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

I expect there are people who don't believe others who post about their salaries on here because it beggars belief that anyone with half a brain cell would post about their large salary on a site where so many are poor or on benefits.

To be fair, the posters who do this have self-selected into a thread asking for people's salaries.

This is information that many people don't share IRL so I think it's quite plausible that the women who've worked hard and/or made sacrifices to earn high salaries that they can't discuss in detail IRL might be quite pleased to have to opportunity to discuss their career achievements anonymously online. I'm not saying I'd want to disclose my own personal details, but clearly people like to discuss that stuff.

I wouldn't imagine that people who post their salaries on those threads are thinking about offending a low-earner, as the thread is about salaries and anyone who isn't interested in the answers won't open the thread - it's not like they've gone onto a benefits thread to state their salary.

Yeah, I'm feeling insecure 😂

It's not about ME being offended. It's that posting about your large salary, purposefully because you know so many here are poor is frankly disgusting. It doesn't nothing for women's rights, you actual idiot. Women aren't paid equally - that's whatshould be highlighted. Not that a couple of posers on Mumsnet earn a million an hour or whatever nonsense.

@Artichokepiglet: people I know who earn well

• a lot work in finance
• many did professional training after university
• corporates: job hopping to get promotions/increases

I think a lot of it is having an awareness when you start on your career what the earning potential is. Maybe you don't care, and that's fine, but so many people seem to go into fields without really considering what it means financially, and well paid fields are not boring, even if they tend to be painted that way. I always tell people not to go into a field where there are lots of unpaid internships- means way too many people prepared to do it for little or no money.

@Grapewrath

I’m inspired by a lot of people, for a lot of reasons. Their salary is not one of these reasons. I do think there are some high earners on mumsnet, I also think there are many complete fantasists

Agreed.

Great post OP. And fair focks to you, as we say in Dublin.

I haven’t read all the replies as it looks like it derailed a bit.

To the people saying, “I have a PhD/degree/masters etc and I earn less than half, are you implying I don’t work hard enough” etc, I think that’s missing the point. There are people who go after a slice of the pie, (and why not!) and people who go after a vocation, and people who work in roles they like, but acknowledge it’s not well paid. From that it’s implied they do those jobs because their happiness in work is a value to them, in as much as the dollar value is to others.

From my perspective I’ve loved being in full time education, I loved doing my masters at 30. I’m hoping to do an MBA soon. But not for the future dollar sign, but because I find the study bit engaging. So I won’t be back saying “i have an MBA why am I not earning 200k+ yet??”.

I’ve recently come down from 110k to 75k. (Made redundant, took a new job with a work from home contract) I actually don’t massively notice the drop (yet) mostly because I have stopped using a nanny and am using after school clubs now that I’m nearby for pickup.

I agree there are people working very hard in their role for way less. But I think the bigger paid jobs have the bigger mental toll. You are usually accountable for something, it’s your head on the block, and it is “working hard” in a different guise from “working hard during office hours”. You will be thinking about work on weekends, after work, it will seep into your life, much as you try to not let it. That’s the trade off.

@OneTimeAdvocate yeah, keep the high earnings for those who kick the losers while they're down, yes?

@HaveringWavering fields with a high demand and professional qualifications ( finance, IT, law). Also as someone else mentioned , London.
In general working for a large company as a mid-level manager.
‘Right place at right time’ is true to some extent (as whether you get promoted depends on your team and boss, if your unlucky enough to have a bad one it may delay things). There’s a lot to be said however for deliberate career planning and research.

It is quite ridiculous that people assume women are lying about their salaries. Ridiculous and quite insulting to women generally.

Yes, salaries stated on MN do seem rather disproportionate, but that doesn't mean they're not true. More that threads to do with salaries are more likely to attract those on higher salaries.

I strongly suspect if you started a thread titled 'Do you earn less than 30k?' you'd get pages and pages of replies basically saying yes.

These threads tend to fill up not with so much with high earners, but a debate about whether it's actually true.

Good for you OP.
We are the same age and I earn pittance.

I would love to earn more. I do feel inspired to try. But honestly, I don't see how I can ever achieve more and earn better. I am so stuck and don't know how to manoeuvre in to a better paying industry.

@OneTimeAdvocate nice use of someone potentially having a low salary as an insult there btw. Kind of my point really.

@Blyatiful

What do you do now, OP, and how did you get there? I only know two people who earn over £100,000. One is a very senior civil servant and the other is a surgeon.

I used to know a lot of them but that was when I worked in a hospital.

[quote TheLastLotus]@HaveringWavering fields with a high demand and professional qualifications ( finance, IT, law). Also as someone else mentioned , London.
In general working for a large company as a mid-level manager.
‘Right place at right time’ is true to some extent (as whether you get promoted depends on your team and boss, if your unlucky enough to have a bad one it may delay things). There’s a lot to be said however for deliberate career planning and research.[/quote]
I think you might have meant to tag someone else there?

I reckon most of these high salary posters live in London or SE.
There are many thousands of jobs paying 100K+ in the city and people move there specifically for those jobs - so I guess you could call it being in the right place at the right time -and they’ve made sure of it!

Lots of consultancy-type jobs can easily earn 100K+ too and these can be based anywhere in the country.

High earners is so subjective, to me a high earner is £1m plus, it depends wholly on your field and level of sacrifice.

Not sure who the losers are, just because you earn £10k or £50k doesn’t make you any less worthy than those who earn more.

Poor language and jealousy are all symbols of why people don’t progress and earn much though.

DD2 is 17 and has picked her career solely on how much money she can earn. She wants to work in finance .
She has chosen her the A levels which can help her in her quest to make loads of money.
Dh and I have encouraged her every step of the way
My other Dd wants to go into a field where she will earn well, but possibly not £100k. She’s fine with this
Dh and I have encouraged her every step of the way.

