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 similar income, but we didn't fall into the trap of lifestyle creep or the 'forever home' chase, so our day to day life style is not that different to before, with the exception of holidays where I do splurge on good hotels, etc.

However we are mortgage free, have a good chunk of savings and reasonable pensions. That is for me priceless because of the freedom it gives.

Our combined income is just over £120k of which DH earns the vast majority.
A lot goes on our mortgage so if you're lucky enough to be mortgage free, I think you'll enjoy a good standard of living. Obviously this depends on your other outgoings.
So DH's salary is about £100k but a lot is taxed so his take home pay is about £5k per month. It may shock you just how much goes on tax!
My take home pay is about £1.7k per month so together it's £6.7k. So this is great and much higher than some people. However, I don't feel rich. We do have a lovely house in a good area (and the big mortgage!) but we're driving a 12 year old Skoda. I choose to buy clothes in Vinted but could afford M and S, rather than designer.
We need to do repairs to the house but can't afford a new bathroom we need.
Most of our money goes on holidays with DH's fanily living abroad. We spent about 20k on holidays last year. 12k was travelling around India. It was amazing, but very much seeing family rather than luxury hotels.
Our kids go to state schools. I'm anti-private schools but even if I wasn't I don't think we could afford them.
So if you're not spending crazy money on travelling like us and you don't have a mortgage or kids at private school you should be comfortable.

I earn around £160k gross including bonus/stock options and DH is on about £35k. We live in SE but not London but our area has quite expensive house prices.

I pile as much as I can into pension to reduce my tax bill. I also save a lot each month, plus any bonuses or stock option sales I put half into pension, quarter into savings or investments and the rest to overpay mortgage. We have healthy savings and investments now, and our kids have a small savings pot each too.

We are still in the same house we had when I earned about £60k and don't see the need to move as our house is perfectly fine for us - although not at all flashy or what I'd expected people on £100k would live in when I was younger (i assumed £100k earners were in big mansions 😂... no where near!) We're overpaying the mortgage to the max 10% each year (we're on a brilliant long fix so would have early repayment charges if paid more) and hope to get mortgage free in about 10yrs or less.

To be honest, due to our area being quite expensive we don't have a super flashy lifestyle. We have two kids and they're just at state school/local nursery - not private. I got a new car last year (replacing 15yr old little Clio), and it's nice to just have the money to do that without worrying but it's not a big flashy mega expensive car at all! We don't have a cleaner or gardener - I'm happy to do these jobs and we manage fine. We go abroad once a year with kids to Spain and stay in a villa, and me and DH go for a 3nt trip once a year too just us but just short haul city break. Basically, you wouldn't think we have this household income if you saw us, and I'm happy with that! The surplus income is used up on ensuring our savings and investments and pensions are really healthy, and getting that mortgage paid down!

We earn in that region ish. I wouldn’t say life is too extravagant. Overpaying the mortgage and saving for house extension. Usually one 7 night holiday a year plus a couple of long weekends away. Some childcare costs for wraparound care. But we are comfortable, I don’t panic if something breaks, we can eat out without stressing. If I want some new boots or whatever I can buy them. Cleaner once a week.

Remember that with one high earner you may be losing more to tax than some posters above with a similar household income where both are earning roughly similar amounts. However with no mortgage you should have a comfortable lifestyle (although personally I wouldn’t be looking at investment properties).

We are lucky as we have a combined income of 110k pre tax. No mortgage on current home or holiday home abroad. We have 3 teenagers.

I have no debt at all. We still live quite simply, I'm not a big spender. We have been putting loads into a savings account/isa as DH's pension is pennies

I suppose we just don't need to worry about stuff I suppose. The oven AND the dishwasher broke within a couple of days of each other but I just bought new ones. We eat out about one every 2 weeks.

We holiday lots but use our 2nd home so we only have to pay for travel/flights.

The only advice I would have is not to commit to more outgoings. I call it the golden hamster wheel. If you get involved with direct debits for the new flashier car, loan renovation for new kitchen etc - you may think you can afford it with the increase of wage coming. However, you'll end up with shed loads of debt that will eat away your extra income.

I would save a bit first.

Yes. OP's in a similar situation to us with a DH earning around £100k and me earning around 20k. I think tax on a £100k salary is 40%. This seems to be correct for us as DH brings home £5k per month which makes his take home salary £60k per year.

