To be fed up of being on a good income but always skint?

@theresapossuminthekitchen

Now, it’s not at all attractive and my salary is about 30% less than it would have been if it had kept pace with inflation between 2010 and 2020.

But that isn't unique to teaching...

I don't know how much you earn but my family members in teaching SLT are on 70k plus, I don't think they would necessarily be getting 140k plus in the private sector. But conditions have got worse.

Well yeah but if you’re choosing to be a sahm 1 or 2 years of preschool is surely more than enough socialisation if it’s not for childcare purposes?

Only at 3.

£800k-£1m in London is a pretty ordinary terraced house.

It would not be what you might imagine someone earning £250k would live in.

Absolutely. Surely you’d scrap this if it isn’t needed. Putting children that aren’t school age into childcare (that costs) if someone’s at home is bonkers to me.
What a waste of money.

@Blondeshavemorefun yes - if you’d told me a few years ago that our income would be this much, I would’ve thought we’d be living the high life. But it’s almost like the more we earn, the poorer we get! And we’ve got sweet FA to show for it!!

But even on 250k your children are eligible for 15 hours childcare for socialisation, surely that’s enough?
2.5k in childcare on top of the 15 hours preschool is crazy when you’re a sahm and then moaning about how far your money goes.

2 people ask about the childcare, fair question - the short answer is we believe it’s better for the children to be socialised (with other children) before school. They’re in 2.5days a week each.

So yes, that probably is a luxury. It’s definitely the one we would cut if we needed to.

And why are you paying 2.5 k childcare if one of you doesn’t work?

2 people ask about the childcare, fair question - the short answer is we believe it’s better for the children to be socialised (with other children) before school. They’re in 2.5days a week each.

So yes, that probably is a luxury. It’s definitely the one we would cut if we needed to.

@Blondeshavemorefun 3 bed house. No childcare costs.
Outgoings are just the bills - car/insurances/council tax/food/energy and water costs are ridiculous….

You live in a very expensive house.
We earn a lot less than 100k. We get no benefits at all. Not entitled to any.

After all these years I finally created an account to comment on this. One too many article on a topic close to my heart with irritating commentators, I guess.

same boat (more extreme) than OP, ~250k income, one of us works, no family wealth or help.

the biggest costs for us: house 4k/mth, childcare 2.5k/mth (3 kids under 5, no school fees, lol at anyone being able to afford private school without family help) bills/council tax ~1.2k. We have ~2k after tax and the above (before groceries & car etc). We do save about 2-300/mth, but no holidays in 5-6yrs.

we have a 10yr old car, it’s kind of expensive because it goes to the garage at least once a year unscheduled.

I can cut to the issue: we have an expensive house (800k-1M), we prioritise that over holidays, car, eating out etc.

Due to pay rises in the last 2 yrs we don’t ‘struggle’ but we have no money left over after the above, and (aside from a nice house) do not spend money on luxuries.

All of the people commenting saying “I don’t know where you spend your money”: most of you get free childcare, tax credits and other benefits. What looks like a large income pays about 100k a year in tax, close to 15x what someone on 30k pays, and even more if you consider all of the benefits you can access that we can’t. Think about that, I pay for 3 nurses, or 15 median tax payers. Side point we’re considering moving country, like many others, my job is mobile, the main gut wrench is children stability, but eventually there is only so much you can be hit with.

There are 2 groups of people doing okay right now: those in our income bracket who have had houses paid for by mum & dad (these are the ones with kids going to private school, etc), and families with parents earning lower than 100k individually (they get the bulk of the handouts). We’re in the bracket where everyone’s like ‘oh tax them they’re rich’.

Most people on here have a very, very different vision of what one income 250k / yr would mean for them, than the reality. I would have expected a bigger house, holidays, private school.

It is not a sob story, but to all the people saying “I don’t understand…”, pause, take a breath, and just try and understand, in the same way I’m expected to do.

That’s a huge loft. We were quoted £25k.

After all these years I finally created an account to comment on this. One too many article on a topic close to my heart with irritating commentators, I guess.

same boat (more extreme) than OP, ~250k income, one of us works, no family wealth or help.

the biggest costs for us: house 4k/mth, childcare 2.5k/mth (3 kids under 5, no school fees, lol at anyone being able to afford private school without family help) bills/council tax ~1.2k. We have ~2k after tax and the above (before groceries & car etc). We do save about 2-300/mth, but no holidays in 5-6yrs.

we have a 10yr old car, it’s kind of expensive because it goes to the garage at least once a year unscheduled.

I can cut to the issue: we have an expensive house (800k-1M), we prioritise that over holidays, car, eating out etc.

Due to pay rises in the last 2 yrs we don’t ‘struggle’ but we have no money left over after the above, and (aside from a nice house) do not spend money on luxuries.

All of the people commenting saying “I don’t know where you spend your money”: most of you get free childcare, tax credits and other benefits. What looks like a large income pays about 100k a year in tax, close to 15x what someone on 30k pays, and even more if you consider all of the benefits you can access that we can’t. Think about that, I pay for 3 nurses, or 15 median tax payers. Side point we’re considering moving country, like many others, my job is mobile, the main gut wrench is children stability, but eventually there is only so much you can be hit with.

There are 2 groups of people doing okay right now: those in our income bracket who have had houses paid for by mum & dad (these are the ones with kids going to private school, etc), and families with parents earning lower than 100k individually (they get the bulk of the handouts). We’re in the bracket where everyone’s like ‘oh tax them they’re rich’.

Most people on here have a very, very different vision of what one income 250k / yr would mean for them, than the reality. I would have expected a bigger house, holidays, private school.

It is not a sob story, but to all the people saying “I don’t understand…”, pause, take a breath, and just try and understand, in the same way I’m expected to do.

After all these years I finally created an account to comment on this. One too many article on a topic close to my heart with irritating commentators, I guess.

same boat (more extreme) than OP, ~250k income, one of us works, no family wealth or help.

the biggest costs for us: house 4k/mth, childcare 2.5k/mth (3 kids under 5, no school fees, lol at anyone being able to afford private school without family help) bills/council tax ~1.2k. We have ~2k after tax and the above (before groceries & car etc). We do save about 2-300/mth, but no holidays in 5-6yrs.

we have a 10yr old car, it’s kind of expensive because it goes to the garage at least once a year unscheduled.

I can cut to the issue: we have an expensive house (800k-1M), we prioritise that over holidays, car, eating out etc.

Due to pay rises in the last 2 yrs we don’t ‘struggle’ but we have no money left over after the above, and (aside from a nice house) do not spend money on luxuries.

All of the people commenting saying “I don’t know where you spend your money”: most of you get free childcare, tax credits and other benefits. What looks like a large income pays about 100k a year in tax, close to 15x what someone on 30k pays, and even more if you consider all of the benefits you can access that we can’t. Think about that, I pay for 3 nurses, or 15 median tax payers. Side point we’re considering moving country, like many others, my job is mobile, the main gut wrench is children stability, but eventually there is only so much you can be hit with.

There are 2 groups of people doing okay right now: those in our income bracket who have had houses paid for by mum & dad (these are the ones with kids going to private school, etc), and families with parents earning lower than 100k individually (they get the bulk of the handouts). We’re in the bracket where everyone’s like ‘oh tax them they’re rich’.

Most people on here have a very, very different vision of what one income 250k / yr would mean for them, than the reality. I would have expected a bigger house, holidays, private school.

It is not a sob story, but to all the people saying “I don’t understand…”, pause, take a breath, and just try and understand, in the same way I’m expected to do.