3.5 k a month? For uk

[Earteill]

In the UK is this a lot for one person household? How good a standard of living would this be? It’s taking ages to research online when outside of London

@PolkadotFlamingos if the person I quoted was genuinely living hand to mouth they wouldn't be paying the full pension contribution. I think it's insulting to use phrases like that when they actually mean 'it's a bit tight'.

Anyone could end up hand to mouth even on 50k a year. A person could end up single parent with 4 young children in childcare with a high mortgage or rent if a partner died etc. Yes they could have had many comfortable years but anyones circumstances can change in a flash.

I live in one of the most expensive areas in the uk and earn half that. I would love to be on a wage like that!

I said just under, and he puts the max possible into his pension (very sensible). He's single, but this takes into account rent, student loan, running a (cheap) car, commuting (his bastard boss has forced everyone back into the office) etc,

He’s living sensibly on his wage. People who live hand to mouth don’t have money for pension contributions, let alone the max

Hand to mouth means having to choose between food or heat. Not maxing out your pension contributions.

People will use any excuse to get in a stealth boast on mn.

@Ugzbugz

Anyone could end up hand to mouth even on 50k a year. A person could end up single parent with 4 young children in childcare with a high mortgage or rent if a partner died etc. Yes they could have had many comfortable years but anyones circumstances can change in a flash.

Of course they can. The example on this thread of the young man maxing out his pension contributions is not in this situation though.

OP : MN is full of professional people who live in London and think a household income of £100k + a year is ‘normal’. It isn’t. They are completely out of touch with and unrepresentative of the reality of life for the overwhelming majority of British people, so just ignore them.

A net income of £3.5k per month isn’t a fortune, but it’s enough to be able to afford a perfectly nice life anywhere in the U.K. except London and some areas of the South East of England. It’s enough to be able to buy or rent a nice house in a pleasant area, pay all the household bills, buy & run car and afford holidays and have some disposable income for treats.

Will you be buying a house? Plus your salary into some mortgage calculators, see what comes out then take a look on right move. That will give you an idea of housing.

I earn a few hundred more and have a nice house is a nice area, a mid range car, eat our regularly, go on nice holidays and save quite a lot each month. No debt (apart from the mortgage).

Not in London.

@NannyAndJohn

Highly depends where you're living.

DS (26) is on just under 50k a year (£2,600 take home a month) and is having to live hand to mouth.

He was overall better off when he was on half the salary but living in a cheaper location.

He has a car, he chooses to make pension contributions.

He is not living hand to mouth. He isn’t using all his money for food.

Sorry but ridiculous comment. I am sure you meant he can’t afford the luxuries he would rather than he is living in poverty struggling to feed himself and missing meals.

If he truly is struggling to pay for food and bisons like electricity, he should reduce his p s ion contributions and sell his car.

@NannyAndJohn

Highly depends where you're living.

DS (26) is on just under 50k a year (£2,600 take home a month) and is having to live hand to mouth.

He was overall better off when he was on half the salary but living in a cheaper location.

no offence but i earned about that in my mid 20s in London - with a nice enough rental in west london, a car and student loan

If your son without dependants, is living hand to mouth he really needs to budget better

Even London really isn’t that expensive unless you are going out drinking and eating your money away every night

It's over double what I bring home and I have a mortgage (on a tiny house), go abroad for a week every year and run a car. I would love to earn that much.

@AgeLikeWine

OP : MN is full of professional people who live in London and think a household income of £100k + a year is ‘normal’. It isn’t. They are completely out of touch with and unrepresentative of the reality of life for the overwhelming majority of British people, so just ignore them.

A net income of £3.5k per month isn’t a fortune, but it’s enough to be able to afford a perfectly nice life anywhere in the U.K. except London and some areas of the South East of England. It’s enough to be able to buy or rent a nice house in a pleasant area, pay all the household bills, buy & run car and afford holidays and have some disposable income for treats.

^^ This. It's also worth noting that a person in this position has more money than 91% of other one person households, so should be very comfortable.

ifs.org.uk/tools_and_resources/where_do_you_fit_in

I know Mumsnet likes to paint a picture of everything being a struggle because life is 'so expensive' and wages are 'so low' but the people saying this have lifestyles that include a lot of very expensive choices, that they think are normal basic living expenses. Spending all of your above average salary on the expensive version of everything is not living 'hand to mouth' FFS.

