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.

point being

it is all so personal

But you have 1.7k spare per month to pay for private school.

I think take home £5k is a bit low to have fixed costs of more than 50% and that is without bills. Technically you earn over the national wage but will need to be careful around transport, heating and holidays etc.
We put both children through prep school then switched to state secondary. Our DD went back to private later on.
I would make sure you live near a good secondary school going forward. Many small private schools are really underfunded. They have restricted subjects and basic facilities.
Hopefully you have time to look around.
When your children are older it might be easier to move out to the commuter belt. We did this.

@Greenlp will you need to pay for secondary?
at least you have good equity. Can you not move anywhere?

School fees are a choice though, not an essential.

£60k and we have a good lifestyle. We're zone 3 london ahead of a move but my pay then also had london weighting (although was slightly less as I've since been promoted). We don't have childcare costs though as one of us gave up work instead of paying for nursery and never went back. We thought about private school last year but think stretching to this for 2 kids was too much for our lifestyle so stuck to state.

Our household take home is around £5k a month, two DCs live in London but have quite low mortgage payment (£1k/month) but still feel “poor”. I’m super careful with budgeting but really don’t know how other people seem to manage to have so much spare cash! After bills, childcare and kids’ activities, food shopping and putting a little away for a rainy day, we have nothing left. We don’t go on annual holidays and don’t go out much. Don’t buy expensive clothes and have a second-hand car which is quite cheap to run. How does everyone do it?!

where do you begin and end when you’re talking about what is “essential”

You do have a lot of disposable income. The mortgage, pension savings and school fees you choose to spend all come out of your disposable income. Disposable income is not "what I have left after I have spent some of my income."

@New2thisshizzle we could look at moving but it would be a more expensive house etc. I feel like we can’t win! I should receive 50k (gifted) next year and I am hoping that will take the pressure off fees for secondary as it will take the edge off, can pay 6k a year from that for example. We don’t really have holidays though and rely on my in laws holiday home in uk for any trips. That side worries me as I feel like dc is missing out. I don’t know. Just don’t know what’s best anymore.

I’d say that £5k after tax isn’t a very high income if paying school fees out of it.

That is why you feel it is a bit of a struggle.

It's not. Some people just like to boast.

£60k and we have a good lifestyle. We're zone 3 london ahead of a move

But you must have bought a long time ago/have a small mortgage?

Someone buying my house now would need to earn more than me or have lots of equity which has been much harder to build in recent yrs for those at the bottom of the ladder.

@nutrosti So you made choices that require an "exceptional" income, not a "good" one

Exactly

To be fair, where we lived, they weren't a choice to secure a high standard, indeed acceptable standard of education. However, we ensured their education was secure before deciding to go the independent route. We had saved five years' fees, we had a lot of equity and could have moved 10 miles away tonfree equity, had anything happened to either of us. If we hadn't done that, we'd have moved for schools, but that would have added tonDH's commute when he was at a career stage when he was out of the house for 14 hours a day.

that doesn’t make sense

because you seem to think there is one version of “good”

There isn’t

This is laughable, takes home £5k, CHOOSES to spend £1.7k on school fees, I think you know why you're cutting back.

how odd

We couldn’t have a good standard of living on 5k cos our mortgage is 3.6k…. Nursery is 1.8k, increasing soon, but it’s all relative, it depends on house prices and essential outgoings. I’d say we need at least 8k to maintain our standard of living, but they would be cutting out holidays or meals etc

@RosesAndHellebores

Stop it. This is both incorrect and insulting.

Please take some care about how your comments will feel to a single parent whose maximum possible income is, say, £25k.

What are your housing costs?

Our joint take home is over 5k (varies month to month but probably 6.5k) we could not afford private school even for 1 child at 4 k per term. Mortgage 1.2k. I understand why you'd choose it but that's a luxury even in a bad area - live in the north west and high schools round here are poor.

@Greenlp its a tough one. We could have a much bigger/nicer house if we moved a bit further out but we are near good state secondary options & when my dc are teenagers I want them to have amenities on their doorstep. We all have to compromise.