to believe the Mumsnet High Earners?

[LigPatin]

Every time there's a thread about earnings, there's always multiple posters who claim that most people on the thread must be inflating or plain lying about their salaries.

Whilst I recognise that people lie, especially on anonymous forums, I find it quite sad that people prefer to dismiss these posts as lies rather than take inspiration/education from them (or just not care).

I come from a poor background - we never had enough money to the point that food and electricity use was rationed. We weren't on the streets, but that was a looming possibility. We lived (mostly) within the midlands.

I fell into nannying as a career (having dreamed of being a primary school teacher) and my first job was in Kensington. The housekeeper had been gossiping about the rent on the house we worked in - it was £3k a WEEK. This was 2012-ish. I remember wondering how on Earth anyone could afford paying £200k+ a year on rent alone, when - in my mind - earning just £50k was amazingly rich.

I remember walking through Kensington and Knightsbridge and Chelsea and seeing thousands and thousands and thousands of these houses, all huge and grand and all presumably commanding similar rent or sale value than the one I worked in. They were all clearly lived in and used.

Perhaps it was arrogance, or naivety, but I figured that if there were enough people who could afford to pay £1k, £2k, £5k+ a week on rent (or buy million pound houses), then there must be a lot of money out there to be earned, and I couldn't see any reason as to why I couldn't find a way to get a share of that money.

That's sort of how I feel about these earning threads - hundreds of people are posting about their high salaries and instead of scoffing that they must be sad-sacks who hang out on Mumsnet to lie about their lifestyles - I think it's inspiring and encouraging to see so many women out there making amazing money and securing their futures.

FWIW - I was 21 back in Kensington, amazed at the £3k a week rent. I'm coming up to 30 now and my average yearly income is about £120k. I remind myself every day of how lucky I am, and how 21 year old me would have been incredulous. Though I'm, of course, absolutely nowhere near being able to rent a £3k a week house

[quote qualitygirl]@Usernamerequired not really. Plenty of ppl have no mortgage so they won't lose their homes[/quote]
Exactly. It’s all relative. The OP may be comfortably affording 3k a month rent but could still be served notice tomorrow. As a family we earn an awful lot less but all being well and if everything stays on track we will be mortgage free in 18 months.

But who is to say what might happen. We could lose everything tomorrow. All we can do is our best for today.

[quote littlepattilou]@Insert1x20p Hmmm, of course there are (female) high earners, who earn £100K plus, but they're as rare as rocking horse shit. And a VERY small minority on here earn that.

Any career that pays £100K+ a year, would permit very little spare time/leisure time. And as if women with a high flying career, that pays £100K+ a year, would be chatting shit on mumsnet, in the precious few hours per week they get to themselves...

They wouldn't have time, and they WOULDN'T be on here posting weird, braggy bullshit threads at 11.00 a.m on a weekday, they would be at WORK.

When you challenge them with this though, they ALWAYS say 'it's my day off.' PMSL! How convenient!

Some posters must think we all are as dumb as pudding! Many women on here are too long in the tooth to believe the sort of tall stories like the one the OP has come out with.

Bet this thread doesn't last long.

And anyone who is thinking of saying 'you sound jealous pattilou,' just jog on. I am not jealous of people who make shit up because they're bored. Nor am I jealous of anyone who earns £100K+ a year. No one I KNOW has anything I want. So stuff that old 'you sound jealous' chestnut where the sun don't shine! [/quote]
That's just not true for all those in that wage bracket. Some will be doing relatively standard office hours, eg 8am-6pm, without late working or weekend working. They could well be earning that salary doing standard hours because they are highly qualified and what they do is very niche.

Absolutely OP. I earn £250k and ten years ago I was stocking supermarket shelves.

Yes I agree ! Just BELIEVE the people on mumsnet and be inspired and it will come true 🤦🏼‍♀️Your job, how you got there, your level of education, the support you had, your health are all factors. This post is incredibly silly and childish and I struggle to believe you earn more than 50p a week for sweets.

I totally understand what you are saying OP but not everyone will hear it. You saw what was around you and looked for opportunities to get where you wanted to be. Well done. We need more positive people like you to encourage the go getters out there, so don't mind the nasty comments. Obviously there are different routes to get to where you want to be and this is just one person's story on how she got her vision. Thanks for sharing it. I was born in Chelsea but I didn't live there, however I lived close by and could see the grand apartments from my window growing up. My mother always said "you can live there if you want to, it's up to you". This was a good building block for my thought process as a child.

