To wonder how people are coping?

No private school on that money here either!

Sympathy has nothing to do with it.

The existence of one shit tax policy that has now luckily been changed is not a reason to leave other idiotic tax policy in place. We couldn't afford to disincentivise parents in the 50-60k bottleneck from working, we can't afford to do that to people in other bottlenecks either. It all needs fixing.

@LoudBrickTiger I absolutely cannot help but laugh out loud at this statement
Tax is high in UK so most of it goes on tax. There is little difference in quality of life between someone on 100k and another on median income of 36k.

Where on earth did you pull that bollocks maths from?

Monthly income from a bang on 100k salary with basic 5% salary sacrifice conts is £5,471.45. No CB or tax free childcare.

Monthly take home on a 36k income (what I earned until 2 months ago) is £2,345.30. Plus CB of £186/month for 2 kids = £2,531.63.
our afterschool club is £10 per school day per child, this month with tax free childcare was £352, for the higher earner this would be £440 (although that higher earner would qualify due to the salary reduction because of the pension but that may be too technical for you)

for clarity - that's a take home difference of £2,851.37, per month. Please do not try to pretend otherwise.

The problem you might find if DH cuts back on his pension is that, at his salary level, you might not see that much of the income back. So if he is on £125k and puts £25k into pensions he's keeping himself out of the 62% effective tax rate so you'd only see 38% of any reduction.

It’s 40% tax over a certain amount so that probably is where the difference is?

We’re on 100k and are in the ‘well off’ bracket. Our mortgage is high and we don’t pay school fees but honestly life is most definitely not difficult.

Why don’t you budget yourself the Rich vs Poor amount from the TV programme and have a go on that, then you might fully appreciate where you could budget further?

I don’t think so. You now need a sizeable deposit.

Brexit is at least most of the reason for food price hikes.

Agree with this!

Is this between you and your partner? I guess threshold tax has a huge part to play in this, as it doesn’t seem much considering your combined income is £160k.
I earn £54k and come out each month with £2900 after tax etc.
My partner earns around £27k and comes out with £1800 a month after tax etc.
So our combined income is £81k (SO much less than you) but we still get £4700 after tax etc each month. Which I know is less than your £6998 but I would just imagine you’d end up with so much more each month whilst earning £160k, so that is rubbish for you!

I know nothing I’ve said there is in any way helpful 🙈

I think we all spend within our means, and you’re used to having much more free money to spend. The cost of living at the moment is a joke!

Yes there are a lot of v expensive 3 bed semis in London, but there are also a huge amount that are 400k plus, zones 4+5.... with garden and parking.

£900 a month left over is quite a lot when kids are small.

@limescale lending rules are tighter post financial crash hence why repossessions were much higher in the past. It's much harder to get interest only now & do 100% mortgages even still exist?

Let blame the government for everything! That’s the answer. God forbid anyone take self-responsibility for their decisions and learn to live within their means.

Agree. £900 a month spare and 'hang in there'. It's 😂 Yiu can do a lot with £900 a month.

@limescale

i think it’s disgraceful how much they’ll lend.

Like you we purposely didn’t go mad when we bought and whilst our house isn’t stunning it’s ours and affordable and won’t cause stress when we remortgage next year.

Yes, our mortgage is huge - it wasn't when we bought the house but we had to borrow more to fix a big issue that wasn't picked up on the survey and insurance wouldn't cover, and then the interest rate has more than tripled.

I presume you bought when interest rates were very, very low.
I remember the high rates in the 80s and how it crippled many home owners.
Thus when we bought our home we were very careful to consider that interest rates can change dramatically.

While I do think individuals should take responsibility for their own financial decisions, I do think mortgage advisors, banks etc were not acting in the best interests of their customers allowing people to borrow huge amounts when interest rates were so low. They were obviously going to go back up.

In much of London a 3 bed semi is well over a million! I don’t mean the fancy bits if London, I mean the normal bits not near a tube station! That easily means a £4,000 ish mortgage payment each month. My 2 up, 2 down tiny terraced cottage i. Zone 3 is two grand a month in mortgage, and I’ve got a good amount of equity!

I understand that but you’re in a position where you are mortgage free with 5 children. Like who the hell has that

Agree with this. The government are at fault and have done absolutely nothing to control, or regulate the cost of energy or sort out inflation

If high earners spend all their money on mortgages, bills and tax who is going to spending money on clothes, meals out, days out etc etc that keeps people in work? It upsets me greatly that the first things to go in these budgets are cleaners, dog walkers, gardeners, beauty and hair appointments, days out etc because that money stops going to small businesses in our communities and is instead siphoned off to large corporations and the government.

I wish people would look to where the real problems are instead of sniping about diamond shoes and food banks - no one in this country should be grateful they don’t have to use a food bank because everyone in this country should be able to afford food.

I never said we weren’t lucky ! But I do realise how money disappears !!