..to struggle to comprehend huge salaries?

[missbunnyrabbit]

I was reading the thread about how much people earn having been to grammar/private schools and I just cannot get my head around how much lots of people earn. My head just cannot imagine such huge salaries. People earning over 100k, what on earth do they even do with that money? Do they buy everything gold-plated? That's a joke BUT I have no idea what anyone does with that sort of money or what it could be needed for. This isn't a bashing thread or anything like that. I'm just a bit stunned.

Does anyone else's brain struggle to imagine such huge amounts of money?

100k after tax does not cover 3 sets of school fees.

@TatianaBis

100k after tax does not cover 3 sets of school fees.

Private school is not mandatory or even necessary

I earn c.70k, good pension rights on top of that, no dependants, good job security, and I have a side hustle that makes about £7k net per year. Through decades of frugality I've paid off my mortgage on a nice terrace in London and made good ISA and pension investments. Now I have about £3000 spare a month, and feel rich as a king. On bad days at work I can look at my arsey colleagues and know I can give them all the shove if I really have to. I can also give a lot to charity, take holidays when I have the time, and pursue hobbies. The start of my career was dire and I give thanks every day for things working out so much better than they could have done.

@InSpaceNooneCanHearYouScream

I've read most of the thread, and the thing I'm most shocked by is that out of ALL the posters who admit to earning huge salaries, NOT ONE mentions using any of it to help those less fortunate than themselves. No wonder society is fucked and the rich just keep getting richer

Because its not your business to know. I do give to charities and so on but its my private business ans nobody else's

@Justheretoaskaquestion91

Also btw I was always told never to mention giving money to charity as it completely negates the idea of doing it as a selfless deed if you go around bleating about it.

absolutely this.

@Justheretoaskaquestion91

Also btw I was always told never to mention giving money to charity as it completely negates the idea of doing it as a selfless deed if you go around bleating about it.

No one said you had to 'bleat' about it

@TatianaBis

100k after tax does not cover 3 sets of school fees.

Average private school fees are £13,700 a year apparently (according to Google, it's not something I have personal knowledge of). So 3 kids at the average rate would be £41,100. That would leave you c. £25k to live on after tax.

That's doable, plenty of people live on less than £25k, but it won't give you the lifestyle that someone sending all their children to private school would probably want to live.

@Justheretoaskaquestion91

Also btw I was always told never to mention giving money to charity as it completely negates the idea of doing it as a selfless deed if you go around bleating about it.

Exactly. And you can't win: you're either "rich" and have no soul if you say nothing, or virtue signalling if you do.

And as a PP's post demonstrated - who claimed to have read the entire thread - even though the answers to the OP's question included many people stating how they had provided for children, parents, friends, other family, total strangers or charities, this was ignored entirely and denied to be the case.

@CSJobseeker good ones are over double that.

CSJobseeker where I live school fees are 8k per term at secondary school so you’d need to earn a lot more than 100k to afford three lots of them.

That was ONE person SleepyMombie, to whom I apologised for missing her post out of the 500 posted

It’s not rocket science. They have big mortgages, expensive car loans, they privately educate their children, they pay for nannies, they have expensive holidays, they wear nice clothes and expensive shoes, they have expensive private health care and pay a lot of taxes.

It could be any or none of the above. Every credit to anyone earning an absolute bomb as long as it’s honestly done.

@CSJobseeker

Big salary comes with big outgoings

This is a total myth

How?

We have an income of about £200k per year and I am ashamed to say that at ds' private school I feel like the poor relation.
It's all relative and I realise I am not poor

Some people there have 4 kids at private school, one full time non working parent, multiple holidays and 2 or 3 £100k cars plus houses worth £2-3 million

We live in a semi and gonon one holiday a year

We save a quite a bit but even if we didn't couldn't have the lifestyle of people round here.

[quote onlychildhamster]@idontlikealdi if you don't mind me asking, could you afford the fees for one? I do understand not sending one child to private school if you couldn''t afford for both![/quote]
I've got twins so there's no gap, it's double all the way through and then uni 😱

CSJobseeker where we live day fees at a big private school is £27k per year so 3 children would be £81k per year so before tax you'd need to earn well over £100k to pay the school fees alone. (No house, no food, no car). So when you see people with loads of kids going to expensive schools they are either living on trailer parks or are seriously loaded. I should think in London you need to earn about £300k per year to have a life style of 3 kids at top of the range private schools.

