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?

I provided considerably more than the minimum. They needed it, given the trauma they experienced in their birth family.

But what they needed was time and attention, not their own bedroom and a garden.

@Florenz in addition to what @Tabbouleh said, I was born and brought up in London. All my family is here. Others may hate it but I like where I live and don't want to move away from my family as we're all close knit.

It is in the North, yes.

In fact, NOT having a garden was an advantage. There was a communal garden (piece of grass) for the flats we were in, and quite a lot of families in the flats. So endless unplanned play dates. They loved it.

Sharing a bedroom, possibly less so at the time! But they are still very close, and other options were long term foster care and/or splitting them up. They are happy with the choice their social worker made, which was to allow them to be together and have a permanent family, even though that meant sharing a bedroom.

@Runnerbeansflower Children need a loving home more than a bedroom each. A garden is nice and most parents want access to outside space.

I had friends who shared bedrooms out of choice even though their homes had more bedrooms.

You have drip fed a bit because some of the points you made earlier could have been understood in a different context.

I'd love the OP to come back and give her opinion on all 23 pages!

?

My point was that a separate bedroom and a garden are nice to have, but not essential. My family set up is irrelevant to that.

And, to answer the original question, £100,000 pa is a very high income whichever way you cut it, even in London

We earn well and live in London. If I was offered more money for the work I do I would not say no. We try to save monthly and were FTBs in 2019 so our mortgage even in zone 4 is high. London is a choice and granted our lifestyle would be more comfortable outside of London (earnings would be the same elsewhere) but as ethnic minorities London is our preference.

Do you mean a shared bedroom and no private garden is OK for adopted children, but not 'real' families?

Or that yes, they are choices that are made by those lucky enough to be high earners, but it is possible to have a good family life without?

It's certainly possible to live happily without a garden or a bedroom for each child. But I don't think most people would regard them as crazy aspirations reserved for the very rich, like a second home/Porsche/ regular holidays in the Maldives.

If you would like a home with those features but can't afford one, (not in Chelsea or Westminster, but in an unfashionable area of zone 3 or 4) then you probably don't feel very rich.

Get in the bin with the “raising your child for you” what a bellend!

Looking at the other thread about graduate salaries - seems that people think 30-35k is what a recent graduate should be on. Two of them would add up to 70k household income so I guess by the time you get to 30, maybe 100k joint is really not that much anymore

Actual average graduate salaries 26k this year according to your favourite search engines

As ever Many MNetters are out of touch with average

“Average” graduate salaries are skewed by those on mega bucks. I have a first class degree from the top university in the country for my subject. I earn 35k in London -and I’m age 55. My DH has a degree from Oxford. He earns 30k. My DD also has a first class degree from an RG university. She lives in London and earns about 22k.

Those sound low to me. I went to Oxbridge, I’m 27 and earn £53k (in London) and I earn the least of my friends.

I 100% agree with this!! I started working about 20 years ago, my peers & I wanted to be senior and earn 80k

The roles we were talking about 20 years ago now pay … 80k. Meanwhile house prices would have doubled perhaps…

Also disagree that an ‘average’ house costs £522. In many (not at all fancy, but eg zone 2/3 areas that would be £800k or so).

Move out to the suburbs and a 3 bed terrace in an area I’d find acceptable (again, not fancy) is more like £575-600, examples below

Obviously I can’t speak for every house/neighbourhood in London but I think 2 people earning 50k each with 2 kids would find life tight in London. 1 on 100k and one on 50-60k not so much

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/124265990#/?channel=RES_BUY

It depends on your outgoings
If you have a big mortgage , kids in private schools then 100k won’t go very far . It’s all relative . My friends household income is 50k and yet she has more disposable income than we do on a combined income of over 300k . That’s because she pays less tax , lives in a council house and has v few expenses .
More than half of our income goes in income tax etc
Im just being honest by the way so won’t be responding to any comments about being boastful etc . I realise how lucky I am .

@Emilizz34

They have more disposable income than you because you've spent your money.

You could also live in a cheap house and have few expenses

I didn’t come on here to say that I had no money and to ask for advice on how to cut my expenses . I’m stating a basic fact that people with higher income tend to have higher expenses so in fact may end up with similiar disposable income to people with a lower income and less bills/expenses .
Not complaining at all but just answering the OP stating a basic fact that should be obvious to anyone with a knowledge of basic arithmetic .

@Emilizz34

But its a nonsense statement

If you had 2 kids and gave 1 a tenner and the other a fiver and the one with a tenner spent 7.50 and came crying because the other still had a fiver you'd tell them to stop being so stupid.

But I’m not crying 🤣🤣

I earn 22,500 as a solo parent to two children. In the midlands. 100k is a dream come true.

100k isn’t all that much with childcare and London rent. I used to earn around that. In order to do my job I needed a full time nanny which is very expensive. After that and rent and commuting costs I wasn’t much better off than if I was earning 40k in a cheaper part of the country. You would never be able to buy a house with an income at that level in London.

@Emilizz34

No but you're talking nonsense