Would you class this family as average, comfortable or well off?

[Greyorcream]

Curious what people would class as “well off” these days?

Couple in late 30s with 2 dc (late primary/early secondary age). Not in London.
Partner A earns £52k and Partner B earns £74k. So fairly average wage. Neither majorly stressful roles. Both work full time. Home by 5 each evening. Both can wfh 2 days a week.

Both get annual bonuses of around 8% and usually salary increases of about 4% each year.

Mortgage outstanding is £339k on a house worth around £500k (5-bedroom house).

Pension contributions (employee + employer combined):

• Partner A: 17% (this will be increasing)
• Partner B: 21%

Savings:
usually save a third of income each month.

• £130k joint savings
• £40k saved separately for the dc.

No inheritance or family help received. No loans, car finance, credit card debt or student loans.
No childcare or private school costs.
Lifestyle-wise, usually one big family holiday a year plus a couple of weekends away.

Would you consider this comfortably well off, average, affluent, or something else? Genuinely interested as perceptions seem wildly different depending on area and social circle.

This is the meaningful bit

usually save a third of income each month

In other words, you are paying for everything you want every month with only two thirds of your earnings, and can have the rest.

You're rich. And very fortunate. Your dad is an idiot. Ignore him.

You actually need someone to clarify that for you? Some people dont even earn 52k between them and have childcare to pay. Waw I do wonder about somepeople..sounds like your just saying this to rub in peoples faces.

Id say, like many others - you're well off, above average most certainly. You have huge potential to create generational wealth & gotten yourselves in a great position with 2 young children, well done you! Not easy! Id think about investing now to increase your wealth & create long term assets.

In my experience mid to senior tech roles or other highly skilled senior professionals with no client/C-level responsibilities.

While I recognise this is nowhere near average income, a lot of my friends do low stress corporate roles and make at least this much. For a role that goes beyond 9-5 they'd expect 100k+.

In my (global corporate) company, the entire office is empty well before 5pm, including directors overseeing staff of 100+. Nobody seems to have high stress, many people stay with us 15+ years. Overtime is really frowned upon, I used to work for a competitor and they think my stories of working outside of normal hours and weekends are from another planet.

Outside London I have generally encountered few people that go beyond their contracted hours, though of course some.

As to the OP - this family is clearly comfortable financially. Have a look at national statistics on average salaries, savings etc. It is most common to have a salary under 40K and zero savings, more so outside South East.

I would say comfortable. We are in 50s with one DD at uni and one in good career. Joint income of £115k and only £15,000 left on mortgage on 375k house. Savings of approx 100k and good public sector pensions when we retire in 8-10 years.

👏

What sort of low stress, full time jobs do they have.

Where they can be home by 5 every night..And get paid such a high wage and bonuses?

Seems to good to be true.

In a manufacturing company. I don’t want to be too specific.
A works in a risk/compliance role for 1 dept and b is in a supervisory role.
they can be stressful at times but it’s not a daily. And it’s handled well.

I'm more curious now you know someone else's salary, pension, pay rises, savings etc etc. to me it's far above average wages and house is not a normal home for couple with 2 kids. I'm guessing this is you not a friend.

Yes it’s me. I said this already

I would have said fairly affluent but not wealthy, until I read the ridiculously high mortgage. I don’t understand why anyone would sit on over £100k of savings whilst having such a high mortgage - it doesn’t make financial sense to me. We have a lower joint income but have a mortgage of £135k on a £1 million property. We only have about £30k in savings though, as we have paid off big chunks of our mortgage with savings every time we have to change mortgages. So with that debt I would say average I suppose, because the huge debt cancels out the higher than average wage and savings.

Probably around average depending on age, not sure why ppl are acting as if you have said something outrageous lol!

Completely agree. I’m in a ‘senior’ tech role in the public sector, earning over £80,000, WFH, only have a few contractors under me, very low stress, compressed hours and only work my set hours. My skillset is sought after. Much of my organisation is like this so it’s pretty normal to me. DH earns around the £50k mark, his role isn’t overly stressy either really, good public sector terms, but does have to go away for work quite a bit.

Presumably because they’re not financially illiterate?

I have answered this…

... You might be

The savings rate of this couple suggests living costs aren’t high

Whoa ....far from average wage for most normal people .....

I would say under average but I am in London so I don’t really have a proper sense of what is considered actually high salaries outside of London. We bring home around £270k combined and we feel average at best- but that’s London for you and £2100 per month for childcare!

I would say comfortable, mostly because they have managed to keep living expenses and lifestyle in check. DH and I earn roughly 2.5x that and have 2x savings and high pension contributions and feel comfortable but certainly not wealthy. Our mortgage is a bit smaller too on a £1.2m house. Some of it is where you live, we live in an expensive West Coast tech city where 2x tech salaries will easily be double our household income.

Sounds pretty good to me.

As regards your property value, £339K is a bargain for a 5 bed property. I don't know where you are based, but my 2 bed is valued at about £400K now. Do bear this is mind if you want to consider relocating.

Completely agree; someone who has no idea of f the real struggles of people these days : thaf does not include me as my headband is a professional on a great salary but I can tell this person is just goading and bragging here 🙈

House is worth 500k, 339k is what’s left. No intention of ever moving its a perfect house in perfect location for us.

I get you OP, I usually start work around 7, wrap up around 4. Fully remote and very good at my job so it really doesn’t take me all day and I’ll get exercise, volunteer at DC school. DH is also fully remote and finishes around 5:15, starts around 9:15. I earn £105ish and DH earns around £140k. Not UK so taxes are a lot lower. DH is in tech and I work in buying for a major retailer. I just traded out of a job that paid 50% more but was mega stressful and in office. We don’t need the money and it’s just not worth it 🤷‍♀️

Ah, sorry for the misunderstanding, but yes, you're still in a good position value wise.

PS - I think you're very brave to disclose your financial details on MN. I hope that you've found it useful.