Different choices , different potential to earn money

But I think the bigger paid jobs have the bigger mental toll. You are usually accountable for something, it’s your head on the block, and it is “working hard” in a different guise from “working hard during office hours”. You will be thinking about work on weekends, after work, it will seep into your life, much as you try to not let it. That’s the trade off.

I really don't think that's accurate social workers, teachers, nursery staff, care workers and doctors etc all face those challenges and their wage packets certainly don't reflect their roles.

For those asking the OP was a Nanny for 10 years and has now made the switch to running a recruitment agency.

I'm still very curious as to how the wages differ between the 2 roles as I doubt many nannies are on 100k+.

[quote TheWaif]@OneTimeAdvocate nice use of someone potentially having a low salary as an insult there btw. Kind of my point really.[/quote]
Sadly you brought it on yourself, but is it that if I said I earned £10k you wouldn’t have commented?

Jealousy right there. Sad really.

@Whereismymojo

Great post OP. And fair focks to you, as we say in Dublin.

I haven’t read all the replies as it looks like it derailed a bit.

To the people saying, “I have a PhD/degree/masters etc and I earn less than half, are you implying I don’t work hard enough” etc, I think that’s missing the point. There are people who go after a slice of the pie, (and why not!) and people who go after a vocation, and people who work in roles they like, but acknowledge it’s not well paid. From that it’s implied they do those jobs because their happiness in work is a value to them, in as much as the dollar value is to others.

From my perspective I’ve loved being in full time education, I loved doing my masters at 30. I’m hoping to do an MBA soon. But not for the future dollar sign, but because I find the study bit engaging. So I won’t be back saying “i have an MBA why am I not earning 200k+ yet??”.

I’ve recently come down from 110k to 75k. (Made redundant, took a new job with a work from home contract) I actually don’t massively notice the drop (yet) mostly because I have stopped using a nanny and am using after school clubs now that I’m nearby for pickup.

I agree there are people working very hard in their role for way less. But I think the bigger paid jobs have the bigger mental toll. You are usually accountable for something, it’s your head on the block, and it is “working hard” in a different guise from “working hard during office hours”. You will be thinking about work on weekends, after work, it will seep into your life, much as you try to not let it. That’s the trade off.

@Whereismymojo it’s also the skills - in my field someone with 20 years of experience can save hours of work with an hour of their time... you’re not paying for the hours worked you’re paying for the avoidance of costly mistakes that come with seniority ...

@WeAreAllCompletelyFine

I'm not sure about the hard work comments etc as obviously people can work very, very hard or not that hard on all sorts of salaries and in all sorts of different jobs. And what's very hard for one might be fine for another.

That aside though I do tend to believe the high earners posters partly because I usually take posters at face value (more fool me! I'm taking in by every fake post) and partly that we are a high earning household so the figures seem 'normal' to me. We are surrounded by colleagues earning the same or a LOT more so we've become desensitised to lifestyles we would have once found jaw-dropping.

I do find it a bit strange when people automatically dont believe what other posters earn, but I guess there will be a few liars or fantasists out there!

I completely agree with this, £100k+ is not uncommon where I work (SE Corporate), so I tend to believe people when they say they earn it

To flip it, it's the same as me finding it hard to believe that people live in houses that don't cost hundreds of thousands of pounds or have mortgages that are only a few hundred pounds a month.

But I guess that's because we all base what we believe in our own experience

I don't believe you either I'm afraid because your time line is just a tad bit unrealistic. Plus you said an average of £120k a year so you must have gotten there in less than 9 years to have figured out an average.

But the fact that you think that most people should be able to earn that amount is just stupid and its what makes your income that bit more unbelievable. Or perhaps I just like to still believe that people on high incomes should have some intelligence. Only a small portion of people can earn that much due to all of the low income jobs that need to be filled.

I don't believe those other posters because those jobs require a fair amount of extra work and hours than normal jobs, yet they spend an extraordinary amount of time on mumsnet. Either they are lying or they actually do nothing all day. Those kinds of people tend to also hire help because they have no time for actually doing the jobs and they don't want to in what little spare time they have. I know a woman who is a joint owner of a business in London. She makes that kind of money yet is constantly working, even on weekends there are meetings to attend. She works very, very hard and has little time for anything else.

Im sure some are telling the truth. But the amount that claim it on here, given that its a very tiny portion of the population of the world on here? Nope. Most are liars.

Published data from HMRC for 2019 shows that 321,000 people in the UK earn over £150,000/annum. You can obviously draw your own conclusions about the % of these 321,000 people who are on MN.

First of all not everyone is motivated my money. I find value in spending time with my family, that is worth more to me than cash in the bank. Secondly talking about money in that way is vulgar.

Additionally someone else’s spending power doesn’t impress or inspire me when I have no idea how much of it is earned and how much of it is on credit or inherited. London wages are not normal in the rest of the country. In the part of the north I’m from if is unusual to earn as much as £50k. Luckily houses are priced accordingly.

I personally think that the lower the job level/description, the harder someone works and usually with less flexibility. However if the high earners on here earn as much as they say they do then I’m surprised they have so much time to potter about on mumsnet telling everyone.

I watched an episode of Rich House, Poor House this week. The millionaire who normally threw cash at a theme park day out with his kids was volunteering on a garden project with his little boys. Later that day he sat and cried in the bathroom saying he realised that kids don’t need his money, they just want his time and he was inspired to be a better dad because of it. I’m not sure being rich is always that enriching.

For those asking what do you do to earn £150k at 31, I’m an Oxbridge educated, London based management consultant for a top 3 strategy house. It’s stressful and long hours and I’ll probably stop after having a baby. It’s also highly competitive recruitment (