If you are minted....

[FeralBeryl]

*What is your/ partner's career or job?
*
Not a TAAT more a TIBAT (inspired by a thread)

Someone has a monthly take home pay of £11k
Not going to lie, I fully intend to suddenly obtain the necessary qualifications overnight for whatever it is. sure there'll be an online course....

I know there will have been a great deal of sacrifice, no work home balance etc. I'm not wanting to judge at all-I'm enthralled

Please.

My skills are definitely because I get on with people. I do my best to listen, be fair and treat people as I would like to be treated. I also remember the saying about never treat people badly on the way up as you never know who you might meet on the way back down. I'm a decent manager and efficient and that helps.

DH has got on 100% because of his personality and his ability to get on with people. It's no coincidence that he gets asked to move with his bosses every time and equally he has a rare combination in IT of incredibly strong technical skills, he's a pure geek at heart and excellent interpersonal skills. This combination has been key to his success for sure I an area where many senior people are not particularly technical.

Banker.

Lawyer but minted is always relative. I earn a fair bit. I have worked very hard. 2 weeks annual leave and back full time when a baby comes work until go into labour type of hard; best exam results at school and at unviersity hard rather than clubbing and drinks at university type lifestyle.

For children there are routes into this - eg people who can pass the exams etc can do what I did - pick a high paid career, get best exam results in school and university, apply to places that pay a lot, don't take time off, don't be off sick; also get on with people - as others are saying that is just as important as the other stuff. I love what I do too which obviously helps. and £11k a year would not even have paid my 5 sets of school fees and £90k a year mortgage when I had that to pay so don't assyume £11k a month net is the most mumsnetters earn by the way.

Mind you you can be happy rich or poor. I am happy because I am just about never ill and have no mental illness and I am much more grateful for that rather than stuff like my chidlren with graduate debt free, I don't have a mortgage etc. I put much more effort into staying healthy and happy (by eating well, not drinking, not smoking, not gettnig fat) than I do into work actually. The money means nothing if you feel sad or are ill.

euro hi I do cross border HR stuff too. Guessing you're Head Of inhouse or partner Big 4?

Plug Euro seems to have left us for now so can I ask you...would HR still be a good career to get into?

Agree that the money is nothing if you feel sad or ill. I imagine that many people who work the hours necessary to get to the top have phases of feeling 'sad' in that it can sometimes be miserable and stressful and the consequences for a marriage, or family life don't make you feel thrilled at that specific point....but I guess that as long as these things feel temporary, as long as the underlying happiness is there, you just take the rough with the smooth. If there is deep seated And long term which is created or feels created by work or by things outside of your control, then the money whilst helping won't compensate for happiness, or ill health. So I agree that it's so important to keep an eye on those things and make sure they are good, in as far as they are in our control. I guess the danger for people who are very driven and work focused is that those things can be lost. It might be fine to work so hard that you have no social life and never meet anyone and lose your earlier friends for a while....but it could become easy for that level of work to result in permanant social isolation, loneliness misery, if pursued relentlessly to the exclusion af all else for decades. Most would say that the wealth wouldn't have been worth it....except for those for whom relationships mean nothing...and I think that's few people. I know that most people on this thread are Mums, but what has impressed me about the posters, is how despite their success in the workplace, they do sound as if they have found a way to have a life too - people seem to have good relationships with their spouses (mostly) and to feel their kids are having a happy upbringing - notable that these things require effort and planning, in a way that perhaps work needs effort and planning too....but it does seem possible. So glad that whilst it might not be possible to 'have it all' there are people who sound pretty close to it! Fantastic juggling as well as high achievement - hats off to you all.

I think you make a very good point about finding space for spouses and relationships. There are many, many divorces in DH's field. They take their toll on work performance and finances. When one adds in a second family, possibly four or five children. That many sets of school fees, maintenance, property settlements, etc, there's certainly very little change from rather more than £11k pcm.

ChocolateWombat: Agree that money is nothing if you feel sar or ill

So very true. I can recall quite a few nights where I'd crawl into my hotel bed (at the time I was averaging 280 nights a year in hotels) and just sob. Tired, lonely, stressed, overwhelmed. Strangely, my physical health never suffered - I swear I just did not have time for it! It was when I realized that this was happening more and more often that I put the plan in place to call a time out. Took 6 months off, spent it relaxing, reading, travelling, and simply reconnecting with my family, friends and most importantly DH. I then very deliberately wrote a recipe for what to I wanted to happen next. Then followed that recipe faithfully and am still happy doing so 7 years on.

Lesson learned? Sometimes when one is so busy being successful you don't have time to stop and check in with yourself. I strongly recommend we all do it on a fairly regular basis - perhaps calendar it like dental cleanings?

Biggest earner I know is a very senior military officer!
Having g served in N. Ireland, Afghanistan and Iraq, I reckon he's earned it.

comforting yes I would actually. I think there's lots and lots of different aspects and opportunity to diversify within the 'profession'. Senior roles can pay well. Only downside I would say is it's not always very well regarded by the business....

