£100k and above earners - tell me your money worries

[SortMyHouse]

Hi

Inspired by another thread!

I would like to hear from people who earn over £100k, where do you live, what do you do / sector? What qualifications do you have?

Then the reality of how far that salary goes.
What are your costs?
What are your money worries?

Thanks

What’s all the comments on the thread being crass about? Are people on higher incomes not allowed to talk about their money, challenges and all?

A lot of people on a high income will be living in expensive cities out of necessity.. are they not allowed to discuss it? The OP has specifically asked people in a similar position to comment, not sure why anyone else needs to come on the thread and throw around their opinions

You get this all the time on MN, it really annoys me.

@mowglika

What’s all the comments on the thread being crass about? Are people on higher incomes not allowed to talk about their money, challenges and all?

A lot of people on a high income will be living in expensive cities out of necessity.. are they not allowed to discuss it? The OP has specifically asked people in a similar position to comment, not sure why anyone else needs to come on the thread and throw around their opinions

You get this all the time on MN, it really annoys me.

I agree, it’s fine to discuss. However, I think it’s ok to challenge some of the perceptions to help people look at their spending. That is, if they want to change. Maybe they don’t!

Some cities and towns are expensive but they’re never exclusively expensive. Average income people live there too.

@Mickarooni there really isn’t a need to challenge it though. Why not just sit and listen to other people’s stories and lives without butting in? Likely those posting would’ve turned around different options in their heads already, as witnessed by other posts on this thread.

[quote JingsMahBucket]@Mickarooni there really isn’t a need to challenge it though. Why not just sit and listen to other people’s stories and lives without butting in? Likely those posting would’ve turned around different options in their heads already, as witnessed by other posts on this thread.[/quote]
Challenge was the wrong word. I guess I’m just sharing a perspective. I have taken parenting advice from people without children before. I apologise if I appeared to be butting in. I fully appreciate that earning a big salary doesn’t mean you are wearing diamond shoes. I think it’s ok to have a discussion. I’m not saying I know what it’s like to be very rich or very poor in London. Just an opinion but I will step back because I didn’t mean to offend.

@Mickarooni no worries and sorry I didn’t mean for it sound pointedly directed at you. :) I meant in general when posters come on to threads like these and “challenge” or harangue others for telling their stories and what’s worrying them. We saw that up thread quite a bit and overnight when some really bad vitriol was being spilled. What would happen if people just listened and learned about others instead?

[quote JingsMahBucket]@Mickarooni no worries and sorry I didn’t mean for it sound pointedly directed at you. :) I meant in general when posters come on to threads like these and “challenge” or harangue others for telling their stories and what’s worrying them. We saw that up thread quite a bit and overnight when some really bad vitriol was being spilled. What would happen if people just listened and learned about others instead?[/quote]
I hear you. On the face of it, yes £100k is a lot of money but pre Covid (not how much it is now), commuting into London from my town cost around £8k per year. A couple who both commute and have 2 full time nursery/childminder places to pay and an average mortgage would be paying out a huuuuuuuge sum each month. I do get it and have learned by listening and thinking a bit behind “omg 6 figure salary is amazing!”. Although obviously, like most people, I’d always like a bit more money.

We used to have a combined income of 110k and no children. We had no money worries. I don't have lavish tastes so never had anything extravagant but I never had to think at all about purchases under £100. Would mention in passing to my husband anything over £500. Eg. An exercise bike. Lent family money with no expectations of getting it back. Now our combined income is 60k and I worry a lot.

OP if you earn your stated salaries and live in the Midlands- don’t move to London, especially if your families are in the Midlands. And I say that in the kindest way. We are over £200k annual income and in London it’s still a struggle. Full time childcare is £2k per child in nursery for us. In London, life is much harder overall, days seem longer, traffic makes travel more difficult (although I appreciate traffic is everywhere), distances to places are larger eg getting to a Dunelm or Wickes. My wider family live in the Midlands and every time I go back, I instantly feel how easy life is there compared to London.
£1m is the minimum you need for a 4 bed house close to good schools. Private education is around £20k/year/child.
Sometimes I wonder why we work so hard to pay for such expensive lifestyles

Sorry childcare £2k is per month per child

Hampshire
Software
MSc in computing
Invest about 3k per month

06:10sammylady37

Thanks for your words.
Looks we have reasonable people commenting today.

08:43ThroughThickAndThin01
I should have put this is there.

