To ask for ‘normal average’ salaries?

[Mamacita191]

After seeing loads of posts recently about what people earn, I feel like it’s a completely different world to what I am living in. I live in the midlands and a good salary is 30-40k which is what most people comfortably sit at. I certain rarely see jobs advertised for £60k or more (even 6 figures which I’ve read is what some people make!). Even the jobs that people advise to go into such as lawyers and accountants in a good firm etc don’t make 3 figures as I’ve read on here.

Is it just me who thinks 30-40k is a normal salary that a lot of people sit comfortably at? Am I missing out on something?

@wallysally it's not a huge mortgage - it's a price of an average house. I live in Sydney.

@luckyJasmin so are you talking Sterling or aus dollars? Either way it's relative imo

[quote wallysally]@luckyJasmin so are you talking Sterling or aus dollars? Either way it's relative imo [/quote]
In pounds (I'm a Brit).

@luckyJasmin even though you pay tax you still have a high enough take home to afford a holiday. You just don’t want to.
Being rich doesn’t mean you can have. everything you want but have more options. If you can afford to play with Bitcoin you are definitely not poor! Christ alive…

@luckyJasmin so essentially your point is that you don't feel rich enough for holidays because you squirrel away huge amounts of money into investments to make you even more rich in the future?
Anyone could say that. Someone earning £1 billion a year could say they feel poor as they choose to invest 999.9 million. Surely you realise how ridiculous that sounds. Maybe invest less and live your life more.

@Suspicioussam well said.

@luckyJasmin As a household, after tax, you still have a huge amount of take home pay - what you choose to do with it is up to you. You are coming across as 'woe is me' when actually it is self inflicted.

I hear housing costs in Australia, particularly Sydney, are nuts, so your mortgage repayments look high but I guess that's the market you are in. What kind of house / apartment do you get in Sydney for £2800 mortagae/ month?

@Pipsquiggle £2800 a month (pounds) gets you a 2 bed apt by the beach (in a good area).
That's after putting in 20% deposit
No house for that price

No garage, no second bathroom, no garden

@luckyJasmin you’re complaining about your own choices. You choose to invest rather than spend on weekends away. Don’t you see that in itself is a massive privilege? (I say this as a top rate tax payer- you sound very much ‘my diamond shoes are too tight’)

The average definitely isn't 40-60k. Office for national statistics states the average UK salary for full-time employees was £31,461 for the tax year ending 5 April 2020. I just had a look and if you go on ons website you can search via region- just type on the region or select from the drop down menu, thought that was quite cool and easy to use.

www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/annualsurveyofhoursandearnings/2020

Also, I do find it comical when people say things that imply they couldn't possibly live off of less than their 70k+, or that they don't have a comfortable live style on that- yes of course regions vary in terms of living costs but where a person lives is largely a life style choice (unless we're talking social housing or people who have grown up in places like Cornwall and being priced out of the market- but chosing to move to a city is just that- a choice).

*life

I think average in UK is slightly under £30k, so £30k-£40k is quite normal! I think a lot of companies might recruit for top jobs from people who already work there, which is why you rarely see the big salaries you hear about on TV actually advertised.

Depends where you live and in which industry you work in.

[quote luckyJasmin]@Pipsquiggle £2800 a month (pounds) gets you a 2 bed apt by the beach (in a good area).
That's after putting in 20% deposit
No house for that price [/quote]
@luckyJasmin so are you living in the equivalent of South Ken / Knightsbridge?

Sounds like a lovely place to live but can imagine in lockdown, it must've felt smaller than usual.

@luckyJasmin

For those who are saying people earning over £100k are just moaners.

My DP's tax is 50 fucking percent. 50. Mine is around 35%.

We earn £182k. Mortgage £2800 a month. No kids.
And yet we wanted to go on a weekend away and decided against it as 'we can't afford it really'.

Our tax really pains us.

Your pain is quite a privileged pain.

If so awful swap, get a lower paid job, pay less tax. Mortgage payments aren't that high against very large income.

