Am I being unrealistic? How old are you, and how much do you earn?

[adhdneedsajob]

Doing my tax return and depressed at how little my self employment brings in.
I have a degree in the arts from a RG university and over 20 years experience in the workplace I am 45 ffs and barely scraping £1200 a month
But am barely making any money

What do you do and how have you got there and how can I charge more for what I do?

If you have social media skills and it feels like an option have a look at SEO/PPC as a specialism. Pays very well round my part of the country.

FWIW, mid 40s and earning circa £55k from my own business. This is after 20 years working for other people in the same area. I have earned more as an employee but value the freedom and flexibility more than salary.

Age 39, earn £150k, director in a bank
2:1 arts RG. Then trained to be solicitor, 2008 happened & paid to go so went into risk management
DH age 38 and earns £168k 15% bonus
Sounds a lot but have several kids & high mortgage (cant afford private school)

Are you happy and do you feel your income and the impact on your life for that is adequately compensated?

I’m 50 and have a UG degree and the equivalent of 3 masters degrees (the UG degrees and at least one of the masters from a RG university). In the past I have earned up to £90k (inc bonus). I was made redundant, took a few years off and (after doing another masters) took a much lower paid job in local government because it looked interesting and I could afford it. I now work from home most of the time, I have a dog and could run up the stairs and help my DC whenever they were stuck during revision for school exams. I work with lovely people and think everything considered and given my current circumstance, it’s worth the much lower salary compared to the one I had in the past.

41. Self employed, earn about £45k but only working a 28 hour week due to young DC. When I was full time in a contracted job I was on £53k, when I can work full time again (or almost full time when youngest is at school) then I hope to closer to £60k. But it's never going to be big money in my industry.

You can, but it's very sensible to prioritise other things

@adhdneedsajob could you consider jobs in technical writing / documentation? It is more skilled than most social media writing but if you are good at quickly getting to grips with a company's products / translating weird technical terms into understandable language it is not that difficult once you get doing.

Also if your username is referring to yourself, tech is an industry where you will probably find a lot of similar-minded people and pay in the industry is generally not bad

Sorry, my bad, typo!! I meant to say I earn £530k! x

33, £110k, accountancy.

Science (but joint honours with an art) degree from RG university (2.1).

I’m 30, earn 28k a year FTE, which works out as 18.5k part time as a civil servant. Will be going back as a higher grade after mat leave so going up to 36k.

I remember reading in Cosmo or a similar magazine when I was a teen that you should aim to earn the same annual salary in thousands per year as your age (eg. 30k at age 30, 50k at 50). Don’t think it was based on anything to begin with and am sure if it ever was inflation has made a mockery of it now anyway, but somehow it has stuck with me!

Keep at it love. Starting salaries are a bit low I know but just push through - don't feel bad if you don't hit the million mark by 20 like I did, money isn't everything and it's not the end of the world if you have to fly commercial sometimes in the early days 💐

I think a lot of posters on this thread are either embellishing slightly, or the huge earners have put lower earners off posting.

For me, I work in accounts in a junior management position and earn £26k per year and I'm 37. Kind of in line with most people I know, have the odd high earner (nothing like some on here though) and the odd SAHP.

Im 39 and take home 1200 ish working 22 hours a week. I used to earn more as a teacher top of pay scale but I hated it

28, solicitor earning £88k plus bonus. Did UG law and then LPC at law school. Trained for 2 years and then qualified. Moved around a bit and will move again soon to try and increase salary by about 50%.

DH is 30 and is a doctor on £52k.

I am 26 and a civil servant on 38k

DP is 31 and works in finance, on about 75k

34 and I make £50k with unsocial enhancements (Band 7 nurse) DP is 35 and a trainee management accountant and earns £35K

Forgot to include both have undergrads from non RG unis but no other qualifications.

Also, I was on 12k as a TA 2 years ago so this is a recent climb up for me

Same as you (age, pay and career). Except husband senior leader in school and on £70k.

40 - take home around £4,500 p.m. that is after pension too

Aged 48
Ib Business with DH
Joint income £170 k

@Coffeeebean how did you get to your current job and salary from being a TA?

36, team leader for a small marketing department, roughly £56k basic with a 5k bonus. I could definitely earn more elsewhere but at the moment the flexibility and work/life balance are worth more to me with a toddler and baby on the way. I've got a degree in English and about 15 years experience. Have always wanted to go self employed or freelance but never had the balls! Maybe when the kids are older and childcare fees aren't so crippling...

Husband is 38 and works in the Met. Takes home roughly £48k with London weighting.

32, specialist market lead in sales for tech company
10 years sales experience and an RG STEM degree.
£100-130K per year depending in commission.

I’m 44, BSc, work 4 days a week, £45k (EA in biotech). Could earn more but value work/life balance more and love my company and team.

DH is 42, no degree, works FT, £66k (IT). Could earn more but lacks confidence. He’ll get there when he’s ready.

Just back to work after spending a decade as an unpaid carer. I’m lucky to bring in £400 a month atm with UC top ups.

Meanwhile, back in the real world.......

Used to make about 36k a year as a floating support manager in hospitality. Contract terminated due to Covid (less than 2 years employed by that company at the time so they could get rid without paying severance). Took a "for the duration" PT job at a supermarket. Which 2.5 years later I am still doing as I decided that going back to 65 hour av weeks, which had my kids basically bringing themselves up, was not a life we were going back to.

Applied for the job of my dreams recently, lower than industry av for the role but its a sacrifice worth making for much better hours (no midnight finishes or 5 am starts!) and back into management on my own terms. If I get it it will be 22k ish pa.

However, I am mortgage free now and youngest is 12 so I am aware that that gives me more flexibilty and choices.