Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think getting less than 50% of your pay is crazy?

342 replies

rampe · 08/10/2024 15:51

If someone earns £15,000 a month. They have a student loan. They pay in 10% into their pension.
They take home less than £7,000 a month.

OP posts:
Bs0u416d · 08/10/2024 16:47

MurdoMunro · 08/10/2024 16:41

How do you get to the shops then? Can you hover?

No. I pay road tax separately. Road maintenance isn't paid for through general taxation.

Icanttakethisanymore · 08/10/2024 16:46

Bs0u416d · 08/10/2024 16:37

OP ignore the hate. YANBA. I feel the same. Its depressing and i don't even use any public services.

Of course you do - you rely on the rule of law and the institutions which run government and countless other things which rely on public spending. You might opt out of the services where a private version is available but we ALL rely on publicly provided services.

Eyerollexpert · 08/10/2024 16:44

Go part time 😂

Pandasodium · 08/10/2024 16:44

ClareCottage · 08/10/2024 15:58

I’m going to buck the trend and say I agree. I don’t earn anywhere near that but objectively regardless of how much you earn it is crazy that you would only take home less than half your salary.

I am trying to reduce my hours because am on a tax borderline and the increase in tax just isn’t worth the extra hours I’m working.

Exactly. People moan about high earners but they pay a tonne of tax. DH upped his pension contributions to avoid the £100k cliff edge, I'd have done the same.

BarbaraHoward · 08/10/2024 16:43

If you think that pension contributions are money you're not "getting" then you're not financially literate.

Fam23 · 08/10/2024 16:43

I’d be pretty peeved to see half of my take home earnings in my account to be honest.

RafaistheKingofClay · 08/10/2024 16:42

MurdoMunro · 08/10/2024 16:41

How do you get to the shops then? Can you hover?

Presumably the private fire service the PP might need if her house burns down and the private bin collectors also hover.

SummerFeverVenice · 08/10/2024 16:42

Welcome to the real world.
I will never understand how people can get to adulthood and that level of pay and not realise how much net a certain gross gets you, Especially today with easy to find online calculators. You’re not doing it by hand with a battered Casio,

Icanttakethisanymore · 08/10/2024 16:42

I can imagine this situation basically never occurs given the student loan would have been paid off in the years leading up to earning 15k a month. Graduates don’t typically earn 180k a year. However, if your point is that people earning lots of money pay lots of tax, then obviously it’s true. That’s how a progressive tax system works. The good news is you get opportunity to get used to it as your income increases and your effective tax rate does too.

Eyerollexpert · 08/10/2024 16:41

I just put it through an online calculator

To think getting less than 50% of your pay is crazy?
Storybot · 08/10/2024 16:41

ChocolateLemsip · 08/10/2024 16:04

I've never paid a higher income tax bracket. Not have many others

Me neither! In fact I've only really just started paying it back and I'm 33, mainly due to working part time

noctilucentcloud · 08/10/2024 16:41

Except if you ignore the pension (which is benefiting you) and the student loan (which did benefit you and you'll pay it back quickly) then the take home is just shy of £9000 a month.

MurdoMunro · 08/10/2024 16:41

Bs0u416d · 08/10/2024 16:37

OP ignore the hate. YANBA. I feel the same. Its depressing and i don't even use any public services.

How do you get to the shops then? Can you hover?

ScholesPanda · 08/10/2024 16:40

I don't understand why student loan repayments/childcare/private pension are treated as if the government were taxing you.

Student loan is repaying the cost of your higher education. A private pension is an extra investment for your future on top of the state pension.

Nottodaythankyou123 · 08/10/2024 16:40

WiserOlderElf · 08/10/2024 15:56

Well with a salary £15k a month it isn’t going to take long to pay off your student loan, so that’s a short term issue. Also, very very few graduates are going to start on £15k a month, so I imagine they’d have paid most of it off as they worked up to £15k a month. My DH earns slightly less than that but he paid off his student loan years ago.

When did he go to uni? I went post fees hike, pay off approx £1500 a year and last year they charged me £1600 in interest. The only people who’ll ever pay a post 2012 loan are those earning over £100k!

randomchap · 08/10/2024 16:40

Bs0u416d · 08/10/2024 16:37

OP ignore the hate. YANBA. I feel the same. Its depressing and i don't even use any public services.

None whatsoever? Not even indirectly? What is it you do?

Sesma · 08/10/2024 16:38

OP should havre just said they didn't like paying tax instead of all that blah about student loan and pension

WiserOlderElf · 08/10/2024 16:38

bluescreendot · 08/10/2024 16:24

What's crazy is anyone thinking they're doing anything that is worth 15k a month.

Are you performing life saving surgery on orphaned orangutans ? If not jog on...

And actually, people are usually paid large salaries based on the amount of money they make for the business. The alternative is that they are paid less and the business owners/fat cats at the top keep even more of the money. I’m not sure that’s preferable.

midgetastic · 08/10/2024 16:38

Dweetfidilove · 08/10/2024 16:34

That ought to sting.

Can you pay more into your pension?

It then she would see even less of her money to spend now ?

Bs0u416d · 08/10/2024 16:37

OP ignore the hate. YANBA. I feel the same. Its depressing and i don't even use any public services.

Peaceandquietandacuppa · 08/10/2024 16:35

I think £7k per month is a ridiculously high amount to live on, so yes, in that case I think paying a high level of tax and benefiting society is good. Student loan will be paid off very quickly at that salary too.

TheFormidableMrsC · 08/10/2024 16:35

Halfemptyhalfling · 08/10/2024 15:54

I think OP maybe meant per year?? But no student loan until £27000 pa so perhaps not

Edited

If actually says "per month".

RadioBamboo · 08/10/2024 16:34

Ignore the whingers who seem to be wilfully missing the point.

I can understand complaining about money being lifted from your wages for tax or to pay for stuff that has nothing to do with you. But you're complaining about money going out which is your own expenditure. Repaying the loan is money that you spent in the past, and pension contributions are money for you to spend in the future. You should at least take responsibility for your own expenditure.

arethereanyleftatall · 08/10/2024 16:34

You're looking at it the wrong way round op.

You don't get taxed too much.

You get paid too much.

Don't think of it as a £15k/month salary because that's a farcical salary given some of the hardest jobs in the world are minimum wage, on £15k a year.

Dweetfidilove · 08/10/2024 16:34

That ought to sting.

Can you pay more into your pension?