Surely the goal in the world of work is to be making as much money as you can from a job that doesn’t consume too much of your life.

Most people want lots of free time and the financial security to enjoy that free time, and hopefully in the future we’ll be trending towards shorter working hours.

There’s plenty to indicate that people working for shorter periods of time are healthier and happier, though that’s got to be balanced by the need to make enough money to live on.

Experiments in the UK with a four-day working week have indicated that it brings some benefits in the form of increased productivity, with supporters of the shift change suggesting that giving people an extra day off would likely make them better in the four days of work they were in and they’d do basically the same work.

If you’re looking for a career change that pays well and doesn’t take up too much of your time then the TUC has a big chart with the best paying roles and how long the average Brit works in them a week.

The highest earners, unsurprisingly, are chief executives, stockbrokers and senior figures within aviation, while on the other end of the scale waiters, barbers and florists were unlikely to be absolutely raking it in.

Let’s say you wanted to work no more than 30 hours a week and wished to earn above the average UK salary, say for the sake of argument £40,000 or more.

According to the TUC’s tool, there’s a bunch of jobs which would meet this criteria, though you might need some major retraining.

If you work in one of these jobs and spend over 30 hours a week on it then please don’t get mad at us, this is based on the average hours worked per week in the job, at least according to the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings.

Senior education professionals

This is a pretty catch-all term for people like a headteacher, university vice-chancellor or major bigwig administrator at some sort of educational institution.

You’re basically in charge of a school and making it run, or you’re responsible for a major aspect of running it.

According to the surveys, someone in this role could expect to work about 30 hours a week and take home a salary of £62,920, though given how widespread a term it is for the various jobs that fall under it, you might not end up getting the average salary or hours worked.

Plus, you’re going to need the relevant education and experience before you get a job like this.

Believe it or not, when applying to be in charge of a school it can be quite difficult to get the job if you can’t demonstrate that you know what you’re doing.

Solicitors

“I’m mostly doing this job for the wig.” (Getty Stock Photo)

Another entrant into the 30 hour on average club, you will surely need to have a law degree to even get into this career.

According to the survey, a solicitor in the UK makes on average £57,200 a year, though this is going to vary wildly depending on experience, location and employer.

Some will earn far above that but many who are just starting out are likely to rake in well below that figure, and again we ought to blare a warning about expecting to get the average when it comes to hours worked.

Don’t let us put you off getting a law degree though.

Dentists

It turns out you need a lot of training before you’re allowed to use sharp tools on people’s teeth. (Getty Stock Photo)

Here’s something the UK is in dire need of more of, though the bad news is that dentistry requires a lot of training before they let you loose on people’s teeth.

It’s a pretty sensible precaution, but if you can hit the average figures for your career then you could be working 23 hours a week for £54,080 a year.

That all sounds pretty good, and as a bonus you’re extremely unlikely to be unemployed because, as we said before, there’s a dire shortage of dentists in the UK at the moment.

Have you tried booking an appointment? Nightmare, you may as well retrain for years to become a dentist yourself at this rate.

Optometrist

“You’ve still got both of your eyes since the last time we met, that’s a good start.” (Getty Stock Photo)

If you don’t want to poke around with people’s yucky teeth then perhaps you’d like to earn slightly less on average (£51,480) and work slightly more (26 hours a week) to figure out what’s going on with their eyes instead.

Once again, this is a job that requires a hell of a lot of education and training, it’s almost as if most high paying jobs have a significant skill requirement.

Anyhow, in this job you’d be doing eye tests and working out people’s optical prescriptions, as well as identifying other health concerns a person might have.

While they’re mainly concerned with eyes, optometrists can actually spot conditions such as diabetes just from studying your eyes.

Barristers and judges

“I am the law!” “Jeff, you’ve been asked to stop shouting that.” (Getty Stock Photo)

This will apparently earn you the same amount as an optometrist, but you’ll have to work 28 hours a week instead.

One suspects that given the backlog in the UK’s justice system, and the many times when a job takes a lot longer than official figures suggest, that you’d be at it much longer than the average figure would indicate.

You’re also definitely going to need a law degree for this one, and significant time training on the job.

Pharmacist

You can be a pillar of your community by becoming a pharmacist. Lots of people will need you. (Getty Stock Photo)

You’re down to earning on average £45,420 a year for 30 hours work a week here, and you will need to have a pharmacy degree and be registered.

You’ll be handing out lots of drugs and medications to people who need them, so you absolutely need to know what you’re doing and not screw it up.

On the plus side, if you do go through all the education and training then you’re very unlikely to be out of a job as the unemployment rate for pharmacists is minuscule.

School inspector

“Is that really how you normally teach your class?” (Getty Stock Photo)

You’ll be the person who makes all the teachers change their lesson plans and asks the students to pretend that things always go down this way.

Apparently, the average school inspector makes £43,160 a year for 30 hours work a week, but once again, you’ll likely need a degree and experience in the world of education.

Many inspectors have previously worked as head teachers, deputy heads or heads of department.

Musician

“Anyway, here’s Wonderwall.” (Getty Stock Photo)

The average musician in the UK supposedly works for just 22 hours a week for £42,120, and as you might have guessed, an ability to play at least one musical instrument is expected.

You may be writing your own music or be working as part of a group or orchestra, and on the plus side this is meant to be one of the careers which is least taxing of your time out of all of them.

However, ask musicians how well they’re doing financially and you’re likely to get a wide range of responses. So, don’t go quitting the job and picking up the guitar as your ticket to financial security quite so quickly.

Nursery and primary school teachers

“They say never work with children or animals, maybe we should have listened.” (Getty Stock Photo)

Last on the list earning an average of £40,560 and working an average of 28 hours a week are professional teachers working in nurseries and primary schools.

Of course, ask any teacher how many hours they actually work compared to their official hours before you try and get one of these jobs, and understand that you’d have to work with the most feral creatures alive: children forced to go to school.

You’ll first have to be qualified as a teacher before you can do this job, for reasons that should be obvious.