If you earn £80k or more, what do you do?

[wheresmymojo]

Following on from another thread.

Partly because I'm nosey and partly because I'd love a career change but I'm the breadwinner so would still need to earn £££ to keep our current lifestyle.

I think we may decide in time to dial the lifestyle down so I don't have to work in a job I hate but for now debt means that's impossible.

So what do those on here who are high earners (£80k+) do?

I earn about that. I am an Operations Manager for a software development company. I look after two of our main clients, ensuring the people we put there are happy and the client is too. I work from home three days a week. I have 35 days a year holiday. I claim expenses for everything I do outside of the home as I have a home based contract. It is a total doss.

I do think I am only on that money as I joined the company as a sales person and whilst I now don't earn commission they kept the basic the same.

I earn more than my DH who is a very successful self employed builder.

I wouldn’t say that if you’re more senior you have more stress necessarily. I wanted to move up as I like change, I get bored doing the same role for more than about 3 years so I’m constantly looking to be challenged and to learn and therefore I’ve always sought to move on to something bigger so that I can stretch my brain. As I’ve moved up I’m less operational, my team definitely have more stress in terms of day to day delivery of tasks. My role is different. The bottom line stops with me, if we don’t deliver then I have to answer as to why not. Having said that, I’m confident in my role, I know my teams roles inside out because I’ve done them in the past. I don’t stress or panic when things don’t go to plan because I have the experience and oversight to know that there’s a way to get around it. My role is to support my team to achieve their roles and for them to be happy and confident in what they do. I spend a huge amount of time with my direct reports working and guiding them to support their teams and my role is also as a guider and mentor to others. I’ve spent a lot of time over the past few weeks having coffees with my most junior members just spending time with them and getting to know what motivates them, what challenges them and how I can support them. It’s an utterly different role to that which they do but I hope in my role I can help them develop the skills to eventually take on my role or if they’re happy in what they’re doing to keep motivated to do it.

Strange how people have been called out on being mean towards high earners but youve all ignored the smug comments like "id rather be happy earning 100k than 30k"

Well yeah wouldn't we all? Some of us arent that lucky. And it is just pure luck in a lot of cases.

Solicitor, four days a week, decent amount of home working. Long hours when necessary though.

@CherryPavlova teacher here...primary, over 20 years in the job, English and Early Years specialist. Completely knackered...70+ hours worked every week and earning 39k. I'm intrigued by your comment that teachers and nurses could (with a bit of training etc) earn up to 500k...I'd be willing to dance naked with the devil for that, so PLEASE give me your secret 😁👍🤞

Run my own business

Wondering about the ir35 cocerns when its been about for sooo long, that i feel it should be very much a known entity to navigate?

I agree with the work/life balance issues that are inherent in a lot of work (high or low paid, but seems to be a lot of men will be able to succeed in high remuneration work purely as a result of lack of, or minimal, family responsibility and a dp doing 'wifework'.

We do see a lot of those 'wifework' women in the aftermath (on MN), discovering they have severely reduced/no reasonable work prospects while the man hides his actual financials and tucks away money to avoid the divorce settlement.

It's inspiring to see those women that are earning excellent reward for a role that also allows good family time and isnt a death sentence!

I just completely can't agree that stressful work is limited to higher paid roles! Work-related stress and other ill-health issues are prevalent in many work environments.

Also long hours and extreme amounts of commitment and dedication and just shere hard work are well distributed. There are high suicide rates amongst doctors,but also vets, and also those in work that isnt really recognised as valuable or holding status!

I dont know how teachers in the country's mainstream education do it - hats off (some are shit, but there are.some amazing vocational educators out there that ive had the privilege to work with and see effects on my own dc; same with nurses, foster carers and many many other amazing people and their contribution to supporting/improving communities for others).

As a dm i wouldn't want to miss giving my dc close parenting relationships on which to build secure loved young adults entering the earning/contributing world.

Saying that some dc are neglected (in highly remunerated families, and ive seen it at close hand from boarding school and others) isnt an attack at all high earners, but it is a reality, as is neglect in lowrier earning families.

At the end of the day stress results in the same poor outcomes no matter the source.

@CherryPavlova

Because not all of us want to waste our lives in a souless corporate job working 60+ hour weeks? Not all of us are that greedy?

I’d rather be happy in my £30k a year job than ruin my life in some high pressured stressful job for what? A nicer car? Who cares.

Very blanket statement. I know so many people on 30k a year that are very unhappy in their jobs. No different to higher earners.

Also, as a business owner actually I'd much rather have flexible hours and not have to adhere to someone else's rules and in turn that makes me much happier than being employed - it's not about the money for me that just came as a bonus.

But I'm not here making assumptions about employed people - it's just a different way, no way is right or wrong, everyone is different and I respect that.

You are assuming all high earners must be unhappy, which is not always the case. In the same way not everyone on 30k a year is happy.

I earn more than that. Barrister working 4 days a week. I enjoy my job although it can be stressful at times. But I work from home a lot of the time so see my kids loads. Took a long time to get work/life balance right but think I’m pretty much there.

