100k+ salary, is it worth it?

[Goingtogetslated]

For the record…Not trying to be insensitive…

partner and I both earn approx 150k each. Working long and unpredictable hours with high levels of stress and responsibility.

Yet here we are living in a 3 bed terrace in the east end of london, a basic car, neither of us into high end expenses/dining out/clothes. We used to holiday a lot pre children, I guess would classify as our major expenditure in the past.

But is it actually worth it? A decent 4/5 bed house (with kerb appeal I admit) in the commuter belt seems to be coming in at 1.5 million minimum. Add the commuting costs/ extended nursery hours, paid help required theres barely anything left - relatively speaking.

Would we not be better off sacking it all in, moving to the countryside and earning enough to pay the bills?

We appear to be stuck in this middle ground where we earn too much to have any allowances from the state, contribute a lot to the government yet not enough for any real benefits in lifestyle

It certainly doesn't sound worth it to me.

Only you can know if it is worth it to you.

The problem with London is that it's a place with too much money. That's capitalism for you.
And because there is too much money lots of people are paid overinflated salaries. And those overinflated salaries lead to overinflated house prices.
The big salaries also lead to some employers having overinflated expectations of people re hours, stress etc.

And so the employees need to pay other people to do stuff like look after their homes, kids, etc as they don't have the time / energy to do it all.

There is life outside of London. And there are interesting, stimulating and well paid jobs outside London too. And lots of lovely houses and towns where there is a great quality of life.

If you have a job where you can earn 150K you presumably have lots of transferable skills so it shouldn't be difficult to find a good job in another part of the country.

Or you stay in London with it's overinflated salaries and therefore also house prices. Or you commute from further out.

It's not rocket science.

If this a genuine thread, I wish you good luck. You sound dissatisfied with your lot so change it. You can't change London house prices though so you're going to have to be proactive and change something else. Either your circumstances or your attitude.

It all depends where you live really.
I moved out of the South East where my £50k salary left me virtually on the bread line (I live alone, house owner) to the west country where it goes so much further.
I downsized to a much cheaper but much bigger house, I'm on the same salary here and feel really well off.
I'd never go back to the south east, it's an endless expensive slog.

It really depends on the firm and also your level of superiority I think. Eg as a trainee at a 'silver circle' law firm they had (regularly used) sleeping pods downstairs so that juniors could grab 30 mins of power nap before continuing the all nighter (and all nighters are frequent). Plus there's the expectation that you're available always (eg my colleague taking a two hour conference call on holiday).

But I think it drastically improves for most people as they get more senior. Now, I work literally 9-5 and would not be expected to work evenings or weekends other than in exceptional circumstances.

In general I agree though - currently in hospital and the hours the nurses put in are brutal! I also think there's an element of some City workers trying to justify (to themselves and others) salaries that they know deep down they don't really deserve in comparison to other job roles. I know I'm not REALLY worth what I'm paid and am happy to admit that (give a lot to charity to alleviate the guilt though!)

I live in east London, you can purchase a nice four bed house with kerb appeal in Wanstead for 1.1 - 1.3 million. This would keep commuting costs down. You must have equity in your three bed house, so I'm struggling to understand why you are finding it difficult to live on 300,000 per annum. Do you have independent school fees or unmanageable credit card debt.

I also work in banking and hours are very long with tough targets. Especially as a contractor - those are generally inside IR35 now and through an umbrella, so normal PAYE taxes plus employer taxes, SSP etc.

You currently earn enough to pay the bills.

Sacking it all off will leave you in the same position.

The real point people are missing is why are PAYE earners on not massive amounts being taxed so heavily when loopholes exist to allow people earning massively more to avoid paying tax?

Taxes are too high for higher earners on PAYE. There’s a dwindling number of net contributors who are being shaken down.

It really depends on the firm and also your level of superiority I think. Eg as a trainee at a 'silver circle' law firm they had (regularly used) sleeping pods downstairs so that juniors could grab 30 mins of power nap before continuing the all nighte

This was my experience too. All-nighters or else working into the small hours pretty regularly, working at weekends etc. I’m now in a different role and DH is a partner- still long hours but much, much more visibility of the work flow which makes things far easier. And working very late is more bearable from home. Holidays are always full of work though.

I think OP’s brother is the exception if he’s never done much more than 45h a week.

Well surely it depends on the job?

UBS technology graduate scheme starting salary 80K. Investment bankers 10K more, excluding bonuses. This was a few years pre-pandemic.
But if you're in Operations, or some other 'normal' job like marketing, HR or whatever you're not going to break 100K+ without the sort of seniority that requires long hours.

Furthermore if you have already built a reputation, or are in a niche role you can coast. However if you're just getting started... need to network to find the next opportunity... or 'eat what you kill' yes, you put in long hours.

In the bank I used to work there was no 'requirement' to work long hours for, say technology MD's however there were regular redundancies (like with all banks) and it solely depended on the projects you spearheaded. If you were lucky enough to get a couple of solid ones for the year you could sit and coast, otherwise it took a lot of hobnobbing to find something.

Investment banking MD's... forget it.

Absolutely this!

we actually have a lower household income - husband earns £260K and I work part time in sen school earning a pittance and caring for disabled child of my own. We have a house of over a million and a very decent lifestyle. Something doesn’t add up with the OP.

