Is £85k a good salary in London (family)?

[SleepDreamThinkHuge]

You may have been aware of a recent Twitter post where one guy was saying £85k a year in London for a family means you will still struggle. Other posters were saying it is not comfortable and definitely not rich. Others were also saying that £85k means your income is higher than 95 percent of the population in the UK. And some have mentioned just because you are £85k you do not need to send your child to private school it is a choice or buy a financed car.

Where do you stand? I can see both arguments but as someone who lives in London how I would love to earn £50k+ let alone £85k. Working in the public sector in a job I like means I earn just over £32k. In the near future, could earn closer to £50k in the next 5 years if I train, and take a more team leader/management responsibility. I think I am not the only one. A lot of people assume just because you live in London you are guaranteed to earn over £50k easily. Many professions are earning less than £50k in London (nurses, teachers, some doctors, police, public sector workers, banking staff in branches etc...

You’d think wouldn’t you - but no, people were saying similar. They deleted the anonymous post in the end, it was eye opening. How it was broken down and how many people thought this reflected a normal family income. Mind boggling.

It's fine for one person or maybe a young couple but not a lot for a family to live on in London.

Being able to afford a mortgage and have 2.5k left over seems like a pretty good life to me.

Think it’s a sign that our country is fucked if a family can’t survive on £85k a year.

I earn £88k. I get around £4700 per month after pension contributions. Sounds huge BUT if you are paying £1500-2000 per month rent and the same for childcare it’s almost all gone before you start on any other bills. It’s the outgoings that are key and it’s not always possible to reduce them unless you are lucky enough to have free childcare provided by family members and/or low cost social housing.

I think it mainly depends on your housing situation

@Botw1 sounds great…until you want to have a child and then you find out that a full time nursery place costs £1500 to £2000.

It depends on circumstances which are variable. DS and DIL - late 20s, he's an academic, she's in marketing earn £35k and £40k respectively. They chose to live a couple of tube stops to London. They rent a one bed flat in a mixed HA development on a commercial rent. They clear about £3900 pcm between them:

Rent £1800
Utilities £250
C Tax £250
Phones £80
Netflix/Broadband: £50
Insurances £50
Fares £200
Food £350
Car (tax, insurance, maintenance, permit) £200 (no allowance for replacement)

So their outgoings, before they pass go are about £3,200 That leaves them with about £700 for savings, spends, nights out, holidays, gifts, etc. I appreciate the car is a non essential but whilst they live only just over 10 miles from us, on public transport it takes 90 minutes, by car 30 (at weekends).

I only know their budget because dh and I went through it with them.

In London, if there were a property to finance in the commercial sector, with at least two bedrooms, costs would be higher depending on location - the further out, the higher the fares. At £85k probably no WTC or Child benefit. Plus with dc, more heads to feed, childcare costs (can be £100 per day in London) and other child related expenses.

It would be different if a family were in social housing and eligible for universal credit, working tax credit, child benefit, etc.

I don't think DS and DIL could start a family, living in Central London based on their income of £75k or even £85k if they had no other help. I think it would be equally difficult if they moved to zone 4/5 also but they would get more space.

It isn't about the overall earnings but about what is left after essential expenditure.

£85k is a good salary, but if you’re the main earner, have a family and live in London, you certainly wouldn’t be considered as rich.

I love the post when people turn up to say they are on £100k and they are living on beans.

We have a household income of around £95K (probably a bit more) in the North of England and it's enough but not loads. I can imagine you might struggle in London as rent and property costs are much higher. It depends on your other expenses too of course.

@FourTeaFallOut read @RosesAndHellebores break down and have a good think about it. That’s for a one bed room flat and no childcare. I am sick to my back teeth of people not understanding how what seems to be a big household income doesn’t stretch very far when you have high housing and childcare costs.

How can anyone think 95 k isn't "loads". Objectively it is, top whatever percent of all earners.

I understand you might not be able tk do everything on it but it is certainly loads. Roughly the same as 3 average households...

@Dibblydoodahdah

Are you a single parent?

High housing costs are a choice. Even in London.

Because so many people are topped up with tax free cash such as chb, UC and free childcare. They can’t comprehend what it’s like to have to pay for all of that with no top ups whilst paying 40% tax. People confuse a high income with being rich (generational wealth sat on millions/billions). As I said, economically illiterate.

It's the kind of income where you wouldn't struggle on but it's not entirely comfortable on either. You'd have to budget quite strictly.

A family of 6 living in London on £85k might not have a lot of disposable income, but a single person on that wage in the NE should be quite comfortable.

The more you earn the more choices you have, which aren’t available to those on lower wages. But whatever your outgoings - which as a high earner you should have some control/choice over - it doesn’t take away from the fact that £85k is still a high wage.

I’m bored of privileged people making choices like taking out big mortgages and having expensive cars on finance then complaining their high wage isn’t enough to live on 🥴

You make your choices. That's what £100k gives you. Not an inexhaustible pot so you don't have to choose.

@Lostinalibrary

Or, people are perfectly able to understand it because they are also doing all that on less than 85k?

How very presumptuous 😁

@Botw1 what has my circumstances got to do with it. The OP was asking about a family income of £85k. As someone from a working class Northern background I thought that £88k was huge…but now I know that it’s not quite that straight forward.

And no, high housing costs are not always a choice. Many people would love to be able to have lower cost social housing but it’s in very short supply.

Being above the national average doesn’t mean good.

Correct though.

This country has a low wage economy. People have become used to being paid so little and taxed so much. They just see anyone earning more than them and think it’s good. Rather than benchmarking against other countries where the economy hasn’t been mismanaged.

Raise your standards.