..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?

Our income is over that but we have six kids so our lifestyle is not flash . We have a big old house with big bills each month, we have a cleaner once a week as I struggle to keep it clean however much I try . We still have to save if we want to go on holiday etc but we do really appreciate we have a good lifestyle. Taken us both a few years to get here after both of us losing a lot with previous divorces.

My BIL earns over £100k, my sister doesn't work. They are always crying poverty and I cannot understand how. Their mortgage is not that much as we live in a cheap area. They do not have childcare bills as my sister doesn't work. I, like you OP, can't comprehend how they spend it all.

I live off of 100k. You might be surprised by my life . I don’t have tons of money left over after my bills but I live a very nice life. I have some luxuries such a couple holidays abroad and I splurge on skincare . I don’t stress at Christmas or birthdays and I wouldn’t think twice about meeting up with friends for dinner and drinks . My two year old stayed in nursery two days a week while I was on my second maternity leave . I get my hair done about twice a year and box dye it myself in between. I shop at Aldi for groceries, my kids get lots of hand me downs from family , I do homemade Halloween costumes . I desperately need a new wardrobe but it’s not in my budget right now as we are getting work done on the house. I have an old John Lewis gift card for. £75 which I’ll use for a new pair of jeans .

It's amazing how salaries get eaten up - huge pension contributions here, £1200 mortgage, 3 kids at university though my ex pays for most of my 2's maintenance, though I'm better with money than him despite earning 1/12 of the amount (though I do pay no tax of course so in reality it's 1/6 take home)

Missbunnyrabbit I agree! I find it difficult seeing a huge discrepancy between a100k salary and people using food banks. We are on an average wage and still manage holidays days out and so on . Guess we will never know eh !

If you have highly prized skills/qualifications and experience in certain sectors such as finance, banking, law etc it is obvious that competition alone will ensure a higher salary. Not everyone can do these jobs, done require a huge amount of technical ability and many years of study and research. I am constantly amazed at how deeply intelligent and gifted some people are in my industry, they create huge wealth for the company and deserve to paid accordingly

@daytripper28 that’s a very short sighted viewpoint to take, in just wishing people were taxed more.
I don’t understand the mentality some people have of “tax them higher, take more off them”

My husband earns a very good wage from his businesses, he also pays a very good amount of taxes. He’s worked extremely hard over 16 years to get to where he is today, we didn’t become well off overnight-we live comfortably and feel very fortunate.
That all came from the hard work of both of us, both tax payers.

So it always feels strange reading comments from some people who almost want to punish higher earners in the form of taxing them more! We pay the amount dictated by our government, also taxes can’t be that high that it stops business owners wanting to achieve more-or we’d all stay below a certain threshold!

People earning over 100k, what on earth do they even do with that money

Well if this thread is anything to go by, you spend all of it on the gold plated version of everything, convince yourself that you aren't taking the expensive option at every turn and remain oblivious that you lead a life that is completely unattainable to the majority and fail to realise that massive mortgages, nannies, £50 a night babysitters, pension overpayments, buying property in London, school fees etc etc are massive luxuries to the majority not normal things that have no choice but to spend your money on.

DH earns about 200
I earn 23k

Mortgage is 2.5k (standard 3 bed semi, but we’ve done the loft and extended, so borrowed more)
Food, bills, private pension, kids clubs, dog walker, synagogue fees,
We go on a lot of holidays/weekend breaks, our budget for that is 10-15k a year
We always have some house project in hand, at the moment it’s being re rendered. Next year the interior will be repainted, and we want to build a patio at the back of the garden
I can buy what I want within reason, if I want a new plant for the garden I can buy it, or an expensive candle. I take the children out a lot to things like the theatre, NT etc.
But we can’t “afford” school fees without making significant cut backs, we’ve only really just started saving properly, I am often in my overdraft by months end. It’s a very very comfortable life but we don’t feel “rich” as such.
We both grew up WC, council estate, poor schools and had you told me that one day I’d be in this situation with this income, I would have assumed I’d be living in a solid gold house travelling around in a carriage driven by unicorns. Reality is it’s my parents life with slight upgrades in food shopping, holidays, home decor and smellier candles.

We are average earners but my best friend and also my parents live on six figure salaries so I have some insight into how they live. Neither brags about money and keeps it very low key.

Best friend is recently widowed so 120k salary is to support her child as well. They will start private school next year at secondary level. She's also buying a holiday home which will involve huge renovation.