Just a few in Sevenoaks with 'good kerb appeal', ranging from £600k-£1.1m, a perfectly reasonable commute:

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/133729928?utm_campaign=property-details&utm_content=buying&utm_medium=sharing&utm_source=copytoclipboard#/&channel=RES_BUY

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/129000803?utm_campaign=property-details&utm_content=buying&utm_medium=sharing&utm_source=copytoclipboard#/&channel=RES_BUY

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/131591222?utm_campaign=property-details&utm_content=buying&utm_medium=sharing&utm_source=copytoclipboard#/&channel=RES_BUY

You aren’t going to survive in the real world.

I get that you're not feeling as rich as you feel you should be on your salary, but I can't quite get why it is a surprise and why you need advice on what to do from people who don't actually know what your job is. If you can do it from outside of London, then obviously move but I suspect that you are only a high earner because you live in London.

I also don't understand what you are expecting from this forum. Given that the great majority of people will earn less than you are surely you're not surprised at the reaction and what difference does it make that the posters are predominantly female?

Well the key is 'not on the trading floor'. People think 'City' = law and finance but there are many others, e.g. tech roles where it's possible yes.
Especially if you have a niche skillset.
Technology roles like mine are an example. I used to work for an investment bank. At higher levels I can very well imagine my salary being like that, given a starting of 80K.

To me this highlights the problem: income is texted much more highly that wealth - eg the money earned passively from having wealth (dividends on stocks, capital gains, property etc) is texted a lot less than money earned as salary (by your sweat, physical or mental).

Those with high incomes who are too young to have bought property before the late 90s London price book started but without wealth are trapped into a cycle where if you look at their income, they appear to be in the top 1pc of earners in terms of salary but their lifestyle and total wealth doesn't match that.

The truly rich don't earn salaries.

My suggestion: much higher taxes on passive wealth (eg capital gains and divideds taxed at same rate as income, land tax based on hectares owned, property value tax instead of council tax and inheritance tax. Plus a crack down on dubious trusts and other mechanisms to avoid tax by the very rich).

And then lower taxes on income.

How do you think people on benefits manage to live on less than 10k a year? You could always swap.

It matters that they're female since you'll notice a tendency to bragging about 'DH / DP earns X' but shitting on women who earn similar.

Yes, it's worth it, I love my life!

As I said, you can buy a house that size in London for 1.5 without the commute.

I have mostly just read all the OPs comments, but one of things that jump out is the insistence that she will get a marvellous house for peanuts elsewhere
here is a five bed in a “nice” part of Leeds
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/132704966#/?channel=RES_BUY

here is one in a “nice” part of Newcastle https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/129040967#/?channel=RES_BUY

big fancy houses are expensive nearly everywhere, and the OP says there are very few places she can do her job.

So the options are stay, crack on, keep your career, and know that you will end up with a load of equity in your property for later life, or move somewhere where houses really still are much cheaper ( tends to be spots well away from major cities/ transport links, eg Lincolnshire is still good value)
even if you can find that mythical 5 bed for £750000 then assuming the mortgage is half what the OP quoted for her £1.5 mill property you are still going to need a good income to service that, from what sort of job?

Well yes exactly!
Also why if you choose a profession where you can go contracting, you get to circumvent it.
I know more contractors have been brought under IR35 but the nature of the job for a profession like mine suits contract work - we do a big tech project then leave. So still outside IR35.
There are downsides, mainly you have to keep looking for work, etc but it's not different from a sales job or any other salaried client facing profession where you'll be made redundant if you don't deliver anyway. Or where your team could be made redundant due to offshoring or budget cuts.
There are also all the tax breaks you can charge all sorts of things as a business expense.

Yes, and the OP says she can't afford or doesn't want to pay £1.5m, so I, and plenty of other posters are showing her that you can easily buy a house she desires under £1m outside of London with a reasonable commute?

There isn't one type of 'city job' or one type of city employer. Some jobs/employers offer a reasonable work/life balance and some expect your soul on a plate. Just because your husband's cousin's cat has experienced the former doesn't mean the latter doesn't exist and vice versa.

@Goingtogetslated what is the career progression like for you/DH? You are both on good salaries but it seems to me that it is costing you both an enormous amount to be able to earn them.

If you have climbed as high as you are likely to be able to go then you both have some serious thinking to do.

How much of that life cost is actually paying towards the future and how much is just paying for now?

OP, I'm sorry you don't feel supported by other women but do you realise what your post is saying? You have a household income of circa £15k per month, unless of course you are sinking massive amounts into pensions?? You then say you can't have your dream home close to your place of work. There are plenty of commuter towns where you can get a lovely family home for under a million. I think the type of house you are looking at is pretty out of reach for most of us. Yes, you have a great income, however, you are in one of the most expensive parts of the UK, have childcare costs (which will get better at some stage) and are presumably saving a lot to a pension if your monthly take home is only £10k. I totally get that money is eaten up fast with high mortgages, commuting and childcare but you do have the opportunity to buy somewhere cheaper, still have a lovely home and keep your job with not too stressful a commute.

Have you thought about Oxfordshire? 45 minute commute to central London from Didcot. Here is a family home for around £800k, walking distance to the station. Might not be your cup of tea but it gives you an idea. I hope you get something that makes you and your family happy. Good luck.

5 bedroom detached house for sale in Manor Road, Didcot, OX11 (rightmove.co.uk)