To wonder what it's like to earn £200k per year?!

[ABCD1000]

Friend's husband earns just over £200k per year, with an annual £150k bonus for the last few years! No jealousy (much!) just wonder what life would be like?!

I think it’s right to say high-earners can be, for various reasons, stressed; however, I’d also agree it’s a very different stress to people really struggling financially.
Just look at the differences in life expectancy - the poorer you are the earlier, statistically, you are to die earlier...

This thread is a bit daft. Lots of people are saying that they earn big money at the loss of family time/working long unsociable hours etc. People who earn less money also do long unsociable hours, miss first steps &'all the rest. I'm not going to feel sorry for people pushing themselves to send children to private school or pay for heating/upkeep of their big houses.

I work as a highly skilled professional with children with special needs. I have done years of further training and continue to educate myself to keep up to date with current knowledge and best practise. My wage no where near reflects the level of knowledge I have and the complexity of the issues I deal with on a daily basis. Our society doesn’t value the skills I have. If I could choose again I’d go into banking or finance, make lots of money then do a nice charitable side line so I could buy what I want, have regular holidays and not worry about bills etc. I feel like a mug.

Our income is significantly more than this. To answer the OP's question, we are fortunate enough to lead a great lifestyle - in terms of house, cars, leisure activities, holidays etc. You inevitably spend more/upgrade as the income increases although I am not crass enough to moan about tax or mortgage or school fees, and it annoys me when privileged people do so. At the end of the day money buys you choices and cushions you from a lot of life's curveballs. What it doesn't do is cushion you from all of life's curveballs ie it doesn't mean you have no problems whatsoever.

By way of an example, I went through a 5 year period of interrupted sleep every single night, usually several times a night by the dcs. That's normal people's problems. When I talked about it, some people empathised, others didn't. They either didn't believe me because they assumed our live in nanny was on call 24/7 or they inimated it wasn't a real problem because I could afford to have a 24/7 nanny. You inevitably end up with an inner circle - those who allow me to let me just to be me (and allow me to also have problems) rather than be defined by my wealth. You end up filtering what you say to people and a lot of the comments on threads like this show me why that's a good decision.

Isadora we pay insane amounts for behavioral, SP, PT and OT therapists. Most BCBA therapists in our area make $100-150k a year. One big reason why we have not moved back to the U.K. is that it's too hard to secure the right team of therapists. Where we live there are so many more that we can get appointments.

We earn around £40k between us - we have 2 cars (second hand), can afford to holiday a couple of times z year (one out of season Europe, one self catering UK) and eat out at least once a week (inexpensive pub meal). We live in a small house in an inexpensive part of the country which we now own outright (low housing price reflected in los mortgage). We buy new clothes (me from supermarket, DH from eBay). We've been able to pay for music and sport lessons for DS growing up.

I don't see that if I earned a lot more I would be inclined to be any more extravagant, however, in my 50s now I would like to have more savings or have put more money in a pension scheme and it would be nice to have the freedom to retire early, or st least to know that we'll be comfortable in retirement.

Isadora in agree its very sad but the children you support will adore and appreciate your skills.

It’s a weird society we live in where professionals working with special needs kids, etc as so underpaid though. There are a lot of people paid too much money for the jobs they do

I agree, Springprim. My parents are working class, and while my mother worked 9-5, my dad worked all kinds of odd and unsociable shift patterns to cover after school and holiday care.

My husband works long hours, granted, but they’ve improved immensely with seniority, and these days weekends and evenings are uninterrupted.

If you earn £20k pa and spend £19k, you are rich.

If you earn £200k pa and you spend £201k, you are poor!

@AIRBISCUITS

Yours children are boarding school and you say :
^^That said, I have nice shoes and handbags and coats and expensive haircuts, but I kind of have to for my job as presentation is a big part of it. Face lift probably too, in next 5 years.
I have about 2 more hours of work to do this evening now. And back in the office at 7am. And I don’t see my family all week. Every week. It’s really not easy.^^

I look at my tiny terrace , and my second hand clothes and my happy children asleep in their beds, who I pick up from school every day, and gave up my good career to do so (still work, but have three various money earning things to fit in with children) I have never felt so rich in all my life. I actually feel very, very sorry for you.

springprim my DH is an actuary which has been mentioned on this thread already. DH is a specialist in a particular type of insurance and his pay reflects this.

