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.

DH earns this so I can tell you how it is spent - pays for two mortgages, private school fees, cleaner at both properties, gardener at our main home. Car loan on flashy 4x4. All the bills, kids stuff, meals out on weekends & a few nice holidays. Some left over for savings.

I'd go part time as time is more precious than things, then I'd still have around £150k.

Double-fronted house with wallpaper in every room. Some books. Can I salary sacrifice to buy extra holiday days? Really the lottery fantasy is more fun because the key bit is not working.

I know someone who earns similar, and by the time they've paid school fees x 2, huge mortgage, a couple of long haul holidays and eating out 3 times a week there's not much left!

Pensions and investments for the future
With any high salary you would work your socks off but it would be time limited , either by burn out or past your sell by date

Cracking up at all the “it doesn’t go far!” responses mentioning school fees. School is free! I’ll take the £300k now, you can’t be trusted.

@seasorrell I’ll definitely look into Effective Altruism/Giving What You Can pledge, thank you. Kids are 5 and 2 atm so not much scope for extravagant holidays for the foreseeable future anyway, we’re very much UK minibreak focused for ease and climate reasons. Don’t run a car currently either.

Those saying they’d go part time and still earn XYZ: as has been alluded to by other posters, most of these types of jobs don’t have part time/flexi/compressed hours options. The pandemic has definitely changed the flexi aspect for the better in my small area of the corporate world, though.

IME school fees for multiple kids (having three seems de rigeur in such circles) and mortgage make an absolutely gigantic difference at this level.

The families I know who mortgaged up for some sort of mansion and have three kids in private school are still slaving away in their 50s. Those who remained reletively prudent and lived as if they earned more like 100/ 120 gross (still a nice lifestyle), investing the rest in pensions/ equities and property are now able to downshift and retire. Partly because those investments have done very well over the last 15 years or so - the prudent got richer and the spenders did not and it all now shows in the amount of assets accumulated.

@Fetarabbit

I'd go part time as time is more precious than things, then I'd still have around £150k.

Part time isnt really an option for most

@hotmeatymilk exactly!! Schools are actually provided through taxation. Not free, as such, but not an additional cost.

Name change for obvious reasons.

We earn £19K per month but have A LOT of outgoings, here are some of the things we spend our money on:

Pension contributions
Petrol and upkeep of two cars, a sports car and a 4x4
Private schools for three kids
Ocado
Large mortgage
Spa and gym membership
Gardener
Cleaner
Dog Walker
Holidays, long haul and skiing prior to covid, now it's more like Cornwall/Centre Parcs.
Uni fees for DD
Meals out
Weekends away
House renovation
Kids clothes mainly from Boden /white company/Ralph Lauren/North face
I shop in Reiss, Hobbs, Barbour etc.
Husband Barbour, Ralph Lauren etc.
Savings of between £3-£5kpm

I didn't grow up with this lifestyle so I often stop and remember how lucky I am, I just hope my children appreciate their lives, my big fear is to produce wanky spoiled children, I come across lots of adults like this these days.

[quote allycat4]@hotmeatymilk exactly!! Schools are actually provided through taxation. Not free, as such, but not an additional cost. [/quote]
Free for the plebs yes. But if you want your child to have a real education you pay.
If you have ever looked round any good private schools it’s like entering a different world.

Most of the people I know earning this much don't even contemplate state schools.

Going back to my point about the prudent getting richer disproportionately (via decent investment returns)...
One couple I know well stayed state for primary for their child, lived on about 50k net - but no mortgage after age 30/35, drove normal but quite nice older cars, decent holidays but not madly expensive, saved the other £110ish a year, investing it well. Now she is 50ish, he is 55 and they have accumulated maybe 4.5 or 5m (partly via a couple of properties increasing in value a lot).

Another couple - similar ages and income lived quite flashily, three kids in private school, spent easily 6k per holiday twice a year, fancy restaurants, two good cars on lease, Ralph Lauren polo shirts for the sons, daughter all designer labels, loads of extra lessons for the kids, part-time housekeeper. They have about 2m assets. Still very good but actually that's just a normal 4 bed in N london and a decent but not gigantic pension pot. I suspect they regret their choices now although I guess they had some fun.

I'd buy a bigger house and have my fourth child.
For the purposes of this I'm assuming DH is the one with the fancy job .

Some tutoring for DS. Part time nappy for two toddlers. a car. Nice holidays

My partner earns that. We are quite adept at pissing it up the wall on various shit

We bring home $6-7m a year. It’s a bloody ridiculous sum and we spend it:

On three homes. One is ours in which we live and two we have provided free for family members.

