Income brackets: what is prception of low/middle high

wolfman

From my experience in London

Low - 25k and under
Middle - 25k - 60k
High - 60k+

Anyone on 60k plus is generally a solicitor, or banker, or senior type person.

One of my best mates and his OH, both solicitors (2 years qualified) are on a combined earnings of 140k. Unbelievable. I can't even imagine having that much.

Anyone 120k plus is beyond a high earner. I'd seem them as an extreme and generally a small fraction of workers.

skintchick

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Henley is very pricey, certainly.

But good schools, in general? Gilletts and the Henley College are both pretty good, I think?

Gillotts and the college are considered good, yes, but we also are within very easy reach of a number of exceptional private schools like Bluecoats, Reading Girls, Shiplake College, etc.

There's some serious money round here but also people like me who don;t earn loads.

lostinrates

skintchick wrote: »

That's why I class you as a high earner - you have the luxury to have expensive hobbies and to spend a lot on other things. Unfortunately peole on middle and low incomes don;t have that option. I sometimes think twice about my weekly yoga class and that is a tenner.

I'm not judging you, but I think if you consider you are not on a hig income then you are deluding yourself and doing those of us on middle incomes and below a disservice.

My Oh earns about 36k, I currently earn nothing but I still consider us to be comfortable as we have almost no mortgage and can afford to go out regularly, as well as save each month. If we had lots of spare cash like you guys have (by spare I mean to spend on non-essentials) then I'd consider us well off.

I know quite a few people in receipt of job seekers allowance who keep horses and spend more on them than I do!

I do not currently earn either. I did a few days of one-off work recently which was wonderful, I loved it. I suffer from long term ill health but do not claim a benefit because I don't have to, I was in the past a high earner and now I have a dh who can keep me. That said I'm not sure I'd be entitled to any assistance as I have a reasonable savings fund (our house deposit). My personal code of ethics, however, suggests I should not claim anything even if entitled to it, because I don't need to.

When have I said I don't consider us high income? I infact suggested that I thought we earned 'above average' but have 'less than historically average' for what we earn. I have deliberately been slightly vague as to what I see the brackets as being, because I askd the question and I wanted to get dialogue and unprompted answers

I also am aware that your bracket is 40k-70k for high earners. This year my husband's salary is only 4k more than your partners!;)

Our 'spare' cash I consider equivalent to your mortgage payment (when combined with our rent etc costs) as it all goes to the savings fund.

I'm not judging you either, nor anyone else. I have never judged, and hope I never will, people on what they earn, more on what they do However, I feel your reply does me somewhat of a disservice if I'm honest....

lostinrates

wolfman wrote: »

From my experience in London

Low - 25k and under
Middle - 25k - 60k
High - 60k+

Anyone on 60k plus is generally a solicitor, or banker, or senior type person.

One of my best mates and his OH, both solicitors (2 years qualified) are on a combined earnings of 140k. Unbelievable. I can't even imagine having that much.

Anyone 120k plus is beyond a high earner. I'd seem them as an extreme and generally a small fraction of workers.

I think your bracket of jobs in which you are likely to over 60k in London is very small. I know/of some academics on that and some PAs and office managers. Media employment is fairly relevant too in London. Although, obviously not all get Ross's pay.

neverdespairgirl

Anyway, speaking of earnings, I'm off to do it. In court at 2, and a conference afterwards with a different client.

zarazara

I have 4 horses, well ctually 2 ponies and2 horses. our earnings are £18,000 gross per year. we manage because we dont have a mortgage or rent to pay, and have no loans. we own our own field too and make our own hay. they horses actually cost us about £20 per week ie £5 each. we dont go on holidays or eat outfor meals and are very frugal regarding cloths etc. we have the horses because they are our pets and we love them. we also have 2 cats.
I will not ever sell them, i would [ and have in the past] gone hungry first. you dont have to be rich to have horses.

SingleSue

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Anyway, speaking of earnings, I'm off to do it. In court at 2, and a conference afterwards with a different client.

And I am supposed to be studying if I want to get this module done and dusted by the end of next week!

Too many distractions here today for me.....

lostinrates

zarazara wrote: »

i would [ and have in the past] gone hungry first. you dont have to be rich to have horses.

As have I at times.

But I accept it is a choice in reality. It is my great fortune to have married a man who also loves animals and has taken up riding with great gusto so we can share our expensive passion. I actually think a lot of people on what I consider 'low side of middle' bracket probably spend more on leisure activities than we do. We spend disproportionate amouts of freetime engaged on the free activity of 'poo collection' from the field and lots of our other intersts are free too.

SandC

You basically spend on what you want to spend on. Sometimes from the outside looking in a lower paid person might look like they earn much more. I, for instance, have 2 foreign holidays a year.

But then my vacuum cleaner is 20 years old, the fridge freezer is 14 years old, the washing machine is 12 years old, the sofa is 10years old - you get the picture?

Just as has been pointed out before, someone with a £30k salary could have a lot less than me if their circumstances dictate. It's what you have left after rent/mortgage that really counts as that is when we are more equal shall we say. I

cupid_s

I personally think less than around 17k is low. I would class someone as a high earner when they were on around 35k.

We earn just over 53k between us. To me this is loads. We can afford to overpay our mortgage by quite a lot, spend over 10k a year on holidays, and don't worry about what we spend at all. Even when I wasn't working we managed fine we just didn't have expensive holdiays and had to hold off on some of the mortgage overpayments.

I just don't understand how people can say that a single wage such as 50k is not really high.