I earn £81,000…

[Sueretiredawhileago]

And (although clearly I am not on the breadline and understand how lucky I am compared to others) I have very little spare money. I am a single (co) parent and I live in London so mortgage is a lot. I used to have loads spare and felt ‘well off’ but now I’ve had to cut down on all the little spending I once never gave a thought to. No quick coffees, pastries for breakfast, no brunches, no magazines, new lipsticks etc etc.

If I can’t afford these things I don’t understand how ‘they’ keep saying that consumer spending is still strong and driving inflation. Who the hell has the spare money??!!!

Higher rate tax on 81 k only affects the cash you earn above the threshold -

Most people , most single parents included , bring up their families on income - take home pay- way below that

You take home far more than two parents both working on median salary - ie the salary at which half the population earns less

You take home a bit more than 2 people working on mean salary

Yeah we can all winge but really you don't know you're born

Another OP bragging about how much they earn and then crying that they don't have any spare money because they spend it all on what is out of reach for most people (like owning a nice house in London)

I mean I live in a small 2 bed flat but ok.

How much is your mortgage? I’m assuming it’s got to be over £50k a year if you’re skint.

bloody hope not as I only take home £55k a year net.

I can’t move away my child is at school here and I co-parent. It wouldn’t be allowed for me to up and leave away from her dad

It is because you are in a single-income household, in London. Change either of those variables and you’d have plenty of money (I do realise it isn’t as easy as that).

if you lived in Sheffield on £80k you could easily afford luxuries as your housing costs would be about a quarter of what they are now. If you lived in London with another person on a similar salary, you have essentially the same outgoings as now, but with twice the income 🤷‍♀️

why say this? why do people have to be dirt poor to have people empathise with them? OP is a sole parent, earning and worked friggin hard to get 81k, take your bitterness somewhere else.

and to those saying "you chose to live in London". what are you even talking about. thats where most JOBs are. for a lot of people, not working in london would put them in a difficult financial position and as a sole parent that's awful for their children.

some of you people need to grow up seriously. it's like you're proud to be poor. no wonder this country have such a thick shit government.

DH went to the bank for poorly 80 year old FIL to withdraw some cash, and in his basic current account, not part of his his many savings, Premium Bonds, ISA's or investments was over £75k. I don't think this spare money is unusual among many of that generation.
He's also just received over £400 a month attendance allowance completely non means tested which seems bonkers.

pubs were overspilling on to the pavements and they looked like people from work rather than tourists so it seems plenty do have disposable income

That's because you can't smoke in pubs and in any group theres a few smokers so everyone stands outside, plus its piss hot and everyone wants to be outside. There not 'overspilling'.

There's 8 million people in London @Spirallingdownwards , guess what? If a tiny amount of them go for a drink on the hottest week of the year, its going to look busy.

Meanwhile, most Londoners don't earn anything near OP, not even half of that but we all have massively inflated house prices , food costs and transport costs compared to the rest of the country.

This county taxes the shit out of people

When I started working in the late 80’s, the basic rate of income tax was 30%.

I'd take this to the Money forum. Things will get ugly.

I’m not worried or bothered about keyboard bullies really. I just think they must have their own thing going on to feel the need to be mean anonymously. I can take it!

Yeah we can all winge but really you don't know you're born @midgemadgemodge not whinged at all to be fair. Just asked a question for debate on COL/ consumer spending trends

I do think OP is being a bit insensitive though by saying things like ‘it’s not like we’re on the breadline or anything’. You’re not ANYWHERE near the breadline.

if op were to send me her monthly outgoings and bills I GUARANTEE I would be able to get it to something like £3500 per month. But she probably wouldn’t like my suggestions

for the salary that’d leave about £2000 to save and spend per month on how she sees fit. That’s loads.

And? Basic rate payers have some of the lowest rates in the world. They’ve done very well. Meanwhile it’s the mugs like op - paying some of the highest marginal taxes in the world whilst 54.2% of British adults don’t contribute.

