To ask how I can become "rich"?

[raincabin]

I know this sounds ridiculous.

I would like to be a high earner, I grew up working class and my knowledge in this area is lacking. I have tried to do my own research but found it difficult, with a lot of opposing answers and many sites/people just trying to sell!

I am doing a midwifery degree, I have always been academic and considered law but I knew I would find it boring.

What can I/should I do so that I can become a high earner?

I dream of nice cars, holidays and not having to worry about stretching until the end of the month. I'd also love to be able to send DC to private school.

I am open to anything.

Own business won't make you rich for a long time, if ever.

Nor will midwifery, as you probably realise.

And, for most non top KCs, nor does law- just look at the barrister strikes lately and why.

Sometimes, people have nice things purely by working hard and prioritising. Often it's family money. Sometimes it's just a thin veneer.

Why the numbers you mentioned? What would that allow? Do you then know how much more tax you'll pay? What is your plan for savings, pensions, the future....?

Accounting/Finance in a multinational is a good goal. You don't have to go the Big 4 route, you can do the exams yourself, get a bookkeeper/clerk role and work your way up, but that is longer. A lot of it is not so much maths as analysis, problem solving with data etc. But it will be hard to skip the queue, I.e. it'll take several years of study and starting at the bottom just to get qualified then you'll need several years post qualified experience and a job in a highly sought after company to get the salary you want.

i wouldn't necessarily consider 80k salary to be 'rich'

Qualify in law then specialise in medical malpractice,

It won't be a high salary at first but the NHS Graduate scheme can lead to good pay. They like recruiting fairly recent graduates on to it who also have life experience and/or frontline NHS or other health care experience.

To get really rich without parental back up you need to be an entrepreneur or professional sportsperson/musician/artist ( e.g. Damien Hirst) who very seriously hits the big time or you need to win the lottery!

Being rich means hard work and very long hours for most
Mate is a stockbroker - last year earned over 1m
Gets up at 5 am usually home after 8 pm

I was also going to point this out. The people I know who are 'rich' work hours that are not particularly conducive to family life. I don't think you've mentioned a partner but I could be wrong there? The 'rich' people I know are couples either who tag team, men with a SAH wife, childfree people or have people who earn enough, (i.e two high earners), who can afford nannies who work long hours.

When qualified, increase your earnings. Overtime. Bank.

Start a sideline.
Buy a house which usually is a way to build capital.
Live frugally. Save and invest in a few years in shares via a ISA tracking indices as you won't have special powers to stock pick.
You may build wealth but you'll face the choice of spending your income doing the things you want to be rich to do.

You haven't looked into it then. I have a friend who is a doula, and training to BF counsel as well. It's very hands on. Another midwife friend is also a freelance photographer round her shifts.

You can earn well within the NHS but it takes time - you need to actively look for opportunities to move outside midwifery itself into areas such as patient safety, governance, innovation, etc. If you're clever and academic and are willing to put up with the politics, there is a ton of potential - it's a huge organisation with loads of layers and a lot of interesting work in developing systems, managing processes etc.

If you'd rather not stay in the NHS and you're looking to start your own business, then try to figure out what you're really interested in. That sounds fairly simple but it's actually quite hard - most people struggle to know what it is that genuinely floats their boat. If you can find what that is, then the next step is to do it and talk about it a lot. Eventually what happens is that people think of you as an authority in a particular area and ask you to take on projects/help with opening doors/developing things. That also takes time and a lot of effort but is totally worth it as you end up doing something you feel very confident in and enjoy.

If it's purely money you're after, retrain in coding or financial services. Be warned though that if you don't enjoy the work it can be soul-destroying and money isn't quite the reward it seems when you're working 80 hours a week at a job you hate.

Hi, I have a maths A level and would also like to get rich. Would you be able to advise me on a good route to take which would fit in around being a single mum? Would need to work from home most of the week.
I'm 33 and messed around travelling and trying to create my own businesses in my twenties, but now I'm serious about something more secure.

I think there are jobs that earn in the 80-100k bracket that are very flexible and can be done from home without working long hours.

@Newmumatlast "Depends on the person and the role/area of law. Magic circle solicitor working in London with long hours I couldn't cope with myself though."

Absolutely fair. I was silver circle but that was bad enough. I am intelligent, not the most intelligent person I know but academic and did very well at school / uni - and naively thought this was enough. It takes a very specific sort of person to survive in that environment, the type of person I'm happy not to be.

