Are you a top revenue earner?

Re: work life balance etc, everyone wants less stress, more free time and more money - that’s a given.

Beyond that, I think all that’s important is that your job affords you a working environment and lifestyle that works for you.

For me, a job is ideally hard in the ‘right’ way. I want a difficult and intellectually rewarding puzzle to solve, not a fiddly data entry exercise that’s easy to make mistakes on. I don’t mind the stress that comes with its own challenge and reward. Even a ‘low skill’ job like working in a bar can be stressful with customers, etc - for me that’s the wrong sort of hard.

I’m not an outdoorsy person so I don’t need to be erecting fencing in some woods etc.

And so on. What works for you might not work for another.
 
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Worthy said:
As it’s the prekend and it’s under 10c I’m going to allow the heating to be on for 15 minutes tonight, but only if the boiler is set to eco.
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This is the way. Be sure to enforce swift entry and exit of the property as well. Don't want to be paying for that heat to allow it to waft out the front door whilst the mother in law is nattering away trying to gain entry. Just slam in face.
 
Orangeade said:
Is the pressure self inflicted? Do you find yourself as being stress resistant? I'm just asking because I found the higher up the ladder I go the less stressful it is as the accountability is different.
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I'm sure you understand that, while you find the sector/employer that you work in is less stressful as you go up the ladder, there are some sectors/employers that are more stressful as you move up to similar steps on the ladder? :confused:

Orangeade said:
But my experience even though its not huge in mentoring people has shown me reducing isn't always the best merely using seniority to get more comfortable.
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You probably haven't written it in this manner (I hope not) but the above can be read that, in order to be comfortable in your seniority, your "underlings" are likely getting **** upon from a great height by their higher ups :)
 
Nitefly said:
Re: work life balance etc, everyone wants less stress, more free time and more money - that’s a given.

Beyond that, I think all that’s important is that your job affords you a working environment and lifestyle that works for you.

For me, a job is ideally hard in the ‘right’ way. I want a difficult and intellectually rewarding puzzle to solve, not a fiddly data entry exercise that’s easy to make mistakes on. I don’t mind the stress that comes with its own challenge and reward. Even a ‘low skill’ job like working in a bar can be stressful with customers, etc - for me that’s the wrong sort of hard.

I’m not an outdoorsy person so I don’t need to be erecting fencing in some woods etc.

And so on. What works for you might not work for another.
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I don't think there are many jobs with a great work/life balance AND high pay. High pay usually means high stress too. Unless you manage to land some untouchable non-job for life, which you can make up as you go along. Like head of diversity at the local council or something.
 
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Orangeade said:
Is the pressure self inflicted? Do you find yourself as being stress resistant? I'm just asking because I found the higher up the ladder I go the less stressful it is as the accountability is different. If a major **** up happens its less impactful for me. For me to go to a less senior role now would ironically probably end up being more stressful. *

*the caveat being that one of my strongest traits is resiliency far beyond most people so I definitely look at the world through different lens. But my experience even though its not huge in mentoring people has shown me reducing isn't always the best merely using seniority to get more comfortable.
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I totally agree
 
Our household income has varied from 40k to $500k over the last 15 years and can honestly say that I think the salaries have not had any direct correlation with our overall happiness and we would be just as happy if we downsized our lifestyle. Which is something we are considering with a move back to the UK
 
Mason- said:
These numbers aren’t so helpful as absolutes. A salary of 60k in some cheap place up North is probably better (or similar???) to 100k in Cambridge or London.

Really asking people their percentile based on location and age is more relevant I’d say. There are websites for this.
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Probably 10 years ago. Not so much today.
 
Orangeade said:
According to this it's 99th percentile but even the original posters top bracket is above this so hardly representative with country difference etc.
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The way the chart ramps up its an exponential scale at the right right, so I guess ideally we'd have perhaps decline brackets but then shifting to smaller percentiles at the top end. Even the 95th percentile is way below £100k.
 
Housey said:
I think this should be everyone's mindset, it really is a good place to be, but sadly it tends not to be an aspiration for to many of us.

Modern society seems to drive people to accumulate things that you can then tick off you list of "Things I need for me to be or worse, to be SEEN to be wealthy". It has for the last few years added in the "show everyone how well you are doing on the internet" craze. Guilty as charged in the past of course, but not these days so much.

Yes I have nice things, but they are things I enjoy, not things I buy and put on the shelf of "what made me buy that!!". Ive not bought an expensive watch for years, seems pointless as I don't wear watches and haven't for a few years so bit pointless outside 'impressing' people who are unimportant to my life enjoyment. Sure I have nice cars and clothes but those both get used lots and give me proper pleasure, but outside of that I not longer seek the latest greatest gadgets or trinkets.

