Is £65,000 a year before tax a good income for a couple in South Surrey?

[Benny91]

Evening all,

Just wondering if this is a good income for a couple and also wondering, for you guys who live in the South East what is your income before tax?

Sorry if it sounds too personal.

More than I earn as a single parent with two kids

But ultimately it comes down to two factors

Outgoings and expected lifestyle

If you want to know better you would be better going to a financial comparison website where you type in your age and income

It then says how you compare to other people

Combined income? Absolutely not, that’s a low wage for two people.

One person, that’s good!

Although if it's a combined wage it'll go so much further than if it were a single earner in the household, owing to tax and benefit rules.

No, not really ‘goods’ as it’s 2 average salaries

It’s fine. DH and I are on about 35k between us, in London. No benefits. DC are grown up.

Who knows? Depends on your outgoings obviously.
Seems to be a lot of posts where posters feign ignorance about money, outgoings, lifestyle etc. Are they journos looking for a story?

It’s not a low wage for two people. It’s average.

No, I don’t think it’s a good combined income in Surrey or most of the South East. We live in the south east and have a joint income of £120k before tax, I’d say we are comfortable but not rolling in it. I’d say anything over £100k here was good.

Average Surrey rent 2.4k a month - but you can always go below average - and that would keep other bills lower

take home 4k if it’s one person - more if it’s two 33k salaries

so that leaves minimum of 1.6k - I’d like to get that to 2k if it was me - 400 gas and electric 200 council tax 100 water and phones , 600 for food ( many will do less ) , car

sufficient if huh are good at managing but not lots of fun money

Average for the UK. Not for the expensive areas.

I agree however I took from the OP that that amount was the total combined income of two people?

Did I misread or misunderstood?

No it’s not great.

Not for Surrey. We live in the south east £120k joint income (relatively balanced not one high earner and one NMW part time etc so tax burden shared) , we are comfortable don't have to scrimp to pay bills but we have one 4 year old Renault and a 3 bed semi in an ok but not naice area. Life would be very different on half of that. Our mortgage is £1400 a month

Well it’s not going to be great as it averages out as 2 people on an average wage in the UK and Surrey/SE is expensive so it will be a pretty poor joint income

By far the most expensive thing about living in South Surrey is the cosy of housing.

So look at the sort of housing you'd be wanting to rent or buy, and you'll be able to see how much money you'd have left for everything else.

After all, whether an income or lifestyle is good, extravagantly luxurious, or painfully poor, is highly subjective. To some families I know here, it would feel wealthy; to others, gratingly impoverished.

Average rent for what? 2 bed flat? 4 bed house?

Some of this depends on other things, how old are you, are you looking to have children soon etc. DH and I lived on a joint income of about 46k when we first lived together, but had a one bed flat and my mortgage was about £500. 2 cars but old ones. I spend as much on after school club now as I used to on groceries.

How???

But average is a very unhelpful figure as it takes into account very very low income earners and the odd outlier earning over £10million and also spans the country. Mayfair vs Sunderland

irs very low if you want to live in the SE as property and rentals are so much higher

Average rent full stop
so covering all types of property from room shares to mansions
it means you should likely get somewhere for 2 people from 2k at a guess - ball park flgure

Well, we live well on half of that in London, as do many people. No, we don’t get any benefits.

Not really. I earn 69k, single income household. Can’t afford to buy in surrey so moving back up north next year to buy something.

Not for Surrey. And you’ll be living amongst people considerably more affluent which can accentuate the feeling of not having enough income

Not in my opinion. I earn more than that on my own part time.

No for a working-age couple that’s not much if you have the cost of living down south.