Poor life planning..

Same here. I’m a self employed consultant and thanks to a high day rate I can make 100k (and in my last tax year, I made more than that) working 3 days a week. They aren’t stupidly long days either. I took 6 weeks off over summer to go travelling. And no, I didn’t work 60+ hour weeks in a perm role before going self employed. I’ve never not finished work at a reasonable hour in my entire career.

I was thinking the same thing.. my DP earns just under 100k and has the best work life balance too. Generally flexible hours as long as work gets done and is at some core meetings. He chooses to do 10-6 weekdays from home and does chores around house in breaks. Drops off and picks up little one. Never works at all outside of those hours. Wish I had the same tbh.. I often feel like I’m in the wrong industry!

I understand your point OP.

We are high earners but we got a mortgage at 2.5x our earnings and not 4x. So sure it’s sucks that costs go up but we very purposefully didn’t max ourselves out just because we’re high earners.

We could afford more DC but we’ll be more comfortable financially with one and we can afford to send him to private school, take him on nice holidays, pay for whatever sports/hobbies he’s into etc. I

I’d much rather have that than a house in the millions, luxury cars etc and zero wiggle room for economic changes, job loses, long term health issues, another pandemic etc.

well said

Does your sister know quite how bitter you are? I beleive some tax changes are well overdue but this moronic government has simply driven high earner (high tax payers) abroad. They've introduced a system where the unskilled/feckless families (Today's Telegraph) can get circa £71k salaries for doing nothing while fard pressed families ard losing £1800 per annum to pay for it.

The old trope that high earners work harder than low earners. Do me a favour-I know people who work 3 jobs doing 70h per week on minimum wage or slightly higher and work harder than me on £200k. Education and opportunity is a big factor in earning potential for too many people think that salary and work ethic are directly proportional.

I agree wholeheartedly. I do think the 'household' rule for child benefit is stupid, as you can have a one parent household earning 80k (minus taxes and student loan etc) not getting anything, versus a couple paid 59k each totalling £118,000 still getting it.

A bit mean spirited. Some people were afforded no financial literacy growing up because their parents had nothing much and didn’t know either. They’ve fought to build their own life and stability and so a shift in government policies can be daunting. It’d be like climbing a mountain, finally exhaling on a nice little ledge to take in the view, and being told you have to climb another few km before you can rest.

Not strictly true re: the money paid into pensions being untaxed for £200k+ earners.

FFS. You are NOT taxed on money you pay into a pension. You pay tax on it (usually at a much lower rate) when you take it out, after it has earned you a tidy profit.

So now pensioners getting a state pension are scroungers
and paying in to a pension with money they are already taxed on is wrong

but deciding you want to be a stay at home mummy of 4 kids at the tax payers expense is your right

this country is fucked

I’d you listened to budget you’d know why

Please tell me how?

You are fooling yourself if you think only millionaires will be paying the increased taxes

Not everyone does. My DP earns over £100k, he works 8-4 most days Monday to Friday (unless travelling for work), works from home and does jobs round the house during working hours. Doesn’t work bank holidays.

How exactly is anybody being “hammered” in yesterday’s budget? Please tell me. Apart from millionaires having to pay £50 a week on mansions?

Salary sacrifice was a glorified tax dodge, and it should be closed. I’m sure that will be welcomed by Mums claiming CMS whose errant ex-husbands are currently getting away with paying their financial obligations because they’re sniding thousands into their pensions and declaring a paltry salary. Nothing is preventing people from continuing saving into a pension, it just means the employer will also be forced to meet their NI obligations.

Jesus, listening to some on here you’d think millionaires will be queuing at food banks by next week when in actual fact most are heaving a sigh of relief.

It will hit you too in the end.

And people at the lower end aren't being hit already? The extension of the freeze on personal allowances will hit the lowest paid the hardest, as many are barely surviving pay day to pay day as it is so all increase in the cost of essential items makes life pretty dreadful.

