High Earners on MN?

[BitOfFun]

How? The actual leader of my county council doesn't earn more than £100K- where and what are all these super-maxed out occupations? I genuinely don't understand how mumsnetters (often relatively young) access these magic jobs I've never heard of.

YABU- they are there for the taking, you just made poor choices

YANBU- people here are very creative and there's an outside chance they may be lying exaggerating.

I've been in financial services for 25 years, and I live in the South - got good GCSEs but never got a degree, got into the industry by chance and just did a few professional qualifications as I went along. Ended up in not a "niche" area exactly, but a specialism that not everybody is that interested in.

So I'm late 40s, live on the south coast and earn £80k as a consultant. I also switch off my laptop at 5pm and dont leave my work phone on at weekends or on holiday! My job is stressful in the sense that it can be complex, there is a lot of report writing and it's costly to make a mistake, but it's not really high pressure. It's a combination of specialist knowledge and being able to handle CEOs with massive egos professionally.

It's all relative though, I've got a spanking mortgage and plenty of debt.

Wrong to suggest people who aren’t high earners made the wrong choices. More likely the choices that need to be made aren’t available to them. If your family can’t afford for you to go to university, you don’t go. If your father doesn't know Mr Highup in the bank, you are less likely to get in there. If your parents weren’t able to fight with the school to get you the support you needed, your future is already decided.

You need to be very careful when talking about choices.

My partner definitely doesn't earn more than 100k, but he would be able to pay me a full time salary if he wanted to and still be earning a very comfortable amount himself!! Unless it's inherited wealth, you'll find these high earners working in I.T, security services, the fossil fuel industry, maybe some engineering, law and sometimes running their own business.

@CheetasOnFajitas OP, you’ve made the mistake of using a private sector job as a benchmark. Hopefully this new thread has explained a bit about the difference between private and public sector pay scales.

The OP used a public sector (council) as an example, not a private sector one.

Public sector is publicly-funded, that is, funded through taxation, e.g. NHS, civil service, local government. Private sector is privately-funded, that is, funded from private individuals, e.g. retail, banking, airlines.

@EsterOdesavitch

I've been in financial services for 25 years, and I live in the South - got good GCSEs but never got a degree, got into the industry by chance and just did a few professional qualifications as I went along. Ended up in not a "niche" area exactly, but a specialism that not everybody is that interested in.

So I'm late 40s, live on the south coast and earn £80k as a consultant. I also switch off my laptop at 5pm and dont leave my work phone on at weekends or on holiday! My job is stressful in the sense that it can be complex, there is a lot of report writing and it's costly to make a mistake, but it's not really high pressure. It's a combination of specialist knowledge and being able to handle CEOs with massive egos professionally.

It's all relative though, I've got a spanking mortgage and plenty of debt.

That's amazing! 80K??? Without a degree?

I'm currently unemployed having lost my job to Covid. Trying to sell nice things from home currently. I can dream on!

@EsterOdesavitch But not those waste of space, pyramid schemes or Avon lady type of business though! I make my own things.

I said YABU but I don’t think you made poor life choices! Plenty of people in city jobs in London earn that much. They also work all the hours and have all the stress.

I live an hour away from London and know several people on huge salaries. Many will be burnt out by the time they are 50, the jobs are so high stressed with younger people snapping at their heels all of the time, they are petrified to take just a day off. From what I’ve seen in my 47 years is that earning huge salaries often comes at a price somewhere down the line.

I think it all depends on your own bubble. It should be obvious that I'm a middle aged Londoner - where I live pretty well everyone under 60 is on 6 figures or has had a very substantial inheritance enabling them to live in a nice house and do a poorly paid but rewarding creative job. You wouldn't be able to buy here if you didn't.

SIL and BIL live in a lovely house but in an area where houses are a lot cheaper so people who earn a lot less can afford to buy there - so unsurprisingly a lot of their neighbours are in less well paid professions - nursing/teaching etc. TBH their parties are a lot more fun as their friends and neighbours are less obsessed with the entrance exams for private schools.......

It's generally sensible to take anything anyone says about themselves on the internet with a huge pinch of salt. Just because the person posting seems like they could be your neighbour doesn't mean they're not completely bullshitting.

I find it interesting that on the posts where people ask for help selling their house, they post the rightmove link and it's a completely ordinary house. So there are clearly all sorts on here and I'd wager that the majority are not high earners, even though there may be more high earners here than in the population at large.

God this is depressing reading. Where the fuck did I go wrong? I chose a career that is "well paid" have worked hard but am not seeing anywhere near the salaries being bandied about here!

I'm late middle aged and live in London and have done since I left University hundreds of years ago. I hardly know anyone who earns £100,000 or over afaik. Maybe 1 or 2 but really it is not the norm in my world at all. But then I don't hang out with bankers and the like. Most of my crowd work in jounalism, broadcasting, the arts, teaching and the NHS. The highest paid of those is probably the primary school headteacher (who would be on about £80,000) but I"m guessing.

