175k salary and all gone

[175allgone]

This will ruffle some feathers, but after tax, mortgage , childcare, living expenses….there doesn’t seem much left. SE London, commuting, wrap around care. Whilst I appreciate I’m not having to watch my bills I’m hardly living an extravagant lifestyle.

Like virtually everyone in the country on a lot less than that.

Hahahaha

How much is your house worth with that mortgage??

We live on 55k between us, no childcare now. Small house, 2 kids, 1 old car. In London.

Tiny house and mortgage not so big.

You chose to live in Islington and have two kids. You could have lived somewhere not so expensive where childcare is cheaper. These were your choices, Hard to summon much care to be frank.

Just hang on until the kids are out of nursery. I have teenagers and am now in a job with a much lower wage than I used to have (although DH’s has increased a bit). Outgoings in some ages so much lower now (mortgage also recently paid off) and far higher disposable income as a result, despite a big drop in household income.

Well don’t care and don’t respond then. Bad on me for having children.

If you've been on that income for quite a while, surely you could have been saving £3-4K every month towards the (relatively short) period when you need to pay for childcare, assuming you had a vague idea that you would hope to have children at some point?

And if you've only just started earning this huge salary, you won't have had an opportunity to get used to having all that money available before you needed to start paying half of it out on childcare - in which case just continue as you were beforehand, and look forward to the time before long when you won't have to pay for childcare and then you'll massively reap the rewards.

This will ruffle some feathers, but after tax, mortgage , childcare, living expenses….there doesn’t seem much left

No shit Sherlock.

If you choose to spend your large salary on expensive things, it will go down rapidly. Why is that confusing for you?

I’m just honestly curious as to how people manage when supposedly I’m on such a great salary

I saved indeed and it went into a house deposit, im still just astounded how it all disappears and how does everyone else manage

when supposedly I’m on such a great salary

You're not 'supposedly* on a great salary. You ARE on a great salary You're on a salary which most people on here could only dream of. Your outgoings might be huge but don't pretend your income isn't huge too

People live to their means, so of course the col affects everyone. The difference is you are in a better position than a lot of others. Firstly you have 1k of your salary left over every month which is a lot. And secondly you do have options to reduce your outgoings by moving, and the DC going from nursery to school. This makes you far better off than someone hard working in a lower paid job, who has a house in a cheaper, less desirable area, with no options to reduce any outgoing.

I think we’ve all answered that, you have very high childcare costs compared to many, and our mortgage is less than yours. We all make choices, personally we chose to have a bigger gap for our DC so that one’s in school when the other starts nursery, and I chose to work part time to reduce the costs and we both chose flexible jobs to be able to do lots of the school drop offs and pick ups, but in order to do that we don’t earn as much as you and live further from London although still in the south east.

You’re the prime target for Starmer so expect precious little consideration, fiscally or in any way shape or form. And if you think you’re paying enough in tax now just you wait.

Sorry, didn’t mean to offend. People are telling me to move to a cheaper area of london. How does that work for everyone else not on such a salary?

So I should move to a cheaper less desirable area and cause gentrification?

Drop a day at work would save you £800 per month....isn't your bill £200 per day?

Move to a cheaper area, downsize, change jobs, all options. Or just wait until your DC finish nursery and go to school and you’ll have huge amounts of disposable income which others won’t have.

Living in London and nursery bill are you biggest problems. At least nursery in not forever.

"I’m just honestly curious as to how people manage when supposedly I’m on such a great salary"

We don't own a house. We don't eat out. We never go on holiday. We don't get haircuts or dental treatment. We buy boring food at the supermarket week after week and never spluge and get anything fun. We buy own brand cereal and jam. We never get our nails done. We use a bloody great tub of own brand moisturister on our face. We buy stocking fillers in op shops. We haven't bought a new paperback for years. We fill the kids up with pasta and lentils.

@175allgone i had two kids in nursey (recently) in Islington and childcare wasn’t 4k a month…

If the £175k is a single salary, then what does the other parent contribute?

We have friends in a similar situation. They earn a bit less and their mortgage is a bit less but childcare is £4k. It’s crazy. You just have to sit it out til childcare costs reduce when they’re at school. Shit until then though.

I'm genuinely shocked that £175k is only £8500pm. I assumed at those figures you'd get more bang for your buck. My yearly wage is less than what you pay in tax for the year.

Oh and our friends couldn’t have had a bigger gap between kids. Twins so no choice.

Lots will be paying a big chunk on student loans as well. Our friend pays just under £1k a month back for that on £140k.