What is your household income, how much is benefits, and how are you coping?

lol! 90k and living in Chelsea! Obviously never been to Chelsea - one cannot living in Chelsea on 90k a year! This has made me chuckle…..a decent two bed flat for rent will be at least 5k a mth…….

Have just been discussing this with DH. We are in our 40s and the pressure of life feels real and had done for a few years. He thinks it's why people had mid life crises. Young kids (and associated costs), paying off/down mortgage (if one has one or working hard towards getting one) maximising earning potential (always looking for the opportunities for financial increase) and older parents (health worries/bereavement). Feels like alot and regardless of what you earn and what the outgoings, these combination of things can make life tough. I try to remain positive. Hard AF sometimes though.

Income £3,800 per month
Outgoings £875 - car loan, council tax, gas, electric, sky tv, mobile, broadband, water, TV licence
Remainder goes on savings, food, petrol, going out, holidays, clothes etc
No mortgage, no kids, no benefits.

Indeed

This is not true sadly. House prices are huge in London therefore mortgages will be too. Then add on nursery fees and it doesn’t make one rich at all.

Dying at the fact that you think someone earning 90k with kids can afford to live in Chelsea. You don’t have any experience
of the real world do you 😂

Do you also use terms like liberal metropolitan elite?

No it literally doesn’t though.
The average income in london is 47,454 so a family with 2 average earners is quite obviously nowhere near “EXTREMELY wealthy”.

In order to pursue the career that I want, I have several years more studying ahead by which point my son will be a little bit older and my mum has said she will be able to help out more as she will be retiring, so there will be ways to work in my chosen field in a more full time position, I was unable to go to university as my dad at the time was incredibly unwell and progressively got worse over 11 years until he passed away in January, so having to go through OU at the moment.

Single parent, 1 teenager

Salary just under 31k (full time) & Child benefit, I give my daughter the child benefit to pay for her college costs, phone, clothes, etc
No other benefits (not entitled)
No child support (father not in UK)

I take home £1950 per month and mortgage/bills come to £1050. I pay £500-600 credit card bills (used for essential house repairs/maintenance) leaving £300-400 for food, petrol, eveything else. One 15 year old car.

Wealth and income aren’t the same thing. As a household we are probably still in the top 10% for earnings but we definitely won’t be for wealth as we only own about 50% of our house, which is only worth £5-600k & while our pensions are good we otherwise have limited savings. Older people who own their homes tend to have the most wealth but it’s not very accessible to them when it’s tied up like that.

I am 68, divorced, retired, two dogs and two cats. I get full state pension currently £884.80 every 4 weeks, plus a small pension from a job in my 20s, which is £283 a month. The total income is therefore about £14k pa, over the tax allowance so the work pension is taxed.

No benefits, just 25% single person reduction on council tax and it’s still over £220/month (Band E for a 3 bed rural semi, big garden). Mortgage paid off, a small emergency fund in a SIPP for when the ancient boiler, car, roof and washing machine all pack up. No debts.

To put this into perspective £100,000 salary is the equivalent in terms of purchasing power of £55,000 in 2008 prior to the financial crash.

Depending on which in index you use: inflation since 2008 has been 80 -100%. Add this to the fact that tax brackets have been frozen for so long.

You're actually looking what used to be a good but not excessively big wage for a professional job.

Quite a bit
no benefits
In the top 10% of people - we now have the highest tax burden in 70 years and it has to stop.

Or remove about a third of a millennium.

" .... Nine in 10 Britons earning £100,000 or more a year before deductions do not view themselves as wealthy, despite being in the top 4 per cent of earners, new data claims."

thisismoney.co.uk : . . .How much money makes you wealthy? Only one in 10 earning £100k-plus a year think they're well-off !

Very , very few people earn £100 000 ... this is fantasy land , and the people on numpsnet complaining they are poor should be ashamed of their stupidity , ignorance and Marie-Antoinette arrogance . . . .. £100 000 makes one EXTREMELY wealthy , even in London :

I really REALLY don’t think 100k is anywhere close to oligarch standards of living 😂 you’d have to add a few more ‘0s’

You don’t have much money because you have two sets of children to fund. People that have second families can’t really complain. Maybe he should have just focused on being a good father and financially supporting his first children.

100 k is no where near oligarch, not if you live in London and have kids….. its £2600 for day care a mth where I live…..that is before mortgage, bills, food, travel…..

of course 100k is a lot in other parts of the country where day care and housing is not as expensive.

its the people earning that are paying most of the tax - but not benefitting from it! Of course there are some benefits….but you lose what you need…..

its the consequence of a low income high tax country.

Income 98k plus some child benefit for 1.
Disparity between us in earnings means take-home is a lot lower than 2 people on 49k each
Mortgage 1500 (tiny house, bought late in life)
Bills and insurances around 1k
Food around 800

We feel fairly comfortable, as our income used to be a lot lower.
1 short haul holiday a year, run a car, go to theatre/concerts a few times a year.
Would have expected a more lavish lifestyle with our income though, and be able to save a lot more than we do, and I really wish I could justify a cleaner.

my dear 1942 , 100 k is not a
"high earner " ... it's a bloody oligarch standard of living ... Why are people so de-politicised , dim and unaware of basic facts , cut off from society and community ?????????? ... Are we living in Russia that people are so disconected and unable to think for themselves due to brainwashing ?
e.g 6% of pupils are privately educated , and only 10% of taxpayers are in the Upper Tax Bracket ( ie earning over £60 000)

Single just over 25k says it all really

Joint income of about 75k pre tax, no benefits other than CB at 100.
bills and mortgage total about £2000 per month, groceries about £500-£600.
hair, nails, luxuries etc probably another £100 per month. Teenager driving lessons and private meds around £250, sports £100.
dog Walker and cleaner another £150 ish
all of our remaining surplus goes on debt repayments from work done to the house. When that’s paid off we will feel much better off, but at the moment it’s just a slog.
on paper looks like we should be well off but the reality feels very different. And yes we could get rid of the cleaner dog Walker and other luxuries but we don’t go out and I work 6 days a week, so…

What rock do you live under? If you have two kids and earn 100 001 -125 k you are better off working less, or tipppng it into a pension, and most mums want to see their kids…and the jobs where you earn that are not 9-5pm!

if you are in receipt of means tested benefits and get your rent paid - you are best to stay not working.

if you have a little private pension and are just over the threshold - you lose out on a whole host of benefits.

there are many situations where it doesn’t pay to work.

its very different when you are a very high earner, as I am, as I tip into being able to afford all the care and medical bills that I need to, where the thresholds are not going to affect me at all.

90 k is double the average household income ... Mumsnet are living on a distant , separate planet ( somewhere in Chelsea or South West London ) ... And mostly working in finance and top-end law - This thread has become ridiculous and uttery depressing