Combined salary needed to afford this lifestyle for 2 kids in London?

[brownbutter]

The lifestyle I mean includes things like:
-private school (and wraparound care if needed)
-nice holidays
-4+ bedroom house
-hobbies
-days out
-contributions for first property deposit

I was doing some quick mental arithmetic and I was thinking you would need combined annual gross salary of £350k plus? Does that sound right?

Obviously depends on a few factors like mortgage, savings, other sources of income etc.

How long does it take you to get to work now and how many days are you in the office?

Well that’s your opinion which you are entitled to…

Just because there are people are on £29k it doesn’t mean higher earners don’t exist and shouldn’t be able to discuss their options

I don’t think you can speak for all kids and what makes them happy. I’m saying that as someone who has a sibling!!

Anyway lots of people have demonstrated on this thread that it’s feasible to achieve this lifestyle with 2 children while moving slightly away to have the best of both worlds.

Thank you @Beansmum2 @WatchandWaitorNot really useful advice!

@TomeTome DH is in office 1x a week with a 35 min commute roughly. I expect to be in 1-2x a week (to be confirmed) with a similar commute.

Yawn.

72p a year. Hth op

It's not just an opinion, it's documented fact that wealth inequality in this country is second only to the US, and geographical inequality very significant. Of course you are allowed to discuss it, it just was a huge neon sign highlighting it.

When one then hears things like that the HS2 Northern link has been scrapped and the majority of the money allegedly used for Cambridge, the Bakerloo line and other South East projects it can be quite galling. But it's ok as the North will get 1.5 bn of the 32 bn the government had set aside for the project.

It's not your fault, but it can feel very much like one is living on scraps from the table when you live outside that South East bubble.

Btw it's not people on 29k. It's family income of 29k.

I do agree with pp that most kids would prefer another sibling (if they are bought up in a happy home) than private school.

And me and DH have a combined income of 250k in London, so I'm a high earner, but still think family relationships trump private school tbh

To the actual OP - we can afford all this by moving to greater London area/suburbs, but not achievable for us in central London (where we previously lived). It's all about choices

We’ve always had DC in private school and did have a big mortgage in london. When our household income hit £500k the lifestyle you describe became more comfortable.

before that we were definitely worrying when the school bill came around and making cautious choices re expenditure.

Estimate sounds on low side to me. Need to factor in income protection insurance pension contributions and private health cover ( the way things are going) to projection too plus school fee inflation, university fees etc.

My sister manages this on around half that joint income. Mortgage is paid off, private secondary only (saved during primary years) and holidays in Europe. Sensible and mindful with spends but plenty for clubs, extra curricular, etc

She is zone 2 London and 2 kids

Interesting but I know several children in state schools who live in big houses. Slightly bemused that you think that all would be poor and squashed in a small house.

How about people stop offering advice on one child vs 2 and just focus on the financial question that OP asked? I’m sure she and her husband are perfectly capable of weighing up the other factors themselves.

FWIW we have that lifestyle on the zone 2/3 boundary with one child, but we did not limit our family size to achieve it. We are actually making the must of having the option to live in London and use private school without it feeling like a stretch, because having more children was not an option. Silver linings and all that. That said, I think we could have managed the same with 2 kids, but we’d have been counting the pennies a lot more, or pushing to advance more aggressively in our careers.

Just a couple of comments.

Your list doesn’t include university costs for your children which is a large expense. I assume by the nature of your post that you won’t want them getting large loans.

Also, the cost of a London house varies enormously depending on the location. And, the size of house deposits needed for your children will vary accordingly. A deposit for a London flat or house could be huge depending on location.

I don’t think that it necessarily follows @RoseMarigoldViolet that a family that is well off would discourage the taking out of loans for University, especially the tuition fees element. We will not be paying our DS’ tuition fees when the time comes, even though we will be comfortably able to do so, and will have no problem at all with him repaying the debt when he begins to earn enough to do so.

After our housing, which was in place pre children, we estimated that 2 children and that kind of lifestyle was going to cost us an additional million pounds.

Yes thank you! The financial element is only one part of the decision making. If finances were the only consideration, I would likely have two and move further out of London or compromise somewhere (no private school etc).

The interest rates on student loans are fairly high so it does seem to be the done thing for affluent families to pay for their children to avoid them getting loans. (Child at a UK university so current experience).

I’m from the North and live in the South East. Most of my northern friends and family have more disposable income than my southern friends and family. Why?! Because they are not paying extortionate amounts for housing (and plenty of other things are cheaper too in the North such as childcare, building work/trades people…) I live 40 miles from London but there are no London fringe payments for public sector workers. My teacher brother would get paid exactly the same here as he currently does in the Midlands but the same house that he has would cost three times as much here. It’s not all about the salary. Some people get paid huge amounts in the City but there are many other people in the South East struggling with their bills and trying to keep a roof over their heads.

I have just applied for a new job. There are two possible locations, one in the SE, one in a pretty cheap area of the North. The salary is the same whichever location you choose.

It is much more nuanced than simply looking at what is “the done thing”. There are a lot of myths related to student finance.

MSE have an excellent explainer:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/should-i-get-student-loan/