To wonder how people are coping?

Wow

Gross salary £60,000
Income Tax £11,432
National Insurance £3,210.60
Take home pay £45,357.40

x 2 take home = £90,714.80

Gross salary £120,000
Income Tax £39,432
National Insurance £4,410.60
Take home pay £76,157.40

The dual income household has £14,557.40 less per year.

This are just what I got from Google.

How much worse off? Thanks

I am referring to others on the thread who say they are comfortable on 70 K

Not necessarily - less than that after tax and that's assuming that theres no student loan to pay.

Your problem is that as a single earner on £120k you're in the worst tax bracket and worse off than a couple earning 60k each.

What’s your industry?

I'm going to assume that there is little point in reducing the pension contributions as the tax consequences mean that you won't get a big gain from that. On that basis you have £7k net a month. From that the house and utility expenses are £3,230 and the expenses you need to incur in order to work (so childcare subs commuting broadband and phone) are £1360. That leaves £2400 for "lifestyle" expenditure and that is the bit you can play with. TBH some of those expenses you've done a decent job with already - £600 pcm is not a a big spend for a family of four for toiletries/food/cleaning stuff given the price increases you've cut other things and had some advice on how to cut more. The issue really is that you didn't expect to have to make the cuts and decisions you are on that level of income. And I really agree with you that the cleaner should be something you cut as it just inflicts hardship on someone who really needs the work.

Our economy is totally out of kilter - we are taxing a proportion of the working population at silly levels to prop up the rest, many of whom are themselves working really hard and in some cases getting less for it than they would if they were on benefits. The issue is that we are subsidising businesses to pay less than a wage people can live on because not doing so would make it even less competitive to employ people in the UK and we'd lose even more jobs abroad. At the same time, we are subsidising business who couldn't move abroad and aren't paying their fair share of tax either - eg Amazon can't afford not to have warehouses here but can get away with paying warehouse staff a wage that leaves them claiming UC. Our property market is also now so out of kilter that many many working people need help to pay their rent - that same proportion of the working population is paying most of that - transferring money from people who work for it to people (landlords) who don't. OK the landlords pay tax on that but they don't pay NIC. Many of those lucky enough to buy their property are then struggling to pay the mortgage. There was an interview with Kevin McCloud in the Times today where he pointed out that when he bought a 2 bed home in Dulwich it cost him £60k and house prices were 3-4 times average salaries. Now that house would be over a million and houses are many many more times the average wage.

High taxes and high property and childcare costs means less money to spend at small local businesses.

Omg I’d be so happy with that family income! Single parent £30k - mortgage and bills all covered - I’m coping. Just about, on £170k we’d be rich… I don’t get how you’re not?

But they’re on £170 it’s more than enough to manage a mortgage on a reasonable house. Plenty.

But not for sone people who say they are comfortable with salaries of 70k or so

Thinking again on this, our net is the same but joint gross income is more like £120k

£160k is about £7.8k net (allowing for a 10% pension contribution)

one person working at 0.8fte in a professional role and the other full time earning most of the salary doesn’t stack.

because even £100k is about 6k take home, meaning the other party would be earning £60k and take home is way more than £1k

I think there’s fudging but either @CobbleWobble doesn't work in any substantive way (monetarily speaking), the split is more equal, or the gross salary is wrong.

But that salary is more than enough for anybody to be able to afford the mortgage on a reasonable house so it’s a moot point .

@daisymoo2 seriously? OP isn’t used to having to budget?? Everyone should budget? and two 40k salaries are very different to £160k…

Why also being lefties into this…you do realise that some ‘lefties’ earn very well as well. I earn more than OP doing the maths (less than her husband) but enough to be in the highest tax bracket. I’ve had to save to buy my house at high interest rates, no help from parents at all, grew up very working class. Adding in my partner’s salary as well we take home around £120k. There is no way on earth you would find me complaining on Mumsnet, with faux concern about how other people are coping. You will find me putting my money where my mouth is, giving to charity, helping out people with ££ when I can, voting with intention.

