Does everyone on MN earn loads of money!?

[whatsausername]

for context, I earn 27K per annum and so does my husband. We have one DC. We are early 30s.

I just feel all the posts I read on here more or less everyone is loaded. Don’t get me wrong we can comfortably pay our bills but we have to save for anything big (holiday Xmas etc)

we still private rent. I’d love a mortgage but it’s not gonna be in the next 5 years for us.

everyone on MN seems to have huge houses, loads of holidays and multiple DC’s 🫣

I find it funny that no one believes the high earners exist. My husband and I both earn around £100k each working in financial services. I have time to write this post as I’m currently on mat leave. But the way some people go on, they are determined I must be lying.

I don’t doubt minimum wage earners exist and post on here, so why are so many people determined us high earners are all bullshitters? I understand statistically there are fewer of us, but that doesn’t mean we don’t exist or dont have the need or capacity to post on Mumsnet. We are, after all… regular people!

@HoLeeFuk I think plenty of that goes on too - some people get a buzz from ‘agitation’ as well by posting non existent first world problems designed to piss off others- the reverse is true I think too , posts on the how poor am I designed to make others think ‘get a job’ or stop fleecing the state - I’m not sure who is at this ‘journalists’ maybe in some cases and I use that term loosely or paid and non paid political agitators maybe in other cases? Mumsnet a big forum with a big reach and hence I suspect it’s used for subliminal ‘messaging’ - I do think you have to take everything with a pinch of salt - look at the numbers of threads they have to take down or the amount of name changing on totally non outing threads .

I remember that poster, and the one who made out they lived in a tiny posh village where the children all did nativities for the village and they had huge gammon feasts 🤣 ahh good times.

Tbh I dont believe anyone on MN who makes a point of saying they are a high earner

To be honest I don’t see this, I see a mix , which is in line with the demographics and more to thr lower earner end, you see it on so many threads, col on. There are high earners, but they seem a small percentage as you’d see in real life. I certainly don’t see a lot of predominantly wealthy people posting, I see more people posting about col, living in rented or small homes, struggling etc. so basically a standard demographic split.

I wish!! We’re lucky as we’re not in debt apart from having a mortgage, but we live month to month and I worry constantly about not being able to help my kids in the future. I heard on the news today that average rent in the uk is £1600 pcm 😱

Nope not everyone. I feel if you said where can I get a nice pair of trousers everyone posts links for places I could never afford 😂 I do have a mortgage and I tell you we worked so hard to get there, we definitely appreciate what we have a lot more because of the time and effort it took so hang in there u will be the same! 8 years in and we still say can’t believe this is OUR house! X

I don't think that's even the Minimum Wage. Are you sure you've got that right?

I don't think so. I'm a lot older than you, lots more work experience. I'm a single mum, so pay for everything myself. I earn £50kish working full time.

I have a house, but I watch every penny, cook from scratch every day because it's cheaper, take my lunch to work, eat out about twice a year and keep my cars for a decade. I have a hollow-legged 17yo ds who eats for England and is well into men's clothes - hello VAT.

So no, not loaded. I'm keeping my head above water.

Currently freelance, £20phr based on 40hrs. So £650 take home a week. But that's PAYE via agency and not entitled to sick pay or holiday pay which is normally ok for me as rarely sick and only one holiday a year. But then Mum sadly passed away and I took a few days off here and there and did a lot of three and four days weeks which dropped pay down significantly.

Also, its hard to talk about how much you are struggling because you get accused of trying to get people to give you money.

I have serious financial problems that I would love to be able to talk about because its horrible and I would love to share how I feel and my fears and how stressed i am and get some moral support abd, if im being honest, throw a bit of a pity party and get some sympathy 😁 but I cant because ive seen enough threads to know how that would go!

You cant talk about serious poverty struggles without being called a scammer and you can't talk about being very wealthy without being called a braggart with no empathy for your privileged position and how it might make those struggling feel .

Not that we could talk about how it makes us feel because, well, see above 🤷‍♀️ 🤣

Its best to avoid talking money altogether and post pictures of kittens.

