Do your mates know how much you earn?

[Ruprect]

You may as well add a survey to your question.


I don't tell anyone. If they ask, I explain the financial downsides first, and then not tell them anyway.

My wife's best friend has been bailed out financially when her life turned to muck a couple of times. We called it a 'loan' on each occasion but never referred to it again.

We also helped a very old friend of my wife's - she desparately needed some money (quite a bloody lot, actually). We'd known her for about 20 years; she wanted it for something weird to do with adopting a kid from overseas. As soon as she had the money, we never heard from her again.

My brother-in-law went on and on and on and on about how I must be loaded, raking it in and fiddling my tax so that I didn't pay any. When everything turned to rat-tulip in 2001 and we sold the house, he was sure we were up to some really clever tax evasion scheme.

A couple of years ago he started contracting. He has become the worst kind of loud mouthed, boasting contractor that makes me sick.

Telling people what you're on makes nobody happy in the long run.

Hey browny I'm a bit skint, can I borrow £10000?

[moorfield]

Never tell no-one nothing. Anyways, they will work out how well you are doing when they see your holidays/car/clothes/bird/smile.

If my mates had the nous they could quite easily lookup my accounts at companies house if they wanted to.

[shoes]

Good money today doesn't mean good money tommorrow in our field. Other more usual 'careers' generally operate more of a 'rachet system' in terms of progression. We don't have much to brag about longer term.

Best to tell anyone that asks that you're poor, better to appear poor throughout your career than appear rich at the start and then poor at the end.

[BrowneIssue]

Hey browny I'm a bit skint, can I borrow £10000?

If I had it, probably.

But I haven't.

[gingerjedi]

Only really shared my rate with other contractors I know. I was asked outright after spending about 2 minutes talking to someone at university, who apparently could not stand contractors, so I gave myself a fat raise and told him. In fact it appears like most people there do not like contractors so I keep my mouth shut.

I've never understood why anyone would hate a contractor, its just jealousy surely?

Jealous that contractors earn more? Jealous because they haven't got the balls to do it themselves? Or do they really love the corporations and the shareholders they prostitute themselves for? I'd love to hear their side but I doubt they'd speak up in my presence.

You only get one life, might as well get what you can out of it.

[swamp]

Most of my friends know roughly what I earn, but I never mention my rate. In the main they earn reasonable money themselves and when we all go skiing for instance we don't look at the budget options.

With some friends though I keep very quiet about money.

[gingerjedi]

Most of my friends know roughly what I earn, but I never mention my rate. In the main they earn reasonable money themselves and when we all go skiing for instance we don't look at the budget options.

With some friends though I keep very quiet about money.

I have a wide band of earners in my circle of friends, one of my mates is a printer on NMW yet he was best man to a mate who now works for Gazprom on £500kpa!!

They all know how much I earn at the moment though, that's why I only bought one round on Saturday.

[sweetandsour]

I don't tell my mates, my mates from home, or my family.

My mates in London all do alright. Some of them are contractors but not all, we don't discuss money. The permies all probably think that I do better than I really do.

Besides everyone's circumstances are different - having a family, getting divorced, marrying a bird with plenty of dosh etc, will all make a huge difference to your standard of living, moreso than a few £££ on your daily rate.

I don't dicuss the topic with my mates from home. We are all equal when we are together.

I have never discussed money with my family. They would be gobsmacked if they knew. They probably have a few suspicions because we go on holiday a lot, but we never let them know how much we spend when we do.

[BrilloPad]

No.

[Menelaus]

Interestingly one generation up from me (parents) my Dad was hugely competitive when it came to earning power and potential.

He's an engineer and rang me two years ago very, very chuffed that his salary had just gone past £30K / annum. I was very happy for him and told him so ... he had to ask how much I earned at which point I blustered around it not wishing to steal his thunder.