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.

haven’t read the full thread due to massive de-rail so sorry if this has already been said.

someone said aesthetics but you said market is saturated. While that is probably true, you can make money by being better than everyone else. Market well and present a certain image of yourself/your company and you’ll be the one people to come to for treatment over your competitors. Aim to build up the company so you employ people and have clinics in a few areas.

Most very wealthy people either started their own business or took a decent paying expert role, in finance, tech, law, medicine and invested in property, stocks or other peoples businesses.

I would second tech. It’s faster than law, less corporate, more informal and starting salaries for developers are crazy.

Tightening of regulations as @WhatsThisYouSpeakOf said

I haven't read full thread, but a stint in the Middle East as a nurse with accommodation paid for and tax-free salary has set many a nurse up with significant savings, which often mean financial freedom when they return home. Just mentioning as you said you were open to anything. I know if teachers who have done this for several years in order to purchase a house with cash on their return.

Oh and @pippinsleftleg about quality too

Medical sales? The money can be very good and there are graduate schemes out there for allied health professionals.

Be super strategic. Choose the highest earning career which, if a choice between midwifery and law, is clearly law. Study in the most cost effective way - there's a professional uni in London I remember that offers law degrees at a good price (CCE or something). Lowest debt plus highest earning potential equals highest chance to become wealthy.

Law might really interest you when you start - and choose the most lucrative sub field of law. You're choosing wealth over passion perhaps but if being wealthy is the goal, this is the way to do it.

@Badlad That's great advice

My DSis and I both have reasonable incomes. Not huge, but comfortable. I've always been careful with money, not over stretched myself and can afford a reliable car, some holidays and I'm currently grateful that my mortgage is fairly low. My DSis enjoyed opted for flash cars, big holidays etc, but is now worried that her mortgage payment are about to increase significantly

This! The old saying of watching your pennies and the pounds looking after themselves is very true! There can be more to it if you really want to push for an extravagant lifestyle, but happiness does not often that way lie

@CheekyHobson
Very good advice.

@raincabin
The key to making more money than most people do, is to to first understand what makes you tick, what makes you happy, what personal or professional boundaries you are not prepared to cross.

You are young, mistakes will occur, not making the same one twice will make success more likely.

Good luck.

I am the daughter of a trademan. Got degree from top uni but history so non specific subject.

jumped around jobs for a few years working out what I wanted, hospitality etc, pay was always shit and realised I wanted something that had earning potential.

Googled what the biggest and best paying employer was in the local area- found that an investment bank had a large out of London campus 45 mins away. Got entry level job (literally just data entry) but still more pay + less hours than my hospitality roles and have worked my way up through the ranks, upskilling as I went.

now a project manager in artificial intelligence and the sky is the limit in terms of upward mobility.

What you might consider boring job, hard eork for years and sacrifice personal time for career advancement. Plus be good atyour job.

I'd agree witth@MojoMoon but suggest law is not too bad either in the regions at least. Not sure about London.

Finance roles in the city, particularly investment and banking require a lot of cultural capital (aka Middle class, privately educated, from wealthy background) and you'd need to focus from the start not go in via midwifery. I am sorry to say I think you've burnt your bridges there but someone in those fields could advise better.

None of these are quick or easy path to riches. In my field it takes years to be in the high earning bracket but was on a good wage once I qualified.

The wealthiest people seem to have their own businesses. Pharma rep suggested earlier is a good idea. Could lead on to pharma wholesale business.

This is what happens when I don't read the whole thread and just answer the original post.

Lightsoutlondon has good common sense advice OP. Leaving midwifery now for a high paying degree is going to be incredibly tough if you have a small child. Those degrees require not only money but hours of commitment to the detriment of anything and anyone else. Who is going to be looking after your child when you are attending classes, lectures, and more than 20 hours study per week on average? Even if you have the support, do you want to become an absentee mother to your child? Only you can answer that.

Don't waste the year you've already completed. Finish the degree, get a job, and start building security, once you are working and earning you can explore some different avenues within healthcare to earn a more comfortable salary.

Again, excellent advice. Once you have a job and start earning, they'll be options within the health system to further your career and earn more. Also your child will be older giving you more freedom to dedicate to your career.

You have said that you like midwifery in itself.
You are put off by the working conditions. You are academically inclined.

