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'.

you do realise that if you depend on your monthly pay-check to live and pay your bills, whatever the paycheck, you are NOT "the rich".

just because someone earns more than you doesn't mean they have a "lavish lifestyle"

Of course they're middle earners.

You have no idea how much high earners do earn, do you?

Middle earners earn an average salary. The clue is in the word ‘middle’. The median average full-time income in the UK is £35K. Thats a middle income.

Of course they’re not middle earners!

Oh come on. I've read obtuse on these pages before but then there's this, which appears to have descended on us from another plane.

If you earn £100k a year, enough to lose free childcare, you are in the top 1% of UK earners. You are absolutely rich, no matter what else calls on your income. You do yourself no favours to claim otherwise.

💯
why the fuck is it my poor life choices to spend the money I earned, and provide for the children I chose to have, save for my own old age.
but not working and having kids you can’t afford is all just bad luck.

They are lucky - lucky to have been born in one of the richest countries in the world for a start, lucky to come from a relatively stable family life with enough resources to get a good education and the right connections, all of which gives the individual opportunities others can only dream about. I'm speaking as someone who grew up in poverty but who was lucky in my thirties (not before) to get into a company where I could progress as a result of an equally lucky economic boom. I've been able to give my own child a start in life I never had - private education with all the business connections that go with that. The opportunities he now has are off the charts compared to what was available to me at his age and I can safely say I worked much harder than him for a lot less money. The world is a giant pyramid - we don't all start out from the same position.

You do yourself no favour in being so blind. If you rely on your paycheck, you are one redundancy away from losing everything and not being able to pay the bills.

So call people earning more than you "rich" if it makes you feel better, but you have no idea of the real world.

And you have no idea what kind of wealth the actual rich people have, squabbling because someone just earns more than you - and pay a hell of a lot more tax in the process. That's why the rich people get away with it, because people with low reasoning focus on the wrong thing.

OK, I'll open my blinkers a little bit.

What I see is that if you're in the top 1% of earners in a G7 economy, fretting about not getting free childcare, and totally dependent on your monthly paycheque then you are not just rich, you're also really foolish.

People earring a 100k are not bringing in £14k a month

What a snarky post. Good for this person for doing so well in life

Exactly!

FFS Loads of people on low and middle wages also work long hours including evenings, weekends, bank holidays, Christmas etc. how can you not be aware of this?

At least as a high earners you get the salary and the bonuses to make up for it, as a low earner you get shit and more shit and still broke.

This is exactly the sort of crap that makes people pissed off at high earners 🤦

possibly, but just as foolish as everyone else in the same environment subsidised by the tax payer, benefiting from free Healthcare, education and moaning the "rich" are paid more than they are 😂

so? I don't understand how it's relevant?

Saying people work HARD for their higher salary never means that other people don't work hard too - but they can defend their own case.

You work hard, you want the reward for it. Otherwise, what's the point? Might as well not bother

Loophole!? It wasn't a loophole. What the heck.

@BoyFTM645in what world in 2005 did a one earner support a sahm and kids at private school??? Are you mad?

Meh, call it what you like, it was there and unfair, and now it's gone

It wasn't unfair. Private school parents pay out of pocket and pay taxes. Thereby paying twice as their taxes are used for state education. So the tax was one more thing to beat them with.

Feeling really angry about it all today. Especially the hate for larger families and the two child benefit child cap being lifted. I work in a school. there is so much poverty. Statistically, the kids from low income families do so much worse at school and go on to have harder lives than those who come from affluent and middle income families. The odds are so stacked against them, through no fault of their own. I don't begrudge a bit more of my tax going towards those families. The UK feels really unkind and polarised at present.

I have no sympathy for these people at all.
No doubt they have voted right wing and watched the country going to ruin for years.
They didn't give a toss when the tories crapped on the poor.

A bit rude. And it is a loss when we lose taxpayers, as we need their taxes to help pay for those that don't or can't pay any or much tax.

And that state education indirectly benefits them by producing an educated populace. Obviously.

If you choose the luxury of private education, then you get to pay VAT.

You can choose not to use it.

This conversation has been done so many times that I'm bored just typing this out.

You aren't losing a tax payer though, that person's role will still exist and someone else will step into it.

No-one is indispensable.

What is wrong with people who work bloody hard feeling fed up and pissed off that they are supporting those who aren’t willing (and I’m not including those who genuinely can’t for various reasons) to work? My husband was born to a single teenage mum, lived in council housing and went to a crap secondary school but through hard work and determination he went to uni and now owns a small business which employs a healthy number of people. However, his aspirations are now his downfall as it is exactly people like him (us) who are being shafted by the government. I’ve said it before on another thread - why don’t we too put our feet up and take the benefits rather than working 60/70 hour weeks?

But when they bought the houses they could afford it. Changes in policy mean that they now can't?

I am like you I have a very small mortgage, but I really don't begrudge someone who lives in a million pound house. It wouldn't be for me even if I could afford to buy one because the upkeep of such a property is huge both financially and timewise, and I cba.