What would your households annual income need to be for you to be happy/content?

[TheTortoiseWon]

I'm coming in close to £150k. I don't believe this would make me truly much happier in life but it's what I would like

Savings, investments and pension - £50k
Bills and groceries - £12k
Holidays x 4 - £25k
School fees x 2 - £30k
Days out/dining out - £5k
Clothes, accessories, and beauty treatments - £12k

@TracyMosby

I bitterly, bitterly regret going into a job that I thought would be interesting, and had a good starting salary, rather than a boring one which led to higher pay. Snap. My MIL had what Id consider a boring job. She has a great pension, gorgeous house and despite being mid-70’s, she occasionally still does a days work when she fancies a city break, to cover the cost of it. There is no way I will be able to be in a classroom with teenagers at 75. And all the focus from the govt on teaching salaries is on the starting salaries. Theres very, very little difference in their plans for pay of m1, and where ups3 have been stuck for years.

Interesting. We have the same job There was no way I wanted a 9-5 office job. I was too individual and creative

I look around at my peers, who only work until 6 and can sometimes wfh and could slap 21 year old me. And yes, the plans to only have 12grand between an nqt and an experienced teacher is ridiculous. Once you get 9 years in, that's your income fixed for life.

We are perfectly content on our combined income (which is less than the national average).

We have a perfectly comfortable terraced house with small garden, in a town that we love.
We're very happy with Dc schools and don't want to go private.
We manage to eat out occasionally and have a week's holiday at the coast every year.
We are careful, even frugal, overpay on the mortgage, and have money in savings.

If we had more, then to be honest we'd probably just keep being frugal and put it carefully into savings , though some overseas holidays would be nice.

We save up for a long time for big purchases (currently envisioning a new kitchen within the next 5-7 years). If we could afford it now, I'd probably still try to eke out the existing kitchen until it was falling to bits, because replacing something with plenty of life left in it would make me vaguely uneasy.

I think that's what makes me content on less - make do and mend is part of my and DH whole mentality, and we don't really enjoy buying new things.

I think I am easily pleased compared to most posters.
We have plenty of money invested as well as in savings and pension,
We live off around 60,000 before tax for day to day bills, groceries etc,
no mortgage but it was tiny anyway house is nice for where we live but not a mansion or anything,
Company car and fuel,
School age children go to bog standard state schools for primary and secondary we will pay for extra tuition if needed,
Uni DC take available loans we give an allowance and will pay their loans off whenever/if ever they earn enough for that to kick in,
We eat out whenever we fancy,
Days out whenever we fancy.
Holidays are a funny one for us we could spend huge amounts but I really struggle with doing that, I'd rather give money to family. DH would be happier spending more. The most we've spent was £15,000 which I felt quite uncomfortable with and that was cancelled due to covid.

Firstly money doesn't buy happiness but it gives you financial security and anyone who's not had that understands the stress it brings! I am ever grateful that at the moment we have a cushion for living costs rising. I remember not having anything spare and being in debt with little way out and it's horrible. I know many people are really struggling and I never forget how lucky we are. It is luck, the tables could turn at any point. I will not buy anything that I don't have the money for unless there is no alternative.

It's totally dependent on lifestyle and living costs. Ours have increased as we've got older. We're on £80k a year and we're financially secure and comfortable as long as nothing big happens (illness, death, civil court claims 🙈). But that's my point! The big stuff comes in and swipes us all in the face unexpectedly (storm damage and unexpected costs caused by life's events).

For me to feel truly financially secure I'd want a pot of money giving interest that we could live on come what may. It would have to be a couple of million. I'd not want give up work, I'd not move house but I'd be able to buy a car that won't break and not be concerned if it did etc.

It's a pipe dream, it's not going to happen for us.

@PoethPoet

I think I am easily pleased compared to most posters. We have plenty of money invested as well as in savings and pension, We live off around 60,000 before tax for day to day bills, groceries etc, no mortgage but it was tiny anyway house is nice for where we live but not a mansion or anything, Company car and fuel, School age children go to bog standard state schools for primary and secondary we will pay for extra tuition if needed, Uni DC take available loans we give an allowance and will pay their loans off whenever/if ever they earn enough for that to kick in, We eat out whenever we fancy, Days out whenever we fancy. Holidays are a funny one for us we could spend huge amounts but I really struggle with doing that, I'd rather give money to family. DH would be happier spending more. The most we've spent was £15,000 which I felt quite uncomfortable with and that was cancelled due to covid.

Are you me?! I totally agree. I feel very uncomfortable spending thousands. I can't justify the cost of expensive holidays either.

I'd say £50,000-£60,000 gross salary.

I'm happy in my HA flat & my outgoings aren't that high. On my current £28,000 salary I can pay the bills & have a few luxuries but once the cost of living increases really take hold all luxuries will be stopped & the additional net pay from £50-60k would mean I could keep those.

@tiredanddangerous

Having money really doesn't make you happy or take all your worries away. We have a decent income but still have plenty to keep us awake at night!

No but it's more comfortable to cry in a Mercedes than it is on a bike

@IamSamantha
I grew up with not much money and when DH and first I got married we were pretty skint. I used to dream about buying certain things. We got a big payout and while we waited for it to come through I told myself I was going to have a shopping spree. However when it finally landed we gave money to family and that made me so happy the shopping spree was forgotten. It is lovely to know I could buy pretty much whatever I wanted but I don't thing any of those things would make me happy.

