Average Salaries + Lifestyle in 30s/40s

[SmallWorldAfterAll]

First time thread poster here. I am always intrigued how people manage their personal finances, especially when it’s people on similar salaries with such variable costs and lifestyles. But as a woman in my early 30s, I’m finding a lot of people on MN are in their 50s and beyond, therefore very progressed in careers and different stage of life so slightly less relatable.

For those in their 30s and perhaps 40s, what is your financial situation looking like? What are your goals? I will of course start.

Salary = £75k, household ~ £105k
Pension = Contribute 15% with an employer match of 10%
Mortgage + essentials = £2,500 per month
1 DC with a plan for another
Currently have what feels like a very comfortable lifestyle but have some ambitious goals for the future
Goals = By 35 achieve a £100k+ salary, be able to save £1,000 per month (amidst childcare costs), 20% pension contributions, continue nice lifestyle (multiple holidays abroad, restaurants, nice family days out, etc.)

@Bells2323 I'm in marketing / advertising. Started on 18k then got promoted up to 47k at 25 and moved overseas. I think in the UK I'd be paid nearer 75k max. I do have a team and as it's client based it can be really demanding with long hours. But it's relatively easy to enter at grad level and work your way up quickly.

What's the point in these types of threads other than to show off, I could see the point if people also stated what their actual job is!

My goal is to have 20k a year retirement, and own my own house. Anything more than that I can't see myself being able to achieve over the next thirty years.

@RulaLenskasHair @piddocktrumperiness

I've worked in the finance sector for the last 14 years. My first role was in the legal recoveries department and starting salary was £22-£24k (can't remember exactly). I then moved into legal/regulatory risk & compliance and gained two promotions whilst in this area. I recently moved into HR, as I fancied a change.

36 year old couple with two young children. No childcare costs.

Salary = €48k (part-time), household €188k (will rise to 204k in March 2024)
Other Income: 14k a year tax free rental income. €240 a month child benefit.

Pension = DB Public Service pension plus €300 a month AVC's for me. 24% contribution for my husband including company match.
Mortgage - €1970 per month
Other bills including groceries - €1350

Goals = We're on track to pay off the mortgage by age 45. We sell RSU's every Spring when they vest and use these to pay a lump sum off, usually around 27k. Once the mortgage is paid off we'll start directing the extra money into pensions and investments for our children. We plan to retire together at age 60.

We don't have any further career goals because we're very lucky to have great work life balance and comfortable lifestyles currently. I love working part-time since having my children and being there for activities and events. My husband is at assistant director level in a very flexible job, if he was to move up to director level then his work demands would increase a lot and he'd lose a lot of his free time so it's just not worth it to us as a family.

We spend our disposable income on travel, socialising, shopping and home improvements. Usually manage to save 2k a month. We save the €240 a month child benefit into an investment account earmarks for our children's futures but keep it in my own name.

I genuinely feel sad for the kids who are shunted into full time childcare so parents can earn money to show off about this shit.

No one cares.

You'll die eventually needing someone to wipe you arse.

Mid 30s Single parent, 1 teenager
Salary: £30k
Pension: public sector 21%
Property: Own outright (inheritance)
Utilities/renovation loan: £500

In a lot of cases it is a trade off. Earn well while you can and retire earlier.

We were both in our 40’s when our DC arrived which means it makes sense to earn well while we can and then be retired as soon as possible after he starts school.

We have no family childcare assistance so we need to retire as soon as we can to allow us to be around for DC during the school holidays.

It is easier to manage at the nursery stage as it covers 51 weeks of the year. Once DC starts school one of us will have to stop work otherwise we will have real issues during the holidays.

As for showing off well that definitely doesn’t apply to us. We lead a very normal lifestyle similar to one experienced by people on a fraction of our salaries as we are trying to fund retirement 15-20 years earlier than most. To do that we need a big lump sum saved.