They can't reduce their housing costs, those go up constantly. Their food costs more every week. For many it isn't a case of not shopping in Waitrose or M&S, they are already having to hunt for offers in Aldi & Lidl. It's not a case of turning the central heating down a couple of degrees to reduce energy usage, it's whether they can put it on at all even when it gets below freezing. It's not "only" having one overseas holiday every 2 years instead of every year, it's not affording to rent the cheapest caravan for a week out of season at the cheapest resort. It isn't not being able to replace your car every 5 years, it's praying your 15 year old car bought 5th hand when it was 12 years old already will get through the MoT to last a few more years

The idea behind the lowest level tax threshold is that people have enough money to get by on before they pay income tax on earnings. "Enough" is now well above the tax threshold.

It does amuse me how people fall over themselves to justify why taxes on anyone other than themselves are a good idea, and how outrageous it is that those who are being hammered should dare to complain about it.

Wait for the trickle down effect. It will hit you too in the end. Those awful people in big houses who should have planned better, they'll cut back elsewhere to pay the extra tax. So lots of people who aren't awful because they don't live in big houses are going to suffer too when their life choices become untenable because the awful rich don't /can't use their services or simply up sticks and move overseas. Lots have gone already and with no end in sight of the attack on aspiration many more will go. Who is Rachel Reeves going to tax then? You?

The changes to salary sacrifice in the budget would never impact me - no chance of having a "spare" £200 a month to sacrifice!

I work hard, very hard. I'm reasonably intelligent, but you would have to put it down to luck in my case that I can't earn a high salary any more - I didn't make any choice about being born with an ND that makes it hard to progress up the career ladder. I tried, and it broke me having to mask all the time & fighting with my own nature given personality every day. So yes, it IS to a degree down to luck if you get those higher paid jobs. I'm short, stocky & not good looking and I know I've not been given a job in the past because of my "image" not fitting the corporate high heels & pencil skirts image that suits a company's clients. Again, genetics has dealt me a bad hand combined with a severe accident that wasn't my fault dictating flat supportive shoes at all times.

There's also the fact that senior people would be the first to complain if there weren't any cleaners so the loos & kitchens were filthy, or post not delivered, or no receptionists at their offices, or the roads weren't fixed, or there was nobody to collect their rubbish. And those jobs are known to be badly paid if not minimum wage, while shielding the seniors from the less pleasant aspects of their life.

These people, and people like me doing all your administration, are mostly among those who better off people are complaining about being taxed to support. I happen not to have any dependants, so the only benefit I claim is lower level PIP (NOT due to the ND, but for physical reasons due to my accident), but I work with people like my friend who's "D"H ran off with another woman so she's supporting herself and one school age child on the princely salary of around £1.1k a year (gross) above minimum wage. Completely impossible in the South East without some assistance from the Government. And don't say "she could always move to somewhere cheaper" because the job will still need to be done, so there would just be a different person having to do it for the same salary.

People have to realise that may people in essential roles just aren't paid enough to manage on, especially if they have children. The prices rising the fastest are the kind of things nobody can do without like food, housing & transport costs. If everyone in that situation even had the natural ability (intelligence and personality) to be able to move into a higher paid job someone would still have to do the lower paid role they've vacated, so the problem is just shifted to a different person.

Yanbu

DH and i are well off. We'll pay more, thats kind of the point of taxation. We have a lot of choice driven expenses we can reduce if we have to - cheaper holidays, axe the posh gym. Someone earning £35k has far less flexibility to cut most of their costs

Yes, that would be you.

First of all, the changes to pensions only take effect from 2029.

Second, if you salary sacrifice below the higher tax rate, you do indeed avoid the 40% tax rate regardless. The change is that you will have to pay national insurance contributions; but national insurance does not change when you move into the higher tax brackets.

Good I’m glad you haven’t defended them. People do have agency over their own lives and jobs. If you have no hope of a pay rise move jobs, look at ways to improve things. It’s not easy but life isn’t easy but it should not be an excuse to at least trying. I pivoted in my career. It wasn’t easy at all but it can be done

A traditional week is 9.00 to 5.30 of course there are jobs out there that fit that criteria. Yes there is a lot of competition for them that is a given but to say they aren’t there would be wrong.

I wholeheartedly hate zero hours contract and they should be banned but are many jobs people can do that fit into the working week.

Can you give me examples of which full time jobs are easy to obtain and fit into the working week? I live in the north, and where I live these positions sadly don’t exist.