To ask what you think a reasonable lifestyle is for this income?

[Momeymoney]

They have a DS (11) and a DD (8). Mum and Dad both work full time and when combined their income is £155,000 before taxes. What is a reasonable lifestyle for them to live? How much can they afford to spend on cars, can they afford private school, holidays, etc?

Depends massively on where you live and how 'ambitious' you have been with your property purchase / mortgage. We earn 300k between us and don't feel like we are rolling in it but then we live in one of the most expensive parts of North London and have a big mortgage and a holiday home on the south coast. We could have made different choices (and may do in the future) and we'd have loads of money left over for different stuff.

We don't earn anything like as much as that between us. Our kids are grown now but we wouldn't have sent them to private school anyway. Our mortgage will be very low by most people's standards as we first bought 30 years ago, so last time we moved we could afford a place with the mortgage being a minor proportion of the overall costs. (Popular part of London so relatively wealthy in the sense our house is a valuable asset, well over average values).

With two kids we have been able to afford two holidays a year, at least one abroad, and we don't go camping. Would say these are our greatest expense but they mean a lot to us. Cars are always second hand - I have zero interest in buying new due to the rapid depreciation.

I think considerations will be the area and public transport. Will this family need two cars for example? Will they be buying ur leasing the cars? Will they have a mortgage or renting? Do they have a deposit? Will the children be in state or private?

if we assume private school, two fancy cars, a large mortgage and two holidays a year then that income isn’t going to go far. If they own their house, the children go to state school, they’re happy with one car etc etc that’s a great income!

It’s not standard life though is it? Standard life for lots of people is overcrowding and food banks. We know this isn’t an average income so it’s definitely not standard life.

If they're living at their parents, it's be a fortune.

My DH and I retired last year and before that we earned 188k before tax, we have three DC that went to state school, spent 20k per year on holidays and a similar amount on days out/eating out, had 2 brand new cars, lived in the SouthEast with very good commute to London in a modern detached house. DC did any clubs/sports etc they wanted and DH and I have hobbies. I never thought about putting the heating on or food costs.
I wasn’t willing to give up all the fun stuff for private schools.

It would be bloody luxurious for me, my outgoings are less than £1k a month so I'd be living like a millionaire on that!

I expect they aren't talking about themselves, but someone they know...maybe some kind of nosy fact finding exercise...

@PackBacker a very sensible viewpoint in my opinion. My son went to a comp in Oxford for his GCSEs ( and not the number 1 one either) and around 6 or 7 in his year still went to top 5 Unis and a great many others top 20.

Our income is a fair bit less. Live in London and have three children, large ish mortgage. We pay for private school for one child from salary (grandparents pay for another). One old car. Go on a few nice (but not luxury) holidays a year.

What an odd question, everyone's definition of 'reasonable' is different. Depends if you want to prioritize a higher mortgage/bigger property, travelling/holidays, saving/investments, eduction?

I think on that income in most of the country (not London) you should be able to save well for retirement, have a house sufficient for your needs in a nice area that you can afford to maintain properly, be able to buy groceries without being cost conscious, have a car (or two) that you can afford to maintain, be able to afford holidays in the UK and abroad. The cost of the car vs holidays vs house decoration will vary depending on your priorities. Private education would use up a significant percentage of your income and would reduce a comfortable income to a much less comfortable income with far fewer savings (if any), more budget conscious spending on essentials, a smaller more dated house in a less nice area, a single old banger and budget conscious holidays.

This is of course a very high income, the average household income is a third of this. Some people on this income will save a lot and appear to lead a more modest lifestyle, others will spend spend spend and service large debts. Some people will be gifted or inherit large amounts of money, some won't.

Really just depends on so many factors!

Most people probably couldn’t afford an expensive house (and house prices are so so dependent on location!), private school, 2 fancy cars, expensive holidays, decent pensions etc on that income. But they can afford some combination of the above depending on their priorities.

That's around our combined income, and we've sent two children through private school.