We live a good life, maybe the house isn’t as big as I’d like it to be, maybe we’d like a newer car, yes the food shop is astronomical, but we are LUCKY to have the income we do.

If you have paid off most of your mortgage your outgoings are significantly lrefucrd

OP has clarified that £160k is gross. Net household income is £7k per month.

I hate all these arguments about how people today are frivolous and that’s the problem.

It’s part of the problem, sure. But our economy relies on people spending money on things like hospitality - that’s the way it’s developed. We also have a finance/buy now pay later economy and culture. (Don’t get me started on the excessive spending on beauty and fast fashion and expensive tech - ugh!!)

My grandparents’ generation could buy a pretty decent house and support a family on one working class wage. You can’t do that now. Not like they did. And in addition there’s now more and more pressure to spend as part of your lifestyle.

It’s not that people generations ago were better. It’s that things were different; norms were different; houses weren’t as extortionate; capitalism hadn’t got quite the grip as it has now.

People always have choices and agency, but those choices can be quite different in different decades.

I'm a couple of generations away from boomer but you go ahead and flounce if you want.

I think that’s fair enough, really. We all choose what we spend our money on what we believe is worth it to us. Don’t get me wrong, if I won the lottery one of my first purchases would be a bigger house! But for my salary, I am perfectly ok with living in a smaller house with a smaller garden and driving a crappy car because it means I can afford to do the other things I want to do - whether it’s holidays or having lunch out whenever I want or buying good quality food. Obviously it would be great if we could all have whatever we wanted!

See I actually agree in part with many of the boomers.

I had this discussion with my friends (all of whom had parents that paid their deposits) and not one of them acknowledged that these small outgoings add up.

I couldn’t afford them in the first place because to get on the housing ladder meant more to me. So yep cutting all these small insignificant things helped me get on the ladder and has just done exactly the same for my brother. (Timeframe; bought in May 2025 before I get told this is also outdated.)

It’s priorities and seeing the long term goal.

I'm older, and completely agree with you.

The energy companies are doing what they want because of privatisation by Thatcher. Because of this we have the highest energy prices in Europe. Those much cheaper countries are also converting to green and renewable energy. Stop listening to the right-wing nut jobs.

Oh good grief

it is harder to buy a house

there are more people than for decades who look unlikely to be able to ever buy a house

but there are millions who mismanage money and could save to buy if they adjusted their lifestyle. £5 coffee every day, £5 lunch one day a week, £10 on a takeaway every week, £100 a month on beauty are all things that in past generations would have been considered amazing frivolous. And would go a long way to a decent house deposit over ten years. Just those things - never mind multiple holidays a year, eating out, cinema trips - things that were once a year are now monthly or even weekly.

i dislike the over simplifications. More people are stuffed now than in the past but more are stuffing themselves. That’s why someone on 170k feels the pinch. And that’s why many in the older generations roll their eyes - because they see lives of luxury being lived at a time of life when they were often extremely poor. It’s the requirement for instant gratification- if I can’t buy the house now then let’s spend my money rather than save

it’s not everyone by any means, many will always be stuffed, but it’s clear that others are prioritising spending now over security later and then having the nerve to complain about it

I do feel really sorry for young people who have been left for dust by a housing market whose supply will never meet the demand and when government legislation will mean that rent will increase further.

And a jobs market that means that a degree has become the cost of entry for roles that do not need a university education.

It's a tough landscape to build stability and a future - a few holidays and luxuries don't seem adequate compensation.

Omg I am so fed up with people that paid next to bloody nothing for their homes making out it we young(er) people just didn’t have any luxuries then we would magically be able to afford a house!

You are so unbelievably out of touch and deluded!

I don’t have many luxuries, but even if I cancelled the few I had I would be nowhere even remotely close to affording a house.

Just admit you were lucky, and people of my generation and younger have been royally screwed over by yours.

You never will though.
You’ll always be adamant you had it just as tough (laughable) and we just need to make sure we don’t have anything other than bread and water and we can afford our own homes!

Right. Now I really am staying away from this infuriating thread.

Maybe it’s time I stepped away from boomer riddled mumsnet altogether.