Parents have supported three kids through private schools, paid for cars, house deposits, holidays, tabs for meals out, subsidies for childcare costs. Their salaries are going towards creating a better standard of living for their children who are all average earners. We are subsidised to the extent of thousands of pounds a year (sibs too).

After that there are lots of savings and investments.

Although you pay more tax as you earn more, it's clear from this thread that people also just make more expensive choices - whether they recognise that as such or not.

On this thread examples have included school fees, paying loads into pension so you can retire early, eating better quality food, eating or drinking out a lot, buying expensive clothing (even if not very often), multiple holidays abroad, buying more expensive cars.

Frustratingly many people seem not to realise that these are choices you only have as you are financially privileged. These are the choices which demonstrate your relative wealth. The fact that you can't fly everywhere first class or drive a Ferrari does not mean that you don't have loads more than other people. Oftentimes I think people have lost sight of the extras they are having.

Work out what industries are in demand, attract huge salaries and retrain. As many others do successfully. If you have the drive and commitment put it to good use. Without the skills and abilities of some society we wouldn’t even have food banks or hospitals or schools. They are the ones paying huge taxes for services they generally do not even use!

Earning over £100k does not necessarily make you rich, or buy you time.

I'm a single mum of two earning that.
Mortgage - €2000 a month for a small, 3-bed semi
Childcare - €2600 per month
14 year old car
I never buy clothes for me.
I work over 50 hours a week,so never have a second, including juggling my toddlers.
I probably spend a lot on food, since Its has important to me to cook everything from scratch for the children.

So very few luxuries on what would be considered a high salary.

We're over that figure.
No fancy cars or private schools, but as we've no mortgage most goes on holidays and into pensions so we can retire at 55. Putting two DC through university too.
DH says he specifically chose his career for the salary, he doesn't enjoy it though. And we made as doubly sure as we could never to have an unplanned pregnancy and scupper our plans.
Very lucky to have choice though.

£500k salary. £200k in taxes. £75k in alimony. £85k in school fees (one boarding, three others at private day school - partly because last two didn't get into the four nearest state schools). £24k mortgage (at below 1%!). Now down to 116k and haven't even mentioned car, annual train ticket, bills, holidays etc for a family of six...
Sure it's a lot, but it's also after working 20+ years at a highly stressful job with 60 hour weeks. This same person also helped raise £65k one year for a charity by walking 65 miles, worked on a government committee to promote social mobility, gave to eight separate charities. He earned a lot and gave a lot.
I have friends who jointly earn well over six figures (after 25 years working - it's not straight out of the gate) and they can't afford to send their kids to private school - 150k, 50k tax and £100k isn't going to fund a £24k/year tuition EACH (London) and still have money for mortgage bills and running a car, let alone a holiday, clothing, odd meal out.

I’m one of those people. But again, you’d be surprised by my life. We shop at lidl, live in a 3 bed semi and if we go on big holidays would need to fund it from savings (we haven’t been on any since having children). We live on the London/ Kent border so have a sizeable mortgage for a modest house and pay £3k a month in childcare (twins). Pre children we had a very comfortable life.

It's all relative. I'm on that salary but live in the south east, and couldn't buy a house until my late 30s so half of it goes on paying the mortgage on a 2.5 bed semi!

Houses, when I see people on here say they paid £200k for a lovely house with s big garden my mind boggles! In my bit of London for 1 mil gets you a 3 bed with a tiny garden. Even large salaries can't afford the lovely but houses so people have "up north"

@Gardeningtipsneeded

DH earns about 200 I earn 23k

Mortgage is 2.5k (standard 3 bed semi, but we’ve done the loft and extended, so borrowed more)
Food, bills, private pension, kids clubs, dog walker, synagogue fees,
We go on a lot of holidays/weekend breaks, our budget for that is 10-15k a year
We always have some house project in hand, at the moment it’s being re rendered. Next year the interior will be repainted, and we want to build a patio at the back of the garden
I can buy what I want within reason, if I want a new plant for the garden I can buy it, or an expensive candle. I take the children out a lot to things like the theatre, NT etc.
But we can’t “afford” school fees without making significant cut backs, we’ve only really just started saving properly, I am often in my overdraft by months end. It’s a very very comfortable life but we don’t feel “rich” as such.
We both grew up WC, council estate, poor schools and had you told me that one day I’d be in this situation with this income, I would have assumed I’d be living in a solid gold house travelling around in a carriage driven by unicorns. Reality is it’s my parents life with slight upgrades in food shopping, holidays, home decor and smellier candles.

