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.

Same! I thought 60k WAS a luxury car

I think this requires a lot more cash than people think….

60k on a car is huge - you can get a lovely car for half that!
We have most of the things on your list; but my car cost 27k and I don’t like long haul trips but we travel a lot. One DC. We pay 1500 a month into private pensions. Income varies month to month but typically 6-7k.

Does anyone else read threads like this and feel like a stupid, useless inadequate failure?

What bit of this makes you feel like a failure?

I think also depends on the schools by you. If you have excellent state secondary schools why would you bother paying?!

DH and I both went to state schools but got into top 5 unis. BUT we would certainly consider independent for the kids when the time comes, more for being pushed further. State schools are focused on everyone just achieving the minimum. Independent schools can provide opportunities to push children who are bright.
Clever kids will likely do well wherever of course.

We manage to live like this on £30k per year. Of course, we do without some things- we don't eat out, don't have a £60k car, don't buy 5 coffees each per week, we do without holidays abroad and shop at ASDA and charity shops. But otherwise, I think we match the lifestyle.,

No, I'm not insecure. I read threads like these to fantasise about what I can spend £24k a year on when I'm not paying childcare.
Love DC but gosh what a lovely life we would have without them 😂

What people earn is often only a tiny fraction of the equation.

We earn multiple times more than our next door neighbours, but as they inherited a large house divided into flats from a savvy grandparent who gifted it in stages to avoid inheritance tax (and didn't earn the money to buy it either - farming family built on land they owned generations ago) and they rent out two large flats as well as having other unearned passive income, they are better off than us.

If the OP has actually inherited enough to own a family house mortgage free and has enough in savings from that inheritance to find her children through university and her own pension, it really isn't comparing like for like when people with huge mortgages, who are prioritising savings, tell her she'll need random large sums if she wants to spend 2k a year on coffee, 12k a year eating out, 15k on holidays and 60k every 5 years (12k per year) buying a new car.

Actually she'll need about 40k for these luxuries, 12k a year for the M&S shop she wants, and 20k for other bills including electricity, gas, internet, TV, council tax unexpected replacement of white goods and car insurance, fuel, public transport although it sounds as though they plan to work from home/ from cafés... is fairly generous (no mortgage, rent, childcare or savings).

So 72k after tax for everything because the biggest cost for most families are not costs for them.

A family with a full time earner on 80k gross and part time earner on 20k gross could afford that comfortably.

Because they have a free house, unearned savings for the children's future and the part timer's pension and are content not to save more.

Earnings are only pocket money for some people who have had the big costs taken care of by previous generations. People paying for everything themselves aren't playing the same game.

This gave me a good giggle

About £120k gross or about £7-£8K a month take home.

If you have no mortgage or childcare that leaves quite a lot of spendies. Like probably over £2k a month

I agree with all this yes - and I’m very aware of it.

Unfortunately I cannot replicate it for my own children - the amount I inherited was made mainly through property when that game was different.

It is not just about the income you need but some of the things you want; car, no mortgage, university fees taken care of etc, you need a very large upfront cash amount.
Personally, I think your list looks quite strange. If like us (we are much older) by the time you can afford all the things on the list your priorities will have changed.
Also could only afford to do this now ( not that we want to) because my husband spent some years working ridiculous hours. Certainly no lunches or coffees out together in the week and he would have been far too tired when he got in on a Friday evening to go out for a meal! Generally if you want a very good salary then you have to put the hours and effort in.
My advice would be to enjoy your years when you have your children at home and don’t let your life be ruined by constantly comparing to other people. They may just have rich parents.

I was thinking this also 😳 I live a very nice lifestyle but our one second hand car cost 7k outright and has never given us any bother for the last three years. 60k on a car?! I think the OP is living on planet instagram and just wants a show off lifestyle

hahaha what a load of crap! I earn half that and lead a lovely lifestyle!

Just got a new electric Skoda via work. List was £55k.

I'd say a Skoda is fairy average

How much have you saved for your children?
Uni, weddings, house deposits?

I don't understand this - net £10k a month should be plenty for this lifestyle - assuming no mortgage and no child costs.

We have this lifestyle our household income is just over £200k - we still have a mortgage though, we have the money to pay it off but we chose not to.

On what planet is a 60k car not “majorly expensive”? 😅 We have always bought our cars outright but would never dream of spending that much. What sort of car do you have now?

And how are you managing to acquire a house without a mortgage? The bank of Mum and Dad? Or have you already paid off the mortgage yourself?

Your take home is £50k a month @MaggieMop ?

Why not tot up what those things would cost you and see how much it comes to? Because holiday costs can vary widely depending on your choice of location, level of luxury and convenience you want, a weekly shop will vary depending on how and what you like to cook, the 'odd designer item' is quite vague, and no one knows what you like done to your hair and how often!

We have this lifestyle and budget around £10k a month for it. We are both retired/semi retired.

Perfectly doable then. I don’t understand what you are spending your money on if you shop in Aldi/lidl (can’t remember which one you said sorry) and only have one holiday a year in the UK.