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.)

@reddaisies - not sure if you had seen my earlier posts but I've worked in the finance sector for the last 14 years. I've been fortunate enough to gain two promotions during that time, as well as a number of sideways moves, which has meant that my salary has increased substantially during this time. I acknowledge that I'm in a comfortable position and am also fully aware that this can change if I or my DH (or both) were made redundant or our circumstances change in future.

I guess with these posts, it's not always known what people have done to get to where they are or what steps have been taken to achieve the salary they earn.

Wow this thread makes me feel bad about myself I'm 36 and practically on minimum wage in a dead end job :(

Thanks for all the responses to this! The ranges of salaries and lifestyles are vast, but I think one thing is for sure that everyone has some goal(s) that they are working towards.

I can understand why some people may feel disheartened by some of the higher salaries but I think it’s nice to know what is actually possible in some industries. Although, not everyone has shared what they do as that’s not what I initially asked for. But in hindsight would have been helpful!

Just to add to it, I am a consultant in a large organisation.

So depressing how your finances and lifestyle into retirement are so much better if you are lucky enough to find someone you want to marry and vice versa. There is such a financial penalty to being single.

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.

Thanks for that incredibly enlightening rant apparently triggered by me having the audacity to post salary data from the ONS. If you'd have looked at it you'd have realised it was on an FTE basis before commenting to "inform" me of this as though I wasn't aware. Of course it is amusing that you seemed surprised that average salaries are calculated on that basis.

I didn't ask for your patronising, dumbed down explanation of regional differences in living costs. I'm well aware of that, thank you, being a lone parent providing for two children in the SE and paying way more tax than a working couple with the same household income. The ONS - in the link I posted - provide all of the data on regional variations. I'm not in need of your financial "insights": I work in financial regulation/ economics.

Truly shocking how well rewarded corrupt useless shit like finance is.

My salary: 73k although work 0.8 FTE, DH on 100k.
Pension is pretty low, I pay 10% and matched with 15%.

Mortgage is about 1600pm. It’s worth about 470k and we have about 220k in equity. We’ve got about 600k in investments and savings from working abroad in low tax countries on expatriate terms, so will pay off our mortgage next year.

One DC, TTC number 2. Childcare about 650pm.

We’re well off and enjoy a nice lifestyle but do save a lot. We have fairly cheap cars, I meal plan, don’t really drink, buy a lot second hand etc. Most extravagant is holidays (about 15-20k typically) & we either donate regularly to charity or treat our friends and family.

Age 31 - DH is older at 40
I work in individual tax advisory for an accountancy firm
Salary = c.60k household ~ £100k
Pension = Contribute 8% with an employer match of 8%
Mortgage + essentials (inc food): £3.3k (although includes an extra £300 for mortgage overpayments and £575 pm to aggressively pay down 0% CC) - so technically around 2.5k for real essentials?
1 DC in nursery, average cost is about £250 pm (30 hours funded)

We have been fortunate with when we bought our house (and prior) so have a 240k mortgage on a 500kish house. While we have about 7k debt on a 0% CC, we have enough in savings to pay it off in full so not really carrying any debt at the moment. We don't live lavishly but don't have to think much about budgeting within reason (like we can book a Premier Inn whenever we like for a weekend away but definitely not the Ritz!)

In terms of future goals- no idea. I don't really want another DC so no additional childcare costs to consider. I like my job but uncertain of my capability to take on the next step up- my brain never seemed to work the same since having my DC! If I did, I imagine that might be around 70k. Don't know. Honestly, I am happy where I am. We have enough and realistically more money probably wouldn't enhance our lives dramatically.

Without a finance system the modern society you live in would not exist. Harari's books provide a useful, basic description of its transformative effect on human civilisation. Technology would not have been developed, international trade would be impossible. Many of the products you use and rely on every day of your life would not exist or be available to you. Your standard of living would still be at subsistence level.

Perhaps it would be a good idea to understand the basics of the development lf human civilisation, economics and how modern societies are able to function before denigrating whole sectors of work that underpin society as "corrupt, useless shit".

• LegoHeads The lifetime allowance is being abolished.

Until Labour get in, they did say they'd bring it back...*

@Mia85 unlikely, given it would les to another mass early retirement of people in key skills shortage sectors. It would be econ

Sorry, posted too soon!