So mine are definitely first world problems. My DP has just retired having sold his company for multiple millions. I work public sector at 50k a year. We are not married so I need to work until my work pension kicks in. Honestly I don't think the relationship is sustainable. Two opposite sides of the financial divide. I need my maximum pension in case the relationship doesn't work. On the other hand nobody understands why I still work when clearly our lifestyle demonstrates I don't need to. Now looking to move to houses that a large and impressive yet I still go into work everyday. I could never bring work colleagues home as they would just think it ridiculous. That I go into work everyday but potentially live in a house with pool and tennis court etc. don't expect anything other than sarcasm but fuck me it feels good to write that down.

@firstworldproblems88, your distress is perfectly understandable. Do you have to contribute to the cost of running that massive house? If not, use the money for additional pension contributions.

No I don't. I have no outgoings at all. All my salary is mine to keep and save which I do because you never know. We will never get married as it would not make sense financially for him. The funny thing is I never wanted to get married but knowing he won't because of money now makes me feel really sad. I can't pay more into my pension and I can't take a career break and still pay my pension so I'm stuck for another seven years but see he's eager to travel and enjoy and quite rightly so but I have commitments

Isn't it nuts that it's always seen as a good thing to be with someone with money. When the salary was just high we just thanked our good fortune at having no worries. Now it's a stage that no one ever dreamed of it's surreal to say the least.

Would he consider getting married with a prenuptial agreement? In the US, assets acquired prior to marriage are not on the table in the event of a divorce. I can appreciate why him not wanting to marry feels so awful, but it doesn't have to disadvantage him.

If you have no outgoings, invest like mad. Open an account at Vanguard and buy index funds.

Saving enough to maintain this lifestyle in retirement. DH and I are pretty neurotic about our pensions and saving as much a possible but it's a constant low-level worry.

@firstworldproblems88 wouldn’t he consider paying a large sum into your pension so you have security if he doesn’t want to get married? Does he want you to continue working? I would have thought he would value spending time with you, being able to travel together etc.

No neither of us has wanted to get married but now it's obvious even if I changed my mind it would be super awkward because of this elephant in the room. I am saving money. Without him I wouldn't be able to do that. Plus if I asked him now to make up the shortfall in my pension so I could retire he would. I'm not like that. I want to get everything myself. I just wish we could go back to when we just had no worries but nothing out of the ordinary either. Anyway I'll stop posting as I get it's ridiculous. Thanks for replying.

Hi @allfurcoatnoknickers. Do you expect you'll qualify for social security retirement benefits?

@firstworldproblems88, your situation may be unusual but your dilemma is not ridiculous.

where do you live - Scotland

what do you do - me senior manager £100K DH £60K senior communications

What qualifications do you have? - me MA, DH BA

What are your costs? - all costs £4K per month and then between DH and I have about £4K a month left over - we save at least £3K per month. Kids go to state schools as private is not in our values.

What are your money worries? - we don't have worries. We are concerned to save enough to pay for 2 kids through university and to save enough to have a good lifestyle in retirement.
But it's not money worries.

I said earlier in the thread that I wasn’t going to contribute because I didn’t meet the criteria, but I see it has opened out from London.

I am currently on £250k living in semi-rural Scotland, working for a large London based company. Sole earner in the family with SAH DH and teenaged kids at state school.

We never seemed to get anywhere financially, but I think that’s because the higher earnings are relatively recent (big increases in the last 5 years, and in particular in the last year). We are hoping to be in a much more secure financial position (mortgage paid off and some savings) in the next 2-6 years. Currently we live in a modest and very run down old house.

The reason for the financial circumstances are the kids. I took a year of unpaid maternity leave with each of them, and initially went back part time, while on a much lower salary (£50k), and we had also incurred some debt due to a complex legal issue. I also would prefer to get us to a state where of love no term financial stability/safety quickly. We could technically afford to move to quite a grand house, have holidays etc, but I prefer to pay off the current mortgage and put money in pensions so we can enjoy an early retirement if necessary. You never know when health can fail (had a few scares) and I don’t want to be saddled with a huge mortgage.

Anyone who knew what I earned would be amazed at how we live, and equally I suspect the neighbours wouldn’t have a clue that I was a high earner (house needing repairs, no foreign holidays, older cars etc), but we have just prioritised differently.

And I would absolutely agree with the previous advice to OP, don’t move to London, at least not without doubling your salary. I refused to and it hasn’t hurt my salary. Colleagues who live in London and are on my salary live the same way as friends locally earning £50-60k.

(“ state where of love no term” = “state of long term”)

I swear I checked it over for autocorrect fails several times before posting!

Money doesn’t make life better or easier but it gives more options.

But, it’s far better to cry in a Mercedes than on a bike