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?!

The tax is 45% after £150k and you lose your personal allowance after £100k.

I guess it would be life, adjusted to 200k per year.

Idly curious, what made you choose that username today?

He works very long hours in the city.. very stressful job. Huge million£ house with no mortgage.. kids but not in private school.. no flash car.. they aren't flashy.. wouldn't know they had money unless you knew them well.

What job do you do @Airbiscuits?

“Different pressures, different expenses and for most still a fair amount of stress and worry about money”
If you stress about money while earning £200k you are doing it wrong.

“more often than not your expenditure goes up with your income” oh, FFS, only because it CAN and you CHOOSE it that way.

And this stress thing...you know people on average salaries can also have to work all hours, under immense stress?

“honestly its brilliant. I have lots of money, I dont have to worry about finances, I can treat my friends and family. I'm grateful for it every day. I work really hard but I'm lucky that what I work hard at doing earns a lot of money rather than, say, teaching” Resoect to ChestyLaRue for being honest, upfront and appreciative of high earnings.

Dh earns 200k pre tax (no 150k bonus though) and our day to day lifestyle is actually quite cheap. We live in a small rented house (London) because even with a big salary London house prices seem terrible value.

The biggest difference is that we save lots of money. 50-80k per year into savings. Dh doesn't expect to earn this much forever, so we are saving now. Would like to buy a small house outright outside London in future, and have a private school fund, both of which are looking achievable.

We've kept our day to day spending at the level of someone earning less though. I think it you start spending to your big salary day to day, you then become too reliant on that big salary.

Dh has a friend who also earns 200k and spends everything. No savings, no assets, they are renting. Some nice holidays, meals out, but nothing hugely ostentatious. You can go through money surprisingly fast!

This friend is prob at peak earnings now, so may struggle with reduced income in future, if spending that much is normal. That's why we don't want to "upgrade" our day to day lifestyle too much.

The other nice thing is that if you do want to buy something expensive as a treat, you don't need to save up. You just buy it. I really like that. We don't buy loads of treats, but it's great to have the option.

Ahh I dream of this all the time! Me and DH often play the "what would you buy" game! The last thing I mentioned was the brand new cordless Dyson.

His DF overheard and bought us one just because he could! We ourselves are on a slightly above average income but both sets of parents are quite well off so we are fortunate in that respect. We would always have help if we needed it but manage pretty well ourselves (considering only one of us is working!)

The Dyson is the BEST thing EVER!!! I use it every day out of sheer joy and excitement!

It would take me many years to earn what he earns in a year. I’m very envious and can’t imagine what it must be like not to worry about money. My life would change dramatically. I’d be able to pay my mortgage off and stop working after 2 years of earning that salary and bonus.

That money seems ridiculous to me, the bonus alone would clear my mortgage at 24.
It would allow us to buy a rental property for the future; save for the DC, enjoy life without a thorough income and expenses spreadsheet and more.

DH earns a bit over half that. His bonus is about £15k. We live comfortably but I wouldn't say we were rich (I know it sounds crazy - if the me of 10 years ago could hear me say that I'd laugh!). We can afford one holiday a year and no nice cars or private schooling. For £200k a year plus £150k bonus even after the huge amount of tax we'd be very well off indeed!

I just worked it out at about £9750 a month after tax and NI plus £80k after tax for the bonus (that includes the loss of personal allowance).

Wish all these people on £100k plus would stop moaning about how little free time they have.

I earn bugger all yet still have to spend numerous evenings and weekends working, in addition to the daily 8-6 plus commute.

My brother and his wife earn not far off that. No mortgage despite living in central London because they have a two bedroom apartment where they could easily 'afford' (mortgage) a lot bigger. They still fly easyjet and have modest holidays. I think they cause themselves less stress by not maxing out on must haves. All it takes is illness or redundancy for the house of cards to come tumbling down.

guess because I've worked as a debt and benefits advisor and seen loads of people cope really badly with a sudden drop in income- I'm personally really careful to keep my fixed costs low.

This is a great point.
We keep our fixed costs far below our income.
I think that's the key to feeling happy with your finances, having plenty of leeway.
So a big salary is great if you keep your fixed costs at more normal levels.
If we increased our fixed costs it would feel awesome for a few months, then very quickly become "normal" and we'd be stressing about not having enough furniture to furnish our mansion (I know a wealthy person who actually said she had lots of stress buying enough furniture for all her rooms when they moved to a much bigger house....).