...economic suicide to do that. Reeves is an exonomist, so one would hope she isn't that stupid, to shoot herself in the foot like that.

I find these posts rather odd - an example of one of those conversations that generally people wouldn't have "in real life" because they tend to end up with at least one person feeling inferior.

Comparing yourself to an online person - who you have never met and who could very well be lying - isn't helpful "advice" at all in this regard. You would be far better off speaking to an independent financial advisor who can assist you in understanding whether your financial situation fits your current and future anticipated (and hoped for) needs and expectations. You're not going to get that advice here - for all you know all the posters above have made up the figures entirely.

Furthermore, the variables involved in discussing career/salary/housing/pension/retirement are so complex that it's not clear how asking this question on such a broad forum would guide you anyway. Probably better to find a dedicated group of people who do the same work as you and are at a similar point in their career development to understand whether you are being appropriately compensated and are developing your career at a pace that suits.

Here's an example of why sharing these "flex figures" doesn't help and usually causes people to just feel bad:
In the "Big law" environment, starting salaries (which you can find online) are in the $200k range. For many people that would seem a huge amount of money for a year 1 person on their career ladder. However. Those people tend to also be living in very high cost of living cities (London, New York for example). They tend to have very high levels of student debt. They also tend to have high expectations of the number of billable hours required of them in a year (an 80 hour work week is normal - checking your phone every day from the early to the late hours for messages is normal). Many 'upscale' their lifestyle habits to match their salary - meaning that they may not save for retirement to begin with, but rather get a lease on a nice car, or get a nice rental flat etc etc etc.

At first glance their pay seems extraordinary...but when you get into the details you realise that actually...it's not that great of a flex. Someone working in their own firm in a small town with a far lower cost of living where they can set their own hours may actually have a far better quality of life and expectation of long term employment with their employer.

Put another way: These threads in which people post their financial data are wholly cringeworthy and unhelpful in that the result of them tends to be that people feel inferior (or superior) with absolutely no basis whatsoever.

How are people mid 30’s with no mortgage?? Our life savings only got us a 25% deposit

Perhaps read some Marx and Marxism and get a sense of how financialisation has screwed economy not produced it!!.and where do you think all that speculative money that pays your inflated wages comes from???

We earn above average. 40(me) & 41(DH) yrs old.
We currently have about 40% equity in our house (live in suburbs of London) and our main financial goal is to try to pay it off or significantly reduce our mortgage in the next few years.

I find it quite strange that you’ll take time to comment on a post that you find so weird and not useful. Furthermore, not sure why you assume the conversations you suggested haven’t been had in mine or other posters personal lives? This conversation gives a much wider range than speaking to people just in your field/circle and therefore is quite interesting. These are generalisations and I think people are smart enough to know that’s the purpose of such a post. Maybe next time just keep scrolling to something you find more interesting?

I’m our case my husband’s parents bought us the house. I don’t see many other ways around it than either inheritance or gift. If we didn’t have that help we would probably still be renting.

Mid 30s, based in London mid level Financial Services.
Salary £95k + annual bonus which is historically around £50k so annual income has been £145k (but obviously technically bonus never guaranteed and isn't included in company pension contributions). Household income around £250k.
rent in London but have a mortgage free buy to let in my old home city which brings in another £1000pcm.
OP, do you think you are underpaid in your industry or will the increase come with promotions? I havnt been promoted in the past four years but have had an increase in my total income by more then 30% which I have had to push for as I suspected that I was not paid in line with my peers who had joined externally and therefore were more likely to be paid the market rate. Definitely worth some investigation.
Lifestyle wise, we have intentionally low expenses (apart from nursery for our one DC which is more than our rent), no car, basic flat in an unfancy area, so have a great lifestyle and never have to worry about money which is the main thing for me. We like the flexibility of being able to afford sabbaticals in the future if we want, and being able to book holidays without saving whenever we want to and treat ourselves to nice dinners if we get the chance. We also had to have IVF for our DC and it was so much more relaxing not even having to think about the cost or saving for it. I would definitely recommend building up a nice pot for peace of mind.
Pension contributions 18% and usually make some AVCs.
I do save/ invest more than £1000per month and usually do this with all of my bonus too as there is never anything I'm desperate to buy with it.
Our goals are to feel financially free enough to potentially forgo the high salaries we are on now to maybe take more risks in the future, or to reduce our hours to spend more time with our DC, potentially both going part time. We don't want to feel on the hamster wheel. DH may also take extended unpaid time off if we have DC 2.

