Poor life planning..

[pocketpairs]

With the upcoming budget seen many "poor me" posts, particularly from high/middle earners. I find it frustrating that rather than blame themselves for thier life (& financial planning) choices, they blame some arbitrary government policy changes, such as upcoming introduction of new council tax bands.

Example: Sister & hubby earn £14k net p/m. But their choice to buy a nearly £x.xm house in SE & send DCs to private school means they have £3k (approx) to spend on everything else. They could have taken different choices...£1m houses &/or move to grammar school areas.

Clearly this is an extreme example, but I really don't understand why a family can't survive on £4-6k p/m, especially outside of London. Up until recently, I survived on much less and managed to put myself a firmer financial footing in 40s.

Sure this means some sacrifices, but it seems everyone wants to 'have their cake and eat it'.

The issue is being a high earner, wasting a ridiculous amount of your income on tax and not being able to enjoy your income. They work for their money dont' they. They're not exactly subsidised by the tax payer.

It's not luxury to pay for a house/ school and a holiday!

Funny how people on benefit can easily afford holidays abroad.

We are supposed to have steady tax policies to allow people to budget and plan properly, but every budget that comes, the government looks to take more tax from high earners. All I ask is that the government defines how much they think is reasonable for me to pay in tax and to make some effort to stick with that. Is it too much to ask?

Yeah ok. Poor life choices. Same as those who chose to fuck about instead of working hard and getting decent qualifications etc made poor life choices and now can’t earn their way out of a paper bag.

But we can’t say that, can we? Oh no, those people are just unlucky and it all just happened to them.

I think you probably need to be realistic about what running a family on £4-6k a month looks like if you're in your 30's/early 40's and got a mortgage and childcare costs! It's definitely not a life of luxury at the lower end of that scale unless you live in a part of the country that has very cheap housing.

Christ, the sense of entitlement to other people’s money is unbelievable.

its not “having their cake and eating it” it’s people wanting to keep the cake they’ve earned through hard work and not be forced to give it away to people who aren’t working.

And out of curiosity, if the higher-than you earner didn't make "poor life planning" choices and stuck with properties in your price-range. Where would YOU live then? 😂

Some people are not in to redistribution of wealth as much as others so they do resent their tax bills.

If you could choose exactly what your taxes went on what would you choose?

There are some personal choices but many more are made for us.

If someone has managed to reach the absolute top % income bracket and seems like your relatives are PAYE, fair play to them.

Im not even a high earner and it pisses me right off paying tax for all the lazy bastards who don’t want to work and breed like rabbits! Yes i know some people can’t work but that number is far fewer in real life than on mumsnet! Why should people be punished for working hard and doing well in life? While those who can’t be bothered get rewarded?

Many of the things you listed are out of your control, and many are to be applauded.

To answer you questions.

• Try to live within my means. While we didn't anticipate covid, the direction of medium term interest rate was only going to be one way.
• Live in a comfortable house in the best area possible, but not to the extent that it impacts my quality of life - it's just a house
• Although private school typically have better facilities and pastoral care, they are only marginally better than grammar schools. Plus in reality just means DCs will just end up doing same job type as you..

Absolutely this!

I agree with you @pocketpairs. People are quick to call those with little money for not living within their means.
But all high earners get are excuses made for them and sympathy when they’ve clearly not lived within their means. You can’t have everything, no matter how important you think you are.

The vast majority of benefits to working age people go to people in work...

As outlined in my OP the issue is that they have less disposable income due to conscious choices they make. This is fine if it's a active choice, but then being surprised /angry at marginal external factors (such as £1k increase in council tax), which should have a minimal impact on thier finances, but is amplified..again due to thier choices.

Funny how people on benefit can easily afford holidays abroad

This isn't strictly true is it?

It's very much from the benefit bashing misinformation stable

Sorry, it’s coming across as though they made better life choices than you and you begrudge them their lifestyle and wealth.

If it’s tax related only those who actually pay it should have an opinion

30% of tax revenue is spent on social services, of which the biggest recipients are pensions, UC and disabled people.

Not true at all! I have a relative who is on benefits including universal credit and PIP( for very exaggerated illness) and they have been on holiday 3 times this year! They are constantly spending money on clothes etc! I actually know quite a few who are also like this but this person i absolutely know their circumstances. They happily admit that they will never work because they couldn’t earn what they get given in benefits!

It’s also an active choice not to work full time as it affects benefits

But what proportion of the population is that? 7.7% of tax revenue is spent on UC, and the majority of which supports the most vulnerable in society. Sure they'll be some people that cheat the system, but that's just marginal.

If they are exaggerating their condition report them, it's fraud.

Essentially what you're saying is that someone who cheats the system can go on holiday? Not quite the gotcha you think it is

And example after examples after example like this means that that welfare system will not survive in its current form beyond this disastrous government. Hopefully.

I think this is my issue with the benefits system - people who get more than they would have as earning capacity if they worked. There's people with bugger all qualifications and work experience raking in the equivalent of a good degree qualified mid-management salary and that feels wrong.

Oh dear.
Hope she didn't get the landlords. 😊