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.

DH is the director of an engineering company, I'm 'in the city'

He got his job by very hard slog up the ladder and being excellent at his job. Mine is a bit more 'right place, right time' and having a face that fits, rather than raw skill.

We both work insane hours. For example, there was no question of DH being able to come to pregnancy scans if there was an important thing at work, and we've had to cancel holidays when something has come up for him at work.
One of my colleauges had to reschedule her c-section to be able to fit in a work thing before she gave birth, I did a conference call on the morning of my wedding and the morning of my grandmother's funeral, and was pulled up for being 'unreliable' for taking time off at short notice to attend a close relative's funeral.

You are either the sort of person who can roll with that sort of work/life balance, or you aren't. If you aren't, you won't last 6 months

Virtually everyone I know earning 'megabucks' own their own successful businesses that they have grown from small to a lot bigger. All took risks to do so - remortgaged house etc in the early days and risked losing everything, but it paid off due to them having sound business minds, and being extremely hard working.

Others are all top tier city jobs.

I'm a nurse. I've been working for the last couple of months with a new (to us) registrar who delights in telling us how much tax he has to pay, poor dear. He moans all the time about paying 40% tax to all us nurses and HCAs who don't earn anything like what he is clearly earning. One day, I got so cross, I told him 'I would love to earn enough to have to pay 40% tax' and he said 'well, it doesn't happen by magic'!!! I was so fuming with him. He was basically insinuating (like some people have in this thread) that only people who work hard earn lots of money. It's such a joke!

The fact is, on the whole, if you're born into privilege, you have a massive head start on the majority of the population. So, yes, in fact, although hard work comes into it, it's basically good luck for the majority of big earners.

I know there are people like Alan Sugar that started with nothing, but they are the inspiring exception. I work my arse off and so do all my colleagues, and we earn bugger all. So saying 'I a minted because I work hard' is insulting and offensive, quite frankly.

That is all.

I am not as highly paid now as I used to be (through choice) but I have valued massively the freedom and choices that being a high earner afforded me in the past. I have a good degree and am big four trained, then worked overseas for nine years also in big four/merchant banks. It meant that when ex H left (and I was pregnant) I didn't need his money and was able to return to the UK, educate my daughter privately - necessary for my working hours - pay off my mortgage and then take lesser roles, locally and take breaks between jobs. DD is at university now and I am working full-time again but went freelance for a couple of years and probably only actually worked four months a year - we still had a nice lifestyle. Money is only valuable for what you can do with it (in my view) and what you want out of life.

MistressPoldark - I completely agree with you.

Those of you saying their husbands are "consultants"..? What do they consult on?
Like some other posters, I also find the details of what people actually do frustratingly vague.
I find that the high ups where I work tend to sit on a lot of committees, where they discuss how to make the company more effective. They are charged with "strategy" and "development" and so much come up with ways to improve the bottom line. These ways always seem to include meaningless changes in process, and staff cuts at the bottom.
I do often wonder, if their jobs simply didn't exist, therefore saving the company lots of jingle, would it be more cost effective??
Anyway, yes, I'm curious as to what the consultants and senior managers actually do because I can't picture the day to day in the same way I get what a nurse or a plumber does.

DH is in software development. No family wealth or helping- hand . He has worked hard through school, university and has many years experience. Although he is 'lucky' I guess that he has a natural aptitude for skill that pays well. I have a similarly qualified job and work pretty hard. But it pays a lot less well

Both our families are wealthy enough (not billionaires, but a few million) so we got a massive head start. I run my own company and DH is a director. Free time is more valuable than money to me theses days, I'm winding down.

MistressPoldark
That Registrar sounds like a complete twat. I'd hate to think what his bedside manner is like.

Most people who make a lot do work hard but they don't work harder or deserve it more than other people. Even if you don't come from a privileged background at some point luck or good fortune (or a lack of bad luck) plays a part. For example, because I worked in the City it was easier for me to get a mortgage early in my career which allowed me to buy a property in London aged 26 before the prices spiralled. That was "right place at the right time".

*MistressPoldark
*
I think quite the opposite is true on here.
And nursing is completely different to medicine.

At his level, he'll be involved in a massive research project, writing a thesis, studying for exams, as well as planning a year away from his family for his placement before he does his consultant exams. He will also be paying thousands in study programmes-lots of which can't be recouped.

This on top of constant 'assessments' late finishes and that's before all the other charming extras the NHS throws at him (which I'm sure you're more than aware of :()

It is not a job you can leave at the door, it really isn't. The whole family has to revolve around it in the hope of one day things settling down.

