I earn up to £300,000 a year as a barrister and my son goes to private school… but I don’t consider myself wealthy

Almudena Bernabeu is a successful barrister and international lawyer.

On the face of it, the 52-year-old has it all. She has properties in London, Spain and San Francisco and her son is privately educated. 

As a director of a legal practice and chambers and the boss of a foundation, Ms Bernabeu’s earnings fluctuate between £150,000 to £300,000 a year.  

The mean average weekly wage across England and Wales, including bonuses, is £710 before deductions, giving an annual pre-tax salary of about £36,920, according to data from the Office for National Statistics this month. 

While Ms Bernabeu sometimes earns £263,080 more than most people in a year, she does not feel wealthy. 

It turns out, Ms Bernabeu is far from alone in feeling that a six-figure annual income does not necessarily make you consider yourself wealthy.  

Ms Bernabeu told This is Money: ‘My husband and I have prioritised our careers and this has meant we are lucky to both be earning relatively high salaries. 

‘On paper, I should be able to call myself wealthy – earning between £150,000 to £300,000 each year. 

‘But the reality is that I tend to compare myself to my peers, some of whom are earning two or three million pounds each year. I’d describe them as rich.’

She added: ‘My financial decisions have been geared around looking after my family and making sure they have what they need, while also balancing a demanding and busy career.

‘Now that I’m in my 50s, I’m really focusing on myself too – I want to make sure I’m doing the work I love, on my own terms. 

‘That freedom has become more important to me. I also want to work to increase my base salary further to maximise what I’m capable of before I turn 60. 

‘And I have mortgages and credit cards to pay off. This means we can sometimes struggle with cash flow, despite being mostly sensible and progressive about how we spend money.

‘I do enjoy treating myself to designer clothing, bags or shows periodically. We eat out quite regularly and like to keep fit and healthy – we prioritise organic food and working out.’ 

Do you need to earn more than £150k to be wealthy? 

Ms Bernabeu first featured in our article based on HSBC Premier findings on how people view wealth. 

At the time of writing, 2,250 have taken part in a This is Money online poll which asks readers: ‘What annual salary makes you ‘wealthy’ in 2025?’. 

With over 600 respondents, and 29 per cent of the vote, the majority of people polled said they viewed people with an income of £150,000 to £300,000 as wealthy. 

But it is a pretty even split – 24 per cent said they thought someone had to be earning between £300,000 to £500,000 to be considered wealthy.

And a further 20 per cent of people polled at the time of writing said only an annual income of £500,000 or more a year would make them wealthy.  

Only 14 per cent of people polled said they believed a salary of between £75,000 to £100,000 made someone wealthy. 

At 13 per cent, a slightly smaller proportion said they viewed a salary of between £100,000 to £150,000 as making someone wealthy. 

In the comments section of the article, one reader said: ‘It’s not £100,000, it’s about £55,000 after tax, touch over £4,500 a month. 

‘Then you literally get taxed through the eyeballs on everything you spend. UK government is ripping everyone off.’

Another reader said: ‘I earn £100,000 a year. You get taxed on about 35 per cent of that so that’s instantly only £65,000 left. 

‘Then you have to put something in a pension – I give up another 10 per cent. £55,000 left. Nearly £5,000 a month to spend sounds a lot but housing and bills will take up half of it. And you get left with about £400 a week to spend. That’s not rich at all. The benefits cap is higher than that.’

One other This is Money reader commented: ‘I earn just over, I don’t claim child support, I never knew this before but I lost my child care for my one year old so I have to pay that in full, I’m in the threshold of being taxed 60 per cent effectively. 

‘You are hit hard after achieving this threshold. Its a great salary don’t get me wrong, and I live in a 200k house as no need for an expensive one. £100,000 now is not the same as £100,000 20 years ago.’  

Only one in ten on £100k+ a year think they are wealthy

Research published by HSBC Premier this week revealed that nine in 10 Britons earning £100,000 or more a year before deductions do not view themselves as wealthy, despite being in the top 4 per cent of earners. 

On average, most Britons think an individual needs to rake in £213,000 a year before they can be considered wealthy, according to HSBC Premier’s research. 

At over £200,000, the sum most people view as the wealth threshold is over six times the national average annual salary. 

HSBC Premier’s Your Money’s Worth: Defining Wealth in 2025 report looked at earnings and at what level people could be defined wealthy. It did not consider overall wealth in terms of assets owned, such as property, savings and investments.

It showed Britons typically underestimate their earnings relative to others by around 30 percentage points. 

Only 1 per cent of the population define themselves as wealthy, HSBC’s analysis, which included insights from HSBC Premier customers and a broader survey of over 2,000 people, revealed. 

People earning £100,000 or more a year typically positioned themselves in the top 52 per cent relative to the rest of the population, which is just above average. In fact, they are almost right at the top of the earnings tree.

The report said: ‘This highlights a significant disconnect between perceived and actual financial position and hinting to how many high earners self-identify as the ‘squeezed-middle’. 

According to HSBC Premier, most of its customers have, on average, five times more savings and four times more money coming in and out compared to the bank’s broader customer base. 

In general, high earners place the threshold for wealth considerably higher than most and believe someone needs to earn a hefty £724,000 before tax before they can be viewed as wealthy. 

According to the research, people in the North East of England perceive an annual gross income of £80,000 a year as the wealth threshold. In Northern Ireland, the sum rises to £93,000.

In the West Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber, people are viewed as wealthy if they have an income of £106,000 and £153,000 a year. 

However, in other regions, the amount of money viewed as bringing someone into the realms of wealth is considerably higher. 

At £367,000, the wealth threshold is highest in the south east England, with the south west coming in not far behind, at £363,000. London’s ‘wealth threshold’ is lower, at £289,000. 

HSBC Premier said that in ‘regions where wealth thresholds are higher, household wealth is higher.’ 

Xian Chan, head of Premier Wealth at HSBC UK said: ‘Wealth is a deeply personal concept, that is dependent not only on people’s objective financial position but also on how they feel about money.

‘People often evaluate their sense of wealth in relation to how financially secure they feel, and how close they are to being able to achieve their financial goals. 

Are you on a high salary but feel like you struggle to make ends meet?  How do you spend your monthly salary? How much more a month would make you feel wealthy? Tell us at [email protected]