan because yes I had to budget and not have some things in order to afford other things, but doesn’t everyone?

Agree- hardest work I’ve done is in min wage customer facing jobs (bar, shop etc)

But they do deserve to have more because they worked hard. It isn't their fault that someone else who also worked hard doesn't have as much money.

I may have got the wrong end of the stick as I don’t actually understand the whole contextualised offers thing- my very limited understanding is it’s allowing for disadvantaged students who may be bright but due to schools, circs etc may not have been able to achieve?

I’m not even sure it was cambs, could have been somewhere else. As someone who agrees that disadvantage should be considered I was trying not to rise.

But that’s what their problem is- people post their problems on mn to discuss their worries with other people, why should someone with more money be insulted, called names, thanked sarcastically for the stealth post etc etc. They need help figuring out what’s worrying them, if that’s that they might need to move out of their house that happens to be a mansion then that’s what they need help with. The I earn only 13000 ama thread is so an example of this, people ready to laugh with the op until she said she had no mortgage and then people turned on her- how dare she have no mortgage, eff her. People get so angry that others have anything they don’t. It’s so sad (and I mean really sad not pathetic)

That’s the problem though, it so often is a race to the bottom on mumsnet. IRL I avoid people that think that way because they’re very negative and draining to be around.

Why is there an assumption that if someone on a high income says they worked hard, they are simultaneously saying people on lower salaries didn’t? The higher earner is simply stating a fact.

I earn six figures. I worked hard at school. I wasn’t particularly bright but tried my best, went to Uni and fell into what turned out to be a lucrative career in IT consulting. None of this means I think someone earning a lower salary didn’t put any effort in at school or work hard. Life outcomes are a mix of luck, ability and circumstance.

And I do moan about my financial situation. Shoot me. I don’t post on MN because people on here lose their minds if anyone earning more than the minimum wage dares to complain but the bottom line is I live in London, have a mortgage and 2 DC. So our 6 figure household income doesn’t stretch to all the things I’d like because our day to day living costs are high. I’m really sorry if the reality of my situation is offensive to you. I don’t know what to say…it is what it is.

It's not a race to the bottom and everyone's circumstances are different. Income is just one small part of the picture. There's always someone worse off, so by that logic nobody can ever complain about anything.

Some people on high and low salaries will work hard and some won’t. But someone saying ‘I work hard’ is not saying that others don’t work hard. That’s just others being overly sensitive and looking for the worst in people.

You could have pointed out that Cambridge does not actually give contextualised offers if this really happened. They consider context when deciding whether to make an offer but they don't have contextualised offers

I agree OP. There have been several threads like that recently and when the OP goes into the detail it turns out they’re skint because they made shit financial choices like buying a house in a posh leafy town or village instead of an average one because they believe their kids couldn’t possibly be safe anywhere else and because they “deserve” that lifestyle because they went to uni. I have no sympathy for them.

We used to have at least 4 holidays a year, couple of city breaks, cleaner and a nanny. We are feeling the pinch and only have 2 long haul and 1 city break now. Have had to reduce the cleaners hours and the nanny doesn't come away on the long hauls anymore we have had to cut back.

How do you know? Not everything is a dig at someone else but some people think it is.

Strange take to say that if a thread doesn’t appeal to you/isn’t relevant to you then feel free to keep scrolling? You’re not forced to engage.

Not every thread that someone makes about their own lives has to centre what you consider to be more important, or framed in a way that appeases your sensibilities.

I heard today that the Chancellor thinks that having a job with a six figure salary isn't enough to live in surrey

Because that’s usually exactly what they mean 🤷‍♀️

I think it’s more about recognising privilege.

i had someone rant at me about contextualised uni offers recently. The absolute scandal that their little darling needed A* for Cambridge while child x from sink estate had an offer for A’s!

not one ounce of consideration that private school from birth meant their child had significant advantages which meant they were much more likely to succeed academically.

same with the “I’m on 300k and have no disposable income” brigade. You aren’t skint, you aren’t in the same situation as someone on a 20k salary, you have just chosen private school and a big house and need to budget better.

I think it is crass and insensitive. I suspect a lot of the time it is because people aren’t living the life they thought their salary would bring especially if you live in London.
The other thing that sometimes people start to blur the lines between essential and discretionary spending. I would have a lot more free cash if I didn’t pay school fees, but that reduction in free cash doesn’t mean I suddenly deserve sympathy - nobody forced me to spend the money - there are free alternatives.

People live in a bubble so they benchmark themselves against their neighbours, friends, work colleagues not against the national average. You can feel poorer than your neighbours whilst being objectively well off.