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?

Agree with @frazzledmess as well - if you bought years ago it’s different. If you’re trying to buy now on a £100k income you’ll struggle to get a family home in much of London.

Would be interested to know where
£120k sits in relation to the median London income. It's very different here I think.

It’s above average for London as a whole, but there are quite a few parts of London where it’s well below the average.

£100k in London is plenty, sure it might take your few extra years to save up for a house deposit but damn sight quicker than anyone on far less than that. My manager has form for moaning about another year of no pay rise and she is on £85k taking over £2k more than me. I don't care! How are you pissing away almost £4k a month that you cannot save for a house deposit or whatever else.

It’s because they mean “we don’t have enough for a baby and to continue having the holidays, meals out and other trappings we have already”.

That's not true though. A 500k flat would cost at least 2k a month mortgage & full time childcare for one can be 2k. That then leaves you with 2k for all the bills.

That's the problem: it's objectively a lot of money but if it you're looking for a home with no pre-existing equity and realising that you can't afford a terraced house in Streatham then it might not feel like a lot. Especially if you need to pay childcare as well.

Although the OP is talking about household income but some people are talking about one earner on 100k

That's our joint income (living in Cornwall) we live comfortably, but I wouldn't say we're well off. We're a family of 6 and have a toddler in nursery.

There has also been wage stagnation for years. I left uni in the 00s & 70/80k was normal for a manger role in many industries. Lots still pay the same now.

£100k after tax is about £65k. kids at nursery in London would be £40k a year easily. That’s £2k for mortgage bills and food. Depends on your circumstances but £100k could easily go quickly in London.

2 kids!

Do you mean gross income OP? Not denying it’s a high income but net it would be £65,867.

But, if you do have a one million pound house, then you’re in a better position to downsize and buy something out of London in years to come.

But it's unlikely you would have a 1m house with an 100k household income unless you bought years ago or had significant help.

I think you just spend what you earn. At one point we were living on an income of about £30k and didn’t have money for haircuts and went on holiday to my MIL in France with £50 Ryanair flights. Now we earn £115k but spend thousands on holidays and have a cleaner and more expensive cars. I still look around and am envious of those who have more (not a good look, I know, and something I need to work on for my own mental health). If you’d asked me a few years ago, I’d have said earning £100k would be amazing, now it feels pretty average around here (Sussex).

I don’t think it’s loads in London. That’s a take home of £5.5k. The average house price is anywhere from £500k-£700k depending which source you go with, so very plausibly £2.5k mortgage for somewhere very modest. If you’ve got 2 kids in nursery that could easily be another £3k a month (£1.5k per child) and you’ve used up the entire salary without any other bills or discretionary spending.

Of course it's high. Way above average. If you live in central London with big mortgage and high nursery costs may not have as much disposal income as others might imagine. But to claim it's not a high wage, is wierd.

Yes it is a lot.

But then it depends on factors like:

Do you have to pay for any childcare or are the kids at school or do you have family doing childcare?

Do you pay a big mortgage or do you have family helping out eg with a large deposit?

It's a lot to me as a single parent earning not much over min wage. If I was earning that I'd could stop worrying about affording necessities.

Many families on average incomes manage without family support

They cut their cloth accordingly

X and I were on £100,000 a year living in the north west in 2012 and we lived like kings.
He is now on a similar amount with his new wife in the south west and they are absolutely up to their eyeballs in debt and he’s running around the house turning off lights.

I am near 100 on my own and whilst I’m not gonna claim for a minute I’m hard up I have a lot less coming into the house than he does because I don’t get the two lots of tax breaks in fact I don’t think I get any tax breaks as of next year, but I have very much cut my cloth accordingly. I’m still having a great life.

it’s all down to individual choices

We currently have a combined household income of £140,000 in London and don't feel rich although we are certainly comfortable. It'll drop to around £120,000 when I go back to work after maternity and I’m not looking forward to it - we won't struggle but we'll have to think much more carefully about what we're spending, which I’m not used to having to do.

At my dbs work partners earn on average 1.5m which is a lot.

@itssquidstella why will it drop when you return to work?

Objectively it's a fair bit of money. But it depends on your outgoings.

Yep that is good money and anyone who thinks it isnt doesn't understand their privilege!
(Our combined income is approx 60k)