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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU To think that the vast majority of the 5% of top earners in the UK don't really post on MN

255 replies

ChristmasAlone · 05/05/2021 17:11

Top 5% of earners in the the UK earn 70k or more, but it seems that every 3rd poster on here earns way above that and beyond.

OP posts:
theAdventuresofMissBarbaraPym · 05/05/2021 17:36

This is a pretty middle class site, and 70k is a pretty middle class wage

It really isn't. Like OP says, it puts you in the top 5% earners.

Original poster
ChristmasAlone · 05/05/2021 17:37

Not just pension pots but 100k for some inexplicable just sat in a savings account rather than doing something for them.

OP posts:
rarzy · 05/05/2021 17:37

One thing is for sure there are not a lot of women who earn more than 120k which hopefully will change over the years.

Toilenstripes · 05/05/2021 17:37

The reverse snobbery on MN is something I don’t understand. I know that lots of people work hard and much of success is down to luck, but it’s the nastiness towards the lucky that bothers me. You discredit yourselves.

idontlikealdi · 05/05/2021 17:38

Should I not believe all those posters on mw, with no money for food? Do I just assume they're trolls because they're not in the same income bracket as me?

Original poster
ChristmasAlone · 05/05/2021 17:40

@Toilenstripes

The reverse snobbery on MN is something I don’t understand. I know that lots of people work hard and much of success is down to luck, but it’s the nastiness towards the lucky that bothers me. You discredit yourselves.
I'm not saying that people don't and if they do fair play to them. There just seems so many of them that do and struggle with pretty basic things that would come hand in hand with it that it seems very unlikely that the majority that claim they are actually do.
OP posts:
Original poster
ChristmasAlone · 05/05/2021 17:40

@MildredPuppy

I think they do as 5% is still a lot of people.
Yes it was obviously tongue in check
OP posts:
TeenTitan007 · 05/05/2021 17:41

Guilty as charges of all offences including having a cleaner (and gardener ConfusedHmm)

LordOfTheOnionRings · 05/05/2021 17:41

@idontlikealdi

Should I not believe all those posters on mw, with no money for food? Do I just assume they're trolls because they're not in the same income bracket as me?
People don't believe them though and the threads are often reported and taken down because people assume they're trying to scam them.
TeenTitan007 · 05/05/2021 17:42

*Charged (not charges)

Original poster
ChristmasAlone · 05/05/2021 17:42

@YellowGlasses

5% of 66mil is still a lot of people. Besides, for many, it’s the household income rather than an individual.
You know its worked out at the working age population, new born babies and 100 year olds aren't included 🤦
OP posts:
MysweetAudrina · 05/05/2021 17:43

I earn a good bit more. Not in the UK though. Seems to be plenty of people on the other boards buying designer handbags, houses, expensive skin care and clothes, holidays and send children to private schools. I think there is a good mix here.

eurochick · 05/05/2021 17:43

This site has a fairly middle class and older demographic than some sites. If you are a graduate in your 40s and have spent 20 years climbing the career ladder, it wouldn't be that unusual to earn that kind of salary. In my 20s very few of my social circle earned that kind of money. I got a job paying 60k in my mid-20s and all my friends thought I was absolutely minted and so did I! In my 40s I'd be surprised if any of my friends earn much less than 70k (we are in the SE). They are now hospital consultants, high level civil servants, lawyers, etc. In their 20s as junior doctors, trainee solicitors, etc they earned much less.

GappyValley · 05/05/2021 17:45

@theAdventuresofMissBarbaraPym

Does anyone remember LeQueen, LaQueen?
I remember a thread she posted about how exhausting it was to drive a new Mercedes because all other road users had chips on their shoulders and treated her with contempt to the point of driving dangerously around her

Magical.

rarzy · 05/05/2021 17:46

I always wonder about how criminals fit in the stats as they are unlikely to be paying tax 😆

BarbaraofSeville · 05/05/2021 17:49

^£70k only seems like a lot compared to the poverty wages that a lot of people are forced to manage on.

Salaries in the UK are laughably behind the cost of living^

Some people on Mumsnet have a laughably indulgent idea of what is 'normal living'.

