@elliejjtiny I agree with you, though I might call it comfortable and add on being able to run a car and if your boiler breaks you can get it replaced
It has been said many times on thread that average salary is 29K going up to 35K if you only count full time work,, the vast majority of people 82% in fact live on less than 50K, those at bottom end certainly have a struggle but 82% of are not living in poverty or anything like it; the vast majority of people on 50K have adequate housing enough food, fuel etc most people on this can also afford 1 holiday,r and most run a car and dine out occasionally and buy kids clothes and presents we do all this on much less but you can't get people to believe that you can have a really nice life on less than 50K
@beautga you are rich, you are way more than comfortable to say you are not rich when in the top 1% is disingenuous to say the least,
Wealth income can be measured objectively and be put into centiles, the guardian says that 130K is the top 1% and is the super rich, according to them rich (top 10%) starts at about 85K and comfortable at 65K(top 25%), the squeezed middle is 30-65K, 20-30K is just about managing, 12-20K struggling; below 12k poverty
Anyone who can afford to educate their children privately is rich, even the cheapest school is about 10,000 a year which comes out of taxed income, while some people might sacrifice other things for the education like holidays, a bigger house the vast majority could not do this however economical there other choices were, to have a spare 10K a year around after paying for essentials is rich, OK once you have paid for th education you might not have much spare on top but if you feel poor or just managing on 80K+ it is because of lifestyle choices not because 80K is not enough for a nice life as even in London that is double what the average Londoner earns
before I married I was in the guardian rich category and I felt rich on 80K I could dine out in nice restaurants every week, go on holiday 3-4 times a year, my mortgage was paid off I had a nice car, I could be generous to my parents, siblings, charities and the church. I never had designer tastes so never spent more than £80-90 on a bag, but I had nice clothes Hobbs etc,
now I have down sized career ( though will have good pension which I can take at 60) and we manage easily on less than half that, and still have a nice life
Last year the three of us went to Italy (near venice ) for a week on a budget of less than £1200 for the three of us; staying in a nice apartment on mainland hiring a car, cheap flights and dining out, we run 2 cars albeit older ones that DH can fix, DD goes to tennis, swimming and youth club, we can't afford private education or to go on long haul holidays but we can afford to fix boiler, shop for some things at Waitrose, we don't worry about bills or heating, we don't buy designer clothes neither do we need to buy in Primark, of course we can't dine out as often or as high end as I did but it's not the chippy or McDonalds either, we do have savings for larger emergencies like needing a new car but all the normal yearly costs ( including holidays, insurance celebrations, presents etc ) of living are easily met out of an average income; On some things we are lucky I took out a 25 year mortgage age 23 which is paid off, we don't live in London, but also we are fairly astute with money and have neither wasted it on smoking, alcohol, betting, designer gear or replacing things just for the sake of it