How much do you need to earn for 3 kids?

[Diskneedisney]

Exactly that. DH and I are having some back and forth on the topic

i know MN can be a bit skewed with v large incomes but realistically in a 2 parent household (not in london) how much is the minimum gross salary that you think is necessary to live a good life, which includes a holiday abroad and maybe a uk holiday a year.

let’s assume no debts, no cars on anything on finance and a mortgage of £1500 a month. Childcare costs with government funding would be reduced. Let’s assume only one child in nursery. Then big standard average bills on everything else.

dh for instance thinks you’d need a combined income of around 130/150k a year to even contemplate 3. I think that’s a bit silly.

what do we think Mn- appreciate we are painting with a broad brush here

My £1500 figure was based off someone upthread saying they spend 1800 a month on their kids Uni.

i imagine it’s academic discussion uni costs 15 years prior to my kids even potentially going, the future could look very different, but likely we’d qualify for the lowest level of student loan due to income. I suspect going away to uni will become a luxury.

130-150k!!!
Your DH must want a VERY comfortable lifestyle.
We have 4 DC on less than that.
It's an impossible question but the truth is having kids usually means a compromise on lifestyle.
How much do you want kids?
How much are you prepared to compromise?
When our were little we holidayed once a year in UK didn't feel like a compromise.
Some people will say they manage it on 50k others will have 100k and feel they are struggling.

I do understand that. Although I had family and friends in London and was sad to leave them, it was perhaps easier for me to move away than it would have been for them. I did find the diversity and London being very accepting of different ethnicities and cultures at that time (not so much now it seems) a wonderful thing, it was quite a culture shock and lonely to move to an although nice and cheaper part of the country quite an insular one. Has been better since moved closer to the city which is more diverse but still in a nice and inexpensive part of the country

OP didn't just ask what salary is needed but what salary was needed for a certain lifestyle.

I have 3 dc and living in the south with a mortgage and hefty train commute, 50k did not stretch to a holiday abroad, we did go camping each year in the UK.

If you are going to add on a holiday abroad in term time you can add at least another 10k as a salary need, more if losing CB as well.

That is for a single earner though, the tax rates are friendlier with two earning the same combined amount.

She did @Alainlechat , specifically saying "not in London"

Well I already have two so the more than one ship has sailed but I will say, when I fell pregnant with my first we were on 68 gross then my second 76 gross with my second so despite having had two kids we’ve kept our lifestyle because we’ve moved forward in our careers quite a bit. And that’s been in only about 5 years

We're close to your age and this has been the case for us too. Haven't really felt the financial impact of each child because our wages have been increasing alongside them. Even though I reduced my working hours down to a 30 hour contract after my first child, we still earn quite a lot more now than we did before.

I'm with the husband.

Our joint income is in the £110k region, and we're considering sticking at one.

Not because we couldn't afford to have three, but because we value our financial security - and his - to the extent that we prioritise savings and investments out of that income as well as living well.

I don't think it's your salary that matters but other things like how much money you have left at the end of each month, how many years are left on your mortgage, how much family support you have, how flexible your job is etc.....

I only have 2 very young children myself, we're not having a third child but finances weren't really a consideration in that decision.

I don't know a lot of people with 3 children (2 seems much more common these days) but those that I do know don't have high paying jobs. They still seem to have nice comfortable lives with holidays abroad and loads of nice days out. They do have good family support though.

You maybe don’t NEED these things, but would you really set out to have three children if you couldn’t provide them?

Sorry if I’ve missed it but is there a particular reason you’re keen for a third child? Or just not done with babies yet? Genuinely curious.

I’m amazed that you can do that with so many luxuries - do you have a big mortgage/childcare costs?

@Newposter180 mortgage is £1080 a month but no childcare as dh wfh and dc are 12-16.

tbh I’d just love another

@TeenLifeMum i feel like that’s quite a distance age-wise from the expensive nursery costs plus earnings reduction of maternity leave. Presumably it is wasn’t as comfortable when all three were small?!

We took them to Canada when twins were 20 months old, did a road trip from New York to Chicago and up to the Wisconsin dells when twins were 5 and various European holidays (canvas caravans in lake Garda and Brittany) in between. So a mix. We did budget carefully and had a smaller mortgage when they were little (£850 a month). Childcare was very tight as we really didn’t plan twins but it’s such a short time. Went back to work when they were 12 months so only 2 years until they were three and got 15 hours funding and dd1 went to school the same year. We moved to a bigger house when dtds were 6. We prioritise travel because we love it.

I had 3 children with my ex husband. We sat down and worked out if we could afford it beforehand. We were probably earning 45-50k? We managed fine. We had a 3 bed house, 2 kids shared. Had eurocamp holiday every year and center parcs. Kids did lots of activities and clubs. We didn't spend heaps on days out etc but had membership for the zoo, went to the beach, woods etc. I did work a lot of weekends (nurse) to keep childcare costs down while they were little. It is a load of rubbish that they need their own room etc. Kids share my car and contribute to insurance.

I'm now remarried and we earn 145k between us. We save/overpay mortgage to the region of 3k a month. My kids are teenagers/young adults and have 1 at uni. They do not ask for loads of things. We do not have an luxurious lifestyle and neither my husband or I are big spenders.

I'm glad I had a 3rd child. My family didn't feel complete until then (just how I felt) but that maybe because I already had 2 of the same sex. I think you earn plenty of money to manage it. You might have to give up a takeaway a week or something but nothing drastic.

the husband thinks it is fine and on board (as does the Op!)

and that’s good enough given your financial situation op

@TeenLifeMum I was on your thread about how you’re going to have to remortgage to afford uni for your kids and you’re really stressed about lack of savings!!

We have savings but that doesn’t go far when paying for 3 dc at uni at the same time (which is what that post was about). I don’t recommend multiples because you can’t stagger the costs and that’s the killer - one dc going on a ski trip is very different to double that. We have prioritised travel and suddenly got to dc being teens and uni costs mentioned on here scared me. It’s true, I don’t have a spare £2400 per month (a poster quoted £800 a month at uni per dc). We’ve had to shift things a bit to boost regular savings to get more prepared and but I’m also wanting to keep my lifestyle and not have to sacrifice holidays as we won’t have many family holidays left as dc are growing up.

yes but you’re on the other thread saying to the op how you don’t understand why anyone wouldn’t be able to afford multiple holidays and savings etc with three teens on same salary as her.

Yes because her there would be more spread out. We can afford uni for 2 dc at the same time but not 3. Op didn’t mention multiples therefore she will be fine if all three go to uni. We will likely have 2 years with all 3 dc at uni. Op is less likely to have that. 3 dc with spread out ages wouldn’t be a problem so my advice remains.

ok just on this thread it’s one holiday most years and on the other thread it’s multiple holidays every year 🤷

all sounds good though so i’ll bow out

Well this year we’ve been to Spain, Dublin and Devon so multiple (probably shouldn’t as we need to save for uni but we can afford one a year).