Not sure you can call 10-15K a year on holidays a slight upgrade. It's a massive privilege to be able to spend that. Same with lots of theatre trips. That can be 100's of £'s per trip.

Things like getting people in to paint rather than doing it yourself is also a significant privilege.

You can afford school fees, you're just choosing to spend the money differently. People with less income genuinely can't afford it no matter what. There are richer people of course but that does not mean you're not rich.

And yes then nursery is 100-120 per day. And if you live further out you pay thousands for the pleasure of squashing into the train like a sardine!

I get you. I honestly would not buy a bigger house if I was on that salary. (I earn minumum wage). I'm a single mum of one child, I don't need a big house. Big house just means higher heating bills and more cleaning!

I am more interested in what people do to earn the big money. At least this is valuable information I could have passed on to my kids when they were growing up.
Me = Sales Manager £80k
Wife = Accountant £75k

Put some of those larger salaries into a take home pay calculator. 100k doesn't go that far when there's maybe just one earner in the household and theyve got a massive mortgage (even a modest 3 bed in London suburbs would eat most of that up). 100k isn't even necessarily private school and fancy car kind of salary.

That said, I'd rather budget my life on 100k than on whatever the UK average wage currently is!!!

I'm not naive that my income gives me stability. I was in an abusive relationship with DC's dad who insisted I stop studying for my Masters (I didn't), told me when I graduated I wouldn't get a job in my field as I was too fat, and should look for NMW jobs instead.

I remember earning 35k a year having holes in all my clothes and zero savings as he insisted I hand over every penny while he was lying to me about working but actually unemployed. I remember having no food in the house, because he gambled it away.

I left and was homeless and even had to have counselling to give me enough confidence to pursue work. I had lucky break after lucky break and I'm extremely fortunate to be in the position I am. It could very well be the opposite just as easily.

Although I'm entitled to DLA, it means not having to claim it or worry about assessments and being declined 5 times, dealing with a tribunal etc., as I'm not reliant on it. Our social system is in shambles and not fit for ourpose. Being a single mum on my salary is infinitely easier than being one on NMW and still hsving to oay all the essentials and childcare. I count my blessings I can make the choice to live close to work for instance instead of choosing a long commute to save on rent.

Money gives you choices. It would be disingenuous to claim otherwise.

I remember

@User13489089768

Unless you're a diplomat, a huge chunk of very high salaries go into tax so that actual take-home pay is only half of what's on paper.

Expenditure simply scales upward, so a monthly mortgage payment might be several thousand and running costs of large properties are also higher. Most people will have a cleaner, housekeeper or nanny which takes a further few grand. Having an au-pair means paying a full time salary out of your salary so that's another expenditure.

Holidays are also a good way to spend money, especially as people in those jobs are typically cash rich but time poor. So once they do have a few days off they will go balls to wall spending money for leisure. Five figures is a minimum for everything including meals and shopping. There's a segment of 5* hotels that costs 1K per night for a regular room and 2-5K for suites. You can rack up costs very quickly that way.

Whatever is left can go into cars. At this level you will definitely need at least 2 cars (husband & wife) with each child getting one as soon as their pass their drivers license. Budget will be around 80K-100K for a family car (Range Rover, Audi A8, BMW X6, Tesla Model X etc) and 30-40K for the kids cars (mid-range Mercedes or BMW).

Ironically, the income disparity between the final 1% of earners is much higher than the 99% vs 1%. Most people assume the one percent all have the same lifestyle but it couldn't be any different. Those earning around 500K will probably have a lifestyle described above which is luxurious but not crazily extravagant. The typical "rich" life that people picture from movies is only attainable for the top 0.01% or 0.001%. This where you have private jets, supercars, yachts etc.

People also assume that all high-earning people have their money in tax havens or use other financial loopholes but this is not true 99% of the time. Only the mega rich 0.01% tend to do that. It's very difficult to escape Inland Revenue and often not even worth trying since transactions that can be fudged easily are usually too small to matter (a meal out, a phone bill, a laptop etc). Trying to hide 5-6 figures from the taxman is a massive risk and recent headlines prove that these schemes get exposed all the time. So the majority of high earners pay an eye watering amount of tax before they get to spend it.

Yeah, that is definitely not describing the 100k lifestyle of anyone o know!