To think a combined salary of 60k is really comfortable?

[BathedInLavender]

OUTSIDE of London. But still in the South East. This isn't a conversation about London because that obviously won't go very far there full stop.

AIBU to think a combined salary of 60k is actually comfortable and not 'meh' at all.

DH earns 30k, I earn the same but I'm part time so it's less because of pro rata. We aren't struggling by any means. If I returned to FT we would have a lot more spare cash, and we have a fair bit now. We don't have cheap housing costs, £900per month just on that.

I spend a lot of money on ridiculous crap and we holiday every year with DC.

It's not bad money if you're not paying out for an excessive mortgage or rental costs, I'd say.

Really figures are a bit irrelevant it’s the percentages spent on expenses both necessary and luxury that count, then we go down the road of what is classed as a necessity and people have varying ideas. I know we are very comfortable indeed, until I stopped working we were in top 5% household income.

Your explanation of what you can buy without thought is to me what comfortable is on an ok level and many people would like that feeling.

god I'd love to be on that income. We're constantly broke and struggle to pay basic bills. We can only afford camping trips once a year, no other holidays. Own our own home outright which helps a lot, but 60k per year would be amazing.

We are struggling on similar money after tax. We can just about make ends meet, but a foreign holiday is not within our means at the moment.

I think your expenses tend to expand to fit your income. Also, what you consider comfortable really varies widely - DH and I both aim to save enough/put into pensions enough that we would retire on a similar income to what we have now. We also live in an area with insane childcare costs (3k/month) and pay around 2500 on our mortgage. I put 25% into pensions monthly, DH puts about 15%. We save around 1500-2k/month on top of this. We both earn low 6 figures, have 100k in savings, 60% equity in our house. Own a car outright. We would normally go abroad for at least 2-3 weeks a year and expect to spend 2-4K on each trip depending if it was to US/Asia or Europe and I ski a lot. I think we’re comfortable but I do also still worry we’re not saving enough, about uni tuition for DD etc. All our parents were high earners but also all still weighed financial decisions carefully as we were growing up and saved a huge amount. I’m aware our income and assets put us into the very high earner category. I’m not sure the money worry ever really goes away, especially if you were brought up with family emphasizing how important it is to save and live within your means.

To me, comfortable would mean I didn’t really worry about money at all anymore, but I’m not sure I’ll ever stop having the angel on my shoulder telling me to save!

@Cricri80 the funny thing is that IS what our nanny earns. We share her with another family but that is just what childcare costs here. It’s madness! There are no nursery places and the going rate for a nanny for two kids is £24/hour. And when I say no places, I mean we’ve been on wait lists since I was 3 months pregnant and DD is 2...

You said:
Let me articulate why I think we're comfortable... If the boiler brakes down, we'd have emergency funds to pay for it. DS can do activities without me questioning costs of it all. I can do my food shop and not question the expense. I can pop in to little shops I like and buy a few bits. School uniform buying isn't a scare. If DS was of school age and said I needed to bring in cakes, I can whip to the shops and pick whatever I think will suit. If I needed to do a coffee morning contribution, I could grab it all at M&S. If school shoes needed replacing, I'd just replace. If I fancied lunch out, I'd just go etc

This doesn’t feel comfortable to me. You say you spend a fortune on DC: I have bought 90% of DDs clothes new just because it’s easier than sorting through gifted clothes. We are remortgaging our house because rates are so good (not in UK), I did the research and told DH it would cost £12k in the short term to save tens of thousands in the long term and he said great. If our car needed a £1000 repair I would be annoyed if it was my fault but would pay it without thinking about the costs. If DH and I both lost our jobs, we could continue living in the same manner for 2 years. I paid my cleaner throughout the 3 month lockdown here because I felt like it was the right thing to do and didn’t think twice about. I wouldn’t think twice about spending £100 on a pair of shoes several times a year.

Some people wouldn’t think twice about spending £500 on a pair of shoes, some people wouldn’t think twice but probably should. It’s all relative. I think being happy and FEELING comfortable is WAY more important than whether you are “classed” as comfortable.

OP, I think you sound like you have a lovely lifestyle and I am very happy for you. On mumsnet you must earn 100000k +, buy the biggest house you can and save the rest of the money by stretching one roast chicken into 5 meals . We are on £80000, bought our house at a good time and shifted working around to cover most childcare. We are happy and spend a massive chunk of our wages going to Disneyworld every year (shock horror!). You do you, OP. You sound a lot more content with life than the majority of ‘higher earners’ on here!

@tempnamechange98765 I agree it seems a very high take home for that income.
A few years ago DH and I both had incomes of about 30k each a year and our combined take home pay was only about £3500. We were both paying about 6% for pensions and student loans.

If you are both in your 50s and have ambitions to own two homes in the UK, one abroad and retire early then you are screwed.

Well not necessarily. How well off you are depends on income and assets, not just income. You may be 50 and have a load in investments/ savings and be coasting to retirement.

@Greedypeopleithink have you heard of MONZO? If you get a MONZO account and put your spending money in it every month it catergorises everything you spend. You can get a pie chart on exactly where your money goes every month. It's really good

It's decent. It depends a bit on the distribution of the income, my ex earned most the money so on a £72k combined salary we got no child benefit and he paid a shed load of tax, I barely reached the tax threshold. We had significantly less than a couple earning £36k each.

That's our roughly income at the moment. It's about 65k I think. I just went freelance in Feb and only have one project on due to covid and probably being newer in the game. I could definitely earn more if I worked more and do spend a decent amount of time looking for more paid work. We don't have children and have a mortgage cost of £550 a month. This is for a terrace in the North East. So I think for us it's really comfortable.

I'm pro rata at the moment so yes, it is more like 45k take home....

