High earners - how do you spend your salary?

[Citygirly]

DH and I earn just under £140k combined.

We do maximum pension payments (his is 9% as NHS) and we also give about 10% a month to charity.

Other than that, we plan to start overpaying the mortgage. We invest £1k a month (so £500 each) and save £1k for holidays. We of course do general/specific savings but then have a good chunk left over for disposable income.

AIBU to ask other high earning households how they tend to allocate their money? Just want to see if we could be using it better or this is about right for comparables.

Absolutely agree! My DH earns more than OP's and her DH's joint income and my salary is 6 figures too for context). We lived accordingly but were blind-sided by a cancer diagnosis at 38. Income protection saved us.

Actually tell a lie I would like to ask something. My husband currently earns just under £30k and I am not in work due to having to leave my retail job after an injury (nothing serious enough to claim for but enough for me to have to leave before I was forced out).

We don't own our own property, and we have no savings.
My husband is also a part time script writer and has started to get some success with projects being made. Each one is probably only going to be in the region of £20k and under a time (some as low as £2k), but added together it would be a nice little amount especially since we are currently poor!

I would like to save it, possibly put towards a house (would only buy if we could be mortgage free, we're late 30's early 40's and I don't think we would get a mortgage now but would rather not have one if we could possibly avoid it).

If you was in my position, and had a lump sum of say £60k what would be the best course of action? I'm utterly clueless so any advice would be grand. I know that's not a life changing amount, but I hope it would just be the beginning of what he will earn.

School fees times 4

This is actually a good point. I can see them limiting leisure flights in the not so distant future if we can’t get things under control…. So high earners will need to find something other than holidays… dread the housing market then.

@resipsa
I’m sorry to hear about the cancer diagnosis.

Do you mind me asking what job you and your DH did to earn so much?

We allocate £12k to holidays a year currently and will want this to go up once we have DC. It's something we really enjoy and I think it's really important to have as we make lovely memories and get a good break from our stressful and time intensive jobs.

Dorsal fin spotted heading for shore... 🦈🦈🦈

If you can buy a house in your locality for 200 grand to live in I would do that and if you can’t buy a house for 200 grand on a buy to let mortgage and rented out especially if you can wait about 12 to 18 months when the madness of highest prices hopefully will end you might be able to snap of a good deal. In the meantime for 20 grand each into a ISA I made about £2000 last year on a stocks and shares Isa. If you’re under 40 I believe you can get the first time buyers ISA, one each and the government Will add 25% to both of your totals.

bloody hell.
“only you can change that”
spectacularly wrong on so many levels

@SicParvisMagna

It's something we really enjoy and I think it's really important to have as we make lovely memories and get a good break from our stressful and time intensive jobs.

Yep. Pretty much applies to most of the population I'd say.......

Oh wow really?! Need to try those!

We over pay the mortgage as we’re paying interest on that. So keen to get rid of it asap. We’ve always been told by financial advisors to get rid of debt really before doing anything else.
We invest in medium and high risk shares and crypto.

Incorrect to assume schools outside London are cheaper; supply and demand dictates school fees, and you'll actually find that in London (apart from the obvious very expensive ones), they're often cheaper, or certainly comparable to, those elsewhere, because there's more competition, as well as grammar schools. 🙃

Thanks! We both have a LISA, was paying in £200 each a month a couple of years ago, then my husband lost his job and we had to stop for just over 2 years. Now paying in £50 a month which is better than nothing I suppose. I would aim to max those a year if we can, and then would have to look into other investment ideas.

The house we rent sold in 2018 for £200,000. Luckily my best friend bought it as she had just come into some money so she bought it cash. Lucky bugger. I am on the Essex coast so I am assuming it's risen insanely since then.
Another possibility would be property abroad and either move or rent it out. But that seems like a very long term pipe dream currently.

@Onwards22
I'd love to say something useful to society but sadly just necessary evils - insurance and law.

I earn about £90k, but this is vastly more than my parents earned ( taking into account inflation). I tend to be careful with money which I think is due to my background. Interestingly, a lot of my friends who earn less but come from wealthier backgrounds spend a great deal more than me.. 30 per cent goes into my pension (,Inc employer's contrib ) and I max my ISA allowance. I tend not to eat out a lot but I take courses, go to the theatre and galleries. I do feel lucky to not have the financial worries my parents had.

Help to buy ISA for first time buyers has closed to new applications. The LISA is the new thing for under 40s.

Otherwise I would agree buy a house circa 200k after a few years saving and wait until the crazy prices subside a bit…. Market is cooling some have said it will bomb 2026.

www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/lifetime-isas/

@SicParvisMagna I don’t have experience of renting a property out abroad but I have the reverse of that I have rented out my UK property whilst living abroad absolute nightmare cannot discourage you more strongly from that idea.

@Citygirly if you don't want people to tell you YABU, you maybe want to rethink about posting on the YABU forum. If you want financial advice maybe post on the financial forums, just a thought 🤷‍♀️.
But we know you didn't really post for advice and as @orwellwasright said, in the future you will be getting the ick when you remember how your current self behaves.
This isn't a case of read the room, it's more like read the country.

Sorry @SicParvisMagna just seen you have already got LISA accounts. Maybe speak to a financial advisor? Property abroad prob not great idea - depending where it is it could devalue more rapidly, plus if there is a problem you have to travel to go and sort it out… still mid pandemic so probably not ideal unless you have complete confidence in a management company abroad and a stream of locals to rent it whose income is secure.

Moving abroad could totally work DH can write anywhere can’t he? Wish you well whatever happens.

Thank you

😂

Not sur what high earners are, we're on 130k approx combined in the north west so comfortable but with 4 young kids it goes on nanny, kids activities, family activities, holidays, on top of the essentials.

@Robinni what is wrong with somebody from a humble background asking other high earners how they manage their money?

The girl has no social reference points

Lol. She's a lawyer FFS. They're not famed for their stupidity. She's not some 16 year old straight outta hicksville.