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.

I am on a lot less but 58k is not a lot and is the equivalent in the 90's of 25-30k, it is barely liveable in a single person household

Inflation is awful and everyone is struggling

@hendoop I am on a lot less but 58k is not a lot and is the equivalent in the 90's of 25-30k

Which was a very high salary in the 90s...

I'm sorry but that's rubbish. DS2 is on 1500 a month after housing costs and manages fine.

And that's in the SE

I dont get it, on 58k but struggling? have you got loads of other outgoings? can you move to a cheaper area??

Student pan repayments
Pensions
Memberships of professional bodies for accreditations
Insurance for your professional role

These add up to
Then there's commute
Parking

My first salary £6250 trainee lawyer in London in 1983. I just applied the inflation calculator t that and that is £20,345. I think that was from the days not that long after people or their parents had to PAYE to be a trainee lawyer as you are a burden on a firm so we were on less than the secretaries even despite having a law degree and post grad. Those trainee lawyers today in London are on £43k in other words double in real terms what I was on (not that I think generational comparisons are particularly helpful as things change so much like 9% student loan "tax" and higher London rents for people in those kinds of jobs).

So in other words you are twice as well off in real terms today as a trainee lawyer in London as you were in 1983 BUT if you are in a much lower paid minimum wage trainee lawyer job - loads of young lawyers are - then you are on about the same that I was on in 1983.

You are on a high wage. You have managed to buy your own property and presumably have a fairly new car so you ARE doing well. There are lots of things you can do to improve income eg lodger, extra weekend job, look at changing car but, I agree, you shouldn’t really have to. I am surprised that you are struggling as a single person on that wage.
FWIW I am on an extremely low income less than 1/5 of yours and have 3 children to support.
However, I do see where you are coming from. One of my family members is doing a PHD and prior to this worked using their masters, they were on £27,000. They used to moan that friends with no uni degree were earning more than them. After PHD, if they do a post doc their salary will only be around £40k after 7 years studying! This is in a profession that is very important to all of us.

Yup there’s two of us so more combined salary but 4 children. Luckily our mortgage didn’t increase much but even the bills , food etc is squeezing the budget. An 40 and feel worse off than when I was earning 12k when I was 20 .

People seem to be missing the point that a £500 increase in mortgage payment is huge

With the mortgage hike your current lifestyle isn't really sustainable. There's been times in my life where I have had to consider sudden salary drops such as because of redundancy, and one off service demands for my flat. The only way to deal with it is to be flexible and that means compromise, I have never bought a brand new car.. a friend of mine has a ledger and she earns over £100k but needs the money to pay her mortgage and have a better life style e. I get a decent enough salary more than you but I am also a lot older. I think when you are starting out it's really easy to think that you work and study hard and life is a breeze then you realise that the train driver on your commute is paid more than you but you still don't want to drive trains...

@Abovedeckdeck They used to moan that friends with no uni degree were earning more than them. After PHD, if they do a post doc their salary will only be around £40k after 7 years studying! This is in a profession that is very important to all of us.

"Only"? First of all, £40k is an excellent salary, although as a former postdoc, I understand that postdoc salaries need to be high to compensate for the 1 or 2 year short term contract (my current salary is lower than £40k, but at least my position is permanent).

Once this person moves into private industry, they will quickly discover that starting salaries are often below £30k, and they too will be bemused as to how someone can struggle on a whopping £58k.

40k is a good salary but after 7 years of studying, and having a doctorate, it doesn’t seem especially high as some of their friends are earning almost that salary now without a degree or any student debt 🤷🏼‍♀️.

I am confused by the second part of your post. The family member I was posting about has already worked in industry for 27K, with a masters degree. If they want to do a post doc, eg to stay in academia, the salary is around £40k. If they move into industry the salary is substantially higher so they’ll probably end up taking that route even though they would prefer the post doc.

Anyway, I understand the bit about being bemused at a single person struggling on £58k as I am on a low salary and have to support children 🤷🏼‍♀️.

This has been published by the way, I saw it on Facebook today