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.

@Topgub

Never mind the crack den next door and the sex trafficked brothel down the street. Great investment

Way to go with the stereotypes!!! Lols
How many social houses have you been to?! Yes in inner city there can be problems but in many cases they are interspersed with privately owned properties and sell pretty well!

@Robinni

Both myself and dh are from actual humble beginnings

We both grew up on council housing estates. You know the kind you see on channel 5 poverty porn?

Yeah.

Its not a stereotype. People do live in actual, true poverty surrounded by crime and despair.

But of course, if they just worked a bit harder they could chose not to and have the same chances as some one who lives in a country estate and whose parents can afford to make sure they dont fail.

You appear to be talking about people not in actual poverty but who managed to blag a sh in a decent area. They exist too, of course.

I've kind of forgotten the point you were making, it appears to be that no one is really poor so they should stop blaming the rich?

Or that they should be grateful for what ever scraps the rich decide to through their way?

You need to have lived there for 35 years to get a 70% discount up to the cap

mortgages typically end at 67. So say you get a social property at 30- no chance of getting 70% off

if you got one at 18 then you would be 53 and looking at a 14 year mortgage.

@Topgub my point was that a household on 15-20k say in a housing estate where rent is £250-400 per month might just scrape by and has at least the chance of purchase at a very low rate if they become better off at a later date.

For a family on that income or even slightly more where rent is private £800-1000+ the economic climate will probably slaughter them so that’s who I feel most empathy with at the moment… and I hope they have a sizeable rescue package announced soon.

That was my point.

Sorry for derail Op

@StuckonanLNERtrain

Thanks i wasn't sure of the details.

No families are on that income if they rent
do you understand the benefits system?

@Robinni

Why is who you feel most sympathy for relevant?

It is never just about hard work as to who earns more in life. It is a huge mix of factors although hard work is often part of it. All we can do if as families we think it is useful if our children earn quite a bit is do our best for that child to achieve the goals it wants. That is not every family's ethos of course - families have all kinds of aims which differ as thankfully we are a democracy and do not have all to be the same.

I find it quite useful to have spare money but could always do with some more so try to make that so.

But of course, if they just worked a bit harder they could chose not to and have the same chances as some one who lives in a country estate and whose parents can afford to make sure they dont fail.

It's this that just still so gets me every time. Even after I have been "comparatively rich" for over a decade.

Ruth was a girl who went to school with me. Ruth was just as clever as me (probably more so, actually). Ruth's only "fault" was that - whereas my siblings and I had parents that demanded better for us - she was from a family that was utterly resigned to the status quo, had grown to resent "intellectuals" and held it against their own daughter when she was gunning for A-levels and uni.

Ruth dropped out. Ruth died last year (freak accident, not actually any poverty related structural situation). She wasn't even 40, and she left three kids, none of whom would consider uni an option in their wildest dreams either.

THIS is what poverty does to us: we either accept our fates, or we stay to fight the good fight - and, if we win, we'll forever be feeling guilty because we "cheated the system" and the Ruths in our lives did not.

This is what people mean by "it's structural".

Yes absolutely with two on job seekers they would bring in about 8k a year. But there will be further top ups if they have kids probably bringing close to circa 15k. Depends which category they are put in.

If a couple is on something like ESA/PIP + tax credits or on UC + Pip it will be closer to 25k and they can work part time on top of this…

People in council houses do work too you know. And many stay there even after prospects have improved. Though Cameron saw to it that rent would be adjusted according to income.

@Topgub you’ve gone on the whole thread about how those with money are the worst in the world and been very argumentative.

And appear to be of the position that those with the most humble beginnings ie council estate have it the worst with least opportunity.

My opinion would be that the people who fall slightly outside of this bracket - can’t get sh but still low earning will struggle more.

I said empathy by the way, not sympathy there is a difference.

If you are going to discount my opinion as irrelevant you’d better discount your own as well. It is a discussion thread, all opinions are relevant.

@Robinni

you’ve gone on the whole thread about how those with money are the worst in the world

no I havent

been very argumentative.

