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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To consider £60-70k a high salary?

403 replies

rebsemmie · 05/04/2018 15:10

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!" Shock

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??

OP posts:
Bolokov · 05/04/2018 23:22

This is bullshit

GammaDelta · 05/04/2018 23:27

I never felt i was very low laid as i did just now...ConfusedSad. I work in London live in greater London. N i earn about half of this

ChazsBrilliantAttitude · 05/04/2018 23:29

Diego
Are you joking - you found 170 3 bed properties in a 5 mile radius of central London at £400k or under.
If you do a search with a minimum price of £1m and max 3 beds same search area you get over 7900 properties. 358 of those are over £5m
So, for the same search area, 3 bed or fewer properties over £5m are more plentiful than 3 bed or more properties £400k and under.

GammaDelta · 05/04/2018 23:31

Low paid*

ChazsBrilliantAttitude · 05/04/2018 23:34

Gamma
I think your pay is around average for London.

I work in the City and it’s only a small percentage of the London workforce that are the really big earners.

hibbledibble · 05/04/2018 23:39

Diego those are mostly flats, when I was talking about a 3 bed terrace previously.

It's hardly plentiful either, as pointed out by chazs. They are virtually all ex local authority, shared ownership (so full price much higher), or have legal issues, or are guide prices for an auction (so the real sell price will be much higher). They are all in areas I wouldn't want to live in either

DiegoMadonna · 05/04/2018 23:40

Are you joking

No...? The poster I was responding to didn't believe you could get a house (in liveable condition) for that price. I found 170 odd in 2 minutes.

I wasn't making any larger argument than that.

DiegoMadonna · 05/04/2018 23:42

Only 15 of the 170 were shared ownership.

I mean yeah, if you're super fussy about location then you may have no chance of finding a 3-bed house specifically for 400k, but then the whole thing also becomes a moot argument tbh.

DiegoMadonna · 05/04/2018 23:47

I suppose what you're saying is actually kind of representative of the point people are making throughout this thread. People saying "70k isn't a high salary in London", but really meaning "70k isn't a high enough salary to live the very well-off lifestyle I want to live in London".

I know people (married with children!) who live comfortable middle-class lives on JOINT household incomes of 50k or so in London. Shock horror, some of them live in ex-local-authority flats, some even as far flung as zone 3!!!

Bunbunbunny · 05/04/2018 23:57

I lived in central London and was able to rent comfortably on a household income of less than £30k when starting out. A salary of 60-70k in London is a high salary. I have found recently that people are demanding higher salaries for not many years experience, maybe there is a shift in expectations for those that have graduated in the last five years

icecreampanckaes · 06/04/2018 00:00

I don't think it is particularly high for London

I'm currently on around £42k in London atm in the private Sector and an 26 with no children. I can easily afford rent etc but when I book holidays etc I have to be a bit careful just because I like to go abroad every holiday

Choosegopse · 06/04/2018 00:02

It’s loads! I have a family of four on half that in south east!

BuggerFlip · 06/04/2018 00:09

How depressing to read thats considered mediocre in London. Me and DH both work ft and have 2 primary school age kids and earn £38 and £32 respectively. Constantly broke but we have a nice home and a mortgage so not complaining. Makes me realise how shit DHs 32k is though for his very long days. Still he does love his job and so after yrs of horrible jobs (on better salaries ) I know that money isn't everything. £70 K though! Loads.

DiegoMadonna · 06/04/2018 00:12

I can easily afford rent etc but when I book holidays etc I have to be a bit careful just because I like to go abroad every holiday

This must be satire.

icecreampanckaes · 06/04/2018 00:15

It's not satire, that is genuine

hibbledibble · 06/04/2018 00:39

Diego if you filter for a terraced house, then 170 becomes 3 properties. All 3 are for auction, and it is well known that auction properties sell well above the guide price.

So I stand correct that there aren't any 3 bed terraces available for sale in central London for 400k.

If it seems too good to be true, then it usually is.

Dixiestampsagain · 06/04/2018 01:39

It’s a massive salary in my opinion. We earn about 20k between us and I can’t even imagine earning on my own! (NB before my accident our joint income was about 52k).

puppower · 06/04/2018 04:24

Shock horror, some of them live in ex-local-authority flats, some even as far flung as zone 3!!!

I live in zone 3 & only know 1 person who owns that lives closer than that & unsurprisingly they are multi millionaires. I don’tthink anyone who earns 70k would expect to be able to live in zone 1.

BitchQueen90 · 06/04/2018 06:45

I live in the east Midlands. The area I'm in has one of the lowest average national salaries in the UK. My total income is £20k (single parent). I feel comfortable on this and go on at least one holiday abroad a year.

The idea of living in London and feeling poor earning £60k while working my fingers to the bone is absolutely nuts to me. My job isn't the best but the hours are family friendly and where I live means have money left over at the end of the month for treats. People seem to make an enormous sacrifice to live in the capital. I couldn't do it.

Schnauzermum2 · 06/04/2018 06:58

Doesn’t this just prove the need for more companies HQs to be move outside of London (this does seem to be starting to trickle through). Workers are demanding huge salaries as they need them for housing/transport etc. If a worker outside London is happy with 2/3 the salary and property/overheads are cheaper for the business they should relocate. Having tried the whole London thing I’d rather gouge my own eyes out than work there again - esp now.

Glug44 · 06/04/2018 07:55

I think most employers need to boost salaries outside of London to be honest. I live in the London commuter belt but local employers still try to pay people in my role 20-30k; I’m not going to take that when I can get double that by travelling half an hour into London. Commuting for younger people is now part and parcel of daily life.

puppower · 06/04/2018 08:08

Schnauzermum2

I mentioned upthread that lots of my friends are leaving & going to other cities rather than the traditional move to the home counties as they still want a city lifestyle. Also commuting is very expensive & often unreliable these days.

The ones staying are my school friends who are Londoners so it makes sense to be close to family & we tended to get on the ladder earlier. For us it works at the moment in that my mum a walk away & I have her & mil to help with childcare/babysitting which saves us a lot. My siblings are here too which is nice for my children. My work, childminder & school are all within 10 mins walk so again it makes my life easier & I would lose far more if I moved. However once the kids are older who knows as I do dream of having a drive 😁

puppower · 06/04/2018 08:12

Also my youngest sibling who is 5 years younger than me has lots of friends moving to Margate, Shoreham etc who are then commuting just 2 or 3 days a week. They are much more used to the idea of working flexibly or from home & being freelance. One carried on working remotely for a company while she went to Barcelona for 3 months.

Mummadeeze · 06/04/2018 08:14

A single person on a salary of 70k would never be able to buy in London Simply not true! They could buy a one bedroom flat on that salary fairly easily in certain parts of London so long as they had managed to save up a 10% deposit.

PaulDacreRimsGeese · 06/04/2018 08:19

I think its making people irritated because the fact you need to earn a lot in London to live a modest lifestyle doesn't make it not a lot of money

I think that's a really good way of putting it grasspigeons. And of course the flipside is that other people get irritated when it's pointed out that it being a lot of money doesn't mean it's not a modest lifestyle. A lot of the London wages and houses threads are marked by these two opposing perspectives and lack of understanding!

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