£150k salary aged 35 AMA

[RaeS345]

Mum of 2
Married, 35
AMA

Do you think that’s a lot?

And you have plenty of time to figure it out - if you choose to figure it out at all (because there's nothing to say you have to, it's fine to enjoy what you do and not want to change it).

My challenge is that we earn enough to live a very comfortable life day-to-day - but not enough to step back from the corpoate world or buy ourselves long term freedom (our outgoings are fairly high, including £3,600 p/m mortgage).

And the feeling that it's just this... FOREVER (or at least until I retire) is a little demotivating. It's not really about salary at this point, just about growth.

Thank you very much. It’s really kind of you to say that.

if we were mortgage free, I think both of us would love to consider something else that is not corporate. I do a creative writing class so would love to write something. My husband has a dream of setting up a coffee shop as a cooperative for people with special needs with a personal focus on Down syndrome which is close to his heart. So he would work with local charities to seek out part time coffee shop staff but allowing for a business model that means they would also co-own the business. This is a long way off though as we would need some funds to set this up.

I am really aware that jobs change and companies restructure though, so I don’t want to assume we will be earning these salaries forever and life hiccups along the way might mean we feel we need to continue down a corporate route for stability

Pays a shitload if tax so that the salaries of public sector workers can be paid.

Woooah well done him. That’s mad!

I definitely could be earning more, but sadly as many women will know 2 maternity leaves and 18 months of pregnancy within 5 years does stagnate our career potential. So a lot of my male colleagues continued to rise the ranks while I was out, much like your nephew! but I obviously don’t regret it as have my lovely kids.

what would you advise I do with my life - I’m slightly older than you, I work in a school and rarely see any of my kids events. I have missed so many school assemblies and events. I just feel so guilty missing out. Do you feel when they start school you will be able to attend all their events? Are you able to just take time off or are they strict?

What job does he do if you don’t mind me asking? That seems so high, you must be so proud

I do hear you. Sort of answered in another question, but I think “private sector” is very broad. If I worked for a hedge fund, or a big 4 bank, or an investment firm, I might find it hard to know I was literally just making the rich (men) richer.

but the private sector does also cover the arts, believe it or not. So think TV and music and film. That’s broadly where I am, without being too outing.

when I think of my parents and my in laws, who all work so hard for the public sector and have their whole lives, when I imagine them on their hardest days when they have given their all and just don’t have any more left in them. I remind myself of what it is that they do. They go home and put their feet up, and they might watch a film, or a good series, or go to the cinema, or read a book. All of those jobs - production, film, publishing, music - are private sector. They give people joy. I find a huge amount of purpose in that, every single day.

It really shows how much tax you pay on a high salary. Our joint income is around £110k but our joint take home after pension/shares/kids medical insurance is £6.6k. Would you ever consider selling up the house, moving to a cheaper area where you could do something a bit less demanding and less well paid but have a similar home/ lifestyle due to the reduced housing & general living costs? We have a few neighbours who did that (& others who kept their London jobs but only are in the office 2 days a week)

He works in Oncology pharmaceuticals. Lots of really interesting work in drug development and clinical trials, she should look into that! It’s in the same field that the team who developed the Covid vaccine worked

Is your job very stressful at this level?
What does a typical day look like? I guess I'm not exactly sure what a job in marketing at this level looks like. The descriptions are so broad when you google "what is a job in marketing" ☺️

That sounds like a sensible approach. Fantastic that you are doing something with real job satisfaction too. Hold onto those future dreams!

Thank you. I was just scrolling through to check whether someone had already articulated what I was about to say. I sometimes wonder where some people think the money for the public sector comes from?

Ha ha genuinely not sure. It’s all beyond me. City, finance. That’s the limit of my knowledge.

🤣 I’m also addicted to the specialty coffees!

How many kids do you have? Are you saving for them? If so in what? Savings acc in your/your husband’s name, JISA, SIPP?

Yes i honestly agree with this
You've done well OP but unless your company massively pays into your pension then get some £ in there!

& how much! (If you are saving for them)

Go for physics phd (fibre optics), mechanical engineering or electrical engineering. The latter pays a LOT. Avoid chemistry, biology.

Thank you for this nudge up the bum. Because we had credit card debt / student loans / overdrafts up until a few years ago I didn’t think of pension at all.

now with the nursery fees I wanted to do 7% as my employer match up to 7%. Do you still think I should contribute more even if they won’t contribute more than 7?

in my head I was going to increase my pension contributions once one of the kids was in school and our nursery bill was less, but maybe I should do it now!

Every Monday! That’s our weekly shop. Coop if we have forgotten anything but Aldi for everything each week.

Well done for earning so well. What does a typical day on your life entail. Could anyone do what you do or is it very specialised? I can’t imagine ever earning so much.

2 kids and in complete transparency we have ISAs open for them but only with a couple of hundred in. We have been focused on clearing debts, and trying to get some savings and the mortgage paid down. But we will try and focus more on the kids pots next year.

I am in London most days so on the train by 7.30am. Have a mixture of in office meetings, location meetings (due to job) and lots of reviewing of materials. So I tend have most of the day in meetings but always with a lunch break at 1pm for an hour. I tend to do one long day where I accept I will miss bedtime, but then any other day I try and be out by 5. I will sometimes log on to my laptop when the kids are in bed, but most days I can get by doing a quick glance of emails and not needing to work. Fridays work from home and get the kids early.

in previous agencies where we used to pitch, some evenings we’d be in the office 9/10pm then company culture was to socialise at the pub so people were barely home! Luckily mine isn’t like that now

Did you realise that putting your two dc through independent senior schools would practically wipe out your entire salary each year (school dependent to some extent of course)? Rather puts private schooling in perspective ...