But I wanted to put paid to the idea that every middle aged middle class well educated person in London is earning £100,000+. That's nonsense.

You may be confusing individual incomes with household inccomes.

I started earning more than 100K base salary in early 90's and have continued ever since. Bonus bumps it beyond that level but is highly variable. In my department of c. 90 people at least half are over 100K. It's about putting yourself in the right environment, being willing to take the pressure and then being consistently very good at what you do. I did not have the right education (a degree which is not relevant) and had to scramble to keep up in the early years. I grabbed an opportunity on the bottom rung of the right ladder in the late 80's.

@PamDemic I would really like to get into the charity (or fundraising) sector and would love some tips! Maybe PM me if you like.

I've worked in online training for over 15 years, but I'm keen to do something more sociable and less draining, and the charity sector seems a good fit.

I'm in London, worked in investment banking for 25yrs and was on £100k by my late 20's. I did a degree in Economics (at an ex Poly) joined a bank, on the counter, saw an internal job advert to join the treasury function in a sales role and been doing it ever since. It can be long hours, stressful and the job security isn't great but it's keeping a roof over our heads and 2 DC at private school, so I wouldn't change it.

I don't know any different so it would be difficult to comment on how my hours, stress levels compare to others, but I did decide at a young age that earning good money was important to me. DH was a trader until he was made redundant last year, at 52 he's unlikely to find anything else so it's down to me to pay the bills. I'm grateful I can.

High earner on the criteria you set out, but 7 years university and a year’s commercial work experience for niche are of law. Then in- role training on low pay for two years as dog’s bod before getting a decent wage. I also am not allowed to switch off phone off due to nature of the role and weekends/evenings often ruined. Can be exciting, but also draining. We’re London based.

My SIL was in the city 90`s crazy money incredible bonuses but miserable. She is now a vicar. It is not for everyone. I think the trick is to earn the crazy money invest wisely in a property portfolio with an income then get out at the earliest opportunity. Get the money to work for you and be your own boss.

Generally top public sector jobs are less well paid than top private sector. So you’re never going to get an extremely well paid local councillors.

I had 2 relevant bachelor degrees before I started working at around 30k then worked full time in the public sector and studied part time for a masters and a doctoral degree. Capped out at around 75k but now in the private sector and after tax this year will be making around 200k.
My job is safer and relatively easier now but during lockdown I have been working 6 full days a week and normally use the 7th day to plan.

[quote MaskingForIt]**@CheetasOnFajitas* OP, you’ve made the mistake of using a private sector job as a benchmark. Hopefully this new thread has explained a bit about the difference between private and public sector pay scales.*

The OP used a public sector (council) as an example, not a private sector one.

Public sector is publicly-funded, that is, funded through taxation, e.g. NHS, civil service, local government. Private sector is privately-funded, that is, funded from private individuals, e.g. retail, banking, airlines.[/quote]
Yes, that was a typo/brain freeze on my part @MaskingForIt. I meant to write public sector. Thanks for clarifying.

Partner works in tech, 125,000 a year.
People are jealous as he is able to work remotely, do the school run, have Fridays off etc but he has worked hard to get where he is.

@Lexilooo

God this is depressing reading. Where the fuck did I go wrong? I chose a career that is "well paid" have worked hard but am not seeing anywhere near the salaries being bandied about here!

Why is that depressing?

If you have a career that is well paid?

Someone will always be paid more.

If you have enough on which to live your life, enjoy it, why be depressed?

We could all have a crack at a career that pays £100k+ but we won't all succeed and many of us wouldn't like the work, haven't got the skills or the personality etc.

So we do something else.

I have a scruffy semi with no drive or garage and roll my eyes at people who 'would never but a house without' either...or proclaim 'needs a new kitchen / bathroom' on every property link - when both look far better than those that I manage perfectly well with.

And there will be people very envious of my owned home, ability to afford a modest car etc.

So many of you seemed to make your career choice based on earning potential which is where I went "wrong". I always, always wanted to work in TV and that is what I ended up doing - had a fantastic career with lots of travel and working on brilliant programmes Memories to last a lifetime. But I never earned that much. My husband was a hugely talented TV cameraman and lighting designer before he had to change careers due to ill health. He now works as a peer support worker in mental health doing an amazing job for a pitifully low salary. I left tv as couldn't keep up with the working away from the home and the 16 hours days and now have a admin job in a big school. I don't think we ever earned over £70k between us (and we earn half that now) but we had a nice house, holidays, full time nanny and privately educated our sons. You don't need to earn a fortune to do that here in the north east. Both sons went to good unis and got good degrees. One works in tv/film; one works in law, neither earn much at all but surely life is not all about how much money you can earn?

My colleagues and I work in talent acquisition for a global financial services company and all earn £70k + and we are in our early thirties.