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?

We would buy a " fixer upper" to use a ghaaaastly Americanism, do anything we could ourselves, even painting and decorating in neutral colours, tidy the garden and sell, moving to another place and doing the same. All in a bit so nice area. Gentrification? Perhaps.

Some decent help by having a "deprived" postcode.

Did we improve a bad area? I hope so. Did we make a decent amount from it? Yes financially and skills wise.

Wow well done you, sounds like all that hard work was worth it!

Social media has a lot to answer for. Comparison is the thief of joy. I have a friend who earns a lot less than me but has a large house (that they bought when left a lump sum) so mortgage is small. They go on lovely holidays. I always try not to compare as I don’t have holidays yet our spending habits differ. She will stay in and not have take aways etc whereas I’m always out socializing and spending on that and food out etc. if I did what she does then I’d say I’d be able to afford more holidays. But I’m not going to compromise. It seems people can afford more but you’ve got no idea on what their outgoings are.

8,500,000 pennies in my case.

This is very true and something I do try to remind myself of.

What are you basing “double” on? I work with both the public and private sectors and its something I hear a lot in the public sector but frankly they are unrealistic and often completely ignoring the benefits package which comes with many public sector roles.

There are also highly paid jobs in the public sector, including the civil service, if you want to go for them. Obviously they are more competitive than the lower levels just as in the private sector.

The public sector has also not been ravaged by the level of job losses and pay cuts which have hit multiple areas in the private sector.

It has expanded substantially and the percentage of higher grades has increased so that in many areas the civil service no longer has a pyramid but is either diamond shaped or even top heavy. One CS I worked with last year said that they used additional promos during the public pay freeze to increase salaries without an official pay rise which caused the distorted model.

There are very few sectors which matched inflation in recent years, even less outstripped it. There are pros and cons to different sectors and public vs private but this old yarn of “its all sooo haaard in the public sector” is not borne out by the data.

Unless you have family money or a private income, you borrow and flip, but it takes a certain type of temperament to be comfortable with doing that, because it's essentially high-stakes gambling in the early years.

I know a few folk who have become very successful doing this - having come from nothing - but they are very well-prepared, build terrific business cases to take to the bank (or other investors) and can keep a cool head in times of trouble, because it's rarely plain sailing.

It's up to you if you're willing to tolerate that level of risk. The potential rewards are high, but so are the risks.

Came on here to say exactly this. My DH has worked in public sector since he started working 20yrs ago, and has held many roles across that time – civil service, education, NHS, council. His salary has always outstripped the national average and outstripped mine in the private sector. He is now a high earner (over 6-figures) in the public service AND his salary has increased by 30% in the last 5 years from inflation raises and agenda for change raises alone.

I, on the other hand, haven't seen an inflationary raise for 4 years, and have only seen a pay rise of 8% on promotion once in the last 5 years.

Civil Service is only one part of public sector. Other parts pay very, very well.

'Double' is really vague. What is your DH's role and what band is he on?

You need to include the pension contributions though

High earning can be a trap when looking for more from life as it is not the same as wealth. Lifestyle inflation can keep you living pay-cheque to pay-cheque if you're not careful (bigger house = bigger mortgage, bigger bills), holidays, debt, "keeping up with the Joneses". In addition, the earnings come with more responsibility, expectations and results, meaning less flexibility and more on call. Now some lower paid roles fall into the pressure trap too, and you have to work out if it's worth it for that salary.

Your best bet is to invest money through a S&S ISA. The earlier you do this the sooner you start benefitting from compound interest. Average growth of the world index funds is 8-10%, inflation adjusted is 5-7%. You just have to be prepared to invest for the long term to see the benefit.

The second thing is to live debt-free. The sooner you are free of mortgage and other debts, the sooner you have more choice in when and how you earn. This is a major trap for high earners, yes you can borrow 500k+ and afford larger houses or more expensive areas, but then you HAVE to keep earning to pay the mortgage. The counter to this is to just "off set" the debt, e.g. invest the money to grow, and know you could liquidate to fund mortgage payments if push came to shove. I prefer this approach, so that my assets are more liquid and therefore more flexible, rather than tied up in my primary home.

Your most lucrative option is for you and your partner to invest in growing his business as much as possible, but it is high risk. If you want to look to a future where you're doing housing development work to grow wealth, then look for opportunity for his business to build credentials in this space.

Home renovation is not as lucrative as it once was. It is all about location and what work needs to be done. The cost of materials alone is taking much of the profitability out of renovating and there is even lower cost associated to knocking down and rebuilding in a growing number of cases. And that could be the route to take, buy plots of land with derelict homes or blank plots with planning, live in a temporary caravan or camper on the land and build. You have the benefit of residential land being less than the SDLT threshold, if you have 25% LTV for the mortgage required, you can access self-build mortgages. When you're building you don't need to pay VAT, where as renovating a habitable home does incur VAT (make that make sense, since we should be enabling upgrade of housing stock)

It'll be inheritence or that they have other income in addition to salary.

@Shithotlawyer and @pinkdelight have pretty much nailed it. Don't often read such sensible advice on mumsnet.