AIBU to feel deflated after payday despite a decent salary?

[Wtfisisfor]

Do you ever just get paid and think seriously is this it… I got paid this morning 3100 was put into my account, I transferred 1400 to the joint for bills and household expenses. And I’m left with the rest, but when I look at it, I just think, is this it? Anyone else? Just feeling a bit defeated today! I know to some people this is a lot of money. But these days it really doesn’t feel like it. Come and join for a moan

I'm not sure why you've focused on the money though. Imagine that same monotony but with less money. Many people feel that way on all different incomes. At least you have the money to save for things like holidays to break it up and have some fun? Maybe do a little soul searching about what's bothering you, how you'd like to spend your time, and channel the money you have towards it so it feels more worthwhile

That picture shows you are deferring a good portion of your pay, and the tax on it, for the future. A very tax effective way of saving. The money you put into your pension has not been taken from you and disappeared, or been squandered on a garden bridge or a hospital. It's still yours, waiting for the day when you take it, and will be a lot bigger by then.

Absolutely - time for the revolution. The rampant greed from those at the very top raking it in is getting worse year by year especially since the pandemic.

From the article linked below “The data indicates that wealth became more concentrated among the ultra-rich during the pandemic, particularly in less-developed countries. In 2020, the growth rate of billionaires’ wealth share rose by 38 percentage points. This increase was even higher in less-developed countries. Those in the lowest development decile (e.g., Vietnam and Indonesia) saw a 45.3 percentage-point increase, while those in the highest decile (e.g., Norway and Switzerland) saw a 29.2 percentage-point increase. These results hold even after controlling for individual billionaire fixed effects.”
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S093936252500038X

That's a very common feeling these days. It's what is driving more and more "behavioural" changes, such as reducing the number of working days (especially higher paid workers like doctors and dentists), or planning to move abroad to work. The social charter has broken down. Workers just aren't seeing the "benefits" in terms of public services/public infrastructure for their tax monies. More and more, they're not only paying shed loads in deductions on their payslips, but also having to pay for private medical treatments/care, increases in fuel duty and road tax for substandard roads, no police on streets thus fuelling crime, open drug dealing etc etc. Today's younger workers don't even expect to get an automatic state pension when they retire in 40 years' time despite paying decades of national insurance.

Likewise, overall taxes on unearned income shouldn't be lower than on wages, i.e. we need to scrap NIC and increase income tax on ALL incomes. It's nonsense that working people pay more taxes (income tax plus NIC) compared with non working people living on pensions, property letting income, interest, dividends, etc. It should be the other way around. If anything, workers should pay a little less tax than non workers on the same income to reflect their contribution to society by working and their additional costs due to working, i.e. commuting costs etc.

Where’s the 14.2k gone? Tax?

Why are you buying clothes monthly? Are you seriously complaining about that money having to cover holidays??

Yep. I think food and fuel right now is just burning through our money.

Should the bonus have been in the highest marginal tax rate band, i.e. between £100k and £125k, then the marginal tax rate of just income tax and NIC is 62%. Even if not in that band, the marginal tax/nic rate could have easily been 42%, then another 9% student loan repayments, takes you over 50%, then there'll probably be a few percent workplace pension deductions of between 3% to 5%, plus maybe other deductions such as paying into employer sharesave schemes etc. (that may or may not pay out as they can be risky investments).

What do you actually want more leftover for..? I have a similar salary, save plenty and allocate £400 "spending money" to spend or not (any leftover can go towards a big purchase if I fancy it). That feels plenty! Monotony is just life, if you want things to be different you have to do something about it. What are you saving for? Unless you're catching up on building an emergency fund or saving for a deposit, do you need to be putting away so much?

Kindly, it's your feelings that are the problem here, not your reality.

You know you're fine but you don't feel fine. This isn't a money issue is it

When I got my first full time payslip (age 16) I was disgusted at the amount of tax and NI had paid. Until then I had a part time job in the chip shop and was paid cash in hand. I kept that job off and on for several years - whenever I wanted to earn a bit extra. on the side. Taxes are too high. Thats why we have a black economy because people see that money being frittered away on vanity projects and looking after the boat people.

In our house, we don’t see bonuses as for spending, they go straight into pensions or investment back into the employer. We stopped spending in 2008, we have definitely not felt like we have ‘money’ since then. The game has changed completely from what it was like in the ‘90’s/early naughts.

Our parents can’t understand why we work so hard but also why we are driving around In 10 plus year old cars and not taking holidays. We are comfortable but nowhere near we we expected to be at this stage.

BUT I grew up abroad where I was exposed to extreme poverty, violence and injustice so I do appreciate how good we have it in comparison to most. who knows what the future holds but I am convinced time are going to get a lot tougher.

just wow I got very similar take home and I love seeing it go into my bank account. I’m very aware that there are an absolute ton of people out there who work much harder for much less.

it’s a glass half empty / glass half full thing I guess.

to complain that you have £1700 to play with and choose to save half of it seems very unaware of the wider population.

I know it sounds trite to say 'count your blessings' but this is a count your blessings kind of situation isn't it. Sit in the sun and reflect on what you have, you'll be better off for it

According to his publicly released tax return, in the 2022/23 tax year Rishi Sunak received an income of £2,200,000. The tax he paid on that was £508,308 - meaning that Rishi is taxed at an effective rate of 22.8%.

I just checked my March payslip and my tax rate works out at about 38%.

This is the discrepancy that annoys me. Our system is designed to ensure that people who derive their income from reserves of wealth (often family wealth they’ve not had to earn themselves) are taxed far more lightly than those of us who have to go out and earn every penny. And so the Rishi Sunak’s of the world, with their tiny tax bills, get to sit back and watch that wealth grow far quicker than they could possibly spend it.

These people get to stroll through life with pebbles in their pockets while ordinary wage earners are dragging a giant rock behind us.

Ultimately if you get to join the club, life gets so much cheaper if you are wealthy. And how do the vast majority get to join the club…by having wealthy parents. Good luck to anyone else, as social mobility is almost non-existent.

yeah, just about to say the same thing
What about us who are on minimal wage, on which thread we are allowed to moan

Oh. I got paid today (£2500) and will put all of it in our joint account, as my husband does, and then we pay ourselves "pocket money" weekly for day-to-day spending. I do feel frustrated about the rising COL and the causes which are so far out of our control, but I feel very lucky to earn that wage. The job I do is very flexible and low stress, I work mostly from home, and I get on well with my colleagues. If it was a horrible job, I'd probably feel like you no matter what I earned.

I won’t get any of it back because my total annual income is well over the top rate threshold. It’s irrelevant when it is paid to me.

60% income tax, 2% national insurance and 9% student loan = 71% deductions.

It's all completely relative and I expect most people feel exactly the same right now - irrespective of what the salary actually is.
Excluding anyone on 150k a year spending above their means.
Doing more and getting less sigh

Same. I tried to reduce the tax by shoving more into my pension but will still hand more than 60% to the tax man.

You wonder what the point is.

On any of the hundreds of posts on Mumsnet where people are moaning about minimum wage/universal credit etc.

Or make your own?

That said even with the 62% tax trap you should still have more than a quarter left so you should check you are taxed correctly.

Ignore what I wrote. I see it includes student loan but I think that’s different. That’s simply paying back money you borrowed.

Are you that tone deaf? Or do you assume everyone on Mumsnet is a yummy mummy with masses of disposable income? Or are you just an awful human?