To think if you are a family of 4 and struggling on £100k…

[LetMeSpeak]

That it is purely down to mismanagement.

I saw a debate on social media and I also know a few people on 6 figure salaries, have extremely nice houses and cars. Yet complain that they are stuggling the same way others with less money. Aibu to think if you are really struggling even in this economy, a lot of it is due to mismanagement with your money?

Well I don’t know depends on their mortgages etc lifestyle but I’d love the chance to have that amount to manage on, we don’t earn half that and in south east

We have a joint income of over 100k. Our mortgage isn't too bad, we're down south and have a 3 bed as all we could afford.

A month we bring in around 7k. I have two children under 3 and nursery costs of 4k a pop, mortgage at 1k, leaves us with 2k for bills, food, petrol and travel.

We're not struggling but we are having to make changes and watch the pennies.

The lifestyle you’ve described is not available in London or Home Counties on a £100K salary.

mommy husband is on £150. I don’t work due to disabled child. We live in south east England in a 2 bedroom terrace. We do struggle because we budgeted to live within our means like many. When prices go up and salaries don’t at the same rate that is what happens.

You have no idea what commitments they have; people with bigger salaries tend to have bigger outgoings. They also pay more tax so I’d be inclined not to judge.

Sorry if someone has already made this point but the problem we have in this country, in my opinion, iswhen we talk about 'wealth' is that we look at salary.

Most people only have a salary coming in, but other have other assets such as a property portfolio or inherited wealth. Until the tax system starts to take this into account, and closes other loopholes, this country will never address the problem of income equality. Of course, most politicians of all parties fall into the category described above so it will never happen.

And yes, I say this as part of a household with a £100k+ income but no other assets and no prospect of any inherited wealth. Our situation, and future, is vastly different to those who with other income streams but earn the same or less through their main job.

We are very lucky in some respects, but we also pay massive amounts of tax based on PAYE income that amounts to much more than those with larger incomes from multiple sources. Having said that, no one asked for tax cuts and I'm baffled by what the government is currently doing.

Our eldest son and DiL have around £85 k a year coming in. They are comfortably off. Have 2 children, 2 cars etc. No childcare fees now as both at school.

The other Grandma and I helped out with childcare so they didn't have to pay fulltime childcare.

They don't have a massive mortgage by today's standards, as a good size inheritance paid for that.

They are in a 3 bedroom. The remortgage this year includes another £50 k to build the extension.

Ofcourse their mortgage and A.N other will go up. Our eldest son moved companies this year and got a substantial pay rise which has made life easier with all the rises going on.

My eldest runs a tight ship with the budget. "There for the grace of God, go I" springs to mind. We are not all the same

P.S: That £85 k is before tax. N.I and his uni fees deduction. His uni deductions are nearly £350 per month

My season ticket on train has just gone up to £7k.
Childcare is £2k a month.
Utilities I don’t want to think about - my energy supplier went bust and I lost my deal so £3k+ I guess it will be, counting water and internet.
Council tax is £2.8k
Insurances another £1.5k
I am stuck in a large 5 yr mortgage I can’t get out of without massive penalties - took advice at the time and seemed a good deal but now…
Then tax and NI…

There’s not actually much left of 100k after that lot. I am definitely not obscenely wealthy like some seem to think. My phone is ancient, my car is old, we don’t keep ponies or go to the Caribbean or whatever, we don’t have a cleaner, I don’t have any designer stuff, and virtually never go out. Everything goes on sustaining my ability to work (ie childcare, season ticket) and keep the lights on.

Well i wouldnt worry too much about people on 100k because the recwnt tax changes mean they should be much better off. And the cap on energy bills isnt means tested. I earn over 100k and my husband earns 55. With the new tax benefits we are 250 a month better off amd thats before the energy cap. I'm not saying this to show off. I dont understand why more people arent mad about this. If you earn 1mil you'll be 55k better off a year. How is that right. People should be far more angry than they are.

That wasn't the scenario in the OP thought was it.

Hahaha you lot make me laugh. I'm a 68 year old pensioner on sweet FA. I am freezing now but won't be able to afford to turn on the heating. I suppose that the majority of you are Tory voters, well get your party to help you out, because they are screening you. But FFS stop moaning until you have something to moan about! I know people who can't afford to feed their kids. Get a life the lot of you. A nice Christmas holiday in the Bahamas will do the trick won't it?

Mumsnet wouldn’t really exist if it wasn’t possible to discuss things that dont directly affect them. This is a discussion site…Anything within the rules, is fine to discuss.

It’s ok for anyone to moan….no rules about moaning…one of the very few things left to do for free.

How is someone on 100k much better off? The only thing that changed is the change in the lower threshold, that's hardly anything? They still have to pay 40% on the majority of their pay?