But (and it's quite a big but), children are now sixth form/uni, so the financial climate was a little different a decade ago, especially regarding potential vat on school fees, raised cost of living and mortgage rates. Also, because we're the generation above (late 40s now), we'd paid off our mortgage and had comfortable savings and we have final salary now career average pension schemes, so started the school fee paying years from a very comfortable starting point, which is much harder to achieve now. However, even bearing all that in mind, on that income, paying 2 x fees, we had a comfortable, but not luxurious life. Holidays, yes - multiple expensive holidays? - No. Comfortably ran two cars, yes - newest high end cars? - No. etc.

Earn around £120k gross but no childcare costs and cheap mortgage (c800 p/m). Lifestyle affords the following:

good sized detached house in a relatively cheap area, in a good state of repair
1 new car paid monthly, 1 older car fully paid for
spend around £10k per year on holidays spread between 3-4 breaks mostly UK plus savings for bigger hols less often (say a £12k holiday every 3 years)
eating out/entertainment when we want but not that often - rarely book theatre etc because of excessive cost for 4. Same for shopping - can buy what we want but generally not spendy
don’t have to save for most things like UK holidays, Christmas or bigger one off ad hoc purchases as monthly income covers this - can then save £500-£1000 in months that don’t have these which is about half the year, most of this spent on either big holidays or home improvements
don’t really have much by way of savings - around £14k which is less than 3 months income, but again never needed it.

definitely could not afford private education for 2 and would not consider it value for money to go without most of the rest of our lifestyle to stretch to this!

Roughly the same as our income with 2 DCs. We have 4 bed detached, 2 cars (1 newly bought for £20k), probably spend around £3k a year on holidays in the UK. Spend about £2k on Christmas. Deliberating about private school. It's affordable but only by a hairs breadth but income should substantially increase by the time youngest starts school and continue to increase so it should get more affordable in time, just a pinch at the start. Although reception fees will be reduced as DD will get the 15 gov funded hours. We've been watching our spending more carefully in preparation for eldest starting school, but otherwise would usually just buy whatever we want but aren't extravagant eg no foreign holidays, rarely buy clothes for ourselves, don't get nails done etc, don't pay for any clubs etc

I think it was summed up above- you can mix and match so you have some nice things but not all, depending on your priorities.

Yea this, this is basically our life

This is a brilliant Mumsnet post.

"Just standard life."

I am very lucky to this this kind of standard life. I know that it puts me comfortable in the top 10% of households in the UK. It is very much not "standard life".

@YaWeeFurryBastard holidays pre-kids and post-kids are very different! As are the majority of life's expenses

It's a bloody ridiculous question, though 🤷🏻‍♀️

I wouldn’t be surprised if OP is the parent of one of the adults in this family, and is trying to work out if their child is taking the piss when they say they can’t afford/need help with school fees or something.

@MasterBeth

Of course, you’re absolutely right that it is much more than most have and places them in a very lucky position of not having day to day concerns over money.

By ‘standard life’ what I was clumsily trying to say was that it doesn’t afford a particularly extravagant lifestyle. And of course, as we’ve all pointed out, depends entirely on location, housing costs, childcare costs and any family support.

I’m in the south and 4 bed houses start at 600 (semi detached) to 1.2m in a 1 mile radius of my location. Mortgage alone would eat up a huge chunk of income for most.

It would be perhaps kind of the OP to return to explain why they asked.

It depends what they choose to prioritise- for us it is travel and pensions. For others it may be house size or private schools or designer clothes... it is impossible to say.

We earn less than that and go abroad for at least 21 nights per year and 10 or so nights in the UK for example. I dont however own anything designer. My friend on a similar income dresses her children and themselves almost exclusively in designer clothing but go away for 7 nights in the UK.

It depends on a number of factors.
Are they on the housing ladder?
Do they have family money?
Family help with childcare?
Remote/flexible working?

If you bought years ago private school would be affordable