To feel that having nearly half of your salary taken away is just not right?

[WinnieTheWho]

I don't earn enough to pay tax & NI but my DH has a pretty good job & salary for which he works BLOODY hard. I was horrified to work out after last pay day that for EVERY £1 he earned, he only kept 60 pence. This is due to a combination of paying very high income tax and NI, as well losing all of his personal allowance because he might get a bonus at the end of the year! It just seems that if you work hard to get paid well and you are a PAYE taxpayer, the Government & HMRC will just shaft you from all angles. It just makes me wonder why we bother? So... AM I BEING UNREASONABLE?

Yes compos, but a high paying job in London could be equivalent to a job under the HT bracket elsewhere yet the person in London is still having to pay a higher proportion of their income.

YANBU at all

Large salraries are NOT GIFTED to people. They usually come after years and years of hard work, committment, dedication and with lots of responsibility and sacrifice.

The cheek of some people to have a go.

Do they bollocks

Do they bollocks what exactly OhDo ?

Money goes to money. Lets get back to when there were peasants and the elite again shall we. After all that works much better for all those deserving hard working people propping up the rest of us...

That'sdope - plenty of people work extremely hard for years and don't earn large salaries. I think lawyers have a much better lifestyle than cleaners and bin men, for instance. Or social workers or nurses.

Young lawyers/accountants and so on do work long hours - as an investment. They hope one day they will make partner and reap the rewards. That's a much better deal than working hard in a shit job with long hours.

I think you are all perfectly aware so enough with the PA and

There are many fine people who earn a lot of money and deserve every penny they get. They have worked long and hard to get where they are.

There are also very many people who have got to where they are by means far removed from hard work and dedication.

For every one that started at the bottom and put the hours in there are dozens who started at a higher level than the majority could ever aspire to.
What about footballers and film stars?

Getting paid a huge wad does NOT always = hard working.

What the hell 'the cheek of people to have a go' mean? How dare anyone point out that its pretty cool being paid a lot of money and having a lovely life?

Why cant people just be happy they have a good life? What is it with some members of the affluent classes now that they demand people see them as some sort of oppressed minority?

Actually mrsD my was directed at nothingold for her 'peasants and elite' comment.

i keep seeing on this thread the idea money = lovely life.

money obviously make the problems that lack of money causes, go away, but that is what it does. nothing else.

MrsD - footballers and actors DO have to put a lot of time and effort into getting to the top too. Ok, their 'top' is waaaaaay higher than most of the rest of us but it wasn't like they just walked into a football or acting career without any effort at all.

Ok sorry

But earning more money doesn't mean you have a better life...yes in theory you can afford the finer things in life, but it might not make you happy.

Look at some of the 'car crash' celebs...bet they'd give all the money they have just to be e.g.in a loving relationship?

Maybe I'm just naive, but I wouldn't swap my husband, toddler & bump (due in September) for all the money in the world.

Wasabi, having enough money to not worry about it takes away A LOT of problems. You know you can eat properly, you know you can go out and get a coffee if you need it, you know you can go to the gym, you can do the things you enjoy. Not saying people with money have no problems, but I know a lot of mine would be solved if I had enough. Even now, I am earning enough to not have to completely scrimp and save and it's a massive weight off my mind. I can go and see my friends, I eat healthily, I can take the bus instead of walking.

Having no money is a total grind.

Why on earth does HE automatically = affluent? The bracket starts just under £35k and depending on where you live, that may not go that far.

Getting paid a lot of money does not necessarily = lovely life either.

Wasabi
I dont think money = lovely life
I also do not think money = hard life.

That is an idea we are increasingly being expected to believe.
That, and that poor people sit in seething resentment of anyone with more than them.

Its annoying.

bumbley give me a break.

They may well have put a fair bit of effort into getting where they are. The point is it is likely to be no more or even less than someone earning NMW.

A CEO of a company might put in long hours and have responsibility for thousands of staff. Hard work I agree. But he will most probably have few domestic responsibilities, no school run, no caring role and if he makes a fuck up he will be paid off with a huge lump sum whilst the minions get slung on the dole.

How ridiculous to compare a bin man to one of the most highly qualified and pressurised jobs there is - a job that is only attainable by relatively few people to a job that anyone in reality could do. Hardly a fair test. Do you honestly think that if both do a 37hour week and work hard for that time, the lawyer should be rewarded with the bin-man's salary or the bin-man with the lawyers salary?

The 'hard' work in these two extreme cases is not comparable.

OhDo - i largely agree with you.

You are presuming that those of us who are a bit about this thread are jealous Mrs.

I seriously doubt it.
Yes I would love to have enough money so I wouldnt have to worry about funding care for my OH when his condition gets worse. I would like to have enough to pay the bills even if I have to give up work to care for him.

But I dont envy rich people. If someone has a nice life I am pleased for them. If they are well off and they dont have a nice life at least they may have the means to change their circumstances.

What gets up my nose is those who are well off and its not enough for them. They want to be well off, feel like they are victims and try and persuade the rest of us that we are somehow better off than them.

They have the choice to change it all by coming down to our level if they want. Somehow they never take that choice though.

(i have just heard on Radio 4 the pasty tax has been cancelled.)

For me, the biggest difference it makes is peace of mind. That's the luxury it gives us. We don't have other luxuries and we don't have cash to spare. But when I go shopping I make a list of all the things we need, put it in the trolley, pay and jobs done. Everytime I'm thankful that I no longer have to try and add everything up as I go along, leave stuff that I need because it costs to much, and worst of all: put it through the checkout and not have enough to pay. Being free from the feelings that having to put something back and having to choose between bread or milk is a luxury I sincerely wish everyone could afford.

bumbley - if you don't feel terribly affluent on you/your partners' salary(ies), can I suggest you chuck in the job and get a MW one instead? Honestly, you'd be amazed at the difference in your lifestyle

Couldn't agree more with MrsDeVere. Some people are so blind to the chances and hands up they've had in life.

I remember reading a quote by Nigella Lawson, from a letter to her late husband, where she said "I'm proud because everything we have, we earned, we haven't had anything handed to us."

No disrespect to Nigella, lovely cakes and that, but AYE RIGHT, LOVE. You're hardly coming from a piss-poor background with no contacts, not having gone to the "right" school, living in squalor.

It is FAR harder for some than for others. Mostly it is downright impossible.

Or is it just coincidence that the cabinet, the boardrooms and even the arsing top 40 are full of public schoolboys.

My last sentence doesn't make sense, but you know what I mean.

Having had bugger all at some points, the thing I really appreciate it not feeling sick when I get utility bills. I am so very grateful that I only had a year of living like that once I became a parent because that level of financial insecurity and anxiety is unbearably stressful.