We paid ours off before we were 40 and had a child.

We are high earners and bought a property that costs just over a years worth of our take home pay. With interest rates of virtually zero we paid it off in under 5 years.

Household income of 300k, house bought for 350k.

Most others I work with on similar salaries all have £1m+ houses and some have £1m+ mortgages. I just don’t see the point. I’ll be retired way before them which to me is far more important than having a house that is bigger or more expensive than I actually need.

Buy what you genuinely need, not what you can afford.

Perhaps read some Marx and Marxism and get a sense of how financialisation has screwed economy not produced it!!.and where do you think all that speculative money that pays your inflated wages comes from???

The economy would not exist in the first place without a financial system. Neither would technology or any of the conveniences of modern life. No cars, no transport system, scare food, no modern medicine, no computers or smartphones or household appliances or any of the products you use daily.

you've identified the horridness of threads like this. Don't feel shit - most of the people on this thread are likely lying about their salaries and work/living situation. No one here has provided any evidence of their living situation and even if they have done, so what? You earn £46k. If that allows you to live a life that is meaningful to you (note - to YOU!) and allows you to do the stuff you wish to do then it's plenty. You do you. Plus, £46k means a ton of different things. Someone who is earning £200k but is absolutely screwed with credit card debt and who made an error in their morgage situation (all interest mortgages are hellish for many) would likely be in a far worse situation than you in many ways. Moreover: do you like your job? Do you like your colleagues? Do you like where you live? Do you feel secure in your work? do you have time to pursue the other things in life that intrigue you or do you have time to figure out what other things you might enjoy? Plenty of people who earn far more than you are utterly miserable - many spend far more than they earn on crap they don't need. They get leases on expensive cars they don't need and that give them zero equity. They go to expensive restaurants that give them food that they could happily make - with friends - at home for a fraction of the cost.
Point being: these threads are toxic. Pay them no mind.

Ignore these numbers! None of them are backed by any evidence! People just post crap on this thread (and many others on this site - I swear it's full of absolute nonsense) just to either feel better about themselves or make others feel worse. Stop worrying about what other people have (or claim to have - there's a big difference).

Look at how many people on this thread have responded to say that the thread makes them feel inferior/lesser/cruddy. It's a lot. You also haven't addressed the fact that people lie ALL the time online. This thread is nonsense. Very few of these people have accounted for exactly where in the country they live. Where in those places exactly they live. Whether they ever had help buying a place (inheritance, help with a deposit), whether they actually enjoy their jobs, whether they feel they have a "purpose" that drives them in the sense that they wake up every day feeling content. A purpose can mean many many many different things - for some it's raising a child, for others it's working in a low paying job that has far ranging pay offs in terms of helping others, for others it's working in a job that means they can get a new car every year. All reasons are valid. This thread and so many others like it typically end up with people replying saying that they feel inferior. That is entirely unhelpful and cruddy. And, again, nothing here is substantiated by any real life evidence whatsoever. These threads are as grotty as those diet pages that show "before" and "after" photoshopped bodies.
Clearly you didn't read my post or understand the point of it. I could scroll, but far better to tell the folks on this thread and others (look, there are many already!) that they aren't inferior, and shouldn't judge their achievements or self worth by some BS forum thread.

Folks might find it more helpful here if you address how you were able to do this. Did anyone ever assist you with a deposit for your home? Where in the country do you live? Do you enjoy your jobs? Do you ever worry about getting fired? Etc etc etc.

I too was able to buy a home without a mortgage way before I was 40. By 38 I lived off investments. I do what I want every day. Sounds great right? (And in my case it's true). But...but...what if it isn't true?

Also: doing that with the numbers you are quoting is entirely doable in lower income places in the country - let's pick Salford. However. What if you live on the coast in Hampshire? On the coast? London? In the city? Again, it's all well and good to throw out these numbers but they tell so very very very little of the overall story.

You are absolutely right. They are either a daft attempt to flex, or a troll attempt to make others feel bad by quoting BS figures.

Anyone reading this page who feels inferior or lesser: DON'T!!! These posts are nonsense. Keep doing what makes you feel fulfilled and content. That looks so very different for everyone. And pay no mind to people who throw around the multiple hundreds of thousands figures: many of those people are utterly miserable.