Are you tied custody wise to your child's father or with another partner ?
If not consider midwifery abroad.
Child can go to private international school at employers expense.

I did it for 7 years made senior associate in magic circle but didn’t go back after Mat leave. Hours were brutal would never have seen my baby! But I was in the worst department for long hours as was international work. Great money but my god you earn it. Young woman’s game! .Hats off to those that stay the course.

Tech sales, business to business. As long as you can communicate well then you'd be fine. All you need do is persuade someone to give you a chance. A basic salary would start at around 50-100k and you would earn commission, double that is pretty normal.

Somewhere like Sidra hospital in Qatar hires UK clincial midwives and has tax free packages including schooling and housing.

My husband works in NHS England, his direct colleague is a midwife/was a midwife, they’re on £100k. They are in strategy now, not much clinical work for either of them.

if you love midwifery/nursing you can progress through the ranks and earn well.

but like with the vast majority of high earners, it takes a while to earn the big bucks. My DH is 35 and his colleague is late 40s.

The highest earners I know are in oil and gas/energy, but then, I am a geologist by training and don't know any bankers. Also a couple of barristers.

I know-ish a woman who trained as a mw, but now works as a doula for considerably more £/hour, but I imagine you'd be very limited to how many clients you could have at once, and need massive flexibility.

@Lily073 "I think there are jobs that earn in the 80-100k bracket that are very flexible and can be done from home without working long hours."
Are they?
I would LOVE to know what these are.

Getoff i watch some of Gary's clips too. Interesting background and experiences. I do think his gripes with inequality cloud his predictions though, but his clips are very interesting. There are some good books out there and some good YouTubers who can explain economics to those who are time poor, you just have to be aware that people make money from fear too.

I wish my parents taught me about economics and money when I was young. I believed the 'work hard and you will be rewarded' crap and it has really set me back in life. I am planning to teach my son about money (and learn along the way) so he has an honest view of the world, and not a rose tinted one that won't serve him well.

@fleurdelee Communications is one. In house positions pay in that bracket and in my field we pay the freelancers we use £80-200/h.

Sales for software companies

Law is not as high paid as many think

Realistically - it would be very, very hard to become rich while working mostly or entirely from home when you currently have zero training or experience.

There are tech workers who work fully remotely and get paid loads of money. But they almost certainly didn't start like that. Most of them will have studied away from home and worked in offices most of the time early on in their career

So it's not impossible but it is much harder - may as well be realistic. If your child is small now then presumably in a few years it might be easier to be working outside the home more.

If you are interested in tech, I'd recommend doing some free online courses like Intro to Python and Computer Sciences on sites like Edx or Coursera. Don't neglect Microsoft either - to be honest, top level Excel skills (VBA, PowerQuery) are still in very high demand.
This course starts today! (You can start a week late and catch up)
gb.coursera.org/specializations/introduction-computer-science-programming

You need to pay a fee to complete the final exam and get a certificate (which you'll need to progress) but you can watch all the material for free so a good way to start seeing if the topic is for you. Financial aid is available in some cases.

If you enjoy it - and have the discipline to actually stick it out and practice, as it requires a lot of practice - then you could start following the suggested course routes there once you have identified particular elements you enjoy and build up a portfolio of your coding work on GitHub to show potential employers. You'll need to then approach potential employers directly to find work since you are going to struggle to get through a an HR scan of CVs.

You could also join some Women in Tech groups which are quite supportive and someone there may be willing to give you some work experience or a trial once you've got a decent skill set to show them. We have some tech people with unusual backgrounds - if you can code well, no one will care but you need to show you can do it. It's very self driven learning and practice.

And how regular is the work for these freelancers that they’re guaranteed 80-100k for flexible short hour work that they do from home? How many hours do you offer them, how reliable is it?

Realistically, if there was a multitude of easy, flexible, work at home jobs that paid extremely well, everyone would be just doing them.

Realistically, if there was a multitude of easy, flexible, work at home jobs that paid extremely well, everyone would be just doing them.

I think there are more out there than people realise, for some people it's not visible, or just doesn't seem attainable. Job adverts don't always make it clear. My sector is very much about risk and taking decisions, being responsible, it doesn't require working every hour under the Sun (not all the time at least) has a lot of flexibility but does require confidence and for some people can be stressful if they're a worrier. It's a different type of skill set but as I work in this sector I know a lot of people and sub sectors that can earn very highly without it demolishing home like.