What is your household income/ lifestyle

[Lockdown12]

What is your household income and what lifestyle do you manage to have on it?

Do you have children? Own your own house? Go on holiday? Go out for meals?

I don't have children yet but am interested about how the financial situation might change when we hopefully do!

We have a very high household income relative to the average ( husband is a junior partner in a City law firm and work in a professional role, on a consultancy basis). Now we are able to, we've chosen to save and invest most of it.

We could choose a very different lifestyle, and many of DH's colleagues do. It's amazing how easy it is to spend 400k a year when everyone around you is doing the same and it matters to show people how well you've done.

It is really important to me that my children don't grow up surrounded by conspicuous material wealth. I want them to value relationships and experience. We have chosen to live in a nice house with a tiny mortgage ( not an Old Rectory) and have little interest in Range Rovers and expensive resorts. We also have a house in France ( inherited) but the costs are minimal. We do pay for school fees, music school, play therapy and other things which benefit the children. We eat very well and holiday in interesting places (France, US etc.). Our kids are well but not extravagantly clothed and we enjoy concerts, festivals etc. DH has no interest at all in stuff of any kind ( except guitars). We support several causes quite generously.

We are not at the stage where we have a lot left over at the end of the month. It's carefully and well invested. To me, having that security when the going is tough (like now) in the long term is hugely valuable and even more so once you have children. At some point I might go mad and buy a vineyard. I completely understand that we are in a very fortunate position and I'd never share our position to most people in real life.

Single parent
Benefit income only
Was on £60k pa but two children disabled
Small house no mortgage
New car paid for
No holidays
Very restricted life due to dc’s needs
Plenty of savings after redundancy
Will probably never work again

Really interested to know what jobs the high earners do?

I’ve already posted on this thread but have NC for this comment as both together are identifying and I don’t want the same info linked to one username.

If anyone asks about what my husband and I do, I say “I work in HR and he works in a bank” so I don’t think people think of us as high earners at all.

I’m a Programme Manager managing huge-scale HR projects for a national organisation that everyone in the country has heard of. It’s a rapidly changing company so lots of mergers, amalgamations, and change management. I also do additional work for a body linked to my profession but that’s ad-hoc, and I mainly do it to keep up my HR legislative knowledge- it doesn’t pay well.

My husband is a director in an investment bank and he works on private equity funds across EMEA.

We both earn fairly similar amounts. My company pays exceptionally well and I don’t think I’d get my salary elsewhere if I moved, but there aren’t many organisations who would do my kind of work at this scale.
Similarly, DH’s company tends to pay below market rate but he’s comfortable and happy there so wouldn’t move for more money.

We both earn six figure salaries, but it’s not really something people would know about us.

Even more than that JustOne, you can be highly successful in your legal field and still not be a particularly high earner. If you're a solicitor and what you love is welfare benefits, asylum, actions against the police etc, you can be one of the stars and still be not very far above median wage. One of the brightest lawyers I've ever met is in a law centre environment and cant be on more than 35k absolute tops, and he's nationally renowned. No violins here: he's doing what he loves, and he's in the north of England so that's an alright salary, but I don't think a lot of people realise how little even some shit hot lawyers earn. If your preferred client group has no money, it's not going to be lucrative!

Joint net income (after pensions too) of about £5.5k

This comes from DH working ft, me working pt and income from a rental property.

We own our home (modest but in expensive area) and our rental property outright.

Usually have 3 or 4 UK based holidays a year plus a cheap skiing trip.

2 DC in private day schools

2 old cars (both over 10 yrs) and not very interested in clothes, new tech etc

Tend to save £1.5k per month

Hope to retire in late 50s

Hope to give £50k deposit to each child sometime in their later 20s.

Eat out probably twice or three times per month. Zero takeaways and no subscriptions to things like Netflix.

Was frugal in 20s and 30s and those decisions allowed savings/equity in house to grow allowing more choices in 40s and beyond.

