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.

A big house, a decent car, lots of holidays, a dog, skincare and then I'd invest a bunch

We have that between us and a lot goes on tax, a lot on pensions, then the rest is just normal life stuff except we don’t have to worry about where we food shop, kids can do a t lot of extra curricular stuff without us worrying about the money and we travel ( or used to!!) where and when we want.
Deffo don’t feel like we’re rolling in it though I know how fortunate we are as we are both from council estate backgrounds and grew up with cheap food, no heat, 2nd hand clothes etc.
The one thing we don’t do is spoil our kids with ‘stuff’ - very aware that just because we could get them the new iPhone or console or whatever outside of Xmas or birthdays doesn’t mean we should or do.

We do have a cleaner…

Our kids go to state schools, we have a midrange car, neither of us care about labels clothing wise.
Our house is a ordinary terrace in a naice part of town, but we bought that before we had the mad salaries. I work 35 hrs a week and have 10 weeks hols DW works 40-45 hrs and has 7 weeks hols a year- it is possible to get a big salary without working like a madman

Id save ikea mad for the ext 7 years then enjoy a nice retirement without penny pinchi g.

I would save as hard as I could for when I was found out to have been hired by mistakenly for that salary! Would pay off mortgage on this house and save a really decent deposit for a new one. Private education for DS.

NCed for this!

We earn this salary as a family and our life is quite normal still , typical mumsnet cliche I know. Our salaries increased quite rapidly over the last few years (and will probably continue to increase) so it’s still a bit of a shock and we’ve not made any major changes other than to upgrade the ancient tin on wheels car (bought a modest second hand car for 8k, nothing too fancy!). The main difference is to carry on or slightly increase the day to day expenses that make life manageable with both parents working full time - and feel no guilt or worry about the expense. So things like regular hello fresh box and organic veg box delivery, cleaner etc. We used these things before but really questioned the expense. Actually the biggest change is buying luxury candles and giving them as gifts! Couldn’t have contemplated such extravagance in the past. We also would have travelled more if covid hadn’t happened - prior to our big income increase we could only just about afford 1 family holiday a year to somewhere not too far.

Otherwise we live in a modest 3-bed home in outer London in an area considered by many not to be desirable but we like it! Kids at the local state school, all very ordinary. Currently we overpay our mortgage a lot and are building up savings rapidly too, covid has helped us not to get used to the new income too quickly and be a bit more thoughtful about long term plans. I think it will start to show more in future as we’ll probably send the kids to expensive London day private schools and move somewhere a bit nicer and slightly bigger a few years down the line. For now I quite like people viewing us as comfortable but not especially well off. I’m not sure how things will change if people realise we have such a large income, I think some people could have bigger expectations from us- we do have various family who can’t manage money/don’t have much and live quite precariously, I would worry about those people looking at us as a financial back stop! I don’t mind helping the ones in genuine need who can’t help their circumstances but don’t want to be subsidising others who spend everything they have when the have it and don’t give themselves any kind of cushion!

For me the best thing is having financial security and not having the question the small things. My family had a lot of money worries when I was growing up and it was horrible.

Oh our other “big salary” expense was doing some work on the house which cost a lot more than I would have imagined But that’s really it. Maybe we are sad, stingy losers but I’m very happy! And the financial security of savings (rather than a big house, expensive car etc) means a lot to me having not had it as a child.

By the by neither of us is working harder than we did when we earnt a lot less. It’s not all “earn more, pay for it with your life”. I do work very hard from time to time but I have incredible amounts of flexibility and sometimes it’s very chill, which brings balance.

A generalisation I know, but in my experience there seems to be an income at which people who were previously perfectly content with local state schools suddenly start talking them down, and almost feel obliged to send their kids to fee paying schools instead.

At that point a large chunk of the big salary gets spent on school fees, and they spend the next few years feeling stressed at having to keep that high salary rolling in, at least until the kids are out of education.

In some ways getting your income to just below that magic tipping point seems less stressful and still gives you plenty to spend on fun stuff.

I am very interested in what jobs pay 300k salary ?

(Not that I think I will be applying anytime soon- I am knackered after doing my 30 hours a week admin job ! )

Personally I’m only considering it because it will be quite easily affordable to us and I’m intending to have saved a considerable amount up-front, which will itself generate part of the fees going forward. Prior to getting to this point I never considered private school but I do feel like if I can easily afford to give my kids a better secondary school experience (compared to my local state which sadly is lacking in some significant respects), I should do it. Obviously this is highly dependent on the local state school options available to each individual family vs the local private options. For us, sadly, the two options are vastly different.

