Average incomes

[flabbergastedfinances]

Found out that the average family income is around £30,000 a year and I can not believe it. I don't know a single family on anywhere near this low, lowest is possibly 70k mark between two teachers but majority have two earners pulling in 40+ each or one higher earner on 80/90k+

How on earth is 30,000 even possible in light of minimum wage and benefits/tax credits etc? What is even more shocking is that I used the where do you fit in calculator and we are apparently in top 98% of families in the uk. No chance, absolutely no chance.

We might have a high ish mortgage (still only £1000 so not outrageous) and have slipped into bad spending habits (Uber's, eating lunch out every day, new clothes now and then) but we are hardly excessive. We can't afford to run two cars, can't afford foreign holidays, can't afford the posher shops like Boden or northface new and yet this chart tells me we have it better than nearly everyone else in the country?! What am I missing?!

We have a child in childcare a few days a week, so that and mortgage are biggest expenses but combined that's only £1500 and I see everyone else buying £300 coats, spending 1000s on holidays, children in private schools and I am utterly stumped.

How can the average family income be £30,000? Which families are surviving on that? None I know that's for sure and I just refuse to believe that's an actual reality

It depends where you live - I'm in London, zone 3 - and have to agree with the OP, I'd be out on the street if Husband & myself earned only 30k - the rent is 1350£ a month and then the rest of the money would just about cover bills and we wouldn't have a penny left for food??

I know very few people who earn over 30k!
My full time staff are on 23k which is seen as a ‘good’ salary within our industry
DD works in emergency services and is on around 20k
DS works for local authority and is on 26k
What about retail workers, carers etc unless in management nowhere near 30k!!!
MN is not representative of UK average - I wish it was

This is wind up post and it seems everyone is falling for it...

I’m on mat leave but before I finished work joint income was around £37,000 mark. When I go back part time we will be living on around £23,000 mark (from what I can work out not entitled to any tax credits ect on Child Benefits).
Most of my friends and family live on a similar wage.

Dh earned 28k and I was part time on 6k when our dc were little pre schoolers. Twins meant 3 dc in nursery which wasn't affordable so I dramatically reduced my hours. Now dc are at school I'm working full time and we now have a joint income of more than £80k. However, we are university educated with careers, many, many people have jobs rather than careers with clear paths up the ladder and earn in the 20ks or even below. It's not hard to understand. Our friends are in similar financial positions but I can look round at work and see other walks of life!

3 holidays a year on 30k in central London?

Where do you go? Camping in the garden?

I work PT in childcare and my husband is FT, we have an average income of around £29k. We've paid off our car (thankfully we had a minimal payment), have our own home in York (not cheap!) but go without many luxuries. We don't live badly but I fail to see people earning the crazy amounts! The nursery I work at is a private one and FT childcare is approx £1000 a month, which some people can pay without seeming to blink. I couldn't even have afforded to go back to work without staff discount on my son's nursery fees.
Some people are just lucky I guess.

OP only knows families on minimum £70k?

Twiglet, a pp:

"Are you a bit dim? "

So OP earns a good salary, has a high combined household income.
But she's not blessed, is she?
Not the sharpest knife in the drawer?

@flabbergastedfinances Is this the calculator you used?

www.ifs.org.uk/tools_and_resources/where_do_you_fit_in

I ask as you need to put in your net (take home) income and not gross. I was just playing about with it do for a family of 2 adults, 2 children with an income of £120k which is approx £6100 per month take home with a council tax of £250 per month, that still only puts you in the top 90%. An income of £150k puts you in the top 94%. If your mortgage and childcare are only £1500, this doesn’t add up.

Approx £33,000 for us, before deductions.

Don't feel rich but don't feel poor either - where I grew up their was a lot of poverty and it's not us.

I don't know anyone on £70k+

How on earth is 30,000 even possible in light of minimum wage and benefits/tax credits etc?

Well on £33,000 we don't get any benefits (except child benefit). Despite popular belief, benefits aren't handed out to all and sundry.

Was working at an accountancy firm last year. One of the female accountants was having a conversation with one of the partners:

"No can survive in Surrey on less than £80k"
"People in Surrey need a combined household income of £80k"

Is she a friend of yours OP?

This is a household figure (not family) and will include lots of single people who live alone and pensioners. It is also a median rather than mean average so will not be skewed upwards by the wages of high earners.

Data source www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth/bulletins/householddisposableincomeandinequality/financialyearending2019provisional

My total household income is £16,400!
Get your head around that!!

This is an old shite thread that had been bumped up.

PLEASE let it rest in peace

It was goady crap the first time around

Seriously - we earnt that much when kids were little and that was a lot more than most of our friends and family! Actually felt guilty bringing in that much when others struggled even more.

That's either an exaggeration for comic effect, or you've neglected to mention that you have no housing costs. Otherwise you'd be paying most or all of your combined £30k on rent/mortgage

We do have housing costs. Our rent is dirt cheap. Point being, that we spend income on different things. Some people pay rent or mortgage and others dont

Where do you go? Camping in the garden?

At least 1 in UK, either of our home countries in Africa and somewhere in europe.

So is the 30k figure the household income? And is that net or gross? Just wondering. Guess there's plenty of one wage households and pensioner households etc. so I could well believe it.

Some people seem to be talking about wages so I'm confused now. Surely the average FT wage is something different altogether.