I'm not arguing with myself lol

My opinion is those on lower incomes have worse opportunities. Being able to technically buy your ch doesn't change that and is a strawman argument

I haven't discounted your opinion. I just couldn't figure out why you though that particular opinion was relevant to the point i made

You asked what’s humble.

My personal opinion would be that the most humble would be those on very low income privately renting as they will need to try and work longer hrs and are pretty trapped in terms of trying to get out of it.

Whereas there is at least the offer of a hand up if in a council house (the people who are perceived to be most humble).

To put this bluntly friend made £110k profit on their council house. Were in it 5 yrs when bought and sold 5 years after that. Put them on level pegging financially as those who had just qualified with Doctorates in terms of moving to next property.

So, I 100% agree with you that by and large a child on an estate does not have remotely near the same prospects as those born into wealthy families, however it is not all doom and gloom either.

@Robinni

I didnt mention estates. I said those in poverty.

I also never said it was all doom and gloom.

I just said that those who have the wealth got the wealth not just because of their own doing but because of advantages they had others didnt

It doesn't make them harder workers or better people. Doesn't even make them more intelligent

Just privileged

@Topgub

I can agree with you on the point that some of those who have wealth got the wealth not just because of their own doing but because of advantages they had others didn’t.

However, I also know many people who were not privileged remotely, who have become extremely successful. What led to this was determination, less spoilt, and a very strong family behind them supporting their goals and betterment.

@Topgub

This generalisation is so false. You must acknowledge that some people are naturally more intelligent than others, that some people are more willing to push themselves farther than others. It isn't always about privilege. Although, I can understand that it is easier to say that it is and so remove any degree of agency a person might have over how things turn out.

@CityGirly

I won't bore you with how I spend or invest just now..with hindsight, I would have prioritised saving for the biggest property I could stretch to that was closest to an good grammer school, with a sibling policy. Having the option of a solid state secondary school gives so much flexibility to choose whether or not to invest around 200k per child in private school fees and whether or not to ease off work for a few years when the children are little.

@Kellykukoo

That is a privilege

No one has 'agency' over how intelligent or driven they are.

Lots of intelligent and driven people aren't well off either.

Making lots of money doesn't make you better than anyone else. It just means youre making lots of money because you had an advantage others didn't.

I understand why wealthy people are so reluctant to acknowledge their privilege. Its hard to admit you're not special just lucky.

And obviously a few people do make it out of poverty but they are not the norm.

Wealth inequality is getting worse, not better

There's a reason its only 1% ofvthe population making that amount of money and its not because they deserve it

I’ve just read on money-saving expert a landlord practically wanking off at the prospect of the fact that his tenants are about to be evicted, apparently she’s not paid her rent on purpose so that she can get a council house, a tactic I find very hard to believe, now they’re all piling in with the lies about how she will lose her children because she’s been in court For rent arrears therefore made a self intentionally homeless and apparently the council will apply for an order to take her children.
they are literally trothing at the mouth with excitement about how this is all entirely her own fault. Men and women.

This is the society we are living in.

Thank you, that's really good advice

@Nothappyatwork

apparently she’s not paid her rent on purpose so that she can get a council house, a tactic I find very hard to believe

This is quite typical, as is sofa surfing around random friends houses with the pretence of homelessness when they could live easily back with parents. When you have a 50-75% discount on market rent and a discount on property price equivalent to an inheritance it incentivises getting into a council house for reasons other than poverty.

As for the attitudes of a landlord coming to this conclusion definitively and others piling on, that is poor form as many have genuinely had financial difficulties, particularly over the last few years, leading to rent arrears.

@Robinni to be honest I don’t care whether it’s a used tactic or not, it was the despicable away they were quite literally excited at the prospect of two children being placed into council foster care at a cost of £28,000 per child per year and those are based on 2013 figures so Lord knows what it is now. To teach her a lesson.

For What ? wanting secure accommodation ? for wanting affordable accommodation ? and actually it’s nowhere near 50% discount by the way. More like a 10% and according to our local Facebook page the repairs are not done promptly.

It was just quite disconcerting how many people were banging like the mob to punish somebody to being poor.

@Robinni

If people don't agree with RTB (I dont) they really shouldn't vote tory.

Max out pension.
Savings ready to pay off mortgage if rates rise.
Travel.