It's funny I think the opposite, everyone seems to be struggling. Maybe I read different threads. Truth us my DH earns a lot, 250 to 300k and my income is low and I work PT. I rarely post anything about my lifestyle or financial situation because I find MN is so judgemental about women who don't equal their partners salary. Posts that suggest you are well off invite snarky comments about being tone deaf, or insensitive.

I think it very much depends on age as well. I'm 58, DH is 63. We earn reasonably, but we are towards the end of our working lives. We finally paid off our mortgage last month. 25 years ago we earned far less, had two small children, childcare costs and a (proportionately) high mortgage.

We can't afford to retire early and neither of us are in final salary schemes. I'll be working for the next 9 years and also trying to save like mad as my pension is career average, and I had several years of part time work on relatively low FTE income.

If I'd been on MN 25 years ago I'd have been marvelling at all the people on (the equivalent of) 6 figure incomes. I'm still nowhere near that bracket but several of my friends are, so I guess it's mostly women in their 50s and 60s on here who are reflecting those sorts of incomes and lifestyles.

Working full time in a well paid profession for 35 years is what got you a huge pension, not such generous schemes around now except in the public sector.

National minimum wage is £23.5k (based on a 37 hour week) so you're not much above that. Therefore, yes, it's likely that most people who work fulltime will be earning more than you.

We do ok, I earn minimum wage part time and my husband is a bit above average. Mortgage, 2 kids, can afford to food shop without budgeting, own pets and buy school uniforms but when it comes to replacing the kitchen we will have to remortgage. We will never be able to save £10K+ in 2 years no matter how much we cut back.

House is an average size, kids have their own reasonable sized rooms, it's not massive, not pokey.

We are pretty much the definition of average!

It absolutely seems like it OP.
Threads like asking how much money people can pull together in a few days and it's well over 100k in most answer, thank god for a few who can pull together £500.
I worked in recruitment and HR until quite recently and don't think I've ever come across any jobs recruiting for over 100k, I've recruited for many high profile jobs.
Everyone I know earns around 25k-35k.
Obviously they are out there but they are definitely not the norm.
I don't think people are lying as such (probably some are) but I assume threads discussing money attract people with money.
I do have a decent disposable income and a good chuck of savings but that's because we live in a low cost area and I love to budget.
I do know one person who earns over 700k annually in sales but everyone else in my life (which is full of all different kinds of people) aren't well off.

I didn’t use to earn much but doing much better now. I don’t see the point of sharing my salary details on an internet forum though. I also find all the ‘higher earner’ posts a bit braggy and pointless, just like the ‘we have £7850 per month retirement income, is that enough?’ They know full well it’s enough so why even ask?

My guess is that MN has a London bias so then might have more higher earners. But there will also be plenty of people just making stuff up.

I don't think so. I see it as full of benefit cheap apologists, and those who think anyone remotely disabled shouldn't consider working...ever...

In reality it probably is a fairly balanced view of people but different type of post will attract different type of posters.

No, but those who do absolutely love to talk about it.

No. Most posters who claim they earn six figures sums are fantasists. People with careers that pay these kind of salaries would not be spending their time on Mumsnet.

I think saying where you live is relevant, as it where you are in life.

Well paid posters might wonder how we manage to live on so little, but our house is paid off, our paid off solar panels mean we have low energy bills, we own our car outright and DD is a student so we don't have childcare to pay for. We do pay her rent for now but that won't last forever.

And more importantly, we don't live anywhere near London.

100% Agree. A couple of people in my social circle earn in the 6+ figure bracket. They dont have time to sit online posting on internet forums all day long. They are far too focused and driven and well...busy lol

my other half earns well into 6 figures, nearly 3 times what I do, and his annual bonus will be more than most people earn in a year if he meets all his KPIs....I can assure you he has way more time to browse the internet than I do!!

People tend to post more, and also be noticed more, at the extremes.

So there's people who have very high incomes, and very low, and they tend to spark more discussion than the 50th centile does. But also on MN there's often people who feel their income is unrepresentative of their circumstances, hence posters who earn what sounds like loads but whose private rent and childcare in London swallow it all, and posters on low incomes in low COL areas with minimal living costs and high disposable income.

Not me.

Social housing
Universal credit
carer for 1 DC who is disabled