"We're on good money"

[FunionsRFun]

When a poster says they are on good money or a good salary, what figure comes into your head? For me it's £70k for an individual, and £100k for a household.
For what it's worth I am not on good money!

I'm Australian and I'm on 70K which is ok but not great, my husband is on around $135000K, and I consider his wage middle income here. The COL here is insane.

Lots of factors matter, how much you bought your house for and when.

How the income is balanced. You take home more if two people are on £45k each than a family where one earns £80k and the other £10k. Same earnings, very different take home.

Having to pay for childcare really impacts how fair that money goes.

Then there's taking into account financial gifts and inheritance. Both can make very average salaries feel "good".

Personally, if your housing costs are less than 20% of your salary, you can cover all your bills and save and have some discretionary money, you're bound to feel like your income is "good", whatever that is?

Another Londoner here. My salary is good money as my house is nearly paid for and my children are grown. My colleagues struggle massively.
I always think 35k + is ‘good’. More than average.

It's nothing to do with your outgoings.

What you earn, is what you earn.
Outgoings will always vary.

I think anything over 40K is good money UK wise, generally speaking. Although London may have to be taken out of the equation for that.

I earn “good money” but bills + mortgage are still 75% of my income and food shopping takes up much of the rest. I’m comfortable but I don’t have a big savings cushion (I did, but it got used up in my recent house move) and I don’t have much truly disposable income. I think anyone earning much less than me must really struggle.

We’re on “good money” - just over 100k in the household. But I don’t think we reflect this. Cars are old, house is nice but a standard 4 bed (link detached, which according to another thread means it’s “just a semi”). 3dc are expensive though and they do lots of clubs.

I think it's relative. I earn very good money but my DP is out of work at the moment so if you divide what I earn by two it's a lot less good.

I take it to mean enough money to pay their mortgage, have a good holiday, cover Christmas, days out, go for a meal, not fret about debt or count every penny.

Whatever that amount is for them.

Good money to me is when you have a hefty chunk left after all monthly outgoings. It is all relative though. If you own your accommodation and live frugally, an average salary could be 'good money'. Generally speaking though, I usually think of 'good money' as starting from £10k net per month. I understand I am probably an outlier on this though.

I would.class a single person above £35k as good money.

I'm on a full-time salary for a part-time job, so I'd say that's good money.

When I'm reading posts on MN and people say they earn good money, I tend to assume they earn 75k or more. Probably wrong though.

Good money= more than your peer group

People’s perception of their own wealth is tied to comparisons with friends and family. A person on 40k whose friends are all on 25k feels wealthier than someone on 100k whose friends earn 200k.

I just think that it means you can have a nice home, run cars, buy decent clothes when you want and have trips and a main holiday. My youngest is only on around £22k, mortgage is £200 a month, for a three bed with gardens. She has two holidays a year, eats out when she wants, buys the clothes that she wants and goes out once a week. She always has three months salary in savings. She has enough to be happy on. It's having enough so life doesn't feel like a permanent slog with no end in sight. Everyone has to cut their cloth, but you need enough cloth for your circumstances.

But running a household with only a single earner is such a hit to take.

As others have said it’s relative to outgoings. I’m on 60k but my outgoings are very low at around £300. Split bills with my partner but no rent and I wfh so don’t have regular travel costs. I consider this good money for London because my costs are low

I think it really depends on the individual.

I got more financially comfortable when I started bringing in over £3k a month. So I’d say £50k+ is good. But I won’t feel like I’ve achieved what I wanted until I’m on £100k.

Our household income is £120kish and we are comfortable but we still have to think about big spends etc. but our living costs are around £4k a month.

I have a friend and her partner just secured a job on £37.5k and she thinks it’s amazing and he’s earning so so so much money… she also has £4k on her pension at 30 and thinks that’s amazing too. I think it all depends on your upbringing, outgoings and general ambitions as to what you consider good money.

Depends on the area.

I don't think it's relative to outgoings though, you can earn a very high income and spend it all but that doesn't mean it still isn't a very high income.

How comfortable you feel depends on your essential outgoings and where you live.

I don't share my income with other people and certainly not with people on here, but I don't have a mortgage to pay or childcare costs and those seem to be the biggest outgoings for most people.

