To ask how you would spend a salary of £300k?

[iwishiwasafish]

In a similar vein to “what would you do if you won the lottery” … how would you spend an ongoing salary of £300k per year?

That’s £25k per month before tax.
£14,180 per month after tax.

I don't think I'm very materialistic as I have no interest in flashy clothes, cars, handbags etc. However I would like a nice detached house, amazing holidays and lots of good food! If I had all those things I'd spend the rest helping my loved ones and donating to charity.

OP take the job but negotiate like mad for WFH, parking (sorry but it matters,) flexibility and whatever else you want.

The more senior you get the more flexibility IME so go for it.

Also at this level it’s about delivery not presenteeism IME so if you like the new job and boss go for it.

Buy a couple of heat pumps

I haven't rtft so apologise but if I had a job paying that much (which I wouldn't) I would probably spend a lot on various therapies and help to keep my anxiety levels down. Leftover would be split 50/50 savings and holidays, although thinking about it maybe more to savings so I could get out of a highly stressful job quicker then do the holidays.

Lol! This is me right now...

I pay my mortgage, council tax and other bills. No debt at all - that's the best thing.

I pay for my dd to live away from home studying, save, live nicely.

I have facials, get my nails done and see a good hairdresser.
We eat out, we eat good food - we're not extravagant who needs to live like that?
I baulk at the price of bags etc on here, crickey I still shop at Primarni for basics and TK Maxx for labels, though I own very few branded clothes and bags.

I give to charity - it's a good thing for us all if we can afford it.

I don't have a cleaner though I would like one.

I'm going renewable - happens 1st Nov, looking forward to no or very very low utility bills.

Why don't I splurge cos I'm a contractor and honestly you just never know what might happen so best to have a good cushion.

If you could guarantee earnings of this level every month, then I'm sure splurging might be in order, but I know how much I need each month to live and its a lot less than £15k I promise you!

Nicer but still modest house. Nicer clothes, car, cleaner, yard work. Private school for DC. I'd travel more & stay in nicer accomodation & not self cater every meal.

I still wouldn't go overboard though. I'd save & invest at least 25% & pay off the house asap so we weren't slaves to that job & had life choices like early retirement.

With huge salaries it's easy to take on bigger mortgages, debts etc. & end up working just to pay them...... and being completely stuffed if you lose the salary. Happpened to a lot of people here (AUS) when mining industry crashed a few years ago. We live in a huge high salary FIFO area & so many people got in serious financial trouble.

I'm not, I'm a single mum and I earn £9.50 an hour. £300k a year would change my life!
It will change your life in more ways than one. If it is salaried income, it is unlikely that you will be able to spend any time with your children at all.

@forinborin

I'm not, I'm a single mum and I earn £9.50 an hour. £300k a year would change my life! It will change your life in more ways than one. If it is salaried income, it is unlikely that you will be able to spend any time with your children at all.

That’s just not true! I work full time but I’m quite flexible so if I’m busy I will spend the evening with my kids until they’re in bed and then do a bit more after. I’m also very flexible throughout the day so I can manage my time how I like apart from any fixed meetings. These days I’m not too busy so I rarely start work before 10 and this morning I went out to town for a leisurely brunch with a friend I don’t feel guilty because I know I’ve put in the extra hours previously. I don’t work at all at weekends and then there’s the 5+ weeks holiday per year plus bank holidays. Having a cleaner means I don’t spend my weekends cleaning and we also use a lot of cooking short cuts/can get takeaway when we’d rather not cook. I think it’s really misleading to say if you earn well you have a rubbish personal life! Perhaps the wealthy would like you to think so so you don’t aspire to it and compete with them for it. I’ve had to work for it myself and now I’m on the other side I realise I had so many misconceptions, which certainly didn’t help me on my way up.

@Autumnalreds is right, I always spent plenty of time with my children, it was a priority.

I actually have been a single parent on not too far from that pay level, so it is not theoretical knowledge. Thanks, not attractive anymore.
Glad it worked for you. I don't know anyone in my industry who is on that or close and has any resemblance of family life.

I find the thought of having that amount of money as I haven't earned enough to even have to pay any tax for most of my life pretty difficult to imagine.But I would get the roof mended,a shower installed and the misted up windows sorted out and have the heating on more.I am perfectly happy with my old car especially as it's just passed it's MOT.

@forinborin

I actually have been a single parent on not too far from that pay level, so it is not theoretical knowledge. Thanks, not attractive anymore. Glad it worked for you. I don't know anyone in my industry who is on that or close and has any resemblance of family life.

