Young couple cannot afford a family on 100k per year!

[dottiedodah]

All subjective of course.Young couple feel they are unable to afford a family ,With lots of expenses .YABU they should just save and keep going .YANBU if they want children then they would have to cut back .Apologies DM link!

Also wage stagnation is a thing. 50k today is 28k in the early 00s & I think the house prices vs salaries ratio was a little better then too.

You don’t need a penny to start a family.

Daily Mail printing bollocks again, no surprise there

@BobLemon what? How will you pay for childcare then?

They want a family but they still want to have the same lifestyle they have now. They don’t want to miss out on their yearly holiday, and have spent a lot of money buying a big cottage which seems pointless if you have no plans to fill it with at least one child. Having a family means making sacrifices and becoming a lot less selfish and it sounds like they aren’t willing to make that compromise. And it’s probably the right decision for them if they are going to resent future children for denying them from living their wanted life!

This is really interesting because a similar thread recently - a woman on PMQT I think saying it was unfair that she couldn't claim for free childcare because she earned £100k, brought out all the people saying that the povvo's were just jealous. I made a comment about cutting your cloth and was rounded on by one particular poster who accused me of being a Tory .

This post is about basically the same thing but with a MUCH different tone!

Not everyone uses childcare? And Bob is right, starting a family (assuming of course no IVF) costs nothing.

I think they don’t actually want kids, otherwise they'd rather have a baby and adapt the lifestyle expectations accordingly. Which is fine, but why not just say so?

Parents & homeowners are also older these days, it’s different to have dc in your early 20s vs your mid 30s.

They don't look young to me.

My sister and her partner are a bit like this. They have a two year old, and are completely ignorant to how lucky they are to have enough to pay for nursery for three days and two of their own mums doing the remaining two days. I had no help at all when my babies were born, all parents were still working or 200 miles away - we just struggled!

Not saying everyone should struggle, but it's ridiculous to say we can't afford it when what they mean is we have other stuff we'd rather spend our money on.

She said they take home £70k combined after tax.

She said "bills, mortgage, insurance and council tax — doubled from £1,400 a month to £2,800"

Commuting is around £160 a week

The couple in that article are a pair of attention seeking idiots

sums it up concisely 👍

This is clearly clickbait from a pair of smug idiots but my worry is that someone who would like to have kids but is a little uncertain will read that article and feel that choosing to have children is irresponsible or even impossible because they earn so much less than £100k.

£100k is an enormous amount of money. If you earn that much yearly you are among the wealthiest people on the planet. If you're claiming at that level of salary that you can't afford children then you're either irredeemably stupid or you don't want children and can't admit it for some reason.

It genuinely bothers me that people who like to have children are putting it off for a dangerously long time because they think they have to guarantee a certain (ridiculously wealthy) lifestyle in order to 'qualify' as a parent. The danger is that they will one day realise what nonsense that is but it'll be too late - not being able to have children when you want them is such a heartbreaking thing to experience and missing out because you believed utter bunkum about required income is so needless.

Yes you need a certain amount of money to have a child but it's nowhere near £100k per annum. If you have any sense at all you just make whatever money you have work. People seem to forget also that you might have a certain amount when your children are born but that doesn't mean you won't earn more in the future - I wasn't working at all when my DS was born 13 years ago, we were in a rented house with very little cash, I now run my own business and we own a 4 bed house outright (and also have another child).

The mania for planning and making everything perfect is awful, it's like some terrible cult that ruins people's lives with unrealistic expectations.

£100k is an enormous amount of money. If you earn that much yearly you are among the wealthiest people on the planet.

The wealthy aren’t on PAYE for a start

People seem to forget also that you might have a certain amount when your children are born but that doesn't mean you won't earn more in the future - I wasn't working at all when my DS was born 13 years ago, we were in a rented house with very little cash, I now run my own business and we own a 4 bed house outright (and also have another child)

People are lambasted for not buying a house before dc though?

We are about 75k and wouldn't afford it. So I can see 100k in London being a struggle.
But as others said, depends on outgoings. Own home mortgage free living near extended family is way different to 3k a month mortgage with no childcare help.

it’s entirely down to lifestyle isn’t it. i have 2 kids and a third on the way with a household income of about 30k

Well, we earn under £100k between us, with 4dc, and manage. When I had the first dc we earned way below the national average each, so probably around £55k total by today’s standards (£40k at the time). We managed comfortably ish!

Having children isn't a right

They don’t want to afford having a baby/child, that is their choice - but dressing it up as can’t afford is a bit silly when they are in the top 20% of earners

it’s entirely down to lifestyle isn’t it. i have 2 kids and a third on the way with a household income of about 30k

Do you struggle to pay a mortgage & childcare?

So £33,600 on mortgage and bills

£18,000 on nursery

Is that commute cost per person or between them? Let’s say another £8k.

Leaves them with £950 a month between them for everything else. Not much really.

Sounds like they have been stung by having a high LTV mortgage on a very low interest rate, and then remortgaging and getting a far higher interest rate.

I can see why that might feel very uncomfortable on that income. Housing costs in the South East are… a lot…

No, but it suggests that something has gone awry if coupled with a healthy income are struggling to afford to have even one.

I expect they want their lifestyles to continue as they are and instead they’re going to be less comfortable financially. They are probably also going to be very shocked by the sleepless nights, the worry about decent education, the mum shaming and the guilt over every decision you make. So possibly just the type of people to give parenthood a swerve.