To think £30K is a decent salary?

[priceisright]

DH earns that. He is under 30 years old. I earned that before but now earn far less due to wanting to be there for my son all the time, and taking a considerably big pay cut when going PT in a less skilled role.

Between us we have about £45K a year. I feel well off... We go abroad twice a year, can buy luxuries, no worries about bills or food, save a small bit. I feel very privileged.

If I worked full time, we'd earn around £55-60k between us. That seems like loads to me! I feel as if my life is already very comfortable so to earn that would be even better.

AIBU to think 30k is a decent salary? And £55-60K combined salary is fantastic?

I do wonder what people spend their money on. I say that as someone who wastes a lot of money buying baby clothes and eating crap on rubbish.

We live in the South East. Currently saving for a mortgage, but rent is £900 per calendar month if that helps.

If you are renting you haven't experienced the ongoing up keep of running a house you own which can be astronomical.

I think it just goes to show how middle class mumsnet is! People on 90000 shared income saying they struggle with outgoings etc. 🙄Well they clearly have a big house which they will benefit from in the future when their mortgage has been paid off.

Where in the South East do you all live that you are ‘very’ comfortable on a combined income of £42k or so? I’m genuinely curious.

In our area a four bed ‘family’ house with a normal (not enormous) garden starts at £900k. We’re not just in some pocket, that extends to all surrounding towns that are in ok areas with ok schools nearby...

Ruby houses in many areas, can just be expensive, without being big!

Four Bedfordshire. A 2 bed is around £900 per calendar month. A 3 bed is around £1k.

It does depend on the area. The OP says SE, which is a high cost area. I would put an income of £45k in the just getting by category.

Life is affordable but you have no long or short term financial resilience. You are renting, have no or low savings and no pension provision. Home ownership is out of reach as even a 5xincome wouldn’t buy a two bed terrace or even a flat. A short period of unemployment would push you into debt. This would take time to recover from. career sacrifice reduces your overall resilience as you can only take PT or low skilled jobs.

This is an affordable option if you have a big safety blanket in the shape of well off parents who can pay a deposit and write off debt. Or you are lucky and don’t mind struggling in old age.

May I ask how old are you maddiemookins?

I’m talking £900,000 to buy. Rent on an equivalent house of the size would be £3-4,000 pcm.

What are the house prices and mortgage costs you are looking at.

Lemon How ownership isn't out of reach. We do have savings, and we both pay into a pension. A short period of unemployment (2 months for example), would be manageable too, and wouldn't put us into debt. But we'd have to cut back on all unnecessary spending

I've just tried to think how much we put into our house every year.

We've been here 7 years and we're probably talking >5k every year into our house.

That excludes mortgage btw

It is...if you are not living in London.

I'm in Liverpool, anything over £22k is a good wage, but you can live ok on less

That's just not true. As everyone is saying it depends on lifestyle and outgoings. I'm also in Liverpool. I was earning more than £22k 25 years ago! I would absolutely struggle on that now. Depends what you call 'live ok' I guess.

I live not just in the southeast but in London and earn less than 20k, wtih 2 kids, and I feel like its fine! not rich of course, but perfectly alright. who are all you people who say you 'could not manage' on 30k or even 60k?!

I (alone) earn more than your 'fantastic' salary and I'm still concerned about managing money when I finally have a baby.

My DP has three children to support so I know 99% of the costs of our child will be bared by me. That's so much pressure but hopefully things will improve in the future.

I have a mortgage as I have a 4 bedroom house but it isn't huge (less than your rent each month). I think it depends on your lifestyle. Travelling for me is so important and I go abroad monthly so I guess that will be where I may have to cut when we have a baby.

If it works for your and your family then continue doing what you're doing.

These threads are impossible to answer really as what one person thinks is essential another thinks is just a choice.

As to what do higher earners spend their money on - in my case I pay about £50k a year to keep the twins at university without student loans - that is £9250 fees, about £6k rent, then £150 each twin per week 52 weeks a year etc.

When we had our first child we spent 50% of each of our net full time salaries on full time childcar. That got easier as I am a lawyer and my pay increased as I got older., Also over the years we keep expenses low and repaid capital on the mortgage when we did not have to which helped longer term as you then end up mortgage and rent free.

So our biggest costs have usually bee childcare (and I was then paying 5 sets of day school fees for my 5 children at one point which is not cheap) and at its worst the mortgage was £90k a year interest only (outer London).

Other costs like food and heating are not really big enogh to factor in nor holidays compared with the big ones of either losing a full time salary or paying for full time childcare and rents - £900 a month is cheap for the SE. My sons' tenants pay £1050 outside the M25. In inner london rents for flats can be £2000 a month or even £3000 a month.

Definitely just dependent on outgoings. I know I couldn’t live on 30k

if you worked FT rather than PT, that would be an additional £10k to save towards a deposit (after tax, NI - don't know if your have student loan to pay off) - or would that involve childcare costs, negating the cost of working more?
You say you're in a less senior role - it may be worth looking for other roles more commesurate to what you were doing before - or is the trade off a less stressful role while you're looking after your child? Depends what work you do, but settlling for a less senior role now my set your career back when you resume full time working. I do think that many organisations are more open to part time and flexible working than they were a few years ago though.

I enjoy working part time, but my mortgage is paid off; at 30 I worked mad hours, mainly to pay the mortgage.

Public sector £32,000 and DH a bit less as a lorry driver. I pay around £250 a month into the work pension ( automatic, no choice unless I pull out of it) To me, this is a lot of money but we live in a verily affluent area and our mortgage ( for a lovely but titchy place) is high at the moment.

I would like to earn more but unlikely as someone else put on here, top of public sector, masses of redundancies in the last few years, everyone doing more than they were before to cover all the cuts and no pay rises full stop.

I guess I would feel wealthier if I lived elsewhere but love where we live.

metoothree what’s your housing situation though?

PS got two teenagers - getting expensive.

Do you own your own home metoothree so have all the expense of upkeep, replacing furniture & white goods, new boilers etc. Do you pay into a private pension, life insurance, critical illness insurance, income protection, building and contents? Do you run a car? Do you pay for childcare? Socially are you able to go out to nice restaurants and bars, go away for the weekend with friends, take your kids to see a show, take your kids on days out and holidays? Peoples outgoings are different. I honestly have no idea how you feel comfortable in London on 20k. I imagine it would be an everyday struggle

All dependent on your financial commitments. £30k is a decent salary if it allows you to cover your outgoings and live happily. It's relative: not absolute.

Fr that would involve much higher childcare costs. And if I worked full time, I may as well take on a more senior position. The whole reason I went PT was to be there for DS more/see him more.

DS is my only child and he will always remain that way. We lost our DD last year and due to complications I won't be able to have any more children. So squeezing every ounce of DS's childhood is important to me. I wouldn't see half as much as I do now if I worked full time. Plus my job role is tiring and would be hard to switch off at home (I use to answer emails etc in the evenings before, as it made life easier the following day)

Dh is on about £33k and I earn about £8k working part time and we consider ourselves quite privileged. Mainly because we never have to worry about how we are going to pay our bills or feed our children. We don't go on many holidays and we can't have loads of luxuries but we can always afford the necessities. Tbf our mortgage is low (£500ish pm) and we don't pay for childcare as we work around each other so one of us is always with the kids.