AIBU to think many Mumsnet posters seem to be high earners?

I think it is skewed by the number of posters who live and work in London in finance or law, and the kind of threads you choose to read.

DD is in higher education so I read a lot of those kinds of threads. I also lurk a lot in the Style and Beauty threads, so the impression I get is that a lot of posters can afford to privately educate their children and a lot of posters have a lot of ££ to spend on designer handbags and expensive jumpers.

I know in real life this isn't the case, but yes, it does give me the impression that there is a significant number of posters with a lot of disposable income.

I also see a lot of threads starting with "I am a high earner" in AIBU.

I’m pretty comfortable myself, earning over national average with low outgoings, and I’m real.

I also had a very rich relative who was on here for years. There was always a lot of disbelief and accusations of lying when she described even the basic facts of her life or things she could afford, but every word of it was true. In her own circles she was completely normal. I think it’s good. The point of being on here is that you read about people whose lives and beliefs are different from your own sometimes. And it’s also good to read stuff that’s not written by columnists who don’t tell you they’re on £250000 themselves but aim to earn that by making you angry with Hana on your street who earns £40k, or Bob who is on PIP.

If there’s enough money in certain sectors to allow swathes of people to earn salaries over £100k plus or £several hundreds and more, it must be also be at least partially because there are sufficient numbers of employees in the same industry paid average or below salaries, including those so low that they need to be topped up by state benefits. Which effectively means state subsidy of profit. Unless you are your own company and have no need to rely on anyone else to make your high salary.

I have no issue with high salaries and good on those who can earn them! but the difference between the highest and lowest definitely does appear to have got wider.

I know several women who earn over £100k. The idea that you have to be a unicorn, ball-busting banker type to earn this is completely for the birds.

There are masses of professions where even a mid-career woman could be earning money like this: law, banking, media, PR, venture capital, tech, teaching, pharma. There are women who sit on multiple boards (private or public sector). Senior doctors earn comfortably over £100k. They will be in a minority, but they're not a tiny minority.

I think its ridiculous to assume that a woman who claims to earn over £100k must be lying. If you do earn this kind of money you are unlikely to get your kicks boasting to people you will never meet, you would save it for people you actually do know.

It's misogyny and envy, pure and simple.

I am unfortunately not on £400k but work with numerous people on £300k plus, but then that’s part of my role.

I don’t think £60k is especially high earning these days. Although when I earn £30k I would have thought it was.

It’s all relative. In the SE, an income of 60k would not be considered high and 35k would generally be considered very low.

My 25 year old son and his gf earn about 100k between them, but they live in London so they’re perpetually skint.

It’s mainly confirmation bias. You won’t get an average spread of circumstances being discussed in response to a specific question or set of circumstances.

I earn an extremely high salary so will on occasions comment on threads about issues relating to being in such a position. I’ll never comment on UC or benefits threads as I don’t know anything about it.

I think much of the disconnect comes from some people believing that high earners are a different species. In reality there really isn’t that much difference between someone earning 50k and someone earning 250k. I’ve earned below the lower limit and above the upper limit of that range but was still the same person throughout. I’d argue my lifestyle didn’t even change that much either.

The majority of women I know - at work and socially - earn over £100k.
My mum who is in her late 70s earned over £100k at the time of her retirement at age 65ish.

Dh and I both high earners. Realistically, if I was busting my ass cleaning for barely minimum wage, I wouldn’t have time for posting on mumsnet! But I have a flexible job where no one is standing over me (I’m self employed and I set my own hours anyway), so I can waste two hours on MN if I want. People actually struggling to survive don’t have that privilege.

I'd be happy to buy the book of a 14 year old mum who got thrown onto the streets and made £100k+, and I'd rightly champion them. I'd be expecting to hear more than "I just worked really hard" though. On that thread these numerous posters were asked how they had managed, what qualifications they had got and what position they now held. None of them had answers to any of these questions, which led me to believe it might not be true.

But if this was you, you'd want to tell your story, right?

There will be tens of thousands of people in the UK with similar stories. It wouldn't be strange for three or four to make their way to Mumsnet.

I’ve just retired and was on 400k. I’m 51 and pensions will kick in at 55 and 60. I have more than enough savings to cover the time in between. I bought a small farm last year and I’m going to play at being a farmer and enjoy living rurally😂.

I take these posts like a pinch of salt. Interesting to read, but quite unlikely to be true. There was a thread for those earning £100k+ once and it disproportionately had posters on it claiming that they had had babies when they were 14, had been kicked out by their parents for getting pregnant and had "just worked really hard" to earn this salary. Not impossible of course, but slightly Walter Mitty-esque.

I see way more posters talking/complaining about higher earners on mumsnet, than higher earners on mumsnet tbh. Threads by higher earners also tend to draw the attention of those posters itching to tell them to ‘check their privilege’.

That said, Mumsnet is a forum that was started by middle/upper middle class and higher earning women in the south-east, that predominantly attracted, and attracts, more of the same.

I expect some posters lie, because this is after all the internet (and I don’t think it’s always in the more affluent direction either), but I doubt it’s to the extent that some seem to think it is.

I was reading the thread yesterday about what people do to help their adult children - providing deposits for houses, paying for university, paying school fees - amongst other things. Made me wonder how much all these people earnt.
Myself and dh are late 50's, both earn just above the average, neither of us have ever been higher rate tax payers. We earn enough that we are comfortable ie. a car each, a holiday each year and can pay our bills. But couldn't have helped our children to the extent that others were saying they helped. Both our children actually out earn us.

It depends on the question you ask!
When a poster asks a question like how much do you help your adult kids - you’ll get a very high proportion saying they paid the deposit on a house a car, take them on holidays every year and provide them with an annual income. It seems that everyone is rolling in it.
When a poster say their family are struggling to live on £90k a year - they are ripped to pieces everyone talking about the cost of living, how can you spend £3.50 on a coffee and read the room. It seems everyone is skint!

Pretty much every person in every investment bank in London who is at MD level earns around £400k so do most CEOs and CFOs of listed companies. There are tens of thousands of them in London.

Then almost everybody over 40 in London who works in Finance will be getting £100k. This is all publicly available data and you can ask ChatGPT if you don’t believe it! 😂

Just look at what a house costs in many areas of London. There are real people living there - it isn’t an illusion. 😂

Same 70k on my own, single parent, lone breadwinner. Living in south east, I’m doing ok but I’m not
loaded. Thirteen years ago I was on 17k a year and I had nothing. Every story is different.

Everyone on here seems proper rich. I’m on 27k and I work full time and I struggle. There’s families on here that are easily on more than 100k and they struggle? wtf? 😂😂 I’d love to have their lives. High paying jobs, a husband, kids. A life I can’t even fathom!

Im not sure, I’d love to see the demographics because when rich people post there’s inevitably a lot of ‘read the room’ comments. I will say I can be gobsmacked when people say what they have in savings or as a pension!!!

Hahaha, yes of course they do.

Roughly 50% of adults don’t pay any income tax at all. They fall below the PA threshold.
The bottom 50% of earners contribute 10% of income tax revenues.
Top 10% of earners contribute 60% of income tax revenues.
Top 1% of earners contribute around 30% of income tax revenues.

Most people on Mumsnet don't talk about their income at all. How can you possibly know?

Have you misunderstood my post?

There do seem to be a lot of well off people on here, but also some struggling with the cost of living and asking about benefits.

If you're achieving all that in the current climate, you aren't average, you're amazing! Excellent stuff!