High earner but nursery fees still more - am I missing something?

The fees sound low - are those numbers correct for the age range they will be in? There's a big difference at mine between under and over 3 yr olds.

She’s earning 75k. That is classed as a high earner. Whether or not that’s low for Surrey or whatever.

If you can afford to go to 4 days now it will make lots of things easier, you won't lose your mind dropping the kids off every morning in a mad rush, have 1 reset day per week, and will make life easier when it comes to school for your older one as it will be 1 less day to cover. I found the same that there was a fine balance between days off and childcare costs. Having done the ft thing the whole way through my youngest, and now having 1 day off per week I'd have changed it sooner if I could have afforded it. Good luck. Sussing out some kind of balance is very hard work xx

If your the same lady off Reddit post this morning what your failing to mention in this is your husband is a very high earner , why you even need to question this is bizarre when he can afford it

I have a similar earning to you, base salary for full time was 85k, but 13.5% pension contribution knocked the take home pay down a fair bit. I did the numbers and the work life balance check and settled on decreasing to 0.9WTE over 4 days. I technically had a 1 hour unpaid lunch (funny joke cos I barely have time to wee at work let alone lunch break), so I negotiated that down to 30min unpaid break and I only had to extend my working day by 30 mins (now do 8.30-5.30 4 days). That was actually so much better than reducing to 0.8wte. Aside from the money, how will your working life be, I’m assuming you have a high level of responsibility at your pay, realistically will you loose 20% of your work or will you still be expected to deliver 100% of what you do now for less pay? If you decide to go for reduced hours, have clear written agreement about which work you will no longer do

also do you claim child benefit? Depending who is the higher earner, you could obviously keep more CB which buffers a pay reduction ever so slightly in your calcs

I understand the family pot situation, but I think it's important to be thinking of your drop in salary and the money saved in terms of only contributing half.

If compressed hours or using accrued annual leave is an option this is a great hack. 4 days is the perfect balance and I highly recommend it!

Same here it’s all one pot. The sums don’t change, as you say!

This is exactly what I’ve done, though the figures are slightly different.

As an household, we are actually better off me working compressed hours 0.9FTE and taking one day off a week, than if I work full time and we pay for the fifth day in nursery. Crazy. And a no brainer!

Op that’s not high earner but a decent salary if combined with partners. Ensure you’re making pension contributions because that would be insane not to.

Because that won't change. You could add his income into the calculations but the final numbers would still be the same.

This. The fact that DH isn't going to do it is where the gender pay gap really kicks in. The financial 'benefit' of dropping a day at nursery is temporary - it's normally a financial drag in the long term as you've ruled yourself of lots of options at work. Fine if you're happy with that but there are few industries where it's not the case.

Where are you based? 2 kids in nursery for that cost is pretty good

Even with funding, 4 days would be circa £900 per child for us!

Finances aside, working 4 days a week was one of the best decisions I made when my children were in nursery, work life balance feels soo much more “balanced” your weekends are longer (if you choose Monday or Friday) you have more quality time with your kids, it also sounds like it makes more sense with the nursery fees! You’re also not considered “part time” so no impact to prospects in work etc! Go for it! Best decision you’ll make x

I returned to work full time after having my first, he went to nursery full time as we have no family help. I dropped down to 4 days (work and nursery) after about a year as it worked out better for our family, much like your calculations. I got to spend an extra day with my little one and the drop in salary and nursery fees evened each other out, so we weren’t any worse or better off.

You're better off because of the 30 hours free childcare, you're still taking that so reducing a day is just coming from your contribution to childcare not the funded 30 hours. Your pay per day is still more than what a full day childcare would be x2 without any funding.

Obviously we don't know your industry or how dropping to 4 days will be perceived.

Be aware though, and it will remain very unsaid, that it's sending out a signal. You've picked your side.

I'd factor in what you will be missing out on paying into your pension and ask DH to make it up.

Going part time is the biggest economic risk women take, second only to having kids unmarried.

Go in with your eyes open.

I didn’t find four days a week better in terms of salary but is was such a tiny difference between that and five days once childcare was taken into account that there was no point to me doing the fifth day!

Have you added NI, pension contribution in full, also your employer and holiday days?
how feasible is for you to go back full time after? As this could have a long term effect on your lifetime earnings.
also the nursery fees are half between you and your husband so surely in your calcs you are better off £100 as your husband contributions would stay the same?
anyway it could be possible, nursery fees are expensive and for 2 kids if don’t split them in two, in my area of London I calculated you need to earn over £80k a year to make it worth working.

And yeah anyone who says 75k is not a high salary is either a troll or doesn’t live in the real world.

your nursery fees actually look fairly reasonable.
loving the comments about 50k+ not being a high salary. Tbf my DP is on over 80k and doesn’t see himself as a high earner and moans about being poor. But he is one.

If your work is flexible definitely drop down, plus you get a day with your kids which is so nice (I used mine to also do the supermarket shop and general other stuff so we could have a more relaxed weekend).
Do take into account;
Will it impact promotions/advancement
Will you be desperately squeezing 5 days work into 4, or will they actually pro rata the work as well as salary (doesn't change the finances but causes a lot of stress)
Will they let you move back up to 5 when you want to