To feel very poor after recent thread

[Clappingforjoy]

Recent thread on here where posters where revealing their income got me really fed up that I must be one of the lowest earners around and it made me feel like failure failure.
Is everybody well off on mumsnet or something where are these people that have to use food banks because all I ever see is people with brand new cars, going on holidays nice houses etc etc i find it mind boggling.

Money is good to have but if your health is shot to pieces, would you swap money for your health?

As someone upthread mentioned, those on high wages, how much of their trappings are just for show?

OP, if it makes you feel better, I earn less than the tax threshold most years. I felt a real sense of achievement last year when I did my tax return and had to pay £500 tax. My children have all left home now, so I get no benefits or financial help at all, but when they were home my income wasn't a lot greater.

I am very well educated but work in a very low paid job because it gives me the freedom to do my second job (which also doesn't make me much money...hence coming under the tax threshold).

Don’t believe the hype...lots aren’t true.
Can’t understand why or would ask such a question .
Although it could be my age I would never ever give that information..

I'm broke more often than not, so I get what you are saying.

Not everyone is who or what they say they are. I always wonder whether the worst braggers might be trolls.

Honestly, please don’t rate yourself by how much you earn. First of all, some of the most important jobs are the most poorly paid. Carers, porters, bin men, retail workers, SNAs - yet without them, the world couldn’t turn. Nurses and doctors couldn’t tend to the sick, we wouldn’t be able to move for rubbish, we wouldn’t be able to buy food or clothing etc. So don’t value yourself by your wage slip.
Also, you’re setting your loved ones a good example by working. Think about it, it’s possible that your income is close to benefit level. Yet you still get up and go to work. That’s giving you hopefully self respect and please know you’re the equal of anyone on 50k, 1 million, etc. I hope there’s opportunities somewhere for you to grow and learn if you’d like (maybe look at MOOCS which are often cheap or free if you want to explore your interests), but please know even if you stay in your current role, you don’t have anything to be ashamed of. You put in an honest days work, just the same as any CEO and probably work harder.
Oh, and your debts won’t follow you forever. You’ll get there.

Haha take threads like that with a pinch of salt. The more someone brags about how well off they are, the more I assume they aren't actually well off at all.

But hey what would I know? I'm only an engineer on 100k a year living in a modest 6 bedroom house, with holiday homes in France, Spain and Italy.

I'm deffo not rich. Have used a food bank once. I have noticed how some people like to brag about Nannys and cleaners.

It all depends on what you do for a living and what opportunities you had as a youngster to enable you to be a high earner.

There are also a lot of people who think in black and white and totally equate work to earning, and do not give any consideration to privilege or opportunity available.
If this really was the case, professional footballers would be the most harfworking folk around with the most amount of stress and responsibilty in their job!

Id bet anything the majority of them are lying. I earn a very low income but i don't place Monetary value on life so long as the bills are paid and there's food in the cupboards then who cares about money. I could be a millionaire tomorrow and still continue my frugal happy ways so long as your happy in life OP that's all that matters dont let money worries get you down because at the end of the day we enter this world penniless and leave it the same way

I am actually a carer a job known for bad pay.
I earn around 14k

Poor in what way? Are you in good health? Do you have nice friends? Is your family supportive? Do you enjoy what you do? There are far more definitions of success than money. For example, I genuinely consider myself to be far more successful than a lot of my peers. I have achieved all the goals that I set for myself. My goal was to have a comfortable fairly stressless job with a short commute so that I could be home early in order to watch TV all evening. Once I had kids, my goal was to watch even more TV and catch up with friends for coffee and cake. I have been highly successful in this respect (a little too successful in the cake front). People rarely have a well paid job without having had to work really hard to get there. That includes moving around, long hours, responsibility, stress and often a long tedious commute. Many who are earning surprisingly high six figure salary's are living in London. And in London, they will not be living the highlife for that. Many will still have a long journey into work, have had to sacrifice family time etc along the way. You don't generally get given lots of money for doing little. So ask yourself... Is that the life that you wanted to lead? I have a handful of friends working their backsides off (solicitors) who are permanently stressed to the hilt and complaining to me how hard it all is and how they don't get time with their kids. Ask yourself who is actually the most successful?

