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.

Where are you getting your averages from!!!????

I’d say it’s sad that this is how anyone chooses to measure their life, lives and lifestyle.

I would describe them as completely out of touch with reality.

Id describe them as oblivious and tone deaf.

They are clearly way more than comfortable, and have excellent incomes and savings. They need to take a look at their own privilege!

You are ‘comfortable’ but not ‘wealthy’. Wealthy would be if you have investments which you don’t (home, savings and pensions I wouldn’t call investments) Those substantial savings should be invested not in savings. Then you might start moving towards wealthy.

They are allegedly saving 1/3 of their income. I don't think your second paragraph counts here.

You’re on Mumsnet so no matter what you describe it will be considered as poor or below average!

Combined income of £126k = “fairly average wage”

LOL

Only on MN

In fact you must know that this is pretty well off OP, so why have you posted it?

Also what kind of job pays £74k to a “supervisor”?

Partner A earns £52k and Partner B earns £74k. So fairly average wage.

Average??
ODFOD

a role that supervises a small team….

Depends where they live. I live in a north west town & they’d be considered well off but I imagine not so in London?

No not London.

Would love to know what the jobs are @Greyorcream!

😂

I hate the faux innocence on these types of threads. I think you know the answer, OP.

I know what a supervisor does. What I mean is things like “supervisor”, “team leader” etc are generally still quite low ranking job titles in most organisations I’ve come across (which is a lot), so it’s a lot of money for a generally one step up from the lowest rung job.

Whilst I completely agree that it’s not average I do think it’s very area dependent. We have a combined household of £140k inc bonuses. We are just about to buy a very average house at one million with a 500k deposit. We feel distinctly average in comparison to our peers and the area we are moving to. However, the area we are moving from the same house is £400k so we have felt very affluent whilst living here so it’s all relative

Why would I be classing them as anything, why would i care? I'm not some kind of salary statistician

If you want to know averages look them up like PPs have said, what would if matter what anyone thinks?

The place is weirdly obsessed with this kind of thing, real life people don't care do they?

I just want to know what jobs pay those salaries so I can work towards one 😢

I don’t live in London but in commuter belt. Similar salaries and comfortable but definitely not well off. You need to tell us slightly more info about where you are.

Would say comfortable (higher than average lower than affluent)

39k is the average salary in the UK.

I am always amazed that people that say they have a decent household income and this level will put you in roughly top 5% household wise can be so financially constipated.

It's a very comfortable lifestyle and they are very fortunate to have a good pension, especially if there is job security (rather than threatened with AI).

This is the lifestyle many people would aspire to because they have substantial buffers from CoL. I concur that home by 5pm each day is unusual for a 74k + bonus job.

You have to ask, honestly? Savings of £170k, great salaries, pension, bonus and over 30% equity in a house. Those aren’t average salaries at all. This is very well off. Combined income of £136k inc bonus.

Im surprised you say manufacturing. I have worked for manufacturing companies before and they pay awful salaries often min wage on most roles. Even for the office staff unless in professional fields. I’m an accountant and the salary they would pay is way below what I could get elsewhere.