How would you feel if the standard household was single income again?

[Omydearehert]

Not necessarily the man working. How would you feel if a single income was enough to live off of and became the standard again?

That is exactly what it was in the past and what it should be. The only reason it has gone to two times income is to make the banks richer via increased house prices and a higher cost of living via money printing which pushes up prices for everything and everyone. The person on the street doesn't benefit from this. In the past a family could have a very good quality of life on one income but that all changed in the last 30 years. It's ridiculous and only helps the rich.

It stopped being a possibility if you wanted to buy a house over 40 years ago - at the very least the 2nd partner had to work part time &most families I knew of at that time - even those in council houses with lower rent (not an aspersion or a comment against tenants etc) that I knew of looked for some part time work.
In my parents generation the standard of expectation of life style was a lot lower - no new kitchens a weeks caravan holiday (not in large caravans with bathrooms but onsite blocks & more like smaller towable type size). Mums who sewed & knitted clothes & if a sheet tore would cut it up the middle & sew edge to middle.
Saying that in the early 60's my dm did go back to work & aunts did home working to make money. So for many working class women this assumption of living on one wage in the past is inaccurate.
We always look back & assume life was better or easier & for most people this was not accurate

@lonelyapple

That is exactly what it was in the past and what it should be. The only reason it has gone to two times income is to make the banks richer via increased house prices and a higher cost of living via money printing which pushes up prices for everything and everyone. The person on the street doesn't benefit from this. In the past a family could have a very good quality of life on one income but that all changed in the last 30 years. It's ridiculous and only helps the rich.

I married 50 years ago, my husband had a job but we couldn't have lived on one income. Maybe the people you know could do that in the past but you are wrong to assume that it applies to everyone.

@lonelyapple

That is exactly what it was in the past and what it should be. The only reason it has gone to two times income is to make the banks richer via increased house prices and a higher cost of living via money printing which pushes up prices for everything and everyone. The person on the street doesn't benefit from this. In the past a family could have a very good quality of life on one income but that all changed in the last 30 years. It's ridiculous and only helps the rich.

I would agree with you but then we'd both be wrong

We'd both be able to work part time. I'd love it!

I think I'd go mad as a full time SAHM of small children. It's way more exhausting than any paid job I've had. I'd need my job to keep me sane. Plus I don't think it's a good idea for women to sacrifice their own financial independence if they can help it, because you can end up trapped. But if we both worked part time we'd have more time for the things we enjoy and be less stressed and tired.

@Bumblenums1234

Well I would hate it as it would mean either, I had to give up my career that I love. Or, dp would be at home everyday whilst I grew resentful that he was chilling out on the money I made. I would still put DS into nursery as I think socialising with other children is really important so dp would just be playing PlayStation and scratching his bollocks all day. This house will remain a two income family I think.

You've picked a great husband then haven't you.

It won't happen as everything would also increase. So day for instance everything was suddenly ok on one wage. People would still want bigger and better and also work meaning they could afford more, therefore pushing prices up, meaning more people would want more stuff so also both work.

My friend is in his late 80s and he said it used to be that a house was roughly 3 times the annual salary. Although he didn’t say so, it will have been that of a man due to the large pay gap and married women often were expected to give up work. For reference, I took that to mean teachers, skilled workers such as engineers, managers etc.

To add, I told him our house is 10 times dh’s salary.

2 times income? no way it was 2& half plus half wives income
But the only mortgage you could get was from a building society that you had a history of saving with
As pp mentioned when government opened the banks as a method of mortgage they changed the format & rules many to the disadvantage of the mortgagee - & adding in the right to buy council houses & changing the types of mortgages offered & simultaneously decreasing council property access to working families (again not anti council tenancy)

I always see "2 phones and Netflix" come up on these threads. Our phones are £10 each a month and Nexflix is £12.99. The broadband that enables these is £15 but that's essential anyway for school work. As a low income family those things are our only entertainment so it's actually very low cost.

"I think life is generally more expensive now than it used to be."

Yes, I think that there are things-phones, Wifi that were luxuries & are now necessities-perhaps the price has come down to some extent to reflect this?

2 cars for a lot of people as work is so far/public transport non existant.

My Dad used to bike to work & home for lunch!

I think that there is a lot less living & working in the same place.

But then people regularly going out for a coffee-that was a luxury when I was a kid!

So I think people now expect a certain lifestyle-whether or not they can really afford it!

But lets remember this - our interest rate was at its lowest 10% but it rose to 16/ 17% basically it meant within a few months our mortgage payment increased over 50% (Don't ask me how that worked but that was how the payment worked out)

I'm working class, Dad was a miner and I'm a SAHM, as was my Mum and my Nan.
I've never understood when people say they would prefer to work because otherwise they would be bored. Do you not have hobbies or interests? I volunteer at a toddler group, am on the town council committee, part of a gardening club etc.
Having to pay for breakfast and after school clubs and holiday clubs would eat up any wages I made.

