If your yearly income is 100 - 120k what doe your lifestyle look like?

[Nomorecountingbeans]

Hi all,
Changed username so im not outed in real life.

DH is due to start his new job next week, salary is roughly 110k a year with a 4 day working week. I earn 15k working 12 hours a week.

Neither of us have earnt this level of money before.

If you are used to this salary please let me know what your lifestyle is like, and what you've manged to acheive with it.

We are not living in London or the South, we are very lucky to be mortgage free - 3 bed victorian terrace but has HUGE sentimental value to me, I can't imgaine leaving for a bigger shinier house! House is in nice area of town so dont need to improve that.
only debt is an interest free kitchen. 2 small DC.

THANKS!

We have a joint income of around £100k but in London with high mortgage and nursery fees... so we can't afford foreign holidays.

Without a mortgage and nursery fees? We'd be very comfortable.

I don't earn that much, only around £70-73K. I live in the north of England and have no mortgage.

I don't do anything outrageously expensive. I buy high end clothes, too many of them. Eat out weekly with friends, but nothing I do is expensive I don't think. I am single with no kids and don't really do anything differently to my friends.

My car is a 16 plate (bought outright). I go on holiday in the UK, main holiday and a few mini breaks.

I don't really know what I would spend anything over and above up to your salary on. Maybe a new kitchen and flooring in the house.

Make sure your husband puts enough in his pension so you’re under the £100k threshold.

If you’re not paying a mortgage you will be very comfortable. You’d be comfortable on half that if you had no mortgage! Watch your savings limits, and make provisions for when the children are 18 as university and housing is very expensive.

Can your husband reduce his days any further, if you’ve no mortgage you can afford to be more leisurely.

@Newhi thanks for advice on pensions and the saving for the DC.

DH doesn't want to work any less!

DH has just started on £100k + bonus, previous to this he was on £80k + bonus.
I'm a SAHM, two DC at school.
DH puts 20% of his salary straight into pension. We save a further £1k-£1.5k a month and put money into a SIPP & LISA for me.
We holiday a couple of times a year - UK though!
Have a mortgage around £150k.
We're fairly frugal, having always saved and managed to not have much 'life-style creep'. We save heavily so DH can retire early.

We earn about 95k pre-tax, have an £800 mortgage and £1000pcm nursery fees. We live relatively comfortably. One big long-haul holiday every other year, several city or UK breaks a year. Eat out fairly often. We also continue to save for us and our baby.

I imagine without a mortgage you will have an even more comfortable life.

I would also try to continue living as you are now and invest the surplus in pensions for your retirement, or your children's education or their first homes. Once you become accustomed to a different lifestyle it is harder to wind back from.

Perhaps if your work places offer it, buy some extra annual leave to spend more time together as a family while your children are young.

@InSearchOfMartin very selfishly I'm looking forward to getting some fancy clothes/bags! Ive shopped only on vinted for so long!

It all depends on your expenses.

DH earns £120k and tbjhwe struggle a bit now as it's 1/2 what he was earning before and we have outrageously high outgoings.

When I earned 100k (ish) I was self employed and, like you, hadn't earned at that level before.

What happened was a threw as much as I could into a pe sion fund with decent tax relief.

So life didn't change much but my fund did!

Im taking note of the lifestyle creep! Have seen this with friends too!

We are thinking about buying a second home to rent out and then eventually gift to the DC - Is this still worth it?

Quite low expenses
No mortage
No childcare
Old car but owned outright

At the moment just utilities, council tax, food and kitvhen payment

We have mobiles and netflix

@PinkCherryPie

Great advice thanks! What long haul holidays do you love the most?

We have a 3k mortgage payment so mostly goes on that and bills. No fancy handbags etc here! But with no mortgage you'll have a lot more spare.

Do you have a pension? I would make sure that your pension is of a similar level to your husband’s.

