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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to worry that DD's chosen career can only earn a maximum of £27,000??

305 replies

soups1 · 08/01/2017 09:35

dd is clever. she has 3 a-levels in maths, psychology and law. She has a lot of potential for many areas. They are not amazing a-level grades, so uni is possible but maybe having to do 4 years or just a local uni, but there are lots of jobs she could do with those a-levels and go on to earn well.

She has decided she wants to do embalming/funeral work. I don't have an issue with the chosen career (although i don't get it!) but it doesn't pay well. A maximum of 27,000 and that is a lot of graduates starter money! she is hoping to go on an embalmer 2 year course soon and a lot of the time they can get jobs through there, as people contact that school and ask for people who are finishing. i am just worried about her choice.

aibu? 27000 forever isnt that much

OP posts:
katenins · 09/01/2017 23:35

My dads family business was funeral directing. Very lucrative, we had a comfortable lifestyle and he put myself and and my brother through private education and funded 2 degrees and house deposits for us too. He employed an embalmer instead of doing it himself but it's definitely a lead into that work with good prospects in my experience! Encourage her I'd say! Smile

JangleBalls · 09/01/2017 23:36

It's not the kind of career where the work dries up

Hmmm.... I beg to differ Laidbackmummy Hmm

car5ys · 10/01/2017 00:26

My son left uni with an excellent degree got a job, eventually, and was earning good money until September when his company was bought out and he along with the rest of the team were made redundant! You never know what's around the corner and as someone else posted it's a business that always be required. I worked with someone whose oh decided to do this job and now owns his own funeral directors, they are minted.

TolpuddleFarterOATB · 10/01/2017 00:41

As someone who had a good career with great prospects, but I hated, if I had my time again I'd pick something I liked with less money, in hindsight.

steff13 · 10/01/2017 01:23

Is there really a maximum salary? Here in the US the average salary is about twice that. It's a well paid and in demand job.

KittenDixon · 10/01/2017 02:16

Very solid and respectable line of work. Pretty secure I would have thought.

Chance to establish a family business too if she wants to take it further, a business that could set up future generations very well.

A chance to make a real, human difference to people at a very stressful time for them.

If she is comfortable with death, it could be a line of work that makes her very safe, secure and fulfilled.

Kika2901 · 10/01/2017 07:31

I think you are being unreasonable and possibly insulting to all those people who earn 27k and less. Many of whom are teachers and nurses and graduate doctors earn less than this as their basic salary. £27k is a respectable salary and who is to stay this career is not just a stepping stone to something else anyway. She could end up owning her own funeral home!

Yvemen · 10/01/2017 08:09

In your opinion.

I cannot speak for other locations. As a Londoner with one child, 'just above the UK average' equal just making ends meet.

Yvemen · 10/01/2017 08:14

Agree - life has its own twists and turns and you could end somewhere you never even imagined!

I am also a single mum, I am on £28k! With nursery fees, rent and basic outgoings we are fine but we definitely could be better! Maybe I should move to where you live.

Also I graduated with a 1st I'm Marketing. It's very very tough out there, some of my friends are still looking for their break. But £22k -£30k is usually the starting salary

Scaffleen · 10/01/2017 08:21

I totally understand but if it's what she wants. As long as she knows all the pros and cons. I have an honours degree and a masters and I'm now at the top of my salary band at £24k. I could earn more if I went sideways then up but I love my job. I never set out to do my job I just fell into by accident but it is the best job I've ever had. About 5 years ago I made the decision to be at peace and not climb the career ladder. Many people may see that as giving up. Both my parents were extremely career driven and I just don't want that. I'm so happy to live my life now and not work my whole life in a stressful job to get a brilliant pension. Live in the moment is what I say.

ShatnersWig · 10/01/2017 08:47

Christ I only earn £20k per year, I'm 42, own my own flat (mortgage £315 per month), have a car that's only 3 years old, savings of £14k in the bank.

Admittedly, if I was in London, I'd be in a house share and eating baked beans. But if I was earning £27k I'd be rolling in it, as I'm not extravagant.

What's important is that she is HAPPY and FULFILLED and has enough money to live on.

MrsC45 · 10/01/2017 09:20

Hi, I agree with rainbowshine, £27k is not a likely or at least not an average salary. I note she's done law, if that's something you think she should be doing then bare in mind that virtually no firm would want someone with mediocre A-level results (no matter what she got in a degree, they'd still want good a-levels). Legal jobs are constricting with government reforms, and even before reforms, getting a training contract was very very hard. Plus the debt accumulated with a degree today is massive. I think you should be very glad that she's got a focused plan, plus it's her desicion so just be supportive!

goose1964 · 10/01/2017 09:54

at least she will always be needed

trannywhitherwax · 10/01/2017 10:18

I noticed that someone said the work would never dry up. Not necessarily true but at least no one can see it happening.

