To be fed up with all the threads about high earners feeling poor

[trekking1]

It's always the same condescending "I've worked so hard and only have a 3 bedroom house in a great location and an expensive car", as if 1. that's not a lot 2. people who make 5 times less do not work as hard!

And the suprised pikachu face that having a degree did not magically get them a 500k job. That is not how capitalism works folks

Some people are tone deaf, but almost everyone is seeing a real change in how far their money goes. When you have previously had a good balance with your incoming and outgoing funds, it's noticible. And if you've made financial commitments, worrying.

I can remember a number of years ago being in a situation where I thought I might no longer be able to afford my mortgage, even though my income hadn't changed. Selling the house also seemed unlikely for the same reasons my income wasn't going as far - everyone else was in the same boat. It was scary, the uncertainty in particular.

That's a universal feeling in those kinds of circumstances, it's not only low earners that are allowed to feel that way.

They are allowed to complain but we are also allowed to call out their out of touch-ness and bad decisions that landed them in their situation!

Agreed

The reality is many if not most spend according to their income. The more you earn, the bigger commitments you make on that income. I'm certainly not feeling sorry for people who are skint on £200k but I do understand why they feel that way.

I'm the opposite, saving around 70% of our income now as nearing retirement, mortgage paid off.

I've been that person on £12k (equivalent to £20k or so now) with 3 mouths to feed

Ithink doctors are essential and require years of training so need to be paid better to reflect that.
Doesn’t really explain why stupid non essential jobs also pay huge amounts.

I think Covid was the perfect time to see what jobs the country actually needs and what jobs are optional extras.

Well perhaps low earners would be better off if they hadn't made such bad decisions? Who gets to decide who is out of touch? What is a high earner anyway?

Sure, but then others can call you out for being so egotistical to think that users on a huge and diverse forum are somehow morally obliged to tailor their threads to your liking.

You’re reading, and engaging with, threads that wind you up, yet for some reason you think that’s everyone else’s problem. Instead of expecting others to shut up to spare your delicate feelings, try not clicking on threads you don’t like.

The hate for high earners is crazy on MN. It's as if you aren't allowed to have a moan/vent once you get above a certain salary. I'm not a high earner. I'd say I was squeezed middle. Had more spare money on tax credits than I do now lol. I worked my arse off then, as I do now but honestly thought earning more to get off benefits was the right thing to do.
I just think everyone, even high earners, are feeling the increased costs of everything. We need high earners as the tax paid is significant. They are allowed to have a moan too; if it's annoying you don't have to read the threads I guess.

Bad decisions? Like what? I live on south coast, near my folks. It’s very expensive and my house is very standard but cost a lot. Most people want to be near family. Also I don’t understand the excessive spending comments. Most high earners (bear in mind that bar is set to £50k plus which is stupid) don’t use private schooling, have multiple foreign holidays or SUVs. I certainly don’t. This is a minority. Most people everywhere are in survival, no luxury mode whether you believe it or not.

So I guess high earners are allowed call out people who didn't make the same choices and now don't earn as much??
Madness.

You realise people pay tax on income, right?

The £100k earner gets £65k after tax. So after paying for 2 children they would have £25k. Less if they have a student loan.

So no, most people on £100k couldn’t afford 2 kids in private education.

Yep exactly this. They moan they’re struggling and say they can’t understand where they have gone wrong in life and ask for financial advice, then when people advise them to live in a less posh area, drive a cheaper car, move out of London etc then they moan that “it’s not fair”, they deserve that lifestyle, their kids deserve to be in the catchment area for the best state schools, they deserve to live in a short commute of London, they refuse to see that their life choices have led to their financial situation. Why do they bother asking for advice if they’re not going to listen to it?

I was getting pissed off about this too, but then realised I'm kind of in the same boat. I think the problem is that when you're used to not earning much and generally feel grateful for your lot, and then do something to change your earnings drastically, you then find that earning a lot more doesn't actually make a lot of difference due to tax thresholds and student loans etc.