On £3.5k a month you probably won't have enough money if you want to live in central London in a spacious apartment in the most expensive area, and eat out or get deliveroo every day and have lots of expensive holidays and go to the theatre every night and buy lots of designer clothes and have all the grooming available and run a fancy car but you will have plenty of money to live in a perfectly nice place and have money over for living a good life.

Just seen you're living in the middle of the UK, so that means you don't have to pay London housing costs, so definitely plenty to pay for a good life for a single person.

Even if you spent £1k pm living somewhere really nice and £500 pm running a nice car, £500 pm on bills, which don't need to cost anywhere near that much, you'd still have £1500 pm for food, experiences and stuff, which is absolutely loads. Curious as to why you're asking the question @Earteill?

That's a good ncome for where I live in the east Midlands. My income is £2k for me and one child and we live fine on that, can pay bills and afford treats.

I live in the South East and live on a lot less. Family of 6.

@LobotomisedIceSkatingFan

The Child Poverty Action Group published an excellent book - which one can now access free - called 'Hand to Mouth'; it's actually bloody offensive to use that term to describe anyone earning £50k (especially someone a few years out of university with no dependents). It literally means those who can't afford to meet anything beyond their most immediate needs, so mention of pension contributions? Do me a favour.

£50k in some areas would result in living hand to mouth though. 50k gross = 3k pcm net (after tax/NI)

Rent - 3bed terrace in non desirable area of a outer London Borough £1,600
Childcare for 2 children before and after school £850
Council tax £175
Gas/electricity £100
Water £33
Travel to work £230 each (so £460)

I'm already at £3,218 and haven't even thought about food! This was us about 3 years ago so absolutely real. No debt, no stupid spending, just chappy circumstances and earnt too much to get any benefits.

So yes, 50k can easily still be living hand to mouth and it's "offensive" that you think other people's struggles aren't real just because you haven't experienced it.

But the person who said that was talking about a single person, so totally different circumstances.

Of course it's hard to support a family on even £50k in London when you're paying childcare and rent, which you'd probably be entitled to help with btw, but it's a totally different situation when you don't have childcare costs, only need to feed and transport one person and don't need a 3 bedroom house.

That will be our net retirement income, we have no mortgage, we are on more than that net at the moment, we have been transferring cash out to savings and we have been keeping a close eye on the remaining balance which mirrors the retirement figure and we always have something left over.

So long answer, yes it is doable.

@MarjorieBouvier

Don't be absurd. You're describing a household where four people depend upon a combined adult wage of £50 k: I very clearly said 'anyone' meaning one person - and that's even supposing they have dependent children, because I don't know of a single mum among my friends who really struggles on £50k - and which at any rate isn't the case with the PP's son. He chooses to make extra pension contributions. He chooses to run a car when he lives in London and since his mother mentioned a commute, we can infer it's not even the means by which he travels to work, and therefore not essential. He doesn't have to skip meals. He doesn't have to turn off the heating after an hour. That's hand to mouth.

Why are you asking us rather than working out your expenses?

@Earteill

In the UK is this a lot for one person household? How good a standard of living would this be? It’s taking ages to research online when outside of London

Are you living so far off the grid that you don't have internet. Why would research take longer if you are outside of London.

Do you think that the rest of us live in hovels without utilities?

Perhaps your lack of providing any context to your question is why you can find any answers, piece of string anyone

You will be fine on that op. You may need to rent rather than buy depending on where exactly you’ll be. Another thing to factor in on top of obvious is the very high cost (by comparison to most eu countries certainly) of train fares so if you have a significant commute you should just be aware of yearly cost to factor in.

Maybe op means that London living costs are very well ‘documented’ and easily researched (even if wildly wrong often).
But as op is giving so little info it is hard to say ! Maybe op is in very different time zone.

Hahaha at 50k a year being hand to mouth in London for a 26 year old.

I said just under, and he puts the max possible into his pension (very sensible)

Do you mean the maximum of £40k pensions contributions @NannyAndJohn ? If so I don't think that's at all sensible if he's stuggling to live on what's left.

Surely it would be much more sensible to reduce to half that and not have to worry about basic bills. He is still young so even £20k a year has got a long time to grow before he retires and can always be increased when he has salary rises