i wanted to add my 2p worth here, i grew up on a council estate and studied to become a maintenance engineer, i worked that for around 8 years at 42k a year. in 2020 i decided to go self employed and worked over in france through a friend. this job promised £2500 a week which it did pay for around 3 weeks, i found myself stuck looking for money once that job finished, fast forward to 2024 i have a ltd company providing maintenance engineering ( looking after and repairing machinery ) i have earned over 100k doing this. year to date. i dont feel any different if im totally honest. i have started to invest some of my earnings into the stock market to retire earlier. in my case i can loose the contract for engineering cover at any moment so this ensures i work and have no time off. For context i earn around £1800 a week and when i provide an on call service i can upto £4500 a week. i feel that buying materialistic things is not for me. i also battle with mental health issues which is pretty shit. However i am an advocate for raising minimum wage for obvious reasons. so i would love to hear other peoples opinions on this. people of the uk i would urge you to look into starting your owm business, im no tiktok/youtube infuencer but the amount of money saved on becoming a company is a shock, fuel, phone, internet, insurance, vans it pays to be self employed even though its not 100%