I used to work with HNW clients. Most either had set up their own business and done very well or were on the board of a large company. Industry wise they were financial services and property.

^If you earn £20k pa and spend £19k, you are rich.

If you earn £200k pa and you spend £201k, you are poor^

The major difference however, being that on £200k, there is likely to be a significant amount of discretionary expenditure, so there would be considerable room to cut back just a little to balance the books, and then some.

.

My dh has a property company and now makes £1m plus a year. He was always able to arrange his day to be around for children’s school stuff, mid day parents meetings etc, and doesn’t really work in the summer as the market’s quiet, all the property guys go away.

What I appreciate is being able to book an annual mammogram and other health checks not covered by insurance without thinking about it. Dh didn’t always earn so much, it was a gradual ascent and, if I’m honest, I admit I should be more appreciative generally of what I have. My friends have the same or some far more, so maybe thats why I don’t think about it. This thread has been a real eye opener for me and has definitely grounded me a bit.

If you earn £20k pa and spend £19k, you are rich

If you earn £200k pa and you spend £201k, you are poor

What utter nonsense.

The person on 20k will have 1k in their savings. It will take them TWENTY YEARS to save a year's salary.
Five years into saving a faulty boiler or roof will wipe it all out.

The person who has 200k will owe 1k and no one will care because they have a shed load of money coming in.
They will have a high value property and tons of disposable assets and if they suddenly worry about their measly overspend they and just stop buying so much stuff.

The chances of all of their money being spent on essentials is zero.

What a bloody ridiculous thing to write.

Springprim - but if a high earner said they had no sympathy for someone struggling and that they should have made better life choices, and that at their high taxes helped out the poor, you wouldn't like that at all, right?! If we had no high earners, there would be a whole lot of people who were worse off.

A bit of empathy for people isn't difficult!

aroundtheworld you make a good point about wealth being relative. Our neighbours are wealthy because our home is expensive so on that level we are no better off or less well off amongst them. Interestingly all are at least mid 40s and most older.

However I have a public sector(ish) job because I like work, earning a smidgeon of DH's earnings but a good management salary and working v hard. It would be much more stressful if I had to do it. There I Wouldn't dream of mentioning things like Covent garden or much at all about our home life.

Availability differs from profession to profession. My DH had/has no flexibility at all if he is in Court.

If you earn £20k pa and spend £19k, you are rich.

If you earn £200k pa and you spend £201k, you are poor!

at this horse shit.

*If you earn £20k pa and spend £19k, you are rich.

If you earn £200k pa and you spend £201k, you are poor!*

You are Katie Hopkins and I claim my £5!

I would love to earn that kind of money.

I grew up in poverty, very bright but lack of social mobility means I won't have access to niche jobs that allow you to earn £££.

What jobs are these btw?

Don't forget that if you're rich you can have offshore bank accounts and avoid tax so....

My husband earns more than this. It's great in lots of ways- not worrying about money etc. However, he does work very long hours in a stressful job (appreciate lots of people have long hours and stress without the salary though).

Most of our post-tax money goes on school fees and the mortgage.

I look at my tiny terrace , and my second hand clothes and my happy children asleep in their beds, who I pick up from school every day, and gave up my good career to do so (still work, but have three various money earning things to fit in with children) I have never felt so rich in all my life. I actually feel very, very sorry for you.

This ^ 100 times over!!

I work for rich people. They don't see their kids. They don't talk to their kids. They dress their kids in Boden and the kids have multiple iPads etc but their kids are sad. They liven up during their expensive holidays but then it's back to normal day to day business after, seeing their private tutors and tennis coaches more than they see their parents.

My kids build dens and do crap art with me after school.

We are far too driven by money in today's society. Don't get me wrong. I would love a little more money ( a holiday would be lovely) Driving a car that is literally falling apart when the other parents are in brand new mercs can sometimes be embarrassing (how amazing would a new car feel?) But I have the last laugh when the school letter comes out saying parents can go and watch the dance class at 1pm on a Weds. Sure. Can do that no problem!

I also feel rich and very blessed. All £ would do for me right now is buy me a new pair of jeans to replace my one and only pair that I wear every single day and are falling apart. That would make me very happy.

I am not interested in more things. The reason I would like more money is for choices it brings such as being able to work part time, or retire early. I would also like a second car mind you.

We currently have 1 car that DP and I share, so a second car would be useful. But it is the only thing I would want. I am old enough to know that most things do not bring happiness.