My husband makes over 10 times my salary.... here's our story

Tell me about you and your husband

We are both 30, have been together for 10+ years. We live in a commuter town outside of London. Neither of us come from money. Husband is from a very large family with many siblings and had a really tough time growing up. He couldn’t wait to get to uni. He studied Law and we stayed together throughout his time at uni. I studied in London and would hop on a mega bus to visit him at weekends! I’ve been with him since he was living off £10 a week food shopping (god bless the Asda 9p curry sauce back in the day!) so I’ve seen his financial glow up!

What do you both do for a living?

My husband works in tech (an 8 year old start-up that went very well!). My husband's basic salary is £120k- he receives a decent yearly bonus on top of this. He met a guy through his first crappy graduate recruitment job who was founding a tech start-up. The best thing he ever did was to say yes to working in a potentially risky company. The company has gone from strength to strength and they treat their employees very well. I work part-time in a primary school as a higher-level teaching assistant and absolutely adore my school. I make less than £10k a year but adore my job way more than he does! I’m also certain I work way harder than he does too...

Do you have children?

Yes - my husband was given the option to take 6 months full pay paternity leave when both our children were born but he didn't take it. I think it was the fear both of us had that him being out of the workplace for 6 months would have an effect on the business as it was still a reasonably new company. I also had lots of family support so didn't need him around 24/7. He goes 50/50 with me on kids' sick days, emergency pick-ups & all that jazz. Even though it’s quite obviously his wage that keeps the roof over our heads.

What do you spend your money on?

He finds it tough to spend anything on himself after years of living below the breadline as a kid. We aren’t flash at all- we jointly own the home we live in but have very average cars etc.. We like to treat our families to one nice holiday each a year and that is probably what brings us the most joy. I never in a million years thought he would be earning what he is now. He helped build the company up to where it is and is now MD. I know he feels quite guilty sometimes as I know his siblings struggle.

As for me, I occasionally have moments, especially on Instagram scrolling through incredibly successful and inspirational female entrepreneurs and think wow, I’m one heck of an under achiever in life! But then I try to remind myself that deep down I’m actually very happy in my job and adore the school I work in.