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 both earn similar but mortgage and childcare is 7k net....with bills and food its 9k 😵‍💫 so live a fairly plebian existance

You no mortgage and childcare you will be living a great life with nice holidays.
I would be putting money into pensions and ISAs for you and your husband NOT the kids (you can always give your £ to the kids later but once its in an JISA that's it - its gone and you have no control)

I'd aim for at least 2.5k into savings pm.

We earn around that. 2 adults 1dog. 4 bedroom house in northern city. 1 new car. We have 5/6 holidays a year but mostly in uk due to our dog. Good investments and pensions. Eat out couple times a week.

I'm on about double that, but have an insane mortgage (London prices!) so probably take home what you will after housing. DS & I, plus a terminally ill DM but obviously (and sadly) that won't be long term.

Life is very comfortable. I try and be savvy when it comes to 'the basics' so we don't end up with a load of lifestyle creep, and make sure to budget, but am happy to splurge on things that I find 'worth it'. For me, that's some clothes (nothing OTT, the odd designer piece from Vinted and the rest is the nicer end of high street), travel and experiences. We're lucky to travel a lot but it's always economy flights and 'basic' accommodation - we could probably travel less/fancier but it's not worth it with a 5yo!

One of the first things I did when I started earning more was figuring out roughly what I wanted to gift/help DS out with in the future, and worked out how much I need to start investing now to cover Uni/Driving Lessons/Car/House deposit.

Life insurance/critical illness cover is super important if you don't have it already - god forbid something happen to your DH, you don't want money worries on top of that, especially once you settle into a slightly 'nicer' way of life! I'd also look at a really healthy emergency fund for if anything happens to his job and he struggles to find anything that pays that much!

Private school is within reach (I'd struggle to say that with 2 kids though) but we have a great state school and DS is thriving there. The money does help with extra curriculars/clubs/activities and will pay for tutors when he's older.

We have a part time housekeeper, though this is a necessity because of DM (I was drowning in housework/caring/parenting/full time job) - I think if that weren't the case I'd probably 'just' have a cleaner. Very grateful for anything that means I don't have dust regularly tbh!

Eating out is really regular for us, as are days out. I try and be 'savvy' and use discount codes/apps/loyalty programmes as much as possible, but we still spend a decent chunk every month on it!

IME, there will be 'costs' relating to have a job with that salary. Mine are decent clothes for presenting/office visits, the expectation to put my card behind the bar for drinks on a team night out when expenses won't cover it etc. Don't argue over these - sometimes it just needs doing.

Oh... and I do have my dream, diesel guzzling, constantly breaking down Land Rover Discovery - no regrets 😂 I did get it a few years old though, and will downgrade to something more reliable/boring when my lease is up.

I'd be extremely pleased with this!

We have a household income of 120k, also mortgage free with one dc (14) and dog. We don't have a huge house but choose location over size. We're mortgage free as we moved from London to my home city up north. I'm 41.

Dh and I earn roughly the same but have always had separate accounts. We split the bills- he pays for gas/ electric, I pay council tax etc. I'm a spender and he isn't really so separate accounts work for us.

We have 4-5 holidays a year, eat out once a week, go to big concerts 1-2 times a year, plus smaller local ones. We fly to see family abroad once or twice a year. I have monthly skin/ face treatments, gym etc. I also treat my family to lunches out, theatre etc.

Dh and I not that interested in cars. Both are 7/8 years old and well run them into the ground probably.

I also max out my LISA every year and pay about 20% of my overall earnings into pension. I have very little savings, though I do have access to money should I need it through my Ltd company.

Maximise tax efficiency on pensions
max out ISAs for each of you
savings for the kids

and then we enjoy holidays and eating out - they are our luxuries. I could spend on clothes and bags, but can’t bring myself to. I’ve had the same work bag for 8 years and it still looks great. I bought a dress in thr Cos Jan sale for £45. I’m wearing a jacket I bought in the local charity shop for £4.

