Household income. Where are you?

[chonka901]

https://ifs.org.uk/toolsanddresources/wheredooyoufitt_in

Using this link and putting in everything joint net income ,including child benefit and maintenance which I think it takes into account. It has us at 73 percent. Not a stealth boast before any states that. Genuinely surprised.

I certainly don't feel like this but appreciate people survive on less. It doesn't take into account mortgages, rent, generational wealth, inheritance, childcare etc so is a guide.

It is eye opening though.

I feel poor compared to my friends though. We definitely are not the London elite. Just public sector workers in the North. I guess the maintenance helps. My friends must be in the top 20 percent.

59% with take home of 8k.

You must have high housing costs. We are 67 % with a take home of 6k. Also a manc!!

Wish I hadn't clicked on this and done it. Even more depressed now seeing it in figures

We were at 12% until I put in the fact we have no mortgage, and now I’ve put that in it’s 22%. I’m surprised the lack of mortgage doesn’t make more difference!

Just to point out that I’ve done it 3 times using the same figures and got 3 different percentages, so I’m not sure how accurate the calculator is.
I also got a lower percentage when I mistakenly used my gross income than when I used my net income. I think the whole thing is flawed.

68%. But it definitely doesn't feel like we are. We love in zone 2 London and I feel like all our friends and acquaintances are much more comfortable than we are.

71% but we live in the north and feel well off. We’d really be struggling in London though.

I am not surprised by the results. Most people think they are on low to average wages not realising that the median gross salary in the UK is £37,430.

‘Median gross annual earnings for full-time employees were £37,430 in April 2024, compared with £35,004 in April 2023, an increase of 6.9%.’ https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/annualsurveyofhoursandearnings/2024#:~:text=Median%20gross%20annual%20earnings%20for,%2C%20an%20increase%20of%206.9%25.

If you are earning c£75k this is roughly twice the median and in the top 10%-15%. Overall £100k is roughly top 5% and the top 1% is c£200k up to millions.

The reason people don’t feel, or realise, where they sit relative to others is because of where they are in their lifecycle and how they choose to use their resources (income).

As posters on many threads point out childcare is a huge amount of net income, but relatively it’s for a short period. Mortgage payments can be a big outgoing, particularly in London. Household bills will be higher for bigger houses. Children are expensive from nursery through to uni!

When you reach your mid-late 50s the mortgage is paid, children are in their 20s and hopefully financially independent, suddenly you have a lot more disposable income.

55% - but yet MN would consider us wealthy but really it's the high housing costs which sting us.

That said, we can pay all our bills and have a bit of play money left over. Which when we were struggling in our 30s seemed like a pipe dream.

98%. I would have guesstimated around 80%.

Assets are far more important to living standards, eg if you own your home outright and have investments or trust funds rather than debts, that’s a much bigger contributor than how much money you bring in annually. So taxable household income is great but it doesn’t necessarily take the truly wealthy people that don’t work etc into account

99 and feel people may be a little disingenuous if they’re in the 90s and claim not to feel it.

Things have been tight for a few years for us - 2 kids with SEN in private schools and saving like crazy to pay off a very large mortgage next month - but we’ve simply been hedging ourselves against the risk of redundancy and making sure DH is free to retire early or has the finances sorted should he or I get ill. We can fully fund our kids’ uni education, will never be made homeless and could manage the rest of our lives if DH lost his job tomorrow. To me, there is nothing more precious than that and we are very very privileged to be in this position - yeah, could bang on about the hard work, long hours, stress levels etc and there is no doubt we worked hard, but I have friends who are retired police officers, nurses, state teachers who have worked just as hard frankly.

Band H so 4.7k a year

7% here.

You are supposed to include savings interest as part of the income section

It is appartant from the replies that a huge amount of people haven't read the instructions on what to include. They also don't seem to understand that it is solely an income calculator. Typical for mumsnet right enough. The reading comprehension on most threads is dire at the best of times. It doesn't matter what you drive, whether you are sending the kids to private school or have huge mortgage none of these change your income.

86% with housing costs, 93% without

Goes up to 98% if I take out the kids, so just need to bide my time 😊...

I might keep doing it till it tells me everything’s going to be fine and I’m sitting pretty 😎

I know we are top 1%ers, don't need a calculator to tell me. But there is still a gulf between us and oligarch type wealth. We are very, very comfortable but nowhere near that!

I took mine out and it made no difference! Not telling them that, though!

28%

54%

Definitely feel poorer than that

45%

Should add both NHS definitely feel in the middle. Quite happy with where we are. Could easily earn more but part time and flexible for childcare.

97%.

Yeah but the government and the super rich don't want equality amongst us, how else can they continue to tell us what to do it we're equals