Your choice, masters of your chosen destiny.

Your username is correct you are lucky but OK you whinge a bit, just be careful not to whinge around those struggling otherwise it comes over as tone deaf and ignorant.

Yout rax level is not 50% on all your income. You get the same tax free allowance as someone on £25k a year.

@julieca to be fair, that isn’t true, over £100k you lose your tax free allowance

However lucky jasmine is in Australia so no idea what the system is there

@Nanananani I did not know that.

Yes @Nanananani is right. A lot of people aren’t aware of the loss of personal allowance. I actually have a negative tax allowance 😭 - which I didn’t know was possible until it happened to me! I think it’s due to employee benefits I get. I’m still grateful because I know it is just a reflection of how much I earn. But I do think it’s good for the wider public to be aware of the massive rate of taxation for higher earners who lose their personal allowance. Between 100-125k the tax rate is effectively 60%, it’s a lot! It’s even higher for those who (like me) were receiving tax free childcare for two children previously, which is lost in full when you earn above 100k. So a 60% tax rate was more like a 150% tax rate for me I rode the bump out by donating to charity one year when I was just over and then I pushed enough above the 125k that it was worth keeping the net income (although my childcare costs that year were horrendous).

[quote luckyJasmin]@julieca why do you think we are crap with money if we earn a lot and don't have much left over?

You presumed we spend it on crap whereas in reality we put it into Bitcoin (short term trading so we withdraw profits continuously) and buy investment properties 🤷‍♀️

Any spare money we never keep but invest more and more. [/quote]

What you are putting in bitcoin and investments is your "left over".

Any money that isn't needed for necessities (rent, utilities, essential food, tax, basic transport) can be used for whatever you like, you have MUCH more left over than someone on £30k.

It is quite worrying that you don't get this. What do you do to earn your huge salary?

julieca yes despite everyone in the Uk tihnking high earners all evade and avoid tax we have neve rin British history had such a high burden nor borne more of the tax burden than is now done because things like the single person allowance disappeared, children benefit was stripped from us,and all the allowances my father had in the 1970s when the nominal rate was higher like high married man's allowance, mortgage interest allowance, right to covenant money to adult children for university costs etc etc all went. that was perhaps okay when Lawson brought upper rate down to 40% but then we added 2% NI on top of that plus now the new 1.25% NI and we lost the single person allowance, child benefits, many pension allowances, no MIRAS. have student fees to pay and 9% graduate tax in effect so upper rates really hit a huge % and for some make 50% even look lowish.

@Xenia

julieca yes despite everyone in the Uk tihnking high earners all evade and avoid tax we have neve rin British history had such a high burden nor borne more of the tax burden than is now done because things like the single person allowance disappeared, children benefit was stripped from us,and all the allowances my father had in the 1970s when the nominal rate was higher like high married man's allowance, mortgage interest allowance, right to covenant money to adult children for university costs etc etc all went. that was perhaps okay when Lawson brought upper rate down to 40% but then we added 2% NI on top of that plus now the new 1.25% NI and we lost the single person allowance, child benefits, many pension allowances, no MIRAS. have student fees to pay and 9% graduate tax in effect so upper rates really hit a huge % and for some make 50% even look lowish.

The thing is - you don't feel like a 'higher earner' on a high income. Yes you don't want for anything, or struggle, but you don't live a seemingly high income lifestyle. People think on 100K you can afford to go out to expensive restaurants, or holiday abroad frequently while shopping at Waitrose but that's not true. It's a tone deaf discussion to be having when so many people are struggling but that's the reality. Which is why in my profession many people go part-time and it's always advisable to have 2 people earning more each than one person earning 100K. It's not worth it. A lot of doctors for example have delibrately reduced their hours to avoid the income tax cliff. Which doesn't benefit the country either. You could argue that it creates more jobs,,, with more people earning more ;)

Aslo the evade tax is only for the self-employed or those whose income is made by capital gains (like equity shares in the fim). Not income earners!

Add an extra 1% if you’re in Scotland too (that one stings a little)