If you had no mortgage how much would you need to earn?

[NaymeChaynge]

Myself and DH are considering selling a tiny flat in London and moving to the north where my family are from. We currently have a mortgage on the flat but with the equity in it could buy a lovely four bedroom house with a garden outright and have no mortgage. Lovely.

The downside is the area we would be moving to would not be good at all for our jobs- we haven't even worked out what we could feasibly do, possibly a commute to a nearby city but even if we got jobs semi-related to what we do now we would not earn as much as we do in London.

In London we earn between us around £80k (not that it feels like that paying London prices for everything and living in a tiny place- housing costs are a lot). I'm trying to work out how much we would need to earn between us to live a comfortable lifestyle. By that I don't mean fancy cars and designer clothes, but enough to save a bit and go on holiday. How much would you need to earn if you didn't have a mortgage/ rent to cover everything and have a relatively nice lifestyle?

No I'd be happy with you too!!!

40k for us would be good and allow for medium commutes and a cheap holiday. We have a smaller house though. Do be careful about where you move to- some friends of ours have oil-heating/boiler and a septic tank as they aren't on the mains and it substantially increases the running costs.

£1000 a month would cover basic bills.
But we like to live a lot and save a good amount towards retirement.
So at least £4k per month in total.
If we didn't have to save we could drop it to £3k, which is roughly what retirement income we're aiming for.

My wife and me have combined income of 26k and no mortgage. It works

it depends on cars, holiday expectation, how many kids you have and how much pension you have

I'm about to become mortgage/debt free.

Just me and my pets.

I would need around £1,000 pm to feel "safe". Ideally, I'd prefer to be making around £2,000 net pm.

2 adults, 2 kids, 2000 per month take home.

In the North with no mortgage or other debt, you could probably live on 2 x minimum wage jobs so anything else would be a bonus.

How many DC do you have and what sort of area would you be thinking? Would you be looking to make significant contributions to savings and/or pensions?

I have heard it said on here and agree that 40k is enough to be very comfortable though not pay a large mortgage in the north, and I agree. We live in a northern city and are a family of four, and if mortgage free we would be fine on £1500 a month and very comfortable on 2k. This is with a fairly modest lifestyle.

However I expect with a 4 bed detached your council tax would be high, and if you're up the back end of nowhere and would both be working you might need to factor in two cars. If you're rural but near a train station, maybe not. You can check out council tax bands and bills online.

About 3500 a month would cover things. But I don't think I understand the question; what would work for us had no bearing on what would work for you. Can't you just add up your expenses sans mortgage and figure it out?

We're in a very similar position to you OP. We'd love to move somewhere like North Yorkshire but we'd both take a 50% cut in salary - although we'd be able to purchase a nice house mortgage free or with a small mortgage.

We did the sums and found we'd still be substantially worse off. Housing is obviously much cheaper up there but other things aren't half the price. Council tax isn't half. Commuting costs aren't half. Bills and groceries certainly aren't half the cost, neither is fuel and the other costs of running a car. The costs of holidays abroad and clothes are exactly the same (sometimes higher if you want to fly from a regional airport).

That won't necessarily stop us from moving - it might mean a significant improvement in our quality of life. But we have to acknowledge the trade-off.

To answer your question though - I think we'd want £4K per month after tax and pension contributions. That would enable us to save a decent amount and go on holidays. BUT - we don't have any children. And I gather they are expensive!

3.5k and 4k sounds like a lot if you're mortgage free! We have much less than that, with kids and (admittedly cheap) housing and have a comfortable though modest lifestyle.

Honestly though I think we need more information. If you're going to be in a city with easy access to markets, Aldi etc, your food will be a lot cheaper than it would be if you're somewhere with just one dearer supermarket. If you're in the middle of a city you might not even need one car let alone two. I've managed fine without one before in Manchester. That type of thing.

Depends if you would need childcare.

We earn £35k between us and get by in Cheshire. We have to pay £600 a month in childcare and similar for the mortgage.
If we didn't have a mortgage we would be living well on 30k (with plenty to spare as at the moment we have very little left each month) and if we didn't need childcare (on top of no mortgage) then would be very comfortable on £25k. Could manage on 20k.

We are a family of 4 in London and think we could live very comfortably on a £40k salary if we had no mortgage. Could live well on £30k with no mortgage. Could scrape by on £20k with no mortgage possibly.

I take home just under £2.5K a month (I'm on my own, small mortgage) and I consider myself to have a very comfortable lifestyle. I'm saving hard with a view to paying off the mortgage very soon and building up a retirement fund, so about half of what I earn goes into savings. But even then, I easily afford everything I want and I go on holidays. You might want to factor in some plans for the future if you haven't already built up enough pension funds to draw on when you're older.

We live very well on £2200 pcm including child benefit. We have no mortgage due to inheritance. Midlands. We save £160 into ISAs for the kids, have 4 or 5 UK breaks/holidays per year and add about £3000 annually to our savings (although last year this was eaten up by big home improvements so didn't actually get as far as saving any). We only have one car though and no childcare costs as I am a SAHM.