£100000 a year but too poor to be able to afford a third child

[emkana]

I might be mad to get into this again, after that money thread I started the other week, but I just feel like I'm on a completely different planet again, after reading this article. It raises some good points comparing Britain and France, but the first example used is just ludicrous IMO.

article here

lets assume by the time claire and david get their act together in a couple of years and the schools fees and nanny salary are £2800pm thats £33600pa taken off their net salary (not 100k). Assuming they each earn 50/50 so 50k each which means they're netting (my tax calcs are crap so bear with me) about £33k pa each so immediately after school fees the family of 4 are surviving on 33k pa which broken down is probably less than many of us earn as a full time working family

£33k/pa! Wow! I WISH! We'd live like kings on that.

maybe, but we don't have nannies and private schools. that's the point.

but their mortgage would be about 1500/2000 pm probably given that property in London is v expensive - it doesnt leave an awful lot. Coupled with the fact that at least one probably has a company car - the tax alone on company cars is exhorbitant

so how do you get round the school holidays and drop off/pick up?

So why don't they sell their house, give up teir jobs move somewhere cheaper and get different jobs paying lower salaries and send their kids to the new local school - problem sorted

But if they don't want to do that - fine but don't say you are hard up

They live in the west end ffs. They could easily move out to a more family oriented area which is cheaper and still commutable.

by this logic I can't afford the one I've got!
it's a nonsense!

Paying for school fees is not the only education option FGS! Reality check!

they dont say they're hard up they just say they cant afford a third child

ok lets bring them back a few years they're still paying for nursery fees - something most of us have/do done

YEah, and it's bollox.

Personally I'm quite chuffed that David and Claire can't afford another child. People capable of displaying that degree of selfishness should not be encouraged to breed.

If they really wanted another child, they would be able to afford one.

They don't really want one. They're happy enough with two.

i agree probably right they shouldnt breed more capitalist tories

bit nasty that !!! their offspring might, after all, turn out to rebel against their upbringing like tony bennm and become a revolutionary marxist!

not likely though

sorry to go ot again but Enid I am also long bodied and thought I didn't do ballet/wrap tops until I got my bra refitted. Now everything is in the right place again, all the tops I used to wear something under can be worn without. And look soooo much better.

What a piece of nonsense that article is. Surely everyone has to cut their coat according to their cloth, it's a fact of life. I'd have liked more children than I have but we made our choices, same as these people do so I wouldn't waste a moment's sympathy on them.

It's been badly written - the French payout isn't for the sake of the individual it's for the sake of the state. They need more taxpayers. So it's a nice perk for the individuals who would have liked more kids but decided to cut their cloth...

the UK needs more taxpayers too - the birthrate in France is already higher than here.

I think that Kaz33's post summed things up really well.

I did just sit down and do the sums and after tax, childcare, mortgage, council tax, utilities, food, travel etc we had about £1500 pcm disposable income and that did not cover clothes and car.

Not boasting but were much richer without children on substantially less money!

There was a couple in the same square who had no mortgage and a flat which must have been worth £750,000 which I assume was inherited. He wasn't working, she taught part time so very little disposable income. They brought their kids up with second hand clothes and were really careful with money.

Not sure what your point is there, Kaz. 1500 a month after food and bills sounds like an enormous amount to me.

I must say that these income threads always end up baffling me.

I've just worked out why they baffle me...I've got know gripes with anybody having money whatsoever, it's that they don't seem to know that they have exceptional incomes that mystifies me.

When I take all those things of my income - I feel really good if I have anything between nothing (about 25% of the time)and about £200 (occasionally)- which is for petrol, clothes, incidentals (can of coke, magazine etc) and holidays

I consider that we have a very good standard of living