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.

@Drealifegoals how much do you actually earn then?

We don’t quite have that lifestyle, but we do have one decent holiday a year plus a weekend away, kids do activities, family days out, able to buy lunches out and coffees when we want them, run two normal cars, put money away in savings each month. We earn £120k joint income but have a mortgage and nursery fees. I recon without the mortgage and nursery fees we’d be able to have the lifestyle you describe on our income.

We (family of four) have a gross income of £200k and are about 60-70% of that lifestyle but we do have a mortgage and no family money/inheritance. If we were mortgage free, we could fit it all in except the car. Remember a nice £60,000 car in 2026 will probably become an average £20,000 car in two years. So you need to factor in car upgrades if that is important to you.

We do eating out/fun money/sports/hair cuts but have one foreign holiday a year - mainly driven by work and school commitments but cost also a factor. Our holidays range from £5k (cheap week in med) to £20k (2 weeks in the US). Mini-breaks are spendy - one night in a spa hotel in Yorkshire cost us £1k for example (dinners and two double rooms).

We also are very imbalanced salary wise (75:25) so not very tax efficient.

Why make up things on the internet that aren't correct?

New Volvo starts at about £33k.
New Audi starts at about £28k - £30k.
New BMW starts at about £32k.

@FKAT We also are very imbalanced salary wise (75:25) so not very tax efficient.

Salary sacrifice should be maximised on your salary to minimise tax paid.

Then minimise the salary sacrifice on your husband's lower income.

We earn 75k as a household with no mortgage. We would struggle to fund the holidays if they’re paid outright. We also generally shop at Aldi with the odd few specific bits from M&S and Sains…

Weird comment. Why would you pay an extortionate and colossal sum of money for a new car when there are new cars available for smaller sums of money? I don't understand. That does not make any sense.

We earn 100k a year between us. 3 children. If we didn't have a mortgage or work to do on the house it would be achievable think but you would still be budgeting and keeping an eye on money.
If you want this lifestyle without watching the bank I would say another 50k a year.
Also depends on how much you want to put away as savings/pension.

This is pretty much how we live, except we don’t eat out much and that equivalent goes into savings and investments. To be comfortable and have this lifestyle without any concerns we have a combined income of around £90k, not in London. So the poster who suggested 80-100k was pretty much right on the money in my personal experience.

120k a year combined

We haven’t saved for our children - we’ll hand it over when needed. No special savings in their names, no way would we be doing that!

I bet you don’t! The thing about people with money OP, is you don’t know they’ve got that kind of money. Because they don’t need to validate it by living that lifestyle…

We had just over £100k coming in 20 years ago in the South east and we couldn’t afford that lifestyle.

Depends what model surely? Our 2nd hand volvo starts at 50k new.

Maybe 7K net a month as clearly your list wouldn’t cover all life expenses and home maintenance extends far beyond decorating it.
Your holiday, car and daily consumable expectations are very high but given no mortgage or savings required out of it I think you could do it on 7K net.

Cheaper end of the spectrum is £40k for a new Volvo - I am not making anything up! https://www.volvocars.com/uk/shop/ex30-electric/

It's mad! Being told I am making up the cost of a new car that is apparently out of someone's budget but I actually bought last year...

I think you are wrong - I know plenty of people with money and they do live this lifestyle. And the ones who don’t always let something slip about their wealth. We know what they do for a living. Not much point in earning and not having fun spending it, but I’m sure there’s a few!

The starts at price for brand new cars isn't on the road - you need to add VAT (at least 6k) , and account for the fact that the cheapest new car in a range will obviously be the smallest, possibly three door, the smallest petrol engine, the most basic package (no electric windows in the back, no fancy electronic package).

That's of course one of many reasons it's better to buy a higher spec nearly new car than a new one.

If someone is determined to buy genuinely brand new, they're hardly likely to want to compromise on three doors instead of five in a family car, nor on all the gismos, and probably want a larger car for comfort for school aged children. They'll often also want a hybrid - bumps the price way up again.

That's why.

Also why buying genuinely brand new is poor value.