About the fellowship
What Underearners Anonymous is, who it is for, and where to find meetings in the UK.
Underearners Anonymous, or UA, is a free, anonymous fellowship of people who help each other recover from underearning. In the fellowship's own words, underearning is many things, not all of them about money: earning less than you need or less than your potential, undercharging, giving work away, time trouble, isolation, and holding yourself back.
There are no fees and no referral. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop underearning.
UA is for anyone who recognises a long pattern of earning less than they need, or less than they are capable of, and cannot seem to shift it on their own. People in meetings describe a familiar list: taking on work that pays below their skill, chronic lateness or avoidance around money, giving away time, missing opportunities on purpose, and feeling vague or confused whenever money is the subject.
The fellowship publishes its own Symptoms of Underearning on its UK site, as a way to reflect on whether it fits. There is no one in a meeting whose job it is to decide for you.
UA and Debtors Anonymous are separate fellowships with different starting points. DA begins from compulsive debting and keeps a daily record of money in and out. UA begins from underearning: the pattern of earning less than one needs or less than one's potential, including when there is no debt at all. Many people find they fit one, the other, or both at different times, and the directory lists meetings for each.
UA meetings in the UK are mostly online, with a small number in person in London and Brighton. Meetings usually run for an hour. A member chairs it, reads a short opening, and people share their own experience of underearning and the twelve-step work. Nobody will put you on the spot. First names only, and what is said in the room stays in the room.