What household income supports this lifestyle ?

[Drealifegoals]

If your lifestyle looks anything like this please share with me what yearly household income you have!

please share mumsnetters, this is where I want to end up for my 40s and there are people around us living this kind of lifestyle but I can’t ask them how much they earn IRL!

dream lifestyle is:

3 holidays a year - one long haul two smaller European city breaks type
1 nice car bought outright - nothing majorly expensive around the 60k mark
coffee out for both adults x5 a week
lunch out for both adults x2 a week
dinner out every Friday - whole family two adults two kids
good Christmas every year
money for regular hair appointments for whole family
enough money for both kids to do sports and music out of school
nicely decorated house
monthly shopping treats for all family members maybe £50 each
Food shop from M&S
clothing to be mainly high street with the odd designer item thrown in for whole family.

no mortgage, no childcare fees, both children in state school.

We make about 200k pa, no mortgage, no debt. High commuting costs. 3 foreign trips and a couple of UK breaks a year. Kids do whatever activities they like but we can’t afford private school for 3. Car is a new Mercedes (45k) but I prefer my own coffee so drinks out very rarely and don’t need to eat out on a particular schedule but we don’t have to think about it when we do.

If self employed and pay yourself through dividends and offset expenses then tax bill will be significantly less and net income a lot more

Nonsense.

Self employed and dividends are different. I own a company and pay 25% corporation tax, then when I pay a dividend I pay 39.35% as my top rate. If I was actually self employed and paying tax as a sole trader, I would pay less as the top rate itself is only 45% + NI at a lower rate than PAYE, but not by much.

We got a mortgage which technically ends when we are 68. It was the only way we could borrow enough to buy a house where we live. We were confident our earning power would increase due to the fields we are in (and the have) so we are overpaying the mortgage. We will pay it off before we are 60.

There's a poster up thread who refers to drawing income from their company, as though it's a cash cow. That kind of bragging perpetuates the idea that self employed individuals declare low trading profits, declare everything as expenses and remove money they haven't paid income tax on as and when they need it (that last part being illegal...).

Self employed people do pay lower national insurance though.

Crikey where do you live?! I'm late 40s and my first house in my early 20s cost 169k😆

That was me - we pay ourselves dividends from profits - we don’t take anymore than we need and we leave money in the company to ensure we can pay our bills including wages - no one wants to deal with a company that can’t cover their costs. Expenses are business related and entirely legitimate- that’s why I asked, I was wondering what we hadn’t claimed for.
You make assumptions that are incorrect.

There some midlands towns (bits of Coventry) and areas of greater Manchester (heading towards Wigan, bits of Salford, Hulme etc) where you could buy a £55k house in 2003.

No chance now like.

We live about 20 minutes away from one of these places, our 3 bed semi was around the £400k mark, purchased as FTBs when I was 30. The mortgage theoretically ends in our 60s. So many of these posts about paying your mortgage off by your 40s aren’t grounded in any sort of current reality. Just our mortgage and childcare bill is £3k a month!

lol - yes. My new car was 22k (a fortune to me and I am beyond happy to afford it) and the dealership treated me like royalty.

… and as soon as I paid off my mortgage and didn’t need nursery or wrap around, I switched to pumping money into my pension and investments, whilst feeling immensely privileged to even have that option. I have no inheritance so need to provide for myself and the older I get, the more I need to get an escape route. Looking at your pension in retirement may make the multiple holidays and lifestyle you describe seem less attractive.

@Drealifegoals
You say £60k for a car is not majorly expensive...are you OK?

My friend is a child minder she claims for utility bills, a car, mobile phone, toys ( including her own DCs toys)
A friends husband runs an electrician contractor company they put cars, phones, laptops all through the business incl laptops and phones for their DC.
Chatting in the sauna at my gym.its apparently lots of members put gym membership through their business if self employed.
Assumed all of this is advantageous for tax purposes?
As an employee I cant do this.

And re: the car, I well understand what depreciation is. Second hand cars have generally held their value better though since covid plus I never pay list. Every time I buy (cash), I do the maths vs lease. Even though I can access a work scheme, it still nets out at the same annual cost plus I don’t like the mileage restrictions. Second hand is cheaper at the point of purchase especially if you intend to run them into the ground however that’s not an option for me with work/being a carer/living rurally and I’m prepared to pay a premium for that at the moment. I spend literally zero on maintenance beyond the service. No 60k cars for me though!

