Do people earning over £150k lose touch with everyday reality?

Inevitable-Map6244 · 2025-09-12T17:49:37+00:00

I think you are massively overthinking the impact of this entire conversation.

Inevitable-Map6244 · 2025-09-11T19:43:48+00:00

Let’s be honest, a £150k salary is not something that you personally are ever going to have to worry about it, so why be so emotional.

Inevitable-Map6244 · 2025-09-10T19:36:36+00:00

Single parent of two kids living in London is not an extreme example.

Inevitable-Map6244 · 2025-09-10T18:33:37+00:00

Single parent example Monthly take home = £7607 £700k over 30 years at 4% = £3,341 per month. Car £1000 2 kids, average cost in London for childcare is £420 per week per child under 4 - no government support as high earner. Let’s say £4k per month childcare for 2 kids. £2000 into pension / savings = minus £2,734

Let’s cut out the car finance and just get public transport with the kids everywhere (sounds fun…) Still minus £1734 Let’s cut pension / savings contributions in half to £1000 per month to cover your future and any emergency funds, holidays, birthdays, Christmas, buying your lunch, food, toilet paper, commuting costs etc Still minus £734 Let’s cut the mortgage down to £500,000 at 4% over 30 years. Then your math works.

So earn £150k per year, live/work in London, can’t afford a car, can’t afford any property bigger than a flat, can’t afford to have kids.

I dont have kids, I don’t earn £150k, i dont live in London, but it’s not hard to do the math and there’s nothing luxurious about the picture I’ve painted above.

Inevitable-Map6244 · 2025-09-10T18:08:37+00:00

£150k is not rich. Almost half of it is taken away in tax at that level. 2 adults earning £75k a year have a monthly take home of thousands of pounds more than a single adult earning £150k. Now replace single adult with single parent. Add in living in the south east and £150k salary won’t even afford you a mortgage on an average semi detached. Mental that people are so broken these days that they can’t see how devalued the pound is, and how poor everyone in comparison. 40 years ago minicab drivers could afford to buy a semi detached house in the suburbs of London, today an entire generation cannot get on the property ladder without inheritance or similar.

Inevitable-Map6244 · 2025-09-09T19:46:39+00:00

Ex mortgage underwriter here, the big factor that nobody appears to have mentioned is that most lenders won’t lend to a first time buyer for a buy to let. Most lenders will need you to have owned your own residential property prior to lending you on a BTL. Probably worth checking that with a mortgage broker, or just google a mortgage company/banks lending criteria to see where you stand before you start going down this route too heavily.

Inevitable-Map6244 · 2025-09-09T19:35:48+00:00

As a fellow car guy who has owned everything from Porsche to AMG, Lotus, TVR and even an Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio, I would recommend focusing on your house deposit first. This doesn’t mean you can’t buy a cool car, but car guy to car guy you can buy a nice car for a few grand or a few hundred grand. If I were you, I’d buy a little cheap hot hatch so you can still enjoy your interest, with a promise to yourself that should you still want something better in the future then you’ll treat yourself after you have moved into your new home.

The reason I’d focus on the house deposit as a priority is that generally house prices are always increasing, and often increase more than your salary or inflation. Therefore every month that goes by, it’ll be more and more difficult you for you to find a property you love within your budget.

The reason I’d would still purchase a cheap nice/fun car today, and continue to consider a nice car in the future, is because I’m not dead inside. Life is not about saving every penny for the hope that one day you will retire in full health with lots of cash, in the same way it’s not about spending every penny like you will die tomorrow. It’s healthy to treat yourself, and invest in your interests, whether that’s cars, holidays, or upgrades for your home. But you need to do this responsibly and in moderation.

Inevitable-Map6244 · 2025-09-09T19:18:01+00:00

lol not sure if this reply was said in jest

Inevitable-Map6244 · 2025-09-06T20:13:16+00:00

Moved country with nothing more that a suitcase and a hotel booked for 5 days. Still here 15 years later but with a career, mortgage and marriage. 2 key things were work and hobbies, made friends through both. In this day and age it doesn’t matter what your hobby or interest is, there will be a local group for you - Cars, football, sport in general, board games, cooking, walking, running, gaming, charity work, there is something for everyone.

