Poor life planning..

Yep, some people are totally out of touch with reality on here. There was a post a couple of weeks ago where someone was saying her sister was pleading poverty on £70k and being hammered as “that’s not a lot for a single mum”.

I don’t think there’s a violin small enough for me to express my sympathies for the plight of people struggling on £14k a month. Squeezed middle my arse

Do you know them?

My point is, if you're born into poverty/lower socioeconomic group, you're very likely to stay in that group whether you possess all the attributes (you've just mentioned) or not.

The UK is far from being a meritocracy. So yeah, lucky.

No salary is worth wasting your youth for. ‘Insane hours’ jobs shouldn’t exist. You’ll never get your 20s back.

You must represent all people then. That's A Science.

They are not LUCKY!!!

FGS, they are intelligent, hard working, driven, resilient, whatever, but it's not luck, they worked for it!

Seriously? Even the most perfunctory of Google searches will tell you exactly what is meant by that in the public (i.e. non-clinical) domain.

If you are well into the top 10% of earners (no child benefit) or the top 1% (no free childcare) you are demonstrably not a 'middle earner'. You are fucking rich, beyond the wildest dreams of avarice. To convince yourself otherwise, and that 'the rich' should pay more instead of you, is literally the definition of financial dysmorphia.

Right, well done? But the data on social mobility suggests you're in a minority and are very lucky.

It's relevant because if you earn enough that you don't receive child benefit then you are in the top 10% of earners. If you don't qualify for free childcare you're in the top 1%

If you are in this position you are not 'middle earners'. You're nowhere near that: you receive well beyond the reality of almost everyone else in the country. If you think 'the rich' need to be taxed more instead of you, get real. YOU are 'the rich'.

Both DH and I are very high achievers and we went to really awful comps.

There’s nothing wrong with those holidays. I’ve been on the exact same type of holiday and had loads of fun

I would disagree and say conversely it’s those who planned well and made good financial choices that are being penalised and it’s THAT that’s pissing people off.

It's mainly relevant because what they're saying, is based on a fantasy. They're not middle earners, so to talk about themselves as such, is nonsensical. Middle earners aren't being taxed more. High earners are being taxed more. It's like me saying "as a disabled person, I should be entitled to a wheelchair", when in fact my legs are both fine and I have no disability.

Also, just because you don't have double the disposable income, you will still have a lot more. Fair enough. But don't whinge on, when you are a high earner, paying slightly more tax than you were before, and still having a lavish standard of living compared to most. It's really not that bad.

The resentment is that people who have made good life choices need to subsidise even more people who have made poor life choices and it's going to be horrific when Reform get in.

how is that relevant? Just because you earn a bit more than others doesn't mean you shouldn't get just as much help.

"Earning more than double" when you get no help anywhere, when your lifestyle is not subsidises and when you pay a lot more tax doesn't mean you end up with double the money... that's the point.

I suppose you class me as a benefit scrounger since my (completely unforeseen and devastating) divorce has left me on universal credit to top up my pay. You'll be relieved to hear that I don't have enough money for holidays abroad and have therefore not had any since ex"d"h left. I save up all year for a Monday to Friday in a caravan or cheap apartment at a localish seaside town. Or we have a few days camping.

Go live in a country without public services then, if you don’t want them and would rather keep every penny to yourself. Go enjoy all your hard earned money in Somalia! No functioning police force, public education or health system. Right up your street, you’ll love it.

Who doesn't claim their state pension?! Bizarrely irrelevant to the op.

Was just talking about this exact thing! I suppose if you're that rich, you're constantly surrounded by other rich people, so your perspective gets skewed? It's still quite ignorant though imo, when you can literally take two seconds to look up the average UK wage, then realise you earn more than double it. I've been wondering what jobs some of these people do, to earn £90k but not be able to use a search engine, calculator or basic logic 🤷‍♀️ Sadly I think I must have made some poor life planning decisions myself, to be so woefully out-earned by them.

I think that is bullshit. Just because some people are not capable of getting decent jobs and have no money doesn't we all have to plan a life of misery.

Of course its annoying when you plan a life you can fund yourself and the government keeps coming to take more and more to give to those who can' t be arsed/aren't bright enough to provide for themselves.

Aspiration should be encouraged in the country not stamped out.

Not everybody wants to merely “survive”.

Absolutely agree with the OP and the post talking about financial dysmorphia. It’s so refreshing to read posts like this after so much negativity and complaining. So many people who appear to be so dissatisfied with their lot when they actually have great incomes but are constantly “stretching themselves’ then blame everyone else when something snaps.

so many people seem to prioritise having the best of everything over financial security. There is nothing wrong with a slightly smaller house or older car and adding more to the savings.

I think I am a middle/highish earner (£44k), dh earns less than me. So we have a decent but not massive income (and live in an expensive part of the country and couldn’t afford to buy a house for a long time so have a big mortgage.) We will be affected a bit by the budget (especially the pension changes- currently increasing contributions now our children are teenagers so we aren’t paying child care.) But I feel happy and proud that I’ve been fortunate enough to earn enough that I can contribute to society. I am careful not to stretch myself too much so there is room in my personal budget to absorb changes. I’m saving my sympathy for those who are genuinely struggling like disabled people/parents caring for children with additional needs, many of whom are unable to work to improve their financial situation. Those of us who are able to work and strive to further our careers are in such a privileged position.

Yes imagine feeling entitled to your own money.

Why assume they are relying on a state pension?

They are living within their means quite a big difference between complaining you could do more if the government would not take so much and complaining that you want the government to fund your lifestyle