I can remember buying a car for 500 quid twenty years ago. Halcyon days.

Most people don’t have tens of thousands of pounds lying around to buy decent cars so I can completely understand why leasing has become so popular. The reason we have been able to afford it as we have part exchanged each time and topped up, plus my OH is able to do all the servicing and fixing of the cars.

I stopped reading at ‘1 nice car bought outright - nothing majorly expensive around the 60k mark’!
Who has 60k to spend outright on a car unless you’re loaded?! £60 is ‘majorly expensive’!!!
If you think it’s not then you already clearly have enough money for a very comfortable lifestyle.

I’d say 120k could get that. We live a modest lifestyle on 85k

Yes, it is another thing I have built up towards as I’ve got older. Havent always had a new car. Best start with the banger when/ if you can afford for it to be off the road. Fortunately my ‘equity’ in my vehicle has risen as my reliance on it has grown. The last time I clung onto a car for six years because I loved it, the turbo went and I was plunged into hell for 2
weeks, begging lifts for my child, booking additional carers for elderly relative, negotiating work from home… this is where I don’t buy happiness, I pay off trouble and it’s money well spent to me. Appreciate some people have all my responsibilities and don’t have the capital to do what I do, however, it’s a response to people who mention the issues of depreciation and leasing and wonder why anyone buys new.

I know and someone in an off license told me that there was a doctor who used to come in and order a box of wine on expenses - this is not ok and my ds used to work at a book keepers and their clients used to try to put through McDs, kids bike, Christmas presents.

Some people try to work cash in hand and claim unemployment benefit, some people take cash in hand and don't declare it for tax purposes - people do lots of things they shouldn't - it doesn't mean it's legal.

Yes you can put cars through the company - as an employee you can also be provided with a car - you pay tax on the book (new) cost of the car - so if your car is 15 years old - you are taxed like it is new.

We pay Corporation tax, VAT, NI contributions for our team and then we pay dividend tax on any profit withdrawals we make from the business. We buy laptops and phones for our team as they need them and we provide company cars if they are requested but all the taxes will be paid.

If you are working from home I believe you can claim part of your electricity, if you are running a business from home then there are business expenses - you couldn't claim all of your utility bills - if you did that would be dishonest and if you are claiming for items for your dcs that is dishonest too. HMRC will not think it's ok.

You cannot claim for gym membership, but companies can provide it as a benefit - you get taxed on that benefit - both the company and the employee. Some gyms offer you preferencial deals to companies though.

I am not an accountant - I own a business there are people who are dishonest - but that doesn't mean it's ok or we all are.

We have a combined income of 120k in the north. We do have a modest mortgage. We can afford to go on a couple of holidays a year but typically we’ll do it so it’s like 1-2 special 1:1 trips with two children each year to a bespoke city of interest then a big family holiday with all of us plus usually also a “staycation” in Wales or London or whatever. We have 5 DC for reference so much bigger family than the norm. I do get a coffee most days, sometimes two. We don’t eat out much but that’s a choice, we don’t see much need to.

We get taxed to high heavens fwiw so our take home is not 120. Obviously not eligible for any benefits. Have to pay for school lunches, wraparound care for youngest two. Lucky DH has a company car so we just pay for one family car. Couldn’t afford private school.

Exactly. Each time we’ve part exchanged we’ve been able to afford a better car each time. I now have a 20-30k car which I completely adore and will keep for another few years and then we’ll chuck it in and go again

Realistically, £60k for a brand new car is not that much. She's not saying it's cheap or that cheaper options are not available just that these days, a midsize, higher end car not the base model is a out that to buy outright and it's not untrue.

Is it good value for money is an entirely different question.

Not 10k a month then like a PP calculated? 🤣🤣🤣🤣

You should still get tax free childcare though?

(I'm assuming as you need wrap around care that you both work, so it isn't one of you on £120k)

£40,000 is the car tax cut off for a ‘luxury’ car, no one pays ticket price. I bought a brand new top spec Audi (albeit a hatchback not an SUV, top spec as in gadgets as opposed to engine size) for £30,000 recently (ticket price was closer to £40,000), £60,000 absolutely is higher end in the family car market.