4 Questions: What’s your household income? What’s your monthly mortgage cost? How many kids do you have? How financially comfortable are you?

[OrangeCarrot]

1. What’s your household income?
2. What’s your monthly mortgage payment?
3. How many children do you have?
4. How financially comfortable are you?

I’m in need of some perspective. I’m planning for marriage/kids/house purchase over the next 2 years. I’ve been planning for this time for 10 years now and my partner and I have lived frugally through our 20s to get to this point.

I want to make sensible life choices so was hoping to learn from others that are perhaps a little older and more experienced. I was hoping these questions may give me an insight into how big a mortgage we should get and still have a good quality of life.

1. £80k between us
2. £2100
3. 2 kids, both teens
4. Not comfortable at all right now.

We took out an extra mortgage 14 months ago to cover house renovations. In seven months our first mortgage will be paid off but for the 21 months we will have had both, things have been very tight. We’re also both freelance and my income last year (to April 24) was down by about a quarter on the year before when I did my taxes. It’s a hard period but will be over soon. I did have savings to fall back on but not that much left now.

Looking back, I’d like to have had more savings against hard times. We should also have cut back our monthly costs sooner…

Combined income around £135k (works out a little over £7.5k per month)
Mortgage £1200 per month
Children 1 toddler (nursery fees about £1400 per month) and currently pregnant with #2
We’re fortunate to be fairly comfortable

1. Approx £140k combined
2. £2200
3. One
4. Less comfortable than 2 years ago despite pay rises. Mortgage, energy, childcare and food rises alone have added £900 a month in a short space of time.

24k a year
£385 + £190 service charges
0 DC
Not comfortable

Income about £70,000 based on pensions and part time work.
mortgage paid
adult children, but do help out with grandchildren’s tutoring and hobby fees
very comfortable as have more disposable income than ever had.

1. £76k
2. £828
3. 1
4. We manage ok and have holidays etc. but not lots of savings. 4years ago we were only on about 50k between us & we've been paying nursery/debts off etc. so we should come out better eventually.

£60- £75k depending on bonus (I'm currently out of work so it's just one income)
£0 been mortgage free for around 6 years
4, two are young adults, one living at home and working (rent free is saving and job hunting)
one at University, two in Secondary school
Very comfortable, we've had a huge payout which has changed our lives and our families lives.

This is so true. He is "lucky" to be able to live as he is and not actually be dead / having a mental breakdown / have his wife kick him out for being useless as home. His "hard work" is being facilitated by you and fortune.

I will answer this:

Monthly income is approx: £3830
Mortgage: £540
2 children
Fairly comfortable but not well off. Children do not go to private school. We go on UK holidays mostly a few times a year and abroad every few years.

To answer the question

Net family income £6-7k / month
Mortgage £1400
No childcare costs anymore
Very comfortable now but not "rich". We have no family assets or inheritance looming. No one paid a house deposit for us. Everything we have, and will have, comes from our earned income.

Where have I said he is disengaged with family life?

You said he works evenings and at Xmas and takes his laptop on holidays (paraphrasing) @twistyizzy

Personally I'd count that as disengaged from family life. I can't imagine any salary or any 'future security' worth dh missing our family holidays and celebrations. And you said it was his drive and his choice and you support that.

So as I said, it's lucky for him he has a wife willing to support this way of living and this sacrifice of family time, because many wouldn't. And IF he wasn't lucky in that way, the chances are he'd struggle to earn such a high salary whilst potentially having sole care of dc for up to half of his time.

Failure to acknowledge your luck in life is not only crass but inaccurate. And depending on your pov, some may say was asking for Karma to bite you in the rear.

Your dh is able to earn a very high salary for many reasons. Presumably his effort, his intelligence, his drive, his hard work. But also his luck, in many areas.

It's about 70 odd K between us.
Mortgage is 323 per month (involved a heavy amount of over paying over the years). We could pay it off tomorrow I suppose but invest our savings instead.
3 DCs.
Comfortable probably but we own shit cars and don't go on expensive holidays. We don't worry like we did years ago.

Relied on ourselves for everything. We can never quite shake the feeling of when is the rug going to be pulled from under us. Maybe stems from childhood and knowing won't get inheritances.

