What is a “great” Income to you?

[Chocstrawberry1]

In the UK, of course depending on where you live, what would you say is a great income if someone told you theirs?

I used to be on £65k before kids and I used to think anyone getting over £60k is on a great income (outside London). Now, with the CoL going sky high, I think a great income is anything over £70k.

I know the average is £25-35k but what would you think is a great income?

I think that's pretty good for £45K to support a whole family with 2 kids in an expensive area. I think I'd find that very tight.

We genuinely have found it really easy for the past 7 years. We never use overdrafts or credit cards. My DH still actually saves each month.

We run 1 car which we bought outright pre-kids, we share it and the other walks everywhere on their days without. We do a weekly food shop at ALDI for £80 per week, but cook everything from scratch, all the non-branded stuff is the same with a few exceptions. My DH cooks porridge with fruit & nuts/scrambled eggs before work, I make varied lunches for my DD, we both cook from scratch each evening.

I still have a gym membership, our kids both do paid weekly swimming lessons. We book loads of experiences in school hols, but there is also so much free, enjoyable stuff to do with kids (parks, picnics, libraries, play dates etc). Also with friends/family, e.g. we will cook dinner here and host a board/card game night.

The key for us was waiting for our mortgage to reduce for 7 years pre-kids, then paying to lock in a 5 year deal on a very low interest rate before rates rose. We never took on too much to start with, and haven’t moved to somewhere bigger that we would struggle to afford. We love having more disposable income.

Depends on what lifestyle makes you happy. We earn £75k as a household and we live comfortably. We're about to buy a 3/4 bedroom house in village in Oxfordshire and we'll be mortgage free once we move (we are "older" parents). We have 2-3 holidays a year and can afford our hobbies. Neither of us are into expensive clothes or jewellery or cars or anything like that. I work part-time as our youngest daughter is 5 and we don't want to put her into breakfast club or after school club. We're very content and happy. I honestly wouldn't know what to do with £200k plus! I'd have to give half of it to charity of something.

I think as long as your have enough money to pay the bills and enjoy some extra things
...that sounds pretty great to me. So many people struggle, I feel very privileged.

It’s great £45k is enough for you, but the question is what’s a great salary. I would argue limiting your mortgage, restricting one person to walking, having to shop in Aldi and keep your shop to only £80, and shopping around for free or cheap kids activities isn’t a very free life. Not saying it’s not a happy one, you’re obviously happy, but for me, a great salary frees you from having to think about money; so you can shop without a budget (or at least not be too confined), just do what you want in the holidays, buy the house you want not just what you can afford etc. Freedom and less restrictions, which is what takes you from good, to great.

I get what your saying about the word ‘great’, ‘great’ for me means living the life I want, I genuinely don’t have expensive tastes (never have, saved £600 per month when working full time despite holidaying 3 times a year, it was wasted on me 😂) so never feel I go without anything. I don’t restrict myself, I buy what I need and hate waste, and I absolutely love our house and my 2 gardens. But I get that ‘great’ to others means earning substantially more money.

I personally hate outsourcing anything, I absolutely love gardening and really enjoy cleaning my own home to my very high standards. I never outsourced these things even when working full-time. I don’t want to move, our home is beautiful, decorated with great care and attention, everything is right on our doorstep, my family are 10 mins away (heaven).

I genuinely don’t believe us having more money would make either of us any happier, we are so time rich and both have so much time to spend together and with our children 😊 it’s all about appreciation, we are far more appreciative and happy than many we know who earn triple.

True. Life is about being grateful for what you have and focus on the positives; however having a decent income help.

My friend works a a TA, she is married with no mortgage, no car or children. She doesn’t earn a lot, her husband probably a bit more but not a lot. They are very organised with money and have a nice lifestyle as they don’t have many commitments, have various holidays a year.

It really depends in your commitments and where you live.

100k would be amazing.
Another Civil Servant here. It’s incredible the difference in expectations for the same grade/salary. Our G6 manages several G7 teams across the country and multi million budgets and huge risks.
My HO team manage 10 EOs each. Full on operational jobs in London with 100% office attendance for under £40k.

£250k plus.

It takes about £110k to pay for our fixed costs. We take about £200k from the business every year and sometimes that's a bit tight. We live a good life - don't need much more...we just holiday & eat out a bit too much sometimes and then we need to rein it in a little. For us £300k would be a great income.

For our situation (living in London with kids) I’d say £300k +. We’re planning for retirement at the moment and aiming for £100k, which I think will be a decent income given no childcare, education or housing costs to consider