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AIBU?

to be flummoxed

48 replies

WinkyWinkola · 07/08/2007 22:13

by my good friend who claims just 'manage' despite earning £160k p.a.. I am staggered.

OP posts:

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Katy44 · 07/08/2007 22:14

?????????????
Is there an extra zero on there?

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MerlinsBeard · 07/08/2007 22:15

people manage on what they earn. you get used to what you have.

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Beauregard · 07/08/2007 22:15

huh?
Is she/he a loon?
Throw em in the poor house with me ,that will teach em

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PeachesMcLean · 07/08/2007 22:15

Tell her to get a grip.

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PeachesMcLean · 07/08/2007 22:16

I know people like that. It's not an endearing quality I find.

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WinkyWinkola · 07/08/2007 22:17

One hundred and sixty thousand pounds per year. One person. She's not a footballer. She's a city lawyer. That doesn't include her bonus. Ok, she's got four kids. They go / will go to private school and she's extending her house. All that costs.

But she claims that London life means her salary is just enough to live on. Eeeeeeek. I'd better not tell her what DH earns. She'll be dropping food parcels off at our house!

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PeachesMcLean · 07/08/2007 22:21

"just enough to live on" does not include private education and a house extension.

Ooooh it makes me cross.

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VeniVidiVickiQV · 07/08/2007 22:24

Living in London is excruciatingly painful on the wallet.

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bookwormtailmum · 07/08/2007 22:30

Your expenditure will always stretch to whatever salary you earn so it's never going to be enough in that sense.

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quint · 07/08/2007 22:33

I used to have to deal with people that were soooooo stressedout as they had to decorate the country home, interview for a new nanny and get organised for going on holiday for the third time that year - sickening isn't it!

I also worked for a woman who regularly complained that she hadn;t had a day off in months - this is despite the fact that she didn't work, had 2 nannies, a full time housekeeper, weekend nannies and a weekend housekeeper!

Remember everything is relative.

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chocolatedot · 07/08/2007 22:35

My best friend earns £250k and claims not to be able to afford priate speech therapy for her son

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bookwormtailmum · 07/08/2007 22:41

I just remembered a ex-bf's sister complaining that she had to pay the insurance inter alia on her car, her restored sports car, her husbands two motorbikes (he'd not got around to selling one), the dog and her house. This was from the same woman who'd paid her mortgage off in 7 years, having purchased it at the peak of interest rate rises in the late 80s/early 90s .

To those that have, shall be given.....

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babygrand · 07/08/2007 22:47

It's true that most people spend what they earn. If she's got 4 children in private school that probably takes most of her salary. Remember she's taxed at 40%. The school fees will be about 12k per year per child, ie 48k, but you have to gross that up to work out how much she would need to earn to pay it.

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bookwormtailmum · 07/08/2007 22:50

She's probably sitting there worrying that she has to keep working like hell to keep all her plates [financial obligations] spinning. Well-off still have everyday expenses like us - they just spend a bigger % of their income on them.

I wouldn't envy her myself. As nice as it would be to earn 160k a year .

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Katy44 · 08/08/2007 08:34

True that you live on what you earn, DH and my salaries have both at least doubled since we started work (we started work on absolutely cr*p salaries) but we had at least as much disposable income then.
Still...£160,000!

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edam · 08/08/2007 08:38

Babygrand, she's not taxed at 40 per cent on her whole income, same as everyone else she's only taxed at 40 per cent over whatever the limit is now. She chooses to pay £48k in school fees and still has many times what most of us have to live on. Ungrateful mare.

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Katy44 · 08/08/2007 08:39

but that's £36k i think
so it is most of her income

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silverfrog · 08/08/2007 08:42

Agree that the school fees can be a real killer. we, ostensibly, have a decent enough income to keep us very comfortably. Then we dedeuct maintenance payments to dh's ex (calculated at a time when he earned three times what he now earns) and school fees (to one of the most expensive schools on the country - not dh's choice and he wasn't allowed a say, he only pays the bills after all), and once you gross that up, dh needs to earn around 75k before we can spend a single penny on ourselves. Quite scary really.

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Beetroot · 08/08/2007 08:44

She may be finding it difficult to keep everything going as she has made some choices which are stretching her financially at present. Just becasue she is earning more than most, does not mean she cannot worry about her commitments. Perhaps she is being a little insensitive, however, It is expensive sending 4 children to private school, extending a house, living in London. And she has every right to feel that she can 'just about manage' and vocalize that to a mate.

I feel sorry for her that you judge her.

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edam · 08/08/2007 08:44

So, it's the same level for everyone, she's not being singled out. She chooses to earn such a vast salary, she knew what income tax rates were before she took the ruddy job. She can afford to pay her fair share!

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CharleeWeasley · 08/08/2007 08:45

I know a certain person who was a blooming millionnaire but still used to tell us of thier 'struggles' to fund the monthly holidays abroard.

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Beetroot · 08/08/2007 08:45

Has she moaned about the amount of tax she is paying?

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edam · 08/08/2007 08:46

Beety, has the sun gone to your head?! You feel sorry for her?! Wow. Winky didn't judge her, she said she was flummoxed/staggered.

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Beetroot · 08/08/2007 08:47

I have four kids at private school and sometimes struggle with the fees. Yes it is our choice but once you have made that choice and they are established it would only ever be a last option to take them out and move them to another school.

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edam · 08/08/2007 08:50

My mother sometimes struggled with our school fees, especially when she was made redundant and was too ill to find another job for a while. But I would never have expected someone worse off than us - a miner who had been thrown out of work, for instance - to feel sorry for us!