@Sueretiredawhileago

affluent pensioners. And over 50s.

i saw a statistic recently that the proportion of households that own their home OUTRIGHT (no mortgage so either paid off or bought outright in the first place) is up 10 percentage points in the last 20 years (this stat only quotes last 10 years https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mortgageshome/article-11922413/More-people-England-homes-outright-mortgage-rent-figures-reveal.html

rent or mortgage is the largest chunk of most peoples income and both have been rising fast lately.

but 30% of households don’t pay either. So have more disposable income and haven’t seen their biggest outgoing increase by 10-20% in the last couple of years.

also lots of people on final salary index linked pensions.

similar question, why are so many people still retiring early despite the govt still being apparently desperate for them to stay on/come back to work and you'd assume people needing the money?

answer being, everyone has different circumstances. Just because YOU don't have much discretionary cash doesn't mean nobody else does!

Some people have had a significant payrises over the last few years.
Some people still have a lot of the money they saved during covid.
Over a third of homes in the UK are fully owned by their occupiers (i.e without a mortgage), less than a third are mortgaged and of those lots of people are still on very low mortgage rates (e.g. mine for a 2 bed semi in a nice area is less than £300 p/m - you can see why even though your wage is nearly double mine I could be left with a lot more disposable income).

Lots of people live in areas of the country that are still comparatively cheap. Some people bought and sold at exactly the right time and made a huge amount of money in 2020-early 2022 when house prices peaked.
Some (either younger people still living with their parents, or older people who have paid off the mortgage have minimal outgoings.

Lots of people might not actually have the money but just put it on a card and spend anyway.
Lots of people might just have a 'fuck it' mindset after covid.
Lots of younger people don't think they'll ever be able to afford a home so aren't even bothering to save, so are spending more on other things instead.

Take your pick!

You earn more than £15K more than DH and I do together. I live in the Bristol/Bath area with house prices comparable to London.

Where I live it’s a ghost town . People can’t afford to go out , shops are boarded up and it’s gettIng worse.
Thanks to the ConParty all the wealth is in the south. Moaning about earning 80k when so many are homeless and going hungry what an AH

if op were to send me her monthly outgoings and bills I GUARANTEE I would be able to get it to something like £3500 per month. But she probably wouldn’t like my suggestions. for the salary that’d leave about £2000 to save and spend per month on how she sees fit. That’s loads

you’re actually way out on net pay. It’s about £4,500 a month after tax and pension

I have no debt

It's all comparative, my DH and I don't earn that between us and if we did we would be consider ourselves to be well off but we live in the midlands with a small mortgage

We are doing OK, our joint income is only slightly over yours, but obviously after tax, 2 student loans etc you are probably taking home more. We have a tiny mortgage which is up soon, increasing by £70 not great but it isn't a disaster. We live in the North though, house prices have soared by up here's standards, we were looking at moving but a 4 bed detached is 420k now when it was 320k about 2 years ago, madness. We are holding off to see what house prices and rates do.

Live in the most expensive part of the country and your money won't go far, come up north you'll feel (fairly) minted in comparison. I do wonder where all your money goes though if you can't afford what I consider normal little treats, surely it isn't that tight?

Well me and DH earn £45K between us, (I am part time 20 hours a week over 3 days, and he works 34 hours over 4 days,) and we have no kids at home. But we are mortgage free, and debt free, and have very low outgoings in our small bungalow. Just one cat.

There are too many variables, and too many different circumstances to say 'why do people on less money than me have more surplus income?' Me and DH manage to save a not-insignificant sum of money every month, and paying £5K towards out DD's wedding didn't put too much of a dent in our savings. Yet we only earn £45K per year between us - both aged 50-ish.

It really depends on so many things.

£4500 per month approx but will be less if OP is paying into a pension and/or has a student loan to repay. I earn £88k and my salary after tax and pension is £4600 per month. Sounds a lot but doesn’t go far if your rent/mortgage is £2k and then have high childcare costs on top.

That’s MN for you. Economically illiterate no idea how much tax is. It actually blows their mind when you explain marginals of 70-100% at 100k. THeY ShOuLD PaY MoRE. No idea how they think that’s possible with loss of personal allowance, loss of childcare etc. They just see a salary of say 90k and think it’s three x a 30k salary. Or worse, 90k divided by 12.

You live in London that's why.

I’m a single parent and get less than 1/4 of what OP does (including benefit top ups).

There’s no way anyone is skint on £80k.

And this is a perfect example of someone not having a clue how much tax is being paid on people with higher incomes. You’re only £1k out!!!!

81K for a single parent salary in London is not enough these days, I sympathise. Any chance of a pay rise OP?

There’s no way anyone is skint on £80k

I’m not skint. Never said I was