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.

How can your fuel be £240 if you only have the heating on one hour a day? We have a 4 bed house with 2 of us and pay less than that.
i would look around for a cheaper fuel supplier or get your house insulated better.

Also most people I know who are single and own their home have a
lodger

Whereas its tone deaf to complain when you are amongst the highest earners and its all over the news yesterday that huge numbers are in absolute poverty. It doesn't just wear thin it grates.

Lack of awareness of privilege isn't helpful.

This.

If you are really struggling, and I know even this amount can be tough, perhaps you could

• extend the life of your mortgage, or
• go interest only repayment until your car is paid off.

Then, I suggest these, as possibilities without any judgement, as you may already have tried them:

• Do you really "need" a car?
• Could you get a job elsewhere and move and sell up?
• Work out the relocate and commute, if it could, but not always, be cheaper
• Cancel any packages, and go for cheapest broadband, look at your phone contract (mine is £6 pcm, but there are cheaper)
• Make lunches at home, download a budgeting cookbook
• Remove alcohol, pop and crisps, and any prepped veg or meals from your shopping list
• Make an art form of buying and eating only what is on offer - waste nothing, but freeze what you don't use
• Give up nail bars, gym membership, beauty sessions. Compare prices on products ( a simple shower gel can vary from 30p to £8)
• buy nothing to read, you can download or use the library

If you can do any of this to help, you may feel less stressed.

That's how the system works. Unless you want a complete free market, capitalistic society.

You've missed council tax, water, gas, electric, car tax. All of that together will significantly eat into that 700 "left over" at the end of the month.

I thought she might be a doctor but then I realised that Junior doctors are on £20-ish-k

You say you’re on your early 40s, so am I. I’m guessing you went to uni in 2002-2005?
Back then the university tuition fees were around £3000 per annum. 3 years meant 9K. Plus then maybe you took out maintenance loan too, so another £10k. Cost of living was pennies compared to now.

I managed to get my student loan paid off in 8 years whilst in a trainee position. I also saved up on money left over. How comes your student loans is so huge?

I don’t get how you are skint. The maths doesn’t work out here. Your car finance must be ridiculously high, get a more affordable car.

She literally says she’s 35 in her first post. And she has done 7 years of uni/training and had to take out hefty bank loans to fund some of it - many professional courses are not covered by student loan funding, eg law. She pays back 600 in student loans per month.

She has 600 student loan repayments a month, her mortgage went up by 500 a month and I’m guessing car finance is around 300-400 as cars are fricking expensive these days, even clapped out bangers.

YANBU

We've been told this sort of salary is being "well off" but the cost of living is extortionate. £58k ten or twenty years ago would have gotten you an awful lot more.

I don't think you're being unreasonable at all.

What is it that you trained to do and what is your job OP? I'd guess it's likely the same as mine!

Really? Most people?

I don’t know anyone who has a lodger. I have a large circle of single friends, and know single people in work who all own homes. No lodgers.

I of course know some people do this - I just don’t think it’s as common as you think.

I am single, own a four bedroom home and can’t imagine anything worse than sharing with a lodger.

Looking at from another angle, in the 60s/70s 5-15% went to university, now it is 40-50%….

My parents walked out with middling to abysmal degrees straight into good careers. Even with 15% interest rate on their mortgage, they shouldered things because house prices were lower, other costs lesser and expections relative to other things in life less (no huge childcare costs - in fact there were very few providers), they had one car, one holiday a year, simple children’s birthday party at home and so on….

Now with so many graduates and an influx of people for housing the competition for everything is greater and thus the price… wars, pandemic etc have shown up what has been going on under the surface - a gradual erosion in wages and in quality of life.

Now to get ahead you generally need at least a 2:1 and post grad…. Heaping up the debt for many students in the lower and middle classes whose parents may not be able to foot the bill.

In short in trying to lessen economic disparity by widening university participation, we have potentially widened it (particularly for middle class), and lessened the value of degree level education and the rewards gleaned from it.

@Bellyblueboy

Where do you live though?

If Scotland, NI, wales parts of north England you are probably right.

SE England, even parts of Manchester I know singles and even families - in great careers might I add - who have to have a lodger…. And this was the case before mortgage rates rose too.

And what is your income, when did you get on the property ladder, do you and friends still have mortgages? Lot of factors to weigh in.

I’m purely talking about the people I know, and it’s a fact where I live. Houses are expensive around here and the only way most single people can afford a mortgage is to get a lodger. In my street alone (17 houses) there are only 2 that are owned by single people under 40 and they both have lodgers (at least 1 lodger). And on our village Facebook page people are constantly advertising rooms to rent in their house.

would I want to do it? No. But I’m not single and pleading poverty.

You’re bringing home nearly £3500 per month, and your mortgage is £1500? How on earth can’t a single person live on £2k per month??

It's interesting really. OP is the reason the Tories will be wiped out at the next election. She should be financially comfortable on a salary like that at her age but she doesn't feel it. Others can complain about the fact that she is "lucky" to be on a reasonably good salary at that age but compared to the standard of living experienced by previous generations in similar socio-economic groups OP is undoubtedly experiencing a much worse standard of living than them.

I know it is a bitter pill to swallow for those on low incomes but salaries of £50k-£60k don't make you anywhere near wealthy these days. We are a low wage economy up and down the chain outside of the executive suite.

The cod psychology demonstrated here - “you’re all jealous she’s a high earner” - is as predictable as it is pathetic.

We’ll all just ignore it then I suppose

I think the point is if you worked hard in further education, you have a stressful job where you presumably work long hours, and thus have a very good salary, living in a 2 bed semi should be very easy for you and it’s not and that’s the problem with today’s society. It’s frustrating and it probably feels like you have no reward for all the self sacrifice, hard work and intellectual effort required working a stressful job. I think there are several reasons for this;

1. The generational wealth gap - retirees seeing 10x value increases in their homes, yet also getting high state pensions
2. Inflation - caused by supply issues (HGV drivers, semi-conductors, construction workers and materials, fuel) but exacerbated by people demanding pay rises which makes them worse off in the long run
3. Double income households - increased affordability makes everything (especially housing) more expensive. This makes it very difficult for single person or single income households
4. The fact that sadly stressful jobs requiring high education are financially rewarded but not as much as they should be comparatively to other jobs
5. Housing supply

Im sure like others have said there are ways for you to cut down on spending and make things easier for yourself, but the real problem is the system. At that salary you should be more than comfortable and because you are not that is very frustrating. I do know how you feel.

I also know what it is like to do a job requiring a lot intellectual effort, long hours, lack of socialising after work etc etc. It’s not fun and I don’t think other people understand. I sometimes wish I’d chosen the easier life where I finish work at a set time and go home of an evening without thinking about work.

It’s people on these types of salaries in such careers that will take their skills and tax overseas where they will have a far more comfortable life. Leaving the UK in an even worse situation.

The thread had moved on after your initial post and my answer so you will see her postgrad loan was not SFE funded and she has an actual bank loan. In any event even if you do not believe her outgoings are as high as she states I do.

Unfortunately I frequently see people who earn less be incredulous that someone who earns more than them, or even the same as them, or sometimes less than them not understand that everyone's personal circumstances are not the same as theirs.

Many people don't even realise the reality of student loans via SFE as regards amount of payment (as touted as affordable graduate tax without the actual figures of how much is withheld) and the impact on affordability of mortgages.