I don’t doubt that’s the case for many jobs and I expect being a single parent makes it harder as you can’t “tag team”. But I just wanted to acknowledge on this thread that it is also possible to have that kind of a salary and have a good family life - in certain sectors/roles/levels of seniority, and usually with the help of a partner who can help with caring for children.

Buy a house with adequate space to house 5,000 books. Cleaner 3 days a week. in bath tub.

It is a lot. I grew up in a very affluent part of London with parents who earned well over this but to claim that an annual salary of £300k is not that much is completely insane.

peanut is right It’s really not that a lot for London , certainly no way near enough for an affluent part of London!
We live in SW, it’s so expensive , I don’t think we could live as we are living now on £14k pm,
I know it sound horribly snobbish and so out of touch with reality , but I’m being very realistic.
It will offer you a very comfortable life but nowhere near as hiring a regular chef , trainer , housekeeper or owning big or multiple houses and multiple holidays a year type of life.

@Mamanyt

Buy a house with adequate space to house 5,000 books. Cleaner 3 days a week. in bath tub.

DAMMIT! "WALK-IN bath tub"

House, cleaner, gardener, several (specific) pedigree cats, a couple of German Shepherds and the rest into savings.

investing in buying, letting and selling houses. Save a portion of the wage for other investments once acquired a few houses. Food shop, house payments, car payments, maybe invest in a nice holiday and put away a portion for christmas each year, pension savings at a high amount. Hair and wardrobe upkeep and phone and tv ect subscription payments.

I agree, I actually pretty much do 9 - 5pm all remote working. I'm a NED at a Uni too so I need to take time out during the day occasionally and i make that back up whenever I like. When my kids were very young my job was international - that's a killer and very hard with kids - but now it's easy peezy to spend time with them....more money doesn't necessarily mean more hours esp if you box clever!

Oh yes and I've been a single parent since my hubby died in 2016, so everything is def doable.

My brother, multi million pound home in Oxon/Berkshire (but £300k when he bought it) lived on £5k pcm with his family cos they set a budget and worked it. He earned much more than this and retired at 50. He has his head screwed on imo.

I think the thought of £300k v the reality are 2 very different things

For a start the government take more than 40% in taxes and NI

Then there is the enormous workload that inevitably comes with this level of salary

Yes you can have a nice house, a cleaner, etc, but you are also exhausted, work long hours and have a terrible life/work balance - in many cases anyway

The reality probably is:
You end up piling loads of it into pensions
Undoubtedly into school fees then start saving for university after that
And make a toss up between a better house or a second property. Either way you’ll always secretly worry about being overly exposed so will stay conservative
Your children get to do all the hobbies that they want and you get three decent holidays a year

So like everything else, it’s probably all constrained by the boring practicalities or life

I’d pods it away on travel, personal trainers and prob ably a Keto chef. 😂

Change nothing initially and do a lot of saving. Once I’d saved enough I’d perhaps look at moving house - but nothing overly large/expensive as my children will be grown up soon so will be just me. Help out family where needed. Have more holidays/travel and just not have to worry about money generally ie be able to replace things, buy clothes etc without thinking.

@iwishiwasafish

Thanks all!

Lots of food for thought.

I asked because I have an offer - basically my job at another company for nearly twice as much money i.e. £300k+

DH is a SAHD and we manage very well on my current £160k as a household income, including paying £40k of it into pensions, overpaying the mortgage, supporting some charities, and generally being quite comfortable.

I said to DH I didn’t think it was worth moving, because even though it’s basically the same job, it’s still a new team, new company, and there is always a risk in moving jobs (if I got long term sick during the probationary period, for example). Also might be more travel and I won’t really know until in the job.

DH wanted me to research what we might want to spend the extra on, so thank you for contributing to the research

I like the idea of a housekeeper, although DH doesn’t even like the idea of a cleaner.

Kids are teenagers, so no childcare costs, and both are very settled and getting top grades at the local high school, so we are lucky there.

A slightly larger house would be nice.

Most of all I like the idea of retiring early. I’m nearly 50, and can’t see me still doing this in 20 years. I have genuinely no idea how much of an investment portfolio would be needed for that though. I always assume we are going to be eating cold beans straight from the tin in retirement.

Still not sure it would be worth the risk of the move though.

If you're comfortable enough now financially then I would take some time to really get to know the expectations of the new role. The hours, whether they are expecting you to be on call essentially all of the time, travel the culture. Its an amazing opportunity and no doubt the additional money would be excellent; but it will be you and not DH doing the job, and if you're going to not enjoy it or find the balance different to where you are now, it won't be worth it imo.

Bigger house, cleaner, nice holidays, more dinners out and days out/weekends away, private education for DD, nicer clothes, get my hair done more, nicer beauty products and give more to charity. Nothing really out of the ordinary, just an upgrade on what I have now.