To think you are not skint on £70k, even in Central London??

[LottaLou]

Just had a ridiculous conversation with a friend who lives and works in Central London. She is in digital marketing, which is a field where salaries can vary significantly, so until now I had no idea what kind of salary she might be on. She is single and childfree, so no dependants.

She always complains that she does not have enough money to do this and do that, how skint she is at the end of the month, they should pay her more for her job and so on. I usually listen to her and sympathize, as I have had money problems in the past, and I know how tough it can be.

Well today she (accidentally) revealed to me that she is on bloody £70k, which is more than twice my salary!! I am stunned as I genuiney thought she was on some "barely above NMW" money, given how often she complains about being skint!

I love her dearly and I will always be her friend, but AIBU to tell her to STFU the next time she starts complaining about being skint?

@Sprinklesinmyelbow Ha! Makes more sense, I was surprised by your first figure! Ok so genuine question - if I work for a London-based university, will the salaries have London-weighting, given that all the jobs are in London? So it’s not like if you work for a national company and get a bump in salary compared to employees living elsewhere... Or are all the salaries just a bit higher than they might be in say, Newcastle? But without an official policy on that?

Yes, it’s probably in the contract somewhere. It’s quite old fashioned to specifically advise of it now but all “public” sector jobs should include it. There is a specific calculation that local authorities follow that many other organisations have adopted

I used to earn 90k before I moved to London. That was a hell of a lot of money where I was originally from and I had a tonne of disposable income. I’ve moved to London and earn a fair bit more than that now but my rent currently is 4k a month and when my house sale is completed my mortgage will be 5k a month. Nothing palatial either.

Everything costs more in London and in the area where I live which is very gentrified a loaf of sourdough is 4 quid so living costs are definitely higher.

Still, I appreciate I have a nice life and am very lucky.

Of course she's not skint!!

She might not have enough money to go on posh holidays and have her nails done- boo hoo!

I would mentally (but probably not actually) think 'STFU' next time she said she was poor. They are hard-working families struggling on 20K in this country and she really should re-think what 'skint' means!

*there are, not they are

Depends how much her rent or mortgage is. You'd probably be stunned to know how much that is too.

London's totally different. We're on 6 figures but not rich!

Her rent's likely to be minimum 2.5 -3k per month if she her own studio or 1 bed there and that's really at the very lowest end of the market.

*rents

@butlerswharf - I loved those apartments! We looked at getting one years ago! —missespointofthread—

But - I agree, we are on 6 figures, live in London and we are not ‘rich’, we are comfortable. I would never use the word skint though, perhaps it’s the terminology she used that was wrong.

@midnightmisssuki