AIBU to think that the majority of people on here are middle class and high earners?

[Kaylasmum49]

Just curious.

I'm among the higher earners, based on the comments here. I've found Mumsnet incredibly useful and entertaining since getting pregnant and having my daughter and certainly don't judge people for what they earn, only for the things they say and do.

I'm middle class in terms of privilege and upbringing, I guess. Although I grew up in rural Wales so that had a different cultural impact.
I live on disability benefits and earn nothing, so not on a high income.

Not in my case at all. Both my husband and I are proudly working class. I'm a SAHM, in fact I've never had a job. I was at university, we decided we wanted to try for a baby, I got pregnant and have been a SAHM ever since. My husband works full time for just over minimum wage an hour. Our annual income is around 15k, neither of us have any savings. We don't ever go on holidays, neither of us drive and our house is rented. We don't have a lot and do live payday to payday, but we get by just. And we're happy which is most important.

I find it comes out in style and beauty. Someone asks for advice on something from boots to jumpers and some one always suggests something retailing at around £500, that's more than my entire budget for the year.

@PicsInRed that actually was my late friend's life pretty much. Yet she was as unpretentious as you could ever imagine and the vast wealth difference never stopped us being friends. We met through a hobby. It's definitely the snobbery and nastiness on those threads that really comes through isn't it? I'm not jealous (much).

@sst1234

I totally agree. Women not talking about money is why we generally earn .8 on the dollar to men(not sure what it is in UK). It's really important to have financial goals and pursue those as aggressively as our male counterparts or there will never be gender parity. No one is going to make sure you get your fair shake for you. My husband asks for a raise at every performance review (sometimes as much as 25%!) and his employer never bats an eye, I negotiated a higher salary with my first professional job so that I would be earning 1 dollar more per hour with my MA than I did as a nanny and I was forever known as a "greedy millenial" (eye roll). Those antiquated behaviors will never change if women don't step up and take themselves seriously regarding compensation.

I don’t think £100k is a particularly high earner is it?

Statements like this ^^, I honestly don't know where to start! I do live in Lancashire and obviously we don't earn much racing our whippets and selling flat caps on th'market but the idea that earning £100,000 a year doesn't make you a high earner is just, jaw dropping to me!

Between my dh and me we earn £180k a year. We work very hard. All through lockdown etc. I studied hard as did my dh for professional qualifications and both missed out on fun in the early years. But then I have friends who earn a lot less than this and others a lot more. But however much my friends earn it’s their friendship and time spent with them i miss more than anything.

Does it actually matter to you what people earn and what class they are? I really don't care, as long as someone is trying their best and not moaning about their lot whilst not trying to change anything.

Vanity is knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Also a high earner means different things to different people and depends where you live in the country. I imagine in some areas your income would be pretty average and adequate for a decent life. In my area however you couldn't live off it, and our joint income of over £80k is pretty average and not seen as a particularly high income.

Between my dh and me we earn £180k a year. We work very hard

This isn't a dig at you, at all, but my husband and I work very hard too. He often does a 7 day week for the overtime. We earn less than £50k between us. Please don't think that people who earn less than you, don't work as hard!

No I don't think there are a lot of high earners on Mumsnet. Only a small minority.

I’m a massive chav - makes things much easier. I know my place in life

@CarlGrimesRightEyeball
Yes I agree with you. We all work hard at our jobs but it’s the value society places on our jobs that creates the disparity in earnings. And that’s not necessarily fair. Or right. Covid has highlighted this fact.

What a household income is and what their lifestyle is like are very different things.

A low income couple with one or 2 DCs, free childcare, low housing costs, lots of credit, inheritance etc can have a much more flashy lifestyle than a single parent of 3/4 DCs paying for 1/2 sets of nursery fees, huge mortgage/private rent, expensive commute even if their income is very high.

My impression is that a lot of MN is very very heavily skewed towards London and the South East...I live in London and honestly, I also just assume that most people here earn over 100k. That's obviously not true (neither DH nor I do) but let's say if the majority of the 1.2m people on 100k plus are in the South East e.g. out of 10million working-age people thats quite a lot of people or partners of people who earn 100k plus. In addition, there're also a lot of people in the South East who may not be earning 100k plus now because say they are 30 years old but aspite to by the time they are 40. So yes, I would say that this is quite a lot people on MN

Very true lissie123, and nicely said.

I don't even earn enough to pay income tax!

@Madbengalmum

I don’t think £100k is a particularly high earner is it? There are lots of households that earn nearer £200k combined.

Yeah you are right , Statements like this I know that some people on mumsnet aren't in the real world . Some people are gasp on less than 20k a year and manage .

Why would anyone come onto MN to talk in intricate detail about specific private schools that cost thousands a term if they aren’t even looking at the schools? Many of the secondary schools discussed are around £6000 per term and most people have more than one kid there.

I really don’t believe people would go into that level of details just to appear rich on a forum where no one can even see them! 🤣

[quote Whattheactual20201]@CakeRequired but some of us are not lying 🤣
I mean I defo work more than 9-5 ! I just have a well paid job. I don’t look down at those worse of than me but I do always find myself justifying my lifestyle 🤣
People will say oh well there isn’t many people on that income so it’s unlikely we are
Who do people think live in the houses in London ? Or the mansions on Surrey etc haha
I don’t live in a mansion I am Nearly mortgage free in zone 2 London of a 3 bed house though at nearly 29 years old but literally most people think I’m lying so I give up 🤣[/quote]
I guess it’s because completing an education and progressing a career to high earning seniority with gaps for having 3 children, all before the age of 30 (within under 10 years?) seems like a pretty tall order.

Frankly, having enough to live without fear someone will take your house away on rent day is the problem. The value society places on jobs does create disparities, but when Soviet Russia tried to pay every woman (not men) the same going rate, whether you swept streets or were a brain surgeon, it was only ever a fast track to social failure. And it failed, epically.

I'm foreign so can't really judge, but holy moly you lot are class obsessed .

I can see there is some competitive snobbery, but a lot of posters and problems don't seem middle-class to me at all. In fact on threads like this you get as much snobbery 'down' as up. 'Noo I'm as working class as they come'. I'm sure whatever class you feel connected to, you are all nice/horrid normal people .

Based on the how to hold cutlery thread, probably not.