What's your idea of a good salary?

[theboss]

conanius said:

You only need to have 60-70-80-90-100k if you want some swanky pad that seemingly the characters that are even just cleaners in British films live in.

And the rest...

[Smiley198700]

illmonkey said:

Half that for outside of London and you're about right, well ~£50k.

The missus and I were earning a combination of £55k a few years back and lived in a 2 bed house in Oxfordshire, 2 fairly new cars, and had 5 holidays a year. Granted we never saved, but we were by no means poor.

Mine and the missus combined salary is ~£53k and we're very comfortable. 2 cars which aren't the cheapest to run, 3 bed house, blow £2k on holidays twice a year.

We don't have kids though - but we do have a fully stocked minibar

Although another 10k would be better... onwards and upwards!

[illmonkey]

Smiley198700 said:

illmonkey said:

Half that for outside of London and you're about right, well ~£50k.

The missus and I were earning a combination of £55k a few years back and lived in a 2 bed house in Oxfordshire, 2 fairly new cars, and had 5 holidays a year. Granted we never saved, but we were by no means poor.

Mine and the missus combined salary is ~£53k and we're very comfortable. 2 cars which aren't the cheapest to run, 3 bed house, blow £2k on holidays twice a year.

We don't have kids though - but we do have a fully stocked minibar

Although another 10k would be better... onwards and upwards!

It's neigh on impossible to compare though. When we were on that, we had an intrest only mortgage (£321/month). Now we're earning a fair chunk more, but our mortgage is £1050/month (bigger house and now repayment). So really, the additional money has gone on that. We've also both changed jobs, so we've both got a commute. Oh and my parking is £200/month. In total our outgoings have more than doubled since the time last year.

[loose cannon]

Fook me Reading this thread has made me realise even more that I'm very poor indeed I'd be chuffed if I made 30k a year

[Joey Ramone]

conanius said:

There are some serious pop star posters in this thread.

Some of these figures are absolutely incredible that people think is a good salary - many of them are excellent salaries that are totally unachievable for the masses. The word good I guess is the problem here, as there then becomes a point of one-up-manship, where everyone claims they need more to survive.

It just depends what circles you move in. For my investment banker mate, his £150K salary is pretty average for his industry. In fact it's not even 'good'.

And believe it or not, he does feel like he needs more. And no, he doesn't live like a rock star. Far from it. Wife and two kids, plus mortgage on a decent (not in any way opulent) 4 bed house in Epsom takes care of pretty much all of his disposable income. It's only if a bonus is paid (not very often in the past few years) that he gets a chance to save or invest.

There's also the issue of background. I grew up in a financially unstable environment and so however much I earn I'm afraid that it's just not enough.

[okgo]

What I find amazing is the general disconnect that exists sometimes, I was watching Gogglebox the other day and the subject of Clarkson came up, he earned something like £4m from TG etc last year, and one of the familes had a debate about it,the daughter asked her mother how much she thought he had earned from TG in the last year - the answers were astounding, the mother said £50k!!! And the father scoffed and said "no, loads more than that, £200k?" she then said it was £4m and they couldn't compute.

People exist out there that think someone like Jermey Clarkson gets paid fifty grand a year, how is that sort of disconnect possible?

[Bullett]

You spend what you have. I am well aware that my salary is nearing 6 figures in a good year. My wife is comfortably in the 40% tax bracket.

But my mortgage is over £2k a month. I send my kids to private nursery/school that's another £1600.

I don't pay for a phone (work) I don't commute (home based, work pay if I travel), no Sky. Both cars are paid for (an Octavia and a Focus ST) no loans, very little on CC.

We take holidays one abroad, one UK normally - Under £1k each time typically.

I could probably earn more but I wouldn't have the time to spend it, pretty happy with my life. Plenty of time with the kids, hobbies, wife, eat out a fair bit, toys, I'm happy. I'd like another Porsche or a GTR but that can wait until I can reduce the mortgage payments a bit and get the 2nd child into school which will take my bill to £1k a month.

[jonah35]

Bullett said:

You spend what you have. I am well aware that my salary is nearing 6 figures in a good year. My wife is comfortably in the 40% tax bracket.

