A G&D thread, so no politics please....

There was a chap on last nights Question Time who claimed (quite strongly) that he was NOT in the top 5% or earners, even though his salary was £80k+. It turns out that officially he IS in the top 5% based on the 2016/2017 ONS data, but it did get me thinking that there must be a lot of people earning in a way that is skewing the figures, as although £80k is a decent salary, I was quite surprised to see that it was within the top 5% of earners (tax payers).
I suspect that dividend payments, share deals etc remove the highest earners from the ONS data. Or maybe the data is correct and I am just better off than I think(?) - it certainly doesnt feel like that!

We all sit where we do within the earnings/spending spectrum and I think we all 'spend to our means' to a certain extent, so maybe we are also blinkered to where we sit when compared with others.

I came across this tool from the IFS which in theory allows you to 'see where you are in the grand scheme of things' and thought it might be interesting for others to have a go too. It is a crude tool, for fun only, but does give some idea.

https://www.ifs.org.uk/tools_and_res..._do_you_fit_in

Compare your figures if you want to, but that is not the intention of the post.
Hope you find it enlightening.

Personally, I don't believe what it told me at all.