To feel depressed at financial talk on MN?

[FluffyPotato]

I understand that people sometimes have to talk salaries for context but I think some people just like to throw out numbers so that they show their middle class status to the rest of MN.

A thread I've just seen 'DH works 30 hours a week earning 60k' and someone commenting 'oh my DH earns 100k'.

I work bloody hard 40 hours a week and get about 1200 a month before tax.

AIBU to think that some MNers just like to boast their household income figures to others? Getting quite sick at how middle class mums net is.

No one I know, not one single person earns close to 27k

And that is a great shame. The lack of visibility over the opportunities that higher education other skilled career paths is a hindrance to social mobility.

FWIW I don't know many people earning under £40k at age 35ish. Ok actually one lady in fashion and one guy doing work for the council. Pretty much everyone else I know is in finance (accounting, M&A, banking, back office support (v well paid for what it is!)) insurance, law, tech businesses, consultants, dentists etc.

One guy is earning over half a mil a year and another ha smash over £15m from selling various businesses. Other people left school at 18 and went straight into jobs in the city and are earning £70k plus a little bit of bonus don't back office support. Which quite frankly is a precarious position to be in because that stuff is getting outsourced to cheaper countries more and more.

Insurance is currently the best pay to stress trade off I think.

If I had children id be guiding them into highly skilled vocations like heating engineer or to programmers. Programmers and developers are the future!

Tbh the only ones that really are toe curling are the ones where people complain about having less left to play with after tax, rent and bills than their nanny's pre tax salary or in other ways feel entitled to have thier cake and eat it (work in a niche industry with sky high salary and complain that they have to live in the south east in order to do so, where their six figure salary won't buy as much house as it would in Cumbria, so they might as well be earning less in a more portable job, so unfair... )

Also the "is it possible to live on X amount" threads where people reply that it's no problem in fact anyone should be able to support a family of 6 on a few hundred pounds per month, but slip in as an apparent afterthought the fact that they are living in that sum but that granny gave them her house in a convenient town centre location where no car is needed when she moved into sheltered accommodation and of course parents are paying to send children to boarding school and do free childcare and feed the kids each evening in the holidays...

Class and income aren't related

Hilarious.

TBF I've never divulged what I earn on MN ( though I'll admit it's high ). I suppose I would if someone asked outright and it felt pertinent.

I only divulged DHs salary on the thread OP is talking about because I was so incensed by her DHs fucking cheek.

'Don't fall for this fallacy. Patently untrue. Hard work or talent does not equal financial gain or success.'

Sometimes it does. I know some high earners, and they all without exception work crazy hours, probably double the standard 40 hour week, have studied for many years, and also have talents that most people don't. They have earned their success.

Not true in every case, but it is unfair to imply successful people have just got lucky and not worked for it.

The only thing that really gets my goat is not the large sum someone says they earn, but the fact that often they qualify it by saying that they 'work hard'.

It implies that they think people on a low income are feckless layabouts, who could be a lot better off if they got off their backsides and worked a bit harder.

It implies that they think that many people only have themselves to blame for not bettering themselves, and should stop whingeing.

Millions of people do work bloody hard at a full-time job and don't earn very much - it is rather depressing to know that others look down on you in this way.

I'm not convinced GetaHaircut - there are a couple of "wealthy* posters I see pop up again and again posting about their money and lifestyle and I always smile and read them as fiction - not everyone on a high salary, but the ones who paint you a picture... I always think MN is their role play game, they're creating a character. Those people rarely post mundane problems unless they are of the "should we build an indoor pool or a tennis court, or perhaps both but sacrifice the home cinema..."

There are lots of liars on the internet. I wouldn't believe everything you read on here

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Obviously there's a huge overlap, but think about an overeducated criminal barrister on £12-15k a year (I know a couple) or someone who inherited a drafty stately home and is on paper upper class but can't afford to maintain the thing, or sell it.

I'm not suggesting we get our violins out, but in both cases there's a discordance between class and income imo.

What was interesting on the high earners thread was that many of us didn't work that many hours above the norm.

But we all had talents/skills that were in (relatively) short supply and were highly valued by people prepared and able to pay hard cash.

A lot of people have got well paid jobs, who have got there by hard work.

But thats not to say all low earners dont work hard. Its not the simple.

Earning well does not equal must have inheritance, rich parents, well connected from birth etc

Earning lower does not equal didnt try hard enough.

drinking see if I was going to create an alter ego they would be fucking amazing!!!!

Like a spy or someone doing a lump for drug smuggling.

