What's it like having and earning loads of money??

pjcox2005

[Deleted User] said:

steampowered said:

Am I the only one who finds this thread a bit depressing? There is a stark lack of ambition! What happened to working hard and being the best you can be? 

Perhaps this is because I am still in my thirties. I suppose I might be looking for a quiet life by the time I get to my fifties !!!!

I do not see £45k as a large salary at all, though my attitude is probably skewed by living in London.

Became extinct a long time ago 😕

I think it depends on the assumption of what the "best you can be" is. For some that may be working as hard as they can in a job, progressing and feeling like they've been validated by the promotions, title and money and that's fine. For others, if they feel devoting that much time to work may impact other areas of life like family or friendships, then they may choose a different role - still work hard in their job but select a job or path where they can work harder for family, charity or just a more fulfilled lifestyle (for them) e.g. backpacker taking more basic jobs to fund travel around the world.

Whichever route a person takes whether focus on a job or elsewhere, I would expect they'll always have a better outcome if they challenge and focus on where they're spending/want to spend their time rather than that being seen as a negative and they should just "work hard" without a plan of what they want.

AskAsk

[Deleted User] said:

steampowered said:

Am I the only one who finds this thread a bit depressing? There is a stark lack of ambition! What happened to working hard and being the best you can be? 

Perhaps this is because I am still in my thirties. I suppose I might be looking for a quiet life by the time I get to my fifties !!!!

I do not see £45k as a large salary at all, though my attitude is probably skewed by living in London.

Became extinct a long time ago 😕

lol.  i think you guys are missing the trick.  the aim should be work little and get paid more! 
how you achieve that is the objective.

TBagpuss

steampowered said:

Am I the only one who finds this thread a bit depressing? There is a stark lack of ambition! What happened to working hard and being the best you can be? 

Perhaps this is because I am still in my thirties. I suppose I might be looking for a quiet life by the time I get to my fifties !!!!

I do not see £45k as a large salary at all, though my attitude is probably skewed by living in London.

I don't see it as a lack of ambition - not everyone is motivated by money or wanting to achieve a big salary.  I think there are a lot of people for whom their job is a means t an end - it puts a roof over their heads and food on the table but their ambition, hard work and desire to be the best is focused on other areas of their lives.

I have a family member who, by your metric, would be seen as very unambitious - they took fairly low paid jobs, often short term, and had little if any interest in promotions or progressing. Their passion and focus was on other things - hobbies,  you want to see them that way, and they made a conscious choice to take jobs which fit round what they wanted to be doing. 
More recently, they have changed direction - not because they are a less interested in their 'hobby' activities but because they wanted jobs with less heavy physical labour, as they got older. 

In both cases, they are very good at what they do, and I have no doubt that if their ambitions lay in that direction that they could progress to the top of wither of the two very different career paths they have been on, but that's not something which is important to them. 

I have a friend who is a ballet and dance teacher. She is passionate about it, works very hard and is the best she can be . And she is never going to earn anything close to £45k doing it. That's not what motivates her.

theoretica

I think money can become a bit like eating.  We evolved to love fat and sugar because they were vital calories and hard to come by as hunter gatherers. But this love can carry on to extremes when they are easy to come by.  Similarly, the drive for more (money/possessions/food) carries on for some people even when well clear of the risk of not having enough for health and reasonable comfort.

Iamdebtfree

bobthelog said:

The problem is the law of diminishing returns:
In simple terms to explain the economic theory: let's say you go for a walk on the beach, you walk past the fish and chips shop. You're cold and starving and you really REALLY fancy some fish and chips. So you go in and get some. That first munch of food is like the best fish and chips in the world as you're so hungry. (AKA The return on you eating the fish and chips is "ginormous"). You eat more and by the 5th mouthful you are still really enjoying the fish and chips but it's not as good as that first bite (AKA: The return on eating the fish and chips has gone from "ginormous" to "brilliant", let's say). After you have eaten them all the fish and chip owner gives you some more as he's finishing for the day. By the time you have finished the second lot (if you can eat that much) you are thinking, "I never want to see another portion of fish and chips again!!" (AKA: The return on eating fish and chips has diminished to "rubbish", there are no returns and the only way you would eat any more is if your life depended on it.).

Swap this to you have won the lottery and buy a Ferrari - wow! Cool, right! Your first drive is awesome! You can't believe you are driving your very own Ferrari! Within a relatively short space of time, maybe a few weeks or months, "it's just a car".

This is the law of diminishing returns and it's a uniquely powerful concept of how the human mind works.

