Life is hard living on £120k a year.

You’d be surprised, but you probably have.

Ok.. I was exaggerating for effect perhaps..

I’ve met an occasional magistrate, and possibly a couple of medical specialists.. I don’t think I would bank on meeting anyone in a social capacity

it’s easy to point the finger at others who earn more and say ‘You should pay more tax

Those who earn more do pay more tax.

I don’t think I would bank on meeting anyone in a social capacity

Really? I’d imagine CFH spends that on shoes 🙂 and I HOPE globalti makes more than that for putting his neck on the block in Nigeria. Just to take a couple of obvious examples …

yeah.. not likely to ever be drinking in the pubs I drink in or mixing in the circles I mix in..

Of the 350+ friends on my facebook account, the only two folk that may possibly earn anything like that are associates, friends of friends through MTBing..
No-one else on there would even be approaching half that salary

as I said.. some seriously deluded folk out there

The conclusion to this thread is that no matter how much or how little you earn, most people live to their means, then when circumstances change to affect that balance they’ll feel squeezed.

Simply put, we can all either make the relative adjustments in our lives to satisfy the needs/ wages balance, or continue in the current frame hoping to maintain the lifestyle we’ve created for ourselves and that the pressure will reduce.

His local greengrocer could solve his money problems at a stroke. Mine is much cheaper that any supermarket I’ve been in.

Can’t believe this is still bubbling away.

Can I ask a couple of serious questions?

1. how many of you actually do a job that’s worth in market terms £120k?
2. how many of you wish you had a job earning £120k?
3. and if you haven’t why not?

Like I said, £120k ain’t a fortune for man of his age living in Surrey and working in the City the best part of his working life, that’s a lot of commuting in rush hour on packed trains, endless corporate meetings and conference calls, a slow death by powerpoint and excel spreadsheets, and I bet his phone and email is constantly pinging KPI’s until 10 at night. I think he deserves more, I bet he probably does.

£120k ain’t a fortune for man of his age living in Surrey and working in the City

This.

Maybe the solution is to nuke Surrey from orbit..?

He could always sell up and become a crofter on a remote Scottish hillside. Their aren’t many michelin starred restaurants, or a Waitrose, but the change of pace might make him happier

Maybe the solution is to nuke Surrey from orbit..?

Nice idea but the UK would really end up third world if you did, and think of all the poor audi’s.

I live in a nice bit of Surrey, we have council estates so quite a range of people live here still. Of course a lot of the better off want to live here and so prices are high and there’s pressure to build on the green belt which will happen. I want to move away as it’s so busy on the roads for cycling, currently working in Newbury and love the countryside around here.

Edit – not sure that £120k is that common here! Not rare though obviously.

I’ve come up with a pretty radical solution. If his kids are 16 and 17, they could always go out and get jobs?

Not one person in my organisation earns £120k.

I’ve come up with a pretty radical solution. If his kids are 16 and 17, they could always go out and get jobs?

And how would that help the situation?

Northwind – Member
By and large, the top 1% are doing it off the labours of the other 99%. So a redistribution of wealth downwards away from the capital to the labour- ie, away from the hoarders of wealth towards the creators of wealth- doesn’t make that tax abruptly vanish, it just means that someone else pays it
(albeit at a lower rate, so there is a fall in income taxes, but not a total loss)

If the wealth was distributed more equally then the welfare bill would reduce such a tax credits, housing benefit and CTAX benefit. Also as wages at the lower end would rise more people would have incentives to work.

But no, we will keep our low wages that have to be subsidised by credit and state aid to live normal lives, while those at the top get rich on cheap labour.

And how would that help the situation?

He’d save £45k a year in school fees for starters!

1. how many of you actually do a job that’s worth in market terms £120k?
2. how many of you wish you had a job earning £120k?
3. and if you haven’t why not?

1. Nope
2. Nope
3. Because my lifestyle sounds massively better than his and I have nothing to moan about.

38,000 state employed workers earn over £100k a year*
545,000 privately employed workers earn over £100k a year*

*2011 stats

Not one person in my organisation earns £120k.

That’s a pretty meaningless statement! You could run a corner shop, or you could work for a multi national oil company. Actually, the latter is clearly unlikely.

Not one person in my organisation earns £120k.

That’s a pretty meaningless statement! You could run a corner shop, or you could work for a multi national oil company. Actually, the latter is clearly unlikely.[/quote]

~200 staff, highly successful, £9000000pa budget (plus extras, like a couple of million being spent on building work this year).

The guy at the top is on 70% of what the guy in the Telegraph article earns.

Not one person in my organisation earns £120k.

That’s a pretty meaningless statement! You could run a corner shop, or you could work for a multi national oil company. Actually, the latter is clearly unlikely.

Technically possible if you mean earns exactly £120k, might have plenty over and plenty under….

I’ve come up with a pretty radical solution. If his kids are 16 and 17, they could always go out and get jobs?
And how would that help the situation?

>…erm… well Instead of expecting daddy to continue their education by paying 9 grand each a year each University tuition fees, on top of their 45 grand a year school fees. they could get a job, and become a net contributor to the household

Like I said… its pretty radical stuff. I didn’t say it was easy. It might take a while for people to get their heads around it. Getting jobs when you leave school at 16. But desperate situations require pretty drastic measures

The guy at the top is on 70% of what the guy in the Telegraph article earns.

