to ask you what's the minimum salary you would accept to move to London?

[dreamingbohemian]

Am finishing up PhD and job searching. My field has a wide range of salaries, from charities to high-powered consultancies. So far keeping my options open.

We lived in London before for many years on very little money. Before having DS we could get by with less than 18-20K income combined. (We are pretty frugal, don't mind dodgy neighbourhoods, no car, no debt.)

Last year we had DS and moved to France (many reasons). We love it but realistically it will be very difficult for me to find a job here, so there's a good chance we will go back to London.

The thing is, we are able to have a very nice quality of life where we live now, even without much money (low rent, markets, can walk everywhere). So the idea of doing a big international move to have less quality of life is not very appealing.

But because we've never really had money in London, I don't have a good sense of how much money we might need to have a comparable life there. Also I have no idea how tax works at higher salaries, for example would 45K be that much more than 30K when you factor in tax rates?

Would appreciate any thoughts!

Am not looking to make a fortune, we're pretty simple people, just have the basics but to a decent standard. Would be wanting to rent 2-3BR, Zone 3 or closer, don't mind dodgy but need halfway decent school obviously, and be able to buy good food (DH's line of work). We may not need to pay for childcare because if I get a good enough job then DH will be SAHP and do freelance work or study.

Ta

Rents are very high in London.

this or this would get you into a very good primary school, has good transport links. Factor in transport costs to work (£20pw) Food - maybe £80 pw? insurance, clothes, outings, presents, fuel bills (gas and electricty very expensive at the moment, say £120 pcm?), council tax (£100pcm).

The housing is the big cost - but I would think in private rented in London it would be good to have a household income of about £40k gross.

Are you looking for Primary or Secondary schools?

How much would I want to move to London?

From here (Cornwall)?

£1m a year - minimum!

:)

Does it have to be London?
What about other major cities if you are lookinf for job opportunites?
TBH, I wouldn't live in London with young kids for any amount of money, but I do think people are very much split into love/hate living in London camps and I'm in the latter.

£40k starting point. That would give you about £2500 takehome per month. Should get you reasonable accommodation, cover bills and still have some savings.

this will calculate your take home pay for the UK.

About £500k, but that's because I would hate to live/work in London.

I agree with Theto, have you considered other major cities? I have a friend who is based in Glasgow and works for a charity, but reasonably well paid at £38,000. He has to travel to London twice a month for two days at a time. He is obviously away from DW and DC's but his work pay the train fare, accomodation etc.

He is on 2k less than the woman doing the same job in the London office. however when you look at the difference in rental prices I can fully understand why he choose the post he did!

This is what you get for roughly the same money and same travel costs to and from the city centre: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-36271682.html London and Glasgow

Also, take home from a wage of £30,000 is roughly £22,750 and the take home from £45,000 is roughly £32,750 so £10,000 of a difference. That all depends on whether you have a student loan to pay back, pension contributions etc.

Hmmm, screwed up the first link. Sorry.

50k

I'd say if you want to have any disposable income at all £40K minimum.

Oh thanks, really interesting stuff here!

That website for take-home pay is great, will be using that a lot!

I was thinking about 40-50K so nice to know that sounds reasonable. Oh and it's primary schools we're thinking of.

Unfortunately for my field there aren't many jobs outside London -- maybe Oxford, which I think is also very expensive?

But I'm hoping that maybe after living in London for a couple years, the right job would let me telecommute and we could move elsewhere. I do love London actually but I just can't with the costs.

blu we used to live in Brixton and Streatham, nice to see it's still manageable!

£350 million

I think that might just be enough to persuade me but I'd put in my notice on day 1

London haters

My DH might agree with you! Well he doesn't hate London but his idea of a minimum salary is probably higher than mine...