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?

I went into something I loved. It’s now finally ok with finances but for many years it wasn’t.

If I had my time again I would do it. But god knows what I’d do instead.

Jobs that earn big money are stressful and competitive- not to mention often full of people who had the advantages of private schooling and a network that could give them a leg up.

I had none of these things but I did have a mental health condition so it’s unlikely I would have done well.

100% this

I trained as a nursery practitioner after school on the advice of the career service. I didn't even consider the money and was pretty disappointed once I realised it was minimum wage in most places. I retrained as a social worker, which is probably about the same money you would earn as a primary school teacher. I'm no where near a city so even if I retrained again (which I don't want to) I don't know of any options that would bring in much more money without getting years of experience and climbing the ladder.
Could you look at roles in OFSTED or moving into higher education? I think they pay a fair bit more.

I’m sure it all comes back to housing costs. If you cannot house yourself in a safe secure home on a normal wage. Life is going to feel so much harder.

I went into investment banking with no family background in it whatsoever - state school and normal education, working class parents. It’s possible. Uni is the gateway to anything if you use the careers service early on, too.

Remember to take into account the value of your pension as a teacher

One person's having enough for their needs is defined as financial struggle by others it seems.

Are you in the UK? I’m a teacher, my DH is a professional in a different industry and makes about 10K less than me and we live very comfortably - not six figure rich like everyone on MN seems to be but good size of house and garden, car, modest savings, a couple of UK breaks and one abroad holiday every year. Is it more about spending habits than salary I wonder because while teaching doesn’t create millionaires it is a well paid profession with a salary far above the UK average. The pension is also very good compared to most industries.

I could add to that that I wish I’d had any idea that my lovely perfect marriage might end one day and I would end up financially fucked because of all my choices. There was no Mumsnet then sadly!

I had a fork in the road moment where I had two job offers - one lucrative and one creative. I took the creative route. My earnings haven’t been amazing but I love it. Yes we could have a bigger house but I love the people I know and the work I have done.

I don’t suppose you would say what you do ?

In my industry earning 100k is unheard of.

I am considered senior now and for my grade earn more than most of my peers and I still only earn about half of that.

I have done exceptionally well - only 3 or so years back I was on 26k and my job was insanely stressful with very long hours.

I did this too, but twenty years in I’m now pretty jaded by it and have neither the money nor the job satisfaction.

Yes I sometimes wonder why I didn’t go into something like finance, marketing, IT or medecine. Social work and Psychotherapy ….I do have great job satisfaction though especially now in therapy with young people

I wondered if choosing a career in your late teens when your caring hormones are at a peak is ideal for women.

In some ways I regret going into teaching, I wish I'd followed my creative side more but certainly dont regret it for the money - if I'd kept going into SLT, I could be on a six figure salary now with our generous holidays. I would say you should do something you love- I'd rather earn peanuts and be contented than earn £300K a year working 48 weeks a year doing something I hated. There has to be a balance.

There’s no right or wrong, and you determine your life path, not your parents.

If they’d have stressed money above all else, and you became a corporate lawyer working 70 hour weeks earning megabucks, you’d probably be looking wistfully at your artist friends scraping a living, but doing something they get great joy from.

The grass isn’t usually greener…

Completely agree. My parents, in particular my mother, were terrible with money and were neglectful in many ways, not providing me with any financial education for one. They couldn’t conceptualise having a career. I’m still house sharing in my 40s and it’s grim. I made choices as an adult that have partly put me in this position, but my parenting has also been influential. I don’t have children.

@Charlottejbt interesting idea but I’m not working class and I’m very much like the OP (but older). When I say we had a low income growing up - my dad was a teacher and my mum didn’t work for quite a few years. Teachers’ pay was even worse in those days relatively speaking.
I think some peoples brains are programmed to think about those things and some aren’t. All I was encouraged to do was achieve academically - but that alone isn’t going to necessarily mean you earn a lot of money!

Well done on your career success! I did know one person from a "normal" background who also went into investment banking (ahe would be mid 50s now) but it wasn't really the norm. I remember the last term at Oxford when the posh boys were bragging about their multiple job offers in the city and I only had a collection of rejection letters to show for my efforts. Some of the state school kids did go on to have reasonable careers, but many (most?) ended up back in their home towns competing with school leavers for entry level jobs. Those who did a PGCE may actually have had the last laugh, as it was still free in those days - those of us who waited in the hope that something better would turn.up missed out on that opportunity.

I'm retired now but would just say this, teacher's salaries have risen and fallen compared to others, depending on the era in which you trained/taught.
Careers advice at least in my case was abysmal and I took all the advice I could. No one mentioned money. I think it's only through knowing others who follow different career paths and your own working life experience that makes you think hard about priorities.

Whilst I understand the sentiment as I am struggling now in a creative career that used to be very profitable and thinking of switching.. these careers ‘not paying enough’ is a recent development, and you couldn’t have known this when you started out.

@BadAmbassador I think that even if teachers weren't cash rich, their money (and most other people's) was enough to buy a starter home. My DF was a lecturer in a technical college when I was born and he and DM had already been on the housing ladder for three years before I was born - how many 25 year olds could manage that now, and on one salary for most of that time?

Well done on going to Oxford! TBH that doesn’t help these days. I want to a uni that has not long converted from a technical college. There are lots of roles in an IB, but Oxbridge students all apply for Front Office, Trading and Banking, which has a tiny pool of recruitment. There are lots of ways to end up in these roles by joining and leaning other processes.

We’re middle claas, dad worked hard, mum stayed at home and did 80% of the parenting, she’s not ambitious really and always said she just wanted us to be happy. I agree with this for my Dd, but it’s more complex than that.

YANBU and it's definitely something I'll be teaching my children. I've seen people put in 10-20 years in banking/big4 and then go to do a "passion" job at a much lower salary when they're comfortable. I wish I'd done this instead of trying to pursue my passion (making a difference/charity/politics) when I was going. I've altered my course of travel and now work in risk/compliance/internal audit in a finance company but I am a decade behind and get paid basically the same as the new grads 🫠

Growing up my mum kept trying to get me to be a doctor but I didn't want to be a flipping doctor and the careers advisor at school was utterly useless, signposting us to hairdressing and the army(!). This was in the early 2000s so I didn't even have access to the internet and information the way kids do these days.

My mum was a teacher and my dad a builder so they didn't know any better to be fair but I definitely will be making different choices.