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Do you have friends with very different financial outlook?

55 replies

Silverclocks · 09/04/2022 20:02

I was chatting to a friend/aqaintance this morning, he has applied for a new job, salary £45k. He's so excited, £45k is apparently huge to him, much more than he ever thought he'd earn (he's in his late 40s). I have what I think of as a fairly ordinary job, salary £45k. I certainly don't feel rich, but I have enough.

I don't ever tell anyone what I earn or anything else about my finances, but now I'm wondering what I do wrong, he seems live a similar lifestyle to mine! We're both single with adult children, FWIW.

OP posts:
Sbbhnfc · 11/04/2022 12:03

Most people mix with others in a similar income bracket - there's much less mixing between salary levels than there was even when I was growing up. If you're scratching a living in inner-city Manchester, it's unlikely you're going to be down the pony club with the posh kids from Cheshire! And if you're a posh kid from Cheshire, inner city Liverpool must seem like some kind of dystopian safari experience. Not that you'd ever venture there.

People like the Sunaks or Johnson has no concept, whatsoever, of what it's like to have to survive on UC levels of income, or even minimum wage, because in their world EVERYBODY has an annual income of at least 6 figures plus lots of freebies and sucking up from those wanting a favour.

This doesn't only apply to the Tories, either; years ago I worked in a job where a colleague who was very involved with union work met the then Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, and said what a down-to-earth bloke he came across as. He is one of the very, very, very few who DID do an ordinary job (postie) before drifting straight into politics from a PPE Oxbridge course. Alan Johnson is the exception who proves the rule though.

There does seem to be a very high percentage of very spoiled, overpaid, EXTREMELY comfortably off people on Internet forums (not just this one), and the sad/funny thing is that many of them don't even realise how privileged they are. That's if they're telling the truth, of course...(For the record, I grew up dirt poor; have been in a position where I worked overseas tax free; have had a decent enough salary for the part of the country where I lived; and have been on UC. Most of us can't predict a long way in advance when illness, or relationship breakdown, or redundancy is on the cards; and if every penny is taken up with eating the cheapest food, buying the cheapest clothes, finding the cheapest mode of transport to get you to work, there isn't a lot spare for savings and pensions and ISAs and stocks and shares all the other lovely things that the middle classes have taken for granted until now.)

I've often thought that London and the South East should be taken out of the "average salary" equation entirely, and it's the mode that should be used, not the median. It would give a much more accurate picture of what the REAL average income is for MOST people.

BrimFullOfAsher · 11/04/2022 12:16

Very different median here to what has been suggested. A £33k average seems high to me. I know very few people who earn that. I know a few who earn significantly more but they wouldn't bring the average across the people I know to anywhere near 33k

Do you have friends with very different financial outlook?
LittleSnakes · 11/04/2022 16:30

I found this. ifs.org.uk/tools_and_resources/where_do_you_fit_in You can see where you fit in nationally. £45k for one person is very high. We earn that for 2 adults and 2 kids family. And we’re still above average.

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oldwhyno · 11/04/2022 16:53

Yes, I have friends with a range of financial positions. Salary is one aspect, but I think the bigger differences will become obvious once people start retiring (or not) and what their retirement income looks like.

Camomila · 11/04/2022 17:39

I've often thought that London and the South East should be taken out of the "average salary" equation entirely

That's 18 million people, they are just as much a part of the population as those living in the North/Midlands etc.

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