“100k isn’t a big salary”

[cadburyegg]

I’ve just logged onto instagram and YET AGAIN a post comes up headed “100k isn’t a big salary, here’s why”. I’m so sick of seeing it. Most of us earn nowhere near 100k. I don’t spend my time moaning on instagram about how hard done by I am and there aren’t news articles about it. I don’t even feel like I AM hard done by. I feel lucky to be earning less than half that and to have a reasonable flexible job. I’m not going to the press saying poor me poor me because I don’t feel sorry for myself. Yet there seems to be shitloads of “awareness” posts about how shit it is for high earners and how it’s so sad they don’t have free childcare. I know people can have high expenses and I know it’s all relative and I’m probably overreacting but I seriously do not care anymore. It doesn’t mean the salary isn’t high. I’m so sick of seeing these out of touch posts. 🤯

No one is buying in London now on an 80k joint salary without a massive mortgage.
Going back in time and buying when things are cheaper is exactly an option for people.

£100k isn’t a big salary. You may be sick of hearing it but those of us who earn in excess of £100k know the realities of earning £100k. It is absolutely shit on the cliff edge to have a lot of things cut off. And you end up spending more than if you earned £99k due to the loss of benefits.

Thankfully we’ve well passed the tax trap but by god does it hurt financially until you escape it.

Also it seems you’re out of touch, following accounts talking about these sums of money. Clearly you’re not the target so you should cannot start calling it out of touch. You’re the out of touch one in this instance.

Haha. There's no way you could live in a big house with nice holidays in many parts of London and afford nice holidays and pay for two lots of nursery.

This is a bog standard 3 bed house near me. I don't live in Hampstead or Chelsea. It's nice but not swanky.

Portman Road, Kingston Upon Thames KT1 3 bed semi-detached house for sale - £775,000

Monthly repayments £4k per month on a 10% deposit. Council tax £200 pcm. Nursery fees for a mid range nursery £2255 pcm for a nine month old. Income pcm take home £5713. You could probably rent something for £3k pcm. But seriously it's not the glamorous lifestyle you're imagining and you're certainly not having fancy holidays. I'm not at that stage and never earned anything like that but can imagine people feeling they're struggling.

DD isn't interested in the boring to her high paying roles in London (a city she dislikes).

You always trot out the tax argument.

100k is a lot money.

Once you factor in all the households with a disabled person, unemployed, SAHPs, retirees, single parents, childless adults, etc it evens out all the ‘2 working adults’ households.

£100k isn’t a big salary.

For the umpteenth time - it depends where you live. It is a big salary where I live.

These posts are something you should scroll on by, but 100k is a massively different salary depending on where you live in the UK. I’m in Scotland, we earn circa 90k combined and are very comfortable. Our wages in central London would struggle to pay a mortgage and bills.

I didn't realise most of the 5% population who earn above £100k were on Mumsnet 😂

Oh yes, and they’ve all got numerous pre-schoolers in childcare, even though under 4s make up 6% of the population. It’s quite remarkable.

It's not that they're disproportionately represented on MN. Just that you're more likely to post if you live in London, have small kids and know you're not living a millionaire's lifestyle. I'm guessing a lot of those IG posters feel like that and it might make the OP feel better to know why.

Having two nursery aged children is a CHOICE. Most families take nursery costs into account when deciding re their second child. We certainly did. I know people who have had 5+ year age gaps for this reason and people who decided just to have one child.

I knew from early on I’d struggle to live in London financially so I never lived there or took a job there despite living within commutable distance.

I’m not “out of touch” because I notice posts on here or on instagram etc etc (that aren’t from accounts I follow) saying that exact same thing.

Presumably there are cleaners, shop workers, carers, etc living in London? How do they survive on their salaries? No one is topped up with UC to 100k either.

100k is a big salary no matter what you choose to spend it on.

