How much do you earn to live in nice area in a 3/4 bed house and drive a ‘nice’ car?

[BraOffForTea]

Just wondering. I thought I earned enough and having had a look online it seems I am in a high percentile of earnings. But I am unable to live lavishly at all - old car, small but nice home. Absolutely nothing special. I don’t necessarily aspire to have more things but I do wonder what you need to earn to drive a new Merc and so on. If I can’t do that in the top 8 percentile how do people manage it?! I worry about bills and often have beans on toast for tea!

£62k one salary. Statistically it's a lot but it does not go far in zone 6. For example, I tend not to put the heating on unless very cold and will opt for woodburner and collecting free firewood.

13 yr old car. No family abroad abroad holidays. Can't afford to do major DIY or renovations. Could probably afford an Airbnb somewhere in Europe for a week for us all if I gave up wine and other fripperies. But that seems a bit shit.

Depends what you call a nice car - I was talking to a friend last night, she asked what our car was like to drive and I went onto to say, it's just an ordinary car but really nice to drive, suits us and reliable - she turned to me and told me it was a large and nice car - Vauxhall Astra. We definitely do live in a nice area, rooms in house are flexible so could be a two or four bed house, but it's a semi. Our annual income is just under £40k

Depends where you live surely? Household income of £130k and we live in a nice but probably not naice area of zone 3 London. 4/bed house, no car though!

Live in a desirable family area but NE. Income 70k, no childcare cost. Nice house but could be much nicer. Shitty old cars. Great holidays but again could easily spend more if the budget was there.

If you can't afford those things, then what is your money going on instead?

What is your income and what are your essential outgoings? Surely you can afford more choice of food than beans on toast?

Do you live in a very expensive area? That itself is a luxury that many can't afford.

The people driving Mercedes are often leasing them and it's not that expensive, certainly affordable to many people, although they might be able to afford the nice versions of everything, rather that they've chosen to spend more on a nicer car and might be cutting back elsewhere to afford it.

Household income £120k in NW. we have a nice care because it’s cheaper to lease an electric car than buy the equivalent due to tax breaks.

Deslerately saving for the ‘nice’ 4 bed detached in a nice area but it’s £700k.

we can borrow £600k on salaries but still don’t know if we can get the nice house. I honestly
dont know how people afford it.

Household income a bit over £70k (£11k is my income) nice 4 bed terraced house, in nice area of south east, nice car. No debts, no mortgage BUT we bought in the 80s. If we wanted to buy our house now for its current value we don’t earn enough!

In the NW, a £700k 4 bed must be a very, very nice one!

@ReadyToMoveIt not necessarily in south Manchester or trafford. We recently viewed a 3 bed terrace on for 625k

As pp have said, it’s not just about earnings. If you have family that help out with childcare, you will have massive savings compared to those forking out for nursery/holiday/out of school clubs. Some people have massive mortgages. Some have a shed load of debt. Some have help from family or inherit money. Some got lucky with property buying and selling. Some have no kids, some have 10. It’s not a question of saying you earn X amount so everyone earning that amount can have the things you mention.

@ReadyToMoveIt sadly no

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/122096804#/?channel=RES_BUY

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/121069286#/?channel=RES_BUY

(the fact these aren’t detached shows you the state of the market).

As I kid growing up in the 90s in a very poor family, I was always told work hard and you’ll have a nice house.

the fact we earn £120k and can afford a perfectly nice house, but absolutely not a ‘show home’ is fairly depressing.

We are north west England, have a 5 bed, both have nice cars, live in a nice area of the town we live in. Household income of about 70k

Gosh I didn’t realise it was so insane. I live in the midlands and our 4 bed detached was £250k!

Location is everything. My sister and I bought houses for approx the same amount 6 years ago. Hers is a 3 bed semi with decent garden, in a nice leafy suburb with good schools. Mine (in a different city) is a smaller 3 bed terrace, tiny garden in a 'mixed' area with not great schools.

Also, increasingly it seems to be wealth (gifted by parents, inheritance etc) that is the bigger determinant of what house/car someone can afford than their income.

@ReadyToMoveIt i need to move to the Midlands!

It's also about priorities. Some people spent hundreds on a pcp contract, whereas others might prioritise eating out, expensive clothing, holidays etc. And like PP said some pple get gifted money which helps with houses and cars.

I’d say around my area a combined income of around 70k would give a nice but not lavish lifestyle.
(I live on my own on less!)

Do people know that when sharing Rightmove links, you also share your search criteria and postcode? Hopefully no-one shares their own postcode on the internet!?

The millionaire next door.
Many people just live within their means, and don't waste money on liabilities like expensive cars, expensive gadgets.

They may save and invest and live off that capital but you would never ever know.

Some people drive very flash cars but every thing is built on sand.
They' owe money left right and center And would have very little if they had to cash everything in!

I think it's all swings and roundabouts re houses.
Interest rates where crippling at many point's including the 90s compared to now ( mortgage)

id rather live in a nice area than have a nice car, my area I don't need a car

Nonsense

we have bought a 4 bed in the London suburbs and don’t meet that criteria! That said we are high earning professionals and our house cost a lot. We are happy with our qashqai though - wouldn’t buy a Range Rover or merc. Cost of mortgage and nursery costs and everything else means we live comfortably but don’t splash out on Uber fancy stuff like cars or super lux holidays

To be clear a 4 semi or detached bed near us in London costs about £900k - 1m, so doesn’t leave much in the kitty for anything else even as a relatively high earner (six figure salary)

I don't think it's possible to say 'over X amount you'll be able to afford nice house + nice car'. We have a lovely 4 bed house in an expensive area in a relatively cheap city. Very expensive when compared with similar properties locally, but cheap compared to similar properties down south. Nothing special about the car though as neither me or OH are remotely interested. It reliably gets us from A to B and has enough room to shoehorn the tent in. It depends on your priorities, surely?

Household income of £65k. A four bed semi, one nice car (dh's) and less nice car (mine). We live in quite a cheap area and only put a 5% deposit down on the house if that makes a difference.

Our household income per month is around £8k and we live in a small 3 bed flat and drive a 12 year old merc. We certainly can't afford anything fancy, though we do save around £1.5k a month.