Baby Costs - !!!!!
Discussion
SteveScooby said:
Lotus82 said:
If we both earned £49,999 each we would qualify for child benefit which our local tax office told me would be £33 (1st twin) + £14 (2nd twin) weekly, or £2,440 a year.
£20 for the first, £13.55 after that, unless it's different for twinsThe current rates are £20.50 + £13.55 = £1770 per year.
It reduces by 1% of the Child Benefit received for every £100 that your individual income is over £50,000. So at £60K it's all gone.
DoubleSix said:
I earn 150k+ and still dont have money to throw around. Some people will never appreciate the fixed costs element.
You're saying that as if you have no choice over your fixed costs.We have income from various sources and net £5-£6K/mth in total. Living a "normal" life, we have so much surplus cash we don't know what to do with it. We chose to have very low fixed costs.
Sheepshanks said:
SteveScooby said:
Lotus82 said:
If we both earned £49,999 each we would qualify for child benefit which our local tax office told me would be £33 (1st twin) + £14 (2nd twin) weekly, or £2,440 a year.
£20 for the first, £13.55 after that, unless it's different for twinsThe current rates are £20.50 + £13.55 = £1770 per year.
It reduces by 1% of the Child Benefit received for every £100 that your individual income is over £50,000. So at £60K it's all gone.
We had similar problem a few years ago when both of our children were in nursery together full time (work would not allow wife to work part time, she did not want to lose her career and her salary was just covering 2 kids at nursery)
Very hard financially even with similar figures to yours but we had to go interest only on the mortgage for that period
Gets little easier when they are 3 and you get 15hrs per week free, and of course once they are in school at 4.
Very hard financially even with similar figures to yours but we had to go interest only on the mortgage for that period
Gets little easier when they are 3 and you get 15hrs per week free, and of course once they are in school at 4.
OP - I was in a similar position 10 years ago.
Wife stopped full time work and became house mum but found part time work (accounting) to do from home deliberately keeping income below £10,6k p.a. so no taxable income. In our case wife had substantial travel costs to work, smart clothes, coffee's/lunch etc. Once we took all of the costs into consideration her left over pay was not far off the tax free income she generates now.
We also found we did not really want to go out as much so our life style expense reduced too.
Having your wife (or you for that matter
) wont make that big a difference once you consider the above.
Wife stopped full time work and became house mum but found part time work (accounting) to do from home deliberately keeping income below £10,6k p.a. so no taxable income. In our case wife had substantial travel costs to work, smart clothes, coffee's/lunch etc. Once we took all of the costs into consideration her left over pay was not far off the tax free income she generates now.
We also found we did not really want to go out as much so our life style expense reduced too.
Having your wife (or you for that matter
) wont make that big a difference once you consider the above. Sheepshanks said:
DoubleSix said:
I earn 150k+ and still dont have money to throw around. Some people will never appreciate the fixed costs element.
You're saying that as if you have no choice over your fixed costs.We have income from various sources and net £5-£6K/mth in total. Living a "normal" life, we have so much surplus cash we don't know what to do with it. We chose to have very low fixed costs.
If your location and life choices enable you to have spare cash on £5-6k net per month then that is great but do bear in mind that, in and around London, that wouldn't leave a family living a fairly normal life very much at all.
ClaphamGT3 said:
But the fixed costs of a family on £110k in Cardiff are going to be significantly less than a family earning the same amount in London & the Home Counties.
If your location and life choices enable you to have spare cash on £5-6k net per month then that is great but do bear in mind that, in and around London, that wouldn't leave a family living a fairly normal life very much at all.
THIS. If your location and life choices enable you to have spare cash on £5-6k net per month then that is great but do bear in mind that, in and around London, that wouldn't leave a family living a fairly normal life very much at all.
NerveAgent said:
Even with the higher mortgage costs of the SE you still have to be spending a lot of money to struggle on £110k. I would imagine a lot of the perceived fixed costs are a mixture of keeping up with the joneses, poor personal finance skills and laziness.
£5.5k monthly net. Mortgage on 3 bed house in reasonable area £2k (prob more if still renting) child care £2k, everything else out of the remaining £1.5k.Doesn't sound very champagne charlie to me......
ClaphamGT3 said:
£5.5k monthly net. Mortgage on 3 bed house in reasonable area £2k (prob more if still renting) child care £2k, everything else out of the remaining £1.5k.
Doesn't sound very champagne charlie to me......
Exactly.Doesn't sound very champagne charlie to me......
Add in health ins, pension, saving for kids uni, a couple of buy-to-lets that need propping up and it's soon soaked up.
I'm certainly not complaining at my own situation but I can definitely sympathise with the OP
I can't feel sorry for you op, you earn 4.5x our combined income. Appreciate your outgoings might be higher assuming you are London based.
I've a good friend who has a similar combined income, but he doesn't complain about the cost, he is aware that he can change them anytime by losing the car on finance etc. Is your car on finance? If so you could probably free up hundreds of pounds which can go towards childcare.
Finally, interested to hear of these thousands of handouts....we get child benefit, same as anyone else, and that's all.
I've a good friend who has a similar combined income, but he doesn't complain about the cost, he is aware that he can change them anytime by losing the car on finance etc. Is your car on finance? If so you could probably free up hundreds of pounds which can go towards childcare.
Finally, interested to hear of these thousands of handouts....we get child benefit, same as anyone else, and that's all.
ClaphamGT3 said:
Sheepshanks said:
DoubleSix said:
I earn 150k+ and still dont have money to throw around. Some people will never appreciate the fixed costs element.
You're saying that as if you have no choice over your fixed costs.We have income from various sources and net £5-£6K/mth in total. Living a "normal" life, we have so much surplus cash we don't know what to do with it. We chose to have very low fixed costs.
If your location and life choices enable you to have spare cash on £5-6k net per month then that is great but do bear in mind that, in and around London, that wouldn't leave a family living a fairly normal life very much at all.
And, apologies if I'm thinking of someone else, but I recall from other recent posts that DoubleSix lives in Bristol. Quite near Cardiff.
DoubleSix said:
ClaphamGT3 said:
£5.5k monthly net. Mortgage on 3 bed house in reasonable area £2k (prob more if still renting) child care £2k, everything else out of the remaining £1.5k.
Doesn't sound very champagne charlie to me......
Exactly.Doesn't sound very champagne charlie to me......
Add in health ins, pension, saving for kids uni, a couple of buy-to-lets that need propping up and it's soon soaked up.
You're on such a different planet you need to have a word with yourself.Sheepshanks said:
DoubleSix said:
ClaphamGT3 said:
£5.5k monthly net. Mortgage on 3 bed house in reasonable area £2k (prob more if still renting) child care £2k, everything else out of the remaining £1.5k.
Doesn't sound very champagne charlie to me......
Exactly.Doesn't sound very champagne charlie to me......
Add in health ins, pension, saving for kids uni, a couple of buy-to-lets that need propping up and it's soon soaked up.
You're on such a different planet you need to have a word with yourself.Gassing Station | Finance | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff