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.

£60k before or after tax? And if you’re £30k pro rata but only working part time, then it’s not £60k. Or am I missing the point?

It’s funny, I don’t know if we just adapt to our current situations, but I’ve lived on a lot less than that and felt like I had a decent enough lifestyle and felt comfortable.

I’m now in the fortunate position that we earn quite a bit more than that, but I don’t feel any better off really as our outgoings are higher and jobs less secure. I’m certainly no happier. Depends how you define comfortable and what you want from your lifestyle.

Before or after tax? My partner and I make around 65000 before tax,pension,student loans etc jts significantly less then when that all comes out

We're in the north, live on under £30k between us and are very comfortable with two or three cheap holidays a year. To me, 60k puts you at high earners but I appreciate that the north/south divide may have skewked my view on this a bit..

I think you can live comfortably, but it’s probably not a ‘wow’ lifestyle. Where I am (expensive part of NW) a family home is about £400k at a minimum so even assuming you had large amount of equity per month I can see how you’d need a lot coming in:

Mortgage: £1500
Bills: £350
Clothes: £50
Car / petrol: £200
Transport: £200
Food: £400
Childcare (wraparound for 2 kids, not full time nursery): £600
After school activities: £200?
Holidays: £300
Xmas savings / birthday: £50
Household savings e.g. boiler breaking: £50

That gets £4K per month without any long term savings or ad hoc expenditure / disposable income.

It depends on your housing costs. We were comfortable on that but the mortgage was 1/5 of our take home. One car, because DH works from home. No childcare costs.

I say were as I'm now part time, we remortgaged to pay off a help to buy loan, and we have nursery fees. But I still don't feel that squeezed!

Our mortgage is high (1k) compared to my DMum who bought with my Step dad in 2010 and pay 500 a month on a similar sized property, similar area

We run one new car, H is learning to drive so lessons too

It sounds plenty to me. We have just dh's wage, I'm a sahm (another thing mn doesn't always like!!) And we have 50k as our family income. We are north west though, so cheap housing costs. We are careful with our money though and have a lot in savings!

It depends on outgoings surely. We live in the south east and earn about £88000 but our outgoings are reasonably high so whilst we are not struggling I certainly wouldn’t say we were well off.

Sorry I didn't clarify properly, it's before tax

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

If you keep up that nonsense on the money you and you're husband are making, you are going to find yourself in serious trouble, especially should one of you lose your job or become unable to work. 60k is nothing to feel very secure about, imo.

Twice that wouldn't be comfortable. It definitely depends where you live. My rent is 2K alone, childcare is more than that, so that's nearly 5K outgoing, before bills.

*your husband

If your housing costs are £900, are your bills really another £1100? (You say £2k on house and childcare).

I think mine is roughly:
£250 council tax
£50 life ins
£100 G&E
£25 water
£40 house & contents
£400 food
£50 internet & TV
£300 nursery (two afternoons a week)

Which is just over £1200.

We have £1000 housing costs and have about another £300 odd quid on outgoings - swimming lessons, pet insurance. So closer to £2500 total.

DH and I earn 60k but take home is £3600 so we are left with £1100 a month. We are indeed comfortable but I wouldn’t say “really” comfortable. The maths definitely adds up differently to your “£1800 left”.

I think £900 a month is pretty cheap for housing costs in the south east tbh OP..

We were more comfortable on £50k combined in the NE than we are on £70k combined in the SE, primarily due to childcare and mortgage costs.

Where I am (expensive part of NW) a family home is about £400k at a minimum

Do you mean the NW postcode or the north west. If the later there is no broad area of the north west where a family home is 400k minimum

It's more than average. Remember that everyone on mumsnet earns at least 100k so may be biased.

If your housing costs are £900, are your bills really another £1100? (You say £2k on house and childcare).

Those aren't my housing costs, I said I was giving a guide to the average rental of a 3 bed semi in this area I think? Which is around that

My mortgage is 1k

Our entire society and economy is based on encouraging people to spend as much money as possible. And it does a very good job of it. So while I think 60k is plenty to live a good life, most people are subconsciously (and consciously!) pushed into spending lots of money on things they don't need, which makes them feel like 60k is not enough.

I’m on that as a single mother of two
We get by

Depends what you want to do. If you want to spend £5k on a 2 week all inclusive holiday every year then no, it's not enough. If you want to go camping in Scotland then you can indeed do what you want.

Number of dc has an impact, childcare obviously increases with additional dc, bigger cars etc. £2k on housing and childcare would be almost impossible if you had 2 preschoolers and both worked regular office hours.

trilby We do all inclusive abroad for a week, then a little trip to Spain with just me and DC for half a week. Plus one or two long weeks in Ireland (just flights and a bit of spends though).

I have just the 1 DC.

Thinking more....

Round here we looked at nursery for two but it was £1,000 EACH a month so we went with a CM. We had decent equity so our large 3 bedroom is £1,500 a month but with less it could easily have been £1,800 plus. I think therefore it’s the childcare and mortgage which can be astronomical even we’ll outside London (it’s just over an hour on the train here).

Those aren't my housing costs, I said I was giving a guide to the average rental of a 3 bed semi in this area I think? Which is around that
Oh ok, well I think £1k for bills is a little optimistic. I’d assume £1500 as a better guide.

@Tigger03 are your bills really only £350? With a £400k+ house? My house was £320k and my council tax alone is £250 a month!

Depends. We couldn’t live where we want to or have the set up we want to on that combined. But we have high childcare costs, high mortgage etc - if we had bought 10 years earlier, had loads of equity etc it might be alright.

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