To be in this job and feel poor?

[fedippp]

I trained for seven years, reasonably large student loan etc, to end up age 35 on 58k, and barely anything left at the end of the month!!! Mortgage is 1300 for a 2 bed semi, (up from 800 last year). Student loans are still hundreds a month. I have a car on finance as I couldn’t save house deposit and car deposit, need car for work. I eat beans on toast 3 nights a week. I feel like an idiot. I missed out on so much in my twenties to get into a decent job that I thought paid well and it seems to have been a waste of time! Does anyone else feel this way? I feel so disheartened.

Do you fall into a higher tax bracket, thinking this might be where your take home salary is being brought down. I can’t say from experience because I’m not on that much but I’ve heard you can avoid this by upping your pension contribution.
sounds like you’re a single person so it is tough on one income even though £58k is a lot of money! We’re a family of three and take home £4000 a month, live in a 3 bed terrace with one car but struggle with nothing left over for holidays and new clothes etc. I feel your pain.

It’s less than that take home if you have a decent pension.

So what would you have seen as a better alternative? I dont get your reasoning. If you hadn't trained and got to your wage you would be earning less and even worse off surely?

YABU.

You earn a very good salary in a professional job, you own a home, run a nice car and are repaying debts. You should be congratulating yourself.

But if you are genuinely unable to afford anything other than beans on toast, then you are not budgeting correctly and need to have a look at your spends. Are you buying 2 Starbucks a day for example? That's £10 already.

But your situation is not unusual. I was a single, professionally employed in London in the late 90s and did bar work on the side for extra cash. Other professionals I knew house shared and certainly didn't own a car.

You have to manage your expectations and ignore what people say they have on social media.

It doesn't seem to be your earnings that are the problem, its the amount you are paying back - mortgage, car finance, £600 a month bank loan - any credit card debt? I'm not surprised you're struggling. Can you find a way to bring your repayments down

You can but this will take her take home pay now even lower. Yes better long term but when you need the money now it’s tough to put 8k a year into pension to avoid being taxed 40% on anything you earn over 50k

All sympathy. I think part of the problem is that gross salaries look good but net ones are far lower. Re the car, I'd hesitate to change it. A friend once said 'Buy a new car spend £100 pm paying for it, buy an old car, spend £100 pm mending it'. It was 30 + years ago and the sums have changed but the principle remains. We drive old cars with crossed fingers.

Agree. I earn 63k and don’t take home £3600 and I’m not repaying student loan. My take home is £3500 after pension deduction (nearly £400 a month)

People are saying the OP should lower expectations yet my parents had all this on one decent wage, with my dad leaving school with no qualifications; just using his skills and taking the opportunities. I’m not talking mega rich. I’m talking lower middle class.

It’s sad that so many feel it’s blindingly obvious that this sort of life is only for those on six figure salaries.

When did we start thinking that’s “just how it is”?

Fight for better. Don’t accept it.

What length is your mortgage term and what equity balance to loan do you have?

Could you lengthen your loan period for now?
Can you take in a lodger to assist with the bills and this is tax free money under £7000 per year?
How long do you have on the car finance? having a lease car might be better as newer car, more reliable and same type of repayments - you can also get 3 year old else cars, which will be cheaper.

TBH I have worked with people that have completed 3 years at uni and are doing the same job as myself for the same pay and I don't have a degree - I'm not sure why the debt was worth while, they were not using the job as a stepping stone either. It seems education for educations sake at a cost of £45k

🙄🙄🙄

Are you a solicitor OP?

Your gas an electric is crazy. We have a four bed and are in all day and it’s £150 pcm. Find a switch on money supermarket or compare the market ( good free days out and cinema ticket deals on these websites if you switch through them)

I am really sorry to hear how tough it’s all adding up. I do understand that you studied hard, paid some crazy stupid fees and now also have double the interest to pay on your home. It’s shit.

many years ago I moved out of the flat I owned into shared accommodation for four years in a similar circumstance. It was annoying but it did take the pressure off. I do know many people crippled by the new mortgage rates. Hang in there. It will get better. See if you can yourself a new role if you can x

Are you on student loan repayment plan 1 or 2? If it's 1 then you earn nearly £3.5k a month after tax, national insurance and student loan. How much is the car? Could you get rid of the finance plan and buy a cheap second hand car? Long term, could you find a house in a cheaper area so the mortgage is lower?

