Aibu how did you get rich and successful

[Cupcakeicecream]

Basically I want to just start again. I want to do something with my life that will give me a very good standard of living basically a career that I can work my way up the ladder and get richer as I do. So if you how did you get rich and what has enabled you to do? What career enabled you to dothis.

We both earn well over that but I don’t consider us rich. It’s all relative

How about being a doctor? Takes a while to get there but many consultants on £100k+ and then have private work ok top of that. Any you get an interesting varied career where you get to help people.

The people saying start your own business - what kind of business? I’d love to do this but no idea where to start, what kind of things work?

Recruitment - have earned north of £100k a year since my mid 20s. I’d consider myself well off, but not rich. I don’t own enough assets for the ‘rich’ tag (by my own definition).

Husband does project management for financial institutions, freelance, and since going freelance earns similar.

TheJoxter, I'm the same. Wouldn't have a clue where to start.

DP is an engineer and started his own business in that sector but of course you have to know the trade first so not much help!

He says that trade jobs are better to get into than most people think, especially now when people are leaning towards 'academic' type careers, as businesses are fighting for decent employees and paying them more because of the lack of availability in staff. Could just be round our end though, seems like a different world in the big cities!

@Supergirlthesecond - I was head of marketing for a private company on 80k - I left to freelance and earned 130k in my first year yes. I had good contacts in the industry and chose lucrative contracts.

I would love to start my own business but what type of work or business ventures produce a rich lifestyle.

I find this all fascinating. I need to advise Ds1 on what to go into career wise!

Lottery win.

@NEtoN10 can I ask, how you got into marketing (degree/certs?) and how you progressed up ? I am looking at second careers and trying to find realistic ways in.

@Basketofkittens that's plan b...

Sales! Are you good at selling things? If you are, therein lies your path!

You are starting at the wrong end.
What formal qualifications do you have?

Husband was in finance - started his own company a few years ago. You have to put in the hours though. The stress that comes with the job is insane sometimes. Have a few friends who earn about half a million a year - without bonus. Most of them are IT in banks. A few in asset management companies. One friend is entrepreneur- he’s done v.v well.

I'm a UX (User Experience) researcher and designer and I only work contract roles which pay between £400 - £550 per day. I switched to this career 7 years ago when I was 40, from a much lower paying career as a website content writer (£30k ish).

I work on websites / apps and there are other contractors earning the same as or more than me, developers, scrum masters, product owners.

I'm in the South East with a massive mortgage, a crumbly old expensive house to do up, two expensive teens and a DH earning around £16k. We definitely can't afford private school - well maybe we could if we didn't finish doing up the house and gave up holidays and other luxuries.

We are definitely 'rich' compared to years ago when both DH and I were out of work or only had scraps of freelance work (and had to put our supermarket shopping on a credit card). But we still have an old banger and old clothes and don't have exotic holidays. Also our house is mostly owned by the building society with mortgage finishing when I'm 67!

@ChangedNamedforToday - I looked into this as have done lots of UX on my masters course - how did you transition from content to UX/UI?

@Supergirlthesecond Yes sure. I did a history degree and a masters too at good unis. When I graduated I had nothing in my bank, was desperately looking for a job so I took a sales role in a tech company. I wasn't really that good, but I wrote good emails and was good at the networking... they asked if I wanted to move to Marketing and I loved it. I started as an exec on 25k, and I just said yes to every single project/idea - worked really hard to teach myself new skills like project management, social media advertising, google analytics. My company paid for me to do a Digital Marketing course which was great. In 3 years I was heading up the department and managing 3 others. I left that company and went to a couple more for a year each then decided to go freelance.

Most marketers I know have degrees in English/history/journalism - starting salary for an exec is £20 -£25k in London. Lots of progression, if you work hard you won't be junior for long. A middleweight marketing manager is on £40-50k, senior marketing manager £60-70k then it goes up from there.

There is loads you can teach yourself online about social media advertising, google analytics, ad words, focus on your writing skills and project management.

Good luck!!

Surprised nobody has suggested property developer. All of the wealthiest people we know make money this way. I’m talking people with a share in a private jet or that employ their own driver.

We are relatively asset rich, in our late 50s, house is all paid off and we own our own business. We both did the same vocational degree, and bought into, then took over an existing business. We now own it, it has a turnover in excess of £500k, and is probably worth a bit less than that of anyone wanted to buy it. But we have worked very long hours for many years, especially when our children were small, and took small drawings from the business, maybe around £20-25k per annum.

Our son went to a RG university and got a very good maths related degree. He is in retail management for a large supermarket, and at 25 is on £60k with a company car. But he works long hours including some weekends for that, a good 60 hours some weeks.

There ain’t an easy answer to this, and when it comes down to it, happiness isn’t entirely dictated by money.

@NEtoN10 thanks, that 's a great help. I am currently trying to figure out how to put all my past employment experience into a shape that fits something in the job market and mktg does seem to keep coming up. Have done lots of intern/paid/unpaid roles but am mature. Could I get back to you sometime for advice?

@Supergirlthesecond Yes sure, no problem. Are you London based? Feel free to direct message me x

@NEtoN10 I am. I will send you a message soon. Thanks for the offer, it's really appreciated. x

How did you get into UX as a career changer @ChangedNameForToday ?

@WalnutCabinet have I understood correctly? You are a teacher on £125,000?

Daily mail readers are slugs
Not a classroom teacher.

How much do you think Heads earn?
Very few primary earn over £100,000, Mid 70s is the norm here but you can be a Head in early 30s (youngest I recall was 27)

Secondary. Lots of cosy nice school trying to recruit on the £80,000 their last Head was on have had a shock and have found that they have to go over £100,000. 9 years go Heads on £120,000 was rare but not so anymore and the £110,000 to £120,000 is where a lot sit. Executive Head more, CEO of a MAT possibly much more

Special £65000-85000 for a small special
Daily mail readers are slugs
Even the head of children's services in my last LA was only on 110k!
LA Heads of Learning/ Deputy DD £85K (can't recruit easily) to £110,000 starting point. This is North in the past 12 months

Love them or hate them but academies have driven up school leadership pay.
Daily mail readers are slugs

I think that simplistically, the world probably divides into employees and employers. Building your own successful business requires an unusual appetite for risk and hard work, skill at leading, persuading and smoozing, real excitement at what you do, being genuinely motivated by getting in new business any time, being really excited about delivering invoices and getting paid, being able to sleep at night without tossing and turning.

My DH is definitely an employer, whereas I am definitely an employee.

A certain level of cognitive ability is a must to build a business, but I think your personality is much more important.