No private school, as I’m in the US and the state schools are better in affluent towns.

I have a babysitter twice a week, cleaner twice a week, gardener, home concierge service that sorts any repair jobs, interior designer, high-end vacation three times a year, lots to charity, a fair amount on monthly facials and hair appointments, membership at various boutique gyms, lots on clothes (just me—my husband and kids couldn’t care less), day trips, dining out twice a week, theater once a month, various hobbies for my children.

We save a lot, too, and quite frankly, despite this obnoxious list, we live well within our means. Most contemporaries in this income bracket have full-time housekeepers and full-time, live-in nannies.

So the first thing I would do is request part time hours - 0.5 spread over 3 days during school time.
Am laughing a little at the idea that flexibility is impossible with this salary. I can think of minimum wage roles with zero flexibility and of people getting to the level of seniority where they can dictate hours.

If they say no then I will work there for 18 months saving at least £12k a month and treating myself in small ways (buying laundry capsules instead of the cheapest liquid). Then I will quit, pay off the mortgage, convert loft and redecorate our home.
I might then get a part time job so hubby can go part time yet we can still live well.

If they say yes then bigger house (with a tree house in the garden), lovely holidays, cleaner, gardener, rainbow hair dye on the under layer of my hair, clubs for the kids, charitable giving and lots of money on nice food.

Brilliant post @hollywally88 you missed out your vegbox though. Are you Abel and Cole or Riverford?

I'd do up the house. A lot.
Hire a gardener and cleaner and ironer and window cleaner.
Buy organic, good quality meat and fruit and veg.
Lots of holidays, weekends away and days out.

Buy a house for my best friend to live in so she can leave her (diagnosed) narcissist husband.

Other than that, a cleaner/housekeeper.

Charity contributions.

Animals.

@HalfCakeHalfBiscuit

My partner earns that. We are quite adept at pissing it up the wall on various shit

But live is for living isnt it?

I don't want to retire and scrimp and save and just get by

I want at least £100k post tax retirement income

My dh earns this, or more. We have a nice house in a nice area, but it's not one of the big mansions.

He gets taxed a lot. We pay the mortgage and school fees are about 30k a year. Our youngest is about to start so that will go up. One nice car.

I can't really think what else we spend it on. I guess we don't really think about food shopping and buy what we like, I replace the kids clothes when needed and if I see clothes for myself I'll buy it. I don't buy lots of designer things though, nice but not crazy expensive. We haven't been on a holiday in years.

We do get nice furniture when stuff needs replaced. I think that's one big thing that's very different to my childhood. If we need a new bed then we get the best mattress we can find, or we get the dishwasher with bells and whistles etc. I always look at the cheaper stuff and my husband will say get the nice X.
I just had all our light fixtures changed and that was quite expensive. Not expensive like some of the ones I've seen though! My friend has a huge pendant light hanging in her house that cost 20k. Mine were no where near that!

It's nice as well that when something needs fixing we just get it done.

We do pay all our medical stuff privately and that costs a fair bit.

My only extravagance would be amazing holidays. I would then save the rest in order to have the freedom to make choices e.g. retire early.

Buying a fancy house, boat etc just lands you on a fancier hamster wheel.

*But live is for living isnt it?

I don't want to retire and scrimp and save and just get by

I want at least £100k post tax retirement income*

@YoungGiftedPlump - Wow. What will you spend it on? DH and I live very well (mortgage free) on less than half that between us, including holidays, l trips to opera, theatre, Michelin starred restaurants, gigs etc. We're not that materialistic I suppose, so don't spend loads on clothes, cars or tarting up the house, which we would if we had more money. But quality of daily life couldn't be much better. Can't imagine trying to spend £100k pa post retirement on just me. It would be exhausting!

I'd probably invest in at least one buy-to-rent property (which I know makes me a moustache-twirling villain on MN).

I'd give a lot of money to one of my parents, who isn't in a good financial position. I'd probably pay off their mortgage, and/or get them a nicer new place of their choice, and give them or put aside money for their care later on.

I'm not sure I'd move house. I like my house, neighbourhood and city. I might just throw lots of money at all the repairs and redecorating my current place needs, and maybe do some improvements as well.

I might buy a holiday home (again, marking myself out as a villain). And I'd certainly (once travel is easier again) splash out on nice holidays, and wouldn't think twice about popping somewhere for a weekend.

Day to day, TBH I already don't think that much about the food bill etc, so I don't think it'd change hugely. I suppose I'd feel more relaxed about tickets for the theatre, cinema, dance etc and wouldn't always feel I had to buy the cheap ones and sit in the gods!

I'd save everything I could for as long as I could so I could retire at 50!