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.

£70k is really not a lot in London. How would you even get a house?

What I don’t understand is why everyone is so keen to post their salaries on here.
Is anyone particularly interested in what other random people on the internet earn?

I'm on £70K in Scotland so I do earn more than most people I know (solicitors, doctors and accountants excepted) and it goes quite far, especially with my husband earning money too.

I had a cleaner pre-covid but I've been wfh throughout so don't need just now.

No Mercedes - I have a Skoda.

And I post on MN

@safiya7

£70k is really not a lot in London. How would you even get a house?

Don't most of the high earners in London not even live in London and just commute in from the Home Counties

@Sparklingbrook

What I don’t understand is why everyone is so keen to post their salaries on here. Is anyone particularly interested in what other random people on the internet earn?

I just don't like being told people who post on MN are unlikely to earn over £70k and in many ways denigrated for it.

I do and I'm proud of it. I know I can't 'prove' it and don't need to but to be told it's bollocks is just rubbish:

There was a long running thread a couple of weeks ago saying people lie on here about their salaries.
I just don’t know why anyone cares? I can sort of understand being curious about people in RL but not faceless internet folk.

“Don't most of the high earners in London not even live in London and just commute in from the Home Counties”

OP, come on. Millions do actually live in London too and why wouldn’t they be on MN? Lots of SAHMs with plenty of time to post. Do you think all the houses that sell for millions in London are empty? Or figments of your imagination?

MN represents a wide array of circumstances (social, physical and economic). I don’t know why there’s so much scepticism about what other people earn.

I started on £35k a year on a grad programme 22 years ago and there were many professions with similar entry salaries with significant growth potential (banking, law, management consultancy). Obviously medicine and accountancy start off lower, but the earning potential builds up over the years to similar levels. In the City £70k isn’t uncommon as a middle management salary with 10 years’ experience, plus bonus. I don’t think it’s unbelievable for MN members to earn well in excess of that.

I don't understand the point of this thread. Is the implication that the higher earners couldn't possibly be in a position where they may want to join a forum to get the opinions of others on whatever challenge they're experiencing?

And everyone’s kids on here are so intelligent they all get private school scholarships 🤨

I don’t think anyone would make up that their child got a scholarship. What’s the point? You can’t impress people you don’t even know and will never meet.

You can only brag about your enormous income on MN if you follow it by saying how frugally you live:
Shop at Aldi
Spend a fiver on each child for Christmas
Go camping in the rain
Never put the heating on
None of their neighbours would ever guess
Blah blah
When in reality people who earn loads do the exact opposite.

And everyone’s kids on here are so intelligent they all get private school scholarships 🤨
And they're regularly over 6 foot tall, very athletic and eat humongous portions at every meal with lashings of extra green veg to fill them up.

I do too...

(PT)

@HTH1

(PT)

It's amazing some of the PT salaries on here. I saw someone not too long ago say they currently earned 50k, but would like to drop to PT hours in the future and earn 80k to live comfortably. That's the sort of ones I raise an eyebrow to 😅

Don't most of the high earners in London not even live in London and just commute in from the Home Counties

Some do. Plenty more live in London. The commute is a killer on both cost and time and Home Counties house prices are also high, often equivalent to London. I've looked at the prices in my ILs' non-special Home Counties commuter town and they're equivalent to many Z3 and out London areas.

All posters on MN (except me) went to RG universities and so will their kids. It's like those who went to, say, Oxford Brookes, Sheffield Hallam, Leeds Beckett etc don't walk amongst us ...

@theAdventuresofMissBarbaraPym

All posters on MN (except me) went to RG universities and so will their kids. It's like those who went to, say, Oxford Brookes, Sheffield Hallam, Leeds Beckett etc don't walk amongst us ...

I went to Leeds Beckett when it was City of Leeds and Carnegie! Not even a proper uni back then!

Common as muck, me.

@Zenithbear

You can only brag about your enormous income on MN if you follow it by saying how frugally you live: Shop at Aldi Spend a fiver on each child for Christmas Go camping in the rain Never put the heating on None of their neighbours would ever guess Blah blah When in reality people who earn loads do the exact opposite.

I shop at Lidl
I follow a four present rule @ Xmas (want, need, wear, read) and let grandparents go mad
I hate camping - why would I holiday somewhere less comfortable than my house!?
My neighbours often here me shout "for Christ sake put your socks back on - I'm late!" so know I work FT but probably wouldn't guess my salary- that's a bit weird.
I drive an 11 year old BMW X5 but when I sell my kidney to buy a new Defender (I might need to sell a lung too) that'll show the neighbours though

(I'll get my coat and head off to Netmums now that I've outed myself as an imposter)

A large proportion of that 5% will be men and less likely to be on MN.

My DD went to private day school then boarded for her last few years and 6th form,only because my late DF had set aside the cash to pay for it. I've never earned close to 70k (I think around 40 was my max but I quit work 13 years ago to be a SAHM.) DH earned around 60k but he took early retirement at 55. We used some of his retirement £ to buy our current house outright so no mortgage thankfully. In NW England.

We're not well off by any means!

Anyone can say what they like on here though and no one would be any the wiser.

I don’t earn a lot (I was a lowly teacher when we met) but DH’s day rate is £600 per day, sometimes more if he’s working in banking.

He freelances for massive companies (FIFA, Visa, Jaguar Land Rover, Nike, Facebook) and they simply have the money to spend. He usually works through an agency and they probably charge around £1000 per day and pass £600 on to him.

I think that a lot of these issues just point to how much the MN demographic is skewed...most Londoners I know who earn 6figure sums lets say 100k each do not live lavish lifestyle. So yes, they are just as likely to talk about earning high salaries, buying 1mil plus houses, shopping at Aldi (and Waitrose), having cleaners but also feeling poor. These same people are also naturally more likely to have gone to an RG uni (if not Oxbridge) and maybe even to a private school..because as demonstrated in social surveys if you want a decent gig working in a good firm as a lawyer, doctor; management consultant etc you have to have gone to an RG uni or you dont get the job in the first place. These are also on average pretty bright people with smart kids. If mummy and daddies IQs are pretty high, statistically their kids will be too.

If I had to make a profile of people I know in London...all of the above will be true for most of them - rich people often living quite stressful family lives in circumstances that are pretty rubbish for their salaries. I know plenty of people earning well over 200k family income in London but still living in flats and feeling like they cant afford to send their kids private.