2.5 Million Families on £100k/year Don't Feel Rich

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Our household income is around 6 figures. We also have company cars, internet, phones, laptops, expenses, etc.

We are not rich.

But we have assets, savings, pensions, and most of all, the comfort of knowing that if one of us lost a job, we could survive on a single income.

At best, we are comfortably-off middle class.

Class comparisons are a bit un-PC these days, but from the people we know of, less than 50K joint income is the modern day equivalent of working class.

50K joint and above is middle class. Two teachers, amongst the lowest paid professionals these days, or the like.

The professional/management classes really start at 65K joint or above imo though.

100K joint and above is the old upper-middle class.

And the old "upper class" earn far more. Over 5000 bankers earning over a million a year, over 2.5 million households on 150K plus, and at a guess, around 5 million on close to 100K or better. (+ or - 10%)

For reference, that's almost 15% of O/O households on more than 150K.:eek:

And it would be around 30% of O/O households on close to 100K or better.:eek:

Now remember, when we only build 35% of the houses needed, then only the top earning 35% of households need to be able to afford it for prices to rise.;)

So whats the average house price at 3 times 100K income again??? :think:

Jonbvn

mitchaa wrote: »

I know its a lot to spend on bits of depreciating metal but its what keeps us happy.

Not being funny, but I wonder if this is a Scottish trait? I work in the oil industry and obviously meet a lot of people from Scotland/Aberdeen. Beemers & Mercs seem to be almost de rigeur for most of them.

Fortunately, we have an champagne income and a lager lifestyle.;)

SingleSue

Prior to my marriage breakup, our combined earnings were in the region of 60-65K a year (him full time, me part time).

We felt just about comfortable, enough money to have those little treats, to do the food shop without worrying (this was our one area of excess, we would spend loads on the monthly and weekly shop!), run two cars.

I would go on foreign speedway weekend trips for grand prix from time to time, he would have the occasional weekend for football trips.

Christmas never concerned us, we just purchased what we fancied for friends and family although looking at threads on here, we still practiced restraint in those purchases....ok I practiced restraint, he would spend ooddles on my pressie (£300 one year on a very rare Natwest pig!).

We had enough to put away in savings for a rainy day.

Life felt pretty good on that combined salary.

Mind you, we had no car finance, no loans, no credit cards etc to gobble up any of our income which can make a huge difference.

ukcarper

I took early retirement and halved my income, which wasn’t anywhere near 100k in the first place. I have had to cut back quite a bit but am a lot happier than I was doing a job I had grown not to like. There is a lot more to life than new cars and flash gadgets. I must add that if you are earning 100k and spending it on cars and other luxuries that’s your privilege and I wouldn’t criticise you for doing it. There are a lot of hard working people who earn less than a £25k so perhaps people earning 100k should appreciate it.

C_Mababejive

the_ash_and_the_oak wrote: »

you are only taxed at 40% on the pay over the threshhold. your pay doesn't go down

Yes,,i appreciate that but still,,why work for half pay? If i needed to earn more,i'd work in the so called black economy..

thriftybabe

I worked in a private bank years ago and could not believe how people with a bit of money worried about it. We used to get the same people phoning up all the time checking their account! These people were very well off. At the time I could not believe that they worried.

Roll on a few years and I am no longer the Clerk at the Bank. We have run our own business and done not to badly the last few years. We are now better off than we have ever been with a bit of cash in the bank and no mortgage. We never ever spent anywhere near what we earned. We saved most of our dividends from the business and payed the mortgage off. This has been due to my pessimistic nature knowing that things do not last forever!

We are now back to where we were when I was the Clerk at the Bank. Work is tight and wages have dropped off a cliff! However, i believe we are so lucky as we have a wee bit of security at the back of us. I do not feel we are wealthy but I suppose if others looked at the bank account maybe they would think different.

I think what I am trying to say it is all relative. If you are earning £12k a year (which i was at the time) then someone who is earning £100k is going to seem loaded and people will get annoyed if the say that they are not well off!

fedupfreda

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Class comparisons are a bit un-PC these days, but from the people we know of, less than 50K joint income is the modern day equivalent of working class.

So what am I then (joint household income of £25k) - chav class??? (No actually, if we were real chavs, we would have a much higher standard of living, all paid for courtesy of benefits) But I digress.:D

We might be on a lot less than some, but I feel comparatively rich. The mortgage and bills are paid on time. We have a holiday each year (camping). We have decent home cooked food and plenty of home brew. We both have jobs we can just about tolerate (I've never known anyone who actually liked the job they did, it was just a means to an end ) OK I can't afford to have the heating on as much as I would like - but I have warm clothes.

The point is, you accustom yourself to a certain level of expenditure. Once you have got used to it - that level of income seems normal, and becomes average to you. So you will start to feel poor again. Comparing your situation to those around you is a trap - most people will end up feeling worse off by comparison.

the_ash_and_the_oak

C_Mababejive wrote: »

Yes,,i appreciate that but still,,why work for half pay? If i needed to earn more,i'd work in the so called black economy..

because id be working the same amount of time as i was before i was earning over the threshold whereas working in the black economy on top would be extra hours which i don't fancy plus i don't know any jobs in the black economy that pay more than high rate tax threshhold

movilogo

Quite a lot of these £100k earners on this thread then ... didn't expect any to exist here to be honest. I guess I just assumed that people here were usually earning about £25-40k max.

That's how economy in developed countries work! The lifestyle does not differ to much between low and high earners.

Compare that with developing world where some people live on road side but other live on palaces.

Perhaps it makes some sort of point PN. 100k doesn't neccessarily get you any more 'fun' or better quality freetime- just a bigger mortgage, higher school fees and an imperceptible rise in living standards that you are too tired to notice.

Exactly!

PS: I too didn't expect so many £100k/yr earners in MSE forum!

Primrose

In my book, if you can live comfortably within your income and can regularly afford to save and put money away for the future, you are rich. It doesn't matter whether that income is £30,000, £100,000 or £175,000. Income is relative. "Rich" is when you have so much income you cannot possibly spend it all on things that you NEED. (not WANT). When we've all sorted out these personal values as they relate to ourselves, the income of others is largely irrelevant. The megga rich are just as likely to suffer bereavement, illness, marriage breakdown, cancer and death as the rest of us. If we all concentrated more on counting our blessings instead of our pennies, the world would be a less jealous place.