Does everyone on MN - except me - have a high flying highly paid highly stressful job

[IamtheMistressofmyFate]

Is anyone a hairdresser married to a mechanic? Nursery nurse married to a delivery driver?

I keep reading about women having to go back to work or they'll fall off the career ladder and never recover. Everyone seems so BUSY and STRESSED and high flying. Or they've burnt out and have downsized so they can bake bread.

Is anyone else just pootling along like me - not setting the world alight with their brilliance and ambition?

@itsabitwearing

That calculator is interesting but these things never factor in age and personal circumstance. I'm not on 6 figures but it still places me in the top 10 %. However....I'm nearly 50 and only started earning that amount in the past few years. I'm single and renting, and clearly not going to take on a mortgage at my time of life. So my life on that salary is going to look very different to say someone of 30 who lives in a two income household, where they have maybe already paid a deposit and have a mortgage.

Itsabitwearing

I love calculators like that. I'm a bit surprised by that as it puts us as earning more than 86% of the population and yet I know our incomes are "average" I only put in income after tax as it said, it didn't include pension, childcare vouchers etc!!

I am a PT poorly paid solicitor.
My career ladder stalled at qualifying.

@Storm4star - that's very true. Our income puts us in a very low bracket, but we have no housing costs other than council tax, no childcare costs etc, so we feel quite OK off and pretty lucky!

I'm full of brilliance and ambition, but funnily enough no one else seems to notice that, especially not the people who pay me

Not a high flyer here. I used to work in the NHS on a middle management grade, then very stupidly went self employed to work in the same industry as exh. When we divorced he cut off a lot of my work contacts and I earnt so little last tax year I nearly went under.

This year has been better, but there's no certainty in my line of work and there's times when I wish I'd stayed in the NHS as I could have put more money in my pension.

DP has gone back to uni to finish his degree and does some bits of self employed work.

It's not brilliant but it could be much, much worse.

I think that's the thing, as long as I have a roof over my head, enough money for food, bills and some treats then I'm contented! Years ago I was way at the other end of the scale as a single mum on benefits and I do remember how hard it was.

I’m not high flying but I see no reason to slag it off to make yourself feel better.

One in five people earn under the living wage which is £8.45 per hour outside of London and £9.75 within London.

Somebody else posted above that the median income was around £22,000. Most people have ordinary jobs and not “careers” paying £50k+

I'm a part time judge and everyone in the UK thinks I'm very MC and loaded. They don't realise how little I'm paid in comparison (not in the UK). I'm also a SP (children's father sadly deceased), and pay for everything. My job is incredibly stressful but I'm lucky to have it.

I have a very stressful job but its neither high flying nor well paid.

Not me not me.

I’m a (low grade) civil servant and DH works for a bank but isn’t a ‘banker’ in the sense that most people’s DHs are bankers on here I.e nowhere near triple figures.

Sat having a with my oldest friend who is a primary school teacher and her DH is a delivery driver.

Public sector office admin here.

I'm a Finance Assistant engaged to a software developer. We own our own home and have one child who we can just about afford nursery fees for.

I have no idea what’s considered to be a high flying career on MN! We’re on a joint income of around £68k, I’m a psychotherapist (a properly trained professionally registered one) and OH is a doctor, he’s a junior currently though. Both work full time.

It feels very high flying to me as six years ago I was working a range of terrible NMW jobs massively struggling to make ends meet. So our income might as well be six figures to me. I truly never dared to imagine financial security.

I dunno if what I do would be considered high flying. It’s fairly stressful but in a good way, i use my brain and have to think on my feet and carry a large caseload and get results. But it’s not a city or corporate job, no travel, no unpaid overtime, which is what seems to characterise a lot of the ‘stressful’ jobs I see discussed on here!

I am not a high-flyer, but I love my job and we are ok financially. What more could I want?!

I’d love to be married to a mechanic 🤤

Not me! I was a bog standard admin assistant prior to children...now a sahm.

DP and I are on around £70k between us. He’s military and I work part time in a university.

In the past I’ve earned 40k working as a PA in banking in the City. That’s the most I’ve ever earned. I’m going to retrain as a primary school teacher where the pay isn’t amazing but at least it’s a profession.

It seems that unless you work in London / have a profession such as healthcare, education etc, the best kind of jobs that are open to you are admin jobs. Where I live, admin jobs generally pay 16-22k and I’m determined to not get stuck doing a boring, low paid office job!

As a single mum I worked up from a cashier to being a regional manager for a bank, on a very good salary.
Never went to anything my son did, he was always in childcare and I hated it.
The job was shit, it was never 9-5 and I was stressed constantly.

Met DH, he works in IT, was on an average salary working as a consultant within a company, but away permanently during the week.

We decided to have youngest child, he decided to dip his toe into being a contractor on his own, and he has secured some really good contracts meaning he is now 100k+

I could've stayed at the bank, but I was miserable, so have been at home since I had the youngest 3yrs ago.

If anything went tits up and he couldn't find work, I would do anything or work anywhere. I've had my career as such as it doesn't motivate me anymore to be that person. I'm a nicer and happier person all round being at home.

I’m not high flying but I see no reason to slag it off to make yourself feel better

@minibunz- oh bore off - this is an interesting thread!

I'm lucky to have a part time job, flexible hours but nmw, if I work quicker than a job is tasked for still paid that amount,work for 2 companies in various locations but because my pay is split between am not entitled to join either pension scheme. That worries me as previous to having our 2 secondary school aged kids I always paid into a scheme. My DH has a mid management job that entails leaving the house at 6am, usually home at 630pm and could be anywhere 2 hours from home. I couldn't have worked full time when the kids were younger as he couldn't drop everything if they were ill and family weren't able to offer childcare nor would I ask them. Currently feel like the balance is right as one of my kids has been ill for nearly 3 years, housebound, medically signed off from school and their health is more important than me being a high-flyer. The positive is they are better now and as I wasn't in a full time professional role we aren't struggling with that loss of income, which if we had higher outgoings then we would have. In the future will reassess and sound out the local job market.

There will always be someone who has more than us but watched a documentary by Professor Green on struggling families and that brought home how hard life can be, especially for the children and that although we aren't in a big house or having amazing frequent holidays we do have far more than some in this country.

Funny you say this as I am from a WC background , went to a posh uni ... got a job in London and everyone I know is pretty much MC from uni and work . Everyone is rich it seems .

I’m northern and going home for visits is weird ... London is just a different world where some people don’t blink at paying £15 for lunch .

No Dc for me . Basic 45k, bonuses and other bits make it up to around 58-60 and partner about the same . Both 25 , big mortgage .

Partner from v MC background .

Personally we’d not be able to afford to have kids in London as we need two incomes to sustain the mortgage etc and childcare would cost £1500 + a month .

Joined MN a while back when I went through a down patch and it was super helpful and I realized how privileged we and I am . I just think LONDON and many industries create a bubble . Where I’m from in the north is v WC and I think I’ve struggled to adapt to life here .

And yes I know many people have kids in London but in our current financial situation we couldn’t afford to . We’d move north .

I think mumsnet is heavily biased towards MC / upper percentile of the salary spectrum for sure .

namechangedforanon
I don’t understand how you couldn’t afford at least 1 kid?

To both be on 60k 4 years after uni is likely to mean your in professions where pay will rise. Plus you’ve managed to buy a property in London at a young age (in today’s world). If you wait till 30, you will be likely earning more & have paid off some mortgage.

Even if salaries are the same 1.5k childcare out of 7k take home is affordable. I’m assuming your mortgage is no more than 3k a month.