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?

£600k, normal where I live (London), they would have lent £800k but didn’t want to borrow that much.

The take home pay on 30k would not be 3500 for one person it would be just over 2k. It's a 30k salary per person

I’m astonished that so many people on here seem to think a household income of 60k isn’t much!

Yes, they’re saying that 60k on one persons salary would be 3500 a month but split between two (30k each) makes it more tax efficient so closer to 4K a month

It entirely depends on what your current household income is. Ours is more than double that, so in terms of lifestyle it would represent a drop in standards. If it is currently less than that then obviously it would enable some extras. It’s all relative.

It depends which area of the country you live in, how large your family is, and what financial commitments you have/outgoings/mortgage/car etc, as well as desired lifestyle. It is impossible to say otherwise.

Grim to be far, would have to move or I'd have no holidays, no heating and struggle to afford luxuries.

I would not do my job for 30k as it is not worth the money as too much trauma and stress - I would change for an easier job which would allow me to move and save money on commuting and housing

Sweet Jesus 😱

Ours is £600k and we're not in London.

I’m not in London either (this is the cheaper place I live in to commute to London!) and a 4 bed semi or 3/4 bed detached house (standard, nothing particularly fancy) would be £600-700k here too.

So much of this is about house prices.

DH and I were visiting my parents last month with our DDs they live in the North of England. We have worked out that we could sell our house in the South East and buy something outright closer to them if we downsized a bit so no mortgage costs (e.g 4 bed detached to 3 bed semi.) Even if I then didn't work and became a SAHM we would still have the same disposable money each month. That really put it into perspective to be honest how insane house prices have become in the South East.

Don't ruin my dreams with the reality 🤣🤣🤣

This is borrowing on mortgage, not house price.

Live in london it would be impossible for us as rent and bills are extortionate

We managed on this until recently. DP had retrained and started lower than £30k and I earned just over it part time (which saved on some childcare costs). Was fine until COL crisis when it got much more difficult to manage and so I went back full time and we are downsizing to reduce mortgage

I know, but if you’re FTB or haven’t been on the ladder that long you’re going to need to get a £600k mortgage on a house priced £650-700k. I’m looking at getting a £400k mortgage to move to a 3 bed semi as a second time buyer - that’s all we can afford with a household income of just shy of £100k and £150k equity in our current house.

As a single parent not earning close to that, I suddenly feel very poor!

But you know, still got my health, rich in happiness and all that etc etc 😁

I’m a single mum with a total income of 24k. With an income of 60k imagine I’d be able to get a mortgage and get on the property ladder. Hopefully a bit less worrying about basics like food and utilities and maybe a few luxuries like saving for a holiday and house stuff.

It's more than my household income now, with two adults, two teenagers in a dog we live on £36600 PA so it would be double - I'd love it thanks!

Sorry, I misread what you were saying. I'd been on the housing ladder 14yrs and still borrowed £600k!

Just shows how different people are, my husband earns around 30k a year and I don't work. We do struggle sometimes but if I earned that as well we'd be laughing! We live in the south wales valleys for context lol

It’s painful isn’t it! I often wonder how much growth there could be in the rest of the economy if we didn’t have to lock up most of our money in housing

We would feel like we'd won the lottery.

We'd be a little better off but not much. Just enough to be not sitting here chewing my fingernails in case the car doesn't pass the MOT but needs repairs.

I earn £30k now and if I had to pay everything from it I'd not be able to pay the bills and mortgage never mind food or similar luxuries. I need a car to live where I live so I'd have to move, but considering it's the south east, I've got a cheap mortgage so I wouldn't save much. Then with cutting the car I'd have to take the kids out of their current schools as not able to get there and lose my job as not able to get there. So I wouldn't last long.
Wages aren't proportionate to costs, especially in this part of the country. Household income of £60k was fine when we were dating and living in a house share. It's so hard for young people now.