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.

Have an offset mortgage so savings mean we pay no interest, but money available if we need it
Holidays
Pension top ups
Property
Charity
Max in premium bonds
Shares
ISA
Kids' savings
Surprise anonymous gifts

I wouldn't consider myself a high earner, I earn around £66k, as a household we earn around £110k, but London...

Childcare (£1600 a month for a four day week) then general nice life things - gym membership, regular trips away, eating out when we want, and saving £500 min each month.

I guess everyone has problems with children, relationships, no matter their financial circumstances

Just reading through and about to start responding!

Oh and a cleaner

Oh and nails; acupuncture; massages.

DH is a high earner (roughly 300k) and we own a business so fortunately we can put a lot of expenses through the business.

We live a pretty average middle class life with average cars, buy clothes for the DC from supermarkets, big weekly shop at Aldi etc. The luxuries we have are a big modern house, buying high quality food from butchers and farmshops, cleaner and eating out. We haven't had a proper holiday for a while due to covid etc, but we're planning a family holiday to Dubai in the winter. The main luxury is not having to worry about bills and expenses and I know we're so fortunate in this respect, especially right now.

You are of course entitled to post about whatever you like but I like some others find this subject matter singularly distasteful.

If people find this distasteful they could, you know, not open the thread.

Mumsnet is for everyone, not just those struggling

This is so depressing, I'm over 30 and working but still can't afford a house at all. I'm putting off a wedding, having kids, have a peanuts private pension, only buy discounted food at the end of the day etc trying to save. Can't find a job offering more than I'm earning now which is barely over min wage. I'm prepared for all the 'bitter' comments, but genuinely amazed at how the other half lives.

The regional variation in childcare costs absolutely blows my mind.

I'm north east, and a 4 day month with my childminder is circa £650-£700 pm.

So despite our household income being around 30k less than yours per year, we pay less than half for the same childcare up north.

Crazy!

Joint of about 130k. We spend 60% and save 40%.

We’ve got about half a million invested, and a further 250k as equity in the house, so aiming for be mortgage-free by 40 (unless we get our dream overseas move) and semi-retired by 55.

The socialist in me can't help but think if you've got so much money you don't know how to spend it, you've probably got too much.

Still, it's nice to swap tales of trinkets isn't it?

Thanks for the responses.

A few clarifications:

• we don't have children yet. Aiming for a few years time so will start saving soon so I can take a full years maternity and quality of life can remain consistent.
• we live outside of London (just over an hour away on train) but I do work in London. Hybrid working.
• I am just under 2 years qualified in a field where we get a good pay rise annually and also bonuses.
• I earn £85k. DH earns £52k. He is a doctor. I thought he paid 9% as that's what he did when he was a foundation doctor but he has now entered training so it must be higher. I asked him what it is and he doesn't check it. Typical.
• I am 27 and DH is 29 so our earnings will continue to rise. As we both come from very modest backgrounds and are the highest earners in both our families (therefore cannot really get much guidance from them) I thought I would come on here to see how other similar earners spend.
• as it stands, we don't intend to send DC to private school as we live in an area where most schools are outstanding and there are also grammars nearby. Hoping to capitalise on those.

Will add anything else in as and when I remember

I am not a high earner, precisely the opposite, although I do have capital. I post on mumsnet about money because I don’t know anyone IRL who has finances remotely like me, and I’d like advice and support from people with experience.

I don’t want to post to tone deaf things, but I also want to connect with people with similar experiences. I’m widowed and I don’t go on all the husband-venting threads and say ‘be grateful yours is still alive, even if he picks his nose’. I accept that even if it highlights my lack, it’s ok to vent and valid to want support. Somewhere, there is one poor person who is worse off than everyone else, and they aren’t the only person allowed to complain.

We’re all different, we all have problems, we all want support and connection and that looks different for each of us. It’s not possible to dump outwards on a public forum. You can’t control who reads. Unless you’re advocating for communism, there’s always going to be a range of incomes in any ‘room’. I’m pretty careful about discussing my comparative wealth IRL, even though few would swap with me, I still need to talk to someone about it. I dunno where else I could go.

@lancsgirl85 childcare kills me. It's just so bloody much. DP is from the north and I'm so bored of hearing "if we lived in Yorkshire we could afford xyz... if we lived up north childcare would be xyz". I don't care, my life is here!

Depends on your definition of high earner. Several of my friends are 7 figure incomes. I'm nowhere near that and don't class myself as a high earner but I probably have more disposable income than many people.

Let's rephrase the OP.
"DH and I are in the top 2% of income in the country. We have a lot of disposable income left each month. So much so we don't know what to spend it on. Any ideas?"

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Best thing we did is sweep remaining disposable income into the mortgage, then upsized and did the same again.

We don't have great pensions, but we do have a large mortgage free house to downsize from, and live off the equity.

We like our food and wine and holidays, but other than that live pretty simply.

Kids went to state schools.

DH is now retired at 59. I love my job and will carry on till 60. I earn enough to support us both.

Ha ha, you're funny

Saved a lot when we were younger, but now we have "enough" and life's for living, it mostly goes on sporting activities and social life.

At your age, if you’re taking care of mortgage and pension and being sensible in that respect, I’d be having as much fun as possible!

I’m mid forties, mortgage nearly paid off, kids in their teens, pension will be OK if not conducive to luxury living.

I piss a lot of money away on fun. Clothes, outings, holidays. I’m suddenly really aware of how short life is and I’ll be damned if I’m going to be eating baked beans and scrimping in my last ‘young’ years.