English Listening Practice: Friends & Money Ep 758

• Commentary: A set of thoughts or opinions on a subject.
• Accommodation: The place where you stay or live, like a house or hotel.
• Profession: A type of job that requires special training or education.
• Variation: The difference or change in something.
• High flier: A person who is very successful, especially in their job.
• Affordability: The ability to pay for something.
• Envy: The feeling of wanting what someone else has.
• Apprenticeship: A training program where you learn by working with someone skilled.
• Modest: Not very large or expensive.
• Menial: A job that is not considered important and usually does not require much skill.

And apparently this is a common experience in your 20s. People are establishing their careers, their jobs, if you like. And the variation, the difference in what people earn starts to become apparent. I know this that in the UK, there is a wide variation in what people earn from their jobs. I know people in their late 20s or early 30s, who earn over £100K per year – that’s £100,000! Some perhaps heading towards £150,000! That’s not me by the way or anyone in my family I hasten to add! These people are located in London and probably what you call ‘high fliers’ – people who are doing very well indeed. So these people do exist in the UK – and certainly in the US, where this person in the Bustle article was located. But there are also people in their 20s in the UK, who perhaps earn only £20k or £20,000 a year. That’s a massive variation! These differences can be uncomfortable whichever way round. If you’re the one who earns much more than everyone else in your friendship group – that may not feel quite as uncomfortable and perhaps brings up different issues. But it can still be difficult. And it’s not pleasant to feel that other people envy you or resent you for your success. Or the feeling perhaps that you have to hide your wealth to keep your friendships. But it’s probably much worse if you’re the one in the friendship group, who earns the least! And who cannot afford to do what the others are doing.

And one of the things that I reflect on a lot. When I left university, with my Latin degree, I didn’t immediately know what my profession was going to be. It took quite a few years to establish – and even more years to earn a half decent income. And I tried out different things and I only ended my training to do what I do now when I was over 30 years old! And then it took time to establish a practice and I still earn nowhere near what I’m saying some of these well-off 20 somethings earn. That’s despite working in the IT industry for years and years! But when I was young, it was possible to do things like buy a house on a modest salary – so I owned my own house in the UK when I was 22 years old. And I needed a car, so I just went and bought one. Things were much more accessible and easy then.

Now the situation for many 20-somethings is that they may never be able to own their own property. And in fact, some of the well-offs I know – many of them London clients of mine – they tell me that to buy a place in London, even quite a modest flat or apartment, will cost them around £400,000. This means that even if they save around £70,000 deposit on the flat they buy, their mortgage will still be over £3,000 per calendar month. That’s scary! In the rest of the UK, property is of course, a bit more affordable than in London. And I do know people in their early 30s on relatively modest incomes who are still able to buy property and who are doing so because they want to start a family. But these are professional people, who still earn above the average salary for the UK. What used to be ‘normal’ for people now feels ‘luxury’.

Because of the high cost of living in countries like the UK, if you’re a 20-something and you’ve done university or apprenticeship (that’s APPRENTICESHIP – that’s the work-based alternative way of securing a degree or a training), then either way, you tend to do things later in life. Like moving out from your parents’ house into a rented place. That happens later. And if you’re talking about owning property or having children, that happens much later too because it’s so difficult to afford. The article in Bustle comments that in their early 20s, typically people have a lot of friends, often from university or college. But after the age of around 25 years, these friendship groups grow smaller, perhaps because there is typically a romantic partner by this point and because of extra responsibilities like bills and saving up. And of course, the high cost of living.

So when you were at college or university, it may have easily felt as though you were ‘all the same’ in terms of money. But a few years later on, the differences are more marked. I recall my elder daughter commenting to me that when they gave ‘careers advice’ in school – the tips and advice on how to prepare yourself for work, what education courses to take – they really didn’t give much indication of the difference in earning between different jobs, different professions. I’m not sure that my daughter would have chosen anything different – she’s a graphic designer. But I took her point. It perhaps should be a consideration, something she would’ve wanted to know. It would’ve been useful if the difference in income had been discussed when making career choices. It does have a big impact on your life after all!

And there’s a huge variation in earnings as I said. Those people I’m aware of who are still young, but who earn more than £100,000, well typically they work in financial services – banks or hedge funds. Or they’re lawyers. And not just solicitors – they work for top London law firms. So these lives, these people are not the norm. If you’re a dentist, or a doctor, then you will probably have high earnings eventually, in the end. But be prepared for a lot of years, when you don’t earn very much. Of course, this year in the UK we’ve seen junior doctors on strike, saying that they don’t want to work for £14 per hour, when much more menial – that’s MENIAL – jobs, meaning ‘lower level’ jobs, like cleaning or serving in a coffee shop get paid nearly as much as that. I guess you have to hang on to the promise of the higher earnings, when you complete your training.

That’s certainly what the lawyers have had to do. But if you want to be a nurse, a school teacher, a police officer or work in the ambulance service in the UK, you can expect to have modest earnings and for these earnings not to rise very much across your lifetime. If you train in a skill, SKILL – like becoming a plumber, that’s PLUMBER – ‘someone who looks after water pipes and central heating systems’, or perhaps an electrician – that’s ELECTRICIAN and means someone skilled in electrical installation. Those are ‘skill-based professions’ then your earnings will start off modest. But rather like builders too, you do have the possibility of earning more, further down the line, when you’ve got experience and especially if you’re willing to start your own business and employ other plumbers or electricians or builders. And it’s really hard if you’re a nurse or a schoolteacher, feeling that you’re doing an important job – and you’re completely unable to go on holiday with or compete with your friends who work in financial services, because they earn so much more. It’s understandable that people question how Capitalism works – though I do think that ethical Capitalism is perhaps the best system we have so far, nonetheless! But what it means is that people in ‘public sector jobs’ like nurses and school teachers don’t get rewarded for the importance of the job that they do.

The other thing that I’m really aware of – while nursing and teaching may not always feel like the best careers money-wise, compared with many jobs in financial services, these jobs feeling meaningful to people. At least people doing these jobs feel that they’re making a difference in the world. And actually the people who work in financial services and banking – it may start off well, because they earn a lot. But sooner or later, many get around to questioning the level of demand in those positions, the level of pressure that they’re under – and whether or not those jobs are meaningful in the world. Often they wish to do something else. But money still counts, even here. It’s much easier to question this in your mid-40s, when you already have your house and your children and a good standard of living. Thank goodness we live quite a long time these days, in order to fit all this in! Maybe we do several careers in our lifetime – I certainly have!

Let us know your experiences here and what you think. We’re always hugely interested to hear from you. Lots of good vocabulary about lifestyle and life choices in this podcast!