Anyone else lost a bit of ambition now they’ve been taxed to the brink?

[Peasontoastt]

I used to be extremely ambitious and was really eager to reach some sort of financial security. As a consequence, I’m in what’s considered a highly paid career, I work hard and it took me many years to train.

Just as I paid off my student loan (which took many years), I then had a baby and returned to work to be stuck with the childcare dilemma. I struggled through that phase and have come out the other side but being taxed so much, no child benefit, still paying for nursery even though dd has ‘free’ hours now. It’s likely that savings are going to be bashed next, so what’s the point in even putting anything aside when there’s likely going to be a 4K cap on ISAs.

I used to feel so ambitious and of course I know money isn’t everything, not by a long shot. But having worked my way up the ladder and with huge responsibilities only to feel penalised financially for doing so…what is the point? Yes I have more financial security than someone claiming benefits but equally, I am not being flippant when I say a few years of resting and being at home and being frugal is starting to seem so much more attractive. Has anyone else started feeling this way? I feel taken the piss out of by every financial angle!

And why is that then? I'm sorry for how your life is turned out but it's not something I want for my kids.

Anyone can clean the floor. Not anyone can preform surgery.

And if you or your kids became disabled or lost your job then you take the jobs you can get. One day you will be hoping those people will wipe your backside gently.

Anyone on here that are saying they don't mind it and actually enjoy paying shit loads of tax are quite clearly lying just to wynd people up or are sadists, or quite possibly both!

Depends on the situation.

• Single claimant with no disabilities will be pushed to work until they earn I think £900 a month (it has changed recently). If you fall below that you get called into the job centre to explain why you are below and you may get told to find a better job.

As I am in a couple with a husband that earns almost the amount needed for me to be left alone I work very part time so I can be at home with my son and pick my older child from school. I am left alone which is a relief. This will stay that way until my youngest is at school.

Carer of a disabled adult or child or being disabled/recieving disability benefits for you or a child means you don't need to look for work yourself.

But you still need someone to do it and I think there is a bit more to cleaning an operating theatre than dragging a mop and bucket across the floor. My point was that the lower paid jobs are still essential to the functioning of society and many contribute to the efficient functioning of a team.

people don't understand, even after covid and those jobs that kept the country going. bin men were suddenly important on NMW if you don't agree look at whats been happening in brum

Thanks, that's a good point. Or at least it would be if pay had kept pace with inflation - which it has in some sectors but not others. In the higher education sector, many talented very highly qualifed people with decades of experience are, if one of the lucky ones to keep their job, still on 50somethingK today, as pay has been held below inflation for decades (the last time we got an above-inflation increase was in 2006). It's a similar story, or worse, in many other parts of what used to be the public sector. There are multiple reasons for this, but a fundamental one is that governments keep being too scared to tell the electorate the truth - that if we want decent public services then our taxes need to go up.

Also, the argument that lots of people in normal professional jobs are paying too much tax because they have been dragged into the higher rate at 50K is superficially appealing, but misses the point that most such people are only earning a bit over 50K, and the 40% rate only applies to what you earn over 50K, not your whole income. I appreciate there are further tax implications once you get to 60K with child benefit. But by that point you're into the top 10% of earners, and at 100K (another complained-about cliff-edge) into the top 4%. So if someone needs to have to pay more to rebuild our broken public realm, who else is going to? I'd love to say 'just tax the super-rich', but there aren't enough of them!

if wages had kept up with housing prices

average median wage £17k in 1999 average house price £77k

average house price in 2024 was £290k so average wage should be £64k

average wage is £37, 430k in 2024

What do the less intelligent and less talented such as myself do? I was kicked out of maths classes at age 14 and struggle so much with numbers that a career in medicine or finance would have been impossible. I am not musical, I cannot speak a foreign language. Poeple like me can't work their way up, we just plod along at the lower levels. I am quite thick really so maybe I deserve the life I have ended up with. No posh house for me, no exotic holidays, but hey ho, here I am. When I was at school, I was told that I would end up on the pick and mix counter at Woolies if I was lucky and prison if I was unfortunate! I did get into college and saw what my school had written about me " Life on Mars 100 is of sub standard intelligence and will never amount to anything"

Ambition isn’t linear though I don’t think- isn’t this how it goes throughout life? What motivates us towards achieving goals changes, if the goals you once set don’t seem worth pursuing then change the goals. If working towards a big career goal no longer seems worth it then set a different goal that is.

External societal factors will always have an influence on how any of us define “worth it” and this is nothing new.

That’s not what I meant at all. You’ve misrepresented my comment in order to fit your own narrative. What I obviously meant is cost of living is sky high at the moment and losing a large chunk of my salary every month to tax makes things so much harder. I haven’t been on a holiday abroad for over ten years because I can’t afford it. So glad my situation gave you a good laugh though 🙄

Or masochists, if they truly believe their own shite.

Yep - living the dream one soggy Rich Tea at a time!

Sucks to be you I guess.

No, I recognise that relative to income our household pays less tax than those on the breadline.

Hoping some karma comes your way.

Who’s gonna explain basics to this poster?

@Peasontoastt

back to your post - yes, a lot of higher earners feel exactly the same and take steps in response. You've seen on this thread people reduce their hours to stay below 50k not to pay 40%. Those on 100k+ do they same.

Personally I retired much earlier than planned. It's not just income tax, it's everything else and Labour's IHT on pension was the final nail.

It's very dangerous to have a climate where ambition and top earners are sneered at as 'entitled', while victimhood is elevated.

I think that was the plot line to most of Ayn Rand’s books.

It’s not heading in a good direction.

I used to work full time on NMW, and it paid enough for me to live alone (a 1 bed flat with a garden), pay my bills and have hobbies and a decent social life. I was not claiming any sort of benefits at all. I had the single person discount for Council Tax and that was it.

Someone on full time NMW should be able to afford to live, but that is impossible now. Everything is so much more expensive.

Not true. I was a hospital cleaner and some people were terrible at it. It is also so much more than cleaning a floor.

Operating theatres are not cleaned in between operations other than the floor, and a quick wipe of the table. And it is the circulating staff/HCAs/ODPs/nurses that do that (surgeons have fucked off by then for a coffee).
Actual cleaners give the theatres a deep clean at night.