AIBU to wonder how people afford more without being high earners?

[Pinkroom]

How to actually make money to have a comfortable life without being a high earner? Is it possible? Am I missing a trick?
I earn (what I feel) well but I work in public services so I will never be a 'high earner'. My partner owns his own business which has been in business a little over a year so far and is doing great he's so busy and again earns well but not 'high' that you read about on here.
We would absolutely love to buy old/run down properties and renovate them to sell on but where do you get the initial capital from? He would also love to expand his business in future but we have no idea how you go about doing this.
We have a mortgaged house, we save a lot, we travel sometimes but I just feel like theres more to life and it basically boils down to money. I feel like by the time we have enough to spend it enjoying life we will be too old!
Prepared to be laughed at :) but I do know similar aged people who are also not high earners 'having' a lot more, bigger or more rural houses, holiday homes, new cars etc. and wonder how they do it.

So basically AIBU to want more and how can I achieve this?

If you ‘save a lot’ then use your savings as a deposit to buy the property to do up then when you sell it you use the profit to buy the next one.

You don't work in public services, that's how.
The salaries are incredibly low compared to the private sector.

I feel like you just change your lifestyle to fit your income.

I recall seeing my mom as a single mom of 4 had a pre-tax income of £17k and raised on that! (That was late 90s / early 00s but even then that was not much for a family of 5).

You just restructure your life to make do with less.

Public sector salaries are not that far behind private ones any more

Often people borrow money if they can't afford what they want so may appear visibly to have more but they don't really. Cars on loans, credit cards maxed out and no savings.
I don't know how old you are but if you are saving plenty, investing wisely and living within your means you'll end up better off than someone on the same income who doesn't do that.

Not any more, average salary 2025/6:

Public Sector: £40,806 (Median annual earnings for full-time employees).
Private Sector: £38,396 (Median annual earnings for full-time employees).

A friend of mine moved into a dump of a property which they did up whilst living in it. At one point they slept in a caravan in the garden. They found it fun and enjoyed the family time together. She worked as a TA and he was self employed but good at DIY.

They sold that then bought a camper van and spent 3 month driving through Spain and Portugal.

They've been back in the UK since Covid times but spend every school holiday in their camper van touring the UK.

I guess it depends on what is important. Family time or seeing the world or both!

Why do people say this rubbish? Most public sector workers earn far more than most people I know in the private sector.

I doubt anyone starts off buying and flipping houses with salary money these days sadly. You would need ...
an inheritance lump sum
a development loan, if you can prove you have skills in the housing renovation business
or to live in the house itself and do it up as you go, risky as it might not yield what you need, and you might not want to or be able to live in the place that would yield biggest returns. A family from Guildford who own a 3 bed can't relocate to a HMO in Leeds they are doing up as 5 individual student flats, even though that is probably where the money would be.

The thing is, all the tax and wealth stuff is carefully fixed now, there's no loopholes, we aren't in the 90s. Your capital makes about 4% at most wherever you put it, and the less capital you have, the bigger the interest on any loan as the bigger risk you are.

If your capital is your house- by the time you move and pay stamp duty, you either make nothing or under 4%. If you rent and then buy to let and do up, then the other taxes ensure you make less than 4%. If you sell your house and put it all in bonds, stocks, shares.... and rent....guess what the market makes just under 4% on average.

Once you're maxing out a pension there is little you can do but pay off the mortgage ASAP, work as hard as you can, insure yourselves against ill health (its own kind of racket).

Your husband's business is another matter- there are indeed ways to scale up successful businesses but it needs a lot of different information about what to do in the specific market you are in. And skilled behaviours, it's important to recognise what you yourselves have skills in and where you need to buy them in (for example a great electrician may be less good at admin and marketing). Growth is a process where you have to look at where the bottlenecks would be (the electrician gets some great marketing then can't handle the increased business it generates) and plan for different stages of the business.

For an experienced and educated profesional, I mean, the civil service pays pennies.

He would also love to expand his business in future but we have no idea how you go about doing this.

Read books about entrepreneurs who did similar, listen to podcasts, do the research. It's never been easier to access a vast amount of info on how to do these things and study to get any skills you're lacking. Actually doing it is harder ofc but it always has been, which is why the high earners are the exceptions and more ventures fail or make an average amount. But if his business is doing well already then he's off to a good start and is the most likely one to make more money,

In the public sector, you're more limited but can still rise up if you have the potential and put the graft in. There's a ceiling on it though and it won't be the amounts to buy and flip houses. Unless your partner's business is in the trades, then property development isn't likely to make you good money in this climate, and people tend to have money to make money out of it, but it depends on your appetite for risk.

