To ask what your goal salary is?

[SmokeyApo]

Hi all, just being nosey here

I have been thinking a lot about career progression and asking for a raise lately, and that got me thinking about what my goal salary is. As in, the salary that I would like to earn at the peak of my career (let's say between age 40 and 50).

So I will ask: what would your goal salary be?

I won't share mine for now just because I don't want to influence the answers, but I will happily share it later on.

Xenia

I wish I knew you in rl.
You are in London and Lawyers are going to be looking at earning some over the next year or so from Traveller organisations and charities.
Look out kid, get your books out

Dh hit his lifetime pension allowance too early

I don't know what you mean by 'hit it too early' - just fill up your pension then stop paying in.

@VanGoghsDog I'm not sure you understand the LTA issue as well as you think you do.

If you reach the LTA years before you retire (start drawing down) you are going to lose the tax free element of the further growth over LTA, even if you aren't still paying in.

If you hit LTA 10 years early it can be very, very costly in terms of both additional taxes (up to 55%) and the opportunity cost, given that some of your pension investment could have gone somewhere else more tax effective, before it was too late.

[quote 79andnotout]@CodeforYear yes this would be a good approach for some. I don't as my financial advisor advised me to invest in other ways. [/quote]
I'm sure they did - they don't make much money advising you to put money into your pension that you have anyway. Mind you if you have reached your £40k annual pension limit they might be right.

30k for the 30hrs per week in my dream world. Dont think will ever happen though

@SofiaMichelle

Dh hit his lifetime pension allowance too early

I don't know what you mean by 'hit it too early' - just fill up your pension then stop paying in.

@VanGoghsDog I'm not sure you understand the LTA issue as well as you think you do.

If you reach the LTA years before you retire (start drawing down) you are going to lose the tax free element of the further growth over LTA, even if you aren't still paying in.

If you hit LTA 10 years early it can be very, very costly in terms of both additional taxes (up to 55%) and the opportunity cost, given that some of your pension investment could have gone somewhere else more tax effective, before it was too late.

One of my friends only realised she'd hit her lifetime allowance after years of aggressively over paying into her pension after I made her aware of the limit. Her employer will put 15% into a pension, but it would end up costing her more money than they were putting in - so she opts out. People on defined benefit pensions, might find themselves closer to the limit than they realise.

www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/the-lifetime-allowance-for-pension-savings

Devlesko, I certainly feel I always need the books out as the law keeps changing which makes the work interesting. I don't think I have had a traveller client but I have certainly had so many different kinds of clients since 1983. It is all still as much fun as when I started.

On the pensions issue I cashed in mine at age 55 which had never had an employer contribution as I am self employed anyway and I gave HMRC about a third of it - lucky Big State - I hope they have spent it wisely. They should give out some kind of thanks for people who pay loads of tax at once eg send you a box of chocolates or a signed letter from the PM or invitation to an event. Instead you feel they couldn't care less about you and take more and more money every year and those who pay the most in get less and less out every year.

Been a SAHP for 20 years, just about to go to university this year.
DH earns around £60-73k depending, I am not ambitious, will be earning around £23k once I qualify in 4 years.

@BootsieBarnes

I'd like to know where the data that says 5% of top earners are men comes from. Is that UK based? I don't work for a UK company so that stat is actually irrelevant to global workers.

It's a sad reflection of how society thinks when women are instantly doubted when they state they are high earners. I wonder if men would get the same reaction if they posted their salary and goals.

I'm a strong believer that women should talk more about what they earn and where they want to go in their careers. It would encourage women to be more confident in claiming top spots in companies and earning the same as their male colleagues.

I totally agree! How strange are the accusations of lying. I certainly wasn’t lying about my salary and I know for a fact I earn about a third to a half of what most of my female friends earn. This has always given me the confidence to negotiate for higher starting salaries/pay rises or to move companies in search of that pay boost. If I was in the dark about my high earning friends I might just accept what was offered.

50k would be the dream. I'm happy with my lot though, so I don't really have a goal.

My husband is 42 now and earn £64k in IT industry. He still not on his salary peak yet and get more every year. I’m not working now because. But i’m planning to get back to work as a teacher. My combined income goal is £120k as i really want to send my kids to private school. Even with £120k private school for two kids still too tight 😑😑

@Everyday21

30k for the 30hrs per week in my dream world. Dont think will ever happen though

Same.

Currently on £35k, but for full time and a lot of responsibility (part own business, manage a team).

I'd much rather work less and earn less.

£58k.

Odd number I know, but it's actually 100k CAD, which is where we live.