I retrained in HR. I work in the public(ish) sector. Started on £7.5k in 2003 p/t at the very bottom. Had earned six figures a decade earlier.

I don't earn a fortune £55kish. But it is very easy, works with a family (local and flexible). Quite sure I cd earn at least double if I wasn't the family support.

It's my grounding and "pin money". I like it, it works, it makes me quasi human. I absolutely love having my own money jingling in my pocket.

We have been married for 25 years. Never once have I expected DH to pay for my hair, my shoes, etc. He wouldn't mind, but I couldn't.

There are lots of women in HR which I think can be a double-edged sword - yes a female dominated environment IMO can lead to increased flexibility but sadly I also think it's the reason it's not as highly esteemed as other parts of an organisation.

I do agree that it's fairly easy money but as it's always going to be a cost centre it will never be remunerated as much as a money-making part of a company.

But I don't need to work for money and I love my job

CW is right and in fact women who earn a lot on MN actually tend to have a balanced life as for a start we are mothers so h ave much more variety and balance than many people who just 100% work. Instead we have in most cases a marriage ore relationship and children and a full time high paid career; whereas some high earners (and low earners for that matter) may have no relationships and no children just work. On the other hand plenty of people are very happy without a spouse and without children. let us not suggest there is some nirvana of happiness in having babies and a spouse.

Also some people are only happy if socialising all the time and others very happy on their own. We are all very different types of people. I joke that my aim is to empty the house or even have one evenig a year with only me in the house. It never seems to happen. May be when I'm 80 I will get enough time alone.

I would have guessed the money in the HR kind of field is women who set up their own companies which they own which specialise in head bhunting for high paid staff in the City rather than an HR manager in a company although if you get to be on the board of a massive company as HR director you might get a high salary.

An important issue for me has always been control and power actually. Everyone when junior at work doesn't have that and by the time you've been working for a decade or two which I have and you own the show you get it in spades. if I contrast having my first children when I as very junior in my 20s and if someone said jump you'd say how high with having the last children when I worked for myself and earned more it was much easier and life now I have teenagers and work for myself is the easiest of all but I only have this time now with relatively financial success because of the decades of the hard work earlier on I suppose.

Anyway bed for me - the one thing I've learnt over the yars is that unless I get ideally 8 - 9 hours a night in bed most of it asleep I am not happy nor healthy.

Love the response me X.

IME lack of respect for HR has nothing to do with gender.

HR professionals are very important indeed. A good one can make a massive difference to a company and how the staff are managed and even how they feel (appreciated or not).

It is vital teenage girls (and boys for that matter) know what particular careers are like and very hard for them to know. My two six form age children and their friends are trying to decide now what to do at university, what careers to pick and what matters to them in life and what they want and the trouble is that changes over your life so trying to give yourself the widest possible options (which can tend to mean getting good exam results, picking a stable career even if later you rush off to run your vineyard or volunteer at Calais at least you have it to fall back on.)

Evening all,

Was traveling for a couple of days and see the conversation has moved on.

To the poster who asked where I work - I prefer not to say for fear of outing myself.

I enjoy the legal side of HR plus the human side. Finding pragmatic solutions to complex cases and bringing everyone on board is my strength. Very niche in many ways (without revealing personal details) which probably explains my salary.

I do recommend a career in HR - and I think you need a wide set of skills and personality does play a role. You need to be resilient , empathetic, have an analytical mind able to think laterally and able to read people quickly. At the end of the day I love helping people and I get to do that most days.

Also I think a lot of people with successful careers have also been lucky to be in the right place at the right time.

I think it's a mixture of luck and planning and hard work.

Financial advisers. I have worked alongside them for the past 16 years and one I provided support to for a number of years was earning £16k a month. I don't know what his take home would have been as this was on a self employed basis even though he worked for a company. He worked hard but nothing crazy a couple of late meetings a week at most

Yes, I must admit financial advisers are overpaid for what they do in light of how other jobs (requiring more training, more hours) are paid. Any jobs in finance are overpaid.

£16k a month gross is about £9300k a month net so about £111,600.There are good few people in the UK female and male who earn that - £192k a year gross.

I don't agree any job is "overpaid" as pay is whatever the market will bear and you tend to find jobs no one wants or most people are not able to do pay better.

Most teenagers including my sons' friends who are deciding careers now know finance jobs tend to be fairly well paid but not everyone is interested in money, and we all make our choices accordingly.

NOt everyone would like to have been sending work emails as I have at 7am on a Sunday as I just have for example although plenty will have already spent 2 hours cleaning the bathrooms at Heathrow airport by this time on a Sunday so I am certainly not suggesting I have a hard life.

Self employed people have higher take home pay because they pay less tax.

Self employed people and employees pay tax at exactly the same rate . Its just that some self employed people have more flexibility with how they structure their income ,which can mean they pay less tax . Its the same for people who own their own business .

Absolutely Kr1stina. DH can offset some of the costs of the business but pays high rates of tax. Also he has no sick pay, no paid holiday, no employer's pension contributions. He earns a lot, but proportionately he certainly does not pay less tax than an employed person on equivalent earnings and has less security of income.