What is your family's monthly take home money?

[reefqueen]

So following on from a popular thread about what us women earn, I am genuinely interested in how much net income families bring in each month?

This is not talked about in real life but I think it is so interesting and I am nosy

So how much money does your household bring in each month? Is it from work or benefits or both? And where in the uk are you?

I'll start:
Me, DH, 2x DC, South East. Money in each month is £3,900. This includes 2 salaries and child benefit.

I’d love to know what these massively paying jobs are so I can try and obtain one and how much work they actually involve. Given how hard I have to work in my professionally qualified role for a fraction of what some people earn, I’d be surprised if they involved very much by way of actual hard graft

@Xenia

I am a low earner and I've got no issue with people who earn a lot of money but I do take issue when people with high incomes moan that they are skint because of their outgoings. I appreciate London rents are high and there's no choice in that but owning rental properties, sending your children to "better" nurseries, private schools, etc - these are all choices you make and not necessities in life. If you make those choices, suck it up and be thankful that you can afford the luxury of choice. When you have to choose between heating and eating then you can moan that you don't feel well off.

I can give a few examples. Law which I know in city firms. They are very hard jobs to get even if you have all As and oxbridge degrees. It is a bit of a lottery as to whether you get one in the first place. If you do the wages are published so you know in your two years you train you get about £40k and then £60k when you qualify and then if you stick it out up to about £100k and then it starts to diverge = people leave for other firms and places and jobs and a tiny percentage stay and become partners where they might well earn (the very few who are partners) £40k to £2m in some firms).

In terms of the hours it will depend which department you are in but you might well have 4 weekends in a row working all day without any over time - some estimate this can make trainee lawyer wages beloe the minimum wage when you add in the hours some of them work. You might work all day and all night without any overtime fairly regularly. You might have cancel your annual already booked holiday even when you are older if a big deal comes in. However in my view it's worth it as the work is really interesting. i currently work for myself and I work just about every day (even on holiday but then just an hour a day) but that's just because I like it and I can do other things whilst working (posting on MN, take time out for a family event). If I wanted to nowadays I could confine the work to Monady to Friday fairly easily and at least no new work comes in then.

NHS consultant with a private practice - could make a few hundred thousand. They might do extra things too like my father who was on mental health review tribunals, lectured, did loads of reports for law firms etc. Hours? It just varies with these jobs over long careers so is hard to generalise. You have the reguarly being "on call" so you can't go away that weekend and you might be called into the hospital. You might have cases booked you have to give evidence in and travel to a court and they miught be cancelled at the last minute. My father had at one stage his two private clinics from about 1pm to 9 or 10pm without a break twice a week at the house.

There are loads of other high paying jobs hoever. I know someone who owns funeral parlours and the clients of large law fuirms often earn masses more than their lawyers who are in a sense their servants. Those clients set up and run all kinds of different businesses although a lot of businesses do fail. It is not just doctors and lawyers making a lot of money. I know someone who owns a string of dental practices - they are a dentist.

What is hard graft? One of my ancestors was a ropemaker and many coal miners and some agricultural labours and lots of mariners/seamen and I am sure they did hard graft.

Christmas - "Talking about a universal wage, DH and I are both very highly educated and carry much more responsibility in our jobs than our PAs, assistants, cleaners, childcare etc. At the end of the day whoever makes a mistake within our departments etc, the buck falls on us - so we bloody well should be paid a lot more to hold that responsibility."

Don't be so smug. High income isn't just education/graft/responsibilities. It is also luck and market pressures. Some jobs are never going to be well paid even though they are extremely important and stressful.
I'm lucky enough that i enjoy working in a field with good earning potential. I am then grateful that the support around me means that i can make choices and take risks to progress my career in a way that balances earning potential and enjoyment of my role.
But not everyone is like this. Being a carer is a much more difficult and important role and yet for little reward.

About 5 .5k
I took a large salary drop recently for a better quality of life but DH is working so it's balancing out ok.

My husband brings home £2000 per month after tax, I earn nothing as a SAHM. We have two children. I know our income is very low compared to many on here, but we own a beautiful home and have a very nice life.

I don't want any 'low earners' like myself, to feel inadequate. It's possible to earn a lower amount and live happily and comfortably. It depends what your values are and how you define a happy life in general.

.

€1400 for me. I have no kids so it's just pocket money tbh

We bring home £5.5k a month. 2 adults (one part time), 2 children full time and 1 we have shared custody of (and pay maintenance for). No benefits (obviously). Live in deepest South London, one commutes into town and the other works locally. We don't feel particularly wealthy but equally we don't struggle. Mortgage and childcare are our biggest bills.

It’s your disposable income and accumulated wealth that makes you rich, not really the amount you bring in each month.

£3k per month net income, inherited house with no mortgage, no childcare, no debts is far more comfortable than £9k per month with £4k mortgage, nursery fees, a set of school fees and student loans and debts. People stupidly tend to upgrade their life with more financial commitments as they earn more, then they can’t go back...

I agree with @Xenia about nurseries etc.

We live in central London (we really have to as our jobs are there and we work incredibly long hours so a commute isn't that doable - DH often works until 1/2 am), therefore we have a big outgoing on mortgage.

Nurseries/nannies for our children (we had no other option with our hours and I took only a months maternity) cost cerca 45k a year. We needed the type of person/place who could be told on a Monday they are needed from 5am Tuesday morning until Friday because we have an urgent business trip. And then school fees because we were unable to get our children into schools within catchment I was happy to send them to. And they still need childcare to get them from school and bring them home, make their tea etc.

I'm sorry if it sounds smug as another poster has said of me(which I am not at all), I am just trying to explain how you can end up with unavoidable large outgoings.