And then they tell us that just because their four children are all in private schools it doesn’t mean they have a lot of money 😂

Problem with people like this is a complete lack of perspective and nuance. They can’t distinguish between saying £100k doesn’t stretch to what it should do in this current economy and claiming it isn’t a high salary. Don’t understand the difference between not being able to afford holidays and having to choose between feeding your kids or putting a roof over their heads. I think a lot of HENRYs tend to choose lifestyles where they are surrounded by those who are a lot richer than them so this warps their perspective.

well only 2% of population earn 100k this equates to 1.4 million people lets assume that every single one of them lives in London ( we know they don't plenty of headteachers bankers heads of council and consutants outside M25)
population of greater London and SE ( 8.8 and 9.2 milkion) so 1.4 million out of 18 million is roughly one in 16 people so 15 out of 16 people in London and SE manage with less

so much as some would disagree 100K is still in top 7% in London and South East meaning 93% have to make do with less... this is regardless of tax pension student loans etc someone on 90K will be taking home less than someone on 100k

Isn’t that literally proving your point? If you’re saying 100k isn’t enough to comfortably have two children without planning for a large gap then it’s surely not this mega luxurious salary?

There are other people saying someone on 100k would have plenty of money if they only ever lived in a 1 bed flat, but again, if you’re expecting someone to live as a couple or a family in a 1 bedroom flat on 100k then it can hardly be tonnes of riches.

Personally I think 40k is a pittance, I wouldn’t have had a family if that was the length and breadth of our income. I’m afraid people living outside their means and expecting those on 100k+ to prop their families up is grade A bullshit. It’s the definition of entitlement: you want a family that you cannot pay for.

I thought about it a lot. I emigrated instead. I worked for an international company and all clients are overseas, so I left. The whole team has gone now.

Actually, I said 100k is still a big salary. One salary. A household of 2 adults and 2 kids and 100k income from one person won’t need to pay nursery fees at all because there will be one person at home.

50k each is different, but that’s not a situation I’m talking about. I’m talking about 100k as a single income.

If you had to think about it a lot, maybe it wasn't as attractive a prospect as you made it sound in your post.

Husband works full time. I do some freelance work.

100k is not a big salary in London. It's that other jobs don't get paid well enough and in accordance with cost of living. Nobody working full-time should have to be on edge because of a 5pc increase in council tax and other bills.

You have it all upside down. Instead of bringing down anyone earning 100k, why dont you have a moan about regular jobs not paying enough to live on?

I’m not bringing down anyone on 100k. I’m saying it’s a good salary and that some people can’t seem to understand that it is.

I have two friends with ex husbands on 100k, they are very open about how they felt very privileged when they were still married. They now receive sizeable amounts of maintenance which allows them both to work very part time around their children. They still say they are privileged. Neither are struggling whatsoever and they aren’t even the ones earning the high salary! Both live in SE.

I wish I could be earning 100k

Or in private education
There is a snall minority of posters who imply that you lack ambition if you aren't a lawyer/work in finance/work for a big 4 or magic circle firm in the city. These are nearly always Londoncentric posters who are oblivious that there is a whole world outside of London/law/finance.

I say that as an ex Londoner BTW.

Not in London or the SE but even living here depending on where you choose to live £100,000 whilst a huge salary may not get you very far. Scotland so 2 bed main door flat in a very nice area offers over £560,000 which means it will sell for between £600,000-£700,000. If you were renting it then approx £2000 a month. Council Tax band E so per annum council tax £2054.28, water £339.68 and sewerage £394.13 total £2788.09 but as it’s Scotland we get a letter once a year with all three on it and the combined charges for all three divided into 12.

Nursery fees for under 3s around £1467 a month and 3-5 around £1386 a month. Definitely more manageable here if you were both earning close to £100,000 but not if one of you was.

I earn over £100k and my husband earns more than I do, but with taxes and our mortgage etc there's no way we could afford to send our kids to private school. I'm not saying we're not well off - I'm very grateful for what we've got - but the idea that everyone at this salary can afford private school is not right.