On this thread, people are saying, with all seriousness, that parents should be paying for their education until they are 25, even if they flit from course to course so outstudy all their entitlement to student loans, £3k school trips and fully expensed cars including private number plates Grin.

LolaSmiles · 05/05/2021 17:50

It doesn't surprise me that there are people with those incomes on here.

What does surprise me is that people who are apparently smart enough to be a high earner in the top 5% are so dim that they 'don't understand' really simple things (such as the fact their income is a high income) or come out with hilariously patronising nonsense (such as "AIBU to think that if you want a high salary and work hard then it will happen" insert tilty head here)

I also find it quite funny how so many posters claim their DH has a super high flying, high power, very important man job and it is so important that he has no time to trouble himself with mundane family or domestic tasks, but then on high income threads there's women saying that they also have very high paying jobs, but it's not stressful, they manage to do their job and have several hours a day to do house things, hobbies and be on mumsnet. There might be some exaggeration on both ends, but it's quite telling to see how the same sort of roles are presented depending on whether it's a man or a woman doing it.

Mylittlepony374 · 05/05/2021 17:50

I do and I do. Cleaner too. No Mercedes though.

AgeLikeWine · 05/05/2021 17:51

MN is an anonymous Internet forum which allows users to change their names as often as they wish. People can claim to be whatever they want to be, as I was saying to my husband Prince William just last night.

theAdventuresofMissBarbaraPym · 05/05/2021 17:55

You discredit yourselves

Ooh get you! Next you'll be telling people to Be Better.

I remember a thread she posted about how exhausting it was to drive a new Mercedes because all other road users had chips on their shoulders and treated her with contempt to the point of driving dangerously around her

Grin She also claimed that her DH had misplaced his BMW and didn't bother trying to find it. Or some other tosh!

TownTalkJewels · 05/05/2021 17:58

@theAdventuresofMissBarbaraPym

This is a pretty middle class site, and 70k is a pretty middle class wage

It really isn't. Like OP says, it puts you in the top 5% earners.

Suppose it depends what you mean by middle class. Everyone uses it differently. To me it means doctors, lawyers, some finance, etc. In those roles, unless you’re on a starting salary you’re unlikely to be on less than 70k.

It feels representative of the inequality in our country (especially regional) that many people assume you must be lying to report a wage at this level. I wonder what impact that has on ambition, with so many people assuming (incorrectly) that there are natural limits to their earning potential?

FKATondelayo · 05/05/2021 17:59

I've been on MN since 2009 and earned more than £70k for most of that time. I don't any more as made redundant.

Top 5% of salaries is the not the same as 5% richest. The richest people have property, family money and investments to prop themselves up.

Salaries in the UK are shite at all levels. The person doing my equivalent role (but much easier as smaller less complex market) in Australia was on twice what I earned and had a fabulous lifestyle.

£70k is a fairly meh wage in Germany.

pitterpatterrain · 05/05/2021 18:00

Yup. Def beyond. Have a cleaner. No car Shock

Clearly not real Grin

I am glad there are more women earning higher wages - the statistics as you look into it show much higher wages for men - the top 1% men vs women is interesting, also when you look split by region

tooscar · 05/05/2021 18:04

@HeyDemonsItsYaGirl

There are a lot of fantasists and trolls on here. Both ones lying about their salary and ones posting about how £70k isn't a lot of money.
It's all relative.

I wouldn't be happy on 70k anymore

FrankieFox · 05/05/2021 18:05

Wow I can’t believe £70K is the top 5%. I’m in London and I don’t think I know anyone who would not fall into that category other than people I come in contact with at their jobs like teachers, my cleaner, etc. It is fucked up that so much wealth is held by so few people.

But to answer your question OP I don’t think that many people on MN a claim to be high earners. It’s just more noticeable for some reason, not just on MN. My DCs go to a private school where maybe 15 - 20% of the families are really quite wealthy, posh and/or famous. The rest of us are high earners on paper but we work hard to pay school fees and live in a modest homes. Yet our school’s reputation is that everyone is rich and posh because everyone notices them.