NorthernKnickers. Google

• Dan Moynihan - CEO Harris Current salary £450 but package is way higher. He was/is a teacher.
• Anthony Little - master at Eton was only on £190k but also had house, car, staff, speakers fees and a very comfortable pension package.
• Vicky Tuck paid c£200k plus benefits
• Greg Martin of Durand shows as quite a low actual salary but package also included shares in various academy trust owned enterprises and incentives. Overall package would come close to £500k
• Mike Wiltshire was on c£200 k plus benefits at Ofsted but now makes, far far more and has more benefits through GEMS and other consultancies.

These all started out as classroom teachers.

Jade218 That first paragraphed wasn’t mine - it was a previous poster but my bold didn’t work! I’m very happy as a high earner.

I’m a commercial manager for a construction company, graduated in 2007 so took 11 years to get to that level that inc a year out for maternity. I have a super flexible boss who lets me work around school so I get in around 9.30 leave around 4.30 that being said I put in the extra hours at home as and when required. As someone else mentioned I find I’ve now got much more balanced home/work than I did when I was building my career and doing my professional qualification (mRICS) that saw me doing lots of nights/weekends thankfully my ds was just a toddler so doesn’t remember.

Earning as much as I do made the decision to leave my husband much easier as I could easily afford to live in my own

those excellent teachers and nurses can end up very well paid indeed with some reaching packages of £500k

What do I have to do to get a wage increase of 200x? Or is that what the asterisk is for? Not being excellent? Btw in teaching you don't usually get a huge salary increase with "enough time". Often you are "performance managed" out instead. The total opposite of earning half a million.

Such bollocks - its insulting to those who work hard. If only you were excellent at your job you would a huge amount of money at the expense of those who only work merely well.

CherryPavlova I see your justification. You're right. I have worked for head teachers like that too. Usually to earn salaries like that you are usually taking it from the students, resources, teachers or parents. There is only so much money to go round in education. I worked for one head who complained about how much money out of budget went to the teachers! I don't think he was including his own salary in his whinging.

@CherryPavlova lol sorry I thought it was your statement!!!

My bold isn't working either I thought it was just my phone playing up!

In fairness Thinkinghappythoughts, Dans benefits come mainly from private funding through the academy trust main benefactor. Mike Wilshire is mainly from foreign funding through international schools.
Many high earning teachers/headteachers/CEOs aren’t taking money from schools but attracting money into schools.
Many other high earners are from independent sector so definitely not taking from students.
The salaries are out there if you want them but yes, you have to weigh up if that is what you really want. Many wouldn’t want to move to independent sector, for example.

Nurses can also make a conscious decision to be high earners. Many Directors of Nursing, many nurse CEOs etc are on good salaries.
It’s not what everyone who is a nurse wants and it’s going to take hard work and further qualifications but it’s entirely possible. Not all nurses are struggling band 5s when they reach their fortieth birthday.

@Smotheroffive

IR35 has been around for a long time but the onus of compliance is changing from the contractor to the employer.

When this happened in the public sector a couple of years ago all of the public sector employers took an extremely cautious approach and declared the majority of contracts as inside IR35. So the contractor pays tax as though they are employees but without any of the rights. Day rates were not increased to take into account the lost net income. Many contractors moved to working in the private sector because of it.

This change is being introduced to the private sector in April. If a similar change happens then contracting becomes an unviable option. There's no point in being a contractor without any of the rights of an employee if the tax being paid means you're financially no better off.

It could mean the collapse of contracting as an option for many people. Some companies (HSBC) have said they won't use contractors at all after April.

@NameChangedNoImagination

That's interesting - I have some questions if that's okay?

What sort of content/articles do you put on your website?

How long have you been doing it? Are you working on it full time?

Thank you for your explanation there mojo how is one supposed to continue freelancing!! Or is this very sector specific?

For instance, it applies presumably to the original premis of 'contracting' for primarily one organisation consistently, 'like an employee'.

If one freelances and invoices many clients that one has entered into provision contracts with, is that remaing outside ir35?

Yes, loss of any benefit of contracting!

My boss’s boss’s boss is on £85k for a 35 hour week, 12% pension, flexitime, great sick/maternity pay, 6 weeks holidays pa. Afiak her only quals are (non academic) degree and 1yr pg.

If something big goes wrong she could get sacked and people could get hurt but I think overall it’s a sweet life!

@Smotheroffive

It isn't sector specific however for someone freelancing for a number of clients it won't have much impact as you would so very obviously fall outside of IR35.

It impacts people like me more who contract for one client full time for a specific project - I might work for one client for 12-18 months for example and so it's less obvious that I fall outside of IR35 and my clients could be cautious and decide I fall within IR35 which will not be good

I don't see the problem with IR35. DH has been working for the same client for years so closed his company and started using a support company to tax his salary as PAYE.

@MinnieMountain

The two photos below show the difference in net pay between being 'outside IR35' and 'inside IR35' for my day rate (£650).

In the latter example I may as well get a perm role as I'd be able to get something with a package (including car allowance and bonus) that would pay £115k but would also have pension, sick pay, maternity leave, paid holiday, etc.