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 don't work

We shop in Lidl & Aldi

We don't go on holidays (we live by the best beaches in England)

Our kids (5) go to state school

We have 2 10 year old cars

No mortgages, no finance etc

We live off property investment. We can't expand at this time or it's all tax and then not enough to actually live off.

OP joint income of £260k plus, DD's now through private education/uni and both working and renting. We are mortgage free, pay max. into respective pensions and LISA's for DD's each year, ISA's for us. Both drive old 'ish cars (6+ years old). Eat out once a week, takeaway, do not have to think if we want to buy stuff but not extravagant. 1 big holiday, 2 smaller European city breaks a year. As others have said pensions are very tax efficient way to save...plus ISA's etc. It is nice not to have to worry.

Very similar to us! We have young children so actually have less than a couple on say £60 and £80 because we don't get child care free tax allowance & free hours towards nursery fees.

However life is comfortable & we generally get what we want although we are still mindful of how much we're spending.

We'll hopefully actually benefit once the children are in school and nursery fees are no longer!

Good independent financial adviser and max your pensions and ISAs.

We earn around that pre-tax. We have been saving and putting money into offset mortgage account. We have saved approx £200k whilst having 2-3 holidays a year - one skiing, one abroad and one uk or Europe. We have an old (2010) car bought outright. So we live very sensibly, but very comfortably.

Our household is around £120k joint, no mortgage. Young adult child still supported to a degree. We save a bit, take city or campervan breaks, go to the pub a lot, eat steak and lamb as often as we fancy. We run 4 vehicles, all older but decent.

We don't budget but could be more lavish if we did. But if I see a beauty product or T shirt I fancy online tonight then within reason, I'll order it.

Totally depends on outgoings. We have joint income ~140k split fairly evenly and having 2 kids in nursery and a flat I can’t sell with dodgy cladding means I’m pay cheque to paycheque with second hand cars and haven’t had a holiday in 6 years… maybe spend less that £200 a year on clothes for myself

mortgage/childcare free you’ll be rolling in it!

DH earns 130k and I earn 70k. I don't feel amazingly well off. DH puts everything over 100k into pension (which because of non cash perks like healthcare means he nets about £5k a month). I take home 3.6k. Mortgage 1.5k, 1 child at uni (600 a month), 1 child at home having music lessons, learning to drive, tutors costs another 500. Not sure where the rest goes , but it does! We do save a bit and eat out every couple of weeks, 1 holiday a year and a few weekends away, but nothing massively luxurious.

I wouldn't buy a

I wouldn't buy a second home. But save until you know what family life looks like. Might your children have expensive hobbies, or have tutors? It all costs. For us, the tween and teen years cost WAY more than the nursery fee years. I bought DS a £700 bike for Christmas- would never have anticipated such a thing at your stage in life.

Start by sticking both salaries through a tax calculator to see what the take home will be. The tax element of a family income with an even split will be very different to what you are talking about. So it is not just region and mortgage or childcare that will influence the sort of lifestyle you will be able to afford.

In range and a single person with no debt/mortgage. I have a modest house (2 bed terrace - but in a great location) and a cheap car. I go on 2-3 modest holidays a year (5-7 days in Europe) and eat out weekly (nothing fancy). I food shop at Waitrose/M&S, clothes are mid range and I oursource domestic jobs wherever I can (cleaner, handyman, painter etc).

So what else does my salary get me? A bit fat pension and a lot of savings & investments. I'm no longer reliant on paid work and can afford everything I want/need. I am very grateful for the sense of security and freedom this gives me.

Agree with comments about avoiding too much lifestyle creep or unnecessarily complicating your lives (2nd homes etc).

Why is your 260k joint income experience relevant to OP and her husband who will be on about half that? (Joint £135k) Pointless boasting post.

Congrats OP!

My husband earns a similar amount to what yours will be on. I’m on 60k ish. However, our mortgage and childcare combined are 6k. We still have a nice lifestyle (no car and not many foreign hols, but we don’t feel stressed doing the food shop and can go out to cafes and for the odd meal). I think without those huge outgoings you’ll feel pretty well off with the new job! I’d make sure you’re saving plenty and sorting out pensions as a priority.

