How much would your dh have to earn

[Chippychop]

For you not to have to work... What would your lifestyle be like...

I am currently not working, just had a third baby and am taking some time out from working till all three are in nursery/school. My DH earns 50k and we can live a nice lifestyle in NW London. However we are in the process of looking for a house in our area and without savings from my work we would never be able to make the jump, DH wages only cover our day/day living + one annual holiday. Any home renovations etc, came out of my wages and at the moment the savings from my wages.

My childcare costs were higher than my salary so dh's salary was irrelevant.

I'm a SAHM, we've got 2 boys.

If I had been further in my career when we had DS1, then I am sure we would have got used to that increased income, and so it would have been harder for me to give up.
As it was, by the time my maternity pay ended DH had got another job and replaced 90% of my lost earnings. Things were fairly tight for a couple of years though.

Now he earns a lot more and we have a nice lifestyle.

I dont work, by choice, my DH is self employed.

We have no mortgage, no loans, no credit cards.

We are not materialistic.

We live in a nice house in a lovely semi rural area, car, savings etc.

You dont need to earn a lot to be in this position, you just have to work out how you're going to get there and what your priorities are.

I'd love to know how then teanosugar! If you had £15k of debt how would you get out of that one.

If I could do that, then maybe I could get to where you are. Mind you with a mortgage and loans on top, maybe not

It's a chicken and egg question really. (Disclaimer: Don't have a 'D' anything to fall back on) If someone wants to maintain exactly the same lifestyle after quitting work and make no changes whatsoever then the working partner's salary would have to increase by roughly the amount being lost in order to achieve it. If they were prepared to downsize, economise or move to a cheaper location, they may even find that the partner could earn less and the family could still have a very nice lifestyle.

This question is really dependant on both house prices (and your position with regard to a mortgage), child care costs as well as what your partner earns.

This is why we will be moving back up north when we have DC, as what we have saved for a deposit for a house here in London will almost cover the whole mortgage for a house in Lancashire. I would like to be staying at home but it will depend on who gets a job first (I currently earn more).

Treble what he earns now as I am the majority wage earner in our house.

I think we could manage if one of us stopped working, though it would be fairly tight. I think our lifestyle would stay much the same, with a few economies. We both earn about 40K but we have no mortgage which makes a big difference obviously. We live in London though so council tax/commuting etc is expensive.

I can't see it happening though. I can't imagine not working. I think my dp thinks he'd enjoy it but actually wouldn't!

We get by on DH's salary, £80k, live down saff so £££££££££££££. No savings, some debts, big rent, soon to be bigger mortgage. I am planning to SAHM for as long as possible until youngest at school. TTC no 4.

I am fortunate as my husband earns quite alot of money so I am able to commit to what I wanted to do, stay at home until the kids are at least 5. Was almost there and contemplating going back to work when surprise number 3 revealed herself. So being lucky that my husband is a really hard worker and can provide for us well, we are set up well.

I'd never give up work! But if I could earn £65 then DP would give up work.

QuaaludesAndRedWine - I personally wouldn't have got myself into £15k worth of debt.

He'd have to earn at least as much as me. I'm the higher earner by a significant margin. DH was a SAHD for 7 years and we coped quite well on my income. I will qualify that by saying we paid off the mortgage on our tiny flat, don't run a car, don't smoke and don't have expensive hobbies like skiing. We didn't manage to save much during the years of one income either.

Am same as Lizcat. Dh would need to treble his salary as I am the higher earner. Saying that I wouldn't quit work even if he did increase his salary. I love working and would hate to be at home full time. Might cut down to a 4 day week.

How much DH earns is irrelevant, as I have always stayed at home with DC while they were preschool.
I started when DD was born and DH earned £11,500, there were no tax credits then, the only benefit we had was child benefit. We had a mortgage and it was a struggle but after surviving that anything more is a bonus.
DH is now a HR taxpayer and I gave up work about two years ago to stay at home with DC3 and now DC4.

about 23-25k would be easily doable even without cb or tax credits but thats a very high wage here

I will also say we live in south in mortgaged property and are only in our 20s but that is still more than doable with money to spare for car, uk hol etc

I don't work...dp gets about 28k plus some overtime. We are on Scotland and pretty ok. We run two cars, have a flat which we rent out(DPs old flat we just haven't sold yet), our current mortgage, we don't holiday abroad, and shop in lidl. We do lots of free things and I cook from scratch. We are not flush, but I know we are better off than some people I know. If I worked I would need wrap around care for school DS and full time care for dd which, where we live, would suck up my entire wage. So I am getting a degree(so close to finishing) and will get a job once dd is in school.

Where roughly in the South do you live, Molly. We wouldn't be able to live here on that.

We currently get£22k between us and don't claim TCs or anything. It's tight so ideally £25+ for me not to work.

He used to earn £60k but I still worked so doubt it would happen!

We do have a £1000000 plan where it's just enough to get us to retirement without working & living quite a nice life.

I don't need to work, DH earns ~£45k and we live in the north west.
I work part time (don't earn enough to pay tax) because I love childcare work, and get bored at home.

Same as Lizcat & Nulgirl - DH would have to treble his income. In a couple of years time would like to cut hours down, not enough hours in the day to get it all done at the moment, but I love work and wouldn't want to give it up.

I wouldn't give up work. I asked my dh if he would, were I to double my salary (we earn about the same) and he said no - we'd just save/invest more for the future, have a nicer house, go on better holidays.

Seems neither of us want to be a sahp.