What constitutes a good salary?

[bridie69]

..and why do people especially in SE England never want to answer that question? My take is clearly it depends on your circumstances, mortgage or not, age, children, lifestyle. I would say that anyone with £2k left from a single income after monthly repayment mortgage payments can be considered to have a good income. I also think people don't want to say "yes that is good money" because it is tantamount to admitting they themselves earn less than that and noone wants their peers to think they might be worse off than them.

I think it is completely subjective, like you say.

Currently I am a full time student, and dh has gone part time whilst I study so we don't use any childcare. So we are surviving on my bursary/loan, his wages and a small amount of CTC, and housing benefit.

In 3 years time I shall be earning minimum £25k a year and dh will be back to full time (dd will be at school then) at minimum £18k.

To some that might not seem a lot of money, but to us we will feel very rich.

It entirely depends on circumstances/other outgoings imo. We have a joint income of c.£55k gross (I work part time), which gives us about enough to have £2k left after bills, but our mortgage is relatively cheap (£700 for a 4 bed). We don't have any childcare costs but have a new leased car. We are relatively free with our spending and don't need to budget, but are not big spenders on clothes or eating out since having dcs, nor are we able to spend a lot on holidays any more. If we make an effort to save then we can be left with £500-£800 at the end of the month. So it is certainly enough to be comfortable, but certainly not rich I would say.

The median personal income in London is around £24000 a year
that means half of all Londoners earn less than that

and tax credits are being cut to the bone, closely followed by Housing benefit