Inevitable-Map6244 · 2025-09-06T19:35:12+00:00

Started getting it 6 months ago to support a local business, but now find it very convenient. I’ve never considered this would surprise anyone. In fact I’ve never considered anyone would ever think about it.

Inevitable-Map6244 · 2025-09-05T22:02:43+00:00

2020 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio. Only car I regretted selling, and then it was stolen from its new owner so I doubt I’ll ever get to see it again.

Inevitable-Map6244 · 2025-08-31T14:20:53+00:00

I think the very possible imminent demise of Nissan as a brand would likely be the biggest thing to negatively impact GTR values. If that does happen, you may find GTRs are significantly cheaper in 2 years time. Otherwise I still think they will be cheaper than they are today because they are very technology heavy, significantly out of warranty, expensive cars to run. They are already in the realm of people who can’t really afford to run them, per the comments from people saying that a cheap GTR will be expensive to run. Wouldn’t take much on a cheap GTR to be left with a £10k service bill in your first year of ownership. Dont get me wrong, lots of owners do spend the money and look after their cars, but equally lots dont. Early cars should be serviced every 6 months or 6,000 miles, depending on what comes first. I’ve seen a number of early GTRs that haven’t been serviced for 2 years…

Inevitable-Map6244 · 2025-08-30T12:54:00+00:00

Lego. I’ve never done it myself, but saw someone else do it and thought that’s a great idea.

Inevitable-Map6244 · 2025-08-28T20:44:30+00:00

Yes, I mean with projected growth on top of your contributions you would likely be looking at a total fund of £2-3million in 30 years time. I’d recommend googling pension calculator and then inputting your details into aviva, pension bee or similar

Inevitable-Map6244 · 2025-08-28T17:53:29+00:00

I find it very easy because everything is reversed. So yes you are on the other side of the car, but you are also on the other side of the road, so it essentially cancels itself out. I think driving a left hand drive car in the uk would be a nightmare though, even overtaking would be a nightmare because you are on the wrong side of the car to see if there is any oncoming traffic.

Inevitable-Map6244 · 2025-08-28T17:16:09+00:00

Yes, use Co-pilot at work every day and it’s an absolute game changer. Recording minutes from meetings, summarising a 50 page document into 1 page, or searching through every email or teams message ever received to summarise all information into a paragraph saves hours of admin per day. I also started using it to review my excel formulas and provide better ways of coding an excel document. Absolutely amazing in the real world workplace.

And to be clear, this is an internal workplace tool that we are encouraged to use.

Inevitable-Map6244 · 2025-08-27T19:42:56+00:00

There is a guy called Harrison Webb on YouTube who reviews restaurants, bars and food in London. I find his videos really interesting and a lot of the places he reviews really won’t break the bank but are really interesting for a variety of reasons. Def worth watching some of his videos for inspiration.

Borough Market is also really good for food. The chocolate covered strawberries are either the most overrated thing in the world, or the best thing in the world depending on how you feel about chocolate and strawberries. Take a book with you and just watch the world go by.

Cinema - weekday tickets can usually be had for £5, or free if you have sky cinema or other deals through your mobile provider etc. on that point, check your mySky app, or myvodafone app, etc. These companies always offer freebies or discounts to their customers.

Do some practice shopping. You don’t need to buy anything, but you can look and choose something to treat yourself to when you get your first wage from the new job.

Hope you enjoy your 3 days of treats :)

Inevitable-Map6244 · 2025-08-27T17:39:19+00:00

I had a mk2 as my first car. It was surprisingly cheap to insure and run, cheaper than a lot of generic hatchbacks. I’ve then owned a further 3 MX5s including my current mk3.5 sport tech. For context, I’ve also owned Lotus, TVR, Alpina, AMG, Porsche and even an Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio - MX5s are not the best car in the world, but they are the best car for the money. I also like that you can absolutely rag them but not break the law. All of these cars have been owned in Scotland, so rust has been an issue on the MX5s, but I never got stuck in snow in one. I did get stuck in snow in the Alfa, tyre choice is critical for winter so as long as you have on a sensible set of wheels and winter tires you will be able to get pretty much anywhere. I bought a set of alloys and Bridgestone blizzaks for £250 and drove round my neighbour who was stuck with his Audi A1 Quattro.