Our big expenses are the house (1k a month, slight overpayment), and childcare (15 free hours, then a top up of £150 a month). This will reduce when DS gets 30 free hours in January. But we have to put aside money for childcare because his funding is term time only).

I can't really think of any huge bills. Gas and electric? Water bill? Life insurance? Netflix? Phone bills are £15 each. Swimming lessons £80. Gym membership £50 combined

Oh yes, the car. That's £350 a month with insurance included. I don't like to own my car outright, I like a new one at the end of my agreement

How have you got 15 free hours now and then expecting 30 hours in January? Are you actually talking about a change in circumstances which will make you eligible for 30 instead of 15?

This depends so much on your situation and how good you are with money. Many people are not and earning more simply just means more outgoings.

We live in the south and are on just over 60k joint and for us it is plenty (not that we wouldn't enjoy more, who wouldn't?). We can save 1k each month if we wanted to and I don't have to worry about the cost of the food shop, we buy what we want, we have a cleaner etc.
BUT we do not have children which is the biggest factor and we do not have debt outside the mortgage. Our cars are owned outright too, not on finance. If one of us lost our jobs we could manage (I had to do the calculations as we have had some redudancy scares due to covid).

This is all relative and everyone has different situation. For some 30k is comfortable, for others its 60k and then for some 100k is not enough.

We earn roughly the same after Tax/NI and pensions. I think we are fairly comfortable compared to where we were when the dc's were little.

But, we are in the first home we ever got a mortgage for. I have seen many people 'upgrade' so to speak, and this has left them more cash poor than we are. Mortgage is roughly £400, no childcare costs as such as Dc's are 15 and 20. Generally do 2 weeks abroad each year, and we eat out fairly often.

Both of us WFH, I don't drive. DP does have a fancy-ish car. I don't worry if teen DS needs new clothes, or if I have the money to do a food shop for DD20 at uni.

Dp on the other hand, I think he thinks we are on the breadline at times! For example. The car is due MOT net week. He keeps fretting. He has money left from his wages this month to more than cover, if not we also have savings. He will also say things like ''I fancy an indian takeaway tonight. Can we afford one?'.....really boggles my mind at times.

But, times were tougher with small dcs. We earned jointly less than half the joint 60k we now have. And god knows how we scraped by some months with childcare fee's etc. When dc's were little, we could never afford to take them abroad and I counted every penny as to try and get us to the end of the month.

Yes it’s a lot. We are in SE and would be comforting on that. But we are not extravagant spenders. I know people who wouldn’t last 2 minutes on that income.

@BathedInLavender

I'm pro rata at the moment so yes, it is more like 45k take home....

Our big expenses are the house (1k a month, slight overpayment), and childcare (15 free hours, then a top up of £150 a month). This will reduce when DS gets 30 free hours in January. But we have to put aside money for childcare because his funding is term time only).

I can't really think of any huge bills. Gas and electric? Water bill? Life insurance? Netflix? Phone bills are £15 each. Swimming lessons £80. Gym membership £50 combined

Do you have any savings?

We earn over £100k between us, live in the North, but don’t feel particularly wealthy, I’d say more comfortable. As PP have mentioned, it depends on your outgoings/expenditure.

Totally depends on your outgoings/expectations.
I live alone so obviously my outgoings are going to be less. I inherited a house so no housing costs. My income is 15,000 a year. I feel rich. I don't have a car or go on holiday but I have no desire to. I'm very happy and grateful for my lot.
That sounds like far more of a stealth boast than anything else in the thread. But I didn't intend it to be. I feel incredibly privileged.

@Teateaandmoretea

If you are both in your 50s and have ambitions to own two homes in the UK, one abroad and retire early then you are screwed.

Well not necessarily. How well off you are depends on income and assets, not just income. You may be 50 and have a load in investments/ savings and be coasting to retirement.

OP didn't mention any so I didn't think it would be helpful to assume she had any.

If you're happy then that's all that matters op
I don't think we would be comfortable on 60k, with our lifestyle and the mortgage we pay. Would have to stop eating out so much and buying wine.

I find these threads hilarious as we have a joint income of 27k, live in the south east, and i would describe us as "comfortable" as in we never struggle to pay bills, we have holidays and days out etc. You just alter your spending to your means.
The more you earn the higher your outgoings- bigger house so bigger mortgage/council tax/bills, the more expensive the holidays (4* hotels instead of self catering etc. But still same destination!). Wage comparisons are silly imo. Just live within your means, whatever they may be, and you will be happy and comfortable

It’s all so relative to location and outgoings. We’re ex London now living in the South East and our joint salaries are exactly double yours. I make a lot less than DH (£30k) - compared to my old colleagues who’ve focused on their careers which I didn’t my salary is (comparative to theirs) not in the same league. Our longstanding friend couples (most of whom now live outside of London like us) do earn more than us as a household. We should all feel very financially comfortable in theory and definitely some are who’ve made much better property decisions than us or not been involved in divorces. Your housing cost does seem really really low to me for the South East - £900 wouldn’t get you more than a small flat rental/mortgage where I live in Kent. I’d describe our lifestyle as comfortable but definitely not excessive. Our house is nice (and our biggest expense on a lot more than £900) but in this area definitely not ‘wow’ by any means and compared to friends properties, smaller and with a lot more needing doing to it than we can quite often afford.

In comparison, my sister (a teacher) and BIL (painter & decorator) living in Herefordshire earn about a quarter of what we do, paid their mortgage off ages ago, did up/re built their really gorgeous old barn house themselves & all 4 of their kids have left home. Disposable income wise to do what they want, they’re better off. It’s all down to making smart decisions, hard work & living somewhere that doesn’t cost the earth to get a toe-hold.