It's not so much about lifestyle at current time as allowing options later like retiring a bit early, funding children into property. Earlier on we were focused on affording private education and boosting income through outright buying of rental property.

All helped by not being bothered by living in big house or new cars or lots of DIY. Nice to know you could afford them if you wanted to though,

I definitely agree about lawyers salaries, have a friend in house on about 50k p/t & another one on 40k ft.

@WombatChocolate it's much harder to make lots of money from property now though, be it your own home or a BTL.

We also couldn't afford 2 lots of school fees on our 5k income, most preps near us are 17k a yr minimum.

2 children on private school?
Save £1.5k
3-4 holidays uk hols plus one skiing
And presumably channelling a LOT in to pensions of hoping to retire in 50s

All on £5.5k a month

Even not having a mortgage, this would simply not be possible where I live (affluent SE town).

Private day school £17-19k - year. And that’s prep. So right there looking at £3600 a month just on fees. And then you save £1.5k a month... already I’d be£100 a month in debt!

This is such an interesting thread!

* My husband is a director in an investment bank and he works on private equity funds across EMEA.*

* I’m a Programme Manager managing huge-scale HR projects for a national organisation that everyone in the country has heard of*

* We both earn six figure salaries, but it’s not really something people would know about us.*

If they know your jobs, they’d be pretty naive to think you don’t want six figure. Your husband with bonuses I’d presume seven figures.

Single mum, just been made redundant but was £28k per annum.
One DC, £750 rent per month , 10 yr old car.
We manage a cheap holiday every 2 yrs generally and eat out maybe 4 times a year

Yes, fees same for us - closer to 20k actually for secondary. We have a small discount at one and a bigger discount at the other - and one is a Prep at £15k.

It's been affordable because we have no mortgage and an income from a rental property and fairly low outgoings.

It does show though that lifestyle can seem good for an income level.....or not so good. A lot does depend when you bought your property and if you've therefore got a small/no mortgage compared to a high mortgage.

We've known people with well over £50k more income per year than us, who couldn't afford the private school fees. That's because they bought property later or live in bigger houses or have spent lots on extensions etc so their big mortgages remain.

Especially when your income is a good but not super-brilliant level, some of the early choices can make a big difference to options and lifestyle availability later on.

I'd imagine we'll see that a lot in retirement too. There will be those having a great retirement who were never massive earners and those who did earn lots who don't seem to have the best retirements - some of it will be down to waht they did with the money as much as how much they actually earned.

We have a fairly low mortgage but the fees you quoted are approx 3k a month & of course there are materials, trips etc on top.

Even without a mortgage spending 3k on fees & 1.5k savings out of 5.5k leaves 1k for bills, food, travel etc We would struggle on that every month let alone afford 3 UK holidays & ski trip!

@wombatchchocolate

I’m not saying your fibbing but the numbers dont stack up.

Ok so you pay just shy of £3k a month fees
£1.5 a month savings

They come to £4.5k. Leaving you with £1k a
Month.

No mortgage but... from that £1k you pay for...

Pension (presumably lots here if planning to retire late fifties)
3-4uk hols and a skiing hol.
Foods, Insurances, bills, socialising, kids stuff, clothing, petrol etc for car

I mean there’s frugal and then there’s - well not possible!

Especially when your income is a good but not super-brilliant level, some of the early choices can make a big difference to options and lifestyle availability later on.

It's sensible to be prudent but for us in our 30s & those younger there are certain things beyond our control eg less generous pension schemes, more expensive housing, BTLs more expensive & less lucrative, etc

It does add up. We don't pay £3k in fees - it's £2.3k - we do get discounts at both schools.
Our pension contributions have already been taken out before the £5.5k, as I mentioned.

We also live in affluent town in SE, but as mentioned it is a modest house and we live pretty frugally with day to day expenses being pretty low. Our UK holidays are cheap and we manage to ski for £1.5k - managed v cheaply by benefitting from accommodation provided by friends.

