What's your idea of a good salary?

[vescaegg]

Jasandjules said:

STW2010 said:

But not achievable for most people. I think that makes it an exceptional salary.

But the question was what is "my" idea of a good salary....

I agree fully. 2x age in thousands is my opinion of a good salary.

[vescaegg]

[redacted]

[jakewright]

[redacted]

[okgo]

vescaegg said:

Probably not for someone just out of uni. But for someone who has worked up in a role to the same age perfectly doable.

In so many things its possible.

[okgo]

[redacted]

[jakewright]

[redacted]

[brickwall]

[redacted]

[jakewright]

brickwall said:

£42k is eminently possible as a graduate starting salary in banking, consulting, insurance, even oil; though these positions/schemes do tend to be very competitive.

The age thing only really works at low ages; I'd say a base of £75k at age 25 is more impressive than £120k at age 40.

True. I know quite a few guys contracting from 28 onwards and started at 850 a day.... x 235 a year soon adds up! (ok minus whatever tax)

[jakewright]

[redacted]

[kentlad]

vescaegg said:

I agree fully. 2x age in thousands is my opinion of a good salary.

on this basis i should be thoroughly depressed....i'm 25, earning 30k a year in london...yet strangely, i'm pretty happy...maybe there is more to life than money

[kentlad]

[redacted]

[DaveCWK]

The difference in monthly take home between a £30k and £45k salary is about the cost of a leased Audi Q5 TDi for the mrs.
Personally I think earning £30k, £50k or whatever makes naff all difference in reality. A -slightly- nicer car, -one- extra bedroom, who cares. Climbing the career & life ladder is a lesson in dimishing returns if ever there was one.
Two people each earning £35k can have a very nice quality of live, even in the SE.
Sure, earning £120k+ would see you net a nice increase, but then its highly unlikely you will be doing a stress free 40 hour week for that...

[jakewright]

DaveCWK said:

The difference in monthly take home between a £30k and £45k salary is about the cost of a leased Audi Q5 TDi for the mrs.
Personally I think earning £30k, £50k or whatever makes naff all difference in reality. A -slightly- nicer car, -one- extra bedroom, who cares. Climbing the career & life ladder is a lesson in dimishing returns if ever there was one.
Two people each earning £35k can have a very nice quality of live, even in the SE.
Sure, earning £120k+ would see you net a nice increase, but then its highly unlikely you will be doing a stress free 40 hour week for that...

Except some people enjoy the challenges and power these jobs bring.

[Pit Pony]

jakewright said:

DaveCWK said:

The difference in monthly take home between a £30k and £45k salary is about the cost of a leased Audi Q5 TDi for the mrs.
Personally I think earning £30k, £50k or whatever makes naff all difference in reality. A -slightly- nicer car, -one- extra bedroom, who cares. Climbing the career & life ladder is a lesson in dimishing returns if ever there was one.
Two people each earning £35k can have a very nice quality of live, even in the SE.
Sure, earning £120k+ would see you net a nice increase, but then its highly unlikely you will be doing a stress free 40 hour week for that...

Except some people enjoy the challenges and power these jobs bring.

The different between a couple with kids both earning about £35K each with 2 executive lease cars, and a mortgage that includes that extension to the kitchen that cost as much as a house, and a couple earning £25K, with 2 cars worth feck all, and no mortgage on a smaller cheaper house is that the wife of the first couple is jealous that her friend is a stay at home mum and then husband is jealous because his friend doesn't give a st if they make him redundant because "they can't take the house off us can they"

[vescaegg]

DaveCWK said:

The difference in monthly take home between a £30k and £45k salary is about the cost of a leased Audi Q5 TDi for the mrs.
Personally I think earning £30k, £50k or whatever makes naff all difference in reality. A -slightly- nicer car, -one- extra bedroom, who cares. Climbing the career & life ladder is a lesson in dimishing returns if ever there was one.
Two people each earning £35k can have a very nice quality of live, even in the SE.
Sure, earning £120k+ would see you net a nice increase, but then its highly unlikely you will be doing a stress free 40 hour week for that...

The difference when one stops work to look after kids is huge though.
£60k take home is around £3.5k, £35k is around £2.2k.

That's massive when you lose the second income; especially in the SE

[iphonedyou]

jakewright said:

True. But that's only because there are so many useless graduates. Try the top university's and people graduating with merit and 2i and above and it is a whole lot different.

What age are you? I'm guessing 25 or younger?

[a311]

Graduate Egineers start on 27K in our place.

You can rent a 1 bed flat for 4-500 pm or house/flat share for even less. SO I’d imagine it goes quite far.

[AyBee]

a311 said:

Graduate Egineers start on 27K in our place.

You can rent a 1 bed flat for 4-500 pm or house/flat share for even less. SO I’d imagine it goes quite far.

It's all relative; I pay almost double that for my room...

[dictys]

To be in the top 10% of earners you need to earn above 58k I think, so for 90% of the UK that is unachievable. So a good salary would be this point.

[DoubleSix]

dictys said:

To be in the top 10% of earners you need to earn above 58k I think, so for 90% of the UK that is unachievable. So a good salary would be this point.

Yup.

I made that point on page 1.

We know the answer to the question just by looking at the stats.