How much do you need to earn to live a comfortable life?

[MellowSwan]

How much do you think you’d need to earn every month to feel like you’re living comfortably? I’m not talking about future aspirations or luxury lifestyles, but based on your current situation, what would comfortable look like for you?

Would love to hear how people define this for themselves, whether it’s covering all essentials with some savings left over, being able to treat yourself occasionally, or something else entirely. 😊

I don't know about others but I just find I want more the more I get lol, I can always spend money! If you'd have told me even 5 years ago what we'd be earning now, I wouldn't have believed you. I remember thinking I just need to earn X more than we to do this thing every year, and now I'm here I often think if I just earned X more I would be able to do X, Y and Z.

I've lost sight of what comfortable is I suppose, but we do not worry about bills, food, a roof over our heads or our retirement. So that has to be comfortable? But that doesn't stop me aspiring for more. Perhaps that's not a good thing, but I do try to take stock and be grateful for what I have.

As for the amount, that's too subjective to bother putting a number on it.

I'm happy on £33k, but Im not interested in bigger, better things like cars. Live in a small home I bought outright with inheritance at 30 rather than stretch for a mortgage etc. I live near a lovely sandy beach which gets toasty in the summer so don't feel the need for beach holidays.

If you want a big house, a nice car, abroad holidays every year etc you need to earn way more.

Well I earn quite a bit and so does DH. But, we have a large mortgage and two boys who do a LOT of activities that cost quite a bit (and don't even mention the upcoming school trip costing £1800). The more we earn, the more we feel able to spend, but the amount you can spend it you had it, is kind of limitless.

If I earnt more than I do it would go quickly on things like a holiday, new car, we need a new bathroom (ours in 50yrs old with 50yr old carpet!), garden new lawn needing. Then there's always things you'd like, like nicer kitchen cupboards, maybe a cleaner (I have 3 jobs, two kids, 2 dogs and cat! so time is limited!) So to actually be at 'comfortable' that would mean all these things have been done and we have not to worry about money, or finding money for repairs/MOT/bathroom update etc..

And for us that would need a LOT of money. Maybe 6 digits.....

This really resonates with me, especially the part about not believing what we earn now if you’d told me 5 years ago. We are the same - have a roof over our heads (mortgaged), food to eat, enough for bills, to run 2 cars, clothes and occasional treats like eating out or takeaways. We are happy with our life but always aspire to want more - especially my husband who is very career driven. I’m also very lucky to work part time so in theory we could earn more of if I went FT but that means things like housework and life admin would be more stressful. I think comfortable is dependant on everyone’s individual circumstances.

It’s entirely subjective and depends on the lifestyle you are used to.

If comfortable means home heated, enough food, can meet afford basic bills like TV license, internet and petrol, a few takeaways or meals out with friends and gifts for my loved ones at Christmas, then I would need a monthly take- home of circa £2300.

If comfortable means all of the above, plus an annual holiday plus a few weekends away, a pet, bi-monthly hair and nails, decent car on finance, a slowly growing emergency savings pot, plus enough accessible for a new washing machine / laptop / car exhaust when needed without needing to resort to the credit card, then £3300.

I think it's very hard to remove future aspirations from the equation. For me, being 'comfortable' in the here-and-now is also linked with knowing I'm putting away money for the future.

But, if saving and investment were banned and if we include bills (not mortgage, that's been paid off), after tax I'd need about £1.5K a month for a relatively basic 'comfortable' life - doing/buying whatever I want without much thought but only having very basic holidays and breaks. To build in more freedom with holidays, I'd need about £2K a month.

It's definitely true you always want more. I suppose it's what drives us. Perhaps true happiness is being content with what you already have.

I'm shocked when celebrities do stupid little adverts / poxy jobs they surely don't need to do, but they must get used to a certain lifestyle and no money is enough!

I think I need about £1800 a month take home for comfortable, but also need to have savings on top of that for one off purchases and emergencies. Whenever I get a payrise I put the extra in my pensions or savings each month, so although my salary has increased over the years I'm not spending too much more money. I also put bonuses in my pension.

The MIS (Minimum Income Standard) does this this study every year or so. Here is some information via the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (link: https://www.jrf.org.uk/a-minimum-income-standard-for-the-united-kingdom-in-2024). You can also do the quiz here (link: https://www.minimumincome.org.uk/)

Personally, I think for 1-2 children a household income of around 100k allows a good standard of living (enough for a nice house and to overpay the mortgage, holidays, activities, good food).

• MIS continues to provide a unique and distinctive way through which to observe and track the impact of social, economic, political and cultural change on our shared vision for higher living standards, so we can all live with dignity in the UK.
• In 2024, we have rebased (that is, developed from scratch) budgets for all households in the same year, for the first time since MIS was introduced in 2008.
• Working-age households (both with and without children) have identified a need for additional financial resources to meet health needs, reflecting the difficulty of accessing help via the National Health Service (NHS).
• A single person needs to earn £28,000 a year to reach a minimum acceptable standard of living in 2024. A couple with 2 children need to earn £69,400 a year between them.
• April 2024 saw an inflation-based increase in benefits of 6.7%. However, Council Tax, water and broadband prices all rose in April.
• The final cost of living payments, intended to help those households most likely to be affected by rising costs, were made in February 2024, with no announcements of further support being planned.
• Without these payments, working households may struggle to meet the challenges posed by inflation, even though that fell between May 2023 and April 2024 and is forecast to reach 2% in the second half of 2024.
• Despite this, a couple with 2 children, where one parent is working full-time on the National Living Wage, and the other is not working, reached only 66% of MIS in 2024, compared with 74% in 2023.

