How much were you earning at 25?

[LeedleLee]

Hi all. Just that really! I'm 25, graduated uni last year and have been working since. I have had jobs prior to this but they were all MW retail/waitressing type jobs. My current job is my first one in my desired/degree field.

I currently earn 21k. DP is 27 and earns 22k. We live in East Anglia. This is more than enough to support us and DD and we live comfortably, but a recent thread has left me feeling a little deflated, as people not much older than DP and I seem to be earning considerably more.

We both love our jobs and I know we have many years to develop our careers and salaries, but still, it is a little disheartening!

How much were you earning at 25, and how much are you earning now?

Thank you 😊

I replied on the other thread too. At 25 I think I was on £27K.

I then qualified in my professional field at 27 and have seen a good rise since then. My profession and my industry is booming so there's a lot of luck involved but my degree and qualification is in a profession that typically is associated with higher salaries too .

At 25 I was on around £16k, I'd been travelling for a year beforehand and temping before that.
41 now and I'm on £32k in an account management role in a financial services company.

£42k - law
Now on circa £250k at 48

At 25 I was on a PhD stipend. Took a while for that to pay off, as it were, but now I'm a good earner, especially for the NW.

I'm not sure how truthful MN is. That is the demographic it attracts is just bizarre.

At 25 I was on about £31k. I have just turned 30 and earn £62k, but I now am based in London. Would be more like £54k out of London.

Absolutely bugger all; I was still finishing my PhD. 15 years later and I’m earning >£200k.

Around 16k. I'm now 40 and on around 110k.

What happened in between: degree in a better paid field, change of industry, a number of promotions / upward moves.

At 25 I earnt £23.5k in a social care related field I London. By way of contrast the same job now, 20 years later, pays just under £23k if you work for a London living wage employer or min wage if you don't.

With the current social care recruitment crisis, salaries have nudged up a little but gov fails to offer contracts which accurately reflect the cost of running them.

I now earn £85k and 20 years ago, you would've had two people doing my job due to the volume of work.

But I love what I do and everyday I can see how I've made a difference.

At 25 £28k but that was 25 years ago. Now £18K part time having just returned after being a SAHM.

DH was on £19k when we met when he was 25 (28 years ago). Now on £55k.

DD is 25 and on £28k. First role out of Uni 2 years ago was £22k.

Should have said my field - STEM/Tech.

£26k at 25
£300k at 48

Financial services

17k at 25. I left my job later that year and took at FTC at 21k then at 26 took another FTC at 24k by 29 I was on 32k.

I was earning around £45-50k

At 25 I was doing my PhD so was on a stipend of £6K. That was better than the average PhD student, wasn't taxed and I felt rich! My first postdoc I earnt £16k which wasn't high enough to pay back my student loan, I thought was hilarious a job that you need 2 degrees to do was so badly paid you couldn't afford to pay back a student loan. Then my first permanent job at 31 was £25K which by the power of inflation calculators (and looking at a similar roles now) was the equivalent of £40K now. So my income went up a lot over my 20s but that involved moving around the country to different jobs.

I was on about £22k. Public sector job.

Age 25 - £35K
Age 35 - £65K
Age 45- £120K

I was on income support at 25 as an unemployed single parent of 2.
At 35 I was a graduate earning £12,000 in a term time only school job.
Now at 37 I’m self employed and projected to make £48,000 this year. I intend on hitting 6 figures in 5 years.

£51k at 25 and £60k at 27. I’m in finance

Aged 25 I was on about 12k I think - mind you it was nearly 30 years ago. I earn a lot more now.

£28k at 25 , year i completed my qualification and got lucky to get a promotion ,4 years later and on £31k, not much of an increase as I've had 2 children so slowed down carer for a little

Also OP, you say you love your jobs and this is worth a fortune. There was a thread on here the other day where the OP was bored to tears but felt she couldn’t leave as the salary was good. Many other posters felt the same.

Doing work you enjoy and believe in is actually priceless, really. I absolutely love mine (I’m lucky it’s a lucrative field). I literally make new drugs and medicines to cure cancer, amongst a host of other diseases. One of the Covid vaccines, the Ebola vaccine. And it’s an added benefit that scientists, alongside medical doctors, are regarded as the most trusted of all professions

Don’t underestimate the value of being happy and fulfilled at work.

At 25 I think it was about £30k, now 10 years later I’m on £78k

No uni, started work at 18

£0 I was still doing my Masters. My first job was the year after at £24k. It's now 10 years down the line and I am on £80k. Surely though your sector will have a huge bearing on how much money you make.

I was on £13k in Scotland aged 25 that was a long time ago though! In today’s terms that’s the equivalent of around £22k. Think someone else mentioned that mid 20s to 30s is a time a lot of people’s earnings rise I definitely found that - by the time I was 30 I was on £32k

About 18k
But that was 7years ago and now its 45k.