To ask what your life would look like on 60k

[Thecherryhotel]

What do you think your life would look like if you and your partner earned around 30k each per annum? Would you both work full time or would one of you be able to go part time? Would this be enough to support you and the children you have? Would it be impossible? How would you feel?

I myself and my partner/coparent both earned £30k we would both drop a day and share the childcare and household stuff.

Until the pandemic my husband was on a six figure salary but in a few months we will be mortgage free so we could live quite a comfortable life on 60k.

What do people come out with a month on 30k pa? Unless I'm reading it wrong, the tax calculator says just over £2000 a month but some of you have said 3k plus on single salary?

I get just over 2k with my pittance of a pension, tax and ni taken off. But I'm on 31,200k

Of course this is doable. The only place it isn't is London.

Would be £1901.90 a month for me. Student loan and pension contributions of 9.8%.

This is about 15k less than we earn. For us it’s comfortable, even with nursery costs. We live in a 5 bed house in a gated community and have a mortgage less than 1k (for now). We have an abroad holiday a year and several UK breaks but we book them all last minute to get best prices.
We’d be tight on 60k, cars are our biggest issue as we hate spending so much of our savings on them but they’re a necessity in our area. We both work in public service and our salaries have stagnated over the last 12 years.

If only :(

That’s what we spend on school fees so it’s a no from us

Totes depends on your outgoings and what income you need to support a reasonable quality of life. Asking random MN ers won't get you far
Other considerations are oppos to increase income or any upcoming big expense.
All the big picture stuff

Life would be a lot easier than it currently is, I could afford to pay the mortgage instead of just the interest which would be a huge bonus.

Considering that I'm single and have to exist on ESA and PIP of approx £13k, then even half of the suggested £60k (as in just one person earning) would make a massive difference.
I could do some (long-awaited) repairs around my house, buy new clothes/shoes when I need them, go to a hairdresser to have my hair cut, actually have a holiday (not had one in over 20yrs), etc. My list could go on and on.

DH and I have a combined income of £70k. We save around £750/month. Going down to £60k would not be a major difference, we'd manage by spending a bit less and saving a bit less.

When I made this much in London on my own, life was relatively modest (almost 10 yrs ago). I couldn’t have supported a child too or reduced my income further though. I paid for student loan, maximum in matched scheme pension. After mortgage, bills etc (no car or travel costs as I lived closed to work), I could go out couple of times a month and perhaps have a cheap weekend away every other month or so (mostly visiting family or friends).

Feel your pain, once they add the vat I guess you'll need to increase your salary to cover it😁

We would struggle. If Woodstocks is right and £40m works out at about £4000 per month, mortgage/rent would be over a quarter of that. House bills would take that to about half. We run two cars (rural living) and drive a lot of miles on school runs/shopping etc, plus expensive commuting to London for work. Childcare for one preschooler. The rest would soon disappear on food and clothes and incidentals for two adults and four kids, including two teens with school trips etc to pay for.

It is amazing how quickly money spends itself on a basic but comfortable lifestyle for a large family.

I'd be able to afford a decent holiday, eat better and eat out in nice places with my boys. A dream. I thought you were saying this as someone dreaming of a higher income but reading responses you must mean you're downsizing and wondering if you can manage. It's more than a lot of people I know earn. My sister was a TA for 20 years and is more or less on minimum wage. She's now cleaning as she doesn't get hit and spat at and earns more.

it's because of the tax free allowance and lower tax band that £60k as 2x£30k is worth a lot more than 1x£60k. I'm on £67k and my take home pay is £3300 but I put 13% into my pension and there's a few things like private dental cover and purchase of addition leave that come off that too.

60k isn't 3500 a month. My husband earns 69k and gets about that much

It is, roughly, if you pay minimum pension and don't have a student loan.

It would cover our fixed monthly expenses but we wouldn't have very much money for extras. In two years when LO is out of childcare and we've paid off our car, we'd be fine on that amount but not flush.

We live in an expensive area so would probably move to a cheaper house to free up some extra money.

@PeachSnake it grates but is not a deal breaker luckily

It's nearly twice the average household income so it would mean the majority of people are far better off and so would manage easily.

60k a year for me would be a fortune, i would have loads of holidays, but ive no mortgage (house paid for) i live on just over 12k a year. No benefits as have ISAs which take me over allowance

Seems like a hard question to answer bc you have to factor in your current cost of living. I personally don't think that's a liveable wage, esp with kids. We don't have/want kids and our combined income is more than 4 times that so there is no way we could survive, but I suppose if you earn that then it's a different story. Prob not much help, but that'd like first job wages, not meant for a family.