Actually I like this answer more than mine. Makes so much sense, and true for most people I think.

I do think the more I have the more I tend to want.

Depends entirely on how many dependents you have and what your debts and housing situation is.

It would be stupid to say we could currently get by on a lot less with one DD at university, one who may go in a few years' time and who is not quite old enough to get a PT job yet, seven years still to pay on the mortgage, a credit card and loan to pay, trying to maximise what I pay into my pension so I can have a decent retirement, and an elderly and poorly mother who depends on me.

In a few years' time it will be different. We have a nice lifestyle, I'm not moaning, but what I learned from when I had a career break when DDs were younger was that there was actually very little to cut back on with regular bills. The only thing I could cut back was spending on food. And then only up to a point, as eating shit, low quality food has other profound effects.

We are very comfortable, I am not worried about work or pension or savings to help the kids go to uni/learn to drive/help them buy a small flat, as we have a plan in place. We have life and other insurance and we know where and how we can tighten our belts when we need to.

Dh and I are about 50 years old. We cleared debt and paid off our mortgage just around the time the interest shot up, and we don’t want a larger house so we are going to make this our forever home.

For me being comfortable is about having a long range view - it’s less about the £ inflow and outflow on a monthly basis. Just being cash flow positive doesn’t mean you are comfortable, you can still feel quite worried about what could happen if you get sick/lose your job/need to replace the roof or whatever.

These things are always difficult to gauge because it depends on so much!

We have what would be described as a very good household income, but we live in London and pay an extortionate mortgage thanks to stretching during Covid so that we could get a flat big enough for the kids to have their own bedroom, and then the mortgage going up just as our two year fix ended thanks to Liz Truss's 'mini budget'.

We also have to heavily sub two kids going through uni for the next 5 years (Both AuDHD so PT jobs are unlikely). So actually our income looks very comfortable, but our outgoings mean that we're not able to afford things like takeaways and days out much, and we can only pay the minimum into our pensions (but appreciate we're lucky to be able to do that).

We’re early retired so not in receipt of state pension yet (6/7 years to go) so just drawing DH’s private pension. Our dc are all living independently, we are mortgage free in a good sized home in the north and also own another smaller property mortgage free further south that a family member lives in. We have excellent private pensions provision and very healthy amounts in ISA’s and savings. Our bills etc all covered, we live very comfortably on our income and don’t worry if a large expense presents itself. If we really needed to, there are things we could cut back on such as going out, food shopping and holidays and/or we could sell one of the properties and downsize, which might happen when we need to look at future proofing.

We prioritised paying off our mortgage as our DC hit their teens and we had a low 6 figure income but we were also lucky that we bought a house for what was then a low price and sold it for 4 times what we’d paid for it. We were also extremely fortunate that my DH’s employer had an excellent pension scheme that we benefit from now.

We had to be pretty frugal when our DC were babies and pre teens so we really appreciate how lucky we are now.

Clearly depend on what is meant by comfortable

A PP says "but we can't afford takeaways and days out very much .."

Whereas to me the best day out is going for a walk with a picnic ( a homemade sandwich and a bottle of water ) ; and a takeaway is once in a blue moon- but I would say we are very comfortable

When this car gives up we will be able to afford a decent replacement - but that's partly because for ten years we have not spent on takeaways , hairdressers , beauty- things that are important to other people. We are mortgage free - peers with lovely, but bigger , houses are not but that's all more cash for us to save ( and less repairs , heating and maintenance bills )

What I am saying is that comfortable is a blend of how much you have and your spending habits and it's easier to afford something flashy ( car, holiday ) if you are not always spending it all

So comfortable is being happy with whatever you have. And lucky is being able to be happy without a lot as not many people really have a lot

What do YOU think OP? So many of these ‘dump a question’ posts these days.
Anyway. For me. £30k pa after housing. Single woman.

I don't feel I want more. I like the status quo.

We earn in excess of £200k but don't have CEO level jobs, more lower level management. We work 9-5pm mostly, some travel but quite frankly, it's nice to have a night away sometimes in a different city.

We eat takeaways when we want, have the holidays we want and put money aside for the kids university and pensions.

I like good value though and we're quite eco conscious. So we have multiple holidays a year but only one long haul. We have a 5 bed house in Cheshire. We chose not to put the kids into private school because that is best for them but they have a good set of extra curricular each. I sell and buy on Vinted because I think it's better value than buying new and I like the kick off haggling over 50p. It's quite addictive.

I don't want the stress and politics that comes with the next level of management and neither does my DH so we're going to stay right here thanks very much and enjoy our life.

I do find comparison is the thief of joy and if you constantly want more, eventually you will turn around and realise it really wasn't worth it. Your kids are grown up and you've not had dinner with them every night.