To wish i’d known when younger the importance of going into a career with money

[Watermelonlollies]

I don’t remember my parents stressing this to me.

I’m a teacher and used to have an okay lifestyle, got by happily and could have holidays and a few treats here and there.
Life isn’t like that now, as i’m sure it isn’t for many.

I’m not materialistic in any way, but as I’ve got older it’s really dawned on me the importance having money makes and I wish i’d gone down a different path

Does anyone feel the same and do/will any of you be expressing this to your kids?

Respectfully, this isn’t on your parents. Surely you recognised as you were thinking about what to do for a living the need to be self-supporting and to have enough money? My parents desperately tried to get me to leave school at 15 and were opposed to me applying for university, but I’m ultimately responsible for my own choices. (I didn’t choose money, either, I chose interestingness — but that’s on me!)

I opened this thread knowing you'd be a teacher.

What else would you have done? And would you have listened to your parents?

I'm leaving the profession entirely this year (staying until Christmas) but my motivation isn't and never has been money. I don't think I could do something where it was the main draw.

If you're not happy, leave and retrain.

the lifestyles a career used to be able to afford are now unobtainable for a lot of people, due to housing/cost of living and salaries not keeping pace.

I've never been in a career with money. Apart from a couple of desperately awful career moves (one of which I should have got out of much earlier) I've been largely happy in the jobs I've had. It wasn't your parents ' responsibility to research how you could have benefited from a money focused career approach, and you've surely had opportunities to change career at some point.

I think things have changed a bit over time though.

Graduate public sector professions like teaching, allied health professionals, social work etc used to be a good solid option and you'd even have one parent working in those jobs supporting a whole family on a single income.

Life has got a lot more expensive and salaries haven't caught up.

I never even used to think about money, but I suppose getting a bit older, having kids and just realising how much easier and enjoyable being comfortable makes life has me thinking.
What are you going to do instead?

DH is an investment banker. He works 60+ hour weeks, regularly dining w clients, working until 10pm. He earns 300k pa. Don't underestimate how stressful it is.

Saying that, he never has a chance to spend it. I'm often the one treating myself. 😆

Yes I wish I’d realised this too; people who I went to university with who are in the private industry are doing much better than me working for a local authority

I have taught my children that they need to find a career that they enjoy doing as they will be spending a huge chunk of their life being there. I've been stuck in jobs that paid well but made me anxious or stressed, where I dreaded going in and it wasn't worth it. I have a job that I enjoy, challenges me without being overly stressful and does pay a decent wage. To me that's worth more then thousands of pounds.

I have also shown my children that if you are unhappy in a job you can change it, they saw me retrain and get the career I wanted.

I did go down a career path with a high salary; it was a shock after graduation how stressful and long the hours were. For my sanity I had to lower my expectations with money, and change jobs. Still have a job related to my qualifications but it doesn't have the fee targets, stress or long hours. I earn a similar salary to a teacher. No regrets.

I think the best jobs are about achieving balance rather than big money.

The people I know who are earning very high salaries are almost always sacrificing aspects of their personal/family life. For example, my siblings is a high level executive for a fairly well-known company and earns really good money. They've worked their way up from an entry-level position, they're good at what they do, and they've earned every bit of professional success. However, it comes at a cost. They work very long hours, often put for upwards of 12 hours a day. It's stressful as they're in charge of various chains of operation and livelihoods depend on them getting it right. They have to travel as part of their job so are away from home several times a year for up to a month at a time. They have to go to regular functions, dinners, awards nights, etc. which cuts into evenings and weekends. Their partner has had to scale back their career to be able to support it and to provide their DC with consistency.

Teaching used to be a very well paid profession. My sister graduated in the 90s/early 00s and she got a government grant to do the teaching course, all paid for with no debt. She then pursued every promotion she could for extra money (I'm not exactly sure of her role but she ended up head of department or a senior leader I think?)

