What will be the highest paying careers of the future? My dcs want to earn 100k plus😁

[Snowqueen22]

Chatting to the dcs last night about careers... One is very creative, one loves stem & maths, the youngest excels at humanities. They all said money is the most important thing initially. So based on this what are & will be the highest paying careers of the future? 100k plus

There is a difference between people working hard to put food on the table and out and out greed. OP's children have an arbitrary 100K figure in there mind which just comes across badly and wreaks of materialism. If the OPs children said they want a good job that allows them to have a nice house and a couple of holidays a year etc it would have come across a lot better.

They should probably also think about whether they want the 'sell your soul to the devil' working hours that come alongside a lot of the law/banking type careers. Also one that means they 'have' to work in London.

Money isn't the be all and end all and they might quickly decide that a life devoted to work and less time to spend enjoying all the money they have is not for them.

Also, due to the vast differences in housing costs, they could have a better lifestyle and be more likely to buy a house on a much lower salary when living in a less expensive location.

As mentioned, I think sector is everything. My friend is a HR Director in pharmaceuticals so earns a lot more than another friend who is a HRD for a 'local' charity - just an example.

So depends on so many factors - personality, your own personal views and goals and of course opportunities and drive.

My DS17 has identified private equity as his chosen career. When we ask him what he wants to do he jokes that he wants to be a "professional rich man"

He's already done a two week internship at a big 4 accountancy firm and sees accountancy as his way into private equity.

@BarbaraofSeville Agree. I would be having these sorts of discussions with my children. Informing them it’s certainly a good thing to aim high but we must consider all of the other factors that make life enjoyable too. Going all in just for the money doesn’t sound very emotionally aware to me.

STEM: both me and dh are engineer. we do not earn £100k. And earning £100k is unusual (bar maybe some very very specilaised R&D??). You'd need to get into management to start thinking about those levels of income

Law: I'd invite them to read the Secret Barister. A lot of lawyers barely scrap the minimum wage. They would need to find a very specialised area and even then, it will be very hard.

IT: probably more likely but again depends on the area, what they are doiung etc....

Architecture: If they mean being a 'real' architect, then yes that's one area where people can earn a very good living.

Doctors (yes I know you didn't mention that one): a possibility but only when they have accessed the higher levels. In the mean time, until they beocme consultajts etc... veru low wages (think about £1500/month take home) with very long hours, weekends, stress and pressure.

Tbh they'd be better find something they truly enjoy with a good level of education as a starting point.
And maybe looking at moving abroad. The wages in the UK are low vs a lot of other countries.

Agree, how sad

@Annie232 we live just outside London, they would need to be earning alot more than 100k annually to live here unfortunately! We bought years ago & houses have quadrupled in value. Again you need to factor in the price of gas, a car petrol, electricity, basic cost of living, brexit etc.... I think 100k is quite a realistic figure once their future outgoings will be paid.. They probably wouldn't have enough change for a couple of holidays a year... Those days are gone! This is a new reality unfortunately. I'm glad my kids are aware of the real world Annie & plan to pay their way. As a family of 5 we certainly can't afford "a couple of holidays a year" on too good salaries.

That is totally true!!

Don’t we all! 😂😂

my son loves history and maths. He really wanted to study history at uni but decided he would make more going down the financial route so is studying accounting and finance.

*Two good salaries ** before the spelling police arrive!

@Snowqueen22 I think you are mistaken. Wages in London and what you need to be able to live well there does NOT reflect the wages you need to live well (and better) outside London.

Im in the NE, wages of £100k are rare. It doesnt stop people going on hols and having a nice life.
Of course, if you CHOOSE to live in the most expensive part of the country (and europe), then things change. But you don't have to.

Agree. I work in the industry and most of us in senior positions are £100k+. Plus company cars and bonuses. One Director I knew was on £250k. Those on the board are obviously on £££ plus own shares. A lot of companies do degree sponsorships.

However you do work long hours and it is stressful.

I would advise them to get a sponsored degree in whichever path they choose! I'm not sure why so many kids nowadays don't look into this more as accountancy, construction companies etc offer this!

It they want an easy life with lots of money then Marketing is probably a good bet!

Hope he's enjoying it! Smart young man, when he has his fortune made he can also go back to his history if he wants to. At least he loves maths too!

Definitely look at niche sales roles. I work 4 days a week and bring home 80-90k with bonuses and it would be well over 100k if I worked full time.

Btw I do think that thinking ahead of what sort of subjet you will do at Uni vs if you can make a good living out of it is a discusion to have. I cetainly did with dc1.

But your dcs need to realise that £100k isn't common. Otherwise teyll be bitterly disappointed.

Sounds miserable to base it solely on income to me. I originally studied law, but I ended up doing a master's in social research methods as I wanted to do something I loved. Which will hopefully be an analyst in environmental crime. Not saying that is right but looking at it from a purely financial point of view doesn't made much sense to me.

We're just outside London, the dc love where they live & I'd imagine would like to stay in the general London area so 100k would be needed for mortgage, transport, utilities etc! Inflation is only going to increase!

Annie232 I agree with you,Money is obviously important but so is MH and a social life! I often think these high paying jobs demand a lot from you, and this is often overlooked.Who wouldnt want to earn well if they can .This govt puts so much on material success,but many people dont earn anywhere near that .Not saying they wont, but encourage them to look at whole facets of jobs ,rather than just pay

Yeah, certainly not architecture! That one’s definitely a vocation/labour of love. It can pay well eventually but there are many years of slog to get there so you need to be passionate about it.

I’d encourage them not to focus on money. I find it quite sad that children are thinking about how much they’ll earn in the future.I realise it needs some consideration but they sound very materialistic.

Encourage them to focus on their passions & perhaps how they can help others, rather than line their own pockets.

What will your humanities and creative dc to earn it?

STEM and maths more possible

What I would say though is that a half decent accountant with commercial ability and people skills will easily earn > £100k in outside of practice in senior roles in other business.

If high income is the game, then a city lawyer with one of the magic circle firms, or bank American ones, can be a very lucrative career…but you’ll work every hour under the sun for it until you reach partner…but then 7 figure earnings are possible, so if that’s what you want…

@Snowqueen22 have you or your dcs looked at the % of people in your area that earn over £100k?

Im pretty sure that across the country this is the top 5% of the population?

I'm curious to see if this is something 'acheivable' iyswim

Also as somebody who works with architects on a daily basis please don't mistakenly believe they will be designing glamorous, iconic London skyscrapers. The architects I worked with often sat on their laptops fiddling around with apartment kitchen dimensions on a software programme. They were all incredibly overworked, under resourced and worked overtime a lot. It opened my eyes to the reality of the role.

Not saying that's what all architects do but it's not as glamorous as it's made out to be.