What do you think is a ‘good’ income these days for…

[Greenlp]

Two adults and one child?

I am constantly being told that our income is very good (from online sources, media etc, small talk with friends who don’t know our earnings but make general comments on income/standard of living). I feel like our income is not good enough for a good standard of living. We constantly have to cut back.

It’s all relative and depends on your values and expectations. We feel very content with what we have (a little less than the median 38K household income) but I suspect lots of people on MN would consider us poor.

£5k wouldn’t cover our expenses and we have no school fees. We do however value theatre, concerts, experiences and these don’t come cheap.

We also spend more than that on travel.

It's all relative. Is your income good compared to the UK average, yes. Is it good compared to the other families you will be seeing with children at private school. Maybe not.

Also depends on where you live too.

It all depends on your individual situation. If I had £5K a month I would feel very well off. I have less than half that, but can still afford what I need, including holidays and fun things. I have a small mortgage, no childcare costs, tiny transport costs, only two of us so food bill is quite low, and I'm not very materialistic. My children did not go to private school, I wouldn't have been able to afford that obviously, but I don't feel they missed out. There are several decent state schools around and the one they went to has been fine.

But if bring in 5k, 1k on mortgage and 1.7 school fees you have 2.3k left for all other bills / food…..I’m not sure where your moneys going but to that’s a lot of money

You have a good income

You should be able o have everything you need, you should be able to get good quality food, you should be able to have choices on things you want , you should be able to save and go on holiday

It's a personal attitude - many on far less than you will be happy with their life and so happy with their income

Why are you not happy ? Just because you can't buy everything you want? Why do you want to buy so much ?

Our income is 50k after tax. We are absolutely fine. Not extravagant and certainly not rich, but comfortable. We don't have private school fees though, absolutely could not afford them.

Some of the figures quoted in this thread are amazing and not in a good way. AFAIK the median household income is around 35 - 40k and yet some are saying less than 50k a year is poverty? Madness.

Average household income after housing costs is 545 per week. I am trying to get by on £380 with 1 child in London. No wonder feel skint then.

There is no such thing without context. The main one is location ie cost of housing.

60k would be riches in one part of the country and hard to live on in another

Yes, i agree with this.

I am 59 and on a similar salary but no mortgage etc, My Council tax, gas, electric, Water, Phone contract, TV licence and food all come to about £600 a month which leaves me with £1200 a month to play with, whereas my DC all have large mortgages. My eldest has a mortgage paying 1350 a month, my middle son pays £1110 and my DD is in the process of buying her first home and will have a mortgage of £1650 a month (depending on interest rates) so even with double what I earn, the first salary is almost used up just to pay the mortgage and bills. I also dont drive so have no car expenses. I dont have pets, whereas on DS has 2 dogs on a raw food diet, so thats expensive and also the vet insurance etc, my other DS has 3 cats, and things like paying to have them looked after when they go away all add up. My main expense is helping out the DC, they never ask but I tend to give money for birthdays and christmas to help with all their additional costs.

So for me 30k is ample, for them even 60K will be a struggle, so its all relative.

average income is £35k so good to me would be £90k household income

Also we live in SE near London so again, a higher cost of living for things like mortgage etc.

When I retire in 8 years I have worked out I will be able to live OK on 20-24k which is probably what I will receive based on my private pensions and also the state pension. The only shock I have is, although I own my place without a mortgage it isnt freehold so most of the time its £40 a month service/lease charge but when they do things like they recently re tarmacked the car park at a cost of £40k my monthly amount changed to £400 so that was a hard year, it happened when they re did the roofs of the flats too again a massive increase. I am saving £600 a month while its low to cover the more expensive years.

I’m bang on average £38k but between us we’ve had two redundancy pay outs and have invested in property. Also live in a relatively cheaper part of the U.K. so mortgage paid off at 40. Due to retire at 55, sell house and live in one of our holiday lets.

That sounds like a good plan for your retirement. If my relationship had worked out, I would have been able to do do similar but we split after 28 years and sold the family home, I managed to buy a small 2 bed masionette outright with my half, so no mortgage but if we were still together our combined income would have been a lot higher and our property worth a lot more so we could have downsized and been very well off. Having said that being single means I dont have to deal with his controlling ways anymore :)

This is exactly me. Earn circa £30k myself, my house (pre-marriage) paid off, small mortgage on second home with husband and near to work, three paid off cars between us and daughter grown up.

Husband earns around £34k we're doing pretty good. It's so true that it is about where you live etc. We live in the north and do absoutely fine.

All school fees paid in advance. Savings for uni etc. No leased cars. No debt.

10K spare per month after outgoings. But do not feel super rich or anything.
It's all relative.

There is also a difference in expectation over homes - so two people in the same area on the same income and one can feel very happy and one miserable because one chose to spend money on a bigger house and the complains that they can't spend the money on other things

Not that sone people on my life piss me off with the moaning about lack of money when they take home more than me but just made different choices around their home

Your income and mortgage are fine.

But they are not private school fee level of incomes.

They are pretty normal ish income.

If the schools are so dire, then move. I'm struggling to think of anywhere in the country with really niche jobs that could only be done in one place, and that place have bad schools.

Eg there are so very London specific jobs, but the capital has statistically the best performing schools in the country.

I’d be a bit uncomfortable with that due to the high outgoings. I’d be more comfortable with an extra grand.

we have about £4.5k a month coming in between us but mortgage is only £500 and no school fees.

That is plenty for us but we don’t save a great deal.

Per person or total?

If you've got £2300 a month left to cover absolutely everything else once you've paid the school fees and housing, you're not going to be living lavishly no. Without the private school, that would be a nice disposable income, so it's a question of what you prioritise. Mine aren't in private and we have plenty of holidays, fun stuff etc.

Location and timing of first property purchase makes such a difference.

I don’t think there can be a set figure. Regional variation in coats and things like inherited wealth, family support for childcare, etc mean there’s too many factors.

We both have well paid jobs (household income of £140k) but I grew up in poverty so, to me, a good income is one where you’re not worried about money. I still marvel at being able to groceries, expensive items and unexpected extras towards the end of the month.

Private school fees to me don’t sit within a “good” income bracket though, that’s more a wealthy bracket expense. If there were no good schools where we live, I’d look to move into another catchment rather than pay fees.