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.

Disfordarkchocolate
Snap lol 😂

I'm 30 y.o and salary with benefits is now £33k with my partners being £45k. By the time in 50 I would expect to be on around £40k and with a combined salary of over £100k. Geographically we live in a poorer part of the UK so thankfully we make a good salary already - think we're you live makes all the difference

Wow - I feel like a pauper

@Goatgirl91

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.

Quite. I am in the North West. I know a lot of professional people up here and doubt that any of them are near six figures. Until recently my DH earned c 70 and for the north I think that was extremely good.

Two x 30-40k salaries (which is what I'd say most people I know have) can get you a nice house and decent quality of life up here IMO.

£150k would be nice but that's not going to happen on my current trajectory....

I don't live in London or anywhere near it.

Higher earners have time to “dick around” online because it’s not a clock on/off role anymore. It’s constant and you are never really not thinking (or worrying) about work. The upside is you don’t have someone looking over your shoulder all the time, the downside is the accountability and responsibility.

I'm in London, recently had a bump to 65,000. In the last three years I've doubled my salary. I'm mid thirties but only started in my profession 6 years ago.

My (hopefully) easily achieved goal would be £80,000 in the next two years.

Top earning for the field I'm in in London is 120,000. That's maybe something to aim for in my fourties.

As a household we're at £100,000 but like others it doesn't feel like we're hugely affluent.

I think that a good salary is where you can save £2k + a month and pay at least 10 per cent pension. Have £2k spare for hobbies and £2k spare for school fees. Have £1k for bills and be mortgage free. So for me that works out - £7k a month net. So that is £84k net. So I guess I aspire for £150k gross! That sounds a reasonable goal to me.

Jeanne Doe, 110K for a 9-6 , really? What job pays that salary with no overtime requirement?

I know a lot of people who earn over the 100k mark but they are all workhorses.

When I was in my 30s, my dream salary was £60k. I’m 60 now and have been retired for 5 years. In the 5 years before I retired I earned £100k plus bonus and privately, I got a real kick out of it. Silly really, but I was always considered the “average” one in my family and I was secretly out earning my brothers.

I now have a much smaller income and time to enjoy it.

I should say the £2k for hobbies would include socialising and hair and beauty treatments too.

@QpopTYUIop9

Higher earners have time to “dick around” online because it’s not a clock on/off role anymore. It’s constant and you are never really not thinking (or worrying) about work. The upside is you don’t have someone looking over your shoulder all the time, the downside is the accountability and responsibility.

So higher earners have more accountability and responsibilty? OK then. I can think of many jobs that involve a lot of responsibility and accountability, including teaching, where the kind of salaries being discussed here are but a distant dream.

Reading the first page of this thread goes to show that it’s not a true reflection of reality on here. If the average salary is £38k then already a lot of people earn higher than this just on the first few posts.

So for the average person, earning a salary of £50k plus would’ve be an option. The average person could only hope to earn that.

So for those that may feel not good enough, most people wouldn’t be earning anywhere near £75k.... so it’s not normal at all.

I’m NHS top of band 6 so £37k ish plus bank shifts which amount to about £500 take home pay a month.

I won’t get higher than that I don’t think. No desire for it. I’m tired of nursing and want out so will likely reduce my hours in 7 years when dses are hopefully through university.

DH earns above £40k so we are very comfortable but he is now looking to retirement so we have peaked🤣🤣

This thread feels slightly like sneaking a look at a different world, so many high earners! I don’t know any IRL so it’s a bit odd.

I feel very fortunate with what we earn, we have a comfortable life financially and have decent savings. DH has a fantastic final salary pension which helps. Mine is shit in comparison and I have to work a million more years to get it🤷‍♀️

wouldn’t be an option

I'm 32 and on just under 30k and I'm comfortable on that money. I could increase my hours but don't feel I need to. I have everything I need plus a little extra for savings, pay into a pension, go on holidays and never struggle for money. I'm genuinely shocked that people on 50,000 still feel they need to earn more? What do you spend it all on?! I'm starting to think I've just lived a very simple unambitious life!

Mid 40’s i’d be happy with currently I’m on 33k and Dh on 43k I’d like to be around same as Dh.
I think it will take time but hopefully I’ll get there.

Hmmm interesting question but I think it's tricky to not take into account wider perks of job etc. I'm early 30s and salary is 36K. I could work in an industry with higher salaries but I'm happy where I am because I get a great pension, flexible working etc etc. Also 2 pay rises a year - one linked to inflation and one annual increment.

To actually answer your question, goal salary would be 50k peak career.

Happy with a challenging, interesting but mostly stress free £35-40k and a good work/life balance and flexibility, worth much more to me than money.

I was earning more in my 30's (£47k) than in my 40/50's and I don't regret the change of priorities that let me be home from work most days just after 4pm and a 1/2 day on a Friday.

QpopTYUIop9 That sums it up really well.

I hit my target of 100k around 20 years ago and then decided to take a career break to look after children as a single mum. No way back unfortunately but I do have a part-time job for less money with a lot less stress and no commute.

My ‘goal’ for 50 is retirement! I didn’t realise that was considered to be the peak of my career! I was at the top f my game in my late 20s and early 30s and have been happily gradually cutting back since!
At 50 I will have done 30 years.
‘Career progression’ is definitely not on my agenda!

Myothercarisalsoshit I didn’t mean (or indeed write) that it is solely high earners who have accountability and responsibility, but that those tend to come with the roles. And this is why they are highly paid, along with other factors such as supply and demand of certain skills.

I haven't earned under £100k since the early 90s but your spending tends to go up with the higher income so I never really felt I should limit myself. (My student children will cost £50k next academic year for example so I am not going to be winding down yet)

I have worked for myself since 1994.