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.

I would love that household income. We all buy too much anyway.

@Cricri80

I dunno...I pay my nanny that. I guess she makes ends meet...

If you feel comfortable on that income that’s fine isn’t it. Are you asking because your husband wants you to work full time instead of part time?
Otherwise I’m not sure why you are asking the question as for some this would be a great income for others not so much. It’s all relative to lifestyle and expenditure. Some people go camping for their holiday whilst others want a 5 star hotel, some buy clothes in Primark and others in Independent boutiques etc etc.
I have no mortgage or children at home and our income is more but I don’t feel “wealthy” but again it’s all relevant as to who I’m comparing my life and income against.

I hear you OP. We’re on a combined salary of 45k, I don’t feel like I have to scrimp & save.

Housing is £950 a month
Bills, car blah blah blah...

To many take aways, plenty of days out with the kids, small emergency fund (case the fridge goes bang type of thing.)

We never have to borrow money. Some people are greeeeeeedyyyy.

‘Ugh! I couldn’t possibly sleep at night without knowing I had at least 10k for a rainy day’

These posts are never helpful. Not only does it depend on whether you own a house outright, pay a mortgage or rent, it also depends on your starting point. Did you inherit money, get a handout it several from parents, been helped out with furniture, transport, childcare etc. It's never comparing apples with apples so it's pointless to ask.

We earn £5k less than this and manage well but small mortgage, no kids and northern.
We don’t have expensive clothes, cars, gadgets but could afford to save and buy if that was what we wanted.

But we afford to go on holiday and eat out, travel, go to gigs and do what we enjoy etc and have a good quality of life for that. We both safe and have pensions too.

@Cricri80

I dunno...I pay my nanny that. I guess she makes ends meet...

Yes, I pay my dog walker that.

Sometimes I feel a little guilty at giving her such a paltry amount but then I recall that she only takes my dog out for an hour each day excluding weekends, so I try to batten down the guilt.

I do pay my charlady much more obviously but even so, it is difficult for her to manage on £130,000 in London. I give her old clothes and out of date tins to pack it out a little.

I'd love to get a nanny for £60,000! I would be a bit worried about being named and shamed on Social Media though: how have you avoided that pitfall?

In my area (midlands) I would be very comfortable on that. When I was still in a relationship we had an income of £55k between us and had loads leftover.

Now I’m on significantly less alone and just get by.

Well if you split it 50:50 then possibly outside london and the south east. Otherwise at 60k and a non working parent you loose your child benefit and you only get one personal allowance so it it much better to have two parents earning 30k than one earning 60K.

OP if you feel you have enough money to live on and some left over that is great. I have scanned through posts and it is obvious those with young children under school age often have high nursery costs. I recall when my children were small and money never stretched far enough. I would wish we could afford nicer clothes and treats and holidays. As your children go to school and you no longer have such high child care costs you can afford more. Now children grown up and one foster child of 14 we can afford so much more but perversely we want less and less and are perfectly content. I retired at 55 and we just end up saving more and treating adult children and grandchildren to things. We have a holiday home close to beach in France. I just wish we'd had it when our children were small.

It would be fine in the North that’s for sure!

@FilthyforFirth

Depends so much on your outgoings surely. We have a combined salary of £85kish but in the south east with a big mortgage on a 4 bed detached, 1 child in nursery and another on the way, I certainly dont feel rich. After savings and paying into pension we have around £800 a month between us which has to also pay for petrol. That pretty much gets used each month so whilst I dont feel uncomfortable I would certainly struggle on £60k.

“After savings...”

You see, this is why these threads are so ridiculous.

“After the money that I arbitrarily keep and place into another bucket of my own cash, I don’t feel rich.” Poor you.

You still have that money! It’s your money! (And a pension is just another form of savings.)

Also, please don’t give me this “London” bullshit. Housing costs in London are generally more expensive but that doesn’t mean a) everything else is or b) that London and the SE are not places of huge contrast where you can choose to live in areas more suitable to your income.

But you don't actually earn £60k? You would if you were full time but you're not?

So actually you are comfortable on less that 60k?

I get that people are comfortable on 60k - we would be. But why say that when that's not what you are actually earning?

@JalapenoDave what's below utter scum? Whatever it is I'm pretty sure my Income falls into that category!