Definitely just making things more comfortable. So a slightly bigger house so that we have the spare room and the space to entertain. Holidays that we can choose based on what we would love to do without necessarily having to compromise massively or spend hours and hours looking for deals. Cleaner twice weekly, gardener weekly (in summer), someone to do DIY and general maintenance.

Even things like clothes - I don't particularly care about brands but for example, I have found in the past that because I have larger breasts, more expensive clothes with better tailoring and/or fabrics often sit more comfortably and look better so I'd love to be able to go into a store like John Lewis and try on dresses/tops/shirts without first looking at the price.

And yy to much better pension provision.

I wouldn’t move. I like it here.

I’d replace my 3 door car with a 5 door, something a bit fun to drive like a golf, but nothing that screams ‘wanker’. I’d buy my boyfriend a really well looked after low mileage discovery 2, maybe a 4 if I was feeling generous.

I’d buy a nice stock lorry with lots of options to partition it for horses, with sheep decks or take top off and have a flatbed if that’s possible.

I’d buy a top of the range pressure washer.

I’d put some stone down in my gateways.

Not sure what else. I don’t want much.

Cleaner, private school for the youngest, eldest would stay in state school, many home improvements but we wouldn't move, nice car, lots of pension contributions, savings for us and the kids, holidays. Ooh I'd love it.

Big house with staff, and really lovely holidays. Plus savings/pension and give more to charity.

I wouldn't see much of it, I'd buy my DD a house. I'm mortgage free. I'd help my adult kids out and look into private schools for my GC. I'd pay for private speech therapy for the youngest. The only thing that I would spend on is holidays, Canada, Japan and South Africa.

Take home wouldn’t be 14k more like £12500. No tax allowance over 150k, tax and NI will take up almost half. Salary sacrifice pension will help though. Some months I can take home £10k - £12k bloody brilliant when it happens. Nice holidays, moved house. Pension. Pay for parent and DC activities. Not private schooling yet.

I'd go part-time or employ my own deputy/assistant so I could be 'in work' fewer hours. I don't need that much money, I'd rather just be comfortable and have more time to spend with family & friends.

I'd buy a nice house - nothing huge or fancy, but just nice, by the sea, with a balcony and a nice garden.

I'd get a cleaner, gardener and chef.

Other than that, I reckon I'd save and/or give away the rest. I wouldn't significantly change my lifestyle, because I'm happy with how it is.

I’d spend a minimum and pay off my mortgage first.

With gusto, that’s how I’d spend it, for start I’d have a gardener, I’d eat out 3 times week, and generally enjoy myself with the rest however I saw fit

Invest what was needed to be able to live off of the interest. Is that possible?! No idea but I’d research that first.

Buy a house each for my kids when they are old enough. Same for my mum and siblings.
Might even buy more houses to rent out affordably to public sector workers dealing with near constant pay freezes eg teachers, enabling them to save their own deposits to buy themselves. Might have to limit the length of time they can live in one of mine, but I’d iron the details out obvs. Like a mini social housing scheme for education staff and alike.

Then:
Horses.
Dogs.
A cleaner.
A gardener.
A part time house keeper to do all the life admin and running around jobs which currently take up all my non working time.
I’d have my hair done each month, as well as spa treatments.
Personal trainer.
I’d support more charities.
I’d set up a scholarship for the arts for kids of working single parents too. Might stipulate they also had to be vegan. Who knows. My money my rules right?!

I'd save up, live on a smallish proportion of it, retire early and enjoy spending it then.

Build up savings (boring I know), cleaner, gardener, private schooling, nice holidays, clubs or any interests of children without limiting due to finance, cars big enough to go away for a family break (ie. not tiny boots).

N/C cos reasons

DH and I bring this in between us, or at least have done for the last couple of years.

Roughly half of it goes out again in tax, first of all. Which is great as far as I'm concerned -- I grew up very poor and had state help, so being able to put back into that system feels appropriate.

Housing is our biggest outgoing, mainly because we live in an expensive city (as opposed to having a massive house, we don't). We have a couple of nice, albeit secondhand, cars. A lot goes into savings and pensions. Insurance costs a bit -- health insurance, life insurance, critical illness cover, etc. We're both self-employed so there's a safety net to maintain.

It certainly isn't enough to live the millionaire lifestyles listed out by some posters! I couldn't afford to buy houses for relatives, have loads of horses etc, for example. And we certainly couldn't live off the interest.