To think that 60k is a lot of money to earn a year?!

[MinkSlink]

I think it is a lot of money to earn per year but it seems a lot of people on mumsnet don't think so, am I in the piss poor minority here or what?!

DH earns £60k.
We don't go mad on money, I'm sat here wearing clothes that are at least 5 years old. And we do go in our overdraft most months.
BUT, we don't really have to think about money, the day to day money, ever. I don't really think too much about the weekly shop, the bills get paid without much thought and we can afford to do home improvements without really thinking about it. We have one holiday a year, which I know we are lucky to have and run two cars (one is 10 years old, the other is 7 years old and probably worth less than £2k each).
So we earn a lot, I know that. But we are crap with money. I wish I wish we didn't live to our means. DH is adamant we are going to save more. We don't have surplus, but that's because we don't think about spending it on day to day things.

Gold he runs a plant hire firm. He set it up from scratch and for the first year lived on additional support from the social (this was legal-in those days you were able to get support when starting a business).
I run a commercial cleaning business and he is one of my clients.
He is a lovely man and deserves all the success he has.

sheeplikessleep I assume you will get a hard time here but before they get stuck in I would like to say are you us???!! We cannot believe how poor you are whilst apparently being rich.

Mintyy that is very rude. You should respect other people's point of view, just because you don't share someone's opinion that doesn't make them a twat, it just says a lot about you.

I don't earn anywhere close to £60k and I live in London, so my living costs are high. People who make nasty comments sound jealous. I struggle financially but I'm not envious of others, instead I'm retraining in the hope that I can also get a better paid job at the end of it.

Oldmumsy - why will I get a hard time? Because of how we careless we are with our money? If so, it's true, I'll hold my hands up, although it's our perogative to spend it in that way if we want. I admit we earn a lot. I am not saying we are poor. We're not. But we do waste it, by not planning or budgeting properly, but buying things when we want them, rather than saving up. We could be rolling in it, if we were more clever with how we spent our money.

I think Mintyy probably read my comment and got the wrong end of the stick thinking I am also loaded. Probably she got a bit jel...

I am far from loaded but love my business and graft 7 days a week-some days starting at 5 am. I genuinely believe one day I will earn big money, but that will not be any time soon.

Thank you for answering my question Emmon. He sounds inspiring

Sheep, it would only take a couple of months of being really aware and careful for you to get into better habits and save more. If you aimed to save for something you really want or might need soon (better car or holiday) with a deadline to raise the extra, you'd do it. Or if you aimed not to go into overdraft - you save a fortune just by not going into the red.

There's such a wide range of attitudes about how much £60k means when it's so dependent on where you live and what your outgoings are. I know people that are struggling on more than that and it's not because they are profligate but because they have a lot to pay out. Where I live, a nanny costs around £28k p.a out of taxed salary. If you have jobs which need you to be more flexible than is possible with children in nursery then that's a necessity not a luxury.

And it depends on your expectations as well. I don't think £60k is an enormous amount of salary. Perhaps if I lived in a Northern city with affordable housing and where childcare was cheaper then it would stretch much further and I would think differently but I don't so I maintain it is perfectly possible to find yourself watching the pennies on £60k.

I have been reading this thread and pondering. FWIW here are my thoughts. 60K is undoubtably an excellent wage and anyone who can earn that sort of money (myself included) ought to be aware of that. If you only have yourself to support then I am sure you would enjoy a weathly lifestyle.

Supporting a family on 60k, well one is comfortable hardly wealthy.

If 2 adults are working to bring home a combined income of 60K then it didn't feel very comfortable tbh. 2X travel,clothes and childcare. Soon makes a big hole in 3500 pcm.

Obviously if you have no morgage/free childcare this will be different.

I know racing, we are in the process of doing that. We are keeping all of our receipts and working out where it all goes. In all honesty, I dread to think what percentage of our income goes to Tescos, I really do.
I do think though that we get used to 'luxuries' and they become 'necessities'. Two cars, Internet, mobile phones, Sky, meals out every so often, life insurance etc. But we could manage without these.

re renting, I have NEVER in twenty years been able to rent anywhere without the landlord probing deeply into my finances. Last time I rented was 2010. I had to send the letting agency 12 months worth of bank statements.

Btw we have been in both of the second 2 situations. Although combined salary was more like £70k,with both working f/t. Paying a nanny and 2 sets of travel, we had very little spare cash. We chose to loose the second income (dhs) and live off my f/t wage. As I said felt much better but hardly wealthy.

Spero [hwink].

I am angry because my post was deleted Emmon. You know nothing whatsoever about me.

Emmon, I completely agree. I can't believe some of these posts. So full of hate. Or twaddle.

Mintyy, it got deleted quickly because (so far) it's not very busy tonight.

Saying that someone sounds like a twat will get you deleted whether you've been a member for six years or six hours, to be honest.

Ah, ok Rowan.

Ta ra then.

Mintyy you're doing it again. Stop offending people that don't share your point of view.

I have only joined today and only written about 5 posts! I am a bit taken aback to be honest!

My sister is a GP on £67K, her husband is a paediatric registrar on £40K. Prior to setting up my company I was also a medical doctor and was far from what I would consider to be rich.