AIBU - We’re struggling to get by on £200,000 a year

[BreakingDad77]

next.ft.com/content/d6f1e58e-20c9-11e6-aa98-db1e01fabc0c

Just actually gobsmacked by her comments -

“In theory, with our household income, we are in the top 5 per cent of the UK population and yet it does not feel that way,” she says. “If you’re earning millions of pounds, then you’re OK — and at the other end of the spectrum you get everything paid for. We are caught in the middle where we are paying for everything.”

Yeah because you know those on benefits get such a cushy deal...WTAF

Just all feeds into why UK is one of the mist unequal countries in Europe.

Its ironic as with the EU ref Brexiters going on about how all the other EU countries are crap and yet we have some much bigger problems closer to home.

[MysteriesOfTheOrganism]

Speechless

[YorkieDorkie]

Here!!! She can have the whole damn packet!!!

[lljkk]

FT article is click bait, I think? I tried to read carefully: other than hinting at the mortgage there is nothing there about how they actually spend their money. Only general statements about how the money can be frittered away in this kind of high-earning group.

No need to be so vicious.

[HildurOdegard]

How is a 200k (minus 10 years) mortgage costing 2k/month?? Unless they've MEW'd the shit out of - which then raises the next question, wtf did they spunk half a million on top of wages?

[morningtoncrescent62]

Having read the article, I have doubts as to whether 'Nisha Sharma' actually exists (despite photo). I think the article is a pitch to the not-very squeezed upper middle who are being called upon to recognise themselves in this story, and the clear message is that they should consult a wealth manager to help them play the stock market instead of using up all their money in the here and now. Presumably the author of the article, the FT's Wealth Correspondent, has lots of wealth manager chums.

[Kennington]

This is more about the fact that 20 years ago she would have been able to afford Chelsea not Croydon.
It also looks like bad money management. I know a fair few wealthy people who piss it up a wall in Dubai and complain they lack cash.
Holidays abroad are apparently a basic human right now.

[LisaMed]

Mrs DeVere - I actually agree with you. I just remembered that thread where they were saying that they had the choice between buying toothpaste and toilet paper and they had all these assets which would have cost to get rid of.

It was a very strange thread.

[AskBasil]

The poor have always been better money-managers than the rich.

They have to be.

It's capitalist propaganda to believe that the poor are feckless with their money, they can't afford to be. But it is a brilliant excuse for a very unequal system of wealth. Blaming people for their own poverty, has always been a way of justifying inequality and once the great chain of being stopped being the societal explanation for inequality, the ruling class had to invent a new myth, so the myth of the feckless poor was born.

There are regular articles like this which show how badly some rich people handle their money. I constantly hear people who earn much more than me, complaining about how badly off they are. But it doesn't suit the media to keep banging away at it, which is why we only ever get a few of these articles. If they were published on a proportionate basis to stories of the feckless poor, the newspapers would be full of them.

[EllsTeeth]

Flamingflume I agree with you. Our income is higher than hers and while we have a nice house (SE) and one niceish car we don't live anywhere near the sort of lifestyle people would expect on a household income of >£200k. Obviously we are not struggling in any way and consider ourselves fortunate (although we also work bloody hard) but we aren't as well off as our parents' generation were on comparable incomes. Some of the article's wording is unfortunate, but I don't think she's comparing herself to families who are struggling to put food on the table... I think her point is that the perception of how "rich" someone is on that sort of income is far removed from the reality. And before anyone flames I am fully aware that it is far harder to manage on a lower income and that life on benefits must be incredibly stressful and not in any way "cushy".

[sharknad0]

MrsDeVere

sorry, I skipped a step. They are receiving money from the government, and use this money to pay rent. They haven't actually earned anything, contributed so "paying rent" is not exactly the same than me paying rent from money coming of my salary!

I am not saying I have it rough, all I was saying is that I am not "rich", and I understand the point the woman in the article was making.

It's boring to be told you have it easy because
you have a job: well, yes, I had to relocate for that, spend 12 hours (or more) a day in the office, take shit from hysterical bosses and sacrifice evenings and weekends to earn my salary. Easy really.
You have a house: technically the bank has most of it, we moved up the ladder like a lot of people, haven't had a takeaway in years, no skype, spent years without a car. I am not complaining, but the house wasn't given to me with a big bow on top.
My kids can go to uni: yes, they work too! (not the little ones, not talking about child labour here).

There are rich people in this country, someone on a salary, even £100k is not exactly one of them!

[Flashbangandgone]

£200k joint income and 'struggling'. How ridiculous... Even with a £700k house with a 100% mortgage, sending her child to Eton, and contributing fully into pension schemes they would still have at least £5k per month to live on. Also, with that income, they are in the top 1%, not the top 5!

[DryIce]

I do take the point about feeling that a high income would have gone further in the past. But as I don't live in the past, and there are people in the present on far lower wages which presumably also don't go as far as they may have at one point, it would be churlish to complain.

