How much do you earn?

[Baseel92]

Salary is such a taboo subject, I know. However, I want to know what people earn and whether its enough for them to support their children?

For a bit of background, I earn £27k p.a. and DH earns £18k p.a. he keeps talking about children but I feel like we can't possibly support children on that amount as we would lose my income to childcare.

When we first had Ds husband became a sahp and I worked full time on £27k. Our mortgage was only £400pm so it was doable. On a bit more now but without worrying about childcare we had a lot more freedom. There’s a lot more you can do for free than you realise and for the first 4-5 years the finically demands can be kept low

I earn £26k, DP earns about £10k. We can't afford to have children

DH is on roughly £29k plus bonus, I'm on 20k pro-rata for three days which works out roughly 12k or thereabouts. We have 1 DS, two dogs, mortgage and a car on finance. DH is a manager in the motor industry so is lucky enough to have a car through work. We don't struggle, but also aren't able to save anything very often unless DH has a good months bonus or I can get some overtime in. We were always told you can never afford kids, it's something that you just alter your spending for.

Widowed parent, earn 74k, it's plenty.

Obviously your DH does childcare, baffled you'd consider anything else.

£28k and husband not on fixed income/salary but last year was around £100k. This is likely to drop in the future so we still live relatively frugally and save. Whatever your income is, children will likely stretch you but like everyone else, you'll make it work.

9k

15k as I am part time, 50% of normal working week. DH is on 31k. We pay childcare 3 days a week which comes to about 550 a month after tax free allowance (which everyone working is entitled to). We pay 580 mortgage a month. We live very comfortably. I am 3 weeks away from having DC2.

Affordability all comes from outgoings versus income, so basically mortgage and childcare. Income alone isnt an accurate assessment of affordability.

Combined for us is about £110k. No immediate plans for kids but we both feel it would mean giving up things we like too much.

If you really want kids you will make it work on the dust from your pockets.

£31k in good times, £21k since Covid. DP is on about £40k.

Sometimes I think it's not enough for the kids we want, but then I remind myself that people get by on much, much less and know that we'll be alright

Enough but not enough.

Two parents, shared parental leave - why should you lose your salary to childcare if you’re the higher earner? As a family unit you’ll need to pay childcare, yes, but it won’t ‘lose your salary’.

Some of these figures and saying you can’t afford a child is bonkers. DP nets 12k, I get student finance. And we are fine! Have 2 kids.

£50k plus 10% bonus. Never seems to go that far living in London though

Widowed and I earn about 28000 i have two children and manage ok, I have no mortgage though so that helps

I'm on 41k (plus 8% bonus) and dh is on 53k
Mid thirties, 2 dc.
But we have no mortgage and v little childcare costs.
Also not in the U.K. so we still get child benefit which is great.
Also we have no council tax bills or water bills where we live so I feel like we have less bills than the U.K. I think we pay slightly more tax though.

I earn £47k plus in normal years a bonus of £20k. DP is self employed but earns roughly the same if not slightly more than me.
We plan to buy a house next year and then save for a couple of years before we have kids mainly because childcare in London is so expensive and we enjoy a comfortable lifestyle and wouldn’t want to sacrifice that.

How do you figure that it would cost your salary in childcare? I put 27k into a salary calculator and even with a student loan and pension contributions it was still coming out at over £1600 per month. I live in the south east and have looked at some very expensive nurseries but none were that much for a full time place. We pay £40 a day for a wonderful childminder and we are in the tax free childcare scheme so we only actually pay £32 of every £40 day. Totally manageable on your combined salaries.

Also please don’t go down the path of a) assuming you are doing all the childcare and b) assuming that it’s your wage that is being sacrificed. Childcare is a joint cost that should be shouldered by both parents. Plus don’t just take the short term view - even if you did literally spend all of one salary on childcare, it’s still worth staying in work as you’ll earn more in the future, maintain your skills, pay off any student loans more quickly, accumulate a bigger pension... etc etc

What I earn, or indeed anyone else on this thread is irrelevant.

We have no idea if you can manage, as we don't know what your current, or at least your unavoidable outgoings are.
What you need to look at is your current net income (as a couple) and your current outgoings in terms of those things that will remain the same after dc (so that will be either your mortgage or rent / council tax / utilities / insurances / food / commute / car expenses / phones / all the little things that add up like TV licence, MOT, any debts you are servicing.
Then come back and ask for advice about what you might be entitled to in terms of help with childcare perhaps.

I could tell you I earn £12 000 year, or £180 000 a year, but it doesn't affect your position.

Pre children combined pre tax salary of 120k by the time ours first was 6 months we had a combined income of 26k another child later, covid effected we are probably goibg to finish this tax year 50k my salary 45k and my husband's business 5k. It is what it is i feel lucky we dont worry about food or heat but we did and i feel so much for anyone that wonders who to make that bit of cheese go further.

My partner earns about 28k, I'm on £27,635. We pay £700 in rent for our house. I have about 6k in savings, he has about 2000 as he has a car on HP and an old credit card that means he can't save as much as me :)

18.5k basic
Bonus of anything from 0 to £1200pm. On average it's around £700pm so takes me up to 26-27k

DH is on 120k give or take with bonus.
I'm a stay at home mum but mortgage and nursery fees come to about £3000 a month ... In London it doesn't go far ...

There's never a good time to have kids in my opinion ... just go with your gut!

Everyone earns so much!
Are the majority of you living down south?
We are on a joint salary of 60k and I thought we were quite well off.. I feel poor reading this thread!

@amimissingsomethinghere sorry for the question and feel free to ignore if you like but what does 120k equate to each month after tax? Trying to work out how much of a dint the 3k would be for you both!