My dh is in the army, doesn’t earn much at all, his job is unbelievably stressful (Afghan/Iraq), he is away from home more than he is here, his days are always different, sometimes he starts at 7, sometimes 8, but there are days it will be 4am. He has watched friends die “at work”.

I get really cross when people who earn big salaries say, “I work very hard and under a lot of stress for my salary”. Insinuating that people who want 18k, 25k, don’t.

That kind of money would be incredible, life changing!!

I earn about half of that before tax (I’m 30). I work about 60 hours a week at least and I am always available (weekends, holidays, I can never turn off). My job comes with a lot of pressure and responsibility. But no money stress, I can buy whatever I want and go to places I’ve always wanted to go to.

I grew up poor and saw first hand the stress of no money has on a family. My parents are brilliant and are still together but 90%of their arguments were caused by lack of money to pay for basics/tiredness after working 12 hours a day for very litttle/stress from feeling guilty they couldn’t provide me with everything I wanted. I still remember my dad foregoing meat at dinner sometimes so that I could have it. I never ever want to go back to that.

My DH is a high earner.

Getting to his current position required multiple moves, including international moves. It requires extensive business travel (international; sometimes gone for weeks at a time), so he's missed birthdays, anniversaries, etc. It meant that I raised our children basically alone in a city where I didn't know anyone, and once I settled in and made a friend or two, moving again.

I do like that we can just pay for uni for kids, and having a reliable car. My favorite luxury is being able to buy any thing I want when I'm grocery shopping without looking at the price.

I envy people with a circle of friends and normal jobs.

Our household income is in excess of that. Honestly, I felt better off on 30k in my first proper job as a graduate than I do now. I had fewer commitments then.

We need a nanny to enable us to do our jobs and that is expensive. Mortgage, pension, etc eat a fair whack each month. We also save as much as possible.

We don't live extravagantly. We have a six year old secondhand car (albeit a nice one) and this year our summer holidays were a few days in Center Parcs and a trip to an inlaws' house in France via EasyJet flights. We're not exactly lighting candles with spare fifty pound notes.

We are however very comfortable. We don't think about what we stick in the weekly shop (I can remember as a student having 10 quid for food and having to add everything up on the way round). If the boiler or washing machine breaks it's an inconvenience rather than a serious issue. When we needed ivf treatment we could fund it and didn't have the trauma that some do of giving up on having a family due to money. I found living on a very low amount in my younger days extremely stressful so I do fully appreciate how lucky we are.

I earn about that. Honestly I'm grateful. I'm a single mum and it means I don't have to ask my dd's useless assclanger of a father for money. I can afford a live in to help in the house and do most of the school runs etc.

I don't think anyone is saying that those who work in different, less well paid jobs don't work very hard. Just trying to explain that money alone does not create a life which is stress free, where we all spend lots of time swanning about spending money on luxury items.

I know a lot of people who have joint salaries at this sort of level. Most have financial concerns of some sort just the same as they did when they earned less. Of course it's a choice to have a larger house or to use independent schools, nobody is disputing that.

How do you begin to earn that. I worry monthly about how much I'll be overdrawn. Whether I can pay the mortgage.

Oh well. Well done to those of you who do.

Sounds and looks great on paper but I can imagine spending what I earn and also the tax on massive bonuses and salaries practically splits the numbers in half.

Good luck to them, I really hope they are enjoying every bit of it, and not moaning and spending beyond their means!

I'm a bit leery of 150k bonus on a salary of 200k, sounds a lot proportionately, but what do I know!

I suppose those earning very high salaries spend according to what's coming in. Same as everyone else.

I don't think lots of money necessarily makes you happy, but you can sure be miserable in comfort, as my Dad used to say, bless him.

So what are these amazingly well paid jobs and how can I get one?

(50% Teacher on 18000)

I love chesty's post.
Thank you.

I don't begrudge anyone their money. I am not bitter. Genuinely, good luck to you all.

But please don't complain that its not that much or say your lives are not much different from those on much lower incomes.

However stressed someone is working at a job that pays them £££££ they are not going to be as stressed as someone working for £ who has to choose between heating and eating.

I have so much more respect for Chesty and others who are honest about their good fortune than those who seem desperate to let me know their lives are a bigger slog than those on NMW.