Do I have salary dysmorphia?

[sausagedog2000]

Until last year I was earning £32k a year. I moved to a new company and I’m now earning £46.5k doing the same job.

I am obviously very grateful for the jump in wages but I still feel like I’m falling behind everyone else. I know that comparison is the thief of joy but everyone around me where I live seems to drive brand new range rovers, have expensive hobbies and multiple children which I definitely couldn’t afford. I don’t even want these things tbh but I’m wondering what jobs people are doing to afford it all.

This isn’t a woe is me post and please no MN pile on about how I should be grateful because I am. Not really sure of the point of the post tbh. Just feel as if I should be earning more when I see other people’s lifestyles.

I assume all white Range Rovers are heavily financed.

Get off MN as the life styles on here are really not the norm for most people ,

That may be part of the issue, yes

Where we live everyone seems to have a new Range Rover. Dh and I have a household income of probably £150k and we drive old secondhand cars (mine is 16 years old! 😂). The people I know who are driving new luxury cars do not have an income as high as ours…or yours.

I assume they have a lot of debt. Or in one case, a school mum who drives a £100k+ custom car, but is a single parent with no obvious 9-5 job, have, er, income streams I’m not privy to, if you get what I mean. Personally, I definitely couldn’t afford a Range Rover on £46k a year.

We do have 2 children and we all have expensive hobbies. But they didn’t happen overnight. That said, I think people aren’t necessarily good at judging what others make. If I told you our jobs (I am in education and retraining now as a therapist, Dh is in a trade but he owns the company), you’d not guess we have the income we do. So I bet look at us and think, how can they afford all those hobbies?!

It can’t be news to you that some people earn high salaries. I mean think of all the doctors, lawyers, high up finance workers etc
I know plenty of couples where both are earning at least 100k.

I think a lot of it is inheritances rather than salary. A woman I know who has never worked inherited millions from her father, for example. She's just an ordinary person with no particular accomplishments yet she has an expensive home on the South coast, another one abroad, and a face full of plastic surgery as well as a big expensive car. You'd wonder how she could possibly afford it all if you didn't know about the inheritance. I know quite a few other similar women and none of them ever talk about their trust funds and you're left scratching your head until someone else tells you.

A lot of it is on credit, and you don't want to go down that road.

Thanks for the replies. I’m not bashing high earners btw - I want to be one. Just wondering how I get there!