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??

The biggest problem in London and the south east is the gap between people who bought 10/20 years ago and now

That’s how I see it.

Quite MrsDV - my postie lives in the flat along the road from me. He bought 17 years ago, earns I guess about £30k? He’s paid off his mortgage, we’ve just started to pay our 400k one.

He’s been on 2 foreign holidays this year

It’s ALL about when or if you managed to buy. Property disparity in London is crazy.

We'd feel like millionaires on 60-70k.

Even if we had that each (35k each), we'd feel like millionaires.

In case the above isn’t clear - is and the postie live in the exact same flat.

Him on his 30k with no mortgage
Us on our almost 90k with a 400k mortgage

And we’re the same age

I work with a Big 4 (my firm is a client). There is no way an organisation would pay them enough to justify 50k for a grad, no matter how good their degree is. Consultancy resources have to be interviewed and their CVs vetted by the client.

I could, however, see an Investment Bank offer 50k for a Financial Analyst with relevant internship / grad experience. Accountancy grads are sometimes hired in this role (less so now, as most IBs prefer mathematicians /Comp Sci/ Economics grads). Perhaps the person who originally posted about the 50k starter salaries got the roles mixed up?

Bear in mind that just because a Financial Analyst in IB starts at 50k it doesn’t mean they will have incremental increases. The majority of IB analysts drop out of the industry entirely in their first year, it’s why they have to offer such large salaries, and the majority of the remainder will be stuck in Associate or AM roles for the entirety of their IB careers and so salaries do eventually level off at the 70/80k mark.

It takes a special kind of grit to progress through the ranks in an investment bank - almost all of the Managers and Directors I know are actually non-grads!

I think these types of threads often end up split because people in most of the areas outside of London and parts of a few other cities would have a very comfortable lifestyle on £60-70K pa. People in the expensive bits of the country don’t have the lifestyle they might expect for that money so feel like it isn’t as much.

LaurieFairyCake

I have a lovely neighbour who was a receptionist, she owns her house & the one next door which she rents for below market value as she’s very fair. Each one would sell for 1m.

Don’t talk to me about the holidays, my eldest DC is starting in Sept & I was googling some options for next year. F me!!

Second year trainee accountants at the big 4 don't earn £50k. Second year qualified at the big 4 earn more that/ more than that.

I think the regions generally start on £25k ish and London £35k ish currently for graduates. Qualifying salary (so after 3 years) is when they jump up a lot.

For most people in Cornwall, it's a fantasy. Locally, if you are earning public sector money, you are minted.

But - so what Laurie?

I live next door to a single woman who is over 65 and is a retired nursery school teacher. She lives in a house the identical size and value to mine. Hers is Housing Association, she has lived there for over 30 years and brought up her children there. She can clearly still afford to live there but if the HA sold it it would be worth more than something beginning with 9. I think that's great.

Next door to her is a retired teacher and her largely sahm husband. They probably bought in the 80s and could afford to put their two children through private school in the 90s. Now they can't afford to run a car whilst living in a house worth the same. This is what I love about living in London.

House prices will come down in London and the south east at some point, fear not.

Well that’s the point isn’t it ? That 60-70k is fortunes if you’ve already secured somewhere to live or property is affordable where you are.

And I agree that’s also one of the things I love about London as you get to live in a mixed community.

I disagree prices will come down though - don’t think they will, still a shortage of property

I’m not sure about prices. I’m in Wandsworth & prices are falling. it depends on interest rates I guess.

A link to this terrace that's available for 400k in a very rough area?

I'm guessing it's in a terrible state/ex local authority/has legal issues/a long way from the centre with poor transport links, or most likely a combination of these. It's not cheap at all.

The biggest problem in London and the south east is the gap between people who bought 10/20 years ago and now

I agree with this, but will add that it is only recently that the HPI snake has started to eat itself that it's become such a significant issue, that exact issue has played itself out over the rest of the UK long before people in the south woke up to the fact, even so much that the Guardian was doing middle page spreads of where to snap up new builds in northern class working towns as investments.

OP - I don't suppose anyone discussed how much they'd given to CHARITY last year? It's not quite as juicy a topic is it. We did. To x 3 charities - 2 national (Centrepoint, St Johns) and Rohinja Muslims. While the money is rolling in.....it's a decent thing to do isn't it? Give a bit back?

No, I think £60-£70,000 is still a very good salary whether you live in London or not. You pay a premium to live in any good city and London is top 3 in the entire world, in anyone's list.

I never felt poorer than when I lived on the Devon/Cornwall border and earned what went for a living wage there in the 90s.

Perhaps the person who originally posted about the 50k starter salaries got the roles mixed up?

It was me who posted, and he did indeed go from a comp.sci. degree into a 50k starter salary at a financial institution. I agree that it would take rather longer for an actual accountant to get there.

And I am very surprised at the assertion that anyone starts their articles on £50k+ because they aren't net fee earning at that point

That income is very high for a single person.
We're a family with a household income of about £80k which we are very happy with. It's loads.

Clients pay consultancy salaries. A recent grad or grad scheme candidate wouldn’t justify 50k; clients would expect them to be non-billable until they have left the scheme or have achieved a specific level in the organisation.

It depends on the job. For example I would consider this low pay for a hospital consultant.

I live in a (non UK) city that’s more expensive than London.

I earn the equivalent of £88,000stg, and husband a bit over £80,000stg. I feel we’re very, very well off. We have a home, savings, investments, pensions.
We’re secure, and don’t have to worry have to worry about putting food on the table, or covering unexpected bills.

We don’t have childcare costs, but could happily live on £60-70k individually. I think it’s a great wage, and certainly more than I was earning in my 20s.

If your friends are clever, they’ll get on the property ladder as soon as they can. While I don’t think that owning property is a complete necessity, it does make such a difference when you’re older. I’m ten years into a mortgage paying equivalent of £1,600stg for a property that would cost over £2,600stg to rent. Compared to my friends who are renting, I have a lot more income available to save/invest.

I think it is a good salary for someone in their 20s but in London it won't go far if they want to buy a home or have a family due to the extortionate cost of housing and childcare. If they are single and are willing to rent slightly outside the centre then they should be able to live reasonably comfortably on it.

It’s almost 10 times more than mine. I’d say that’s a pretty hefty salary

hibbledibble

Three-bedroom flats and houses at 400k are fairly plentiful in London, it seems:

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find.html?locationIdentifier=REGION%5E91992&minBedrooms=3&maxPrice=400000&radius=5.0&includeSSTC=false

Yes but the thread title isn't AIBU to consider 60-70K a high salary for a London hopsital consultant/IT contractor/barrister/footballer/West End actor or any of those caveats.

It's just is it or is it not a high salary? Of course it is.