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!

Not worrying about unexpected bills must be really nice!

£110k doesn’t stretch far. My OH is on significantly more and it’s never ending; mortgage, nursery fees, quality groceries, holidays, non-stop eating out, and just general day to day expenses. We’ve a good life though, live in a great area, in a lovely house and afford to do whatever we like, when we like. The only issue is we’re time poor, cash rich which is never the ideal combination.

Op. Depends on your goals. I earn 140k but put 50k into my pension each year as we're also mortgage free.
Aiming to retire at 52, live off ISA until pension becomes available.
I would give serious thought to forward planning and look at investing also. I put away as much as I can whilst earning so much and we're now in a great position.

Honestly, you are still not on luis vuitton money... but I have bought myself a Marc Jacobs bag for 400.. Brand Alley is my go to for a designer treat.

We earn similar. Teens in state schools, small mortgage left (£16k on an £900k house). DH has a good pension and plenty of well paid side hustles that pay for a few trips abroad each year, my job (self employed) also pays for one. So we do go away quite a bit and do U.K. weeks / camping / glamping too.

I have less in my pension but use LISA / ISA allowances and keep a cash fund for any emergencies. Pension is my my priority for the next 15-20 years, although I adore my job and can't imagine not working in some form. DH feels the same. He will earn more for less the older he gets due to the field.

University costs will thankfully be covered by GPs who hugely value education over all else (however they are socialists so this never extended to private school fees, not that we would ever have asked)

I am a bit flash with clothes! Probably have 15 high end bags, usually buy in designer sales or via the OUTNET (Rip matches). I also buy nice jewellery and tell DD I'm creating heirlooms 😉

We are a health conscious / active family, plenty of dal / soups / pastas through the week with slightly nicer sea bass / toad in the hole meals at the weekend. I drink nice wine but never a lot of it. Food bills very manageable.

Enjoy op! We aren't flash but enjoy our lives.

You’re in an amazing position because you have no mortgage, a modest home to maintain AND a high household income in a pty of the country that’s isn’t crazy expensive. You should be able to live very comfortably and have lots of choices. Personally I would prioritise financial security (pensions and ISAs) plus kids’ educations (university fees x 3). Is stick to more modest holidays etc. because you can still create great memories on a budget.

congrats and enjoy!

I just buy nicer food now (spend about £1000 a month not including meals out) and don't look at the price tags on things. We go on several holidays a year. That's about it.

We have no kids or plans for kids, own our home. Also living in a very cheap part of the country.

I'm actually less materialistic now then when I was on a lower income because being able to buy things without thinking about them makes them less covetable to me for the most part.

I also find my time is way more important to me, because that's the limiting factor. I hate being surrounded by "stuff" because it takes my time to think about/maintain/store, and I'm now very anti "holding on to this in case I need it in future" because I'll just buy another one if I do end up needing it.

Expect to "throw away" a lot more money than previously.

Our joint income is around 150k. We live in a detached house with about 50 grand left on the mortgage. Child at private school. Decent cars. Couple of holidays per yr.

We have a joint income of £200k plus DHs bonus. My advice would be pension first, increase to what you can do comfortably. Then savings to build a nest egg and possibly an investment property. Keep money aside for nice things, holidays, birthdays, cars etc.. be sensible but also live and enjoy yourselves. Big salaries bring hard work and stress, you need to fun and enjoy what you like.

DH and I earn 100k between us. Small mortgage. If we weren’t paying for DC3’s uni accommodation we’d be pretty flush.

Well we have this income but also a large mortgage and live in an expensive part of the country, so lifestyle is really quite modest as it doesn’t feel like enough money to be comfortable really. But in your position you have many options, lots of good advice already.

We earn a little more than that between us, I work part time and DH has just reduced his hours so technically he only works 3.5 to 4 days a week (he's always contactable during the working week/full time work hours though).

I went through a phase when DH first started earning a lot - about 15 years ago - of buying nice handbags, expensive trainers, designer clothes, Range Rover, nice watch, etc. Now though we prefer to spend our money on freeing up our time, experiences and socialising.

We're mortgage free and have 2 cars and a campervan which we own outright

We've put DS through uni and he has no debt.

We have private healthcare and use a private GP service.

DH has pretty much maxed out his pension to the point where there are no tax benefits to paying any more in. Mine is looking pretty healthy too.

We eat out/takeaway 2-3 times a week and have Gousto for 3 nights a week. I go food shopping and don't ever look at the prices, which still feels like a huge luxury.

We have cleaners, gardeners, an ironing lady, decorators, etc.

We usually have a few holidays a year consisting of a couple of one week holidays which are relatively inexpensive, and one long haul holiday. We go for weekends away in the campervan any time the weather looks good.

