Fairly certain I am going to be shot down and 100% appreciate I am in an incredibly fortunate position however.......
My parents are working class, money was short but I never went hungry. I was taught that education was everything and the value of the opportunities it offered. I passed the 11 plus, went to grammar and was the first in my family to go to university.
Fast forward to now and I have a well paid professional job which I (mostly) enjoy. I am now self employed (to give me the flexibility to be there for my youngish children) and have ended up in a situation where I worked far more hours than I would choose due to not wanting to let clients down. This has resulted in a huge tax bill - despite putting a good amount aside, when you hit 100k you start losing your tax free allowance which effectively puts you on the equivalent to higher than the highest bracket. I think it equates to over 60%.
Ive also had the increase in school fees this month - having started off in state school it was very clear there was a total failure to meet needs (youngest daughter is academically bright but dyslexic - this means she "meets expectation" in state provision so gets no help albeit fails to acheive her potential which apparantly is acceptable to the state education system).
Despite the increase in fees, which we will cover by not taking a family holiday, I have now chosen to reduce my hours to keep my income below £100k. This is at least a £20k loss in income tax to the country (less than 12k take home reduction to me), another £6k loss to the country in VAT plus the loss to the economy of the money I have forgone so am not spending.....
I know this country has the mentality of despising anyone doing better than average but surely anyone with any economic sense can see this is a lose lose scenario......
If I didn't have school age children whose education would be detrimentally disrupted I would move to different country!