Business owner Graham Robinson earns \u00a3100,000 a year and classifies as a higher earner \u2013 yet still has no money left at the end of the month after paying bills.<\/p>\n
The 45-year-old lives in Timperley, Greater Manchester, with Kian, his nine-year-old son, most of the week, having separated from his former partner. <\/p>\n
As a teenager, Graham dreamt of earning a six-figure salary. He knew from the age of 16 that he wanted to become an accountant to earn decent money. <\/p>\n
From the ages of 16 to 39, Graham was an accountant at the same security firm, earning a six-figure salary by the end. In 2019, he quit to create his own business and became the managing director of Keysim, which sells specialist SIM cards to businesses.<\/p>\n
Graham told The i Paper: \u201cAll my annual income comes from Keysim. Via a mix of salary and dividends, my annual income is about \u00a3100,000 a year. Gross, that\u2019s about \u00a38,300 a month. Having this income isn\u2019t the dream I\u2019d imagine it would be.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The father-of-one has some hefty monthly outgoings to contend with. The monthly mortgage repayment on his small detached house is \u00a31,300, up from \u00a3850 a few years ago. He purchased the property in 2009 for \u00a3174,000 and is on a five-year mortgage deal with an interest rate of 5 per cent.<\/p>\n
Graham is also paying off several loans and credit card debts, with repayments totalling \u00a3900 a month. On top of that, his home utility bills are around \u00a3350 a month, about \u00a3100 higher than a year ago.<\/p>\n
Graham spends \u00a3400 a month on groceries, which is about \u00a3150 more each month than a year ago.<\/p>\n
The business owner also spends \u00a3400 a month on trips to McDonald\u2019s. He says: \u201cMy son has autism and one of his favourite things to do is spend time at a McDonald\u2019s drive-through. We go there a lot and the bills add up\u201d.<\/p>\n
Graham\u2019s son also enjoys car trips to Wales whenever possible. Graham says: \u201cKian finds car trips soothing, and we take a few long trips each week, usually to Wales. As a result, I can easily spend \u00a3500 to \u00a3600 a month on petrol.\u201d<\/p>\n
When he was younger, Graham viewed a \u00a3100,000-plus salary as \u201clife-changing\u201d. Now, however, he is not convinced that earning this amount makes someone wealthy.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cAt the end of the month, I have absolutely nothing left over and reach the top of my overdraft limit. I\u2019m a single-income household and though I earn a six-figure sum, I don\u2019t have disposable income to play with at the end of the month.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Graham drives an 18-year-old Audi and explained: \u201cIt was an insurance write-off, but I wanted a cheap car which I could pay for outright. I have no desire to buy a plusher car on finance.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Graham\u2019s income means, as he puts it, he \u201cdoesn\u2019t have to sweat the small stuff\u201d, bigger-ticket purchases require caution.<\/p>\n
He says: \u201cI\u2019m not in a position to put a load of cash into buying a new, bigger home, even if I wanted to. Buying a new property would push my finances too much.\u201d<\/p>\n
The crux of the issue for Graham is tax. He says: \u201cAfter tax, my monthly income is around \u00a35,400 a month. And the tax thresholds haven\u2019t been changed for years, which is problematic. There is no incentive for me to earn more, particularly if higher pay tipped me into the 60 per cent tax trap.\u201d<\/p>\n
Graham adds: \u201cI don\u2019t live in massive luxury. In my opinion, to be well-off, you\u2019d need to be taking home \u00a37,500 a month. At my level, it\u2019s still a balancing act. I still have to choose what I can and can\u2019t do.\u201d<\/p>\n
He has no money in pensions and is banking on his limited company to get him through retirement.<\/p>\n
He says: \u201cI don\u2019t have a bean tied up in pensions. There\u2019s no Plan B.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m worse off since Labour got into power. Tax is at the heart of the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
Will Lenehan, a director at Life Plan Partners, says: \u201cEarning \u00a3100,000-plus might sound comfortable, but it\u2019s actually where some of the system\u2019s biggest pressure points begin.<\/p>\n
\u201cBetween \u00a3100,000 and \u00a3125,140, people lose their personal allowance, creating an effective tax rate of around 60 per cent. At the same time, many families also lose access to childcare support, which can add thousands in extra costs.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThe combination means higher earnings don\u2019t always translate into higher take-home pay. In some cases, people are turning down or limiting their income to avoid crossing key thresholds.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe real issue is these sharp \u2018cliff edges\u2019, which can discourage progression rather than reward it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Business owner Graham Robinson earns \u00a3100,000 a year and classifies as a higher earner \u2013 yet still has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369419,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[114,3154,1575,2116,268,85,46,13666,266,267,48014],"class_list":{"0":"post-369418","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-cost-of-living","10":"tag-debt","11":"tag-employment","12":"tag-finance","13":"tag-il","14":"tag-israel","15":"tag-mortgages","16":"tag-personal-finance","17":"tag-personalfinance","18":"tag-wages-and-salaries"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}