I started working at age 22 after graduating fm uni. My career wasn't smooth and I didn't get any promotion or advancement for 13 years! When I was in my early 30s, my dream salary was £65k. I got my 1st ever promotion at 35 and I was literally floating in the clouds for 2 whole years! I reached my goal a couple years later. I continued to work hard and I was willing to take on extra responsibilities. I was further promoted (unexpectedly each time). I am now 50 and my salary far exceeded my original goal, but my job is very demanding and stressful. There is no free lunch!

Taking home £200k (after tax), I could switch my DS from a state school to an independent boarding school upon his request (he wants to board to escape fm my nagging).

Work hard, do your best, and let God guide your path!

Interesting that this thread has been bumped as I’ve already hit my personal target and our household target has been exceeded by 25k. Just shows you don’t know what’s going to happen next!

Same @Harrystylesismyjam - about a month after this, I had an interview and negotiated a 25k increase.

That has subsequently increased by 10k over the past 18 months through yearly rises.

So I’ve doubled my old salary in less than 2 years.

I now work a four day week however, but I’m still up 20k compared to my old role.

50K woukd be nice

Just heading into a role paying 42k and I would hope to earn maybe 55k in a few years? This is massive money to my family.

Ha! I was quite adamant on this thread I had hit my peak salary at 44…well turns out I did take the csuite role after all and nearly doubled my salary in the intervening two years. I’m pretty sure I’ve peaked now though but who knows.

Good grief, what jobs are you all doing?! I'm on £20k. I work part time and as someone said up thread it is hard to progress when you don't work full time 😞. Once my children are older I could go back to full time, but we are muddling along with what we have and I would rather work fewer hours than work full time to double my wage (I'd rather work no hours and have a nice lottery win actually 😁)

There was a Times article recently about how a £200k income doesn’t get you the kind of affluent and financially secure lifestyle you’d think. Of course, everyone jumped on it to attack the ‘poor’ rich people but the reality is that 40 years ago, it took much less money to be able to afford an affluent lifestyle of private school, detached house, nice holidays etc. as costs have risen far more than wages.
Obviously it’s the same for everyone that living standards have dropped, and for those on lower incomes the impact is real poverty not just squeezed standards of living but some of the article’s facts and figures were very stark.

I have exceeded my income goal but disappointed to find it hasn’t really made me as wealthy as I would have thought. I grew up in a hand to mouth, low income household and I have been really focused on making sure my children have a better experience and more financial support than I did.

I used to think that I would never earn what I earn now, almost 90k, and I feel no better off than when I had 45k.

We earn around 210 k between us but we live no differently to how we lived on far less because we just move the extra money into pension savings-I think in our late 40s we just have that fear that the jobs could go and be hard to replace so we save as much as we can whilst we can because the good income could vanish overnight for any of us I think. It's still a bit of a grind these middle years, working, saving not really enjoying the fruits of one's labors, maybe we are doing it wrong I do wonder. But then I spoke to a colleague in her mid 30s and she shared that in 3 years she and her husband have cleared their 350 mortgage( they may have put a large deposit down after renting for years) so they are mortgage free and now saving towards early retirement at 42/43, and I was amazed at that - we do tend to compare but many of us are better off than so many people who are really struggling right now but any of us could end up like that if we lost our jobs I think.

> 130k, with a household income of > 200k.

I’m upset that some of us live in poverty, especially for a G7 country!

And although some won’t, I feel sorry for people who grew up in hardship, work hard to ensure their kids have a different life and then find that the money doesn’t make them feel as secure as they thought it would. Partly it’s down to political mismanagement of the economy, but it’s also to do with how you frame things in your own head.

If you are in the latter position, try to live a little, enjoy some experiences now, have some balance. Don’t squirrel it all away for retirement. A good friend was looking forward to their retirement, travelling and following up their family history but they passed away suddenly. It has changed the way I do things for sure.

I'm a nurse which is decently paid here but the ceiling isn't very high. I love my job and not planning a career change so probably around €75k at the top of my scale. I have much higher hopes for my husband though!

I agree - pensions are important and paying off your mortgage is important - but putting off life to get to a mythical place of being secure is a waste IMO. Smoothing out your income to ensure you live a comfortable life throughout brings a better sense of well-being. Having enough money means you stop worrying about paying bills which is lovely and it's nice to be able to give the kids enough money whilst they're in Uni so they don't stress about paying bills either, it's nice to be able to pay for medical issues that are not covered by the NHS - ds is ND and he has needed a lot of very expensive extras and we are lucky that we can afford that.
They only realised how well off we were when they were about 16 and we bought a fancy car😁they insisted we picked them up quite a bit away from the school so no one would find out - too much of a flex they said. 😂 I do worry a lot that our kids won't feel the "value" of money because they get it handed to them too easily - but I hope we have educated them enough on this.