#2 My Salary

How much I earn; the good and the bad (no ugly).

As I’ve just started blogging I have a backlog of things  which have been on my mind for months. Some will be more interesting than others! But it will help me relax knowing I’ve written about them and hopefully will lessen the number of nights spent wide awake thinking ‘how can we spend £50 less per month?’ or ‘how will I invest money when I finally have something to invest in about 3 years’ time?’.

One of the things I’ve thought about a lot has been salary.

Through a couple of stokes of luck and a little bit of hard work I now earn £67k + 20% per year, which is more than I ever conceived I would earn.

Here’s a summary of how I got there…

2008: Graduate

2009: Customer Operative - £17000

2010: Co-ordinator - £20000 (increase of 3k)

2011: Co-ordinator - £22000 (increase of 2k)

2012: Co-ordinator - £25000 (increase of 3k)

2012: Manager - £36000 + 10% (new company for increase of 11k)

2013: Manager - £40000 + 10% (increase of 4k)

2013: Manager - £46000 + 10% (increase of 6k)

2014: Manager - £51500 + 20% (increase of 5.5k)

2014: Senior Manager - £60000 + 20% (increase of 8.5k)

2015: Senior Manager - £61800 + 20% (increase of 1.8k)

2015: Senior Manager - £67000 + 20% (increase of 5.2k)

A lot of luck has gone into this. Mainly my ‘new company’ has been performing very well since I joined (pure co-incidence) opening up opportunities that my lack of experience would otherwise have prevented most likely.

I’m thankful and excited about the opportunity I have to make money now I earn this much. However, the reality is that up until this point we have just spent everything we bring in. This is one of the big challenges Mrs Money Interest and I have… how do we save more each month and create 1/ a backup fund and 2/ start earning money from money. To this point it hasn’t worked due to circumstances but that’s the plan.

Quick pat on the back to myself for how much I earn, slap on the wrist for only having £500 saved….now moving on.

There is a big lifestyle choice being made here. I am currently sacrificing an awful lot of time (which could be spent as a family or otherwise) commuting. I leave the house at 6am and return most days at 730pm, during which I am on the train daily for a total of 2 hours and cycle for just under an hour.

This is a lot to put up with. However, in our current situation I and Mrs Money Interest deem it worth it to maintain access to the considerably higher wages on offer in London.

Eventually I would like to make the decision to work locally which would lead to a drop in salary… we just need to get to a point where we are not just surviving on a lower wage but thriving.

Next it seems like the right moment to talk about monthly income vs outgoings to try and understand why that savings pot sits at only £500.