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?

Our income is just over that amount and consists mainly of our pensions and some rental income. We are retired, no mortgage, and enjoy holidays and helping our sons and grandchildren. I would not like our income to be much below that.
A lifetime of hard work has put us in this comfortable position along with some inheritances.

Most London day school here are about 1.8k a month. Our mortgage of just over 500k is also 1.8k. Enough left over for everything else and at least two holidays.

Yeah ours were over 2k too in Sw London. Private school is cheaper at 1.8k a month.

Instead of measuring how rich someone is by their income or their wealth, try measuring it in terms of how much choice they have about where they live, how they get around, where they shop and what they choose to do for a living.

By doing so, you'll stop focusing on what it is you earn and rather where you have to be to live the life that you want.

@InMySpareTime I think you are missing the point that 100k is a household income. Therefore, the 400k pension you speak of is divided into 2 i.e. 200k each. That's not nothing but will only buy you about 600 quid per month extra i.e. 7,200 pounds per year each. Not the best pension in the world.

OP didnt ask whether a single person earning 100k was a good salary

@3WildOnes I need some holiday tips pls, how do you do skiing & a summer holiday every year?

@3WildOnes where is senior school 1.8k per month in London? Thats really cheap

@InMySpareTime theOP is about household income not one salary...

It would only be a £400k pot if the household never got a pay rise in 40 years and if the pension pot gained literally no interest or growth. Historically investments always grow over the long term, so that pension pot will be a heck of a lot more than £400k, even without pay rises or additional pension contributions once the family outgoings reduce.

Hampton, KGS, Putney high...

Summer- use sky scanner and put in a whole month and anywhere and you will get a whole list of places where return flight are under 100 per person. Milan nearly always has flights under 100 return per person. So that £500 for a family of 5. Then we would usually book a three bed apartment with shared pool somewhere like Lake Garda or a euro camp type place for 1.5k for 10 days. Then just spends and care hire. So all in under 4k for 5 for 10 day holiday.

Skiing- take kids out of school for two days and fly Thursday to Thursday this reduce your flights from over 300 each to under 100. Airbnb for a cheap apartment. Around 4k fir the 5 of us with ski hire, ski lessons and money for food.

We usually have a UK cottage break too for 1k all in.

@YukoandHiro

Whilst your reality may be that that anything more than £2k anywhere = a nanny is misguided. If you're able to find nurseries for less than £2k a month then great, I wish I could.

Nurseries where I am are expensive. I'm looking at anything FROM £2,200 a month, excluding wrap around care (one extra hour in morning, plus one in the evening) when I go back to work. This wasn't just one nursery, I've looked at quite a few. I'm not peddling a myth the fees are clear to see online.

@3WildOnes so you do cheap holidays.

I stand by you can't get private school and a nice holiday every year for 100k unless you have cheap mortgage repayments due to buying a while ago

City of London Boys and Girls.

Yes, well said. There are so many variables.
When I was on £6250 a year full time as a trainee solicitor in 1983 (£18k today whereas today's similar trainees get about double that presumably because rents and student loans mean the firms need to pay that) we were fairly badly paid compared with the secretaries at work and given our degree and then post grad qualifications, but obviously given the nature of the job you get pay rises so it worked out okay in due course.

I suppose we can all agree that in most people's 70 year life spans in most ages and times most people are likely to have some difficult times with recessions, wars etc

On school fees Haberdashers where our oldest went from age 4 is £15,951 = £1,330 a month for the pre prep part of the school. My sons' prep school at end of my road here in outer London where they used to go is £16k a year in the pre prep so about the same.

@3WildOnes thank you, I didn't think you could get skiing for that.

I'm still impressed with a 9k holiday budget though. Are you pretty frugal with bills & shopping at home etc.

Our mortgage is similar, but bills, food, insurances, clubs/childcare etc is about 1.8k. We are now trying to save for renovations as our childcare bill has only drastically reduced in the last few yrs.

I think 10 days in Lake Garda, a week skiing in the alps and a weekin a cottage in Dorset are pretty nice holidays! I feel pretty lucky to be honest.

@3WildOnes eurocamps are butlins of the continent

You decide to do multiple cheaper trips, and that's great, but I still stand by you can't do private school, and nice holidays at the household income of 100k

Yes! I can’t afford those and thought they sounded great - and expensive! It’s all perspective innit? My idea of a “cheap holiday” is much more of the camping in the rain variety…

Yes I am pretty frugal, we budget our money to the penny on a spreadsheet so it's not like we are living a millionaire lifestyle! I guess my point is that 100k+ gives you choices and having had much less 10 years ago I realise how lucky we are now!

i've been try

Me and DH earn just over £100k between us. We’re in the north and we’re child free, so our money stretches quite far.

We’re definitely comfortable. We can cover the mortgage and bills, afford meals out, and save for holidays and our pensions etc. I honestly don’t feel ‘wealthy’ though.

I must admit I think we’ve slightly fallen victim to ‘lifestyle creep’ in some ways. We’re certainly not the most frugal people and we could save a lot more. But I love having lovely holidays and I want to make the most of being able to travel while we’re healthy and able. We could definitely buy less clothes/takeaways and spend less on meals out though.

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A lifetime of hard work has put us in this comfortable position along with some inheritances.
”Along with some inheritances” doing a lot of heavy lifting in this sentence 😂 You know most people put in a lifetime of hard work and don’t retire on £100k pa?