I personally wouldn’t get a second home. It’s hard to make money on, some tenants won’t leave and it costs a fortune, mortgage rates are high. Your children probably won’t want to live in the house so will have to have the hassle of selling and if you put in their names they won’t get the benefit of being first time buyers. You can save £9k a year tax free for each of them.

The answer to your question is that everyone's will look totally different depending on their outgoings and whether they live in the SE where it doesn't go anywhere near as far.

Definitely wouldn't do a second home with a BTL mortgage. Loads of tax implications etc.

I have a very small pension - but we both agree we need to look at this and add asap

Thanks for advice re second home

Very similar yearly income, living in a fairly expensive city (not London) in a 4-bed mortaged flat. Three teenagers, one at uni (we've chosen to pay for accommodation and food, so no loan). No car. Middling food expenses I guess (very little booze, mostly vegan, so no meat, but lots of organic wholefood). Eat out once or twice a month. Hardly spend anything on clothes/beauty. Approx £100 p/w tutoring for one teen with SEN. Have been lucky to enjoy relatively cheap holidays until last year due to family house abroad, now sold. This year's holiday is 2 weeks in Greece self-catering, costing about £7k. We'll also have one or two long-weekends away somewhere in the UK.

I live a lifestyle that I'm happy with, but it's definitely not "lux-y", and we're not saving much/any each month (other than DH paying into his pension, but not "enough" for a comfortable retirement). I'm often surprised at how our income is significantly more than it was ten years ago, but our lifestyle hasn't changed much.

We have a household income of 130k pre-tax. We put some money into a Lisa for me as I was a sahm for a long time so have very little pension compared to my husband. That would be my best advice as like you I am also the lower earner

We earn £120k (me £65, DH £55k), don’t have kids, and definitely aren’t rolling in it!!

Our mortgage is high, £2100, plus we overpay roughly 20% each month to try and shorten the term as we bought our first place later than most of our peers. Nothing fancy, 3 bed semi in a non fancy area, but SE so pricey.

After paying the mortgage and fixed bills we have about £2k each left. We each try to save £1k a month and usually spend around £1k each but that spending includes food / toiletries/ household stuff / phones / petrol and other car costs / my commute / hobbies / dog related expenses etc.

We have a joint income of about that and while we're comfortable, we're certainly not well-off! But we live in the south and have a mortgage. If I lived in the north east (where I'm from) I think I'd feel like I was rolling in it. My sister who makes £30k and lives alone with a mortgage is pretty well off in the NE!

We have a joint income of around 140k quite evenly split between Dh and I.

We have moved up the property ladder and now have a very nice house in a really perry location close to a town, easily accessible to local city but also right on the foot of a country park/nature reserve and so lots of beautiful wildlife, horses, birds and country walks at weekends
Alot of our income goes on the house, we seen this as an investment and really stretched ourselves to get it and the plan is that once paid off it will be a contributor to our retirement fund and downsize

That's the biggest lifestyle creep i suppose, we drive one old '10 plate and have a pretty basic other car on finance.

We do go minimum 2x holidays per year, and if we ever fancy theatre and a meal out that's not an issue whereas for some that's a rare treat.
We go on UK city breaks each year too and enjoy a good lifestyle. I don't spent lots of money on clothes but do buy for me and dd in M&S without thinking anything of it I suppose...

I have a JISA for dd, and a SIPP for me to put extra in.
Ultimately we have a very comfortable lifestyle and can afford to do what we want without needing to think about it too much!

It doesn’t go as far as you’d think sadly. I’m a terrible person according to mn and we pay for school for the dcs. I don’t have a fancy handbag. I’m saving for home improvements as well.

We've got a massive mortgage and an expensive commute, so nothing like yours probably😂
We're very comfortable, days out, date nights, a holiday most years, savings. But it's not a life of luxury. Without the mortgage, we'd live very well indeed I imagine. But we don't have expensive tastes, so lifestyle creep isn't a huge issue for us.

Great advice! Looking at getting a LISA