This is probably a thread for a tv show or tabloid. It’ll be interesting to see the results 2021 census results of household employment and income

I think a more interesting question would be 'Of those that earn £100k+ a year, what percentage were born into wealth and/or privately educated? (which is not just about wealth but also 'connections', which just aren't there for normal people). You are very much the exception that proves the rule OP; most poor people stay poor and most wealthy people become more wealthy.

Another interesting question could be: 'Is it morally right for anyone to be earning over £100k in a country where 14+ million people in the UK are living in poverty?'.

I'm not interested in whether people are genuinely high-earners, of course most of those claiming to be wealthy are wealthy.

@fizbosshoes

I think , looking at gov statistics for 2020, less than 3% of people earn 100k +. On the last MN thread over 12% claimed to earn that much. The average wage is about 30k, I calculated from a recent MN thread, and it was 58k (and lots of people had effectively demoted themselves or had potential to earn more but chose not to. ) I cant decide if MN is skewed towards people with high earning jobs or whether people get to page 2 where every other poster is earning 80k, at the age of 25, and decides not to post about earning very average wages.

It could be either really!

Most (clever, hardworking, entrepeneurial, highly educated) people in the UK do not earn more than £80k and it's nothing to do with making poor decisions or not trying hard enough.

Do you believe that these high paying jobs are there for the taking for all of us if we just set our minds to it and work a bit harder? Or that we just need a push from reading about such jobs on forums like this? I'm not completely sure about the point you're trying to make, but I have the impression you're being patronising.

This is probably a thread for a tv show or tabloid. It’ll be interesting to see the results 2021 census results of household employment and income

I was expecting a question on income in the census, either individual or household but pretty sure there wasnt one

I'm not sure why such posters are often not believed either - there are slot of people on mumsnet, so a range of earners seems logical to me. Well done OP and FWIW I don't think it's a stealth boast!

There are those who think that if you earn over £100k that you are running around every second of your day being officious, it is simply not true.

I am in that bracket, but i have time to internet shop, get on mumsnet, go for a coffee. There are times when absolutely i can't if i need to deliver something but my delivery times are realsitic. And i have a life and children. For transparancy, i am divorced so, also an excellent nanny. I have 1.5 hours scheduled for dinner with my kids every night (6.30- 8pm) and i do about 6-8 hours a week of online meetings outside 8-6. Weekends always free to be our family.

I did a post grad in my mid 40s and it increased my salary by 40%.

Women should not be put off because they imagine it to be ball breaking work, humans are human and of course find their time, which is easier the more senior you get. I think that working in a call centre would be so much harder in terms of time management and relentless KPIs. Nurses, teachers work as hard or harder as their shifts are so long.

I have had incredible luck but i also know many successful people that i liked so knew it was possible and not 'other' and mysterious and frightening. I could see how it could work in reality.

Examples and familiarisation have such an impact. Not everyone can be brought up in those circles so we NEED to show our girls how it can be and make them comfortable with the idea. Even conversations on MN help this.

Not everyone wants to do this but i would like that those who can are at least given the inspiration to take the shot.

Totally agree sofa and it's a point I'm always making on these threads, but you put it better than me because actually believing that women earning six figures are somehow squeezed in every other area of their lives is damaging for other women and our daughters. Yes it's true that some are working very long hours (just the same as men and people of both sexes earning less than six figures) but it's just not true for all jobs.

I'm not a lawyer or doctor or any kind of "profession", i work in a bog standard industry, 100% from home for the last 5 years. I get the kids up, to school, collect them, make dinner, all that jazz. I don't work over time, i never work weekends. I am not squeezed in the slightest. I earn £175k pa. Ludicrous amount, and not something i ever thought I'd earn, particularly because I'm from a background of poverty, but it happens to be what my job pays. There are plenty of men doing equivalent to my role at the place I work and you can be sure they are also earning at least that. Neither are they "squeezed". We just log on have our meetings make some decisions log off.

OP is right in the sense that if you are motivated by a high income, do your research and work really hard, then yes, a high income should be attainable to anyone that's willing to work hard for it. That's not to say that you can have such an income on any type of career path, and you may along the way realize that the type of work that gives such an income really doesn't interest you.

