How do middle-class people attain those lifestyles?

[YourPoisedFinch]

Young professionals on 30k a year, multiple holidays a year, parties, concerts, outings etc. ... how do they afford it?

Credit cards 🤷🏻‍♀️

A child free couple on £30k each sharing overheads: lots of disposable, if they aren’t saving hard

Parents money or credit card debt. There was a Tiktok trend a year or two ago where people were asked to "deinfluence" lifestyles that appeared glamourous or enviable from the outside. 80% of the videos (primarily young people) confessed to being in loads of debt.

Well, for a start I would imagine that young professionals are on considerably more than £30k a year... They are more likley to be on £50/£60/70k and so, if they are a couple, have a monthly post tax income of £7k or £8k between them. Knock off a couple of £k for rent, and £1k for bills and I am sure they can have plenty left for holidays and going out :)

I got a job on £40k when I was 26. It wasn’t super hard either to attain, just a case of smashing the interview and focusing on a certain (technical) career path.

On that salary I still struggle, mainly because I rent and am not supported by parents. I think having dual incomes, living with parents/them paying a deposit can really step up your quality of life

I don’t think my lifestyle is too crazy although I do those things you mention, I definitely don’t feel like the pinnacle of middle class

When I was one of them it went:

1. Uni - good degree and postgrad degree
2. Graduate job - fast stream (legal) for two and a half years before moving to the private sector
3. Big 4 role in legal team - several promotions over a few years
4. Move to deputise in a legal team in a finance company in the City, followed by taking over my boss’ role. Staring salary was £27k, jumped when moved to private sector, tripled when moved into finance role, plus there were annual bonuses and other extras. I’m disabled and skint now, but have investments and insurance I live off, and own my own home, so could be a lot worse off if I hadn’t done well before I developed Parkinson’s.

When I was in my 20s, I did all those things. It was not having other outgoings (like real bills) and also having money from family (I got Christmas and birthday money, think £500 here, £1000). £1000 can pay for quite a lot of traveling when you’re young and doing it cheaply. I’ve never in my life had a credit card or paid for anything on credit (I mean other than my mortgage, etc but not a holiday or a night out).

Many people in their twenties won’t be prioritising things that older people will be: when I was in my early twenties on a new graduate level salary I wasn’t thinking about saving loads or upping my pension contributions, I was spending my money on having fun travelling, going to festivals, going to nice bars with my friends etc.

Young professionals older than that aren’t going to be earning £30K, they’ll be earning significantly more - which is how they continue to afford travel and partying and fun as well as mortgages and savings and sensible stuff.

Childfree people can also do fun things significantly less expensively than people with children: we don’t have to pay for flights and accommodation for anyone but themselves, we aren’t stuck holidaying in the expensive school holidays, we don’t need to pay for a babysitter when we go out, and all the money people with kids are spending on school shoes, school dinners, childcare, extracurriculars etc is spare for other things.

Lots will be on more than £30k a year. Our graduates start on £30k so by mid 20s they are on quite a bit more. If they’re in a couple they’ll have two decent salaries and no children yet. Plenty of money to do all those things.

In my experience, by making sacrifices early - very hard work at school, limited social life, homework and studying every night and pushing themselves hard to get into good uni course chosen not solely on the basis of interest but because of ultimate earning potential and career progression prospects. Continued hard work.

When career achieved, sacrifice of time and stress remain a growing issue but balanced against - in the right career (financial services, investment, VC, law, big four accountancy, right IT field etc) pay rises annually plus performance based bonuses potentially that make significant difference to take home pay. If partnered with someone in similar career, there will be spare cash for enjoyment.

People earn more than you think, get support from families, live off credit cards, don't have any savings or pension..... also 2 people on £30k will take home more than 1 on £60k so will have more disposable income if they live together and share bills etc. I think people just prioritise different things - our Grads at work live in houseshares and moan about being skint at the end of the month but also buy lunch rather than bringing packed lunches and ski holidays, Thailand, Australia type trips seem to be the norm.