Oh and my rent is 75% of my salary

Our income is around that figure, and I only work 15 hours a week so don’t bring in much myself; it’s mostly DH’s salary.

It’s more than enough for us. We own a 5 bed detached house, horses, have recently bought our own land. Offered a place at private school but turned it down for reasons that were not financial. We can afford it.

Mortgage is around £1k.

Other bills (excluding food) £600.

We don’t scrimp of food. We have weekly Ocado deliveries.

We run two cars - both big diesels.

Plenty leftover to save/spend.

It’s all relative though isn’t it? Some people like to spend a lot on certain things.

As someone earning about just over 12K that seems very comfortable to me!

Even with added tax credits etc I'm bringing in about 24K in total. I manage on this amount so anything over and above it is very comfortable.

Given that the average gross household income in the UK is about £40k it is considerably higher than most households.

You will find the population of mumsnet highly skewed towards more affluent households.

Threads like this are ridiculous and are nothing more than someone wanting reassurance that their salary is acceptable to a MN audience.

£60k is great is you are both in your 20s and are just looking for money for drinking and new outfits.

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.

It's all hugely relative. I used to be extremely poor. I got into a bad situation and ended up homeless for a while. Really long story that I won't go into, but I know what it's like to not be able to buy food when you're hungry, and not have a warm bed to get into on a cold night. It's fucking horrible.

Fast forward ten years and my life is totally different. I managed to get out of that situation and back into education. I met my now DH, got an OK job, had DC etc. We aren't wealthy by most people's standards, but we have enough money that we have some choices about where we live. We can always afford food, and if we can't be bothered cooking we can afford to go to a restaurant or order a take out without really thinking about the cost. We can go on holiday, but we do have to save up for that and price is a big factor in where we go and what we do.

I feel as rich as royalty. I honestly do. To know that I can pay my bills, and still have money left over for a life with some choices, makes me feel wealthy. I own a car. I am currently saving to buy a house. If you had told me this would happen 10 years ago I would have laughed in your face. It seemed to be an impossible dream.

Most people I know these days have money. I think a lot of them have more money than us - a lot of them seem to own a home, some of them own outright. Some of them probably think we are quite poor, but I will never see it that way. As I say, it is all hugely relative.

You will find the population of mumsnet highly skewed towards more affluent households.

I keep reading comments like this. Imo you will find contributors to these types of threads skewed towards more affluent households. But there are countless threads about budgeting, how to live on less, hundreds of contributors to threads about benefit entitlements, food banks and living in poverty. It was only from reading MN (as someone not from the UK) that I became aware of how much poverty is in the UK.

“After the money that I arbitrarily keep and place into another bucket of my own cash, I don’t feel rich.” Poor you.

Exactly this! That's the reality of it.

OP, I agree with your definition of comfortable. Exact amounts will differ from family to family depending on a few variables like location, but essentially if you can happily cover all your basic needs, have a pot for emergencies plus enjoy a few modest luxuries - yeah, that's comfortable.

Beyond that is more than just comfortable. If you make choices to stretch yourself to the max to pay for more luxuries - that is absolutely fine, but you must remember that they are CHOICES. If push came to shove and you really needed to, you could choose to downsize your lifestyle.

Which is quite different for someone who is not comfortable, is struggling to afford essentials, and has already pared back every expense as much as possible to stretch their money.

Am on page 3 , but going to comment before RTFT. £60k is a good amount, and it sounds like you are comfortable on that.

You may not be able to splurge on luxury items, but equally you sound like you can cover costs in emergencies (boiler breaking etc). THAT is my definition of being comfortable.

There will be some people here who would lave to have that salary and who are struggling to cover basic necessities. And there will be others who earn way over that and would consider that amount a let down for their annual bonus.

If you are living comfortably on that amount, and you have good family time together (rather than one of you earning loads but absent from family life), then I think you are pretty rich on the scale of life.

I am so amazed and impressed at how far everyones money goes. Baffled at my own inability to save and spend wisely.
DH and I earn £5200 a month after tax. Our mortgage is £650. No childcare costs. Two cars. On paid outright. Other on finance. Monthly repayments of approx £800. But struggle to save money. We live in the north. We have no commute as wfh. We do like to travel but obviously we have not due to the virus. I have saved a bit more since the virus but i have stupid online shopping habits. I wish i could go on some money saving programme because i really dont know where all the money goes.