People on the internet talking about their huge salaries

voldejoie · 11-03-2021 03:11PM

I think a lot of it is skewed by perception. I have a very good idea of the salaries of most of my close friends and I'm about smack bang in the middle, but my perception is quite messed up because I compare myself unfavourably to the people who are earning the most. Actively trying to be a bit better about being grateful for what I have, comparison is the thief of joy and all that, and I'm realistically in quite a good position turning 30 in the summer and hoping to buy a home in the next year or so.

11-03-2021 03:17PM

A few years ago there was only something like 5% of people earning >100K/yr.

All of them appear to be signed up to Boards.

The Mighty Quinn · 11-03-2021 03:19PM

Deleted User wrote: »

A few years ago there was only something like 5% of people earning >100K/yr.

All of them appear to be signed up to Boards.

Cost of living rising all the time I guess. 100K today isn't what it was a decade ago.

Sounds a huge income to me as i'm on half that. And to people on half my income, mine sounds huge probably.

TP_CM · 11-03-2021 03:29PM

I think a lot of those high earners could be day rate contractors. In IT a basic business analyst could get minimum 400 a day and it goes right up to 625 and beyond for more specialised areas. They know the sun won't shine forever and are probably trying to not blow all their money, so they're asking for advice.

So getting a 100k+ salary in your 20s is easier now than ever before if you're willing to take the risk and can tolerate sitting at a desk talking and writing about operational and technical processes all day. Plenty of jobs out there at the moment, pretty much every business analyst and data analyst are getting pinged by recruiters a few times a week with day rate contracts of 450+. Some just don't like the risk. I've been day rate contracting for just shy of 6 years in the same place now. Fingers crossed I'm renewed again this year.

GreeBo · 11-03-2021 04:57PM

Deleted User wrote: »

A few years ago there was only something like 5% of people earning >100K/yr.

All of them appear to be signed up to Boards.

How long is your "few years ago" and whats inflation been during that time?
If you arent earning more now than "a few years ago" then no point deciding that everyone else is lying!

Kid Charlemagne · 11-03-2021 06:10PM

GreeBo wrote: »

How long is your "few years ago" and whats inflation been during that time?
If you arent earning more now than "a few years ago" then no point deciding that everyone else is lying!

https://revenue.ie/en/corporate/documents/statistics/income-distributors/individualised-gross-income.pdf

I dont know what exactly the other poster is referring to put someone put this link up a few days ago. Its pretty surprising: in 2018, only about 3.5% of all PAYE earners (~100k earners/3m) were above 100k. I would have thought the number was a lot higher.
I assume there's also a good number of self employed earning good money. Would be interested in any stats on that.

Gregor Samsa · 11-03-2021 06:38PM

The Mighty Quinn wrote: »

Cost of living rising all the time I guess. 100K today isn't what it was a decade ago.

There's only a 4% change in the Consumer Price Index from March 2011 to this month, so the change isn't that drastic (see below).

The average weekly earnings were €699.94 in Q4 2010. They were €884.98 in Q4 2020. That's an 18.6% rise in the average wage in the past 10 years. Set that against the 4% rise in the CPI, and on average, people are better off. Plus, it's very likely that many of the people who were on €100k (even €50k) back then have seen much bigger gains than the 18.6%.

https://www.cso.ie/en/interactivezone/visualisationtools/cpiinflationcalculator/

GreeBo · 11-03-2021 06:41PM

Kid Charlemagne wrote: »

https://revenue.ie/en/corporate/documents/statistics/income-distributors/individualised-gross-income.pdf

I dont know what exactly the other poster is referring to put someone put this link up a few days ago. Its pretty surprising: in 2018, only about 3.5% of all PAYE earners (~100k earners/3m) were above 100k. I would have thought the number was a lot higher.
I assume there's also a good number of self employed earning good money. Would be interested in any stats on that.

Yeah but percentages hide things.
How many were employed back then compared to now?

How much has the actual number of people > 100K changed by?

Wanderer78 · 11-03-2021 06:43PM

Gregor Samsa wrote: »

There's only a 4% change in the Consumer Price Index from March 2011 to this month, so the change isn't that drastic (see below).

The average weekly earnings were €699.94 in Q4 2010. They were €884.98 in Q4 2020. That's an 18.6% rise in the average wage in the past 10 years. Set that against the 4% rise in the CPI, and on average, people are better off. Plus, it's very likely that many of the people who were on €100k (even €50k) back then have seen much bigger gains than the 18.6%.

https://www.cso.ie/en/interactivezone/visualisationtools/cpiinflationcalculator/

factor in the significant rise in the price of property and rent, and what have you got?

Gregor Samsa · 11-03-2021 07:07PM

Wanderer78 wrote: »

factor in the significant rise in the price of property and rent, and what have you got?

Rent is included in the CPI.