I doubt anyone has a clue what we earn. We don’t even discuss it with other family members or friends. I think they’d be astounded if they knew because were they in the same position they’d be buying the big house and putting photos of flash holidays on social media. We do none of that.

We even lie about things like getting 30 hours free nursery funding so that people don’t work out we’re higher earners.

As long as our DC is happy and well looked after that’s all I care about. I’m not in the slightest bit interested what anyone else thinks. I’m more than happy to stay under the radar.

I genuinely feel sad for the kids who are shunted into full time childcare so parents can earn money to show off about this shit.

I feel sorry for you being so chippy and ignorant. Yes we utilised childcare in pre school years, but the level of seniority I have now means I own my diary and choose where I work (home!) I am here when my teen walks in from school. I've never missed a sports day, school play, school event, I earn enough to give them a comfortable home, extra curriculars, experiences abroad, they do not need to worry about money like I did as a child. I can assure you, my children do not need your pity, I wonder how yours are being raised with a parent with that insular thinking.

@qpalbfy I totally agree, it's a very judgemental (jealous?) comment. DH works from home full time and is with DC up until 9 am and from 4 pm every day! And my DC spends two days a week with his grandparents... hardly "shunted into full time childcare"

Sounds like you’re jealous. A high income can open opportunities for DC and also mean they will be comfortable themselves as adults. There are lots of benefits.

I’d also question why you think high incomes mean full time childcare? Our household income is over £100k but my DC are only in childcare 3 days a week. I earn over £50k myself working 3 days a week. A few days of childcare is very beneficial for children, my DC have thrived in nursery and learnt so much. Our eldest is a summer baby but is very ready to go to school and won’t be at the bottom of the class even though she’ll be one of the youngest, definitely due to the excellent nursery that we can afford to pay for her to go to. I’m very happy with our decision. It’s not showing off, just different and good life decisions.

I'm 33 and so is DH.

I'm on 30k pro-rata'd to 4 days a week so think that makes £24k
DH earns 42k a year.

We have 2 DC both at nursery so our childcare costs are around £1200/month currently until DC1 starts school in sept and DC2 will get some of the funded hours - hallelujah! When this happens we will be so much better off.

Mortgage is £930/month with 27 years left, we do plan on overpaying it when the childcare costs go down.
Then we'll work on building our pensions up a bit more!!

@toodledo very much agree, especially with the jealous comment.

DD has 2 days a week at nursery with her pals, 2 days a week with grandparents at their request, and one day a week with me/DH so she gets the best of all worlds.

The years when they need full time care are so short. To me it seems mad to give up a well paying career when that money will enable so many choices for the family over the next 18 years and beyond.

42. Took a huge pay cut because we live abroad. Moved then decided to work so found a UK job that allows you be abroad, which were few and far between, its a charity so the pay is bad but its fully remote and my work life balance is fantastic and its my favourite job I've had yet.

Make 15k less than I used to. DH is retraining so not bringing anything in at the moment.

UK houses are rented so pay for themselves.

Outgoings are 1400 between UK and here, leaving roughly 1600/1700 to live off each month I think.

Not currently paying into pensions, so need to sort that.

I'll bite just to inject some normality into the thread and make people not feel quite so disheartened!

Salary - 28k pro rata for 4 days a week
Pension pot of around £40k not sure on contributions
Household around 54k
Mortgage - £800pm (slight overpayment) (220k left on a house worth around £360k - 30 years left on mortgage) other bills around £1600pm
Manage to save around £160pm plus a little bit into our kids savings if we're lucky!
2 kids - 4 and 12 low childcare costs just afterschool club for youngest
Lifestyle is frugal, rarely eat out, we do days out occasionally and mainly a UK holiday annually with an abroad holiday once every 4 years or so and nothing extravagant.
Main goal over next couple of years is to move to a bigger house which seems an impossible dream at the moment. Perhaps do some home improvements but no idea where or how to find the money we need.

