RJM25R

iTrader: (1)

42 grand last year, prob 36-ish this year with credit crunch but my post-paye is not that different due to the higher-tax-banding on the extra money I earned last year. Where I'm lsing out is that I'm earning little interest on my savings and everything is more expensive (Our weekly shop has gone up from 52 quid to 60. Thats another 32 a month gone! Must try Aldi LOL!!)

LG John

Around $80 per hour tax free. I guess I could be in the top 1% if I wasn't such a lazy bum

Deep Singh

Not quite sure what you mean. I'm not basing everything I do around my pension, I live life and enjoy my job. Effectively I went into my line of work at 18 and never even knew what the pension rights were until about 2 years ago.

It is important though for me to know that I will not be impoverished in my old age, cutting out coupons, not turning the heating on etc.

Also if I did drop dead at 59 my wife still gets the lump sum and some other benefits.

There is a balance in life isn't there? You have to enjoy the here and now, who knows if you will be alive tommorrow. But that shouldn't be an excuse not to make any provision for the future

Spooky Mulder

BTW any decent businessman will have leveraged income so he will be making plenty of money whether s/he wakes up and chooses to go an play golf, go to Palmersport for the day, spend the day with the kids, or even, God forbid, go surfing; instead of going to work!!

Making the money when you are not there is what counts!

If you want to know about being self-employed check out this guy...

If you hate what you do even 1%, STOP

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

It doesn't make much difference dude, me and the Mrs tried it. We can feed ourselves on £80 every 2 weeks at Asda with brands we're familiar with and stuff we like (mixed crap and healthy). Aldi is just the same price but with less choice (Scunthorpe store is small and poxy)...

Unless you were jesting, by which ignore everything I waffled above

Matteeboy

Of course it's not all doom and gloom - a big salary is a big salary however much it's taxed. But the money in your pocket and the flexibility if you are on a high salary is much lower. Yes we don't get official paid holiday but to be honest, living down here, holidays aren't such a priority - every weeknight and weekend is a holiday!

Just hoping this might encourage others if it sounds like it's for them - so many say "I couldn't work with my missus" or "I couldn't work from home" - well I couldn't have some jumped up muppet of a boss "dissing" me all day, I couldn't stand having to justify my existence 8 hours a day, I couldn't stand "good work" being equated to "long hours", etc, etc - it's such a small compromise for such a huge gain. You both have the same goals, can share the kids and be flexible. Especially when you get others to do most of the work for you...

MJW

Same method I use for my wage, minimal wage for PAYE & NI purposes, then the rest taken as a director's dividend. Decreases the firm's tax liability too ...

hodgy0_2

yep couldn,t agree more, I used call it the "spinning plates" theory

but having tried being a "decent businessman" i realised I wasn't

but if you can do it, (and keep doing it year on year) I think thats brilliant

davyboy

Of course we could die tomorrow, but I'll use the law of averages and assume I will live long enough to enjoy it!

Spooky Mulder

Mattee - as in all things you have a very strong (negative) views of working for a living.

The differential in net earnings in no where near as great as you think and the fact that someone is on a high salary does not necessarily make them a slave, or have a terrible boss, or be tied to massively long hours, or have them be in broken relationships, or have bad health, or have a heart attack, or die young, or not live in great places, and they can have great take home pay too.

Indeed in my experience, the higher the earner the more choices they seem to have.

At the end of the day - the best job is not about how you structure your earnings - it is finding something you love and monetising it.

Yours is a great way and should try and imagine that your way is not the only way - there are other ways and not all of them ironic

davyboy

Of course we could die tomorrow, but I'll use the law of averages and assume I will live long enough to enjoy it!

Matteeboy

Spooky - errrmm - I believe we do work for a living - just not silly hours in a faceless office in a city!

Yes I've had some poor experiences working for others - making them plenty of money yet seeing very little of it myself, then egos get in the way and all sorts of other cr4p. We don't do long hours (most of the time) but the hours we do spend are purely on work - not faffing. Suits us anyway and probably many others.

Oh and we love what we do.

What do you do BTW? Something financial by the sounds of it?

mamoon2

Agree with that statement 100%. I couldn't go back to having some halfwit muppet tell me what to do. I also have the missus working for me, it can be tough spending all day together but the flexablilty it gives you is great. Its great to pick my son up from nursery at 3.30pm and for him to come home and both of us be there (we work from home).

Spooky Mulder

Note to self - when having a pop at Mattee then at least get the subject right...

...I didn't mean to type working for a living, I meant working for someone else which you did pick up on

My alter ego when not fighting on Snet does leadership coaching and development. I work either with professional services type firms or speak and train at public events worldwide.

I also provide very high quality interim leaders to organisations and consultancies. To do this I own one business and am a non-executive director and shareholder in an IT business.

If I hint at financial it was because my background was in Financial Services and lots of my clients work in that sector.

And apart from VAT return day every quarter I do what I love. I work around three/four days a week and travel extensively - so far this year had a month in Australia and two weeks in San Diego.

(See I am taking some of the bragging heat off you at this rate I will be turning into Nat )

Mitchy260

Combined income of around £90k PAYE (£55k/£35k) Works out around £5k pm after taxation and my 8% FSP contribution. Not London salaries but NE Scotland so may go a little further than what it would do in the capital.

