To consider £60-70k a high salary?

[rebsemmie]

Just that really, I just had a general chat with a few friends about work and salaries (not talking about our own salaries, just chatting in general). We are all in our late 20s, unmarried and childfree, so we were not discussing in terms of household incomes, just in terms of single people's income.

Much to my surprise, some of my friends did not consider a salary in the range of £60-70k (for one single person) to be very high, they though it was "alright". One of them said you "come on, you can barely afford to rent a place on your own with that income!"

I was a bit surprised as my salary is well over 30% lower than that, and I considered myself quite fortunate and well-off! Granted, we are in London which is very expensive, but still..

AIBU to think my friends are a bit detached from reality if they think a salary of £60-70k is just "alright" for one person??

I wouldn't say it was enormous for London, but certainly ought to be comfortable!

YANBU but very soon there will be people falling over themselves to tell you how it’s a mediocre salary and how they (and very likely, their husbands as well) earn much more ;)

Really detached! That's a very good salary. They'd keel over in horror if they knew how much less than that I earn and yet manage to still exist on!

It's absolutely fecking loads! And I live in London!

To be honest, for London it isn't that high. London seems to be the domain of the rich nowadays

Your friends sound like morons.

I don’t know anyone who has or will ever 60k a year

Lol my sister comes out with crap like this. She earns c£70k but she does payroll for a multi national so sees people on high six figures and considers her wage average.

Of course it’s a high wage, especially in your twenties. DH earns about 30% more than that and I still think so. It doesn’t go as far as we’d like with a family and mortgage (SE but not London) but it’s still a bloody decent whack.

I think it’s reasonable.

My DBIL supports a family of four on a similar salary and it’s tight. (After mortgage etc)

I think for most people it would be high

I meant 50% (fat fingers). Just for context.

Your friends are daft as lights, sorry. I'd be very well off on £60k.

Disgusting amount of money for one person. But I'd never, ever live in London these days. Full of rich and desperately poor people.
Never a good mix!

Either they are being deliberately obtuse or they are utterly stupid. The overwhelming majority of people earn far less than that.

If I remember correctly, median income in London is a bit under £50k. So £60k is above average, but not exceptional for London as a whole.

Do they have, or aspire to have, quite extravagant lifestyles? I'm not sure what rents are like in London, or different parts of London, but I imagine they are sky high, so maybe on that basis 60k wouldn't leave much for other things after rent?

I mean renting on your own, rather than a house share.

It's all relative especially on Mumsnet where some people use £50 notes to line their cat litter trays, and others feed themselves, 6 kids and their DP for 20p every two weeks. I know people who will never earn 60k and some people who earn so much that 60k is just 1/3 of their take home. So many factors to take into consideration really.

I would say it’s a good salary, great if your in your 20s & childless. Living costs are ridiculous though.

It's a great salary unless you want to buy a house (in london) or have children. Then anything under about 120k each as a couple isnt going to cut it any more or so i ha e calculated when trying to figure out our own finances.

60k is a great salary, it's easily affordable to have children on that amount of money; most people do it on a lot less.

It's well above average in the north but mediocre in London.

She earns c£70k but she does payroll for a multi national so sees people on high six figures and considers her wage average.

70k for doing the payroll?! What else does she do to command 70k a year, it can't just be doing the payroll surely?

im with Againfaster, 70k is amazing if you're single or live in a cheaper area with family to help with nursery and childcare costs.

If you only have one income of £70,000 and have a partner on about £18k and have to pay out for nursery, after school club and a mortgage, then there is not going to be as rich as you think you are - forget having two bmw cars or holidays to Maldives, unless you live in a less desirable or cheaper area in uk.

on this salary, you will get screwed for child benefit, income tax and national insurance contributions. you will still get a lot but a household with two £40k salaries and child benefit coming in will get the same a household with one on £70k and the other on £18k.

Not that high for London or some other areas if one wants to rent alone or take up a mortgage alone. Not every single person is young and/or wants to share for the rest of their lives.

Yes of course it's a lot!!

he median gross annual wage for people working in inner London is £34,473 apparently

According to the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), average gross annual earnings for full-time employees was £27,600 in 2015, thats for UK

these are a bit out of date but aren't going to have changed dramatically.

am sure the area i live in the average salary is more like 16-17k

mine is 12k.

It's a very good salary. It's not a high salary, not when so many lawyers/accountants/actuaries/doctors/insurance bods earn a lot more than that. It's comfortable, not rich, IMO.