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)

off topic i know but oj acts like a spoilt 5yo he had a full on screaming fit at me some years ago in a green room i despise him.

prarieflower. did they really or did they just go on direct gov's calc?

When i lived in east London taxi drivers wouldn't even go to Thamesmead it was so rough!

At the moment we are on about 20k, in September I start working and will boost us to 40k and there will be very little difference after childcare and loss of tax credits.

There are bargains out there. Something like that would tempt me one day...providing my partner isn't commuting by car to his current place forever (and if we still want to live in London when we can afford to buy). His commute means that if we were in a position to buy right now it wouldn't work!

I live in London and i wouldn't move there, Abbey Wood/Thamesmead is not a nice area.

Well I think for the sake of this thread we should exclude areas where taxi drivers won't go.

At the same time we could also exclude hole in't roads

Didn't know the area was so bad...I live north west - I retract my last post!:)

It's completely relative to where you live and your out goings. Our combined income is roughly 100k a year, but our mortgage is £1350 per month (2 bed terrace, so nothing fancy at all) and child
Care is £600, so before we have even began we pay out £2k a month. So for us £40k would not be a lot of money, we are in the London area.

We have family that live up north, that live in a 4 bed semi and only pay £600 a month on their mortgage and live very comfortably on one income of 40k.

If it wasn't for our ridiculous mortgage, thanks to the ridiculous house prices down here we would live a very extravagant life on our salaries.

That's odd. My friend on benefits worked out she gets and lives on under 10k a year, it's slightly more for my friend with 2 kids.

You can always find "cheap" places - even in outer London - but they are usually cheap for a reason!

Krumbum - does that include her housing costs? And if so, where does she live?

Yes. 70 a week rent. She had to pay her bills out of her benefits.
Portsmouth.

Thamesmead - I think they filmed A Clockwork Orange there. That tells you all you need to know, really.

It was built to regenerate that part of London - but they forgot to include shops and transport links. Then jobs disappeared as various industries packed up and left....

Thamesmead is rough but I do know a few families who have moved there because the housing was so cheap - it's not ideal but their kids are doing well at school, the parents are quite strict so they don't seem to be affected by the gangs locals.

I live in a naicer bit of London that many people claim is out of their budget - well it's only within my budget because I'm not too snobby about living in an ex-council flat and sending my kids to a less than grade 1 Ofsted. And apparently there are gangs here but they've not really had any influence on my family at all.

I only earn about £40Trillion. I feel skint

well for us it would be a good income, we earn less, have 5 children and live in a 3 bed terrace, we deliberately bought in a cheaper area as it was what we can afford.

we have one car and we budget carefully but i think we are doing ok, kids get all they need, sports, music lessons, school trips abroad, we have a holiday in the uk once a year and go camping for wkends, visit relatives etc.

we are in norwich some houses are hideously expensive others are not, if we lived on the other side of the main road near us our house would cost lots more! its because of the postcode, our children still go to good schools.

we had ds1 when we were at uni and were poor! but we got used to making money last and to living on one income (am a sahm) we are happy with our lifestyle.

we couldnt afford to move tho unless dp was offered a relocation package with a new job.

re redhill, we have relatives who live there, very nice area, nice house, they commuted to london (now retired) and we often stay and go into london on the train, its fine so i cant see why it would be hard to commute to london from there?

5madthings - commuting can cost several thousand per year. Also, if can increase childcare costs. I personally would not be able to do it because then I would never see dd and I would be paying someone to put her to bed every night....

well yes i guess it extends your day, depends on the hours or your job i guess but plenty of people do commute from redhill.

infact people commute from norwich to london! i recently ahd to be in london for 7:30am so got a 5am train (yawn) and was AMAZED by the numbers of suited business types who were at the train station to commute to london from norwich on a daily basis! i am aguessing most of them had sahm partners/wives if they had children?

:) Thymelord

It's not a fortune for a family to live on, no. It'll pay for more than the basics but it's hardly my idea of living it up

The difference between 20k, 30k and 40k for families is not as big as you'd think once tax is taken off and tax credits adjusted (although now that's changed a lot)

I earn £40k. But I rent in London and eat out a lot. I also buy expensive clothes. Could spend a lot less but would hate my lifestyle. Oh. And I don't have children, which I think makes the biggest difference!

Ok here it is for my family. We have 5 children (blended family), between OH and I we earn 19k. We have childcare costs and get help with that. If we include all our cb, ctc, wtc and our income, we have roughly 40k. We live in the SE, mortgage is 920 a month, council tax 150 a month. After all bills are out, we have 900 a month spare. Out of this comes anything car related so tax, insurance, tyres etc, any clothes for kids, anything extra, we are doing up our house at the moment so it is all being spent on that basically. We don't spend money on coffee when we are out, I shop around for any purchases and buy value food mostly. Once we have done up the house, I see us able to save roughly 600 a month. Not bad really, but I am very very careful with our pennies,and as the saying goes, the pounds look after themselves.

YABU it is a fortune to me

£40k is a lot of money the main problem people have is when their income increases they spend more and increase their outgoings which is madness because if their income drops they are screwed. The average homeowner trades up after 7 years and then extend the period of the loan which is madness as the first few years of the loan you are paying mainly interest and very little of the capital so just as they start to get into a good position to pay the debt down they take of more and incur more interest.
Anyone can become rich even on a modest income I have never earned near 40k but own my property outright and have investments that provide me a monthly income. All you need to do is keep outgoings to a minimum, buy a house / flat that is minimum requirement to suit your needs and no more. Spend a few hundred quid a month on luxuries but stick to that budget (for me it £300) all other money invest into something that will give you an income and keep reinvesting all surplus money.

Bp, invest in what?

Krumbum Sun 26-Aug-12 01:28:52
Bp, invest in what?
_
shares that pay a good dividend e.g BP, Shell, Tesco etc