Meant to say as well we are mid 30s

not really sure why it deserves a laughing emoji, yes of course it's obvious. Just explaining why people often quote vastly different amounts as 'fact' on threads like these, because they just google 'average salary' and don't then check any of the qualifications. When it's broken down by region/city there's usually quite a significant difference, up to £10k between the average in London/other cities too which makes it even harder comparing like for like.

Salary alone doesn't take into account extra benefits like pension/annual leave/flexibility meaning you can save thousands on childcare. Then take into account hugely varying costs in bills, mortgage, disposable income, benefits, family help, and it all becomes very complicated and not as easy as good salary=good lifestyle.

Feeling shit reading this. I only earn £46k, is that a really crap salary for a 32yo woman?

No, it’s 10k more than I earn and I’m 57. It’s 20k more than DH earns, at 60. We both work full time and live in London. We are never going to earn 46K. We both have good degrees from good universities.

Blimey some of these are sobering. Still think we are lucky compared to so many though.

Age 45
Salary 35k - this bit sticks in the craw somewhat because I have 20 years experience and I am a front line Social worker - and I earn 5k more than I did in 2004!
DW is retired from the police with a pension so total household income 53k. She was also front line CID/ child protection for all of her career, which is how we met. She is not able to work now due to 2 DC with additional needs but this also means no child care costs.
No mortgage - we have a modest home in a cheap area of the country and benefitted from cheap house prices when young. So lucky in that sense. Outgoings about 2k nonetheless with other bills, pension payments etc. definitely have too many streaming services, PlayStation plus etc. Kids are teens and pricey!

We do quite live quite comfortably and can buy nice food, council gym membership etc. We also benefit from not really being able to spend much on going out or holidays because the kids find all those things difficult so we often stay at home, or go to the woods/beach.

Pension - I pay max employee contributions into LGPS defined benefits. Plus pay AVCs and have a SIPP worth about 50k atm. DW pension around 18k.

We have savings for emergencies but find it hard to save a lot. No debts, cars bought second hand and outright.

So even though I do sometimes think it is unfair that the slog, long hours, skill and risk inherent in SW (and other frontline professionals) is not recognised in salaries, I do count my blessings as we have had plenty of good luck.

I will never get to the Maldives though! 😂😂

I'd also love to know what these people do that earns loads.

In every workplace I've worked it's only the managing director, CEO or Ops director that earn these huge salaries. Most people are on 30/40k - does that means the directors and chief executives of the world make up the mumsnet users?

Or, do you earn that kind of salary in London for any kind of management/slightly senior role?

It does baffle me how people are this wealthy?

This just shows how completely warped our system of pay is relative to value to society. Just look at the good you and your wife have put into the world. Those salaries are good salaries but no where near proportionate to what you should be paid given the value of those roles.

Meant to link this to what @Namechangeforthisthread45 posted above

I’m just below Board level working for a PLC with a few thousand employees.

The CEO is earns around £2m pa and other Board members are on 300K + 100% bonus + shares. In a good year they get packages of around £1m. They do have to sell their souls somewhat to earn this though.

I get a total package of £200k as a fairly senior non Board Director. I work far fewer hours than the Board members and also work from home 90%+ of the time. I wouldn’t want or be able to commit to the Board level roles even if they were offered to me.

I’d estimate around 100 of my colleagues receive packages in excess of £100k.

We're both mid-30s with one young child and extortionate childcare costs.

I work part time on minimum wage, OH is full time on £21k.
Savings are swiftly dwindling.
Pension pot pitiful, and only minimum contributions monthly.

BUT:
No mortgage, own outright and house value is £550,000.
No bills either, we get those paid as a work benefit to compensate for low salaries.
We stand to inherit the family business which should be worth a couple mil. Up to £5M maybe. More investment is being made this year to diversify and add better income streams, which is meant to increase our salaries.
Lifestyle is modest but comfortable. We have one holiday abroad per year and a couple domestic getaways too. Our overheads are low, and we're not big spenders so we manage, but can't splurge on luxuries and we're not currently able to save anything. Hoping that will change in September when LO qualifies for some free childcare hours.