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?

Great! we are a family of 7 we get just over 40k no benefits, no debt, go on holiday, kids have nice clothes, nice food, takeaways, savings, 2 cars. i don't even know what i would do with that amount of extra money we want for nothing as it is really but I'm sure i could find something to do with it!

It would be a shock to the system as I’ve literally never earnt so little, even in my first job my salary was £35k plus bonus. We’d struggle with housing costs as we are young and live in the SE. I’m on around £60k base now but don’t feel like I can afford to go part time and reduce this because we want to move to a 3 bed semi which would be a mortgage of around £2k a month. Currently we pay £1k a month to live in a 2 bed mid terrace in a dodgy area. I suppose the only advantage to earning so little would be not paying hundreds a month on student loan repayments.

I am the sole wage earner in our house and I get just over £2.2K p/m after tax, pension contributions etc. It’s enough and we pay DD rent at uni as well. But mortgage is paid off.

It would substantially improve my life. I'd finally be able to manage to pay off my debt and start saving.

London living.

£600k mortgage - £3k a month.

Couple of kids in childcare - £3k a month.

Even £60k pre-tax wouldn’t cover it.

Edinburgh- would be very tight and we'd probably have to move, which would be a move for the kids schools etc too (primary age but then wouldn't get into catchment secondary with their friends). Housing costs are v high here too and mortgage £2k a month.

We would have to sell our house - which isn't a flashy gigantic mansion at all, just a normal detached 3 bed 1 bathroom job. Obviously we would also not have any money to save, would reduce pension contributions considerably and wouldn't have holidays either. Kids clubs would need to reduce too. Our 10yr old small runaround car that I've been considering selling and replacing with a newer (2nd hand) car would have to be run to the ground instead.

We'd need to downsize or move to a different part of the country (currently in Cambridgeshire) as our household income is quite a bit more than that and we don't have a flashy lifestyle at all!

I earn about £60k, after tax, student loan and pension contributions my take home is about £3.4k a month. Easily swallowed entirely by a mortgage on an average home in my area (£2k) and nursery for one child (£1.4k) without having anything left for other bills.

We earned a lot more - then for a few years crashed and earned 40-50 combined now back up again. As pp have said - it's the adjustment in outgoings that were set on a higher income that is the main problem. We had to use some of dh's pension to offset the mortgage to bring the repayments down or else sell up and move (and didn't want to take dd out of school). Once that was sorted we managed OK (SE) just cut back on everything. It wasn't miserable and I got used to it but now having more again I appreciate it a lot more and very conscious that we can do more and not be constantly thinking about money (except I do as it's now a habit - but probably no bad thing).

As others have already highlighted, a lot of this is the North/South divide. I manage fine on 32K pro rata (30 hours). A bit of freelance work approx £100 per month and some income from BTLs (minimal). But I live in the North, in a 2 bed semi, small but perfect (for me) garden, I run a car, have a huge dog, I go out for wine 2-3 times a week, I have savings, I horseride as a hobby that's £60 ish a month- I don't feel that I make any sacrifices really but then maybe I've just never experienced what I haven't had?
My family are all a lot better off than me. Sibling married into wealth. Boomer parents are wealthy. But I've never managed to find a decent-paying job after doing a Master's, and I've always been on my own. Gay female who's never found anyone really. Currently dating but it will be unlikely to go further and partner from impoverished background and earns less than me for more hours. So that does make a difference.

Nursery for two kids costs £40k.

I earn £115k. My take home is £74k. Minus nursery costs is £34k. Minus mortgage at minimal payments is £22k. So I have less than £2k a month for a family of 4. It's tight.

Two people on £30k. Take home is £50k. I'm not sure what savings are made on childcare. The take home difference is £24k. So if the savings are greater than £12k per child then the two people do better. If it's less then a high earner does better.

Any one know what savings this couple would get on childcare?

It's interesting that the single high earner is on double but the "disposable income" will probably be quite similar. There will be a bigger gap with these families after nursery care is needed

We take home 70k between us (I’m the breadwinner, DP is a PhD student)

We live in London so rent is over 2k a month. Part time jobs in my industry don’t exist, in my entire career I think I’ve met one person that did 4 days a week.