I think if you were the type to make a go of it, you'd probably have found out how and made a plan rather than more daydreamy 'don't know anything about it' stance, when AI could give you the lowdown in seconds. But I may be wrong and you could reach critical mass, arm yourself with the skills and go for it. So much comes down to wanting it enough and being a self-starter - with the full knowledge that it might well not work out and you'd be back to square one.

YABU. You are happily married, you are employed in a job that allows you to lead a good, honest life, you have savings, you travel. What more do you want?

If there’s a void in your life, you’d be better off finding religion or a good hobby then spend your life chasing money to buy more shit.

@THisbackwithavengeance makes an excellent point. The drive, time, blood and sweat it often takes to make the high earnings is all for nothing if you end up less content. The people who do it tend to have reasons other than the money itself - indeed the money would never be enough and the void is often still there. The main thing is what you really want to do and whether it'll make you happy.

My DP is in the civil service. We live in London and his salary would be more than double in the private sector. Him and his colleagues do the job because they like it, in spite of the money. And lots of them eventually leave. The only reason DP is doing it is because I'm a high earner.

Maybe it's different outside of London or if you're not particularly experienced in a well paid sector.

Lots of people have family help, which doesn't necessarily need to be huge to make a big difference later on. And not just age, but time of first property purchase. Even for people the same age that can have a real impact on how much capital they subsequently have access to.

I have always been careful with money and not borrowed where possible. Which meant living in houses that needed work, doing as many home jobs as I could, selling stuff when I needed extra money.
It's quite possible to live well on less but you have to be canny and willing to put in the graft.

That is even before you get started on the pension!

Thanks all. To respond to a few posters quickly - not married. Yes partners business is in the trade, he could do a full renovation himself/bringing in other contractors if needed another pair of hands. Yes have read up a lot online already particularly in relation to growing the business but we find it difficult to put into practise, think we would benefit from speaking to someone in person who's actually done this and how it has been achieved.
I love my job, I will probably apply for a sideways move in a few years but I can't see myself leaving the public sector really. I wouldn't know where to start thinking what I would like to do and I have a great pension.
To the last poster, I don't want to buy more 'shit' and I have no interest in religion thanks. I would however like to have more money/time to enable us to take more time away from our busy life more often than we currently do. To take the kids more places before they are adults in a few short years, would love to live somewhere where my view is not a row of houses and I could just walk to the beach. Not ungrateful or unhappy with my life at all, just always striving to be better.

You could be an influencer on the side to get free stuff and days out etc

if he wants to expand his business he needs to find someone to invest in it, after he’s written a business plan. Chat gpt should give him lots of ideas about scaling his business and making it more profitable

It depends on what money you have and what you do with it- also depends on time!

We flipped a house years ago and saved the deposit just from our salaries but the house we bought really was a dump and needed a LOT done, we bought it for 65k so 10% deposit was only £6,500 and between my husband & I we did 90% of the work ourselves, we sold it for £140,000 so still not huge money and we probably spent about £15,000-£20,000 on all the work so made about £55k profit on that. We originally intended to use that money to get another fixer upper to flip but honestly the work/time/hassle of the first one put us off!

We have friends who did the same and continued doing it but it really does take up a lot of time, energy & money!

We haven’t had a payrise in my company since 2021. Public sector is not necessarily worse paid , plus has big pensions, flexibility, parental leave and pay, and often more reasonable job conditions (Private sector often not expected to work mountains of overtime for no pay,; jobs are covered when people go on MH sick leave for months at a time)

Exactly. Public sector friends have had inflationary pay rises and opportunities for growth / secondment without risk of leaving a job / vulnerability that comes with being a new employer. A few have had months off for sickness at full pay. It's not always better paid once you factor in pensions.

We bought the cheapest house we could in a desirable area, moved in and knocked it down around us

I learned how to cook anything and everything on a BBQ in the garden when the back of the house came down

It was filthy and hard work and we did it ourselves - one particularly low point was coming home after a day at work to find 5 tonnes of ballast left on the road and that had to be moved wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow through the house to the back . Patio doors, we had to call on all our neighbours as we couldn't afford a crane so they were lifted over three gardens to ours - mid terrace

But we were young and knew it was the only way we could move along the property ladder

We sold and moved 500 miles to a huge rural detached, sorrounded by fields and the sea 10 mins drive , mortgage free aged 42

Now we have the freedom not to work every waking hour

Given that there are over 6 million public sector workers in the UK, your comment isn't making the point you think it is...

The civil service has not had inflationary payrises. Only for a couple of years out of the past 15-20