Woman who earns £156,000 a year says she isn't wealthy and avoids M&S

A woman on a £156,000 yearly salary says she isn't "wealthy" and has banned herself from M&S and Botox so she can buy a house. Amelia Brown, 33, says despite her high take home she is in the HENRY bracket - high earner not rich yet - people earning a "decent salary" but who haven't accumulated assets or wealth. Amelia has increased her wage by £111,000 to get to her current salary in 10 years – with her starting salary in Australia being £45,000. But despite earning £13k a month she doesn't feel "wealthy" - taking home £6,924 after tax and pension contributions. She has set herself a goal to save £200k in two years so she can buy a three-bed freehold home with a garden in London to eventually raise a family with her partner. With £35k in savings already, Amelia has put herself on a M&S and Botox ban and has stopped buying clothes new. She manages her monthly paycheck, paying herself first – calculating her costs for the month with everything else either saved or invested. Monetising her content online has also boosted her take home pay by 20 per cent in the last month and she encourages others to look into ways they can earn additional income. Amelia, head of growth in the tech industry, from Stoke Newington, London, says: “I heard about HENRY on a UK subreddit and was like ‘oh yeah I’m in this bracket’. It’s people who are earning a decent salary in a fortunate position who have not been earning for a long enough time to have accumulated assets or wealth, or don’t come from generational wealth. “Or they are confused about being in a situation of ‘oh crap I’m earning good at the moment but at the minute I don’t know turn this opportunity into wealth'. I think if I was on my salary in other parts of the country it would be crazy but when I was a kid if I imagined earning this much money I didn’t think it would be a relatively normal lifestyle. “I think there’s the £100,000 tax trap – between £100,000 and £125,000 you pay 60% tax on your income and after that still 47% tax. Living in London and the cost of living it doesn’t go as far as other people think. I don’t want to be in the class of HENRY who is a massive whinger, I know I’m extremely lucky to be earning this amount of money. “I’m taking everything I’ve learnt and am still learning about when in a position of having a high salary to set myself up with assets The common wisdom is to buy a starter home and get on the property ladder and buy your forever home later. “But my strategy is to save as much cash as possible and buy my forever home without that intermediary step which has a lot of costs attached to it like stamp duty and moving. In terms of what’s changing we’re not buying new clothes and not shopping at all really unless I sell something on Vinted and that becomes a new shopping fund. “I’ve stopped getting Botox. We like to travel pretty frugally but we’re reducing that as well. We’ve deferred buying a car and have cut out M&S – I've put myself on a full M&S ban." Amelia was born in London but grew up in Australia where she turned down a PHD position doing mechanical engineering – which paid just £10,000 per year over four years - in favour of becoming a management consultant. She also rejected an offered scholarship at Oxford University to focus on a “big career acceleration” working for a start-up. She said: “I moved to the UK 2024 and was looking around at start-ups headquartered in the US as tends to be salaries in the US are higher than UK firms. I got a £50,000 pay rise to earn £150,000 at 32." Having always been interested in investing and saving – buying her first investment property in 2017 and has gotten into stock market investing over the last five years – Amelia employs a number of methods to reach her newly decided target deposit. “I try and max out my ISA every year and be tax efficient with my pension an savings and live a relatively frugal life especially compared to a lot of people on the same salary as me," she said. “As soon as you’re paid I use the pay yourself first principle. “Things that are like luxuries like travel, therapy, shopping, and aesthetics likes Botox I save for that every month and put a bit of money aside every month in sinking funds." To help further, Amelia has slashed her pension contributions from 20% to 10% and has been pursuing additional income through her content creation – which boosted her last month’s take home pay by 20%. A melia’s advice to others who might be starting their own saving journey is to “be honest” about where you are financially. She said: “Some people already on high salaries need to look at their expenses and be ruthless to cut expenses and save money . The majority of people need to be really honest about their salary and find opportunities to increase their money and earnings and to set financial goals and reach them." Pay Net pay: £13,000 Take home pay (after tax and 10% pension contribution): £6924 Expenses Joint account (to cover rent, bills, shared meals and groceries, things for her two cats): £2,500 Investments (into stocks and shares ISA and crypto): £1,800 Savings: £1,000 Sinking funds (for travel and therapy): £500 Remaining: £1124 Budgeted depending on what is coming up in the month, but may look like: Eating out: £200 Groceries (non-shared): £200 Gym membership: £175 French lessons: £75 TfL and lime bike: £100 Gifts: £200 Any remaining money used for things that come up in the month e.g. going to see a show