Do you have a good work life balance and earn a good salary?

[hayre]

My cousin works in London as a lawyer and he earns lots and lots and lots of money. However, he is ALWAYS working, to me it seems dull (he agrees), he doesn’t see his wife much, and they can still only afford a fairly grotty flat in an OK area. The guy is super bright.

His brother was never quite so bright, and worked up in an insurance firm in Wales and now earns less then his brother. However, he sees his partner, they have an absolutely gorgeous house, lovely lifestyle, enjoys the work and has free time. I’d say he has the right work life balance.

What career do you have that provides a good salary but you don’t work every hour under the sun?

We have a joint income of 60k, live in the Midlands. Both our kids were born in London but moved when DD2 was a baby. Have a pretty good work-life balance, I work full time, odd bit of overtime but I have Flexi hours (I do 8am-4pm) and can generally WFH one day per week. DH is self employed so we can generally work around the kids, go to plays etc.

Comfortable lifestyle, a couple of holidays per year, can afford dinners out and pay for activities, residentials, have a nice second hand car etc. Obviously there are limits - we don't holiday in St Lucia and can't really afford private school as we would not have disposable income.

Sure there are some good aspects of London that I miss, definitely the culture, things to do etc but Nottingham has some pretty good offerings And its nice to look forward for a day trip to London.

I found it hard having a good work life balance in London (long commute, expensive childcare, tiny arse house) manageable with once DC but when DD2 arrived it just was not that feasible.

Wow. Lots of high earners here. Goes to show people do live to their means. I'm currently a sahm, but was working 20hrs a week on 10k a yr until recently. Dh earns 45k and we have a nice 4 bed house, decent car living in midlands. Good work life balance for Dh as he works from home.

@arkela £65k for a paralegal role shock

Yes, I'm aware of how lucky I am, believe me.

We earn over £100k each, we both work for FTSE 250 companies in IT and Finance. We both work standard hours, more or less 9-5 and can work from home regularly. We are in the SE but not London. Various things have contributed:

I have regularly moved jobs, getting payrises of £15k or more each time
Dh has been promoted 5 times in his current company
We are both very good at what we do and play the corporate game well
We are both senior enough to not have to ask to leave early or arrive late if there are sports days or other events

Neither of us works at weekends or in the evenings, we don't need to.
We are in our 40s with two teenagers and life is good. The poster who said it was helpful to have enough money to fix stuff and do pretty much what you like was right, our tumble drier broke recently and we just bought a new one. I like having money and I like that we haven’t sacrificed our lives for it either. It can be done 🙂

(name changed for this post).

I'm no where like a high earner but I am very good money for the town I live in. I earn aboout 55% more than the average salary and DP is similar.
Although I do shift work I have an excellent work/life balance due to compressed hours and semi rostering on our rota. We have enough money to be ok. We go abroad for a long weekend each month, have several big holidays a year, have money to deal with emergencies etc.
I'm happy with what I have.

I would much rather have a lower wage but good work/life balance. I earn £28k but live alone with a small mortgage and low outgoings so can still afford 3 holidays a year. I also have a flexible work schedule so can meet friends for lunch etc during the work week which I love.

Dh and I earn £78k between us and we both work 35 hours a week (although dh has to work one Saturday out of every 4 but he gets to use hours as extra lieu time, which helps with school holidays).

I think we have a reasonable work life balance. I can work from home 2-3 times a week and office is close to eldest school. Childcare for youngest is costly (around £1k a month in the SW) but we're still able to put a fair bit away for savings, holidays etc. Dh was working shifts but has been in a secondment where he's just working 9-5. Fingers crossed it'll become permanent, making the work life balance a little better for both of us.

Single mother here, on £100k a year five days a week 8.39 to 5.30, own four bed house in zone 3 and I feel like I have a great work life balance. My commute is 30 minutes door to door and although granted I can’t do school drop off and pick up I do still make school events and see DC every evening for bath and bedtime and every weekend. Never have to work late although some overseas travel at times.