What do you consider a ‘high’ earner?

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In my head, a ‘high earner’ is someone who never really has to think about money. So, perhaps £200K and up. However, I’ve recently seen threads where people on circa £50K are described as ‘high earners’. As a Londoner, that seems like madness to me, but these things are obviously very dependent on where you are.

So, I’m curious. Where do you live and what would you consider a high salary?

I can’t remember the source of this data, but I believe that 10% of earners will spend at least one year in the top 1%.

It certainty seems plausible, given the way earnings rise (and then sometimes fall) over the course of a career.

Struggling a little bit with this tbh - you can easily be earning much, much less that the top 1-2% (London included) and live a fantastic lifestyle where you don't really have to think about money.

so where I love people are so privileged it’s such a bubble that they’re totally blind to their privilege. I’m from a very working class family. Dad worked in foundaries/mills and then became a bus driver. When I go back to my home city I feel rich! When I’m here in my affluent semi rural village I’m not very well off.

*live

Privileged how, though? If you mean they are on high wages now that’s not really what privilege means. People from normal backgrounds can end up earning very high wages.

In order to have what I’d consider a fantastic lifestyle (beautiful house, nice area in London, fab holidays, nice schools), and not think about money you’d need to be on a minimum of £200K. That places you in the top couple of percent, I believe.

There’s nothing to struggle with, tbh. It’s my opinion, but I’m not thrusting it on anyone as objective fact. You can obviously have different criteria for a fantastic lifestyle to mine.

A couple earning £50 k each are in the top 20% of earners in terms of income. I looked this up recently as that’s our family income. We’re in London but bought in the early 90s and had kids when full time childminder costs in London were £65 per week. That’s the real difference.

£200k is not going to get anywhere near those sort of things.

A very nice house in a good part of London alone is well over £1m.

From about £850K, upwards, if you include the prettier suburbs where people I know move to raise kids. And in order to get a mortgage for said £850k - 1M house, you’d need a salary of at least £200K. Which is why it’s my entry level ‘high earning’ salary.

50k and over is high I reckon. Most of my friends earn under this. I'm mid 30s, friends are mostly teachers or work in third sector.

@StillGoingStrongToday privileged because they don’t have money worries, they go on 3-4 holidays a year then separate kid free breaks, most send their kids to private school sometimes 4 kids , they shop where they want/buy what they want! A summer holiday to Sani spending £10-15k is nothing to them. The average price of a semi (Midlands town) is £600k plus.

privilege because they have private health. They have new/functioning cars. They have cleaners/nannies. They have the ability to wfh when they want etc etc

all this is privilege

@StillGoingStrongToday privilege because they’re 2nd/3rd generation to go to university and be in professional jobs so they’ll send their kids too. And they’ll inherit a wad too!

Privileged because their parents are not immigrants and they’ve been here for generations.

Are you serious? Can you think of anyone more privileged than Rishi Sunak?

I can’t agree at all with that view. If a person has put in decades of planning and effort into their career, and ends up being well paid as a result of it then that’s not privilege, it’s a fair outcome.

If you want to conflate privilege with success then the word has pretty much lost all meaning.

DH comes from an extremely poor working-class background, and left home young to try to make his way in a professional career. It took him decades of doing the right thing, in very difficult circumstances to get where he is now, and calling the result privilege is nonsensical.

You are just being ridiculous now. Why are you implying that anyone on a good wage must be the 2nd or 3rd generation who attended university?

What’s the actual story here? Is it more the case that you’re not doing as well as you’d hoped and need to tell yourself that it’s not in any way caused by your own choices?

Well, personally, I would then say that moves them in to " very high earners".

Remember, the question isn't about being rich, it is about who is a high earner.
I'd say being in the top 15% makes you a high earner myself.

That’s not what they’ve said at all. I think you’re reading this through a prism of crossness and being a bit unfair.

Household income or individually?

Oh wow! I don’t know why don’t you explain what you want me to say? As you seem to have made a few assumptions here.

@StillGoingStrongToday you’re asking me why the people in my town are privileged. I think you’re getting a bit wound up/have your own chip on your shoulder. I’m explaining why people where I live are privileged.

Not worrying about money is so subjective. For example, I've never worried about the cost of a skiing holiday. Never given it a second thought....

... But that's because I've never been on a skiing holiday and don't particularly want to. It's different from worrying about basics if it's a luxury that is just not on your radar.

It's also about personality - some people worry more than others, independently of whether there is reason to worry (and yes of course, many worry because objectively they're on a financial knife edge).

But you aren’t doing it very well.

And no, I’m not the one who looks at anyone doing well and decides that it must be down to privilege, that’s you, and that’s pretty much the dictionary definition of having a chip on your shoulder.

Presumably this wasn’t intended for me?

It all depends on where you live and the cost of living there. I know people in the South who earn £150k+ but haven't got as much disposable income as people up here in the North who earn £40-50k. Where I grew up in West Cumbria £50k would definitely make you a high earner as you can buy a decent 3 bed terraced house for around £100k.