To think £100k pa is NOT 'the squeezed middle'?

[ArsenicFaceCream]

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The article is very confidently attributing the definition to Danny Dorling, but did he really name this figure?!

These women are fools.

Exactly Aggggast you budget accordingly. You cannot have a millionaire lifestyle on that, but you can live comfortably.

In my opinion it is insane to include private school fees as normal expenditure that should be expected by anyone described as 'the squeezed middle'.

School fes are paid for by a tiny minority of th population, and surely the vast majority of fee-payers are in the top brackets of salary levels.

I live on a mainline route, there's no way I could afford the 6k a year to travel in if I worked there.

Please forgive me for commenting not having read entire thread. Is 100k not around 60k after tax? It so much depends where u live. dh earned 1 million gross last year. We do not consider ourselves in any way wealthy. Children private and couple good holidays a year. We are comfortable. Wealthy? No way

Polonium what point are you trying to make? Those figures show that a household income of 100K is in the top 15% or so. Hardly the squeezed middle.

Laurie But there is no reason to pay 3000 a month for rent/bills unless you have an insanely huge family. There are loads of decent places in Zones 3/4 for less than 1500/month.

Most wealthy people never consider themselves 'wealthy'
Its like my kids who think they are hard done by with their 'only' converse instead of Nike Air max and 'only' three bed semi as opposed to their friends in 4 bed detached houses. They dont compare themselves to their peers with tesco trainers living in local authority terraced housing with damp problems though.

What great places are there for less than 1500 a month where the state schooling is ok

Marmite i'd say comfortable would be being able to pay all your housing costs/food shopping and some clothing/haircuts each month for all of you. Not two holidays and private schooling ffs.

That article is like something from Brass Eye.

They need to get a grip and adjust their standard of living to what they can afford.

dh earned 1 million gross last year. We do not consider ourselves in any way wealthy.

Then there is something very wrong Marmite TBH

Seriously Marmite? I will never earn £1,000,000 in my lifetime. I would consider your income an absolute fortune.

Marmite dh earns a tiny fraction of that, and we are comfortable, we own our own 4 bed detached home outright and can afford our bills and some luxuries. We must be in dire poverty then! I feel Sharon is totally right, tge wealthy do not see themselves as such. I wish the only dime a we had was wether to have smoked salmon or bruschetta when we go to Waitrose, not how the hell are we going to pay the rent this week.

Is Marmite on of those in the DM article

It is all down to individual circumstances. When we had a household income of 60k we considered ourselves rich. Not yacht owner rich, but plenty of disposable income, as we were a childless couple with the mortgage almost paid off so hardly any household costs. We were earning just a bit more than the average but we were well off. By the time we were earning 100k we were suddenly in the top 98% of earners but we had 2 nursery age children and a new mortgage, and altogether much worse off. With the kids in school, and a bit more of the mortgage paid off we are again comfortable, even discarding any increase in income. 100k for a family of five with 2 children in nursery and one in school and a medium sized mortgage is probably equivalent to a 40k income for a childless couple with no housing costs - which is fairly average.

Dh ears £45k before tax so yes mystery be in dire poverty

1m a year not wealthy?

Get her to pout Aero, we'll compare her to the photos.

Arsenic I definitely think so. My kids are in good government schools, could noway afford private, even if we could dh would consider it a waste.

Meant dilema in my previous post of 15.12

I'm waiting for someone who earns a billion a year to post and tell us they aren't wealthy or their holidays not fancy.

Crikey. I thought we had worked hard and got ourselves to a comfortable level of living. But 1Million in a single year. Marmite was that an incomplete statement, his company turned over 1 million, perhaps!

We could retire on the after tax on that amount! As in never, ever, ever work again... and I am not even 50 yet!

Marmite did say it was gross. So it's just over £500k after tax and that's excluding pensions etc. So it's not exactly £1million net. Like Marmite said it's very much dependant on where you live.

I'm always fascinated by threads like this.

DH and I are both from dirt poor working class backgrounds. Managed to get degrees and ok jobs, had a flush few years before children when we managed to pass driving tests, get on housing ladder and stuff. 2 kids and 2 redundancies later we were on the bones of our arses and for those on mumsnet who doubt the ability to get a week's shopping for 4 for £30 I can verify it is doable fucking miserable though

Fast forward 5 years and our joint income is now c£70k gross in the north of England. We don't pay private school fees so knocking say £30k off the income of the first couple, it's almost as if we have equivalent incomes. I feel comfortable, but then my expectations aren't as high. I don't feel rich - I don't have gym membership or a 4 bed detached or savings. We've got a 3 bed semi in a nice suburb. The kids have music and swimming lessons. We have a 10 day holiday in Spain. We drive "value" cars rather than anything prestigious. We eat out (pub type meals) about twice a month. That's about our limit. I can see how anyone trying to do more with a similar amount of money might struggle, especially if they think that amount of money should buy more. I'm actually thankful that I've experienced some very lean times as it's a massive warning not to max out and over extend myself - people without that reality check might be storing up trouble for themselves.

Laurie -- we're currently looking in Brixton Hill/Herne Hill/Streatham Hill, lots of places under 1500 (and not in the dodgy bits). Most of the primary schools are rated good or outstanding. Great communities and easy transport to centre.

Lots of people may look down their nose at Streatham but it's what we can afford and we actually like it (DH used to live there). I suppose I could turn up my nose at it and insist on living in Fulham and go into debt and complain that actually we're so poor, but that would be silly, because we'd only be poor because of our choices.