To ask about London and money

[Maisy313]

How much do you think you need to earn as a working couple to support a family of four (one year old and reception aged child) in London and have a reasonable standard of living? Would just be really interested in your thoughts... Someone told me it was impossibly to survive on less than a joint income of 100k in London which seems exceptionally high to me...

My mate lives in Chiswick. The nicest bit, admittedly. His three bedroom flat is worth £1.8million...

In Acton, Shepherds Bush, Wembley, etc etc I think they might be able to stretch to a house. Or at least a flat. Rightmove is your friend.

cactus great to hear there is still some of the community spirit left. When I came home from work I loved that I had a nicely mixed community. People really helped each other out. When I have gone back its just not the same. Just a small thing but I told a lady nicely that she might get a ticket with her parking in the wrong spot. I got a flick of the hair and a 'I don't give a shit' shrug. Ten years ago they would have said thank you and smiled sweetly.

We live near Walthamstow...it hasn't been destroyed by incomers! There is a ton of infighting on a certain issue but there's also some good community stuff going on.

My neighbour commutes to London, he is a senior nurse and shift worker. His wife works too (locally) as a part time teacher. If working long days he uses air BnB.

We have a fast direct train which takes just over 1 hr to kings cross. Schools are excellent and undersubsribed at primary and we have grammars and some really good comps for secondary. Childcare costs are low we were paying £33/day for a nursery place 18 months ago. We live in a 5 double detached house built in 1810 which we bought 1 yr ago for 230k..

I'd think laterally and consider something like this, if one of them has a job where they can work locally so they song both have to commute it seems to work well.

Oh and we are in Lincolnshire.

cactus
That isn't true! The middle class Incomers want Victorian houses. They don't want gated communities. I can't even think of a family gated development in either of those places. There are gated flats, but that isn't what the middle class families move to.

I live in a bit of SW that is most definitely a community. And my friends who live all over the city will say the same about their bits. It's what you make of it. When I was renting in my 20s, I had little to no interest in befriending anyone in the neighbourhood beyond the bar staff.
Now I'm older, I make an effort and also notice the others who do.

A few years ago our household income was "only" £120k, our mortgage was £2500pcm and we had a baby and toddler. We had limited childcare costs as I wasn't working (so paid for 2 short sessions at nursery each week). We weren't extravagant nor frugal but found we saved nothing. I think unless you are happy being very frugal, I wouldn't consider London on less than £100k a year.

Spare I live very near Walthamstow and I agree most people I know want the Victorian houses near the ever improving schools.

I'm actually considering moving to Bristol / Bath. Even with the cut in income by having to take lower paid jobs, we'd have a much better quality of life. The cost of buying or renting here is crazy, unless you bought a long time ago and have a small mortgage its hard to manage, especially with childcare costs. Also, there is a massive shortage of school places in the capital, and that's only going to get worse in the short term!

I lived in Chiswick until about 3 years ago. Renting a 2 bed flat on a combined income of about £90k and we literally had no spare cash. DD was born there and nursery fees would have been £1200+ per month. DH got offered a new job and we moved to a different country. Still miss it and would love to live there again but only if we were millionaires!

This thread is extraordinary! Where are people spending their money if 150k is hard to live on? I have 30k household income. That is tight.

Anyway. Anywhere with trains going into Waterloo would work for Charing Cross- it's a quick walk over the bridge, or 2 minutes on the train from Waterloo East.

I saw 2 really lovely houses ( in nice areas,3 beds with gardens) in the paper yesterday, within their budget, in Leatherhead- 45 minutes into Waterloo. In not so nice areas (of Leatherhead) you can still get something even cheaper. I was quite surprised, as you couldn't get a house for that in Ashtead, which is 10 minutes walk away!

Leatherhead is a good bet- close to gorgeous countryside, but with Dorking and Guildford close for town-y stuff. And of course, easily commutable.

We're in north London, have our first on the way in the spring and are on 75-80k between us. We're paying well below the market rate on our 2 bedroom apartment (£1130/month when others in our building are paying £1400-1500/month, we're in Archway so just about zone 2) and I should take a decent raise (to around 50-60k from 37k because my next jump is to senior roles) the next time I move.

Of course we'd like to be on more, but I'd like to think we can manage with one child on what we have now.

on 100k I'd feel like a millionaire and would bloody well not live in London.

Charing cross hospital is not in Charing Cross. It is in Fulham. So trains to Waterloo are not relevant.

I think it's ludicrous to suggest you can't live in London on £100k. You can, with a bit of careful budgeting, live comfortably. Not luxuriously (like paying school fees for three kids) but still well.

Oh dear... Feel a bit of a knob now!

Nursery fees ar a temporary thing (3-4 years or so?), much more so than private school fees (age 3/4-18)!

Also, are nursery fees really round 15k per child per year now?! I guess it could be in London?

Almost all my London friends earn much less than 100k, they live fine. Maybe in a 2 bed flat with 2 kids (like we did, quite happily. yeah, a 3 bed victorian house with a garden in Chiswick would have been nicer I guess).

Some people just don't know they were born!

Where are people spending their money if 150k is hard to live on?

I don't know many people on £150k, but looking at £100k;

Two people earning £50k each will take home £72.6k.

Assuming a 25% deposit on a £400k house with a mortgage of £300k at 4% will be £19k.

One child in childcare full time, where I live is £15k. After school club is £4k.

A rough guess at council tax, insurance and heating say approximately £4k.

Two zone 1 to 6 travel cards are £4.6k

Running a car, say £4k

That leaves £22k, to spend on food, clothes, repairs, holidays.

You'd be comfortable, but not wealthy. And I would struggle to find a 3 bed house where I live for under £500k.

3 bed houses again...

It's all relative though isn't it? 22k for food, clothes holidays and repairs is a huge amount. I would call that well off. We have 22k after tax for everything!

Even if you spend £250 a week on food, that's 10k left for holidays and clothes. That's loads isn't it?

If she works at Charing Cross hospital would she be a medic doing crazy hours or a manager type person? If the latter then she could consider commuting into London. I did that commute for almost 2 years and although tough as I had reasonably crazy hours I coped but was so pleased when I got a job elsewhere. She could therefore look along the train line for a nice place say 40 -60 mins away? I lived 36 minutes to kings cross and generally got to work 20 mins later. But she should think about season tickets as they are expensive but probably cheaper than a London mortgage!