I EARN £100K AND FEEL RICH – UNLIKE SOME, I APPRECIATE MY PRIVILEGE

Have you met Henry? He’s a single guy in his thirties, probably working in finance, renting a flat in Clapham, and inexplicably spending £600 a month on groceries in Aldi. At least, according to a flurry of recent articles about people who are earning £100k or more and lament the fact that they don’t feel rich.

The HENRY (high earner, not rich yet) is getting an inordinate amount of column inches of late. They’ve got their own Reddit community where topics include “The UK has killed social mobility” and “I’m considering moving to Dubai”. While my income of late has pushed me into HENRY territory, I’m rejecting the moniker in favour of one I’ve just made up: I’m a HEIFER (high earner, I feel rich). Yes, there’s an extra E in there. It’s the best I could come up with.

Before I elaborate on why even the world’s most powerful microscope couldn’t illuminate the violin I’m holding for the HENRY plight, a couple of caveats: yes, there are cost of living and housing crises that urgently need addressing through effective policy. And yes, for people with children, their money really doesn’t go as far. The UK is one of the most expensive countries in the world for childcare, and despite being happily childfree, I’d enthusiastically support free or heavily subsidised tax-funded childcare, because that, in my opinion, would really be a game-changer for social mobility.

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I’m writing this as someone who has a lot in common with Henrys who’ve appeared in other articles – I’m childfree and single (or at least, I was single when I bought a property, although my partner has since moved in), living in London in one-bed flats, and earning six figures.

I’m self-employed, as a content marketing consultant specialising in sustainability, so my income fluctuates, and it was hovering steadily between £50-60k for the last three years. For the past eight months, though, thanks to some particularly lucrative jobs, my recent earnings have been equivalent to approximately £120k gross, or £10,000 a month pre-tax (sometimes a couple of grand less, as that’s the nature of self-employment). On PAYE, that’s a take-home of £76,157 annually, or £6,346 per month, according to Money Saving Expert’s calculator.

One Henry I read about earned a little less at £103,500 (poor guy), or £5,824 a month. His flat, he said, costs £2,230 a month to rent. Now, I don’t know where he’s living, but I’m going to assume he didn’t do what I did when flat-hunting and apply only one filter on Rightmove: price. If he’s in the well-to-do echelons of Kensington and Chelsea, where the average rent for a one-bed flat is £2,582, I can only wonder why he hasn’t made a financially savvy move to, say, Southwark, where the average one-bed is £1,779, or Lewisham (a veritable steal at £1,406). This is the first of my many, many gripes with the HENRY mentality: making expensive choices and framing them as a societal issue.

Let’s add on another £300 for Henry’s bills and council tax (I’m basing this on my own outgoings), and his extraordinary £600 a month grocery shop (is he buying up the entire contents of Aldi’s middle aisle?), and that’s £3,130. That still leaves him £2,694 in disposable income – but we’re told he can’t save a flat deposit? I’d be squirreling away at least £1,000 a month if I was him. And squirrel I did, even when my salary was much lower.

Between 2014 and 2021, my pay increased from minimum wage to £45k as I progressed in my career. Over those seven years, I saved £25k (that’s about £297 per month). I bought a one-bed flat in zone 4 for £205k as a single person, with no help, because my parents are poor and there is no Bank of Mum and Dad when you’re working class. I put down a 10% deposit and the rest went on the associated fees.

Henry could save this amount in just over two years if he put away £1k a month, and with his salary, would qualify for a mortgage on any of the 1,150 flats in south east London that cost between £200-300k. Yes, there really were, at the time of writing, that many properties in his price range! If he was a real person, I’d be shaking him by the shoulders and asking if he understood basic maths when he claimed not to be able to afford anything in London, but I assume he’d just scoff at the thought of moving within a mile of Croydon.

And here we lead neatly into my second gripe. The favoured HENRY assertion that any and all property in London isn’t affordable on a six-figure salary is simply… a lie. What Henry means is that he can’t afford a semi-detached house with several bedrooms in a desirable and expensive area, and he’s conveniently forgotten cheaper options exist because, I suspect, he considers them beneath him.

To me, it’s a perfectly acceptable compromise to move somewhere cheaper within London if I won’t countenance moving out of the city completely (and I won’t). Life is full of compromises. While I’m the first to admit I’d love a bit more space, there’s a limit on how much I’d be willing to spend on a larger property. At the moment, with an £800 mortgage, I have more disposable income than I ever dreamed of, and I’m about to take six weeks off to travel South America. I couldn’t do that if I was ploughing all my income into bricks and mortar. So, if disposable income is what the single HENRY feels they’re lacking, why don’t they change their circumstances to make that happen? With at least £5k a month to play with, they have the luxury of choosing how much they’re willing to spend on property.

For the last eight months, with my earnings at this level, I’ve been able to save at least £4k per month, not including my pension contributions. And to be frank and a little grotesque, I have felt rich. Growing up with parents who never earned over the minimum wage, the idea of making this much money myself was completely alien, and I’m very, very grateful to be in the position I’m in now.

For me, it’s likely temporary: I really value work-life balance and the ability to take extended periods off to travel, so I won’t be chasing a full-time, six-figure job.

Later this year I’m going to university as a mature student, so I’ll have to reduce my working hours to fit around my studies. But earning six figures has been incredible while it lasted. Yes, some of those savings will go on my next tax bill, and no, I don’t resent that. It’s only right that the more I earn, the more tax I pay into the systems that support people who aren’t as lucky as I am. I just wish HENRYs would take a minute to appreciate their own privilege.

2025-07-16T05:21:50Z