Her pension is excellent compared to mine. I think you are being unreasonable to say teaching isn't well paid. Are teachers paid enough for what they do? Absolutely not, but then most of us aren't in nearly all sectors. But teaching is much more financially beneficial than shop work, cleaning or care work for example. Sure you're not going to buy a yacht but it's hardly minimum wage.

Same. I will be impressing on my kids that you need to think about a whole group of factors - interest/enjoyment, working hours, money.

My parents never stressed this to me as it wasn't their experience; they could survive quite nicely on just one average income. Life is SO different these days and yes I am encouraging my children to earn well so that they can have a more comfortable life.

God yes.
I had no idea what to do when I was younger so my parents were all 'follow your heart' - this didn't get me anywhere so I retrained, and my second, equally arty career then fell apart when I had kids.
I am absolutely going to advise said kids to think realistically about careers. Hopefully they will be able to look after me in my dotage.

The thing is, our ‘lived experience’ is always going to be behind the knowledge required by the next generation …

For example, a person chooses a career and gradually realises that all their friends, who all chose another particular career, are now in a completely different social league, with a lifestyle they could never dream of.

So the person encourages their children into the lucrative career they wish they’d followed. Not realising that now, in order to succeed at that career, their graduate child might need years and years of parental financial support and a flat in London. Not being able to provide all that, they watch their child flounder.

I’m sure there’ve been eras and places when being a teacher might have placed you at the top of the tree.

If you don’t mind being a servant you could sign yourself up to an agency that provides tutors for high net worth families? They earn lots - but the subservience would kill me.

It depends, to a certain extent, whether you calculate value by how much money you earn.

I certainly didn’t encourage mine to go into teaching, but that’s was more about the workload and conditions than money. Neither were interested anyway.

There are quite a few posters on here, who seem to be in high paying jobs, but aren’t happy in them. There’s a lot to be said for enjoying what you do every day, although any job should be properly remunerated.

You need a balance. I love my career, I earn just shy of £100k working four days per week with some international travel. It's interesting and varied and I don't find it particularly stressful.

Surely the important thing is to have a career that you enjoy and find satisfying? It’s nice to have lots of money but so long as you can feed yourself and keep a roof over your head, I think that’s far more important. I tried to support my daughter in getting the best possible education and to give her the best possible career opportunities, but after getting spectacular results at school and with two degrees, she is now earning a relatively modest salary working for a humanitarian relief organisation, and she is so happy with the work she does. She could have followed almost any career she wanted but she chose to work in a sector that gives her enormous job satisfaction and she can go to bed at night knowing that she’s done something to help people.

What do you do?

I went into a very lucrative career with no input at from my family. To be honest, they still have no clue what I do. None of them have been in professional careers. The early years were hard/long, but to be honest I get away with doing very little now; once you rise up, there’s less to actually do. I just supervise others and approve things.

I think blaming family is unfair, it’s really on you. I agree that ‘choose something you love’ is silly advice if it’s not going to earn any money, unless that is something you’re specifically happy with.

I know what you mean, when you’re in your teens you don’t have a mature understanding of the consequences or even that there is such a wide gulf between professions in terms of pay. Nobody spelled it out to me, or suggested that unless I made certain choices I would have a life with far less comfort and options open to me.
Not everyone’s mind works in the same way and these are quite abstract concepts when you’re young. Even the idea that actually yes, life is easier and better when you’ve got more money and how that actually feels - and how the lack of it feels.
i grew up in a family with a low- ish income and it didn’t occur to me that I could actively decide to pursue a career for the purpose of having a life style. It’s obvious now of course! But 16-22 year old me didn’t have a clue.

See, I used to feel like this, but those types of jobs don’t pay enough and it’s impossible to be happy with financial struggles

If you weren't educated about money and careers (I wasn't either) then you're probably working class. This means your face would never have fit in the world of investment banking, management consultancy, etc, so teaching is probably the best career that an average person of your age and background could have had. I agree it would have been nice to be forewarned, but we didn't know until too late that the goalposts had been moved and that you would no longer be able to live a nice life on a lower middle class income.

I agree my parents were so hands off. I’ve drummed it into my kids, what lifestyle do you want? Work towards that.