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About LinkBacksand reading your excellent post, that was the right answer I'd say fellaOriginally Posted by cptwhite_uk
NO, I SIMPLY DON'T EARN ENOUGH MONEY
I AM RIGHT ON THE EDGE OF EARNING ENOUGH
YES I EARN ENOUGH OR MORE
and reading your excellent post, that was the right answer I'd say fella
that's not what the poll says.
33% say they earn enough of more
24% say they earn right on the edge of enough.
Tough to say. I now contract after being laid off twice in 18 months.
Income is down a lot due to the times between contracts. But still, if I didn't have the mortgage, I'd have far more than I need.
This contract finishes in June. If I don't find more work, we're going to lose the house by Christmas. (4 bed semi - no palace)
Society's to blame,
Or possibly Atari.
For me there's 2 sides to look at it from, firstly comparing to market rates, and the amount I think I should be earning for what I do, I think I should be earning 40% more than I do, but given the number of people made redundant in this field recently I accepted the lower rate to work with people I know rather than waiting for a higher rate that might not come for a couple of months.
The other point of view, is that I earn enough to live in my own apartment (rented) in London with a nice amount of disposable income left over each month and I'm only 24. I voted 'Yes, I earn enough or more', but I won't really be content until I can buy my own place instead of renting, the mortgage payments are not a problem, but the deposit is.
I don't mean to sound cold, or cruel, or vicious, but I am so that's the way it comes out.
simple answer. yes i earn enough.
i can pay my mortgage, pay my bills, run my car and buy the food i eat.
I don't have to restrict my diet to ensure the food i buy is affordable, i don't have to spend periods without heating to ensure bills don't get out of hand, so i earn enough to live comfortably
then comes all the other stuff, which is nothing more than 1st world woes, like the garden fence has seen better days & could do with replacing, stuff like that.
am i paid enough for what i do? i don't think so. my job has 2 elements, IT and telephony. industry standard salary for just the telephony part of my job is about what i earn, without all the extra IT stuff on top, plus i work for a company that expects you to live & breathe your job so think nothing of calling you in at no notice. however i'd also be happy to earn less if the reliance upon me was lessened accordingly. (my job has an on call element which i totally despise & would happily sacrifice the additional 3k a year it earns me just to never receive another phonecall at silly o'clock ever again)
am i worth what i earn? i think so. i have a decent amount of specialist knowledge, particularly since much of the software we use is either bespoke or so antiquated that nobody bothers learning about it any more. i have a good working relationship with all areas of the company, i am trusted and trustworthy...basically i am good at, and very experienced at what i do.
Last edited by petrefax; 06-05-2012 at 05:31 PM.
if it ain't broke...fix it till it is
Hrm, well I'll be controversial and we have more than enough for essentials. According to a quick wiki, the average household income in 2011 was about 38.5k after tax so we're slightly above that, but yeah...plenty for essentials.
No meaningful personal debt to speak of, except the mortgage which is sub 120k (we got lucky with housing market, sitting at maybe 60% LTV or thereabouts). Pair of kids, wife is part time and I'm not paying 40% tax.
We've not had a holiday for a number of years now but I'm building up some savings first, income is really skewed to me so I want reserves in case anything happens (one can never tell). On that note I've checked recently for how much we could cut before we ran into true hot water and....well it's a LOT.
We've been pretty fortunate all in I'd say but equally we've been pretty sensible too - as our income rose over time/new jobs, we didnt go nuts with it - our basic tastes stayed roughly the same.
In terms of sacrifices for this/would like to do: dont get out enough, need a proper holiday, need savings buffer established, household stuff needs doing. I could do a lot with more money, but need it? No. Want it? Hell yeah.
I'm doing a PhD, on a scholarship, which doesn't pay very much but there's the added benefits of it A) being tax free; and B) it's incredibly stimulating research.
That and having little in the way of financial commitments means that I live comfortably within my means, but can't save as much as I'd like for the financial commitments that will come along in the future... so I picked the middle option
Ultimately, of course, I could earn half as much and still live within my means... if I adapted my means, lucky as I am (and I think most of us are).
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I had to give up work last year due to ill health caused by vaccinations/pills given to me during the first Gulf War when we were used as part of a medical experiment without our consent. The MoD refuses to admit anything and so I get no war pension.
