Middle class but no money

[roopiea]

Does anyone else feel like this?

We would say we are middle class. Both university educated and privately schooled. In our 50s now. Parents had similar professions to us.

We work for the public sector, a teacher and management in local government. We live in a pretty reasonable part of the country. But we still feel we have no money for being in the middle class? We probably earn a combined 80k a year but live in a pretty bog standard 3 bed semi. Have holidays in places like Spain or Greece.

Whereas our neighbours are blue collar workers but seem to have so much more money than us. My best friend and her husband work similar jobs and they have a nicer house and better holidays than us.

My dh and I both went to state schools, both have good degrees but our household income is just under £50k total. Life got in the way for both of us career-wise - he gave up a sales job he loved and was doing well at to care for his late wife during a long illness, and then couldn't get back into sales and had to take what he can get (low paid NHS lab). I left publishing partly for health reasons and ended up working for my now-ex husband's business plus doing up numerous houses with him, self-employed throughout. He has a few employer pensions from various roles, but none are amazing and mine is almost nonexistent. Both of us were considered clever when younger and came from (lower) middle class backgrounds. Everyone we know outearns us by a mile, whether tradespeople, public sector workers, or the very few with excellent careers. I find it much harder than he does to deal with but we have a lot to be grateful for.

You probably have far healthier pension pots than self employed etc people though. Its not as fun or as exciting as flashy cars etc.but you will feel the benefits in due course

You are absolutely wrong. That's a staggeringly naive assumption. If there was no such thing as people with no money, food banks wouldn't exist for starters.

Relative poverty vs absolute poverty. Very little of the latter in the UK. Thankfully.

PS two ancient cars and no holidays here, if that helps.

OP, holidays in Greece and Spain are not 'no money'. People with no money can only dream of affording to go on holiday at all.

Very little difference between middle class & working class income these days.
The only way I can differentiate class is in how people speak.

What are you basing that statement on?

Also people in physical manual jobs just aren't able to work for as long.

Their lives often change dramatically at the point they physically can't work any more

(I am not delighting in it, just pointing out that we only see people at snapshots in time)

I volunteer for a charity and we often get grant applications from people who once earnt well in trades but put little aside and then became too ill to work

Headline salary isn't everything in a career. You also get pension contributions, sick pay, and a job that is less likely to physically break you (and early retirement on full pension if it does)

Said with love, but that’s likely due to your salaries, combined for people of your age (regardless of upbringing and schooling) you don’t earn that much.

Don’t be ridiculous. You can’t possibly know this about your neighbours!

Our parents encourage us in education and professional careers because in their working live middle class professionals had better wages pensions thus better lifestyles and greater job security. That's slowly changed over time.

There's lot of media talk about inheritocracy wonder if this is starting to show up more in people's everyday lives. DH cousins who didn't do uni have stayed close to parenst and have all had considerable help with childcare keeping their costs down.

I blame Tony Blair with his stupid education education, education speech trying to get young people into studying useless degrees. All those young people went off to university instead of into trades, so we have a shortage of skilled workers and those available are able to claim premium rates.
The irony is that his son has made a fortune from a company arranging apprenticeships.

£40,000 a year is a low salary? Honestly, the things I see on MN.

Trades are earning more than before Because the cheaper labour from Europe was stopped due to brexit. Full stop

The public sector has advantages particularly as you get older, better job security
The job security in local government went decades ago. There are continual restructuring moves, or outright post deletions to lose staff to try to balance council budgets. At my previous council, 60% of the posts in my section were deleted a few years ago. I personally have been through four different restructuring/ job deletion type drives.

As per a pp money and class are not the same thing.
As we know there are lots of people who earn a lot of money but most don't. You would also be amazed at the number of people with seemingly lavish lifestyles who live far beyond their means.

Things have really changed over the past few years, don’t you think?
It feels like we’ve become a gig-based economy. The new middle class seems to be people in tech and finance, while teachers, managers, and even doctors—despite being highly educated and respected—are often treated terribly. They should be paid like they are in the US. Meanwhile, tradespeople are earning double what most others do.
Just the other day, I saw a couple of lads hoovering leaves out of gutters on our street, charging £15 per house. They had 50 houses lined up— good for them, that’s £750 in a single day! It’s hard not to compare that with other jobs that require years of training or qualifications.

It’s not low as such, but undeniably has significantly less buying power than it used to meaning you’ll feel the pinch of the cost of living on a comparable salary.

for instance, I’d be in the shit

It’s sad that you don’t realize that it is.

Nothing like a bun fight about money and class to kick start the year!

Well, it's not that simple. Even before Brexit there was a skills gap. It was exacerbated by Brexit, the increase in wages in those 'cheap labour' European countries, the lack of investment in training avenues, the aging workforce in the trades and the lack of status comparative to white collar jobs. Not just Brexit.

Edit, and also the stretch in some trades, electricians and plumbers, to cover the installation of green technologies like solar, home batteries and heating pumps.

Sorry, I mean abject poverty. Absolute and relative poverty are reasonably high, but are rather wishy washy terms defined by percentages rather than lifestyle and resources.

It’s higher than the UK median. Of course £40K is a high wage.

This is very dependent on location tbf. I'm guessing you're in London or the Home Counties. Living on £40,000 is more doable further north.