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.

This is an interesting thread though. Know now that any opinion on MN isn't really one that is coming from a position I can relate to.

£150k+ at the C suite level.

I’d just like to break £30k. My FTE would be low 20s. Had kids before I graduated so always been part time. Now they’re all in school I’m ready to actually think about what I want to do for the rest of my life and how I can progress to earn more!

My husband and I had conversations about our target joint income and we, ten years ago, felt £100,000 was enough to own a nice house and live comfortably. Back then, we had a combined income of about £99,000. Our mortgage was large, outgoings were high and we spent years living frugally.

We sold our house in 2019, moved to a cheaper area and drastically reduced our mortgage. I changed jobs, received a promotion and our joint income is now around £92000. Due to our lower mortgage, home running costs and lower expenses, we feel significantly more comfortable.

To feel really wealthy in our current circumstances , I think we'd be aiming for at least £125,000 as a couple. Once our mortgage is paid in 10 years, we'd feel wealthy on our current income.

We both work in Education. I'm Head of English earning just under £50,000. If I progressed to Assistant Head (which I've been before, earning about £52,000 ten years ago) or Deputy, I'd earn between £53, 000 to £75,000 dependant on the school.

At the moment, my working hours are great, I'm part of a strong staff team, my pension is good and I get 13 weeks holiday. I'm happy with my wortk life balance which would undoubtedly change if I took on more responsibility.

Fortunately, here in the North East, houses prices are very good value in some areas and we've benefited from that after selling up in affluent Whitley Bay.

Mine has gone down massively between the ages of 35 and 45.

At 35 I was earning around £40k full time. I then dropped hours twice to £30k then £25k.

I lost my job last year and have got an even more part time job for £13k. But we paid off our mortgage when we moved so it's not too bad.

DH earned around £20k at our peak but now unemployed.

My aim is to stick where I am for a while as it fits in with school. Then maybe to work more hours for the 10 years or so before I retire. In my profession I could probably go up to £50-60k max, but it's competitive and I'm a crap manager so I'm not sure I will.

Lost my ambition over the years mainly due to unsupportive employers, having kids and mental health problems.

I worry about my pension but happy with our income (well I will be when DH gets a job!).

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot

How do you all you folk earning near £100k a year have time to post on an internet forum during the working day? What do you do? Are you overpaid?

1. The salary isn't proportionate to the level of "active" work. Earning more doesn't always mean "busier".
2. The more I earn, the more in charge of my own schedule I am. I flex my hours considerably and even so, only a small fraction of my day is spent working, so I spend quite a bit of my free time on MN.
3. I am actively slacking at the moment.

I'm self employed. I would love to earn about £75k.

If I could hit that salary, I would start striving to reduce my hours while keeping it at that level, rather than working to earn MORE.

£50k has always been my goal (non London). I'm not even on half of that 3 years out of uni so it's still a long way off.

30k in a 0.5% role would be my goal. It's impossible to do part time in my industry though, I'd need a career change.

Currently 100k in a full time role and get mithered 24/7.

Half me too, totally dicking about on mumsnet too

The higher i go the less my work care about hours I put in and more about results. As long as everything is covered and delivering they couldn't care less. I work directly with the business owners so they are more like teenagers who I have to stop slacking off and get them focused!!

Plus timezones mean I do work at unsocial hours. But in all honesty today I am slacking off I own it

I always knew my industry was not well paid, I accept I have also made some limiting decisions along the way but good lord, this does make me think I'm going to be living an impoverished old age at this rate. Ah well. Too tired to be arsed to be ambitious right now anyway.

I've stopped thinking about "ideal" numbers and think generally about quality of life.

As long as we've got enough for food, school fees, healthcare, mortgage and uni fees for kids (they would be international Students) and a good quality of life then we've reached our goal I think.

What I have now 40k part time hours, flexible job and overtime or full time IF I want it which takes it to 80k. Not money orientated though, we’re comfortable and if I end up in a minimum wage job tomorrow I won’t care as long as I’m happy. Lucky to have two wages coming in though, I guess things could change if that stopped.

Earnt loads when I was younger, billed at £2500 per week (less expenese's, on call night and day loved it, then life changes, would hate that life now, new city, job, company every few months , but it set us up for the life we have so am quite happy, to be home and pay the bills with a smaller salary, money aint everything, but TBF it helps x

And I'm dicking around on Mumsnet because it's only 10.45am here and we've got a public holiday.

Being a high earner doesn't necessarily equate to slogging every hour every day.

Thankfully my role is results driven, not by hours logged and I'm really good at what I do.

OH and I are on 100k each roughly (early 30s). I think I'd be happy to get to 120k +bonuses and inflationary increases over time but I have a feeling OH is hoping for 150k+ one day.

I must be hanging out with the wrong crowd as I don’t know anyone who’s in the mn exclusive salary bracket. My friends all earn average or low salaries, nurses, teachers, nursery nurses, supermarket workers, warehouse staff.

I will be able to pay my mortgage off by the end of this year, due to inheritance. After that my pretty average (and by that I mean actual national average, not MN average!) salary will feel like so much more.
I am v lucky to be able to do that in my early 40s, but I'd still rather have my parents.

Blimey I'm on 25k at 30. Would like to be on 30k in 5 years. But ideally have my partner earn enough so I dont have to work at all!

If I get back up to £12,000 in the next 3 years I'll be happy.

I'm just a teacher - top of scale at £40K a year and with nowhere to go from here. My partner works in the service industry so we're probably on about 60K a year combined. I see now that in terms of Mumsnet that makes us part of the underclass. Ah well!

This thread is very deceiving as I am guessing that all those earning £70k+ are in London... The salaries in London cannot be compared to other places in the country because of the difference in living costs.

Someone once told me that 'earning your age' was a good one to aim for and I managed to slightly be ahead of that by my 30s which wasn't too bad.
Right now I'm self employed and earn far less but I'm (very) part time and term time only which is more than worth it with small kids to deal with. Hoping to go back into paid work in the next year or so and will be aiming for 50ish k, if not immediately (early 40s)

I don't have a goal salary. Pre children, I used to earn around £200k inc bonus per year but now I do a less stressful job for £110k.
I would like to earn what I used to but I'm not prepared to put the hours or have the same stresses I had before.
So a nice little 9-6, limited stress with my current salary is fine for me.