House prices aren't, and those increases certainly affect the buying power of first time buyers, but they don't affect people who have stayed in the same home they've owned for the past 10 years (mortgage interest changes are factored into the CPI), or people who owned a home and sold it to buy a new one. Also, there's massive differences in the rate of house price change across the country. According to propertypriceregister.ie, there's a 4 bedroom, semi detached house in my estate in Co. Clare, (exact same spec as mine) that sold for €210,000 in 2010. Last year the exact same house sold for €215,000. Which is an increase of only 2.4%. These houses were built in 2005/2006 and cost €198,500 off the plans, and are a relatively desirable area. Obviously there's going to be parts of Dublin where the increases are significantly more.

So they don't affect everyone uniformly in the way that other price changes do. For instance, there's plenty of people who will have made significant money from house price increases over the past 10 years, rather than being worse off from it. Again, the people who were earning €100k in 2011 are likely to be net beneficiaries of the increase in house prices.

NSAman · 11-03-2021 07:07PM

It is all about perception.

I earn X, someone else who earns X/2 sees my salary as huge? I have a friend who earns 4X, I consider his salary huge.

The simple fact is, the larger the salary the more you don't have time to manage it.

Someone on X/2 normally will have a regular hours structure in the working environment (I know that is a generalization) while someone earning 4X will probably be in a managing/decision making roll that makes time an issue.

I know myself (and I am somewhat better paid than most) compared with a few years ago, I seem to be able to manage everyone else's money in a better way, than I do my own.

Colonel Claptrap · 11-03-2021 07:37PM

NSAman wrote: »

It is all about perception.

I earn X, someone else who earns X/2 sees my salary as huge? I have a friend who earns 4X, I consider his salary huge.

The simple fact is, the larger the salary the more you don't have time to manage it.

Someone on X/2 normally will have a regular hours structure in the working environment (I know that is a generalization) while someone earning 4X will probably be in a managing/decision making roll that makes time an issue.

I know myself (and I am somewhat better paid than most) compared with a few years ago, I seem to be able to manage everyone else's money in a better way, than I do my own.

As my wages have increased, I have started to take my foot off the gas and now work less hours than I did when I first started my career. I have reaped the rewards from putting in hard work at the beginning.

I have less incentive to work unsociable hours (overtime) as my salary is now comfortable. I'm also heavily taxed so there's less incentive to grab the next promotion.

You could say I have plateaued. And I'm happier for it too.

2lazytogetup · 11-03-2021 07:57PM

Colonel Claptrap wrote: »

As my wages have increased, I have started to take my foot off the gas and now work less hours than I did when I first started my career. I have reaped the rewards from putting in hard work at the beginning.

I have less incentive to work unsociable hours (overtime) as my salary is now comfortable. I'm also heavily taxed so there's less incentive to grab the next promotion.

You could say I have plateaued. And I'm happier for it too.

that is a great post and good advice for someone starting out in their career.

my experience is put the hard work in when you are young and get up that career ladder and high salary. as you get experience and competence you dont need to put in as many hours to get same results. then you only have to work 9-5 and plateu on a high salary.

im doing the opposite. many years on low salary. need money and putting the work in now. years of high salary missed.

GreeBo · 11-03-2021 10:16PM

Colonel Claptrap wrote: »

As my wages have increased, I have started to take my foot off the gas and now work less hours than I did when I first started my career. I have reaped the rewards from putting in hard work at the beginning.

I have less incentive to work unsociable hours (overtime) as my salary is now comfortable. I'm also heavily taxed so there's less incentive to grab the next promotion.

You could say I have plateaued. And I'm happier for it too.

As my wages have increased I have saved more and more, I didnt need to spend it before so I dont need to spend it now.
I'll retire early (hopefully!).

Yurt2 · 11-03-2021 10:23PM

2lazytogetup wrote: »

that is a great post and good advice for someone starting out in their career.

my experience is put the hard work in when you are young and get up that career ladder and high salary. as you get experience and competence you dont need to put in as many hours to get same results. then you only have to work 9-5 and plateu on a high salary.

im doing the opposite. many years on low salary. need money and putting the work in now. years of high salary missed.

It is good advice. I spent a few years chopping and changing career paths though finding out what I wanted. The sooner you find out what you really want, the sooner you can put in a few years hard graft to get to a comfortable place and cruise control.

Kid Charlemagne · 11-03-2021 11:26PM

GreeBo wrote: »

Yeah but percentages hide things.
How many were employed back then compared to now?

How much has the actual number of people > 100K changed by?

Data is only up to 2018 so we cant say.

2016 85,000 earners, 2017 90,000, 2018 100,000

I assume it jumped again in 2019.
2020- f*ck knows. Would love to see it. I suspect low earners were disproportionately affected. That would certainly make it look like more people were on over 100k (%) even if the count dropped.

maninasia · 12-03-2021 05:13PM

4.1%rise in the CPI since 2011 in Irealnd ?

That seems impossible.

Rent and housing costs have shot up.
Rent costs have doubled (increased by 100% ) in Dublin since 2011. The rest of the country isn't that much better either.

Electricity cost has increased 25%.

Rent prices in Ireland increased amongst the fastest in the world in that time period.

Car prices surely up with modern cars. Electricity and gas . Education costs up. Transport costs up..

https://www.kbc.ie/-/are-living-costs-now-rising-rapidly-for-many-irish-consumers-
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Amirani · 12-03-2021 05:33PM

maninasia wrote: »

4.1%rise in the CPI since 2011 in Irealnd ?

