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.

I completely agree. But I also know a lot of working class people who went to secondary vs grammar and the ones who went to grammar got enormous amounts of pastoral support, extra guidance etc. On money, Uni applications, social support, filling in the blanks of what their parents couldn’t/wouldn’t provide.

One is now a doctor another is in Silicon Valley on 120k pa… parents still live in council houses.

School, and what is offered within the school environment, is extremely important.

Prep school x3
Live in a nice house
Investing in property
Investing in stocks and shares
Decent quality food
Charity

We don’t do big holidays because we worry about the environmental impact, we are trying to limit long haul to once every 5 years. We are going to wales for a week this year.

we are not flashy at all, we live very average lives other than the private schools and the big house. I think people might be surprised by how much we have in the bank.

After seeing my parents living through extreme financial difficulties when I was little I do not take our finances for granted and I’m grateful every single day that (for now) we don’t have to worry. Things can always change.

I noticed in my work that often the richer people got the stingier and weirder they got. We are very very careful not to conflate our self esteem with our wealth. We have been extremely lucky, that’s all.

Silicon Valley on £120k is 1 step off poverty

@workintums

www.nasuwt.org.uk/advice/pay-pensions/pay-scales/england-pay-scales.html

@Robinni but when was that? The closest grammars to me are extremely competitive and virtually every child is tutored to go there. Excellent state schools now have tiny catchments with astronomical house prices, when I grew up I went to good schools despite not living that close to them.

Of course school has a role & education can lift people out of circumstances. Nonetheless someone on 120k with zero parental help will still be behind someone earning less but who was helped onto the ladder in their 20s.

@TomatoorChips

They are working from here but getting the income. Sorry should have made that clear!

@Robinni your link excludes London which is what I was referring too? but I found it on this

www.nasuwt.org.uk/advice/pay-pensions/pay-scales/pay-scales-fringe-outer-london-and-inner-london.html

Hadn’t realised, I don’t quite see the point though?

London is one city. Nurses have a higher pay scale there, as most professions do due to the higher living costs.

wasn't a particular point just a reply to your original point.

This is going off on a bit of a tangent….

Someone else posted saying they were of the opinion that people being impoverished was some sort of conspiracy.

I commented that I felt the lack of HE in schools now in particular and other support was unhelpful. And feel all schools should be educating kids on how to manage their interests/lives…

Yes of course those from wealthy backgrounds have a head start, however better support and education helps to make life better for those who don’t have the same privilege.

We have family in both secondary and grammar right now and there is a stark difference. As there was when we were at school decades ago.

However my point was that all kids in all schools should have HE education/pastoral support to equip them for life on a more level footing.

Could we get back to the topic of the thread?

I thought that people in the nhs were badly paid?

@Lincslady53

NHS pay scales are graded according to profession and years of experience. A domestic (cleaner) is typically band 1/2, on circa 18-19k, the average nurse will be band 5 or 6 which ranges from 25k-39k, and a clinical psychologist will start on band 7 after qualifying (40k) with opportunity to progress as far as band 8c (75k) at consultant level. Consultant medical doctors / psychiatrists / surgeons can be on as much as £108k at band 9.

Not all NHS roles are poorly paid. It depends on the profession.

For example my role is a senior role within mental health, and I'm on band 8a (salary range 47-53k). I don't think that's poorly paid. I think my nursing colleagues are poorly paid for what they do, however.

In discussing NHS salaries one also has to look at the benefit package overall.

Employer contributions into a still excellent pension;
Good annual leave;
A unionised and protected working environment;
Excellent sickness benefits;
Availability of additional shifts with overtime, often at double time;
Generous on call allowances which often don't require attendance and the Dr/Consultant is able to garden or play with their DC if they live x distance from the hospital.

Compare and contrast to the average quantity surveyor working for a construction firm or even a solicitor in the provinces on £55k possibly having qualified at a big London firm and who found themselves unable to cope with the punishing schedule.

I can't think another profession/vocation where a dismissal wouldn't arise if the employee constantly complained about their employer or wore their politics on their sleeve and continuously lambasted a government their client may have democratically voted for.

@RosesAndHellebores

Those poor solicitors are welcome to join the nhs. Its crying out for staff.

Indeed @Topgub but if you quantified in monetary terms the difference between pension contributions, sick pay, protected employment and lengthy capability procedures notwithstanding the fact that if a solicitor works 12 extra hours a week they won't get paid for it (they may not even be able to bill it), there is far less difference than meets the eye in relation to the package.

The shortages in French healthcare are not as bad as here because overall it's a better system which is less toxic and dysfunctional and that is saying something for the French who sit at the top of the tree when it comes to absurd bureaucracy.

We earn £150k between us but don't considers ourselves high earners by any means to be honest.

@RosesAndHellebores

Huh?

Either the nhs is wonderful in terms of pay and benefits or its toxic and dysfunctional

Then you are wrong! As I stated earlier in the thread you earn more than 60 million other people in the country and are in the top 2% of high earners. Check your privilege.

Wouldn't anyone think of the squeezed top tier earners? 😥

Whether you feel wealthy or not is all relative isn't it. We earn in the top 5% nationally but we spend a lot too:
Childcare £2500 per month
Mortgage £1200 per month
Council tax and utilities £750 per month
Kids activities £200 per month
Food £800 per month

And thats before kids clothes, shoes, saving for holidays etc. We chose a big house and full time expensive childcare to maintain our careers while our DC are still young. Hoping it'll pay off in the next 5 years once they are all at school, although if we choose private schools we'll probably be spending even more than current childcare costs!

@Howmuchwood

Chosing more expensive outgoings doesn't mean you're not well off/ a higher earner.

It just means you've chosen more expensive outgoings

Pootle40 · Today 13:38
We earn £150k between us but don't considers ourselves high earners by any means to be honest.

well your wrong. I feel embarrassed for you with that comment.

Oh for god sake! Poor you having so little money. However do you cope?!

2/10 for effort.

@Topgub I agree. Its why I said we chose a big house and expensive childcare. We could have a much smaller house and more money for other things. Either way I know we're well off and very fortunate.

OP asked how people spend their money, I was giving some examples of where a high income might be spent, for OP to consider in future if she has DC and moves to a bigger property.