To think £2k in rent and bills is “normal”?

[smoosee]

Live in London for work and need to be close to the office. My rent and bills, so water, electricity, council tax, heating, internet, comes to about £2,000 a month. I take home about £5,000 a month , in my mid 20s. Manage to save about £1k a month. AIBU to think this is pretty normal and not exactly living it up for a young professional?

With a salary of I'm guessing around 75k in your 20's, and no dependents, you should be able to live quite a nice lifestyle. If I were you, and my bills were coming in at 2k per month (which is very reasonable in central London) I would be trying to save 2k most months.
I appreciate you probably have to have nice clothes for a professional role, but living on 1k per month would still be doable I would think?

There's probably an element of 'living it up' I you're spending £2k pm on food, travel and 'lifestyle'.

The essential part will probably be £500 at most so you could probably save more than you do while still having a great life.

With a salary of I'm guessing around 75k in your 20's

75k doesn’t give you 5k a month even without any pension deductions

It's more than our entire monthly household income, so not normal, ime. I only know one person who earns this amount. Everyone else I know has roughly the same income as me.

Sounds about right to me OP. Well done on clearly having a good job and doing well each month. Enjoy your 20's and have fun whilst you can.

I actually think this is low for all of that in total

When I was in my mid 20’s I had about £5 left after paying mortgage, bills, etc and lived on an overdraft.

Rent and bills seems very reasonable for London. Are you in a house share. £2000 left over after savings, to spend on food, transport and going out etc sounds a lot though. I have nothing left over after rent and bills, so I am looking at it from that perspective.

I’d say £1k rent (a room) and then half that again on bills quite normal for London at your age. You can double that rent if you want your own place though.

TBH for any younger adult in the UK I think £2k for mortgage and bills probably looks fairly typical given the size of rents / mortgages.

I’m a decade older than you with kids and my mortgage + bills is about £4k a month. My childcare is another £4k a month at present (help!).

£5k is well above average, especially in your 20s.

If they have a student loan, it’s more like £100k of income (£4,927 a month is £100k after tax, NI, auto enrolment and student loan).

Rent and bills normal for London.

salary no idea

Yes. In fact I would say it’s actually really reasonable. Student rooms in halls in London are around £10,000 - £14,000 pa for a 42-51 week rental, so I’d anticipate at least double for a share of a proper flat in the private rental market.

What job do you do that takes home £5000 in your mid twenties? (Are they recruiting?😅)

You are doing well for your age and location.

Why are you spending so much after paying your bills? With this salary, you should be focusing on saving for your deposit, so that you won't have to pay rent for long.

A bit on low side. I spend much more than than without rent included. Concerned that you only manage to save such a small amount each month.

2k is normal/low side IMO. 2k on other non essentials seems a lot though.

It is normal but it is shit.
Rent is gone through the roof. My niece lives in Leeds where rental properties have doubled in price, so you’re not doing too bad for a London property.

Wow I paid £350 rent a month when I lived in London 20 years ago.

It's hard because if you move out of London for property but have to commute into London for work, it's easily £200 - £300 a month in commuting costs.

This sounds v cheap. My mortgage is £2,500 (£450k borrowed, 20 year mortgage). Then there’s council tax, utilities, broadband, insurance, car…. I think my expenditure is more average and I live outwith London.

Your outgoings look normal. Your income looks better than average for your age, so I would say you’re ahead of the game.

What area of the country are you? I'm in East Anglia and rents are absolutely crippling

The bills are normal but you are probably also living it up if you are only saving £1K and spending the rest.

I’d be saving more than £1k a month with that salary and outgoings.