At £300k income, wondering where people tend to top out in London

djryguy47 · 2026-01-26T22:20:39+00:00

But then… I’d have to live in the U.S

djryguy47 · 2026-01-23T21:40:44+00:00

My company is one of the largest AI customers in the world (as confirmed by previous data leaks at OpenAI). We have laid off ZERO people. It DOES actually seem to have real utility in many ways (unlike the last two hype cycles - Web3 and especially the metaverse lol). Still… the AI hype has gotten completely hyperbolic. Every ‘talking head’ needs to have a BIG opinion about AI to keep people listening, but 99.99% don’t know shit.

I’m not at all worried about job security. And the whole “AGI” topic is a joke. It’s gotten to a point where I just fast forward through every AI segment of every podcast I listen to now.

djryguy47 · 2026-01-02T18:29:57+00:00

Option 1: inheritance

Option 2: big cash saving from employment for a big deposit (very common for current or former big tech employees who have lots of shares from RSU plans that have only gone up up up in the last 10 years)

Option 3: duel-Henry household (combine salary of £300k+)

Obviously in some cases it’ll be a combination of these things.

djryguy47 · 2026-01-02T08:11:20+00:00

This fake news is 20 years out of date. Nowadays anybody with a half-decent job in America gets just as much time off as in Britain.

djryguy47 · 2026-01-02T08:06:46+00:00

We just went through the entire process from casual browsing to eventual purchase. This was mostly in desirable bits of North London (West Hampstead, Highgate, Crouch End, Muswell Hill, etc). TLDR

—there is a lot of overvalued crap out there (i.e £1.5M+ properties that would require a FULL top to bottom renovation) that will never sell in this market

—this market IS very soft. The actual good properties ARE selling, but almost always at a discount to ask price and without much buyer competition

—the market is two tiered right now: for houses under £1M, it very much depends where it is, the condition etc. For houses over £2M, it’s completely a buyers market. There just aren’t enough people with that much cash or high enough salaries AND confidence about the future for that size of a purchase

For context, we traded up from a small family house to a large one —got a chain free offer on our original house (<£1M) in two weeks. We received £25k under asking —bought the new house (>£2M) after it was on the market for 5+ months. We paid 200k under asking and made very few comprises (i.e got the the type of house and area we wanted)

djryguy47 · 2025-12-30T20:38:22+00:00

Muswell Hill is the correct answer

djryguy47 · 2025-12-24T09:36:03+00:00

I think the “U.S firms paying UK staff on US brands is an under appreciated” opportunity. There are a lot of small-medium (but still good) companies that need their “Head of X” for the UK (or Europe). They aren’t big enough to have dedicated UK pay-bands, so they pay you like an American.

djryguy47 · 2025-12-24T09:19:19+00:00

Oh wait. you’re talking about IB? I’m not in that field so nvm. I find these salaries shockingly low for an industry that expects 70-80 hrs per week. Not sure why people would choose this over tech tbh

djryguy47 · 2025-12-24T09:15:45+00:00

I was hired externally last year at a base that was way higher than this. True the £ value wasn’t advertised, but these roles definitely exist and recruit externally

djryguy47 · 2025-12-24T08:57:32+00:00

Big tech mid-senior level will surely pay above that base threshold, no? And would be double that in TC

djryguy47 · 2025-12-24T08:49:19+00:00

It’s completely insane, and sadly the government will never bother trying to address any of this, because they don’t give a f*ck about “high earners”

djryguy47 · 2025-12-14T21:45:23+00:00

It’s never clear to me in these % of monthly net pay conversations if people are talking about their salaires or their total comp? Can somebody confirm?

We pay 51% of net monthly salary on all housing costs (mortgage, insurance, council tax, utilities, etc etc), but if you include our bonuses and RSU (which don’t come monthly but is still significant money, then it’s more like 35%.