Being in 2nd year of a degree, giving up now will not look good on a cv or sound good in an interview.
My 'advice' would be; qualify with the highest grade you can. Work to impress and get promotion through skill, understanding and professionalism.
Prove you can be very successful in 2 years of practice. That will make you credible.
Then go: private route or research or writing or lecturing. Professor raincabin? How does that sound.

OP I mean this kindly, but you have already made some choices that decrease your likelihood of getting what you want. Having a child young is one

And I just need to jump on this. Don't let anyone put you in a box or write you off OP, I had a child by 22 too. I had to go back to university, I did it while commuting on the train to my entry level job, I had no family around and my husband worked away a lot for work. Tripled my salary in 5 years and had another child. The great thing about being young, I found, is that I wasn't yet defeated, i didn't know adulthood any differently, a child was what I was used to and I don't think I struggled with it in the way people who have had careers and then add a child do. I had a vision of what I wanted for my life and I went out and got it. The one thing in my favour was I did choose a career that was quite 9-5 which made childcare easier (not cheaper mind) if you've been juggling a midwifery degree with motherhood I see no reason why you wouldn't be able to juggle a different career/set of qualifications.

I earned my money by doing a mind-numbing job for 20 years. If you're going to discount "dull" then you have massively fewer options for well paid jobs.

With your medical background, I also suggest pharma. Eg, a CRO for medical trials.

Or night nanny a few nights a week (if you've someone to mind your child). That pays a lot.

Or as PP suggested, the Middle East for a few years.

If I could retrain I would be a teacher or a midwife : it's not all about the money OP. I found a career by utter chance and it's even more luck that I am good at it. Good academics, perfect command of my mother tongue. You have been forewarned to really consider well the bracket that you are aiming for, it seems that you do not have a good understanding of the outgoings, only just what comes in. At 22, you can fully retrain. Try to see someone in real life that will be able to give you an assessment taking into account your personal strength and weaknesses. Not English. So I will not bother you more with my terrible syntax...
I would finish this first degree and use it as a ladder to the next step. Be prepared to study more and perhaps to move.
I am appalled at the stats about the midwives, something needs to be done about it.

You could consider politics. Clearly you are able to handle people, and your background would play well as a candidate. Start by volunteering with the party of your choice but make your ambition clear. Ambition, resilience and an ability to robustly withstand criticism (as you have done on this thread) are the main factors in success.

Or another alternative, as @TTCBBY3 has suggested, property development.

I don't know if this has been suggested, but you could use your midwifery degree to establish a private practice, add on doula-ing/other related baby qualifications (sleep coaching, tongue tie consulting etc) and build that into a high profit business, I'd imagine your biggest expense would be public liability insurance. Plenty of people willing to pay for these things privately with the NHS being what it is at the moment.
Alternatively media ad sales/account management roles pay well if you're good at it - generally a shocking base salary but excellent comission, and no particular experience required.

Depending how many kids you have, 100k wouldn't get them in private school. I have 3 kids, it's about 18k each per year. 100k is about 65k post tax so...

Aim higher, don't fall into the trap of wanting more!
It's hard to find fulfillment if you're constantly spaffing cash on the act if appearing to have made it, then wanting thr next thing and the next.

My success criteria for life are more about the now than somewhat comical 'this time Rodney, we'll be millionaires'. Why waste time? Just get on with life, people etc.

100% agree with @Lightsoutlondon

It's also notable op that most wealthy people both love what they do with a passion and are very driven even if sometimes what they do fulfils a means to an end for them. For example DH chose law as his vehicle to get into politics and it then became a vocation.

However I would say that the route he took involved first degree (Oxbridge), bar exams, pupillage, a very specialist form of study and then about 6 or 7 years before the fees started rolling in reliably when he was in his early 30s and the big money didn't materialise until his mid/late 30s. It was also gruelling- he saw very little of the DC when they were under 10.

Pre children I worked in the City for American Investment banks (40 years ago now). I fell onto the syndicate desk by sheer luck and chance. No degree. But in those days you could do it if you were sharp, hard working, numerate and organised and dare I say a bit steely. I got the job through a connection which was possible then. I kept the job and built a career because I liked the environment and had a cool head and got on with it without complaint. 7.30 to 7.30 in my 20s.

If I were you I'd carry on with midwifery and set my sights on Band 8 and then into very senior management. The ceo of my local Trust awarded as a nurse.