Wow so being successful he now deserves karma on order to be brought down a peg or 2? What a lovely outlook to have. I am not going engage any further to justify his role in family life etc because quite honestly I don't have to owe that to anyone.
This is absolute classic MN that how dare anyone earn more than anyone else and suggest it is down to hard work and sacrifices rather than mythical "luck". It comes down to most people not being willing to put in what is required to achieve 100k+, that's fine and I don't judge anyone for not choosing that but then equally I don't expect judgement when as a couple we have agreed to take that option.

• What’s your household income? £115,000 (between 2 of us, about 60:40 between us) £6500 monthly take home after pension contributions.

• What’s your monthly mortgage payment?
Currently £900, about to go up to £1600.

• How many children do you have?
2 teen/pre teen. No childcare costs.

• How financially comfortable are you?
With a £900 mortgage payment, very, it won't be as comfortable with £1600 but we can mostly do what we want, I just budget carefully to make our money go as far as it can, we are quite spendy people! We have the home we want, 2 cars and go on holiday abroad 1-2 times a year.

Take home £5.5k between us - both work FT.
Mortgage £1400.
4 DC.
Comfortable - we have savings and fairly decent holidays. Live within our means - no CCs or loans.

@twistyizzy you are being purposefully obtuse. As you can see from this thread £100k plus is not the huge income it once was, we are almost there with one salary and our investments. We acknowledge that comes through hard work and good luck, the luck of being educated/ of being in the right place to take up opportunities/ of having a spouse or family members willing to help us to take up such opportunities. You can claim it isn’t luck but what chance would a single parent have to work such hours or take risks which allow them to earn more. There are people on this thread earning hundreds of thousands who would I am sure acknowledge the part played by luck in their earnings and lifestyle, your attitude suggests that you are somehow more deserving, like you work harder than a single mother caring for disabled children alone and surviving on UC when it is only through luck and chance that you are not there yourself

Completely tone deaf stating you are not "lucky" because your DH might die of a heart attack when the person you are responding to has actually had their partner die 🙈

Income is around £40k pretax (I am a widow).
I have a mortgage £321/month.
Two: I have one child at home about to go to uni. One child moved out but I do send them money every month as on minimum wage (just turned 21).
Yes. I am worth a lot more on paper as I own several properties. I don't have much disposable income but enough - I don't have to worry how I am going through pay my bills and we can have a holiday most years.

Single
£61K PA Part Time
Mortgage Free
No kids
Very comfortable

1. £81k
2. £498.27
3. 16 + 12yr old DDs
4. Very comfortable.

We live in the NW and were earning around £60k up until 2yrs ago. We've kept most of our outgoings the same in order to build up our savings and pensions.

Yes the poster you snapped at who is a widow herself. Have some compassion!

Income - £21k (take home)
Mortgage - £854 per month
Comfortable - No
No DC. No car. We have a takeaway once a month, so that’s our luxury.

Household take home monthly around £12k but much more each year via dividends.
No mortgage.
Two children 16 and 13 (independent schools but also paid upfront)
We are very comfortable, I don't need to work but I always have and I don't want my children to think there is a never ending pit.

Take-home after all deductions between the two of us is £4600pm
Mortgage is £600pm
You didn't ask this but we pay £1000pm for school fees (we have a partial bursary)
One child (with neurodiversity-related additional needs, we wouldn't have been able to cope with a 2nd)
We are pretty comfortable. We don't have to scrimp and save/watch the pennies/choose between heating&eating but we holiday on alternate years rather than every year, run one elderly car and think twice before using it rather than walking/cycling and mostly stick to free leisure activities.

When DC was at nursery our income was much lower and we did struggle. We are comfortable now because we didn't allow our expectations for standard of living to increase when we stopped paying nursery fees/got payrises etc.

My advice if you are just starting to plan for this is to start trying to stick to living on 75% of your take-home for a couple of years and really build up your savings. When you get payrises put the extra into savings too. During maternity leave and when using full time childcare is the most expensive time so draw out of your savings then. Anyone can feel poor if they don't manage their expectations and try to live a lifestyle that costs £X+5 on an income of £X. Anyone can feel comfortable if they manage their expectations and try to live a lifestyle that costs £X on an income of £X+5. There will always be other people richer than you and poorer than you, so managing your expectations is the key.

1. Is avg £5300pm net income for us.