We're at the top end of this. We have a detached 5 bed in a nice spot in the South East with a mortgage (not huge as we worked abroad for a bit and saved a lot). We have two DC in state school (one primary, one secondary) which we are very happy with. We have 3 holidays per year - 1 UK, 2 abroad. We eat out 1-2 times a month, we don't have takeaways as they're not really our kind of thing. We feel very lucky, we have a nice life and don't want for anything. Any pay rises from this point forward go into either savings for the DC or our pensions.

We earn about 2x that but have a mortgage and school fees so probably end up with similar disposable. We do live in a lower tax country though. We put £4k/month into pensions. Save on average £1.5k/month beyond the pensions. We eat out a few times a month but where we are that works out to around £100/time. DC does several after school classes (art, climbing etc). Works out to around £300/term. We ski, both downhill and cross country, most weekends and probably spend £2k/year on passes, lessons and gear for DC. I probably spend on average £250/month on clothes and shoes for me and DC. For me this looks like 1-2 items a month, I wouldn’t expect to spend less than £100 on a pair of shoes for me, but would expect to keep them for several years. I mainly buy Boden on sale for DC. Outdoor gear is all Patagonia. We have 4 holidays planned this year, one skiing, one long haul, Disney and one driving distance but expensive. We spend around £200/month on random entertainment, cinema, days out etc. Bi weekly cleaner. Biggest expense after childcare is food - we shop at a locally owned grocery, don’t buy UPF or convenience food and that probably adds 30% to the bill.

Once we stop paying school fees, I would expect to put another £2k/month into long term investments.

Wow! Would absolutely love to eat out once a week!

We are big foodies in this house! I'm massively looking forward to not choosing between going on holiday and eating decent food!

I live in the south, we earn simar. our lifestyle is a couple of nice holidays a year. Takeaways a couple of times a month. Replacing an item when broken without too much bother. Eating out when we feel like it. The odd treat like a nice coat once a year. Also I still buy yellow sticker food and switch between Lidl and Waitrose with the odd treat from Marks. Being able to buy my kids new shoes and sports equipment when needed. Very little in savings. Old car.

I earn over £100k. I do as much as I can on salary sacrifice (electric car / buy holidays /medical etc) and then anything else I need to get me to below £100k I put into a pension.

We then spend a huge chunk on a mortgage, holidays, general cost of living and I’ve definitely experience lifestyle creep, something we’ve had to start watching for as my take home salary never really goes up any more (only into the pension).

We earn a bit more than that, but we live a completely average life. Our only extravagances were that we sent the children to private school and we don't really need to waste energy worrying about money. We drive old bangers, we don't spend a lot on shoes and clothes and bags, we only replace our phones when they stop working - we just have totally normal lives! We have paid off our mortgage on a decent house, built up a nice chunk of savings and investments and have very well filled pensions. We do have 2 or 3 holidays a year, but they're just as likely to be a week in the UK with the dog than they are to be going abroad. We're just not very materialistic people. In all honesty, a £120k income, whilst very good, isn't big enough to support a movie star lifestyle - particularly when it's mostly from one earner due to tax bands. Once you're pensions are paid up and your bills are paid, you'll have enough to be nicely comfortable and put away something for the future. If you want new cars, expensive holidays, designer trimmings etc, you might not find your money goes as far as you think. Have you actually looked at a take home pay calculator to see how much more money you will have per month than you currently have? It might be less than you think once you take into account the loss of tax free childcare and child benefit and the loss of the personal allowance.

Partner earns a bit more than your DH, I earn similar to you, but we’re in London so a ‘normal’ lifestyle here, terrace house, second hand car, clothes mostly from Vinted, no cleaner. We’ve overpaid on our mortgage in the past and put loads in my partner’s pension. We’re going to sort mine next. I don’t think a second home is worth it tbh for all the reasons given above. We save extra money for our kids.

We use my partner’s bonus for holidays and meals, which are the things we enjoy.