BabychamSocialist · 10/01/2017 10:32

Well I can't see why work would ever dry up - people might go for full on cremations but I think there'll still be a desire for bodies to be preserved and made up so that families can mourn and pay their respects for a week or so in the chapel of rest.

As they say - two thinks in life are certain: death and taxes. When we were at school they said the best two careers to go into were accountancy and funerals, if you didn't know which career you really wanted. Must say, I've never known an unemployed accountant or funeral worker!

EnglishCow · 10/01/2017 11:13

She can then set up as an undertaker, lots (and I mean LOTS) of money in that and you will never run out of customers...

1DAD2KIDS · 10/01/2017 11:20

Plus remember that people in city jobs often spend a fortune on their rail season tickets, commute long hours and/or have to buy/rent very expensive property just to be near work. Depending where you live 27k can go far.

Also I think a lot of middle class/baby boomers don't realise the game that served them well has changed and is about to change again. Gone are the days that a degree = almost guaranteed white collar job. So many of those jobs have already gone but far more young people have a dregree. So now the supply is far more than the demand in most fields. Also understand like the baby boomers kids today start their career in huge negative figures due to student loans. The world has changed but for a lot of people they realised this. They still a world where degree = stable white collar job, good pay and pensions.

Also we are on the verge of a new technogical/industrial revolution. In the not so distant future computers/robots will be taking so many traditional white collar and blue collar jobs across the board. Already on of the big Janpanise banks aims to slash its numbers of Bankers with computers that work with complex algorithms. The only people who will truly be in demand will be the technicians and engineers or people with bespoke skills like taxidermy. These are the people who will inherit the earth in the not so distant future.

It sounds a safe future proof option to me. Plus it pays ok and she will be in a job she enjoys and is (a least in my book) very well respected. What price do you trade enjoying your work and life?

1DAD2KIDS · 10/01/2017 11:21

Unlike the baby boomers*

Mrseds · 10/01/2017 18:40

My dad has recently started working for his friend at a funeral home, and they have to hire some one out to do the embalming, if she becomes good at her job she will have no problem earning a decent wage and going freelance. If your worried maybe talk to some one in that field give you more insight

Biscuit15 · 10/01/2017 23:07

If your daughter wants to have children then she will most likely find a husband. If both of them earn 27,000 than that's 54,000 and is obviously a good salary (although he will most definitely earn more for doing the same job). I really do not understand why you are so worried about your child's earning capacity? Cut your cloth according to your means,

JaxingJump · 10/01/2017 23:14

27k wouldn't buy the lifestyle and freedom I hope for my children so I understand how you are feeling OP. But it's out of your hands as it's her choice. She may pack it in for something completely different after 5/10/20 yrs anyway. Maybe she'll be a SAHM and earn no income! None of these are bad things. But they are her choices to make.

JaxingJump · 10/01/2017 23:16

Biscuit do you really not wish for your children to be financially comfortable and worry free?

BagelGoesWalking · 10/01/2017 23:22

Just to add, my DS 25 lives in N London, shares in a lovely new flat. His salary is less than 27k atm, he gets a car with his job and expenses when he's not at home. He therefore doesn't have to pay for his own food some of the time but manages to live on his salary and to save a little bit every month, so it's definitely do-able, even in the capital.

5moreminutes · 11/01/2017 06:47

Jaxing lots of people on high salaries don't have a lifestyle I'd want for my kids nor what I would consider freedom because they work ridiculous hours, are permanently "on call" answering emails/ phone calls at home, unable to actually take their annual leave properly, unable to be there for their kids if they have them - earning a high salary might be the be all and end all to some people but a high salary does not mean a better life than a just above average lifestyle and a job you enjoy and can do 37.5 hours per week and have the rest of your time without work hanging over you, to do with with as you choose!

BarbaraofSeville · 11/01/2017 06:55

YY 5moreminutes. I could probably be good at the type of banking jobs that require STEM graduates (I have a first in Chemistry and a real affinity for numbers) but I have zero interest in a career that requires long hours and poor work life balance so have not even considered this route.

However, I do some investing and other stuff more as a hobby really that makes a few hundred pounds a year - it could be more if I had more spare cash but have recently spent up on a house extension and a regular foreign holiday habit, which includes a rather expensive sporting activity.

It seems the 'security and freedom' that many people are arguing a salary of £27k doesn't buy is largely based on not buying the ability to live well in or near London.

In most other places in the UK, especially if the DD has a working partner, it buys quite a comfortable lifestyle, providing that she doesn't have ambitions on a ridiculously consumerist or millionaire lifestyle.