That's the problem with social media in general, people will post what they want people to see. Don't get down about it, I've been in debt for a few years between me and my partner must be about 8k. But, your life isnt over, as long as you can live comfortably and manage your debt that's what matters. Money genuinely cant but happiness, it's all within. My nan's husband is rich as they come but god he is a pig, most miserable sod I know. And with tour lack of self confidence OP, sometimes you have to fake it until you make it! Good luck, theres millions of people in debt, dont worry about everyone else x

I didnt see the thread but where you live in the UK and your family circumstances can make a big difference to your disposable income. My friend lives in the Midlands and earns around £20k. She has a much smaller mortgage than me and has no childcare costs because her family are nearby and help her a lot. I live in the South East and although earn around £36k part time have a pretty big mortgage and pay hundreds in wrap around care. I wouldn’t be surprised if we had the same disposable income. Although I don’t consider myself a big earner I’m ok and I’ve worked hard to get what I have. I don’t begrudge higher earners what they have and what they spend their money on. Anyone with spare cash would spend on “non essentials” and this doesn’t make them bad people

I not in a fit state to push myself to earn more.
I have health problems and suffer from depression I do what I can manage and I do feel useless at times and know it's all my own doing I'm on such low earnings

I feel the same op. I don't think I'll ever be able to afford a cleaner or nanny or even own a house. people aren't going to post if they're low earners so the people with more money tend to stand out to me. I try not to compare my life or I'd end up feeling worse

I don't think the high earners here (and I'm definitely not one of them) are necessarily bragging. What comes over more is that they don't realise that not everyone on here lives the same lifestyle. They don't brag because they don't need to. They think it's normal. They take it for granted.

To be honest, I don't think people should be shamed for being well off any more than poor people should be shamed for their lack of income. It's how you live your life and how you treat other people that matters.

I could be a millionaire tomorrow and still continue my frugal happy ways so long as your happy in life OP that's all that matters

Might have just muttered this before but I know some seriosuly wealthy people, one of them must be worth 300 mill plus, one a bit less than that a Duke of the realm one or three interntnet hi tech mulitmillionares.

But none of them seem content and happy, they worry about their monay all the time!.

I saw the vast majority of posters were low to mid earners, many between 20-30 k a year.

That's the point though - for large parts of the country 20k is not a low wage.

I was signposted to the below data by a MN user - apologies,I can't remember their name to credit them!

The Office for National Statistics reports that once London wages are excluded from the UK total that the average gross pay for the rest of UK is £17550 pa - or £8.438 per hr across a 40 hr week - noting that adult rate of NMW is £8.21 per hour.

I think MN has a really wide demographic from very wealthy middle class to people struggling financially. The one half doesn’t know how the other half lives.

I doubt posters are lying, there are many educated professionals on here with related salaries. Nor do I think posters are lying when they say they find it difficult to make ends meet.

I work part time in care and am a carer for 2 disabled dc’s (which is why I can’t work full time), I earn £160 a week, I’m skint but I don’t have much choice, I enjoy my job but would love to be able to work in a higher paid carer but it won’t happen any time soon.

I hate threads where people discus how much they earn, it just makes low earners feel bad.

@Lifecraft

Op there are lots of low income people on mumsnet, they just don’t post on the money threads because to be fair they’re pretty boring if you don’t have any!

We are low income. Dh earns £18k working full time. I can’t work due to disabilities, ds is also disabled. We just about scrape by. It’s hard. Tax credits, dla, pip and carers allowance get us through. I don’t think we’re alone at all, I know tons of families like ours.

I think MN has a really wide demographic from very wealthy middle class to people struggling financially

This is what I see too.

@clappingforjoy, I totally understand what you mean. Please don't feel down, your income does not reflect your worth as a person.

Im not and never have been a high earner . It’s not about what you earn but how much you keep . Neither my husband nor I had large incomes from work alone but we are both incredibly financially savvy and have made our money work for us .