Pre kids we were on about £90k household and that felt like good money. We’re now on £120k and what with mortgage increases, childcare costs, cost of living etc, it doesn’t feel like as good money as before. Don’t get me wrong, we’re comfortable enough and don’t go without but it’s all very relative to an individuals situation.

Except it kinda does have everything to do with outgoings…

If I earns £40k I wouldn’t be able to afford my mortgage and so I’d consider this not good money…

Personally, I find it interesting that people associate being on good money with outgoings, I associate it with the salary solely, and for me I would say good money starts at £3000 net if you don’t live in a capital city.

I am technically on “good money” salary wise and I am also mortgage free, and in a low cost of living city, but ironically even if I earned minimum wage and could still live quite well due to the low COL and being mortgage free I wouldn’t ever say I am on “good money” if I earned minimum wage, I would, at best, say I am in a “comfortable financial position”, which for me confirms that I see being on good money as what the person brings in money wise and not their overall financial situation.

Equally, I am on good money but if I had a high mortgage, high childcare or private school fees and lived in central London, I might still be on good money but in a tight financial position. So for me a good salary remains a good salary and a bad one a bad one and one’s outgoings and financial position remains a separate issue and one should be able to judge if someone is on good money based on salary figure even if their salary might lead to a good or tight financial position based on their outgoings/personal situation.

Like for me 100k will always be being on good money even, if it might be tight in London for the sole reason that most people don’t earn that and so it would feel weird to imply that someone on 100k isn’t on good money just because they have a £1.5million mortgage. And 18k will always be a low salary even if the person is mortgage free and barely spend anything.

I consider myself to be on good money but I see people posting on here about being skint whose mortgages are on a level with my entire monthly take home. Our mortgage is £450 for a lovely big flat in a nice but rural area, so we are very comfortable on an income which would posters with big detached houses in SE England feel like they'd been plunged into extreme poverty.

DH grew up very poor and I grew up with parents who were pretty cautious and had been raised to think of things like foreign holidays as unimaginable luxuries, so we don't really feel like we're missing out. People post on here about cleaners and private tutoring and paying people to do basic DIY for them, and from the outside it looks like they're earning loads of money in order to pay other people to live their lives for them.

I associate good money with the 'average/general' (whatever) salaries for that particular location, not someone's personal circumstances.
This is because COL does influence salary that's why even the NHS has London weighting (although it's nowhere near enough).

My current job for example pays at least double in London. But I wouldn't be able to enjoy the same standard of living. So it would be silly to compare a good salary in the North West to a good London salary. Of course, after a certain point a salary is good wherever. And similarly below a certain point (min wage), it's low wherever.

That's the kind of ball park figure I'd guess at.

We're South East, the friends we have that would say that they're on "good money" are pushing 100k pre bonus etc. I'm in the public sector, on £30k. We couldn't afford to live in the MN declared "grim" town we live in on my salary. Elsewhere I'm sure it would go further

I think outgoings are irrelevant. If you earn 200k but spend 199k a year that doesn't change the fact you're on good money, it just means you're spending a lot too.

That's simply not the case. In order to earn that kind of money in many sectors you have to live in an expensive area and/ or pay large commuting costs. If you have children then to continue to work and earn that money you have to pay for childcare for them which will also be more expensive in an expensive area. If you have disabilities or your children do then additional costs come with that. If you are a single parent you have higher costs for childcare generally, and are taxed more and have to pay all living and child costs alone. None of the above factors are a choice (other than having children in the first place) if you want to continue to earn your salary.

I also think in these discussions many people don't understand the impact of tax on these higher salaries. For example, a single parent with two children using childcare who earns £99k will have a lower net income after tax and childcare than if they earned £150k! And yet a poster upthread stated £100k is well off and £150k is "mega rich". Yet in some circumstances someone earning £100k is better off than someone on £150k after tax and childcare.

The situation is complex and headline salary is meaningless until you consider outgoings as well.

Having lived in absolute poverty when younger I do understand how it's difficult for some people who do not earn very much to understand that someone earning a six figure income could be struggling for money but it absolutely can be the case, and not because of poor financial management or irresponsible and unnecessary spending: it is not uncommon to have such an income and have to budget extremely carefully for essential living costs with no money for luxuries, holidays etc.