Hell no I don't earn enough!
Currently I earn enough to get by comfortably, as does my girlfriend. We are currently saving a lot of money towards a large deposit on a house after which I suspect she'll stop working or go part time. At that point, with a 15 year mortgage we'll still be able to live comfortably. Should I lose my jo or have to take a large pay cut I can then discuss extending the term with whoever I have the mortgage hopefully reducing the risk of losing the house if things go bad.
I feel really sorry for the lots of people in this country that have been properly stitched up by the state of the economy despite prudent planning and financial discipline.
However anyone who did not tick I earn enough should read the book "The automatic millionaire" http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Automati.../dp/0141019921
It's not some get rich quick scheme - it's got good advice for people not so good with money to control their finances and I'll bet that almost everyone that thinks they don't earn enough (in this threads terms) will find out that actually they do.
"In a perfect world... spammers would get caught, go to jail, and share a cell with many men who have enlarged their penises, taken Viagra and are looking for a new relationship."
I earn just enough for my lifestyle but probably not enough for the job that I do.
□ΞVΞ□
Will be starting a PhD next year with industrial sponsorship so it pays around £19k tax free. That's more than enough with no dependants and effectively student living, but it'll mostly go into savings for a house deposit I suspect. On the plus side, I've been living on around £4-5k a year plus accommodation, eating well and splurging occasionally on things so it'll be a welcome change.
As for compared to parents, I'll probably be earning similar to my mum, so of course it's enough to live on outside London. In fact it's essentially just below the average wage when you consider income tax.
I budget around £160 a month for groceries, I eat well and healthily, but a lot of that is being savvy about buying reduced produce. I live in the 'poor' end of town and as a result all the expensive food is typically unsold in the local Co-Op: cheap eating. Public transport eats into the budget a lot, seeing the girlfriend costs me just over a tenner a pop.
I help out at an international science camp each year which essentially pays for three trips abroad a year to planning meetings and the event itself. It's great fun, a good CV filler and most of the people who go are really close friends now; I've not had to pay for a holiday in at least 3 years as a result.
Realising when to spend lots of money and when to spend none is the real trick. For instance, my walking boots cost me around £100, my rain coat cost me about the same. The boots are in year 3 and the coat is pushing year 5. Had I bought cheaper things, they would have worn out long ago. Same goes for food, cooking your own food costs more up front, but on average will cost less than the equivalent ready meals. My MacBook cost me about a grand three years ago, but it's outlasted almost all my friends' laptops at university and I don't see it needing an upgrade any time soon.
PS - Really good trick, get your friends to buy the food and offer to cook it. Everybody gets a slap up meal and you don't pay a penny!
Last edited by Whiternoise; 07-05-2012 at 02:17 AM.
I'd say I earned more than enough when I worked for Unilever, me and the missus lived very comfortably.
But I get what he's saying, as people no matter what they earn will always yearn for something just out of reach haha.
I suppose it gives us something to strive for (although in most cases it's something to whine for!).
I'm soon going to be compensated for my back injury, it was caused by using faulty equipment in work, some *so many expletives strung together it's classed as a war crime* removed the "damaged equipment" notices then proceeded to load it with heavy equipment, I broke my back putting so much force into trying to move it haha.
But in a way it's a blessing, as the money will be used to buy a share in a friend's business, and even though it's hard work (he works probably 80h a week!) it's going to set me up for a long time.
Then I'ma buy a solid gold wheelchair
I earn enough in the sense I can pay my bills etc......but I do think I am worth a little more
At least your neck doesn't click, be thankful for that.
A friend of mine doing a PhD mentioned this and I just assumed he'd subscribed to that common fallacy that students don't pay tax - now you've said it as well I'm assuming he was right. Is there a special tax loophole for PhD placements or something?
As for the OP, I'm not actually earning at the moment - I've done a bit of full-time and a bit of part-time, depending on my availability. Nonetheless, what I've earned and will earn is carrying me through happily, and I feel comfortable enough to allow me luxuries like the PC I'm using right now - one of the advantages of spending a year working before I started my degree. I still haven't met anyone else who did it.
I'd take a neck clicking over my current prolapsed disc that moves due to my spine fusing incorrectly when it broke
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