In thinking 40k income really isn't a fortune??

[mummymacbeth]

Yes, a thread about a thread kind of. And I am fairly sure it has been done before but still!

I really don't think a forty grand gross income is a fortune. Our income with two kids is currently a bit less than that, though has been that in the fairly recent past. It is - and was - a bit of a struggle. We are not in the south east, we do not have a huge mortgage, expensive cars, kids are at state school and we don't manage to get abroad every year. We are living from month to month. A "fortune" it ain't!! (ref the post about someone wondering whether to have a fourth child)

I disagree. We have a baby and a toddler. A mortgage and a car. Our income is approx £20k. We are very comfortable.

Here you go love. Have my first ever

I don't think £40k is a fortune in London. Or the south-east. Not for a family.

YANBU - others may say otherwise! We have 3dc and my dh's salary is twice that, we struggle some months and can't afford to move house even though we really need to! We live in an expensive part of the Midlands and have been unlucky with the housing market.

Nope, it's not a fortune here either.

But if both of us earned £40k we'd be very comfortable

YABU, 40K is loads!

Yabu.

It's all relative sure, but £40k is a lot of money to plough through each year.

It's all bloody relative isn't it.

To me 40K would be ALOT so yabu

It doesn't seem like much to me but I know there are many people on here who manage on far less.

40k is a massive amount of money IMO.

Your spending generally keeps pace with your earnings, so you might think that you are just getting by but you would probably think the same if you were on £80k.

it very much depends what you compare it to.if you compare it to a person who earns over 100k your poor if you compare it to a family on less than 10k then your rich.

however if you are living from month to month then you are not budgeting very well at all and should your circumstances change for the worse you would have extream differculities

It sounds like a massive amount of money to me.

40k net, 40k gross, 1 persons income, 2 persons combined income.

20k combined income with CTC in addition is not always a huge amount less than the £40k gross 1 persons income IME.

I went back to work full time, doubled our gross income yet actually what we receive each month after childcare for school aged children is not much more than it was before!

No, it isn't.

We rarely buy clothes, have no expensive hobbies, rarely go on nights out. Buy quite a lot of supermarket basic range stuff. Don't even have much childcare expenditure. and still we have nothing left each month and healthy overdrafts!

Yes it is all relative though and I do appreciate things could be much worse. Still a struggle though.

After tax it's £29000 (roughly), so it's not that massive. But, yes, a lot ore than many.

Your probably wasting money if you dont live in london.Do you write down or spreadsheet everything you buy? If not you will be surprised I used to live like that when younger and now know I was very wasteful.

Currently struggling on a joint income of £65K with a toddler, rented house and one car. BUT this is becuase I'm still paying off student debts and paying more than required to get it done as quickly as possible.

Come beginning of next year when the loans are finished, I know this will be a very different story. Pretty sure we could live quite comfortably and still save on £40K if I wasn't hammering the debt. So in that respect I think YABU.

In fact, I will be changing jobs so that i have less stress, more time for my family and naturally less money....but I think we are both (DH and me) looking forward to it.

YABU
I am a SAHM to 2 children, we run two cars, have sky, contract mobiles, holidays. The children have dance lessons, karate lessons and music lessons. We also pay private pensions for us both. We live in Solihull in the Midlands.
DH earns £19,000 we claim no tax credits although I do receive child benefit.
I would imagine with twice our income we would rolling in money.

It's a lot more than lots of families have to live on, but I guess it depends on how many of you there are, and what your lifestyle is like, and how careful you are with the hidden expenditures like a coffee and newspaper on the station every morning, etc.

IME the less money you have, the more you watch it and the so further you can make it go IYSWIM (within limits, obviously - as long as you can cover your outgoings).