Yeah people do quite often only tell half the story! Just saying what you earn is nothing really. It might make a bigger difference that you get x amount of free childcare from family, or bought your home in 1999, or inherited it, or get y amount in tax credits (not trying to start a benefits bunfight, but I've seen a few posts where someone says how can you not manage on your 40k salary, we manage on my 16k salary, but of course doesn't factor in top ups).

'Don't fall for this fallacy. Patently untrue. Hard work or talent does not equal financial gain or success.'

Well, you can work EXTREMELY hard and be very talented and not earn very much if you are in a low paying industry, or one where only a very few make much money.

But the real high earners (guess i'm thinking over £100k) I know are all crazy hard working and very talented.

I look at the partners at work and think.... "nope, I just do not love work that much"

it is unfair to imply successful people have just got lucky and not worked for it.

In my experience of knowing people who earn a lot it's partly skills which other people don't have, and partly a proactive nature and being open to opportunities.

Friend is an air traffic controller. You don't have to have a degree to apply for that job - just GCSEs including English and Maths. You do have to have shit hot spacial awareness and hand-eye coordination skills though which not everyone has and which can't really be "taught". Starting salary is around £70k once you've trained.

Other friend is exceptionally proactive and always says yes. She has progressed up the career ladder quickly because yes she's happy to spend a week in the New York office to cover sickness, yes she'll come in a bit early to chair a conference call with Shanghai, yes of course she;s interested in learning a new software package, yes she'll take the new recruit under her wing and show them the ropes, yes she'll deputise for her manager during holiday, yes she'll do that presentation at a conference etc etc etc. Some people are just not good with change or taking up opportunities, they just expect everything to happen.

Career advice threads are great where people are open and honest I agree though.

Personally I'd rather my kids choose a career where they can always find work anywhere and are not tied to a location or devastated by an employer outsourcing/ going under and there being no more jobs to be found. Being on a high income in a niche field is very precarious unless it's a job that will always exist. I'd also ideally hope they find a career with flexibility to fit in with their lives, and one they genuinely enjoy at least 70% of the time.

All that is far more valuable than being able to brag or find your self worth on your pay slip or take out an eye watering mortgage.

By that list poppy I absolutely could not be an air traffic controller. I'd be shite.

I also am one who looks at people more senior than me and think "nah" because I want a life other than work.

But I do agree that many people work very hard but just will never earn big bucks. To be fair the seniors I see working their arse off day and night to the point of exhaustion and panic attacks don't earn big bucks either - party why I've no desire to do it.

If you are - for example - a carer you will work damn had but unless you eventually progress to a different role you will likely never earn a huge amount.

Some jobs pay very differently in different countries too, so there is no intrinsic value to a certain role IMO. Where I live fully qualified carers are paid over 30k as soon as they qualify, if they work full time. That's as it should be IMO - UK salaries are an absolute joke there, while other jobs earn more than they surely should be comparatively "worth" in terms of genuine knowledge base and hard work for whatever complicated reason.

If women are posting on here about how much their dh earns then they are boast cocky out there. There is always someone out there who will piss all over their chips until they have nothing.

A woman asked me how me and dp afford to send our kids to boarding well I just said we work very hard. I never talk about money I don't think its classy to talk about money. You know what I don't want some spiteful person to come and squash my things.

I know what you mean but I think you get the opposite too (competitive thriftiness)
How can you not spend £50 per week on 5 people family and eat organically?
I earn £10k per year and afford a holiday every year.

Outside London and the gilded areas of the Southeast, there will be few people earning more than £200k, unless they are very successful entrepreneurs or in highly rewarded talent-driven jobs (sports stars, television presenters). But relatively there are only a handful of such people, even in the City.

Among the more routine occupations, spread across the country many of the highest earners will be consultants and surgeons with lucrative private practices (top eye surgeons especially earn vast amounts by giving older and wealthier folk back their sight). On top of fulfilling their salaried commitments within the NHS.

Horrid you just said "we work very hard" and you think that is "classy"? You don't think that you essentially said "we're better than you"?

She didn't want to know your salary btw, she wanted you to say the grandparents pay...

I love the saying more money more problems.

The massive irony is, whilst it was something of a rude awakening to see how my salary pales in comparison to an awful lot of people on here, I certainly seem to have a lot less financial problems than a lot of posters who "ought" to be better off than me.

I wouldn't share details of our household income, even behind an anonymous username. Also remember some most of of the posters aren't quite genuine, it's also worth a perusal of those threads for the obvious ones