Aspire to being happy, healthy and cultivate a close and strong group of trustworthy life long friends you can spend time with and laugh lots. I've been at the top of the (posted) money list for many years, but has it made me happy or stopped me getting ill, divorced or stressed? Nope, not at all and I would argue that the stress is a trigger for the illness and the divorce....

Given up chasing the dollar, not worth it anymore. I am now about spending less, saving and downsizing and frankly finding time to work less (not fixed that last one just yet but I will). I am 56 however and in my 30's and most of my 40's I would NEVER think like that. My closest mates fit into 2 groups. The ones I grew up with (all employees) and ones I got to know in the last 20 years through shared interest (virtually all company owners or all sizes). The former group are all about retirement......as are most of the latter group.

Be happy with life and don't think "if only I earned more I would be happy" because most of the time, you won't.
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I always think to myself that I would not want to get to a ppint in life where I could just walk into a shop and buy whatever i please whenever I like, It'd be like a real life game of, say, GTAV with cheat mode on, it soon gets boring having billions in your virtual bank in game. I imagine it would be the same IRL too. Part of life that I would miss if I was that rich, is the aspiration and anticipation of saving up for something you really want, and the feeling you get when you finally save up enough to go and buy it, you just appreciate it more, and that whole experience from saving that first couple of quid to going to buy it would be missing if you were loaded. You just wouldn't appreciate things like that any more.

I've reached the age now where I just don't 'need' anything, I have all the things I desire, sure, there are things that I could go out and buy, but there's nothing that I really want these days, I have all I need!
 
Arsonist said:
Healthily in the 100k+ bracket (GBP), but working in the UAE so not sure it really counts.
Approaching the 200k income for household if I include my fiance.
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UAE was always interesting but I know it'd never be a long term place and morally I couldn't square it. Know quite a few people that did a stint over there and all happy to leave. Hopefully you enjoy more!

Richie said:
I'm sure you understand that, while you find the sector/employer that you work in is less stressful as you go up the ladder, there are some sectors/employers that are more stressful as you move up to similar steps on the ladder? :confused:



You probably haven't written it in this manner (I hope not) but the above can be read that, in order to be comfortable in your seniority, your "underlings" are likely getting **** upon from a great height by their higher ups :)
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I found the nature of the work changed profoundly from "bau" or day to day stuff that needed to be done to something more strategically focused whether it was managing departments rather than a team, mid term vision than day to day work with errors, having clear reporting structure and impact upon company. I would hazard a guess that a lot of that is universal no? I acknowledge that some people would find that more stressful but for me its not the case as i described. I can be confident in developing my vision than having 100% excellence in every minutiae.

as for your second point yes and no. Yes they get **** upon if an agreed path is not delivered but this is common expectation? Ive worked in places that only expect absolute best. It's a dog eat dog world. Plenty of downsides and seen a lot of people burnout. The upside for those than handle it and thrive is a level of money that most people only dream off. Seems a fair trade off to me.

No in the sense that I'm the one that gets the beating if my overall strategy doesn't work out that's on me. So I do the best I can and people that work for me do the best they can do. Works out pretty well.

mattx4 said:
Our household income has varied from 40k to $500k over the last 15 years and can honestly say that I think the salaries have not had any direct correlation with our overall happiness and we would be just as happy if we downsized our lifestyle. Which is something we are considering with a move back to the UK
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how much has your lifestyle creep been from 40 to 500?
 
Orangeade said:
UAE was always interesting but I know it'd never be a long term place and morally I couldn't square it. Know quite a few people that did a stint over there and all happy to leave. Hopefully you enjoy more!
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It was a fun place for a few holidays for a few years and for some property hunting. Looked at quite a few over there, including the address and blue water (managed to get a private tour long before it was finished). Even got flown over to look at a few workplaces, but ultimately I decided against it. It’s such a strange place. I’m not sure I’ll be back for a while. Good money though, but all quite fake.

I’ve pretty much just settled under the top earning bracket. Helps having a few trust funds, but Covid reorientated my priorities.
 
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I know what @Orangeade means - I’m in role these days which means I’m responsible for wider strategy with less emphasis on ‘out of nowhere’ urgent execution and silly, high energy plate spinning that is hard as nails but in the ‘wrong’ way. So there’s more responsibility and accountability but also more control in how I manage and execute those responsibilities.

In that sense, I agree that it can get ‘easier’ and I’m generally more comfortable now than I have been in other roles.
 
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