“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. 🤯

Bollocks... it's all relative!
100k is an objectively big salary!

It's only a good salary in comparison with anyone on 40k full-time struggling and then the low percentage of people earning 100k. So it seems like a good salary. I think it should be more average in the SE.

100k is maybe good if you bought your house 15 years ago. Anyone starting out today and trying to buy a property won't feel like it's good.

I think you aren't telling the full story about your friends or maybe don't know their exact financial set up. Actually I wonder if you are trolling.

Don't you think it's wrong that people in these jobs have to do that while other people are saying £100k isn't much?

£100k is a great salary but it doesn’t buy the lifestyle people over 35(?) grew up associating with £100k any more. The erosion has been happening for years at all levels of salary of course but as a society we actually need the £100ks to feel the discomfort and dissatisfaction because these are the people governments listen to, unfortunately

Edit

the thing is that you spend up to it. We had a household income of £170k until recently yet we were in debt. If you feel poor on that amount then you likely have a large mortgage, or several decent holidays a year or private school fees, or an pricy wardrobe etc. All of these things are only possible because you do have high earnings. The main difference is choice. On lower salaries you just don’t have those choices.

Out of your 100k
deductions 31,000
pension. 8,000
Loss of 30hrs x2 free
childcare 14,500

so that’s 53.5k gone straight away

Leaving you with … possibly still more than the average household has before tax and pensions - can’t be bad

You make a lot of assumptions about people on £100k + which really shows that you have a poor grasp of reality and people’s lived experiences. You have no idea what people’s individual financial constraints are but can assert with confidence that anyone on £100k is well off.

According to you, living in London with 2 two young children is a choice. Well perhaps but there are people like me who were born and raised here and do not have family or any kind of support network in cheaper parts of the country. The MN solution to expensive housing is always ‘just move up North/to a cheaper area’ but it’s not as simple as that. Where would I ‘just move to’ with two kids in tow and a job that is based in London?

As for having children close together, some women did not have a first child until relatively late (not by choice, but circumstance) and so did not have the option to wait 5 years for a second one.

Not sure why you think all families with one person on a high salary would not require a nursery. Again that depends massively on where you live (and in some cases both parents want/need to work). In London a £100k household income will not stretch as far as it would in other parts of the country. It is just a fact. It’s not because people make frivolous life choices. It’s because a mortgage, bills and childcare can easily total £6k+ and for the reasons I’ve explained above it’s not that easy to change that situation.

This thread is so Londoncentric.

So, suppose you only had that to start with and then you had childcare, tax and mortgage to pay.

@cadburyegg Very few are privileged with £100,000! No 2 dc at private school. That would take most of the take home pay in London. Nor expensive holidays if your mortgage is £400,000. With respect, you simply don’t understand why people need this amount of money in London. Or 2 salaries that are in excess of it. As I pointed out, one salary at this level is 27% of the nation. Assuming they have outgoings and no other earnings.

What is left over is more than I get before pension and deductions 🤣

Like I keep saying I mean 100k as a single income.

If a family has one earner on 100k and one SAHP then they don’t need a nursery do they.

If a family has one earner on 100k and another working, are you saying people on 140k joint income still can’t afford childcare?

I mean 140k as a joint income as an example. Can’t seem to edit.

If someone is on 34k they would have 24k take home add to this the saving of 14.5k for free childcare =38.5k
so the household on 34k. Has the equivalent off 38.5k
the household on 100k has 48k
that’s about £800 a month more or £27 a day more which granted is a good amount but it’s not the enormous amount people assume when someone says they earn 100k

I agree with the previous poster who pointed out how poor some people’s reading comprehension is!

Anyone earning 100k who says it’s not a big salary is tone deaf, lacking self awareness or just an arsehole.

I earn 100k and it’s bloody great. I don’t have to worry about money and have a great lifestyle.

But I well remember earning a lot less and times when I’ve been completely skint.

100k..is 4 times my income..I'd take it...it's a fortune!

As stated further up thread, it is a big salary but the expectation vs reality of hitting that magic number is a bit of a head fuck. TBH with the headline figure coming into our household 20 year old me would be expecting to swim in a pool full of cash a la Scrooge McDuck on a regular basis rather than the reality of living in a nice house, driving older but reliable cars, having money for savings/pensions and having to cut our cloth for holidays and other ‘nice to haves’. I know how lucky I am BUT the cognitive dissonance of achieving the ‘magic number’ is real

It’s almost as though the most likely place to earn higher salaries is the capital and the core of many business sectors. What a shock.

It’s possible not to feel rich if you have an expensive life style. But it is still objectively a good salary akd substantially higher than the vast majority. My algorithms don’t feed me these types of posts but I’d be scrolling right past if they did

No one who is earning 100 grand would have 4 children in a private school

No it’s not

What are you spending on housing and childcare though?

Because that’s seems to be the point on which complain about it as an income - because they might have a £4k a month childcare bill, or a £3k a month mortgage for a pretty average three bed terrace.