To think DD isn’t earning enough to live alone in London?

[Sunnydaysp]

DD is 27 and earns £65k a year. She currently has a long commute in to London for work each day but following her recent divorce and sale of their home, she wants to move to London for a fresh start. She has no DC, so is looking at one bed flats which appear to be around £1,500-£2,000 a month in rent, not to mention all of the bills on top too. I appreciate that DD earns a very good wage for her age, however, I’m concerned that she will be stretching herself too far by attempting to live alone and paying an extortionate amount in rent rather than house sharing, which seems to be the norm for most young professionals. She seems to think she can easily afford it, but DD has never lived alone and doesn’t really seem to appreciate the cost of living, as ex husband always managed the household outgoings etc. AIBU in thinking that DD will be stretched in attempting to live alone on her salary in London with the rental amounts described?

She could get a decent one bed for around £1,200 around here (nice/safe area of zone 3/4 east London).

I'd say she can afford it, although personally I'd rather save money by sharing and save to buy. Her choice though.

I mean 1000 for the whole flat, not 1000 each.

Yabu, I agree with pp I would be annoyed if at her age my mum had interfered with this. If she decides to rent and finds it expensive she can give notice in a year. It may be a great experience for her to live independently in London.

Time to cut the apron strings. She’s 27. She’s an adult. She can do whatever she wants.

This! ^^

Of course she can afford it. She should be able to afford to rent her own place, and still have £750-1000 a month left to save (after paying bills, food, etc). You could argue that she'd be better off living in a house share and save £1750/month, but I can see why she'd like to have her own place rather than share.

For those saying “mind your own business”, DD has chosen to involve me in these discussions, therefore I am within my rights to share my view with her. She my be an adult but she is my daughter and naturally it will forever be my duty to protect her and offer my advice!

I lived alone in London on less than half of that!

She can definitely afford it on £4K a month, 100%!
Even after council tax and bills. If she can’t then she’s waaaaaay overspending somewhere!
Honestly just support her, she’s 27, I’m 25 and married with two children and a house, trust me when I say she should be more than capable of living alone!

She needs to look at other areas, East London is extremely popular.

East London is great but achingly trendy and so very very expensive. She'd be better off looking - dare I say - south of the river

When she can afford to live where she wants why on earth does she “need” to look in areas that she doesn’t want to live?

I am guessing that the fact shes been married and divorced by 27 (ie pretty young to do both these days) means she is probably craving independence. Especially if her ex managed everything - she probably just wants to experience life on her own terms and enjoy properly living in London. I'd let her get on with it. She probably wants a few years of getting to enjoy her 20s and be young if she's spent her recent years doing a long commute and being married (ie the stuff her peers will be doing in a few years time, not at 27).

She can definitely afford it! My DS recent graduate earns one third of that and rents a tiny studio in south London for less than £700pcm which is about a half of his take home pay. That is about the same proportion of accommodation costs compared to income paid by all his friends and colleagues in London. In any event it’s none of your business

Her bills aren't likely to be more than about £600 realistically given that she's a single female presumably out of the house at least 40 hours to be earning that sort of salary. Even eating out/having coffees quite often I can't imagine food for one person for a month would be more than £500.

The fact that you don't seem to think she'll be able to survive (after bills and rent) on about £2k per month is bizarre. Even with a monthly travel card and eating out regularly (which she won't be for the time being), she'll have more than enough. Also, she's TWENTY SEVEN and earns a fortune - leave her to it.

Your anxiety on her behalf will not help her independence.

Good lord she is 27 and has a high powered enough job to be earning £65k. Which is a lot.

She will have plenty left over (worry yourself more about encouraging her to put money into a pension). If she hasn’t, as an intelligent adult she will find somewhere cheaper / smaller / shared.

Having lived at home and then divorced perhaps she is desperate for some time living away from other people’s needs and fussing.

She is 27. She earns a whacking good salary. She had no kids. Leave her alone.

She should go for it. London living is cool. It's perfectly affordable on her salary.

Of course its enough. That's a very good salary to have at age 27 even for London. She can easily rent a nice flat in zone 2 for £1500 and have plenty left over (start saving a deposit for a mortgage?) If she's worried about living alone she could take a flat on a 6 month AST to see if it suits her. There are also short term rentals and serviced apartments around that she could take for a shorter time. Or there are places where there are services and communal areas, like a luxury hall of residence for adults with lots of commuity activities and opportunities to socialise (well there were before CoVid):
www.stylist.co.uk/life/co-living-space-london-reviews-prices-plan-east-co-op-luxury-apartments-collective/225330

If she has a long commute then she's probably spending a fortune on travel expenses (assuming train as most people don't drive into London).

When BIL & SIL moved into London their travel costs dropped by several hundred quid a month. Which meant their more expensive rent wasn't as expensive as it seemed.

Why not leave her to manage her own life.

If I was divorced at 27 and earned a reasonable salary I would absolutely spend a year or two living a great life in a fab part of London.

I agree a houseshare isn't a bad idea though, more sociable too.

Personally I’d do a grotty flatshare for 2 years and aim to have £40k saved to buy a one bed by the time I was 29, but it’s her life. When I was 26 I lived in a one bed in balham that cost £1500 a month rent but I had my boyfriend (now DH) to share that with. That said our joint income at that stage was about £70k so we weren’t far off where she is.... I think from memory we both had £1k left over for frivolous spends once bills were paid, which was pretty good for fun money

Well unless she’s buying 1k handbags and £800 shoes each month she should be just fine

Yes it's lots of money to "waste" on rent but she can afford & she's young & presumably wants to let her hair down? I assume she will increase her earnings too?

YABU

there are people living on the minimum wage and supporting families on that. Also, she’s presumably a very capable adult, she gets to make her own decisions without your input.

You have to let her make her own mistakes. Especially now after a divorce. Thats what rent costs in London. She can do addition and subtraction can't she?
If you over-advise her, this makes her think she cannot make a decision on anything alone. She would be overly dependent on others to tell her what to do. She would grow up looking to others for direction.
Sounds like this happened already with the ex if he was responsible for all the financial stuff. Let her take the reins and you keep you opiniond balanced in both directions and be supportive to her trying things. 65k is plenty.
If you are giving her dire warnings about life in London, those are your fears not hers. Its not really the expense is it?

Depending where she currently lives she might save £5000 a year in commuting fees! Yes, she can afford it, but I too would be inclined to rent a cheaper flat and save for a year to get a deposit.