Typical middle earners i think, we are not wealthy in the slightest as our outgoings with mortgage and childcare, running 2 cars and all other day to day bills takes up around 75% of that.

I would love to be earning £150k pa but it's never going to happen. Still, i had 2wks off last month on sick leave on full pay and ive got 3wks holiday next week on full pay so PAYE has its benefits.

I just work, go home after my 8hrs and relax. Life's too short for you to be slogging away 12-18hr days to earn a 6 figure salary

Gav

I work for my old man who has run a successful business for 27 years and I can't think of anyone better to work besides and learn from. I have complete admiration for him to run a company for so long and so well. I will be taking over the company and have a view to expand and do other things but he says he's too long in the tooth to be doing that now

Right now I earn a good wage (for a mank) and when I take over it will be onwards and upwards

Jerome

I'm happy being a PAYE "slave" for the time being.

As soon as the IT Contractor market recovers, I shall get back into contracting.

Best ratio of least effort for most reward.

Fangoria

iTrader: (1)

In the top 1%....
I havent really noticed any change in lifestyle since I moved about the £70k mark, many years ago. Just waste more money on cars...... can live in a nicer house, spend a bit more on Holidays I guess but hasnt really been any life changers

My company contributes peanuts to the DC Pension scheme and I'll be cutting back on contributions in a couple of years time
Unless the rules get changed and you can own your own pot I dont see the point of taking a 25% lump sum and living off a crappy annuity, so will invest more in properties over the next 20 years (sure you get the tax relief going in but you also pay the tax at the other end, so its a timing thing! - and I dont need to be told about pensions, I qualified as a financial advisor years ago... but dont use it in practice - that can be done by a computer.... good to know the basics and it really is fairly simple)

Looking to move to Singapore in about 18 months time to try and avoid the tax nonsense. I would pay approx 15% (all in), firm would pay medical/health and schooling for kids and help with accomodation..... I would be quids in, but would only be for a certain amount of time (until the UK Government sorted out its Zimbabwe finances)

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

There's a fecking lot of 1%'s on here!

davyboy

Of course the 1%ers are going to respond to a vulgar thread like this

JamJay

Accounts & Asset Management - Accounts & Asset Control Coordinator.

Spreadsheet, Spreadsheet, Spreadsheet, Spreadsheet (yawn lol).

Nah it's ok, there's a fair bit of problem solving to do so it keeps the mind busy. I work internationally sometimes, last trip was Sweden...my word, the quality of the clunge (women) is astronomical but aside from that, it is pretty w@nk being all on your own with only your mobile and facebook to chat to your buddies with.

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

Have to agree with that having been self employed before. Muxh prefer being on PAYE.

Just had a pension meeting at work and I am now more confused than I was before!

Matteeboy

I think job titles are a bit silly.

I'm officially a Director and Chairman of our little Ltd company - tsk tsk!

SteveScooby

iTrader: (2)

£89 a year more than the mean as basic, plus overtime

+Doc+

Another question, how many 1%'ers have worked their way up to it and how many were handed it?

Matteeboy

I think many of you are forgetting that anything bought by yourselves is effectively 50% more expensive. Get the company to buy it and you claim back VAT and don't pay tax or NI to get it out - plus the expense lessens your CT rate. So all IT kit, a portion of rent and bills, bikes and many other items (as well as car expenses) are effectively much cheaper when bought via the company. The effect may seem minimal but it makes a huge difference. Not only are you paying less tax and NI, you can also buy many items "cheaper" as long as you don't take the pi55. And having a certain TV corporation as a client even means we can buy a new TV and kit using the company.

We honestly make so much more use of our company income that you don't need to earn a lot to take a decent chunk home. I also enjoy the variety - in jobs I've done you have one role - sales, accounts, whatever. Running your own show means you deal with the lot - some of it not so fun (accounts although I like to be in control) and some is really quite satisfying. Also means stuff gets done very quickly for your clients - which they appreciate. One client does big broadsheet ads - we can write the copy and get an ad designed for them in less than half a day - no big agency can do that or get anywhere near our costs. Same with PR stuff.

So being on a big salary at a big firm always sounds good but you are just a cog in a wheel - and if you're earning well, your employer is earning VERY well from you. That grates me badly!

Spooky - interesting set of roles there. Must make for a nice varied career?

Doc - we built ours up from nothing but so what if a family member takes something over? If anything they have to prove themselves even more. And any father that's built up a business will nit hand it to a son (or daughter) unless he's (or she) is 100% confident they can do the job properly. And if that son or daughter has grown up in an environment of success and hard work, they are more than likely to be able to handle the pressure.

MattW

It's not about the money for me, it's about not having to fill in stupid appraisal forms, objectives and the like. The fact that whatever I do is for my reputation and my cv and not some multi national company.

*I should say Our because there are two of us.

hodgy0_2

the own business/self employed route lost its appeal when we started to have a familly, pre kids when my wife was working in fashion design and earning an amount that would put her in the top 10% (back in 1994) my work was subsidised to a certain degree

but we were pretty sure that we wanted our (5) kids to have a full time, at home mum

so I had to smarten up my act and start to bring in the beans because my wife giving up work meant we were immediately 45 odd K adrift each year -- I personally would have found difficult building up my business, with all the stress & commitment that would involve. Plus with a salary you get the added security of a regular income, and with a big family that in itself is worth a lot