Does this make us ‘comfortable’?

[Missteeside]

Hi

first of all, this is NOT a stealth boast. Just looking for perspective.

i’m super excited to Be going back to work as a teacher in September, full time. This will make a big difference to our finances.

we have worked out what our budget will look like from September onwards. After all mortgage bills and direct debits we will be left with £2300-2400 per month. From this we’ll need to buy food and fuel. Fuel is about £150 per month.

dh thinks that this makes us ‘comfortable’ but I disagree and think this is quite a lot of ‘disposable’ money.

our mortgage is fixed till 2027 so we’re safe from any hikes till then.

surely this makes us more than ‘comfortable’? I really want to save a big chunk of this money

you'll be comfortable - food is surprisingly expensive these days

Yes, you're comfortable.
If the money is set aside and becomes a big buffer against life's surprises you'll be even more comfortable.

I’d be wanting to save at least £1000 of that for Xmas/birthdays/holidays/MOT’s etc

Do you have children who will be attending childcare? That usually takes a chunk of wages when returning to work

So you'll have the equivalent of one decent full-time salary, and only need to pay a relatively low utilities bill and for food for 2 from that? That certainly makes you well-off, and you should be able to save a big chunk of money.

So no kids then? Lol ok, you're fine.

Disagreeing over the meaning of 'comfortable' isn't really an issue, it's just semantics. Do you have different opinions on what to do with the money - how much to spend/save?

I think 'comfortable' means the ability to pay all your bills & not have to worry (aside from the usual annoyance) if the washing machine breaks down or the roof springs a leak.

If your mortgage is fixed at say 2-3% I'd build up a small reserve (5k?) for rainy day & shove as much as I could in an ISA at 5%+ aiming to max it out ASAP.

It kind of is a (not very) stealth boast as I can't really work out what the question is.

I’d say comfortable but it’s not loads and loads of disposable income depending on how many kids you have (and assuming this is after childcare paid). Your food bill will easily be £400+ a month, then there’s children’s activities, Christmas/birthdays, clothes, house emergency fund, days out, school trips, holidays etc. to fund from this.

You should definitely be able to save but I don’t think it’s really enough to start splashing out on mega purchases. I’d focus on building up a good emergency fund in the first instance.

I think I’d want to know about pensions and savings and debts including mortgage before I declared any income as comfortable.

Also, part of being comfortable is having savings, so not sure what the disagreement is? Do you want to lock it away for higher returns & your DH thinks it needs to be accessible? Does he want to spaff it all on holidays?

I'm assuming there are no childcare costs, or those are already taken into account?

I would put that as more than comfortable (unless you have 5 teenage children you need to buy food for or something), but the exact definition of what is and isn't comfortable isn't that important.

I would call that fairly comfortable, yes. Definitely not hard up, but definitely not well-off either.

It means that you'll be able to set some money aside and build up savings for holidays; for your next car purchase; for pensions/retirement; for an emergency fund etc. I would aim to save about £1,500 each month, perhaps maybe a bit more or less depending on your circumstances and current commitments.

Is this after pensions contributions?

You're comfortable but not well-off enough to spend freely. We easily spend £500 every weekend eating out so £2400 would be gone very quickly.

This is very much about how much you earn and your lifestyle. A friend has £5k+ "spare" each minth, but doesn't feel particularly well off.

I think your comfortable as you won't need to worry if the boiler breaks down or need a new fridge ASAP.

Yes our pensions are deducted before we receive our take home pay

thanks to in laws we have no childcare costs

Yes we have one dc

Do you have children?
you won’t be hungry but probably shouldn’t shop at waitrose, you can afford nice holidays but not several a year, you can have a decent car but not a lambo.
The bar in the U.K. is getting lower- you could save a big chunk by having a boring month, or you could do nice theatre trips and dinners out one month and save little to nothing.

have you included savings?

I would definitely try and overpay the mortgage so you have less to remortgage in 2027 as your interest is probably a good rate now and who knows what will happen in the next couple of years!

One nice holiday could make a significant dent - we are going away for two weeks this Christmas and flights alone (for three) are £2400. I reckon it will cost £6k all in. Add a car breakdown, some house maintenance and that's another few thousand. So I wouldn't be going out to buy expensive handbags or anything. But yes, I think you are 'comfortable' in that you could afford a nice holiday snd a few treats here and there.

Yes I think you have a decent amount spare each month so you don’t need to worry too much about money. You can afford some treats, a holiday, are covered for emergencies and can put some money away into long term savings/overpaying mortgage/extra pension etc each month.

But you can’t afford to go crazy! Eating out several times a week, multiple holidays, designer clothes, expensive cars. I don’t think 2k spare a month is enough for that kind of lifestyle

I do think it could be easily frittered away with lifestyle creep, so I would look at what was important to me such as savings or mortgage and make sure those are a priority before I spent what was left.