Where do these massive salaries exist?

[AliceinRealityLand]

I've been reading the "Are you Rich?" thread on here and some people seem to have very high salaries indeed. Apprentice candidates each year on the programme are already on salaries of 100k plus before being on the show. Plenty of people seem well off and have houses and cars that mean they are obviously not earning the minimum wage.

I do not know anyone locally (east anglia) that earns more than about £20,000 per year. There are no jobs around here that pay anymore than that. And the ones that I know earning 20k or so are teachers and nurses. Nothing is ever advertised in my area with a higher salary than that.

Where are all these 100k+ jobs?

nobody said that £100k is a measeley salary or that people living on that are poor - don't put words in peoples' mouthes.

But the fact is that people live to their means and often earning a decent salary means that you also will live in an area where the cost of living is higher than in an area where salaries are lower. Which means that you are likely to be paying a higher mortgage/higher council tax/drive a more expensive car. And with those things come higher costs - stamp duty is higher (3% on houses over £250k, 5% on £500k) it all mounts up.

And no, £100k is not a low salary. But people on £100k still live in 3 bed semi's in average areas - it's just that they've had to pay £500k for theirs because of where it is.

We need high earners in this country. Because increased earnings bring increased revenue in the form of income tax, VAT on more expensive items purchased, council tax, etc.. All this begrudgement of those that have more money gets a bit tedius after a while.

I'm a PA in London but live in East Anglia, my salary is just over £40K, DH works in City also (professional job) and earns about £75K. I know if I worked locally I'd be "lucky" to get £20K but I don't consider a one hour commute that big a deal and its worth it for the extra salary.

£26k

100k is rich. Only 3% of people earn over 60k. Many people with big houses fund them through amixture of earenings/inheritance/help from parents.

£100k is still pretty wealthy, even in London. And it would get you a mortgage of £350,000 which, assuming you have saved a deposit, would buy you a nice 3 bed house in the bit of London in which I live!

wannabe- the richer people are the less they proportionatly pay in tax

the rich take quite a lot form our economy, and often dont put much back in

eg buying property abroad
foreign holidays
offshore accounts
socks and shares in foreign companies
earnings as an ex-pat
capital gains on your own home
both council tax and national insurance stop above a certain income/size of house
they pay less vat because they save more then they spend, compared to lower earners

Also, no-one is forcing these 'i'm rich but I feel poor moaners' to live in oversized properties in overpriced areas

My Dad used to earn £120k per year as the manager of a 5 star hotel in London. We were well off (in the 90's but not stinking rich). DH is climbing the career ladder and hopes to be on similar by the time he is 40. After tax £100k is very well off nowadays (living in Surrey) but not to the yachts and mansions stage. I would be very very happy with that amount though. But to be stinking rich you need to be earning millions really. Depends what you consider rich to be I guess....

Who pays what proportion, matters not one jot when purchasing kidney machines or paying for firefighters.

The state needs lots of lolly and a minority pay most of it.

Tbh I'm not sure I understand the disbelief? I'm an accountant. To do my job you'd have to be qualified (my qualification cost over £10k) degree educated, and have around 5 years experience, working your way up from the bottom. Why would you be looking for an advert for my job anyway, if you don't do that work? It's not something you can just turn your hand to because you want to earn more than 20k. It's not advertised in the back of the local paper either.

City aside, the London not london divide is nowhere near as much as people think. My own London weighting is about 4k. I work for a nation company and my co workers in other places (Inc Cambridge) are not paid any less, although they don't get the London weighting

Personally I would say 100K income household is middleclass

Dh lives and works in East Anglia (Norfolk) he's on more than 20k but nowhere near 100k. Much nearer the former rather than the latter.
I know quite a lot of people in the county who earn way more than that. We've always felt somewhat the poor relation in that sense. (even though I know we are lucky)

If you earn 100K you can get a mortgage of considerably more than £350K. Over a certain amount earned they go on affordability rather than straight x times a salary.

Of course 100K is a feck load of money. Anyone who says otherwise is disingenuous or a twonk.

"the rich take quite a lot form our economy, and often dont put much back in

eg buying property abroad" not on £100k if they're already living in an area with big mortgage.

"foreign holidays" (VAT, air port taxes, are still applicable on those)
"offshore accounts" (again, not on £100k).
"socks and shares in foreign companies" capital gains is payable on profit from shares over £6k).
"earnings as an ex-pat" (not sure what your point is there - we're talking about people working in this country not as an ex-pat abroad which is entirely different).

"capital gains on your own home" (only applicable on second home, again, not everyone earning £100k has a second home).
"both council tax and national insurance stop above a certain income/size of house" (not any more it doesn't. The NI cap has been removed from this tax year.)
"they pay less vat because they save more then they spend, compared to lower earners" (more expensive houses, bigger cars, private school fees, foreign holidays etc...)

Lonnie - dinnae talk daft.

Your income has nothing to do with class. Plenty of VERY middle class people are on considerably less than 100K and plenty of working class on more. You can only be born into or marry into the upper class, you cannot earn your way into it.

Just seen more pages

Agree with cornish pasty these jobs dont exist in South West! I think someone on 20k a year is well off tbh

Absolutely - I agree that on 100k you could borrow more than £350k though I'm not convinced it would be very wise to do so - but maybe that's just me being overly cautious.

I didnt comment upon upperclass to be honest ab fab I was commenting on this idea that 100K is stinking rich.. I have several friends whom earns in that bracket and I do not think any of them are stinking rich to me that is a perfectly normal range of pay for a household to have.

Noodle one of our friends lives in Bath I belive that is South West no?? he earns in that bracket (works in advertisement)

How about coke dealing? Lucrative but risky. Also doesn't put anything back via taxes but you can pick your own hours.
I also hear selling party bags can reap rewards.

Lonnie - I am talking about very south west eg devon and cornwall

Lots of very wealthy people in Bath/Bristol - tend to be in the professions/IT or have their own businesses - the latter being how you get really rich in my opinion.

Not in Devon and Cornwall though most make their money out of the area and bring it here.

I live in Devon -I know of a local guy who made millions with a chain of estate agents, but it all went tits up because he was fiddling the books to pay for his Aston Martin, he was found practically suicidal by the edge of a reservoir. Not sure where he is now, but probably
unhappy.
There are probably top brass jobs in Plymouth and Exeter, maybe some wealthy hotel owners and bar owners?