If you’ve been at your current job more than a year, and your performance last year was excellent, you probably just got a pay rise and bonus. (Assuming your company observes those policies anyway.)

I haven’t made a year at my current workplace and that, coupled with the ‘misdemeanours’ I committed like coming late to work plus a not-so-stellar performance means I won’t be getting any a bonus. However, my boss said I will be getting a small pay rise so all is not lost. I got a little bit jealous that some of my colleagues are getting lots more and the excitement on their faces didn’t help matters.

I’m sure I’ll get over it soon. Who knows, maybe I’ll be the happy one early next year. Speaking of bonuses, you must have heard about Stephen Hester, the Royal Bank of Scotland boss who just turned down a £1m bonus. I’m sure he wanted to keep it but public outcry forced him to reject it. At a time when the bigger part of the world blames bankers for the global economic crisis, I can’t believe bank executives are continuing to award themselves such huge bonuses.I don’t care if they make big profits. This money can be spent better. People in such ‘high’ positions already get big paycheques, probably have nice cars, homes and many other things the rest of us lowly people only dream about. Why award them more when many taxpayers who bailed the banks out in the first place are either jobless or barely have enough to feed their families?

I’m told the more money one makes, the more they want. Where your kids could have attended public schools, you now enrol them in private schools which are super expensive. Regular vacations to exotic locations aboard private jets become the norm. Your lifestyle is now way up there. I always tell my friends that in the unlikely event that I became stinking rich, I still would be the penny-pinching Sophie I’ve always been.

I don’t see myself renting the honeymoon suite of a Five Star Hotel or holidaying on a private Island in the Caribbean. I would own a maximum of two cars and not the super luxurious ones. Private jet? For what? A house, yes but it wouldn’t be anything over the top. I sneer every time I read about couples who don’t even have children buying eight-bedroom homes. What a waste?

Maybe I would upgrade my wardrobe from the largely second-hand items it constitutes at the moment but still, I wouldn’t spend anything above 300 dollars on anything. I would still look out for bargains and discounts. Perhaps the only change to my shopping would be buying more items in bulk as it would help me save some money.

I would fly First Class maybe just once a year and the rest of the time, it would be good old Economy. So what would I do with my wealth? Invest in property, build a few rentals and if I still had some left, help my relatives make something of their lives. My advice to high income earners? Spread the wealth.

Donate to a couple of charities, invest in the less developed world or raise your employees’ salaries. A bus company owner in Australia just did the latter. He sold his company and bagged $400m from which he gave his 1,800 former employees at least $5,000 each. A good gesture I guess but he could have done more. I did the maths and what he gave amounts to $9m. A small fraction of his $400m fortune! Still, it is better than nothing.

To be continued..