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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask you all how much you get paid?

664 replies

UnderWorkedOverPaid · 20/02/2011 11:36

Name-Change if you want to - I have. AIBU to be curious what other people earn?

I am a nurse. Qualified 6 years. Work 30 hours a week.

I earn about 25k (with unsocial hours etc added in)

OP posts:
GMajor7 · 21/02/2011 13:59

My point was that why not do less of the hobby, the art, the music or whatever and keep it as a hobby and do an interestnig day job you love that pays well too and that plenty of people do manage that and it's quite a nice compromise

Interesting Day Job
That you love
That pays well

Er...sorry which jobs would they be then?

freshmint · 21/02/2011 14:05

oh come on there are lots gmajor

lots of people like their jobs

lots of professionals do - architects, doctors, lawyers (not all lawyers hate their jobs by any means) and they do alright (well architects aren't paid brilliantly but OK)

lots of entrepreneurs love love love their jobs and many do very well

I think the key is control. If you can ensure that you can control your life - by working for yourself or becoming senior enough to call the shots - it becomes much easier to run your life how you want

GMajor7 · 21/02/2011 14:06

Agree LRD.

I work 1-2 nights per week and am able to look after young DD during the day.

I look around my house and see that altough I earn little, I have a mortgage, nice home, I run a car and DD is well clothed and fed. I'm not sure what I would do with an extra 200 grand per year. Do I really need it.

I have had 'well paid' (er £30K, but that IS well paid to me Blush) jobs before, but you only live once!

You live within your means, whether it be 5k or 500k Smile

GMajor7 · 21/02/2011 14:08

Agree Freshmint - you have misunderstood my point in relation to Xenia's earlier posts.

JaneS · 21/02/2011 14:09

fresh, I don't think that's quite the point. The point is, for loads of things some people want to call 'hobbies', there's not a natural lucrative job in the same skill/interest area. Some people are lucky, and their job really matches their interests. I bloody love what I do. But I suspect if someone really wants to be poring over Homeric pottery, or singing at La Scala, working in Barclays isn't going to cut it.

freshmint · 21/02/2011 14:09

ok sorry

such a long thread I don't know what anyone is referring to!

will shut up Grin

wordfactory · 21/02/2011 14:10

I do think, though, that one needs a base amount to be happy. And that amount is ever increasing (particularly for those with DC).

One needs enough to cover all outgoings independently, to ensure there is enough in retirement (I for one don't see state pensions surviving this government).

And now ther eis the thorny issue of higher edeucation for our DC. Most of us would like to earn enough to see our DC through that wouldn't we?

freshmint · 21/02/2011 14:11

ok yes I agree

I have a good voice and would have loved to have been emma kirkby had the job not already been filled Grin

but I do realise that I am unlikely to be emma kirkby when I retire at 55/60/65/70

I may, though, be warbling away in the local choral society which is not the same thing at all

freshmint · 21/02/2011 14:12

yes
four kids
£10k pa (bound to be at least that, certainly more but for the sake of argument)
3 years each
another 3 years for the one who wants to be a doctor

£150k please madam, out of your after-tax income if you please

and that is ignoring the thorny issue of accommodation and maintenance

GMajor7 · 21/02/2011 14:13

Yikes!

JaneS · 21/02/2011 14:13

Grin at the warbling.

I do agree it's about control - even if that just means knowing you can get a job, it is horribly depressing to feel you've not been equipped for anything and you're getting tossed from pillar to post trying to find a place. I had a (luckily, short) period a bit like that and it was absolutely horrible.

GMajor7 · 21/02/2011 14:14

Tra La La Grin

FioFio · 21/02/2011 14:15

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minicorrect · 21/02/2011 14:19

I must be unusual in that I plan to encourage my DC to only do work they believe in - it shouldn't be about the money. I won't push them to go to uni (I hated it and don't feel I gained anything by going) and wonder what it would be like to live a different sort of life where it isn't about owning a house and having lots of nice things.

I was pushed to do better than my self-employed parents but they have just built a lovely house in France (mortgage-free), have a rental property in the UK still, a lot in savings and retired early. They worked hard and had some tough times, but we were all privately educated at primary level and had foreign holidays every year (in a caravan!). We didn't have swimming pools like many of our friends but I had a great childhood before I hit my teens and it became all about grades and going to uni to get ahead.
I think the simple things in life are often overlooked for the bright sparkly, capitalist agenda.

clevernamechange · 21/02/2011 14:20

Thanks for the support for doctors and nurses :)

Have to say starting salary pretty awful (really is 21k for a lot of hours outside of our contract + immense responsibility) but for doctors at least our projected end salary is good (I feel commensurate with the risk and responsibility). I will hopefully be on 100k+ (surgical speciality).

I would only encourage my dcs to do this if they loved it - there's a lot of crap with it now and can work in other careers for equal pay.

FioFio · 21/02/2011 14:22

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wordfactory · 21/02/2011 14:22

mini I agree that happiness should over ride averice...but I just don't believe one can be happy if one spends the majority of time worrying about lack of money.

I have a horrible feeling that bu the end of this governments term, tax credicts will be a thing of the past, as will any state pension.

Thus our DC will have to provide for themselves or prepare to live hand to mouth.

minicorrect · 21/02/2011 14:24

And what I forgot to say there was that I don't see what my parents have as achievable these days, although I'd love to work for myself in something I cared about, but not for the money, just for the satisfaction. And when I look back at my childhood, what I remember is playing in the garden, going to the beach, swimming in the sea and the occasional day trip to London museums. Nothing expensive.

sheeplikessleep · 21/02/2011 14:24

self employed market research consultant, £42k in the year before i went on maternity.

wordfactory · 21/02/2011 14:24

And whilst living in a shack might seem like a nioce idea, when one needs emergency dental care one will need enough cash to pay for it...or life will be bloody awful.

wordfactory · 21/02/2011 14:27

Our parents had free healthcare, including dental care.

Houses were affordable, and there were lots of council properties.

Uni was free, often for two degrees.

Many jobs were for life.

Our DC will not have these luxuries.

BeeMyBaby · 21/02/2011 14:30

£18.5k as a secretary, 35 per week, DH looks after DD.

candleshoe · 21/02/2011 14:43

word factory - I am crying now Sad

wordfactory · 21/02/2011 14:58

Sorry Grin I don't mean to be pessimistic.

I just think we need ot be honest about the world our DC's are likely to inherit and equip them accordingly.

hmc · 21/02/2011 15:05

Spot on Thomas Bodley, I find it stunningly unimaginative when people assume they would be intellectually under stimulated if they didn't work....