We take our families out for dinner and have them over to us lots. We meet up with friends once a week for food/drinks. We host everything - Christmas, Easter, birthdays, mothers/fathers day and don't ask or want anyone to bring anything.

Our main treat is good wine!!

I'm having a very boring answer but it has served me well. Advise from my very first boss and it has served me well.

Every pay increase should be split in 3:

1. A third goes into future - increase pension, or long term investments
2. A third to reducing debt or increasing sacing for short to medium term goals
3. A third for fun/modest lifestyle increase

There's no point in getting a large increase amd having nothing to show for it in the end.

We’re on £115k a year joint income. We have a mortgage and high nursery fees currently so don’t feel the benefit of it as much as we might. Our current lifestyle is comfortable but not extravagant, we can afford a couple of UK holidays or one abroad holiday each year, days out, couple of meals out a month, run two cars, put some money into savings each month. Looking forward to a few years time when we will have got past nursery fees.

DH is due to start his new job next week, salary is roughly 110k a year with a 4 day working week

I'm intrigued by how your husband has landed a new job with a £110k salary for a 4-day week, having never earned this sort of money before!

What does he do and do they have any spare jobs going 😂

Our combined income is circa £120 and we live in a very basic 3 bed terraced house (Oxfordshire), with no foreign holidays. We don't live hand to mouth anymore thankfully and have some savings behind us, but a long way from a lavish lifestyle.

We earn more combined but also have £400k+ outstanding on our London mortgage. Looking to pay it down as its a huge amount. 2 adults one primary aged child (who is currently state educated). Lifestyle wise we have 2 cars (salary sacrifice and owned outright) Last year, 2 holidays (one UK, one long haul). We eat out weekly. Generally buy what we want within reason ( I am a spendy person and have had to reign it in, DH has always been a saver). We have savings , decent pensions, lots of equity in the house and neither of us have ever had a credit card. Our main focus is to get the mortgage down as we are hopeful for independent secondary.

For me the thing I love most is not having to worry about anything unexpected. Accidentally go over parking time and get a ticket?- so what just pay it. Something breaks in the house? Just replace it. Forget to pack something on weekend away? Just buy another.
We spend money on things our kids have taken an interest in - they were doing the Stone Age in school so we went to Stonehenge for the weekend, last minute spontaneous stuff like that. We used to be proper skint but I have relaxed into a new way of life now.

We have a joint income of £145K but live in Home Counties and have a large mortgage 🙄. Tbh our joint is at the lower end round here. If we were mortgage free, I’d be holidaying much more regularly!!

I cant say exactly what it is - very niche and I'd easily be recognised.

Can only really say that he has a niche set of skills and great inside information on how something functions, along with good relationships with certain people.

So so vauge I know!

We earn a little over 60k each, so higher net pay than one person on 120k. He's 50 I'm 49.

We are comfortable but don't have anything luxurious. 3 bed semi in a nice enough village. 2 standard cars, one is 11 years old the other 5. No designer clothes or fab holidays or similar. We come from poorer backgrounds and tend to be savers rather than spenders.

As for what life looks like it's probably very similar to most people. We work in jobs which are Ok, we cook most of our meals and eat out at the nicer chains or the local pub. Have several short breaks a year, total cost under £5k.

The biggest difference is probably that we don't worry about money too much as in we can pay all bills and anything unexpected including buying a new (used) car if it suddenly gives up the ghost. Still got 150k left on the mortgage but more than that in savings and investments so its not a worry. Decent pensions, we plan to retire at 60.

I know 100k+ sounds like a lot of money and as I say we are comfortable but we aren't rich and would soon be in trouble if we spent on a 'nice' lifestyle, there is definitely not enough spare money for private schools and nice cars and big holidays.

We live SW so a good chunk of pur household income goes on the mortgage payments and overpayments. I think if you earn that and have no mortgage you will feel quite well off. Despite the mortgage, we do still save some money and we looked into LISAs for dd, but didn't like the terms. We have put some in a longer term savings account for her and also got her some premium bonds.

Household gross income of £260k. We’re really dull and save the equivalent of my take home pay (£100K so approx £5,500 a month) for a new house. DD is in the local state primary, our mortgage is £750 a month plus bills, but no big tickets items like nursery to drain the finances anymore. But it’s nice to have savings to dip into now and then to splash out on something frivolous.

We have a gross income of about 120k massive outgoings at the min but will settle down after child care costs in 2027. We have a luxury caravan, a second home and we have our nice 5 bedroom home ( I live in a cheaper part of the country) we don't have lots of cash but we never go without and I'm aware that I'm very lucky

Enjoy your new handbags xx

Make sure he puts something in a pension for you too. Or you could be left high and dry if anything happens.