My friend has always worked full time ( her mum was her main free childcare for years and years )
She was lucky she had her around to do it all for her , but she had a theory this is what the government wanted. Women working full time paying taxes and helping the economy etc. She also thought that it did a lot of women a disservice because it became the norm too.
She had a point I think.
Of course women want to work and have many choices, but nowadays it's not a choice and more a necessity as one wage doesn't cover everything. We need more things just to function in the world ( phones , computers etc)
It's become a double edged sword and made the division between working outside the home and the stay at home parents another stick to beat people with, especially women ( if they have children)
It is a lot of pressure on people :(

My grandmother didn’t work but my nana did ( young widow twice &3 children), my mum worked until I was born and then she was at home all the time. I stopped working when pregnant until DS2 was 18 mths. I then worked for my dad very part time until DS3 was born then looked after a holiday house. I painted at home for several years and retrained after DD was born then worked for 30 years in Education.Just retired and DH retired a year before me.
We are managing on his pension but I have savings. I am waiting for my pension ( 2 years to go) to come through, still waiting. I have always grown some fruit and veg but have grown more this year because we bought a green house. We don’t buy ready meals and take away are very occasional treats. We do eat out a couple of times a month. We have only ever had one second hand car as DH worked away from home.
Neither of us buy lots of clothes and we tend to wear out what we do have. I buy shoes in sales. We used to only have one holiday a year and this year we have had a few days away separately and four days together. We have quite a few hobbies so we don’t get bored and we help out our sons and other people when they need it.
Our house is ours now but I am still paying a mortgage with a house I jointly own with DS 2 & DS3 lives in it. He has a low paid job so pays us a low rent.

So it is doable I don’t feel our children lost out materialistically and they are satisfied with their lives. They liked me being home and it was important as their dad was away for weeks at a time. I worked part time until they were in Secondary and I was still home about the same time. I think we have managed quite a balanced life I just look forward to travelling more in the future.

Our household is single income, I'm a lone parent and have to work. Some people don't have a choice.

@lonelyapple

That is exactly what it was in the past and what it should be. The only reason it has gone to two times income is to make the banks richer via increased house prices and a higher cost of living via money printing which pushes up prices for everything and everyone. The person on the street doesn't benefit from this. In the past a family could have a very good quality of life on one income but that all changed in the last 30 years. It's ridiculous and only helps the rich.

And I think a lot of people actually like that in most cases two incomes (+ the bank of mum & dad, help to buy, longer and longer mortgages, etc.) are now necessary to buy a basic necessity. Go figure.

@Rollercoaster1920

As a single income, but 2 adult and 2 children family it is already possible, but not easy. But we bought a house 10 years ago, we could not do that today.

I'd really like to see a return to family taxation. The lack of transferable personal allowance and high earner child benefit charge really hurt us. The alternative is all of the second parent's wages being spent on childcare and not seeing the children.

Also housing costs are just too high. I'm hoping the Chinese housing crash will ripple across the world. It'll be painful, but a correction is needed.

I agree that couples (who would likely need to be married, due to joint asset/liability issues) should be able to file jointly for taxation, this happens in the USA, most of Europe and much of the rest of the world. The personal allowance is already far too high though (the highest in the EU by nearly £4,000 and nearly eight times the average even when accounting for local purchasing power).

The reason house prices are high is really a regional issue, in London, the South East and the South West they are very high, but in much of the rest of the country they are nowhere near the multiples of the local average median wage that they are in London, the South East and South West. It is almost entirely a supply and demand issues, the only real solutions are building more homes (something which many people seem to object to), or fewer people (something else which people seem to object to). The only real correction in terms of a huge devaluation would be if we build several million homes in a few years, or a huge number (again, in the millions) died above the replacement rate.

Single parent here - running my household just find. Thank God I can earn my own income and don’t have to depend on a man like some Stepford Wife!

We could do it on either of our wages, but would have to downsize considerably and not have holidays etc. I would love to be able to be a SAHM.

My family was middle class and always single income. We lived a comfortable life, mum had cleaner etc, but certainly not a lavish one. They could afford to send us to private schools and holidays were camping in France. This was in the 1960's.

My husband was working class and all his extended family were double income. He would come home from school and light the fire and then start preparing the evening meal.

I think it was a very middle class thing and I think my mother resented the lack of independence.

@TorringtonDean

Single parent here - running my household just find. Thank God I can earn my own income and don’t have to depend on a man like some Stepford Wife!

Me too. I wish I had someone else to share the household running with.

I'm already a single adult household so I'd be relatively better off if that was standard. However, it is never going to happen.

Though it would be interesting to see what would happen to house prices if the mortgage was only based on a single salary.

When was a single household income ever enough to have the lifestyle people want today? Fast fashion, holidays abroad (pandemic permitting of course), eating out etc. those professionals that could afford it in the ‘olden days’ can still afford it today. This notion of a 50s style family setup where the everyone worked in a while collar job m, the father parked up his big car outside his detached house and called out ‘honey I’m home’ is fantasy.