Our savings are usually £1.5k. Perhaps some months they are closer to £1k in reality.

But I have been very honest about income and everything. We have been helped by having fee discounts at the schools, which most people wouldn't be able to access on the scale we have been fortunate to get.

£1-£1.5k a month and then deduct the savings you say you’re making for your children to given them £50k each in early twenties) is questionable as to whether ten year early retirement for both of you is possible surely?!

Possible post fees and savings but I would hazard a guess that it’s not “fairly” frugal. It’s very frugal!

@Sodamncold maybe they already have the savings for the dc put aside or maybe they have an annuity coming their way that they plan on giving their dc? What does it matter?

Personally that's a little disingenuous @WombatChocolate as you get a fairly hefty monthly discount vs your income/assets which isn't common at private particularly prep & your ski trip is subsidised by friends.

So one could be a prudent & frugal as possible & wouldn't afford your lifestyle.

@Sodamncold some ppl can live very frugally but still "live" my income is 4.5k and my "set" bills are approx 650! (No mortgage) The rest I split between saving into sinking funds and using for variable expenditures.

Very good point @BlackberryCane. Some of the government legal service lawyers I know are brilliant and were on £35k in their late 20s when they would have been on 6 figures in private practice.

I think the point was that for the vast majority of people that income wouldn't sustain that lifestyle.

I said upthread that we have cheap holidays because family have holiday homes. I didn't say we spend 5 wks of the Summer in 'X' & 2 wks at Christmas or Easter at 'X' because we can only do this because family subsidise a huge portion of it.

Okay - sorry if it was mis-leading.

Yes, we have substantial savings too, which we continue to add to. We will be able to give DC each £50k plus when they are an age to buy property.

We also use fees in advance schemes - we paid 4 years ahead for one child and got some decent savings by doing that. Most parents paying fees don’t pay all of it from straight income but are drawing down some savings/investment plan too - they often planned ahead for years for fees.

Lifestyle is about income, but it’s more than that isn’t it. Wealth is key too. And wealth is much more unevenly distributes than income by far. Wealth generates both income and wealth - so my rental property generates income and grows in value adding to my wealth, which has the potential to further increase my income and/or wealth.

I guess you might say that our lifestyle isn’t very impressive apart from the independent schools. We live in a modest house (although it’s worth a lot because of where it is) and drive old cars and holiday in the UK mostly. Sometimes people have asked us why we don’t get a new car or update our old kitchen from the 80s cabinets, or buy the DC more clothes, or go on luxury holidays Those people would say our lifestyle isn’t affluent at all. They might have all those things and see them as a sign of affluence.

We’ve chosen instead to have the school fees and to have money in our pensions so we can retire and give to the kids for housing. Different choices.

I think our income does fund our lifestyle but the fact we have wealth in the form of substantial savings and another property means there’s added flexibility in our spending and lifestyle than if we were wholly dependent on income with nothing else behind us.

I’d have thought most people with high incomes have substantial wealth too...but perhaps there’s lots of debt. Lifestyle doesn’t tell the whole story.

Name changed

Total monthly income 15k

Dh runs an accountancy firm
I am a solicitor- ( agree that not all lawyers are well paid)
Four bedroomed detached in a relatively cheap area in the South East- can afford to move somewhere more expensive, but we are happy here and we want to be able to afford the mortgage if things go wrong.
Mortgage £1600
Three children in state schools-supplement learning with private tuition.
DH has a ‘nice’ car. My car is 8 years old
Travel a lot- two major foreign holidays a year- our main expense. A few Uk/European holidays
Shop in Aldi, Lidl and Tesco . M and S at Christmas and Easter
Save a lot

Go out to dinner about once a month
Tbh - we live quite frugally as we want to be able to sleep at night

£2500 take home a month, single parent and usually go away twice a year in UK but haven't been abroad for a few years now.