He’s either a good liar or in the wrong job.

~200 staff, highly successful, £9000000pa budget (plus extras, like a couple of million being spent on building work this year).

The guy at the top is on 70% of what the guy in the Telegraph article earns.

Seems a bit low, my organisation is circa 100 people and our CEO is on over twice that. Quite a few others are around that figure.

Technically possible if you mean earns exactly £120k, might have plenty over and plenty under….

🙂

He’s either a good liar or in the wrong job.

Or he’s not greedy.

Or he’s not greedy.

I’m not sure such CEOs exist. You need to be pretty ruthless and selfish to get to the top….

Even many large charities are run by cut throat money grabbing individuals, whose sole aim is to earn more and don’t give a monkeys about the charitable cause.

Or he’s not greedy

Greed has nothing to do with it. You should be paid what your job is worth. Based on that description he is well under-paid.

Plenty of people in my firm earn £120k PA or more (we employ 165,000 people globally)

Not sure i’d want the responsibility or aggravation that goes with it though.
Plenty of the high rollers in our organization live out of a suitcase week in week out, need to be contactable 24/7 and miss their kids growing up.

I guess I earn about 40% of that figure, but at least I can leave my company phone downstairs at night, and turn it off at weekends.

Greed has nothing to do with it. You should be paid what your job is worth. Based on that description he is well under-paid.

Difficult as it may be for you to grasp, not everyone bases their happiness and sense of self-worth on how much money they earn.

Maybe he earns ‘enough’ and is quite happy? Imagine that.

I live in Surrey, but have not had anything on a plate. I left school at just 16 with no qualifications, having wasted my time for years. I pulled myself together though and knuckled down to try and earn enough money to afford a decent life style for me and my hoped for family.

The fact is that if you live around here, have a modicom of talent, are prepared to take employment that could end in the sack for under achievement, stick with it until you are good at it and build contacts and Clients….you can earn £120k or more.

37 years on I can look back at a reasonable level of success, however I wouldn’t recommend it to my kids. Far better to get a degree in Law or medicine etc and be virtually guaranteed a good lifestyle for the rest of your life.

In terms of struggling to live on £120k, there is no sympathy for this, but people do get sucked into the big house/mortgage/private school/ 4 x 4 lifestyle and therefore will find the money soon runs out.

After a week commuting into that London including the tube strike, I wouldn’t do it for £120k.

Surprised myself realising that because there’s loads I’d love to do but can’t because we’re skint.

37 years on I can look back at a reasonable level of success, however I wouldn’t recommend it to my kids. Far better to get a degree in Law or medicine etc and be virtually guaranteed a good lifestyle for the rest of your life.

Friend of mine is a lawyer. Earns a decent wage but the job completely takes over his life.

After a week commuting into that London including the tube strike, I wouldn’t do it for £120k.

+1

After a week commuting into that London including the tube strike, I wouldn’t do it for £120k.

I’ve done it on and off for less money but in a job I mostly liked. Spending 3 hrs + / day commuting ain’t great but after you’ve put up with it for a while you see the benefits – say you can have a nice house and no mortgage if you want to go that way.

37 years on I can look back at a reasonable level of success, however I wouldn’t recommend it to my kids. Far better to get a degree in Law or medicine etc and be virtually guaranteed a good lifestyle for the rest of your life.

Doesnt guarantee a goood lifestyle – can be a good income, but that can be and often is the opposite of what I’d call a good lifestyle.

Interesting isn’t, the last thing I want is my kids to follow me into a profession.

So this guy “deserves” no sympathy because his predicament is based solely on his choice to invest in his childrens’s future?!?! Wow, imagine applying the same logic elsewhere. Make the wrong choice, tough, live with it……

…erm… well Instead of expecting daddy to continue their education by paying 9 grand each a year each University tuition fees, on top of their 45 grand a year school fees. they could get a job, and become a net contributor to the household

OK so are you recommending they leave school and not go onto Uni? The guy who earns £120k a year pays quite a lot more tax than someone who earns £25k a year. If you leave school at 16, you’re not confining yourself to that kind of income, but you are limiting your chances of reaching your earning potential and consequently reducing the tax take of the Exchequer.

Did you do A-Levels? If so do you remember how much work is involved? Doing well and fitting in part time work is not easy.

I worked in bar quite a bit when I was 16-18 and doing A-Levels but the amount I earned, even doing something like 15 hours a week, wouldn’t have made much of a contribution to school fees (had we been paying them). I also felt that my grades suffered because of how much additional work I was doing.

Really this is a bit of a nonsense argument isn’t it Binners.

Spending 3 hrs + / day commuting ain’t great

Unless you’re doing it on a bike of course!

But no, we will keep our low wages that have to be subsidised by credit and state aid to live normal lives, while those at the top get rich on cheap labour.

It’s quite ironic really when you consider the tories spent most of the 80s deconstructing the UK’s industrial base on the premise that the state couldn’t afford to subsidise it, and now we’re in a position where the state is subsidising low-skilled service industry jobs through tax credits and benefits.