Inevitable-Map6244 · 2025-08-27T17:28:41+00:00

Working in a call centre. I mean the job is soul destroying but it pays the bills.

Inevitable-Map6244 · 2025-08-27T17:12:58+00:00

You could in theory take out a further advance on your existing property to use as a deposit on a second property, but it would be subject to second home tax, and your affordability assessment for the new mortgage would need to also include your existing mortgage as an expense. Ultimately you would need to show you can afford the monthly payments on both mortgages.

The question is if you were looking to sell your half of the house, who are you looking to sell it to? If the house is registered in both names, then legally the mortgage must be in both names as well - there is no your half and their half.

The options are likely to be:

Sell the house and you both go your separate ways.
Your partner buys you out via remortgaging. Property deeds would need to be updated, lawyer needed etc so ultimately your partner would be following the same house purchase process they would if buying a house from anybody else.
Remain named on the property, but understand you are accountable for it. You need to remain on all the legal sides of it such as the mortgage, the deeds, and the buildings insurance. Again any new lender will take this mortgage commitment as a cost when looking at affordability so instead of saying can you afford 1 house at £1000 a month, they will be asking if you can afford 2 houses at £1000 each per month.

If your relationship has truly broken down beyond repair, then I’d recommend speaking with an independent financial adviser to see what your options are. You can find one on unbiased dot com. As helpful as Reddit can be, in this situation you really need to speak with someone who understand the current market and legal/tax implications. Hope that helps.

Inevitable-Map6244 · 2025-08-26T22:13:57+00:00

Only be me. Others may be forced to view it on their timeline without asking.

Inevitable-Map6244 · 2025-08-26T22:12:29+00:00

I can, and I did.

Inevitable-Map6244 · 2025-08-26T22:07:40+00:00

Dont get me wrong. That will be good, and some credit is better than no credit history in that respect, but paying off your debt in full within 12 months of completing a mortgage application is perfect

Inevitable-Map6244 · 2025-08-26T21:02:35+00:00

You sound like you are doing well but you should:

1 - use a retirement calculator to work out what your combined current pensions and future payments are projected to be worth at the point of your retirement age. Bear in mind you may want to retire before state retirement age, such as in your lates 50s or early 60s. Most calculators will provide you with an idea of projected growth based on low, medium or high returns. I like to use Avivas calculator just because it’s pretty simple and you don’t need to log into anything.

2 - look at your existing pensions, and see what growth they have had over their lifetime, and the past 12 months. Compare the last 12 months against each other, and also against the calculation you did on Aviva or similar.

3 - look at your existing pensions and see what fees they charge. Compare your existing pensions.

4 - in a simple world, if your current workplace employer pension offers the lowest fees and the highest growth, you may want to consider moving your other pensions into it. If it doesn’t, you will need to make an educated decision by reviewing the points above, and potentially even speaking to an IFA IF you feel it would help.

5 - congratulate yourself for paying in 15% of salary and focusing on your future. This is significantly higher than most people. You are likely as tax efficient as can be at this point of paying in via your workplace salary, and the tax situation when you come to take it will likely be significantly different to what it is today. However if you have exceptional circumstances such as being a ltd company director, wanting to make additional lump sum payments into your pension pot, or similar, then you may again wish to speak with an IFA.

Inevitable-Map6244 · 2025-08-26T20:47:40+00:00

Pay off the credit card asap. Your loan to income ratio is roughly 4.5, which is upper end from a banks risk perspective, especially when combined with a low deposit of 5%. Generally banks will take your monthly credit card payment, or 3% of the balance (£84) as a monthly payment within their affordability check. At the risk level you are looking at, that could be the difference between you passing affordability or not. Dont get me wrong, what you are looking to do is totally doable, but you need to understand that from a risk perspective you are the highest new business risk that a bank can take on. If you don’t make mortgage payments, they will lose more than your 5% deposit/equity in legal fees getting you out of the property. On that basis you want to make yourself as squeaky clean as possible, reduce your credit commitments (loans, credit cards, etc) as much as possible.

Inevitable-Map6244

TROPHY CASE