No mortgage on modest home in beautiful part of UK
Run old-ish car and clothes off Vinted
Travel abroad at least four or five times a year
Eat out often - big foodies
Concerts, theatre, books very important
Up to London frequently and stay in nice hotels with pool
Lots of savings

Save

have a holiday fund

have a car fund

Budget - save money and deposit to gift to DC and for their uni experience

Lovely!

Do you mind sharing roughly what you spend on holidays in a year?

We don't have a wild lifestyle, we live in a house we bought 14 years ago for less than £100k and holiday in the U.K., but it's by choice not necessity.

We could live more lavishly but we're happy to be debt free, to know we have savings in the bank for us now, for retirement and for DD when she reaches adulthood. We like our house and our area so dont feel any need to upgrade.

We can pretty much afford anything we need without having to really think about it so cost of living is annoying but hasn't made us have to make any changes. If the boiler broke tomorrow we'd be able to just get a new one, same for car or roof and while it would make a dent in the savings accounts not for long and not in a way that would impact our lifestyle.

It's nice.

It does come with stresses though, my high salary means my company expect me to take high responsibility. I am accountable for decisions made by people that report into me which I may not have had much input in but if it goes wrong ultimately it is my fault for not ensuring that those people were capable of and delivering better choices. I'm expected to be available to deal with emergencies, to respond quickly and to know what to do .

We save a lot (pensions and uni funds for the children) and go on nice family holidays. I don't really have to worry about what I spend at the supermarket or if an appliance breaks down or if theres a school trip to pay for. Apart from that, our life is pretty normal - normal house mid-terrace house, kids in state schools, boring second hand car, etc.

I remind the children and myself about how privileged we are all the time.

Me and DH are mortgage free. We also have a 7 bedroom holiday home in France mortgage free. We eat out 2 or 3 times a week. We have 2 decent holidays each year eg cruise. We also take 2-3 weekend breaks in the UK to hotels with spas. I don't buy expensive clothes neither does DH. I retired at 57 and DH at 60. We both have decent private pensions. We have a property portfolio of 11 houses we bought whilst working which keeps our income to a good standard. Before DH retirement we jointly got about £170k now more like £100k. We help out DC out by gifting. We pay for holidays for any of our DC when they come to holiday home with us. DC can use holiday home with their friends whenever they want. We put money into my nieces bank account each month as she's a student so not much money. We still have money left over each month that we save. We support a few charities. DH does voluntary work taking out a young person with learning disabilities once a fortnight. We know we are incredibly lucky. We benefited from low interest rates through a lot of our mortgage allowing us to pay our mortgage off many years early and saving huge amounts that would have been paid on interest.

Difficult to say, mainly southern Europe and often drive as we visit friends en route. Nothing typically lavish but I love trying new food so lots of restaurants and bars.

DH earns about 120k and me about 25k part time. It has only been at this level for a year or so though. We have lots in savings with a view to eventually up size house. We do have a lot of nice holidays, we have been away somewhere pretty much every school holiday since DD started school September 2024.
Other than that I can't think of anything particularly lavish. I have no interest in designer clothes or bags. I do spend a fair bit on good quality food and try and shop as eco friendly as possible. I still buy on vinted but that's from a recycling point of view rather than money saving.
We don't have to worry about unexpected bills or things like that which I'm very appreciative of.

Oh and we also put the majority of my salary in to my pension.

We both earn about that but have a massive London mortgage so probably similar amount leftover.

It really depends on what you both value.

I would caution that it might be less than you expect after tax.

For us, what's important is:

Savings for the kids, aiming to have enough to get them through university and give them a house deposit

Savings to allow us to retire early if we want to

Time - we outsource a lot, cleaning, DIY, gardening so that our time off is focussed on the kids not chores.

Freedom - I really enjoy having enough of a cushion in our current account not to have to think consciously about money and being able to choose whatever I want (within reason)

Entertainment - we get a babysitter every few weeks and go out for theatre or a nice meal

Things we don't prioritise:

Holidays - we do go on holiday but we don't go anywhere super upmarket

Pets - don't have any, don't want them enough to justify it

Car - ditto

Pay off debts, build up pensions and be thankful for the good fortune and be sensible with the salary.