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.

Ha ha, I do live out in the sticks but I’m quite familiar with childcare costs. £1400-1500 per month is the going rate here. Please share the details of your daughters childcare bill - did it cover two DC at the same time like the OP’s? Was it for full time care? Did she get tax free childcare and 30 free hours - the OP won’t because she earns over £100k? You still haven’t explained why you think the OP’s childcare bill is extravagant when it’s within the normal range for London for someone who isn’t entitled to Government help.

I'm honestly unsure what kind of house you can get in Brixton that's affordable and not an absolute dump...

For many, many people, unfortunately, there is no direct correlation between hard work and high earnings. And phrases like 'your lot in life' make you sound like you want a return to the days of the grateful forelock-tugging poor. I take it you do realise improving one's 'lot' isn't always as straightforward as 'finding a new job'? (Although quite possibly not, given what you said about universal credit claimants. 🙄)

Yes @CharlotteBog Petts Wood is a hotbed of crime. I'm surprised people make it out alive.

Did you not think about the costs of childcare before you had children?

Yes - London, if separated from the rest of UK, would become the richest country in the world. Frankly reading through the comments, you can see why some people aren’t able to contribute, they don’t have the intellectual capacity.

'Less ambitious'? Fucking hell.

People on less money than you survive by some combination of the following:

• having family help with childcare
• having jobs that allow compressed hours / part-time working / term-time only. That cuts the childcare bills
• WFH jobs that cut commuting costs + allowing school pick-ups
• 2 x wages both under 100k cliff edge
• earning less than £100k so getting help with childcare costs
• Keeping a greater proportion of their earnings after tax
• Large equity in home so low mortgage costs
• Still on a low fixed-rate mortgage
• child benefit (if both parents under £80k)
• child maintenance
• Using savings
• Grandparents paying for holidays/ extra-curricular activities etc.
• Universal credit / carer's allowance / PIP / housing allowance or other benefits.
• Having access to things like free/ subsidised swimming lessons/ museum entry / food banks / free school meals. Some of these, for some, on some benefits, in some areas, depending on availability.
• Reducing their outgoings

That's it. People make the best choices they can given their circumstances.

Housing costs and childcare costs are wild in the UK. Wild.

£48k a year on child care is a ridiculous amount.

No maybe you need retraining also. All I can tell you is taking more from the state than you can afford to contribute isn’t working. Fundamentally, people need to cover their costs, or have families that they can afford, not fall on UK higher tax payers to mop-up your poor financial planning.

@User1979289 there's some really nice houses in Brixton @CharlotteB94. Plus it's on the tube. I couldn't afford it there!

How many people do you personally know who literally choose not to work? I'm guessing not many. Most people (child-rearing/caring responsibilities aside) want to work.

Out of interest, how are people like OP meant to be voting? I feel like we've been crucified by the Tories yet these people are probably traditionally within Tory voting brackets. Is Keir Starmer going to accept the goalposts have moved in some locations in regards to the salary you earn and what is considered rich?

Why are you assuming I am a low earner? That's yet another sweeping generalisation you've been wrong about on this thread. I'm starting to lose count.

'fake jobs' lmao

I think people are being very harsh. Yes £1000 is a nice chunk of money to have left after bills and I appreciate op must live in a nice house to have a mortgage of £2500 but on a salary of 180k, only having £1000 left after paying bills etc. doesn't seem much to have fun with in an expensive part of the country.

You would be SHOCKED at what you'd get in islington for a mortgage of £2500 a month... Not a nice house certainly

What I find funny on these threads is the people moaning, what about the care workers etc, leave. The problem is, high earners such as the op are leaving and taking their skills with them. I spent quite a few posts trying to explain to the hard of hearing yesterday - that we have a huge recruitment crisis in cyber. That leaves us vulnerable because everything is connected now.

Oh waaah anyone could step in. Well no and the out going government knows it’s such a shit show they want to put it as national service requirement. I’m sure we will have global talent in no time which won’t leave for better taxes and salaries in the countries who are head hunting talent already.

Salaries are paid on a skills matrix whether people like it or not. Doesn’t matter what industry you’re in. Global companies will pay for the best. If people don’t like that - it’s a them problem. Either skill up or don’t. Not everyone is capable of technical jobs.

How would you describe someone who takes and is unable to give back? Disenfranchised, lazy, unable? Take your pick. Ultimately lots seem unable to see they and their families are bleeding the state dry. It is the lack of contribution that is the issue.

80smonster · Today 13:14

Exactly. It’s actually surprising to see how many people don’t understand how the financial sausages are made. I.e they tax us more highly to cover the less ambitious. I think the rest of the UK is in for a nasty shock, those paying high tax are likely to have more options, including relocating entirely.

The prize plonker goes to!!! Da da…80smonster
🏅🏆🥇

They are. The majority of new job titles brought about since the end of last century are effectively busywork.

Read some Graeber. If you’re a middle manager or consultant, you’re probably irrelevant.

Or less materialistic maybe? I love my job, it covers my outgoings and I have DC I spent time with. I would have been more than capable of earning more in jobs where I would be unhappier, with DC in full time childcare. But that's not for our family. As a PP said, if you believe the only way to become a high achiever is to be privately educated (I guess they mean because in state school they would be below average academically?) then maybe it is nessecary to ensure your DC do not fail but it is not necessary for the majority of people.

The benevolent betters of modern Britain, everybody.

I got mine, Jack.

Wealth is generated by physical goods and products, inventions, and real services. "Money" is an artificial human concept. Stop being a clown.

People generally take more out of the state at certain points in their life (eg. old age, ill health) and are net contributors at other points in their life.

Everyone benefits from a well-functioning society.