There is so much unrealistic advice on this thread. Upping and moving house costs money, upping and moving job is not easy the more specialised you are, getting a second job when in a professional job is unlikely most jobs at £58k involve huge amounts of unpaid overtime. Many public sector and public sector adjacent jobs have salary bands and promotion doesn’t just happen, likewise their are often relatively high pension contributions. £58k is not the equivalent of 2 x £26k (seriously have people not heard of individual tax allowances!) Sorry you’ve had to deal with wading through lots of it, OP.

i would agree that sensible advice is to

• draw up a budget,
• use price comparison sites for your energy and insurances to reduce costs,
• seriously consider taking a lodger in the short term.

The latter may not be as bad as you think - my sister has lodgers and has really loved, most of hers have been medics, teachers, lawyers at the start of their careers and many of them have been from overseas so she now has some great recipes and cheap holidays visiting their families!

But most of all, based on your follow up, I think job stress is also a big factor in how you are feeling. Quite how to deal with that I don’t know but it might be helpful to see if your employer has any services for staff.

Good luck!

This thread is making me realise how much the higher tax bracket makes a difference to take home pay. I'm on around the 50k mark and unable to progress much more, I take home apx 3k a month (after pension deduction of apx 5%)

Shocked at those in the mid 60k range saying they don't take home much more.

Agree its shit for the OP but it is for everyone. Salaries flatlining whilst house prices have soared is the fundamental issue.

Oh and being single is hard, but so is having dependents in a couple. The OP has no dependents costs to worry about.

Fiscal drag is a bitch. I find it fascinating that many of the middle class have been drawn in to worrying about additional rate and Inheritance tax that many almost certainly will never pay, but blithly ignore the imapct of fiscal drag on their take home pay.

See a mortgage advisor, it sounds like you are on a variable rate. A fixed term will help you to budget and avoid unexpected hikes.

with regards to your income, you are at the point where indirect taxes start to take a bigger chunk. Depending on your industry, salary rises do tend to be bigger after so you can climb quickly.

with regards to your 20’s, that is in the past and you probably missed a lot of hangovers. With a good job and a house your future is more certain than it would be if you had partied in your 20s.

I had lodgers for years on and off and am
getting another one soon (paid off mortgage) as I won’t have work from end of next week. I also didn’t have a car for a few years as I couldn’t afford one.

I earn far less than you and do have income coming in from rentals but this is all saved and reinvested and is family owned (DM and DB and me).

Agree with pp a fixed term mortgage is much better. My SIL eg has an interest only mortgage which I don’t personally understand the point of but it does get paid.

I hold my hands up I didnt RTFT, OP also has a bank loan on top of student loans.

a 50% increase in mortgage along with this would keel over anyones finances.

However, OP, I am similar age and salary to you, I have a similar mortgage (before your increase) - i have to say that whilst it would be far from ideal at ALL, i would be find the money without absoutely skinting myself, and I wouldn't be reduced to eating beans on toast 3 times a week.

Something is fundamentally wrong with your budgeting. (I get it, I was shit at budgeting for the longest time because I simply never had to)

Try being a single income household on 21k with rent eating up nearly half your income and no hope of ever saving up enough to buy or to go to uni. Then come back and complain to me about being poor.

You can't reduce your tax bracket by pension contributions.
I think what maybe frustrating is if you're in a job that's potentially very high paying but you are on a lower salary to others even if your salary is actually quite high.

£240 a month on gas and electric when you barely have the heating on is crazy! I'm in a 3 bed house and with heating on more than that am spending less than £5 a day.

Are you on a smart meter? The first thing I did when exH moved out was get a smart meter and work out what was costing me so much. All light bulbs changed to low energy made a surprising difference.

Are you on a fixed rate mortgage? When is it due to end? I've maxed the repayment term on mine (I'm 50 so this isn't ideal) to make monthly repayments more affordable.

Having read your answers @fedippp , it seems to me the real source of your unhappiness is that you think your friends are in a better situation than you, despite them not going to uni for most of their 20s.
I'd suggest you need to stop comparing yourself to others. As lots of People in this thread have pointed out, to others, you seem to be the lucky one. You have a 2 bed house, a good wage, a car. There are probably aspects of your life they aspire to.
The sensible thing to do here is focus on what you do have - job security, pension, a house, a car, money to actually pay your bills. Then I'd look to see where your budget can change. Are you over spending on food? Can you change your car to get a cheaper one? Can you change your job for a better wage?
And learn from your 'mistakes'. Taking on a mortgage and expensive car loan on top of your educational loans may have been a stretch too far. Next tome you're making a purchase for a larger item, work out if you really need it, if there's a cheaper way, if you can save 1st and so on.
But mostly, stop allowing comparison to tarnish your achievements.

I think that is very wise. A decade or more of very cheap credit has made us all think our salaries go further than they actually do. The OP unfortunately has loaded herself up with a lot of debt obligations just as that party ended.