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.

A few years ago I got made redundant and had to take a job paying £36 k and we struggled on that but we live in London. I suspect if we lived out of London we would have been fine.

Just pointing out re my comment upthread re cheapest apartment could get in Italy in August was £800 per week and people said why don't you get an Air B and B. That WAS an air B and B! If you can get me an all inclusive week in a hotel abroad in school holidays for 4 people for £800 please let me know where it and I would be very grateful

I don't understand when people earn substantially more than we do, but say they can't afford holidays and other luxuries. My dh earns £30k, I work minimal part time hours which only equates to about £5k a year, we have 2 young children (paying for pt childcare for eldest until this year) and still managed to go away twice in UK and 3 abroad holidays this year, while affording to live comfortably. I don't feel we're rich, but we don't go without, we fully support ourselves, and always manage put a little bit of money aside each month so we can travel.
30k is a decent wage, and sounds like you have a lovely comfortable life, so enjoy it!

I’m in my 20s and on 30k (no degree either just working my way up) so I think I’m earning a pretty decent wage! We have 2 dcs and one set of childcare costs.
DH earns around 48k so combined I think we’re pretty well off but have a large mortgage, pay a lot into our pensions, childcare etc. I can certainly afford what I want (within reason) but definitely don’t have stacks of cash. New Years resolution is to save more!!

We had 2 kids in private school at one point on a joint salary of £60k We are on about £65k combined now and Ds is in state school with dd at college with an income assessed contribution of about £3kfees plus accommodation so we feel positively well off.

We live in a 3 bed detached house bought 17years ago for £90k and now worth £200k. It would be much more expensive if we were renting I know.

We earn over 10k less than the OP, can't afford foreign holidays, or any holidays really, but on the plus side as we live in a poorer part of the country with reasonable house prices we were able to buy a house.

I've noticed on mumsnet if you are earning under 100k you are a peasant in their eyes. We have a joint income of 70k in the North with a big house, 2 holidays abroad and are very comfortable.

It’s all relative, we live near London, combined income of 35k, luckily our mortgage was paid off five years ago. We are managing ok.

It’s all relative, we wouldn’t be able to survive on that but if you can that’s great!

@Jumpingforgin well it’s dependant on outgoings obviously

Typical outgoings for us (SE London) are a mortgage of £1800 for a terrace house and childcare of £1500 for four days a week PER child

So do the maths based

Clearly £30k gross wouldn’t be enough for us right now..

I don't understand when people earn substantially more than we do, but say they can't afford holidays and other luxuries

Rent on our 2bed flat is £1400 pcm, nursery for DS is £1500 pcm. So that’s all of much salary, and half of DH’s, gone already. Plus bills, expensive travel cards etc, and we really don’t have money for luxuries.

Oh ffs. What is happening with all these "is my salary very big?" "Am I middle class?" threads. Are there lots of journos out doing research at the moment, or is it just lonely drunken trolls trying to entertain themselves tonight? Seriously, we don't care if you are rich or middle class - we care if you can make us laugh or say something intelligent.

The simple answer is: it depends what your outgoings are. Salary is just a number, it's what you need to do with it to be happy that counts. 30k is big in the northeast and shit in London. If you have to work 60+ hours a week for it, then it would be a crap salary. Probably not the right question to ask, as it is far too basic to get you the answers you want.

I would say: is 30k a big salary for someone who lives in [place name] working an average of [x] hours a week, with [x] number of kids and with [£x] to pay in childcare each month a good salary.

That might get you better answers, but you are asking people's opinions on a forum, so even then it's going to get you mixed responses. You need to go on job sites and look at their stats.

No I wouldn’t say so.

To me it would feel like I was rich but I work full time in a school and only earn 11k after pension , national insurance. On the plus side I only have to pay for wrap around care for my three term time only.

The whole living in the south east is also meaningless

Family member in Bedfordshire have a mortgage of £700 on 3 bed house and earn £40k per year and seem to manage

Us in Hertfordshire, mortgage of £900 on small cottage earning £70k manage. Ours will drop temporarily to £45k for a while and we’ll still manage

FFS not this again.

People's outgoings differ massively depending on whether in the country they live. Taxes also vary massively depending on what you earn. Childcare costs can be more than £1500/month in London for one child. Mortgage repayments on a perfectly normal house on the outskirts of town can be nearly £2000 if you've recently got on the housing ladder and didn't have a big deposit.

We'd never get by on £30k, while you've got a good lifestyle on it, because our circumstances are different from yours!

I earn £35k (teacher) and DH is self employed so probably brings home about £28k. We live in a very sought after village in the South East, in an AONB. DH’s family have been here for generations, and my family have settled here. We use both for childcare so keen to remain in the village, but the bank won’t lend us enough to upgrade our mortgage and go from a flat to a house.

We’re leaning towards staying in the flat rather than moving out to a less desirable town/school catchment even when we do have a second child because we want our DC to grow up in lovely surroundings and close to family, but I guess in that respect £33k wouldn’t seem like a decent salary. Family homes here do start around £460k though, so not average.

We earn more than that, but rarely go abroad, have old furniture, buy second hand etc.
After our mortgage, our biggest expenditures are safety net costs. Pension, insurances for redundancy, critical illness, sickness, healthcare and dental. We save for DD and uni. Plus we live somewhere with no cheap Lidl type shops, so food bill is higher.

People who I know who earn significantly less, but still manage a big holiday a year etc, seem to be making no provision for the future and would be scuppered if they lost their job.
. DH was made redundant a few years ago and we were so glad we had redundancy insurance and savings.