So to relate to your example. You earn £20K. You live wherever you live and spend money on whatever you spend it on. I will make a wild assumption that you have nothing left of your wage the day before pay day. I will make another wild assumption that your friend, on £45K per year, also has nothing left the day before pay day. I will make an even wilder assumption that someone on £250,000 per year ALSO has nothing left in the bank the day before pay day. This is due to the law of diminishing returns. You earn more, you spend more, you go out more, you buy posh clothes/car/house and load up your credit cards. Earning more money gives you more stress as buying more valuable things is expected of you, "you can't turn up to work in that! We pay you good money! Buy some clothes!" for example. You earn £250,000 per year and are invited out for dinner. You can't exactly go to Tesco for a suit  and turn up in your 5 year old Renault Clio, can you?

People say that "money is the root of all evil" but that is incorrect. The bible actually says, "the LOVE of money is the root of all evil". 

So, never worry about the money, worry about how you spend your time, because time is a much greater commodity than money. Do things you love, find a job that you can't believe they actually pay you for, as you'd do it  for free anyway, you love it so much. Then you will realise that your friend can keep his £45K and mine can keep his £250K and his Ferrari. 

In my life I have sipped cocktails from the top of the Rockefeller centre at a VIP function. I have partied in a roof terrace overlooking the Thames. I have drank fine Sancerre and eaten lobster in Easter Island. All of these things combined are not even close to eating a bag of chips on the beach with my best friend

Brilliant.

indigoblue11

I had a job recently that paid a life changing sum of money, but I found it stressful earning that much as it was a big jump from a previous role. I felt uncomfortable earning so much, so much so that I had to get my brother to deal with my finances because I didn't know what to do with it all. He ensure my current account had what I needed in it for bills etc and the rest gets moved into a savings account that is not visible on my online banking. Your friend who is only 19 sounds very immature bragging about it, and I have no doubt in my mind won't be earning it long enough not in this current climate anyway.

Sandtree

Mr_Maths said:

@Sandtree that was definitely the case for me, I had an interview for a £50k job in 2012, maybe even 2011, but I was still earning less than that by the time I got made redundant 8 years later. It means the money lies with being good at interviews rather than good at your job. 

Interview skills are critical but you need to be able to walk the walk too else your CV is littered with short engagements as people realise that you talk a good game but then get rid of you when you turn out be useless. You can only explain away a few short engagements in a row.

I and 5 others were hired into a new department a few years back and after a month or so of us all being there the new Head of Marketing in the pub admitted he’d over played his last role and he’d jumped from circa £30k to £75k... he lasted exactly 6 months and 1 day before they gave hiim his notice (it would have been 1 day short of 6 months and almost no notice but he was advised to pull a sickie on the day of his probation review). He then landed another similar job (dont know the money but should have been comparable) but only lasted 3 months this time. Hasnt had any meaningful work of more than a few weeks here and there freelancing since.

Flatulentoldgoat

indigoblue11 said:

I had a job recently that paid a life changing sum of money, but I found it stressful earning that much as it was a big jump from a previous role. I felt uncomfortable earning so much, so much so that I had to get my brother to deal with my finances because I didn't know what to do with it all. He ensure my current account had what I needed in it for bills etc and the rest gets moved into a savings account that is not visible on my online banking. Your friend who is only 19 sounds very immature bragging about it, and I have no doubt in my mind won't be earning it long enough not in this current climate anyway.

Accusing my friend of being immature and suggesting he won't be in his job long? What a horrible thing to say about someone. I completely agree with his right to brag about it, it's well deserved especially at his age. You sound like someone who's got a massive chip on their shoulder with a healthy dose of envy.

[Deleted User]

Mr_Maths said:

@Sandtree I have the opposite problem. I don't think I've ever met anyone who's struggled with interviews to the extent I do. I've known other people who have stayed in a job they've wanted to leave for years but that's generally because they don't apply for any jobs.

Have you thought about an interview coach, YouTube videos on how to do a great interview, or read articles like this - https://www.holistics.io/blog/how-to-prepare-for-data-analyst-interview/. Sounds like you might have a confidence issue - a lot of being successful in an interview is proving you have the skills, however, confidence (not arrogance) is important too.

AskAsk

Mr_Maths said:

@Sandtree I have the opposite problem. I don't think I've ever met anyone who's struggled with interviews to the extent I do. I've known other people who have stayed in a job they've wanted to leave for years but that's generally because they don't apply for any jobs.

you must be doing something wrong.  the interview is very important and you must be doing something to put people off or you get too nervous at interviews that you can't perform at all.

it may help to get feedback from every interview but also to speak to a recruitment agent and see if they could give you a mock interview and get their feedback.

one of the key thing i find at interview is your ability to think quickly and derive an answer.  you are under pressure and you are expected to come up with instant answers, sometimes to very complex questions.  it may be that you can't think fast enough so you can't give the right answers in the short space of time.

have you done any analysis yourself and derive any conclusions?