Obviously earning more is better, but it doesn't make as much difference as you'd expect unless you're suddenly on silly money. So, going from £20k to £30k is a lovely jump, and then up to £40k is even better, but beyond that it can feel like treading water unless (I'm guessing) you hit like £150k. It also doesn't help that earning more usually coincides with taking on the insane expense of childcare... Unless you're born into money and your parents buy you a house, it's a slog to get anywhere near dreams of comfort with a little bit of luxury.

Hard agree on whoever said that things are overall so much better than in, for instance, the 80s, and I think one of the big issues is people watching a lot of TV and gobbling up marketing and living in fantasyland about what they "deserve". People really don't realise how poor they are, how far beyond their means they're living, and how much they'd have to sacrifice if they wanted to reach any long-term goals.

How often did you eat out as a kid? What did your parents consider luxuries? Just compare your life with that of your parents and for most people it reveals a lot.

It's obviously a bit galling to hear people complaining about circumstances that are better than your own, but it's all about individual expectations. And I don't think anyone who does it is indirectly suggesting that those who earn less aren't working as hard. Very, very obviously, wages have only a little to do with effort, and are mostly about your sector.

People’s problems are important to them and they can complain about them on mn if they like. You might think that yours are worse but equally someone could come along and minimize your suffering.

leave people alone- if you don’t empathize with them, just don’t read the thread

Childcare isn’t really a choice and it’s high earners struggling with those costs that I see on here getting a load of shitty posts mainly.

I agree that things can be hard for lower earners obviously, I sympathise and feel they should get more help. I can still sympathise with a higher earner paying high childcare costs and having next to nothing left or those on the other end of parenthood trying to help their kids through university for example. It’s possible to sympathise with more than just lower earners.

I don't know. £100k salary I used to think was huge. Its £5.6k monthly take home. If you live in London with two nursery age kids, you can easily spend £4k a month on childcare costs alone. That's £1.6k left for absolutely everything else, which won't go far in that area. So I can see people who have a generally high salary can still feel like they're struggling, depending on lots of other factors like children and where they live and if their partner has left them etc

Are we also allowed to criticize people’s bad decisions if they are low earners or don’t earn at all?

😂 have you ever done a pay take home calculator?!
I mean I'm not on 100k but know that this isn't what goes into their pocket after high tax, NI and pension. Your talking nearly 25k in tax, 5.5k in NI then whatever pension rate is.

I agree it’s so insensitive. If you know you’re in the top 1-4% of earners and are feeling hit hard, you must know that the absolute majority of the country are seriously struggling.

I appreciate where you are coming from OP.

But in parts of the country people are paying £40-50k a year after tax just to fund childcare for two kids in the local nursery.

As a result, they feel skint.

They should be able to complain about that, it is ridiculous.

That sums it up perfectly. High earners struggling with finances often don’t understand the difference between needs and wants. Having somewhere to live is a need. Having a specific size house in a leafy posh town is a want.

So people just shouldn’t be social workers or nurses or cleaners should they? Those jobs shouldn’t exist?

I am from a high income family and the fact things are costing so much makes me feel so lucky and so sad for the majority of the population. No way am I complaining about my three bed house even if it’s a third the size of my parents!

Yes, I think there has been a significant change in expectations.My grandfathers were both military and had what were considered good jobs. They grew up without many of the things we'd expect in a middle class job now. They ate out rarely. Box food was not a thing. Fast food was not something they could have. Holidays were local, my father never went out of the coutry until he was well into adulthood. My mother did a few times, but to stay with an aunt, not a family vacation. They did not have much in the way of extra activities - my father did some sports through school. my mother music lessons from her grandmother. They both had to work at jobs as teens for pocket money. Their families had one can, and did own their own homes but not until their children were close to the teen years.

It's just far and away from the expectations we have now, especially around travel and cheap consumer goods.