That is in response to @Kteeb1

MooseBreath.
People on 3k don't get benifits or help with childcare.
The cut off is 26k, which as a house hold we are over. We haven't had any help for a while now. My partner works at Lidl, we don't have a mortgage, we rent, a old house, which has damp issues( which we keep on top off) and old wooden windows. We are lucky our rent has gone up much, probably due to the landlord, not having a mortgage to pay on our house.
I think people need to look at there spending habits if the cannot live on 100k. Yes I know down south things are dearer, but having dealt with debt, you have to cut back on luxurys we haven't had a holiday abroad in 17 years. Our last UK holiday was about 5 years ago. As its a luxury we cannot afford. Even days out can be crippling to the budget.

@Fairylightsandcinnamon it's the ni change, it makes about £100 a month difference on £100k.

Which incidentally is the amount the full time childcare I need to do my job has gone up recently. Not sure that's enough of an argument to crash the currency but oh well.

I didnt say i was on 100k. I said i was over 100k. And i am 250 better off a month. Dont shoot the messenger.

You are being unreasonable. Imagine you earn well for years, and you decide to buy a house with a large mortgage that you can afford really easily. Then suddenly your energy bills double, the car you need for your daily commute dies, you need a new boiler and a roof repair, and the interest rate on your mortgage doubles... Anyone would struggle if several big things happen at the same time, and that's what a lot of families experience right now.

Of course there is always the option to drastically downsize. Sell the house, buy a smaller one to reduce the mortgage - but with a family you don't tend to take these decisions lightly, as your kids might have pretty strong opinions about where they live.

So I think it's reasonable to feel a bit bitter because higher earners have more options to react to a financial crisis - but you can still struggle on a high salary, through no real fault of your own

People just really don’t want to plan for the worst 🤷‍♀️. DH and I both earn 6 figures but have always operated so we could manage on one income by keeping fixed costs we can’t quickly adjust, ie mortgage, cars, manageable. We could rapidly decrease other expenses (pull DC out of childcare, stop putting 25% of salary into pension, shop somewhere cheaper, always book refundable holidays etc). But it’s hard to think like that, our next door neighbors earn similar to we do but disclosed that if one of them lost their job it would be immediately catastrophic. Their house was cheaper than ours but assuming they took out a way bigger mortgage, they regularly talk about all the luxury hotels they go to, they have had 5 vehicles in the 4 years we’ve lived here, including 2 Audis and a Tesla. We have a 6 year old secondhand car we bought outright and a bicycle. Sometimes I think we should go do fancier things… but if I lose my job we’ll be fine.

I do see how with two children in childcare and a London /SE mortgage £100k would be tight.
We moved out of London before our DC were born. I am the higher earner, £100k + for some of the last twenty years.
However I am going to give a warning. I developed a debilatating illness post partnum second time round . I didn't work for years at my correct level. No one wanted a reduced mobility person in my industry. We went for years living on a quarter of our income. Our savings used up after a couple of years. Be careful that you are doing everything to have some savings. We have never forgotten the £20 Lidl shop. We live an hour outside London and today reduced our new house budget by £150k. I will never put us at risk again. Mortgages were always tested at 25% of salary for a reason.

So we have a household income about £90k for the 4 of us. This is just over £5k a month after taxes. We live south (ish) so a 4 bed detached on a new build estate 1300sq ft was £500k. Our monthly mortgage is £1700.
I am also a fool who puts her kids in private school. Again (I know you have your violins out). They went up +8% this year. £2250 a month for that.
so that plus rising bills….it’s squeaky bum time 🤣🤣🤣

We have a combined income above that and I would never try to say we struggle but we are not rich my any means. Childcare. Huge gas and electric bills, mortgage etc. we are not bad with money. We are able to save an amount each month no real debt etc. but our gas an electric bill has gone from 200ish when we moved in 4 years ago to 670 a month and we could never have foreseen that.
dh also has 3 children from previous marriage so lots of CM. Not moaning. Just saying that’s the type of thing we spend our money on.

@Kteeb1 huh? I was referring to your first sentence in your post - you literally said people on 100k should be much better off.

Thanks @magn for clarifying

Until recently I would’ve agreed with you, but I feel YABU. Combined income here is around £80k, £3k of that goes straight out each month on the mortgage. Then there’s around £2.5k on other loans, general bills, living in general, not including the diesel we need to go to work or the food I feed us all. There’s never a penny left over and I’m great at budgeting. I shop around, Lidl, Aldi, Morrisons… I buy s/h clothes or reduced In the sale, we drive older cars ( mines 11yrs old) we only holiday once a year if that… I think if all the variables were comparable YANBU but you just don’t know what costs people have at the end of the day x