As PP said either debt, including a massive mortgage, car loan. Or uni fees paid upfront by parents, so no student loan, deposits for 1st property, generous presents, some inheritance from grandparents...

DINKs double income no kids, lifestyle. You don't need to be a massive earner to have an active social life. In my twenties, I'd go out spend a load and eat beans on toast at home.

I think people just spend money on different things. Some are visible and some not. Prioritise the things that matter to you.

Are these people you know OP?
or a general observation from online?

They could still live at home, get concert tickets/lifts, from parents.

It could be sponsored if online.

If they have jobs they will only get a certain number of holidays so would assume some trips are very short and they just run around taking the photos (to create an illusion and make people jealous), we have seen this whilst away, it really isn’t travelling or even a holiday it’s this bizarre fake-news assignment they have created themselves.

IF you know them can you just ask them?
If you don’t, who cares?

I'd agree many young professionals are on much more than 30k! Obviously depends on industry/location but that's pretty low.

Also, again industry dependent even if they're saving a chunk, living together somewhere small will give them a hefty disposable income.

And - most young professionals I know (in London!) are actively working towards having multiple income streams/side hustles.

There are about a zillion variables. Maybe they live extremely frugally in a cheap area to afford the holidays and nights out. Maybe they have family help or inheritance. Maybe they whack it all on loans and cards.

Maybe they are diamond thieves and buy it all with their ill gotten gains.

A lot of 'young professionals' will be still living with their parents who, if MN is anything to go by, think it's wrong to take anything off them for their living costs, so they'll have £2k+ spending money per month.

If you're only paying for yourself and are going in term time, a holiday doesn't have to cost that much. I've just paid £60 pp for return flights to Malaga next month and accommodation for 4 nights will probably cost around £2/300 for two of us, so the whole break will probably cost under £500 pp.

Yes, exactly!

All my friends got significant help through their 20s - clothes, haircuts, car insurance and cars etc. I discovered when I was only a holiday that I was the only one to pay for my own hair in my late 20s.

Now as we’re older there’s inheritance in the mix.

that’s a low wage for a young professional
so I expect that you are out of touch with that.

It’s not impossible to be honest without getting into any debt, it depends on circumstances obviously, whether you have a partner and where you live, but it can be easily doable.

My husband & I are in our 20’s and don’t have this kind of lifestyle now, we have a bigger mortgage as bought what we think we will be our “forever” home, dog, a baby so childcare costs etc.

But pre-baby and when we bought our first house we could easily afford these things on 30k salaries. 60k household income so roughly £4000 a month coming in, our bills in the first house came to about £1000ish, so call it £1700 once food shop, car insurance, phones etc factored in, that would leave us with £2300 for whatever we want really. It’s a huge amount of disposable income.

I have friends who still have this lifestyle as they still live with parents so no bills really.

I'd strongly suspect they're earning far more than £30k if they are indeed "young professionals". At my son's firm (one of UKs biggest insurers), some of the new graduate trainees straight out of Uni are on £35k-£40k with pay rises of a few thousand every year, so looking at £50-£60k after 3/4 years since leaving Uni.

Maybe in the south they're on a lot more than £30k, it's not true everywhere else.

If you look at any standard job site the graduate and entry level jobs outside London aren't that much. Marketing manager jobs are £30-35k for example and you wouldn't be walking into that in your early 20s.

I don't know anyone young on £70k who doesn't have their own business. And median salary statistics don't point to many people in the country being on £70k, let alone younger people.

But the main reason is they have a higher disposable income because they typically don't own their own home and therefore haven't spent a crap ton on a deposit, they're not married or have had a budget/family paid for it wedding, and no kids.

For every year a woman puts off having kids, her lifetime earnings increase by 10% on average.

If you can go on holiday outside school holidays you can get the same holidays of a quarter of the price. Concerts aren’t necessarily expensive if you live within easy travelling distance of some big venues and you don’t drink alcohol once you’re there. Also I guess if you’re younger your parents might take you out for meals/ weekends away and pay for you so might get two lots of stuff you do for the price of one.

Are you sure they earn this amount, that sounds more like a graduate or year or two after uni salary?