Life is comfortable for us but we don’t have kids yet. If we did we would have to leave or I would quit my job and go on UC to get the rent paid

Not picking on you but this post made my jaw drop, and made me realise why all the vey middle class people I know are always saying they are skint..!
Extra pension contributions. a thousand pounds extra to pay off the mortgage, savings for your children and… other savings! ( That made me laugh). If I am manage to save a few hundred a month I feel like I’m winning at li not begrudging people who do, at all, it’s more that I think a lot of people see savings/ extra pension as essential outgoings too and I’m glad you realised they actually aren’t really.
On 60k I’d be significantly better off- most single parents would.

We moved 12 years ago and lived on one salary of £60k whilst I was a SAHM mum for a few years. At the time it felt like a comfortable lifestyle - we weren't exactly rich but could comfortably pay all the bills, travel a lot, buy things for the house etc.
Since then the cost of living has gone through the roof and I think it might be more difficult.

We’d have nothing left after mortgage and bills. No food, car, nursery fees, anything. Obviously we’d not live where we do if that was our income. It’s 6k before any luxuries. Im still astounded by the cost of housing in London.

After tax and with child DLA and Child Benefits that would be £4704.10 per month.
About £1200 more than we have right now.
Id be extremely happy with that. Our lives would look more or less the same except that we'd be able to save a little more and go on nicer holidays.
Id probably get a proper dyslexia tutor for my youngest.
On that sort of money we could also consider moving to a better neighbourhood. I would probably consider it but ultimately decide to stick with where we are and enjoy the extra money.
I don't quite get the question about going part time. Since (in your scenario) doing that would mean we weren't earning £60k anymore.
To answer that part as best I can: I think I'd prefer to work full time and keep the money. In the past I have chosen to work PT. Recently very PT, in order to home educate. But my kids are now a little older and settled at suitable schools so full time work is the better option.

We earn a lot more than that so would have to make drastic changes to our lives. I'd be gutted, we've worked hard to get to where we are so would hate to take a step back in lifestyle.

We earned this about 10 years ago. A massive chunk was taken for childcare then though.

Currently earning 80 between us, before tax. On that, we have 2 old cars (can't get to our jobs by public transport) and have 1 holiday in the sun per year. We moved to a bigger house a few years ago, which is taking any other disposable We have, as all the bills are higher here. Had we stayed in our shoebox, we'd be better off. Didn't make very much when we moved, as we'd bought it in 2006. Lots of people round here bought their houses when they cost around 60grand, so did pretty well even on smaller wages.

We would struggle if we went back to 60, at least until the mortgage was paid off/kids left home.

I think with two £30k salaries we'd struggle to pay the childcare for two DC to allow us to work FT. I think we'd probably also need more childcare because we currently flex hours so we only use after school club three days a week for eldest, but that probably wouldn't be possible at a lower income.

If one of us earned £60k and the other was a SAHP we'd be ok I think, but definitely fewer discretionary spends.

We'd be ok, live in a fairly low cost are and don't have any childcare expenses which seems to swallow a vast amount of people's incomes. We'd probably have to cut back on a few things but we're already fairly frugal as we both grew up skint so £60k would still be very manageable. I wouldn't consider it enough for anyone to go part time in the current financial climate though, unless by doing so they were saving massively on childcare costs.

This would almost double our income.

We would be able to have more days out and holidays.

We would be able to replace our 12 year car.

I would do the weekly shop in M and S!

We would be able to put money aside for DD's future.

We earn 65k between us. We have an expensive mortgage of about £1400pm (just a normal property that needs a lot of work) and have to run two cars for work. We're definitely feeling it since moving from a 700pm rental and I keep feeling like we should be managing our money better. Seems like we're doing OK though. We can't say yes to the kids as much.

It's a decent jump in income, for us, so we'd be debt free, overpaying the mortgage to get it down pretty quickly and financially in a really good place tbh

I'd be rich

I’m shocked

I was going to say no… but If we both earned 60k we would clear 3,800 each the assistance we would get for childcare would be coming up to 10k

wed have to stop pension contributions, no holidays and tighten up a bit but other than we’d be okayyy…