But my mortgage is over £2k a month. I send my kids to private nursery/school that's another £1600.

I don't pay for a phone (work) I don't commute (home based, work pay if I travel), no Sky. Both cars are paid for (an Octavia and a Focus ST) no loans, very little on CC.

We take holidays one abroad, one UK normally - Under £1k each time typically.

I could probably earn more but I wouldn't have the time to spend it, pretty happy with my life. Plenty of time with the kids, hobbies, wife, eat out a fair bit, toys, I'm happy. I'd like another Porsche or a GTR but that can wait until I can reduce the mortgage payments a bit and get the 2nd child into school which will take my bill to £1k a month.

Your outgoings are high though. If your kids went to normal school or grandparents baby sat plus you had a small mortgage you'd have more.

My outgoings are fairly low because I don't drink and like the gym so that's my fun.

Key is to enjoy life. Money isn't everything.

[Bullett]

Oh, I'm aware of my outgoings being high.

It was a better economic choice for us to pay for full time care for the kids than lose the Mrs Wage long term. I would rather have had them in nursery less but you have to make those decisions for the long term. We opted for private for the eldest because we would still have needed per/post and summer break childcare. I think it only came to about £100-150 a month more for private (smaller class size, wrap around care) and we can take holidays when others are working due to the term times so save on holidays.

I'm paying down my mortgage as fast as possible as well, if I had it over a longer period I could pay £500 a month less.

[GT03ROB]

Bullett said:

You spend what you have.

I'll correct that...... my wife spends what I have....

....when I worked in the UK...there was never anything left & somehow it was my fault because of a house too big & too many cars. Now I earn 50% more pay no tax, nothing else has changed, except I spend nothing ...... and still there's nothing left..... how does that work?

[Bullett]

What I want to know is where all my money went when I was single with little in the way of outgoings.

[Shnozz]

Bullett said:

What I want to know is where all my money went when I was single with little in the way of outgoings.

I easily went through 2k a month on going on when I was single and that certainly was not a champagne lifestyle. Out on the sauce 5 - 6 nights a week it's fairly easy to burn through cash. Throw in a few not cheap hobbies that I had more time to devote to such as snowboarding and I found I was spending far more than when content in a relationship and cooking meals, watching a movie together etc.

[jonnydm]

okgo said:

What I find amazing is the general disconnect that exists sometimes, I was watching Gogglebox the other day and the subject of Clarkson came up, he earned something like £4m from TG etc last year, and one of the familes had a debate about it,the daughter asked her mother how much she thought he had earned from TG in the last year - the answers were astounding, the mother said £50k!!! And the father scoffed and said "no, loads more than that, £200k?" she then said it was £4m and they couldn't compute.

People exist out there that think someone like Jermey Clarkson gets paid fifty grand a year, how is that sort of disconnect possible?

Most of that is from his stake in the commercial rights. The other two earn a lot less. We're into cars, commercially aware etc. so we 'know' this stuff.
If one was basing what he earns on a guess of how much a middling TV personality gets, somewhere in middle 6 figures isn't too far out. (Yes the £500k they apparently get is far north of £200k but again to many, its just numbers).

Agreed there is a disconnect though.

[NerveAgent]

Bullett said:

You spend what you have. I am well aware that my salary is nearing 6 figures in a good year. My wife is comfortably in the 40% tax bracket.

But my mortgage is over £2k a month. I send my kids to private nursery/school that's another £1600.

I don't pay for a phone (work) I don't commute (home based, work pay if I travel), no Sky. Both cars are paid for (an Octavia and a Focus ST) no loans, very little on CC.

We take holidays one abroad, one UK normally - Under £1k each time typically.

I could probably earn more but I wouldn't have the time to spend it, pretty happy with my life. Plenty of time with the kids, hobbies, wife, eat out a fair bit, toys, I'm happy. I'd like another Porsche or a GTR but that can wait until I can reduce the mortgage payments a bit and get the 2nd child into school which will take my bill to £1k a month.

You dont have to spend what you earn, everyone keeps saying this but its nonsense!

For comparison my girlfriend and I have similar pay levels (a bit less though) to you and your wife but our mortgage is 3 times less! Everyone "expects" us to buy a bigger house, wonders why I drive a 7 year old focus etc. Ok I'm about to buy a new car but I don't have to just because I can afford too!

