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?

We have a combined income of well in excess of £100k. We earn this much because we both studied for a few house every night when secondary school age. We then did degrees and professional qualifications, requiring us to study most nights after work in our 20s. That’s what I mean by hard work. And no I didn’t go to a ‘naice’ school.

If you have no mortgage, no school fees and no childcare costs then I don't see why you cant spend 10k on a holiday!? What are you spending your money on?

Whatever you earn isn’t enough if your outgoings exceed your income.

@GCHeretic

The stats on social mobility would argue otherwise.

I'm not bitter. I have no reason to be.

Worthwhile is subjective eh?

It certainly doesn't mean earns a lot.

But choice = privilege.

For a lot of people in this country, let alone worldwide.

It is the fundamental aspect of privilege.

The question of whether £100k is enough in London depends. Things are relative and not clear cut.

If you're not wanting or needing to buy a flat or house then yes it's probably enough. Where I live (Central London) if I were looking to buy my small 3 bed terrace now i'd need well over a million in savings to put down as a deposit based on a household income of £100k. Yes I choose to live in London which absolutely isn't everyone's tea, but I was born and brought up here. I like it and more importantly my family are all still here.

In other parts of the country where housing and the cost of living is cheaper then yes it absolutely is enough.

@Topgub I disagree. Most people earning £100K work bloody hard and have a degree. There will always be the exceptions, of course, but no one I know who earns over £100K does anything less than a 12 hour day and is often 'on call' at weekends, or travelling overseas for work, often in their own time at weekends.

I think you would generally struggle to get a £100k income in the public sector unless you are very senior. It depends on the dept. to an extent but I would expect you would need to be an SCS grade to get a six figure salary. Temporary consultants might get that on short term assignments.

I think it's more likely to achieve £100k in the private sector where pay is a bit more flexible between grades. In the right industries or firms of course, like financial services, legal (corporate) and FTSE 100.

@Runnerbeansflower so are you saying people who work & pay taxes shouldn't expect to have choices?

Great. Well done.

But don't pretend everyone has this option and doesn't work hard.

Or that £100,000pa is not well off

Anyway- this is getting side tracked as the OP was on about a joint income which means it's 2 people earning 50-50 or 60-40 , between them.

That is VERY do-able. I have friends who earn more than that in their 30s. One works for a local authority in planning, the other is in sales.

No.

Go for it.

But acknowledge that £100,000pa is unusually well off

@SunniestSunshines

Yeah as I keep saying. I have a degree (that I studied for and did while working full time) I work 12 hour days in an incredibly stressful role

I dont earn 100k.

I'm sure lira of people earning it do work hard but it's not a given

Seriously? You don't even have the cost of housing to blame for not feeling rich, despite earning more than probably 95% of the country.

On the matter of gardens, houses vs flats and children having their own bedrooms, no none of these should be aspirational, but the reality is that this is a small overcrowded country especially London/SE so obviously most people will need to compromise on these things and/or where they live, so if you are living in an expensive area, you still need to compromise, even if you earn £100k+.

But none of this changes the fact that, on a household income of £100k, you have more money than about 90% of other UK households, many of which also have to pay for housing, childcare, bills, travel, etc etc on far less money than you have so yes, most people will think that '£100k household income is a lot of money' because it is 2/3/4 times more money than they have to pay for the same things.

@Runnerbeansflower you claimed it was normal

It's not

You claimed there are flats for £150k near Morden station

There are not

Maybe you're just not all that bright

Firstly it depends how much deductions you have.

Dh was on £100,000 and was coming out with £4450.
Tax, NI, pension, Dh had to pay for his US medical insurance. (Which would have been good if he had been on a comparable wage to his US counterparts or if he had got sick whilst in the US)

I think after a certain point an extra £10,000 by the time you have taken out tax and NI the increments start to become much lower.

Also 2 people earning £50,000 each even with the same percentage payments going into their respective pension pots come out with more than one person earning £100,000

2 people each earning £30k/yr in a rented place with 2 children needing nursery can end up with benefits having an income greater than 1 person on £100,000 per year and having to pay for childcare and rent because they are not eligible for benefits.

I know the system is skewed because a lot of my single parent friends with f/t jobs and benefits had a net income greater than Dh and I.

Yes, seriously, we don't feel rich.

I get that higher earners often don't want to acknowledge that they are higher earners (I'm honestly not sure why) but earning more than 99% of people can't be denied as being well off/privileged

I do agree that a lot of higher earners have the privilege of invested parents, access to better education etc. However privilege & how well off you are is not just about income.
One of my neighbours is a doctor who is renting. He earns much more than my other neighbour who was gifted a very large deposit. Neighbour B is in a far more wealthier position despite low income.

Exactly.

And the point is, once you have a basic level of housing, food etc the rest is all choice.

I have no problem with a room for each child, a garden, overseas holidays, whatever

But they are choices.

If you weren’t bitter you’d not keep banging on about how people who earn more than you do so because they are more privileged.

You need to understand that some people can be more intelligent than you, better at what they do, and worth more.

You come across very like a relative of mine, she has a shit degree, is resentful of anyone who earns more than her and despite not actually being a nice person thinks that because she works in health care that she must be underpaid.

You aren’t in health care, are you? Presumably not, but by God many of those who are have an inflated sense of self-worth. Second only to teachers..

@Runnerbeansflower In the UK everyone does have the option to study hard IF they have the ability.

My own background was one of what would be classed now as in poverty. My parents earned so little I'd have got free school meals by today's figures.

I got out of it by education, as did my father, who left school at 14 and did manual work, but went to night school (as it was then) for 7 long years till he was 30.

People who are in low paid jobs often need to look at opportunities they wasted or their own academic achievements and career choices.

But none of this changes the fact that, on a household income of £100k, you have more money than about 90% of other UK households, many of which also have to pay for housing, childcare, bills, travel, etc etc on far less money than you have so yes, most people will think that '£100k household income is a lot of money' because it is 2/3/4 times more money than they have to pay for the same things.

You are completely ignoring generational inequality though. Plenty of people have far less than 100k household income but far more disposable income because of much cheaper housing costs.

Oh I’m sorry but that’s not true, I am for social mobility but there was a young girl who I ended up studying with at university she’d been kicked out at 16 years old, lived in the YMCA while she did are A-levels got into university, full grants and assistance that was available to her passed degree and then killed herself. She just run out of energy. The share tenacity and mental and physical load of trying to drag herself out of that situation was just too much for her.

no wonder she’s the exception rather than the rule.

DH and I have a combined income of £100k, we have a mortgage and childcare costs for twins so at this point in time we don’t have much left over. Once we don’t have £3k per month in childcare costs, yes we will have a nice amount of disposable income…

@GCHeretic you sound incredibly angry and are being very, very personal towards this poster. Are you sure you want to carry on? Might be time to take a step back from this thread, go get a drink of water or something. It's hot today.