To feel poor even though we earn well?

And people massively underestimate wage stagnation & general low wages we have in the U.K.

55k today was 30k in 2000
90k today was 48k in 2000

Loads of jobs haven’t seen wage growth anything like that.

I know we're not poor obviously, but I would expect to live better on what we're on.

Yep. We live in Ireland and earn 100 grand pa between us. So that's 60 grand after tax. 1000 mortgage pm, childcare and high food, petrol and bills means we're not left with a lot every month. No foreign holiday this year. We drive bangers. We have two kids. My friends and neighbours who are earning less or have more kids are completely struggling. We're just managing with a bit of wriggle room. We live in a small Irish town.

You're posts regarding use of the word poor suggest that, even if that's not your intent.

Yeah I am in Surrey and renting a 2bed flat. I earn 63k which feels like a decent salary, but I don’t have any spare to save right now. I’ve got a deposit for a house as I lived in my ex’s house for 3yrs when he went to work overseas so I’m fortunate to have a decent deposit but I don’t want to buy a 2 bed flat. So I’m waiting 2yrs until my youngest goes to Uni then moving back up north. There I will have my own house at least. One household income is hard and it’s impossible to live near London if you’re a low earner or one income. So I get you, I don’t feel poor but I feel trapped and frustrated. I should be nearing the end of a mortgage but I’ve not even started

Literally nothing I've written has said that.

They could have used a hundred other ways to describe how they feel. They would have got sympathy, or nuance, or useful input

What word do you suggest @TheAlchemistElixa

Exactly this. My DH earns a high salary, enough to be in the 40% tax bracket and works in London. We live 1 1/2 hours away but it costs over £1k a month to commute.

Fully appreciate we are not poor by any means but we are not absolutely rolling in it. I work as a TA, I have an auto immune disease so my career choices are slightly limited.

The OP is saying despite earning well she feels poor. Probably because she’s had it drummed into her to do all the ‘right things’ and she will have some financial security in the future. Except she’s done them and is renting & home ownership security looks far away.

It reads like you are.

You do know I've made no attempt to justify it though, right?

100%! Not to mention the extra time spent & potentially extra childcare costs to cover this extra time.

You are in the top 5% earning bracket and yet you feel poor?

5% on PAYE earners I presume.

the answer is wealth gap and generational wealth.

yep, it’s housing largely and you now need help with it in most areas.

We all understand that perfectly well. But it’s still an incredibly silly word to use, because they clearly have no idea what feeling poor actually entails. They could have used a hundred other ways to describe how they feel. They would have got sympathy, or nuance, or useful input. But they’ve got a heated debate happening, which is perhaps what they actually wanted anyway.

I mean, your reply has made OPs use of poor even less justified now.
If poor UK residents aren't that poor when compared to many of those in less well off countries, then what is OP compared to those people in the less well off countries?
There's no justification for OP using the word 'poor' in this situation.

This is true. Inequality in itself presents problems, even when everyone has their basic needs met. Obviously we do not manage to meet everyone's basic needs in the UK.

While that may very well be true and can be understandable, it is absolutely NOT “poor”. Unless the OP was goading us with a clickbait thread (something I’m increasingly starting to suspect) then they chose an incredibly silly word to describe how they feel, and can’t expect any kind of useful response as a result.

Yes. And the fact that people in the UK have such vastly different frames of reference speaks to the huge inequality here.

She's not poor in any commonly accepted form of the word.

Well, now you've opened up something of a Pandora's Box about what constitutes correct. Because there are people who have much less than even those who are hand to mouth in the UK. We have something of a health service and access to clean water, for example. If people who don't tick those boxes could read this, which of course a lot of them couldn't because this is the internet, they might take issue with some of the descriptions given by people who are worse off than OP and have used it to talk about themselves.

'Poor' isn't a term for which there's a set, agreed on, uncontroversial definition. It follows that any argument built on the idea that there's one correct way to use it will fail. People have their own definitions, you and I included, and yes they do indeed become possessive over the terminology.

Tax is the only thing I don’t mind paying it. The way I look it is that my take home pay is my salary, taxes were never my money in the first place. It’s our duty to contribute to the services we all benefit from - education, healthcare, the justice system - and absolutely fair that those who earn more should pay more.

Often in these situations, posters are servicing debts from spending beyond their means in the past. This might not be you, but I see people here a lot outlining their expenses and debt repayment is one of their highest outgoings. It’s can be hard, but living within your income at all points of life is really important so you don’t drag down future finances.

Absolutely agree with you.
Housing is the Central issue - definitely in London. But housing costs have gone up everywhere it seems.
Either housing costs have to go down (which would cause a whole lot of other issues) or salaries need to go up.
Salaries should not be included in inflation figures.
I think we all agree that inflation is bad, but salary increases are good (and needed)

Always one who comes in with the 'heart bleeds' comment. Completely unable to open your mind to the situation of other people. All you see is figures.

You won't like this by my heart also bleeds for high earners claiming they're poor.

Not interested in opening my mind. It's been said a dozen times, having less disposable income than you hoped is not poverty.

As you can see from the multiple replies, it doesn’t make any sense, unless you meant something different and didn’t explain yourself well. No one is claiming to know anything about your circumstances or your family, but the simple fact is that you are earning more overall, and therefore will only be seeing a massive change in affordability of you have also started spending more as well. In which case the affordability factor has nothing to do with the tax, but your increase in outgoings/spending.