Do you think £100,000 a year household income is a lot of money?

[SleepDreamThinkHuge]

I think it is a lot of money even in London where I live. When I hear people say things like "£100,000 is not enough to live on even in London" I think to myself what are they talking about. I have a family of four and we can only dream of earning that amount. The maximum I can see us earning is about £60k if we are lucky. Currently on over £40k combined income with still a relatively high rent and everything does go on bills and other necessities. But sometimes we are lucky and manage to save some money a year. Luckily no debt. I just think to myself £100,000 would be life changing even in London.

What are your thoughts? What do you consider to be average and above average in London and the city you are from?

If it's two people earning £50k then they're taking home £6.2k a month.

That's without any pension though tbf

Indeed. Whenever I see someone on here, including in this thread, talking about how they live and pay their mortgage in the south east on a small income, I always think to myself tell us how old you are and when you first purchased.

It makes about as much sense as me saying I dunno what all the fuss is about we got on the ladder on sub 40k, and leaving out that it was in 2014 in a cheap area of northern England. Yet most people would immediately identify that as ridiculous.

We have 130k gross - about 6.5k a month after pension but we only have one child. At it's worse we paid 1.8k for nursery and 2k for our mortgage on a two bed flat and money was tight.

We definitely couldn't have afforded a second child so will be sticking to one. With one kid, we are not rich but can save a bit for him and afford holidays plus pensions.

However, I am dreading the hike in interest rates which might eat into all of our spare cash. Also expecting a drop in housing prices but still having to service a high debt.

So no it's not a high income in London and a lot of people will struggle with their mortgage debt in a year or two.

I agree. But I think what has changed over the last 50 years is that we have been sold aspirational lifestyles, and that hasn't been good for our mental and physical health, or for our societal relationships.

Or student loan repayments, which if they're under a certain age and earning in that income bracket they probably have. There's that generational point again...

Of course it is.

Mumsnet is full of women with imaginary husbands who all earn over £100k, and who think a "six figure salary" includes the pennies after the decimal point.

You equated having a garden with having food, water and healthcare

No I didn't @Runnerbeansflower. I asked how low do we set the bar? Which you haven't answered, but then we are still waiting for those cheap flats you were talking about!

Here are the stats from 2019 for median household income for London boroughs and comparing it to London and England.

Essentially, it's very much dependent on your outgoings - rent, bills, childcare, education etc. Even if you earn a healthy amount you may well have a lot of expenditure

You compared no garden to not having food, taking ally standards. Food is a pretty important standard, a garden isn't. If you grow up in a gallery with no garden, you won't even notice. Its preference.

@ApplesandBunions it's not worth mentioned that because then you get the choices argument thrown back in your face!

it was tons when i got it - i put around 50% into my pension

But i don't have kids AND bought a small zone 3 2 bed flat back in 2000. So all paid off now.

I can't imagine having that much and then COMPLAINING its not enough to live on as thats just crass, as clearly tons manage on far less. Its chosing a lifestyle that has high costs which means it doesn't cover all those costs.

At what point did owning (or even renting) a 3-bed terrace/semi become a luxury in this country? They are everywhere. Of course you can house your family somewhere smaller, but the massive housing stock of 3-bed houses in this country was literally built for the average family. Yet now a section on MN deem that a privilege, rather than an average family home? The sad truth is, for many it is unaffordable now. That says more about our broken housing market than a 3-bed house being somehow aspirational!

No one thinks £100K is a low family income, but as many, many posters have stated it certainly doesn't buy you top of the range cars, holidays abroad, private school or nannies (I state OR as for most on £100K it doesn't buy you any one of those things, let alone multiples). It just gives you a slightly better than average lifestyle and less money worries - i.e. food budget for your family is £80 a week rather than £60, you don't panic when you have an unexpected bill, can absorb the increased cost of living currently

I dunno, whenever someone does that one can always point out that being born after a certain date wasn't a choice. Stupid gonna stupid, I agree, but we can point out a shit argument when we see it.

I have given links, and agreed that £150,000 was because of the short lease and need for renovation.

And the next cheapest is £250,000, without those disadvantages.

A 2 bed flat within easy walking distance of the Tube.

Hardly your 'average cost is £500,000'

It’s a lot to you. To other people it’s a small amount.

Also @frazzledmess I never used the word privilege. But it's not a necessity. Lots of public sector workers are bringing in £100k?I don't think so, maybe lots of public sector Nuevo surgeons are.

You compared no garden to not having food, taking ally standards. Food is a pretty important standard, a garden isn't. If you grow up in a gallery with no garden, you won't even notice. Its preference.

No I didn't compare them & I never once said a garden is needed to survive. But we are talking about people who are working in likely stressful jobs so I'm generally interested as to where the line is drawn in terms of what is entitled or not when compared to the rest of the world.

We live in London on about this amount with 2 DC in a 3 bed flat.
No car; we don't need one as v close to the Tube
No garden
One DC in private school thks to SN, other in state. But grown so no childcare bills
No expensive clothes
Eat out once a week but at cheap ethnic places
Holidays are not camping but not expensive either. Often to see family.
Mortgage is high but doable

Consider myself incredibly privileged and lucky.

It sounds like a huge amount of money and if it’s take home income then it is.
DD and her partner earn £100k evenly between them, she pays over 40% of her income in tax/ni, pension of 12%, student loan, He pays £500 in child support for his two kids plus they have them every single weekend, buy them clothes etc.
So of that £100k, they see less than £50k in actual income.
DH is currently doing contracting work at £40 an hour x 48hrs a week, again it sounds huge but he has to pay the umbrella company’s NI and fees, so that becomes £1500, which becomes £1100 after tax/NI. Yea that’s a decent weekly wage but it’s not as amazing as it seems

Maybe we misinterpreted what you were getting at, but you talked about how other countries don't have enough food and water, and that we aspire to better than that. So people are pointing out that that's pretty fundamental but a garden isn't to your happiness.

Access to green space, however, is pretty important. But not necessarily a private garden.

The average cost is £500k according to the ONS. The average isn’t the cheapest property on the market, that’s not how averages work.

@dummyd Other posters did say it's was privileged though.
Lots of public sector workers are bringing in £100k?I

You aren't reading my posts properly! The OP is talking about an household income of 100k & yes lots of public sector workings in London are on 50k.

Yes, £100k is a lot of money! We have an income of approx £25k. We manage ok. More money would be great but we manage.

Well, it about choices.

Everything above basic necessity is a choice.

Do I want to live in a different area? A bigger house? More expensive holidays? Private school?

That's fine. Make your choice.

But don't whinge about not having the things you place as a lower priority.

@GCHeretic

No, objectively, it's a lot.

People only think its a small amount when they are blinkered by their privilege