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

[ChristmasAlone]

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.

Also worth noting that the range within this top 5% is enormous. So you can be within the top 5% but still making truly magnitudes less than the Joneses.

Which is probably why most people on that wage would not consider themselves high income.

@AgeLikeWine

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.

Ah, could you just remind him to return the 55k he borrowed from me last year? And do you still have the shoes I lent you for the wedding?

26 million workers in the UK. 5% of that is 1.3 million people. That's a lot of people.

MN's demographic is skewed to the better earning, better educated people. I'm not saying there's a bit of lying going on, but it's also equally false to say that everyone who claims to be a higher earner is telling fibs.

I don't earn £70K but I would if I worked full-time. However, then I wouldn't have time to post on MN.

I don't have a cleaner - but I do have a window cleaner.

"AIBU that £100k doesn't get you very far in London?"

And pages and pages of people agreeing.

I believe most posters on money matters - no reason not to. But, yes, there are definitely posts that have more than a faint whiff of fantasy about them. It’s the way it’s written rather than what’s being said - some just don’t ring true.

When people talk about salary, I reckon a lot of the time they’re comparing apples and oranges. Once you get above a certain level, whether or not your ‘salary’ is base compensation only or includes bonus and other benefits will make quite a difference. Person A might be getting £70k plus x, y and z, whereas person b either doesn’t get the trimmings or has included them in their £70k.

So unless a lot of detail is given, who knows how all these salaries match up.

(Both of the above are good - I’m not one of those posters who thinks anything under £100k is merely adequate!)

I don’t think £70k is that unattainable tbh

I’m in my early 20s and earn £30k - and I do expect my salary to increase in time. I also went to university and currently work outside of my graduate field thanks to COVID, so I know the scope for me to earn more is there once I get back into my career field. Therefore £70k does seem quite achievable in a 2-adult household where one or both partners are educated/senior in their field

I do and I’m here!

There are quite a lot of medical professionals on MN. Every consultant and GP will be earning well over £70K for starters. By the time you add in all the other professions, and senior managerial staff, and people successfully running their own businesses, I imagine there are loads of us here in that income bracket.

What I find odd is the people gobsmacked that there are people earning less than £70k (apart from their cleaners as a PP put), and how that some feel incapable of dealing for normal day to day stuff but are capable of saying they're high earners.

The median income is just under £25k a year.......

*with not for

I do, and I have cleaner, 2 gardeners, a pool boy, and an ironing man. And a Range Rover. And a villa overseas, a house I rent out and our main residence in the south of England.
Am I lying or telling the truth?

@AgeLikeWine

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.

Brilliant :)

@heartcake

I do, and I have cleaner, 2 gardeners, a pool boy, and an ironing man. And a Range Rover. And a villa overseas, a house I rent out and our main residence in the south of England. Am I lying or telling the truth?

Laughed out loud at "ironing man" 😂😂😂.

Also just to add, I currently work in civil service where the minimum wage for an entry level role is £27.5k. You can get into civil service without any degree/career history lol. So although not the best job in the world it does pay fairly decently and takes you away from the minimum wage slog

My dream graduate role is a financial analyst which can bring in 6 figures if you play your card right

I dreamt I was in the top 5% last night so I must be or I wouldn't have dreamt it!

I'm off on a shopping spree, l8terz!

I earn more than that and I post on MN relatively often - but I'm not prolific.

I do find the whole "higher earners wouldn't have time for Mumsnet" trope quite bizarre.

I've found that the more senior I am in a company, the more control I have over what I spent my time on and the less oversight there is. Certainly a five minute scroll isn't beyond the realms of possibility.

It also wasn't unusual for me to have a quick catch up while waiting to make a coffee, on my way to meetings etc etc.

Now I'm my own boss, so I work the hours that suit me. For instance I work much more effectively in the mornings, so it's not unusual for me to start at 6am, work through lunch and then knock off at 3pm (meetings permitting).

If the weather is nice sometimes I'll take the afternoon off and make it up on other days.

I do work incredibly hard, and when things are super busy sometimes I'll be working from 8am-10pm, but that's the exception not the rule.

Earning a relatively high amount definitely doesn't mean I can't sneak in a 10 minute scroll whether that's at lunch, in the evenings, or even in five mins between calls.

I remember the poster who said she was earning £70k and found it difficult to have relationships as men judged her for her salary. Posters were falling over themselves to tell her that wasn’t much and they were earning that at 22 blah blah. It’s just a lack of understanding of the real world. It’s just sad that people with greater range of salaries don’t post so you can see a proper range. Most people I know (in their 40s) went to uni but earn between £30k to £50k. I don’t live in the SE.

I used to employ Tomaz Shafernacker as my cleaner until he went up in the world.