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.

@burnoutbabe have you really just compared a problem where someone has fallen out with their mum, to someone who's problem is having more money than they know what to do with.
Yeah, ok.

@Katypp

So you think extra qualifications are worth the extra money rather than job role /worth to society?

An ANP (band 7) will have extra qualifications (masters, prescribing). Top of a band 7 isn't 85k. Its around half that.

Google tells me the average for a lawyer is 70k.

More than double the average wage for a nurse

So they talk about holidays, trips and outings and you can't work out the likely costs? Or you could simply ask.

When I was your age rent, mortgages, living costs, nursery costs, wedding costs, holiday costs were all pretty hot topics both at work and with friends. Amongst peers so were investments as I work in a high paying sector. This also had the advantage of knowing the likely reality rather than asking randoms on the internet.

My kids are at the same stage and also discuss these things with friends and peers.

You can also pay for financial advice and future planning which has the advantage of being qualified and experienced, also something you won't find in randoms on the internet.

Yep!

We had paid off our mortgage by 2005. Because I experienced interest rates at 15% in 1990/91 and prior to that regularly 12%. Our home has always been as safeguarded as possible despite high earnings.

Inflation hit 9% on Friday. Interests rates will move relatively swiftly. As they go up, property values go down.

Nobody where I work is aware of DH's job, or of our finances. I dress appropriately for my senior role in a casual environment. I wouldn’t take a £100 handbag to work or wear a tank.

@burnoutbabe no, it is adding some perspective to the thread. Not being able to buy food is a real problem and we should all try to have empathy for that person.
The reality is, most people don’t think that the question of how to spend excessive disposable income is actually a problem. And clearly a number of people think presenting it as one in the current climate is a bit insensitive.
Having an irreparable argument with your mum is a genuine problem, so I don’t see how the two are comparable.
We all need a perspective adjustment sometimes.

I wouldn’t take a £100 handbag to work or wear a tank.

What's wrong with a £100 handbag?

But what response do you expect to the loaf of bread comment?

What can the high earners say? What should they say?

@workintums absolutely nothing and I have several but at work I blend.

Don't ever talk to even your close friends about money. Makes for envy and resentment in this climate. We have a financial advisor and she is the only person who knows what we earn ( except MN!).

The poster who asks why people are saving, there is a massive recession coming. Worse than 2008. Layoffs have begun at DH's workplace and I expect my work to be affected too. High earning jobs also tend to be very volatile.

@SofiaSoFar exactly, hence my virtue signalling comment

I don’t suppose he’s a data architect by any chance is he ? I could have him a new job by lunchtime.

@RosesAndHellebores I just don't think a £100 bag is a sign of anything, it's quite different from a 3k plus watch. Can you even buy a good quality leather bag on the high street for that these days? my fabric rucksack was about £60

Don't ever talk to even your close friends about money.

I do think it's harder these days, everyone can see what you paid for your house for one.

No :) but thank you.

@Katypp for a teacher you’re talking starting salary circa 25k, max salary for a head would be 120k.

For someone in finance, a starting salary could be 90k with fantastical salaries up to 500k+

Not saying that teachers or nurses are not well off. But that hard work does not have an equal outcome.

The amount earned is dictated by the profession pursued and the ability for an individual to access education/money to start a business etc. in the first place.

for a teacher you’re talking starting salary circa 25k, max salary for a head would be 120k.

I thought it was 32k for a london teacher

For someone in finance, a starting salary could be 90k with fantastical salaries up to 500k+

Even in London there aren't hundreds of thousands of people on 500k plus.

The bitterness to those who have gone out to work and earn good money is staggering on here. We should be celebrating the op who is obviously paying tax so the lower earners don't have to. Well done @Citygirly and all the other successful women on here. I am lucky I have 2 sisters both on decent money one earns more than me and one about 2/3 but all are well in the top 10% of earners. We can discuss this others might not be so lucky and I as the oldest and first to get there relied on a forum (not this one thankfully) to seek advice on high earning tax efficiency and spending.

@SofiaSoFar

I don't "expect" any response, my point was that you cannot compare the motives and intent of^^ someone coming on a thread like this to comment on not being able to afford bread, and the motives and intent of a high earner going on a poverty thread to say "I can't help, I have plenty of money". That was my point with that comment. The two are not comparable.

One is clearly expressing sadness and frustration at one's situation relative to others', the other is being a first class dick.

What can the high earners say? What should they say?

Well I'm not "high earner" by these standards, I'm somewhere in the comfortable middle I guess. And my own response was to feel sad for another person's suffering and to express that. I mean, it's just empathy that comes naturally. I guess we aren't all that way, so if you need a script for what to say someone less fortunate than you, then I can't help I'm afraid,

@Oscarthedog

Is being a higher earner the only measure of hard work and success?

Bit of a contradiction to praise the op for paying tax so the lower earners dont have to (wtf?!) and then advice she finds out how to be 'tax efficient' (ie avoid asucj tax as possible. Something lower earners don't have the luxury of

@Katypp Omg, because nurses are the ones who wipe your backside in hospital. They’re the ones who give you a bed bath after surgery. They’re the ones who use a catheter to help you pee so your bladder doesn’t explode. They hold your hand when you’re frightened. And they have a vast knowledge base and generally hold shit together when it goes tits up…. Much more so than those higher qualified who don’t have the time to spend, or frankly the people skills.

That is why nurses get a special focus they have a huge responsibility and are essential, but underpaid for what they do. Many stay grade 5-6 and don’t progress because the higher paying roles are few and far between.

Hahah your post is hilarious! I can't tell if it's satire or if you're actually being serious.

The person who originally posted this knew fine well she was going to cause controversy, that’s why it was posted. Bragging about your wealth is vulgar. Have a little respect on folk that are struggling to feed their families. Also it bugs me folk on high incomes keep harping on about they made it by working hard! Wtf millions of folk on low and minimum wage jobs work hard for their wages. Nurses, teachers, bin men, care assistants. They prob work harder than any of you high earners ever know. I’m logging out of this thread.