Christmas - i was talking of smugness re the suggestion that you deserved the high pay because you are Very Important People. I'm sure you do work v hard and deserve a high income but a lot of others work very hard too for a lot less money. That's life. Not just hard wok. But luck and market realities.
I certainly get that your outgoings will be v high too. I do not envy you that lifestyle. Of course you have to find the right balance for you. I expect me and my DH can reach 6 figures in the future. But i don't want to push it further or even get there if it's to the detriment of our lifestyle. My dad did that and regrets it. Funnily enough he now has a very well paid job (well self employed - not very high pay but i expect if he worked FT he'd get to 100k pa easily) where he can choose his hours (doesn't wok many hours anymore), works anywhere in the world whilst on holidays (via Skype etc) and he really makes a difference to people's lives. That's my ideal!

@oblada I wouldn't choose a lot of lifestyles, particularly a SAHM but I don't judge them for it.

We absolutely do not see ourselves as V important people, just in our life I am saying I think it is right we are paid more than our nannies, cleaners, PAs etc. It's the responsibility of jobs which gives them the pay, for example with healthcare you have nurses with responsibility for patient care but a doctor has more as has to diagnose and treat and therefore deserves higher pay. And then you have consultants, up to senior consultants etc.

Obviously some careers are higher paid from the start and others e.g. criminal law poorly paid, but generally pay is reflective of responsibility. If I have responsibility of a 200k closure over a 10k one, I am going to get more of a cut.

DH and I are early 40s and will both go part time (2.5 days) within the next few years. This is what earning more earlier on gives you. And I am completely financially independent which as a 21st century woman is very important to me.

It is an interesting thread and I hope no one on low pay is upset by it. I do know what it is like to have not much money and I am not smug about any of this and I don't think most of the women who earn a fair bit aren't . My children's father is a teacher. he has never been sacked in 30 years. Now I am more than happy to be in a high paid job where it can be here today sacked tomorrow. I am a risk taker. I amn ot saying teachers are never sacked but you don't haev any kind of constant sword of Damacles hanging over your head.

I was not kept on when I qualified as a solicitor. I had a 1 year old baby, was the primary wage earner or about to be - i think we were both on £7500 that year - and our child care cost was about half each of our net salaries. We had just bought a house and had a large mortgage. Now of course minimum wage earners, zero hours workers and the like face much more uncertainties than many. i am certainly not suggesting they have an easier time and less risk of being sacked. However teaching is certainly more secure than some legal jobs. Even quity partners in many firms if they don't keep their billings and work generation up have to leave. It will be same in many financial services jobs - you cuold be called into a room and sacked immediately and marched out of the building (that can of course happen to the low paid too).

I do not deserve high pay because I am a very important person. Most of what I have tried has failed, business idea after business idea but I have kept going and work for myself now and it's all come good in the end.

Yes i get some of it. But nannies look after our children. Not much can be considered more important in society. Just be mindful that high pay and hard work and high responsibilities and worthwhile work do not always go hand in hand.
And your definition of important/responsibilities may not be the same as someone else's.

Sounds like a good plan re part-time. Hopefully it works out!

obl, yes it's an issue that is debated all over the planet. Some groups go for a "united order" or communist pooling of all resources. What you tend to find is that if we remove the incentive to earn more if you qualify or work harder that those societies do find it hard to continue and operate well. People can keep trying them however. Indeed even in the Uk there is nothing to stop anyone joining communes where all money is pooled and shared and in a sense that is what a working husband and housewife situation is and reflected in English divorce law where each role is recognised as equal.

I think the greater unfairness is not really money in life but that some people are physcially and mentally ill and some not.

I don't understand why people start these threads.

great
Lots of reasons. Curiousity as humans are nosy, for info on what jobs are high paying.
Why does it matter?

And where in the uk are you?

I'm not in the UK.

Earn millions though, millions.

Approx £760 per month between us but rent is paid. But out of that 760 we have to pay council tax, water rates, gas/electric meters, travel, all food etc - like everyone else I guess. I am grateful for what I have.

Husband can’t find work, I can’t work.
I’m frustrated as I never wanted my life to be like this, I’m articulate, intelligent, emotionally bright, can think critically.
I did very well at school then sixth form and then it all fell apart. I’ve attempted to do a degree three times but can’t different health issues set in at different times, I’ve attempted to start my own business three times also but again, my health has failed me. Physically and mentally.

I’m in about 10 grand debt, can’t drive and will probably never own a home, zero savings. I shouldn’t moan, I know a lot of people will think I’ve got it pretty good even getting that while not working, but it’s not the case. My self esteem is destroyed, I have no meaning in my life, except my child.

I’m now attempting another business venture with a friend, isn’t costing anything and it’s the most realistic way out of this with my particular health issues, as I can’t be reliable for an employer.

It’s hard, but then again lots of people will sleep outside tonight and have to beg people for pennies so I’m grateful for what we do have.

I dont work but between my daughters DLA, my carers allowance and CMS we live off around 2.1k

Wow. We are very comfortable but I feel like a pauper in comparison to some of you!

I'm a SAHM, husband takes home about £2500 a month after tax. After bills and mortgage are paid, we have about £1000 a month to play with.

@workreturner I'm a part-time wheelchair user with fibromyalgia, PTSD and hypermobility. HTH.

Not that I should have had to say that... it's bloody impossible for disabled people to get any benefits these days so if it was good enough for the ATOS assessor, it should be good enough for you.

@cupboardwithashelf

It was not a loaded question.

I am a single working mother with health issues. I was curious how you managed to get PIP and gold down paid employment, self employment, two children and a on your own. And receive PIP as I’d told the requirements were that you needed everyday help to get.

That’s all. No judgement. No criticism. Just asking.