I'm a high earner. Not in 100k bracket but high enough.

There are many problems I have faced that could not be solved by all the tea and money in China, from serious medical health issues myself, infertility and baby loss, having to bury my DS who was born still, to family members dying due to unavoidable health conditions that even with private health care couldn't be solved.
Some problems you can't throw money at and make go away. Those issues are the ones that tend to haunt your soul (in my perspective)

On surface my life must look wonderful and to the most part I will accept I'm fairly privileged to not worry about money so much, but all money does it grease the wheels on the cart. It doesn't prevent the cart from crashing into a wall.

Sometimes I actually wonder if it's worth it I grew up in fairly humble beginnings, and although money was tight we were happy as cliche as that sounds.

All moneys been able to do is enable me to bring my extended family standards of living up, and not worry about certain things.

We all come to this world with nothing, and we also leave this world the same way.

@Isabellabasil

I don't think people are saying that others should feel guilty for being high earners - well I'm not anyway. I think what is bothering people (me!) is that people pretending they aren't high earners when they are.

Yes!

"I've not got a lot left after I've bought myself some comfort and improved lifestyle, so I struggle too"

Totally ignoring that if they wanted more left, the non essentials could go because they're not essential, but desired, and that they have the money initially to make those choices to buy the comfort and lifestyle.
I'm not saying don't have it, but if you choose to spend it on improving your comfort and lifestyle don't pretend it's essential to do so.

It just is. I know plenty of high earners, including DH, who do not have high outgoings as a result of their job. In fact, I don't know aby who do.

Spending money to maintain a certain lifestyle is a choice, it isn't required just because you earn lots.

(That was in response to idontlikealdi)

I've posted a lot now on this thread but if you want to look at properly rich it's UHNWI. And there are a lot of them.

@RosesAndHellebores

What I really value is being able to take dd shopping: have lunch out, buy her a pair of boots and new coat and feel my 23 year old who is incredibly fortunate give me a hug and say "mum are you sure, they're £140". Because the boundaries and moorings we put in place meant our dc didn't grow up spoilt and entitled.

This.

We have been high earners for some time. We have had lean periods earlier in our lives and I would like to think that this grounded us.

Money buys choices and it buys time.

It also comes with a modicum of guilt, because as hard as we have worked to have this lifestyle, there are those who earn much less for working harder and in less palatable and probably more socially useful jobs.

I think before I spend as I can easily fall into the trap of rampant consumerism because I can afford it. Do I need it, will it add something to my life? If I can answer yes, then I might buy it, but not always.

We have brought our kids up to understand that they have a privileged lifestyle and that hard work is not always rewarded by salary. It is also not the preserve of the 'professions'.

We advised them to choose their careers carefully if they wanted monetary rewards, and the lifestyle that generates, and I do feel some guilt for that. There is no doubt that Lawyers, Engineers, Bankers etc, make a significant contribution to society, but they are well rewarded financially for it.

Equally, the contributions made to society by bin men, care workers, lorry drivers, nurses, teachers, sales assistants etc, keep the wheels of society turning and arguably, theirs is a more needed skill set, but their rewards are pitifully poor.

I don't know what the answer is, but I do know that those of us who have been fortunate enough to succeed monetarily need to give a thought to others who haven't been quite as lucky.

I am guessing you don't have children. Just take a look at the cost of childcare, or braces or therapy fees if your child needs these - that will tell you where all the money goes.

Now I have about £3000 spare a month, and feel rich as a king.

That really made me smile @dogfishman!

I’m currently earning over the 100k mark. I have been saving like crazy to hopefully fund early retirement. Now I’m looking towards final steps of retirement planning and trying to work out what level of income is acceptable to keep me living simply but comfortably over the years. 100k years certainly won’t last forever but I know that, thanks to them, I’ll have the privilege of stopping long work before 67.