My husband comes from a middle class background and works in finance with a very generous salary now. I could never do what he does (the line of work doesn't interest me and he works much harder than I would ever be willing to - but that doesn't mean I can't do what he does, it's just that it's not worth it to me). So I don't see why most people couldn't do what he did if they put their mind to it. It's just whether it's important enough to you in life or if other things take priority.

And that's the message I take from OP. You can achieve great things (salary wise or other) if it's important enough to you, but don't think it doesn't come without sacrifices, and I suppose that's were OP could have elaborated more.

@Aleric

Totally agree sofa and it's a point I'm always making on these threads, but you put it better than me because actually believing that women earning six figures are somehow squeezed in every other area of their lives is damaging for other women and our daughters. Yes it's true that some are working very long hours (just the same as men and people of both sexes earning less than six figures) but it's just not true for all jobs.

I'm not a lawyer or doctor or any kind of "profession", i work in a bog standard industry, 100% from home for the last 5 years. I get the kids up, to school, collect them, make dinner, all that jazz. I don't work over time, i never work weekends. I am not squeezed in the slightest. I earn £175k pa. Ludicrous amount, and not something i ever thought I'd earn, particularly because I'm from a background of poverty, but it happens to be what my job pays. There are plenty of men doing equivalent to my role at the place I work and you can be sure they are also earning at least that. Neither are they "squeezed". We just log on have our meetings make some decisions log off.

@Aleric, I'd love to know what you do or what field you work in?

lightsabre

Incredibly dull- internal operations director in a data analysis agency. I actually love my job, (even before it was paid so well!) but it's dull as dishwater to most - nothing sexy going on here!

@Aleric totally agree. It’s a fallacy which does a disservice to women to assume career success comes at the price of no family life.

Having a senior role has afforded me a high degree of flexibility. I rarely miss sports days, recitals, etc even before covid. Post covid I pick my youngest DC up from school every day.

My working day can be very fluid and this has advantages and disadvantages. I rarely work weekends, but I do sometimes work in the evening.

I never worry about when I can take holiday, or it being refused - but accept that I’ll probably have at least one call that I absolutely have to join.

I still cook dinner, read bedtime stories. As mentioned in another post I also have a NED role, so make time for that.

OP is right in the sense that if you are motivated by a high income, do your research and work really hard, then yes, a high income should be attainable to anyone that's willing to work hard for it.

I earn a low wage and I assure you I work extremely hard. No job with a high income has ever been available to me so I find that statement a bit offensive.

It must be great to be brilliant.

What an incredibly crass post, OP. Do you really find it that hard to imagine that people who have to budget carefully or even struggle to make ends meet may find it obnoxious when others show off about their wealth?! And that's what it is, showing off. There is absolutely no reason to disclose your salary to strangers on the internet just because someone has asked the question - or in your case, completely unprompted

there are slot of people on mumsnet, so a range of earners seems logical to me.

A range of earnings would seem logical, but the range on MN often seems to start at around 50k, which is well above the average salary.

No job with a high income has ever been available to me so I find that statement a bit offensive.

It depends how far back in life you go though, surely? When a child has not yet done any exams, unless they have learning difficulties there is always the possibility that they could get the qualifications that would open up a high-earning job. A young person with no family responsibility can move round the country/world for work. It’s just that the high/low earning path gets harder to follow the older you get.

Well I think she makes a brilliant point if you people on MM would open your nasty eyes. She’s maki g the point that if you work damn hard and make the right connections instead of plodding along in the same low paid job and use and realise every opportunity presented to you to further yourself then yes of course it’s possible to earn 150 k plus. It’s having the gumption to notice opportunities and having the intellect to go for it! One has to be fearless and progressive and not blinkered to understand capabilities and opportunities when they arise. The world is out there if you have the foresight and the ability to see it! So many of you will never see that it’s there for the taking. You feel comfort in the knowledge that people on massive salaries are few and those that speak of it are liars! She’s worked hard as have all successful people. Perhaps she’s on here and doesn’t have the children yet. Who knows? How is her telling her life story going to make everyone more believing? Her point is very clear- that it’s out there through hard work and recognising opportunities and having the drive and ambition and courage to go for it. She’s ambitious. It should be applauded not attacked in the way all of you are. You should be happy that a young woman is earning they sort of salary, not ridiculing her as though she’s showing off. She trying to inspire.

Blimey