My MIL had what Id consider a boring job

I'm in my 30s now and the friends that have the most "boring sounding" job titles have the best quality of life!

Well 100k would be nice! I have 46k and do have spare money and can afford holidays, but pushing for a promotion so that would be another 10k. It’s still not enough for living in the south east when it’s so expensive housing wise

think I am easily pleased compared to most posters.
We have plenty of money invested as well as in savings and pension,
We live off around 60,000 before tax for day to day bills, groceries etc,no mortgage but it was tiny anyway

But you live on 60k after savings & investments & don't have a mortgage. Am I missing something? 😆

I would like all the money. All of it. Oh well.

Obviously it depends on whether you have dc (I do), are a single parent (I am), have had to remortgage up to your eyeballs to pay off an ex (I have), care about what kind of car you drive (I don't care).

We're on £55k and I'm happy with that. Another £5k would be perfect. I work part time, we're both in flexible jobs and have enough not to worry too much, with extra for classes and clubs. Don't know what I'd do with £150k!

No but it's more comfortable to cry in a Mercedes than it is on a bike

Very very true 🤣

Ours is around 85-90k and we could definitely do with more money, we have loads of things we want to do to our house and travel wise, but just can’t afford it, so I think an extra 50k would definitely make a huge difference.

I would be very content with a household income of 100k
As I’m single - late 50s and at the top of the highest pay scale for my job it won’t ever happen
I consider myself lucky to earn enough to manage well day to day but have little savings or pension, can’t overpay mortgage and dread unexpected expenses
In last 2 years I’ve had a new boiler, new roof, window and door repairs plus car repairs which has just about wiped me out
At least I hadn’t been able to go on holiday due to restrictions so had a bit extra

£30kish - it’s just me and DD. That would get me the mortgage I need for a nice 2 bed flat I’ve got my eye on and we’d have a comfortable life.

I remember posting some time ago on one of the '£100k isn't enough in London' threads that you could probably have £200k coming in and it wouldn't cover a MN approved lifestyle of the right property near the right schools plus a £200 pw Waitrose grocery bill and either a SAHP or two big jobs and a nanny or two. Then bills and an IKOS AI holiday plus a couple of Center Parcs breaks.

Whatever you have coming in, you can still spend more and want more in a lot of cases.

We're about £50k-£60k and doing ok. Plenty to enjoy life to a good standard but not so much that we don't need to plan, consider big purchases carefully and sometimes feel the strain of one off or out of the blue expenses.

I reckon £100k would be enough to properly kick back and enjoy. The money stresses we have - which are already first world enough really - would disappear. We'd have more in savings, more to invest for security, more of a cushion for the unexpected and more for the nice-to-haves.

I also often think I'd far rather win the lotto 'set for life' than the actual lotto or even the euro millions.

I mean, a few million landing in your account would be a lovely problem to have but I do think I'd feel the pressure of not wasting it, how much to give away etc.

£10k a month net guaranteed for 30 years would just be a lovely, stress free, enjoyable level of absolute security.

Why an earth do you need £1000’s worth of beauty treatments per fucking month? How hairy are you?!?!

@FTEngineerM

Why an earth do you need £1000’s worth of beauty treatments per fucking month? How hairy are you?!?!

OP includes clothes in that sum. Hair treatments, extensions, botox, fillers, mani/pedicures, peels also add up.

£60k would be very comfortable. We had that combined in the past but we had huge debts and a difficult living situation, so we didn't really feel it.

Now we're debt free but DH is retraining, so our income is half that. If he gets another job on 30k+ next year we'll feel very comfortable. We don't have or want children and we live in a reasonably low cost of living area, so that'd be plenty for us!

@Camomila

There is a researched figure at which ‘more’ stops making you happier. I think it was about 70k

That's interesting, I wonder if its area dependent. We're on 64k, 70k would be nice but it still might not get us a mortgage on a (standard 3 bed) house (yes, we're in the SE)

I'd be happy with 80-90k - then we could buy a house without changing DS1s lovely school.

I don’t recall, tbh. What people aspire to is always going to be subjective, though. Even in my best years, I obviously live on a great deal less than many people here, but a lot of what they choose to spend it on has no value to me. I have no interest in hair and beauty, whatsoever. (That’s not a value judgement. IDC what other people choose to put on their bodies, or what it costs. If it makes them feel good, have at it. I just can’t be arsed). Therefore I don’t ‘miss’ that money. I chose to live on less rather than work more, and on the whole I’m happy with that decision. I could almost double even my best-year income by going back to my profession, but there’s nothing I want more than the time in an average year.

Also, it’s fair to say I couldn’t live on 12k year on year. It was, for me, the tolerable minimum. I didn’t have to turn the heating down or off, although I did switch to cheap supermarkets and we had only moderate food treats. We had some small luxuries (audible for me, Amazon music for my kid) included but no big purchases at all. I had to sell off stuff to buy clothes and shoes for my kid, and we had a small windfall just before Christmas that meant we could afford extras then. To some extent we lived off capital, as we moved the year before and had all new white goods, moved to a well maintained house and a newish car. If anything broke, I could not have replaced it or afforded car repairs, vets fees etc and had no savings. It was quite stressful, and I think it’s only fair to point out it’s an unrealistic minimum, given that a lot of people here could maybe benefit from a window into the sort of finances the other 99% of earners have, and I wouldn’t like that to be unfairly unrealistic. Again, there is no judgment. People should earn and spend what they can and like. I just don’t want what might be some people’s only experience of a minimal budget to be misrepresentative.