I earn similar to your DH, I have made sure I don't squander it (I am still quite frugal especially re clothes etc). Primarily I ensured I had a good pension.
I also made sure I saved for the future: both DC went to Uni and accommodation etc is expensive so I supported them through that time. You can also make sure they have a nice nest egg. If you've done that and you build up savings then I'd look to see what passive income streams you can build up (e.g. buy a garage to rent out, shares of trackers funds etc).

Firstly. He needs to put at least 10k into his pension per year, otherwise massive tax.
Save and enjoy the rest!

Jobs at that level are not as plentiful, so make sure you have a buffer of at least 6 months in savings if it doesn't work out.

But with no mortgage you will be in a great position. Well done!

We chose to spend our disposable income on school fees on a similar salary, on top of our mortgage there isn’t huge amounts left over so aren’t flying off on fancy holidays and don’t live in a huge house. Very happy with our choice though.

Make sure you pay maximum.into yoir pension. You can open a SIPP pension outside of your work pension scheme too. So can your husband.
If both of you start contributing max allowance you soon will use up most of his salary.

Our combined income is around £130-£140k. We live in a cheap area and have no mortgage. All the kids are adults now so no expenses there but we did put dsd through uni with no loans and she appreciates that. My partner is the main earner and the industry he works is is quite niche so he's been lucky with work but we know that could change with everything going green and the net zero targets so we've got quite a bit saved in ISAs, premium bonds etc. We have about 4 holidays abroad every year but not extravagant ones. Our weakness is our cars, we are both petrol heads and drive nice cars but that's the only thing we spend big on. I'd overpay on your mortgage and save as much as you can but you've also got to enjoy it a bit and it's nice not to have to worry about bills.

We earn a bit more than you and it's split evenly so we would pay less tax.
You can certainly have a lovely lifestyle.

Some things to consider:

Be mindful that he hasn't started yet. It might be super stressful so try not to get carried away before he is settled.
Don't underestimate how much you will lose on tax !
Invest in your children's future- we had lower income at your stage of life and it's made it harder with uni/cars etc
Maximise pension, get private health care.
Otherwise make your life simple- cleaner, gardener, reliable car etc. those things really make a difference in your life!

I earn £70k. DH earns £95k. So combined more than you plus maybe £10K bonus. We live in Scotland. £1.4K on mortgage (modern 4 bed). DS in private school so around £1.3k in school fees (£14k a year). DD will go for secondary but in state now. Car around £400. After that normal bills I suppose but I put 40% of my salary into pension. Between us £3.5k a month into pensions. We're mid 40s and want to retire at 60 with a decent pot.
Holidays we spend £10K a year.
We don't live a life of luxury but we don't go without either. Perhaps spend £600 a month on food. Each has an allowance of £600 for phone, travel, clothes etc.

Just over 100k joint.

£1300 mortgage due to go up by a predicted £450 in a month due to remortgage.
£2400 nursery payments for two kids.

Obviously with no childcare and mortgage free your lifestyle will be significantly different to most people on that salary.

Not really comparable because we have a mortgage, 3 kids, SE. So chances are you’ll be better off than us.

We have a lovely life! Kids so the clubs they want, although theyr not ones to ask for loads - we are a family that like to chill. But DS does piano, cricket (yes even in winter) and football, DS2 does gymnastics, both in afterschool club 2x a week. The third kid is in nursery 3x a week. I only work term time as just work for fun really so that’s nice. Just about to buy a second car. Holidays abroad probably every other year recently but mainly because we’ve just done a big build. It’s a good nice life :) certainly not mansions and private school but not sure I can be arsed with that anyway tbh!

our annual income is 110k ish. We have no mortgage and no dependent kids.

my one extravagance in life is an expensive gym membership, costs me £120 a month. Our cars are 10+ years old. We live in a 3 bed semi. We own a touring caravan and go away in that for 2 or 3 weeks a year. Last year I took the Eurostar to Belgium with Dd for a long weekend and we stayed in youth hostels. I shop in Aldi and Tesco.

Not had a meal out since before covid, don’t have take aways. I do get lunch from the M&S foodhall a couple of days a week though.

Don’t think we have an extravagant lifestyle at all.