DH and I each earn between 120k and 150k depending on bonus.
We havnt increased our disposable spending much since our salaries rocketed up, we still live in the same two bed flat in a non flashy part of town, but like you, we love it. Main difference in our spending is we have two children now, one in nursery.
The difference it makes to us is we never worry about any spending, we have enough to decide we want something and get it straight away if we want to. We never have to save for things like holidays, because we plough a huge amount (thousands) into savings/ investments every month in the hope that one day we will have enough buffer to give up our relatively stressful corporate jobs if we wanted to or both take part time less stressful roles to spend time with our children.
Other thing is I can afford to do things like take as much time off for mat leave as I want without even considering finances.
We also both overlapped 8 months of parental leave with our first and had to much fun exploring, travelling and eating out.
Providing you don't want or need anything, the not having to worry about finances at all is invaluable.

My dh earns well over £100k, me around £40k part time. We’re in the north so money goes a bit further up here

we have a spacious 5 bed house but it’s it’s not done out all posh, it’s full of clutter (see username). We are close to paying off the mortgage thanks to a couple of inheritances.

we share a car.

nice holidays but def not lavish. Nice UK cottages, European road trips (staying at nice campsites), going to a nice hotel in Spain this year. Skiing is too expensive. Def not going to Dubai or the Maldives in this lifetime.

Don’t buy any designer clothing. Shop in next or M&S for most clothes, occasionally John Lewis. Dh will spend money on good quality clothes that last, especially if they’re British made (very little is), but not labels. He also buys second hand (for environment reasons).

Food shop at Sainsbury’s/Aldi. Occasional treats from m&s/waitrose.

Never go on posh nights out other than occasional theatre/concert trips (twice a year maybe?). Spend time with friends, go to the cinema but most of the time just stay in.

Kids have quite expensive hobbies so I’d say we spend more than other families in that area. Performing and martial arts. That aside I’d say our lifestyle is utterly unremarkable and boring and comparable to other families that earn far less. I don’t actively worry about money but I am careful about where I shop and look out for sales and offers.

I do worry about kids futures and so the money we save from not paying off the mortgage will mostly go to them to help pay for uni and their future house deposits.

Interestingly next door have similar income and house but are noticably more “blingy”. Designer labels and long weekends in Dubai etc. Very nicely done out house (all muted tones). His and hers cars with personalised number plates. Only one kid though.

I think we dh and I are both naturally quite frugal, savers not spenders and a fancy lifestyle just doesn’t appeal at all. Yes I’m boring!

we've earned similar for a while…. Maybe 10 years. Avoided lifestyle creep really well at first but def this winter I have been massively less frugal with the heating!

still in our ‘starter home’ and no plans on moving as in SE and we’d get marginally more space but have to pay 100k+ stamp duty so just not worth it. No cars but kids hobby will mean some taxi journeys or car in our future - yet to decide which is better as I’m reluctant to own a car but don’t want the kids to normalise taxis!

holidays have also crept up but partly also due to ages of the kids and bound now to school holidays so it’s generally more expensive. Initially was just a 4K all inclusive Europe type holiday in Easter / October. Then that plus a week Euro camp in summer 2k. Now those plus a ski week in feb half term 5k.

I’m the lesser earner but my net pay hasn’t increased for 15 years as every pay rise I put straight into my pension. Bonus too most years.

every year use the full ISA allowance straight on S&S.

kinda fell into being a landlord by buying my SIL a house and she then promptly left the country. Wouldn’t necessarily recommend but it made our financial advisor very happy as it diversified our portfolio as all pensions /ISAs are in S&S and our home is a single big asset in SE but rental house is in NW up and coming type area. But only did this argue we built a substantial buffer and it’s for long term capital gains rather than monthly income. Which now cap gains limit is £3k I wouldn’t do again.

as others have said it’s the ability to replace stuff that’s broken or get a new piece of furniture on a whim, not worry about the food shopping bill, go out for dinner. not that we really do this often, maybe dinner / lunch once every 2 weeks.

I still have a super cheap gym membership. Mostly shop on vinted, barely spend any money on myself or the house. Although I am actively trying to prioritise more self care now.

my sister in the other hand earns about the same as us (I assume) and they seem to live very hand to mouth. They do have a big mortgage and house so always seem to need some new furniture / repairs / etc. they’re probably a bit more consumers than I am comfortable being.

Sorry long post but I’ve been fascinated reading everyone else’s contribution

We save a lot, put a lot into pensions, enjoy 3 holidays a year and are grateful not to have to worry about money.