That seems impossible.

Rent and housing costs have shot up.
Rent costs have doubled (increased by 100% ) in Dublin since 2011. The rest of the country isn't that much better either.

Rent prices in Ireland increased amongst the fastest in the world in that time period.

Far more people in Ireland live in mortgaged property than rental.

The cost of mortgages is at an all time low at the moment.

maninasia · 12-03-2021 05:39PM

Amirani wrote: »

Far more people in Ireland live in mortgaged property than rental.

The cost of mortgages is at an all time low at the moment.

Yeah but the price of houses shot up like crazy since 2011, doubling in mich of the country.

https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/house-prices-risen-massive-83-13865889

Anybody buying a house is likely to get hit with with that inflated cost.

We are taking about CPI here. Of course CPI didn't include that but it's very weird the rent increases (doubling) didn't feed more into CPI more.

Health premiums also up by around 50% since 2011.

The CPI figures just don't reflect reality at all.

They also ignore the tax burden !

12-03-2021 09:34PM

TP_CM wrote: »

I think a lot of those high earners could be day rate contractors. In IT a basic business analyst could get minimum 400 a day and it goes right up to 625 and beyond for more specialised areas. They know the sun won't shine forever and are probably trying to not blow all their money, so they're asking for advice.

Someone somewhere is making a real balls up if they are hiring a BA on 400 a day when the avg BA salary is about €45000. It doesn't even require any particular qualification.

BrianD3 · 22-01-2022 12:15PM

Has anyone been looking at that askaboutmoney money makeover forum lately - even since I started this thread a few months ago, the number of very high salaries and household incomes mentioned seems to have increased. Also, plenty of mention of millions in property and millions in financial assets, big pension pots etc. Someone on there now looking for advice on how to invest 6 million.

I'm aware of the cliches about Green Eyed Monsters, how you shouldn't compare yourself to others, how we'll all end up worm food anyway. Still, I find it sickening to read these posts. I'd also wonder how big salaries tie in to inflation, chicken and egg scenario? I have a couple of hobbies which would tend to appeal to people in their 40s. There has been absurd price inflation in recent years which means that the hobbies have become non viable for those of us unable or unwilling to pay those prices.

As well as AAM, I see there are regular money diary articles on the journal.ie. Recent one where somebody had an income of 233k. Are articles like this designed to anger people?

Bubbaclaus · 22-01-2022 12:36PM

Would you not be happy for others earning a good living rather than angry?

The Mighty Quinn · 22-01-2022 12:40PM

It doesn't make me angry, but honestly I do feel a bit dismayed at times, it has me scratching my head.

Myself had my wife work full time in mid range jobs. I see cars advertised, articles on how to renovate and modernise your home, luxury holiday ads etc and I can't hope to afford any of it.

Where are people getting the money for all the new cars, I see plenty of cars with N stickers, 2020 or newer.

I do feel I'm doing something wrong at times!

Edit:

Paying 1500 a month in childcare probably doesn't help my situation, for a less than 2 year old and an 8mth old. And that's for afternoon hours only, not full days.

Everything seems frighteningly expensive. Put 50 petrol in car the other day and it didn't half fill the tank. Price of groceries has gone up etc

Wildly Boaring · 22-01-2022 07:01PM

We bought a new car on PCP in 2019. 30k Ateca. Was costing about 270 a month on 0% interest until was in a crash.

New cars are easy to buy. It's just they depreciate rapidy and shouldn't be anywhere near the top priority.

Geuze · 22-01-2022 09:25PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118516462#Comment_118516462

Bear in mind that the 233k case on the Journal was very unusual. Many times on that website there are workers on 30-70k.

I know what you mean, I sometimes think what did I do wrong when I see people in their 30s on 100k+ on AAM.

Flinty997 · 23-01-2022 03:27PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118516462#Comment_118516462

The solution is not to read them. If something is annoying you stop doing it.

Ask About Money is generally used by people who are financially savvy. Thus done well financially. Usually older.

They also have some people who are in a bad way financially looking for advice out of bad situation. Less so these days. But there is good advice on it. With less of the crazy people you get on boards.

But it's really all about money you have. If money isn't a primary focus in your life is not that interesting a site. I dip into it occasionally, but a lot of it it's guys retiring and such. It's handy for money subjects like health insurance, pensions etc. But not much else.

I would be interested in how someone made their money, but not so interested in how to maximize a pension of 6 million etc. But they generally don't offer business advice or stories.

23-01-2022 04:01PM

When it comes to finances, people do an awful lot of bullsh1tting depending on where they are coming from. Some proudly declare their high earnings and love to show it off, some comfortably-off insist how they are struggling so as you don’t have much expectations of them parting with their money. Very many are struggling day to day and like OP managing admirably on meagre means. Then there are those others who showboat on social media about having a high earning capacity and being in demand etc, yet behind the scenes are robbing Peter to pay Paul; those are usually struggling with an addiction issue. It seems this time of year the subject of finances pops up as a new tax year is entered.