I also do not understand the griping about social housing. Yes there will always be a small portion of people who take the piss. This has a negligible effect on me and nowhere near overshadows the greater good of social help schemes. If their palatial homes in Kensington are so attractive by all means quit your well paid job and apply for a spot. I'll happily continue to pay my tax and live in zone 3...but have disposable income for things like holidays and more choices

[Backingvocals]

I agree with flamingflume. It's a stupid article and she sounds silly. However, whilst this sounds like a massive income, it doesn't go that far in London. I am on a high salary but as a result have lost both my personal allowance and any child benefits. As I am a single parent I am worse off than a couple earning an equivalent amount but split in two because of the loss of the personal allowance.

My children are at state schools. I don't have sky, I drive a crappy car, I don't have any expensive hobbies. After I have paid about £13000 a year for childcare - after school and holidays plus late nights when I have go to work events there is plenty left to live our life. But not much left over. It's true that I contribute to my pension but that hardly seems like a luxury. The other big discretionary expense is paying for my son's speech therapy which is about £350 per month. Obviously I'm very lucky to have the choice to do that (NHS wouldn't cover it) but it's hardly living the life of riley.

So I guess what she is saying is that having a big income like that doesn't buy you the lifestyle you might think. She certainly shouldn't moan about it. I'm (sort of) happy to pay the amount of tax I pay. I'm not at all happy that I pay all my childcare expenses out of my taxed income. I will be paying my nanny's pension contribution out of my taxed income. This is what seems really punitive to me.

So no, not moaning about having a high income and being fortunate in that sense. But I do agree that it doesn't buy you the lifestyle you might think.

[CelticPromise]

Damn right Flash top 1%. I have lived in London on a third of that income, paying mortgage etc and we are in the top 5% and we know it. We are very very fortunate. These people are deluded and I have no sympathy for them at all.

[Playduh]

Agree with PP's talking about relativity.

200k is loads (more like 100k after tax) if the average family home doesn't cost 850k (talking a three bed flat, not a semi with a garden and somewhere to put the car.)

So move somewhere cheaper. Absolutely, but then you are looking at 12k annually in commuting fees, assuming you can walk to your station. If not, add 1k to your commute time, assuming you can co-ordinate so everyone can get where they need to be at the right time using one car.

Yes. School fees, foreign holidays, posh cars and clothes etc are all optional.

Thing is, many of us were taught that if we worked really really hard and got ourselves 100k jobs we'd be absolutely laughing. Once upon a time you could be a doctor or a senior manager and have one parent at home (if you wanted), a nice house, all the bills paid and a nest egg for the future. Houses were realistically priced so they were an appropriate aspiration.

Now, the south east is so preposterously expensive you have to be in a crazy income bracket to manage the standard of living available for most of the previous professional generation.

So leave the south east, and do what? The majority of high paid jobs are still south. How long this will continue, when people can't afford to hire decent staff because they in turn can't afford to live in the capital, is any ones guess.

She is being crass, she hasn't a clue what it's like for the rest of us, but I get that she feels a bit short changed.

[Philoslothy]

I think that people expect a certain type of lifestyle that £200k can't realistically pay for in London when you factor in school fees. That doesn't mean she is really struggling or that they are the squeezed middle but just they don't have the life they thought they would have.

If somebody had told me as a teenager the amount we would bring in as a family I would have assumed that we would be in private jets dripped in diamonds. We do have a very fortunate lifestyle but it is not Dynasty! We do tend to have a better house and more holidays than people who have similar incomes because we have not educated our children privately (That alone probably saves us at least £100k a year) and we don't have cleaners, nannies etc. We also realised some time back that our lifestyle was hampered by living in London, we sold up and moved north and managed to swap our rather average house for something rather special.

Before I get flamed I am not saying that she is genuinely struggling but just that if you are a high earner in London the money does not go as far as you think it would. However that should make you reflect on how hard it is for people trying to live on a normal wage in London.

[runningincircles12]

Seriously? if their kitchen and bathrooms (paid for by the council) are bog-standard, I really have made the wrong choices in life! They were even given money to buy paint to redecorate the rest of the place

What rubbish. Did they have range-cookers /AGAs? Smeg fridges? Wine coolers? Marble worktops? Firstly, I doubt that you have inspected many or any of these so-called luxury council houses. You just have to look at the ex-council properties on the market to see just how luxuriously the council decorate their houses. Secondly, just because they are given a bit of money for Dulux paint to brighten up the place does not mean they are living in luxury.
It's comments like this that perpetuate the myth of the 'benefit scrounger' who has everything handed to them on a plate, including luxury housing, it now seems.

[CelticPromise]

shark we have a family income of under £100k, and we certainly are rich. We live in a nice house, go on holiday, eat out when we like, and if the car or the washing machine breaks down we don't have to panic. That IS rich. It's all relative.

[dillydotty]

£700,000 to live in Croydon?

[BoatyMcBoat]

DH is a musician and earns maybe as much as 5K pa. I am disabled and only claim dla, though I'm told I could claim more benefits and end upmwith a good 15K more . I now have a pt job as an 'intern' which means they can pay me less than minimum wage, but I'm happy as I was working as a volunteer for them for ages (am incredibly flattered that they want to pay me at all!).

They only way we survive is that we own the house so no mortgage or rent. Otherwise we'd be completely up shit creek.

What a spoilt, silly woman.

[whois]

Well it would be perfectly possible to feel like oyu have little disposable income left after expenses on that income - big mortgate, scjool fees, pension payments, expectation of at least 2 nice holidays etc.