relocation to UK 120k household income

[homealone2022]

Hi,

Currently live in a different country but DH has just been offered a post in London with an annual salary of 120k. The post looks really interesting but we've heard that London is very expensive so not sure whether it would be enough for our family to live on - it would be DH, myself and our seven year old son. Would anyone have any pointers as to whether it's enough and what we can expect? Thank you

Not convinced AIBU is the correct area of MN to post this question. You will get roasted considering the average London salary is c.£40k.

The average London salary is £53,000 so plenty of people manage with less.

It depends what sort of life-style you expect, where exactly you need to live and whether you will need to fund all your housing from that salary.

It depends on your priorities I guess. If you want a big house you could look at somewhere like Newark in Nottinghamshire. It's just over an hour to Kings Cross on the train but then train travel would be a cost to factor in.

And I should add that the average is very high due to a concentration of very high earners. The mean salary is about £35,000.

Half the posts will be from people who say they live quite comfortably on £20k forgetting to mention their income is substantially topped up by UC and the other half will be from people on £100-150k who say it's quite a struggle and they can't afford X, Y or Z.

What would your budget be for a house or flat? Ideally what are you looking for in terms of size/garden/near city/nice area

Are you looking at buying or renting? Is commuting an option? If not, areas of London are you considering?

Oh dear OP, I suggest you have a look through of other threads with £100k salaries in London. Unfortunately you won’t feel like you can bathe in gold coins each night but yes, you definitely can live here very comfortably.

So 106 if a two parent family with a two parent family working FT, theyd also also pay less tax than OPs partner and entitled to some child benefit.

Anyway, yes it's doable, you won't be able live in London proper though. Are
You buying or renting? Where does he need to commute to? Will you work?

Yes of course you can live on that, but it’s all relative to your current lifestyle, of which we know nothing about.

Look at rightmove, houses and flats to rent.

Do you need childcare?

Plus it’s all about what sort of lifestyle is acceptable.

The average wage in the Uk is 32k per annum.

It also depends on things like whether you are able to access UK schools and healthcare or whether you need to pay for private provision.

Will you be planning to work too?

It's probably worth using a calculator to work out his take home pay, as he loses most of the tax free allowance on that salary, so will lose quite a bit to tax/NI and pension contributions if he makes them.

listentotaxman.com/

London is too vast and the options too many for anyone to possibly comment based on what you've said. And just to say that £120k is so much more than a massive percentage of Londoners could ever hope to earn.

Where are you looking to live? Rent or buy? Private education or state? Do you want to be able to park a car? Do you want to be near parks/shops/shopping centre? Do you have any other income to put towards a property? Which mainline station or tube line would be good for ease of your husband getting to work? How far out would you mind being, zone 1 or zone 6?

You will need to give a lot more info OP

Renting or buying
What type of area
How many bedrooms
Type of school
What you value eg outside space or short commute
What type of lifestyle you have, its loads if you're frugal, it's not much if your son goes to private school and you go 4 long haul holidays a year
Do you work

Always on AIBU. Always 🙄

Presumably you or he has managed to cope with budgeting in your current country. It kinda works the same 🙄

Are you British nationals?

We need more info to be able to advise. Of course you can live in London on that salary but it depends on your expectations, where the job is, if a commute is possible, need for schools, city vs more rural, what sort of life you envisage.

Depends what your outgoings are likely to be.

• Will you be buying a flat/house, or renting? A 1 bedroom flat with no outside space is at least £1200 per month in my area (zone 2, SE), plus bills. (Mortage repayments are usually less than the rent on a similar property.) If you want a large house with a big garden in an expensive bit of zone 1/2, then your rent will be several thousand per month.
• Will your child be going to private or state school?
• Will you be working?
• Will you need to pay for childcare? If so, what sort? A full time nanny, or just before/after school care?
• Does your child want to take part in an expensive hobby?
• Do you need to send money to anyone else (e.g. elderly parents)?

Really, I think you will be fine on that salary, but it really does depend on what sort of lifestyle you want to live. You won't be paupers and will be very well off compared to most, but calculate the salary your DH will have left after tax and compare it against a best guess budget of what your likely outgoings will be (you'll be spending at least £400 per month on food, I would imagine; at least another £100 per month on gas/electricity; probably about £148per month each in public transport costs etc.)

Yes you'd be more than fine

Yes you'll be fine, but you won't be rolling in it. You'll probably need £50k+ saved as a deposit/fees if you're looking to buy somewhere though, and that won't get you anything fancy.

£120k is a crappy point as you loose your tax allowance . Put the figures into listentothetaxman

unless you have a big deposit what you can buy will be limited

I live in zone 1 and my 1bed flat used to rent at £2k a month. No outside space but very good location. The 2 beds are £3k plus

£120k isn't a huge salary for London. Especially if it's a single salary as it's in the salary spot that takes a beating for tax as over £100k you lose the personal tax free allowance. It's approx £6k per month net.

Rents in central London are rising fast. An average 2 bed flat where I live (central /east London) is £2.5k monthly rental. And that's a communal garden, maybe a parking space, nothing fancy (but well connected for the tube). Add council tax and bills and that's half your net monthly income gone already.

So it really depends on your existing commitments and your lifestyle (and child costs!). You could be fine or it could be very tight depending on where you want to live, travel costs, food, hobbies, etc

Depends on buy or rent, whether you’re planning to enroll on private schools. We sold our 2 bed flat with a garden in zone 3 for £550k. It would be £800-1m for a house. School fees I think £15k ish. Also he’ll pay A LOT of tax. Like A LOT.

depending on where you’re coming from it may feel very tight. For context, DH and I had a joint income of £130kish, mortgage of £1100/month. We are out a couple times a month. Shopped mainly at Ocado, went on 2-3 holidays abroad a year but were quite modest within that (self catering or staying with family). We moved to an expensive west coast city in the US a couple years ago and our quality of life is much higher (as are our incomes).

I think you need to run the figures carefully. That’s all I’ll say. You’ll likely have your bum handed to you on a platter on here 😂