No one is suggesting one person physically works harder than the next. It's about the context.
A domestic on a ward may slog away for 10 hours a day. But then, s/he goes home. And that's it.

People on here have done that, then gone and worked well into the night, risked their homes/marriages/fertility etc all in the name of their job. It's the responsibility and the risk that gives the big bucks.

Oh and there wouldn't be anything stoping you going for an 8b then you'll be paying 40% too
Ignore him.

I think people talking about hard work are just making the point that it doesn't just happen. I don't know anyone who has made a lot of money without also working hard - along with taking risks, making the 'right' choices, possibly a bit of luck here and there, but always with a view that what they were doing always had the end goal of making them rich.

Not all of them have been blessed with superior intelligence or academic ability, but have just been driven to make a lot of money. Others are driven by other things - work life balance, or having job satisfaction for example being more important than making money.

I'm an IT project manager and earn about 11k in six months. Clearly I'm doing something very wrong. (Mumsnetting during the day for example...)

MistressPoldark

These threads always come down to the differing definition of 'hard work'

For some people, hard work is when you finish completely physically exhausted. For others, 'hard' means only a select few are clever enough to do it and it has required a life time of study and commitment to get there.

Both are right and both are wrong, depending on the context, but it is undeniable that a medical degree and career path to registrar is 'harder' and requires longer hours, more commitment and more concentration than a career path to HCA.

Oh and just to add, obviously the Reg was being a twat btw.
Ask him would he stand next to a homeless person moaning that his steak was cold at teatime.

I work hard, but in a vocational setting, rather than in a business one. I'm always looking to expand my skill and knowledge within that setting. I am paid peanuts .

DH's job is attached to a particular gift/talent he has. Not everyone could do it, but he also works hard, is very professional and he doesn't take it for granted at all. His hourly income is almost as much as my monthly wage.

Sometimes I feel undervalued, but I love my job and I feel of real use to society, doing something that not many people want to do, as it can be distressing, challenging and stressful. It can also be incredibly rewarding, and I wouldn't swap it for something I didn't love as much, for more money.

We aren't minted, but we are comfortable and we don't really crave much more than we have.

Web/software developer and co-founder of a well known .com company. Been retired since late 30s.

DH is an entrepreneur (consumer electronics). Big BIG risks that many people would never take (and I have to support him on these risks), on the brink of bankruptcy multiple times, periods of eating hand-to-mouth etc. Always chasing, reaching, inventing, investing, long hours, utterly relentless. It's like a drug for him - he loves the pressure but it's certainly not for every one.

All the people I know who are minted run their own businesses, and refer to employed people as "wage slaves" .

MistressPoldark my husband was born into poverty and went to a shit comp so no privilege there. He worked hard to get were he is, but he is very clever which obvs helps, he chose his career because he wanted to earn a good income. I've got friends who are nurses, teachers who work very hard too. I don't think you get paid enough for your jobs.

Lawyer and senior company director. No help from parents to get us on our way.

I'm minted compared to what I was when I was growing up but I'm not minted compared to truly rich people. I'm in the fortunate position of never thinking 'I want that but I can't afford it' or 'I'll need to go without x in order to pay for y' and that's rich enough for me. I don't want yachts or loads of diamonds and I can't drive so a flash car would be useless!

I worked in a law firm where the equity partners had taken it from a high street practice to a PLC. They were recouping the financial rewards.

They all worked very long hours and took business risks. For them it paid off (so far). For other companies those risks sometimes crystallise and the business fails.

I think the majority of wealthy people will have take a risk however most will have come from stable backgrounds and a decent education. That definitely helps and sadly not everyone has that.

Commercial property development, large scale.

Interesting to see what people are doing. But I have to say, after having spent a few years thinking that I really needed and/or wanted to earn that sort of money (and was very well on the way to do that too), I'm now with Dowser.

Less money but just as much joy/happiness and the ability to do what brings me pleasure. For me, that means more time off, less worries about work, more flexibility. And better health too.

not minted, no partner.

i do have to work but i inherited a bit of money which I invested wisely.

I do spend it too though.

I was a bit at the 11k disposable income too.... parallel universes eh?

caitlin yes I agree. One of the best way to make loads of money is to be your own boss.
The risk is that, if you are your own boss, then you also take the risk of being left with nothing. A family member of mine did exactely that. Plenty of money and then absolutely NOTHING, not even his health.

The problem is, IMO, that you rarely hear about those people.