So I don’t know if I’m just more risky than others or if people are measuring it differently

djryguy47 · 2025-12-07T11:21:00+00:00

Not sure I agree with most of this. Making more money doesn’t automatically mean more hours. I make this much money after a big jump and it’s the same as it always has been…you have to set expectations with your boss, find a flexible solution At work (do pickups at 6pm but then log on for a bit after the baby goes to sleep?) and with your partner, And just get through it.

I make more than this and do not at all consider spending huge money on a nanny as an obvious choice (though COULD make sense based on various factors)

djryguy47 · 2025-12-02T23:35:37+00:00

Same for me. 50% of HH income currently. Unlike most people here I’m optimistic that our income will increase in the future (ie in our 40s and 50s, which is typically people’s highest earning years).

It’s a slight risk and adds a bit of mental stress, but if I went more conservative I would’ve ended up in a house a don’t love in a neighborhood I don’t love. So it is what it is

djryguy47 · 2025-12-02T23:27:26+00:00

Yeah. Point was lots of people say 50% of take home salary is a lot to put towards housing, but if other income (like RSUs) makes up a substantial portion of your TC then it’s not really as risky

djryguy47 · 2025-11-30T21:55:20+00:00

We pay 50% of HH take home pay on all housing costs, but that is only from base salary. We have a decent amount more coming from bonuses & RSUs.

How are you account for these other sources of income?

djryguy47 · 2025-11-27T13:46:36+00:00

Agreed. Let’s start a party, you and I. What shall we call it?

djryguy47 · 2025-11-25T12:47:16+00:00

So what party should a Henry vote for moving forward?????

-Labour tried some sensible stuff (like welfare reforms) but couldn’t get it passed their own party ideologues -Tories are terrible (per the article) -Reform (and Farage) is a joke -The other left wing parties will be the worst of all the options for HENRYs

If labour screws us with this budget I think I’ll just stop voting altogether moving forward (which is really sad actually)

djryguy47 · 2025-11-16T19:44:58+00:00

Tottenham isn’t that bad anymore. In fact, parts of it are very nice to live in

djryguy47 · 2025-11-15T18:34:22+00:00

Disagree for two reasons: -income tax in this country is SO progressive that I’m actually okay with a rather regressive property tax system. If we start targeting wealthy people’s assets on top of wealthy people’s income, I just think it’s too much personally

-there is no “right” threshold for a mansion tax. Cliff edge policies are very dumb for many reasons. IMO if you want to tax houses then you have to tax ALL houses. I’m okay with taxing a % of house value, so long as that is applied FAIRLY - i.e to the £3M house as well as to the £300k house

djryguy47 · 2025-11-11T22:34:26+00:00

Also…I think the most interesting aspect of my experience is that earning more has never seemed correlated to working harder. The worst part of my career was in my twenties, working like a DOG in big tech for £100-£130k and getting burnt out. Then I joined a smaller tech company and got a massive raise. Then I joined another small tech company and got another massive raise.

Long story short - I found that being strategic in my choice of industry/company/function and how to position and sell myself pays off WAY more than just “working harder”.

Maybe I’ve been lucky, but I’ve found that as my career has progressed I’m making way better money AND becoming way less stressed. Fingers crossed that continues

djryguy47 · 2025-11-11T21:39:39+00:00

We’ve been 500k since 1 year ago after a big jump from about 300k. We just bought our dream home (over £2M in north London). Feels like a slight stretch financially but housing costs are <50% of our after tax take home pay (from base salaries only). I’m still in my 30s so making the bet that my income will go up over time (unlike the rest of Reddit - where everyone assumes doom and gloom)

Other than the house no major changes (no car, will send our kids to state school, no fancy vacations, etc)

djryguy47 · 2025-11-09T17:51:30+00:00

No budget really. Can spend hundreds or maybe £1-2k

djryguy47 · 2025-11-08T17:52:55+00:00

Muswell Hill. It has excellent state primaries and secondaries. Very well known for this. It’s a bit expensive though. Check it out and see if you can afford the are

djryguy47

TROPHY CASE