[illmonkey]

NerveAgent said:

Bullett said:

You spend what you have. I am well aware that my salary is nearing 6 figures in a good year. My wife is comfortably in the 40% tax bracket.

But my mortgage is over £2k a month. I send my kids to private nursery/school that's another £1600.

I don't pay for a phone (work) I don't commute (home based, work pay if I travel), no Sky. Both cars are paid for (an Octavia and a Focus ST) no loans, very little on CC.

We take holidays one abroad, one UK normally - Under £1k each time typically.

I could probably earn more but I wouldn't have the time to spend it, pretty happy with my life. Plenty of time with the kids, hobbies, wife, eat out a fair bit, toys, I'm happy. I'd like another Porsche or a GTR but that can wait until I can reduce the mortgage payments a bit and get the 2nd child into school which will take my bill to £1k a month.

You dont have to spend what you earn, everyone keeps saying this but its nonsense!

For comparison my girlfriend and I have similar pay levels (a bit less though) to you and your wife but our mortgage is 3 times less! Everyone "expects" us to buy a bigger house, wonders why I drive a 7 year old focus etc. Ok I'm about to buy a new car but I don't have to just because I can afford too!

It's all relative! £2k/month if it's repayment is 'only' ~£500k over 30 years. Round here, thats a 3 bed house with a small garden. So he may not be stretching it.

Are you sure the game isn't to get to zero at the end of every month?

[okgo]

NerveAgent said:

You dont have to spend what you earn, everyone keeps saying this but its nonsense!

For comparison my girlfriend and I have similar pay levels (a bit less though) to you and your wife but our mortgage is 3 times less! Everyone "expects" us to buy a bigger house, wonders why I drive a 7 year old focus etc. Ok I'm about to buy a new car but I don't have to just because I can afford too!

Your mortgage is 3 times less. Why are you even comparing yourself to this guy?

As has been said 2k mortgage is a big house in some places or a 2 bed flat in others.

[Bullett]

Those figures are pretty close, you don't get a mansion round here for £500k.

People tend to live to their means. You won't find huge numbers of people living a £25k lifestyle if they earn £60k. (you might find people on £25k trying to live a £60k lifestyle though). It's little things, a slightly better spec car (it's only £50 a month more, I can afford it). a bigger sky package, slightly better holidays, more meals out etc. etc. Before you know it you have no more money left at the end of the month than you did on a lesser wage.

[okgo]

While I do agree to an extent you can easily make those changes if you wanted to. We've ditched sky sports etc, so its only £50 per month, got a 14 year old golf as a run about, cancelled our phone contracts as we have work phones, and many other money saving things all the while increasing household income a considerable amount.

Truth be told, apart from the odd meal here and there, and taking taxis instead of tubes I don't think I've really altered my lifestyle all that much than when I was on half the amount I am now, but I have had to make a point of doing that. I always worked out the baseline figure I needed to be comfortable per month, then whatever above that I saved, that figure has gone from £200 to £2000 and I still save it most months with the odd exception.

[NerveAgent]

okgo said:

Your mortgage is 3 times less. Why are you even comparing yourself to this guy?

As has been said 2k mortgage is a big house in some places or a 2 bed flat in others.

Because I could have taken on a similar sized mortgage but chose not to. Ie you dont have to spend what you earn.

[illmonkey]

okgo said:

While I do agree to an extent you can easily make those changes if you wanted to. We've ditched sky sports etc, so its only £50 per month, got a 14 year old golf as a run about, cancelled our phone contracts as we have work phones, and many other money saving things all the while increasing household income a considerable amount.

Truth be told, apart from the odd meal here and there, and taking taxis instead of tubes I don't think I've really altered my lifestyle all that much than when I was on half the amount I am now, but I have had to make a point of doing that. I always worked out the baseline figure I needed to be comfortable per month, then whatever above that I saved, that figure has gone from £200 to £2000 and I still save it most months with the odd exception.

That's great, but if you're able to save that much, don't you ever just want to spend some of it? why not save £1500 and have sky sports and that slightly nicer car.