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?

Everyone we know on 100k chose to buy houses with massive mortgages in nice areas . They have little spare income because they’ve chosen to push themselves to the limit. We are in London and 100k is definitely enough to live comfortably unless you decide to have 4 or 5 DC, or want a nice house in a nice area.

Yes, it’s a lot of money. I’m in London and our household income is a lot less than that. We have three DC.

Depends on your outgoings.

We bring in about that and we’re comfortable. Childcare is about to go up to £2.5k a month though as we’re moving to somewhere more expensive and that’s a bit rubbish!

@SunniestSunshines

I've got a degree, work very hard,very long days

I dont earn any where near 100k and never will. I dont earn half

100k is a lot of money.

Err, because it is?

It is COMPLETELY NORMAL to share a bedroom with a sibling.

Lovely if you can afford separate bedrooms, but this is the difference between WANT and NEED. What matters to children is the quality of care, not having a bedroom to themselves.

Same with a garden.

FFS, educate yourself about how most people live.

£100,000 is wealthy, even in London.

@SunniestSunshines I think she’s talking about this one www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/124776971#/?channel=RES_BUY but it’s only got 34 years on the lease, needs modernisation, and is an auction sale so that’s just the starting price. So it’s really not realistic to say that you can buy it for £150k, unless you have twice that in cash!

I absolutely want my kids growing up thinking their own room is a luxury. ( though they currently have them). I also want them to use public transport, live in flats if in big cities, and eat no or as little meat as possible. That's the way we live, and that's the way people will have to live in the future with climate change and rising costs.

Exactly. A choice.

They could have chosen a cheaper area, a smaller house, or even (Noooooo) a flat without their own private garden

Objectively, it’s a lot. It would feel huge for families with the mortgage paid off, no car and no big childcare bills or school fees. It’s not hard to imagine how quickly it could disappear if you start to adjust your perceptions of what you couldn’t possibly manage without though. Lifestyle creep is a dangerous thing.

thats our household income - it's enough to pay the mortgage on a tiny 2 bed London flat! Still took us a good few years to save our deposit while we rented (£1500 a month flat) After the bills and mortgage is paid and Nursery fee's of close to 2k a month - there is not heaps left tbh

We aren't struggling - but we aren't totally loaded either

we can't afford a car!!

We do manage to have a holiday each year though (I think we couldn't afford holiday's if we ran a car though!

100k somewhere cheaper to live we'd probably be way more comfortable

Yes, so I have also quoted the next one up, offers in excess of £250,000

It is not a luxury that the rest of the world has, including quite rich countries.

but why does that mean wanting to have a garden is a privilege? Millions in the world live without access to healthcare or adequate food & water. How low do we set the bar?

Look, I personally wouldn't go back to a place without a garden after having one, but you don't need a garden to survive. You're not in poverty if you live in an apartment, so that's the difference. Most people want a garden, but having a small garden or none, doesn't affect your quality of life etc.

£100,000 is wealthy, even in London.

wealth is not just linked to income though.

I suppose you can have whatever you can afford but the idea that kids without a garden are deprived and miserable- especially in London where there are so many parks- is just way too much first world privilege for me!

Well, no access to food, clean water and healthcare can kill you.

No garden doesn't affect children in quite the same way.

Only on Mumsnet! A garden is a basic human right 😂😓

Yes absolutely.

Sure there are factors like house you buy and number of children you have, private schools etc but that's a choice. There is plenty available to live comfortably off of for someone on a 6 figure salary, even in London.

There is an old phrase 'cut your cloth according to your measure'
You can have an extremely comfortable life on a £100k salary. However if you think you deserve to buy a five bedroom house in South
Kensington, privately educate 3 children and take three ski holidays a year on that salary you may need to review your expectations.
I think in a society driven by debt it's too easy to lose sight of an affordable lifestyle and fall instead for the aspirational lifestyle (and then complain you don't earn enough).

All depends on your outgoings.

a joint income of £100k isn't a lot if you live in a 3 bedroom semi detached house in East Finchley with a mortgage to match , two kids and two cars.

It's a bout how much ' spare' money you have at the end of month, and I'm not talking about after you've chucked half your money in savings and stocks etc.

Personally we just get to the end of the month with a joint income of £50k , living in a 2 up 2 down terrace worth £145k in a northern city.

An income of £65k would mean we could go on the holidays we see other people having, and have a decent car instead of a patched up old banger.

So, horses for course, depends on the debt/mortgage/ area you live.

It is fine to want more.

As I have said, there is a difference between WANT and NEED.

Can only dream. Ours is about £30,000.

@dummyd where did I claim you need a garden to survive? I just dispute the fact to want one is considered entitled because millions of others around the world don't have one. I have relatives without gardens abroad who have perfectly nice lives although they don't work both long hours so can take the dc out to shared green spaces.

We have a skills shortage & an ageing population. The idea that people who are bringing in 100k household income which will be lots of public sector people are privileged to want a garden is reductive. More young people will emigrate imo.

I think it depends. If it's two people earning £50k then they're taking home £6.2k a month. That's a good income and it's even okay for London. You might not be able to live in the heart of the capital for that but you can probably save and then cobble together a big enough mortgage to live on the outskirts. If you also have a couple of children then it gets closer to £6.4k with child benefit, which you remain eligible for.

In contrast, if it's a single income household then you're taking home £5,450 a month and you can't get child benefit so you're about £1k worse off than the dual income household with two children, or worse off by £12k a year. I think you could probably still live in London on this money but a lot less comfortably. It's still reasonably comfortable in the commuter belt. My finances are all a bit squiffy now that I'm divorced but I'm on around £90k and could live comfortably but not opulently in the commuter belt.

However, I would say the £90k I earn, adjusted down for inflation, does not have anything like the purchasing power that it would have done 30 years ago. In 1992 the equivalent salary would have been £50k and the average house price was just over £50k. Today the average house price is closer to £300k. So whereas today my £90k is enough to live in a modest semi-detached, someone of the same money 30 years ago could reasonably aspire to live in a detached house somewhere much nicer, maybe even within the capital.

£90k basically gave me the average lifestyle of someone 30 years ago and no more than that.

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

We have a joint income of over £100,000 starting next month.

It seems like loads to be perfectly honest, but we are not in London.