How much do you need to earn to live in London?
Discussion
swerni said:
My suggestion is someone close this thread.
it's run it's course and is now heading the wrong way rapidly
I was interested to hear your response to my post above Swerni. it's run it's course and is now heading the wrong way rapidly
And yours studio117.
All very well criticising someone, but when they respond with a polite response to your insults, let's not respond to the points made but close the thread, right?
People are so quick to judge/criticise on here!
Edited by vinnie83 on Friday 22 August 12:51
swerni said:
vinnie83 said:
swerni said:
My suggestion is someone close this thread.
it's run it's course and is now heading the wrong way rapidly
I was interested to hear your response to my post above Swerni. it's run it's course and is now heading the wrong way rapidly
If you're going to spend that kind of money, you want it to be special.
To live a comfortable life in London comes down to two things in my opinion and that is how and when you are financing your house and whether you're single or a family.
Most day to day costs such as petrol, gas, electric, food, resturants, clothes are on par with anywhere else in the country. In fact petrol/travel is probably less as you don't need to travel the mileage to commute if you're not lucky enough to live a stones throw from work.
I can only really focus on families as I don't know any singles. Families are unlikely to share a room in a house so they'd need to buy or rent an average house. Many people I know of my generation (early 30s) have had significant help in obtaining a property. Some of my friends have pretty medicore jobs earning £25kish and they are able to afford the outer suburb 3 bed semi (£500-700k) and live perfectly happy lives. Their mortgages are sub 100k so life really isn't an issue for them.
Unfortunetly my wife and I have not had such hand outs and I think you really need to be bringing in at least £120k and the associated job stress to service a mortgage on an average suburb, average £500-700k house with a 25% deposit and associated childcare costs.
For people such as my wife and I it makes sense to sell up, take our equity away from london, find jobs at market rate for our professions and live the good life with mininal housing cost.
Who wants the stress of a £400-600k mortgage under PAYE employment anyway. What's the alternative if you haven't had a hand out and were starting for scratch today? Traditional 2.5 x £120k = £300k mortgage. Plus say £70K saved up. £370k buys what sort of family home?? Certainly nothing you'd want, especially if you've both worked hard to earn £60k each.
Most day to day costs such as petrol, gas, electric, food, resturants, clothes are on par with anywhere else in the country. In fact petrol/travel is probably less as you don't need to travel the mileage to commute if you're not lucky enough to live a stones throw from work.
I can only really focus on families as I don't know any singles. Families are unlikely to share a room in a house so they'd need to buy or rent an average house. Many people I know of my generation (early 30s) have had significant help in obtaining a property. Some of my friends have pretty medicore jobs earning £25kish and they are able to afford the outer suburb 3 bed semi (£500-700k) and live perfectly happy lives. Their mortgages are sub 100k so life really isn't an issue for them.
Unfortunetly my wife and I have not had such hand outs and I think you really need to be bringing in at least £120k and the associated job stress to service a mortgage on an average suburb, average £500-700k house with a 25% deposit and associated childcare costs.
For people such as my wife and I it makes sense to sell up, take our equity away from london, find jobs at market rate for our professions and live the good life with mininal housing cost.
Who wants the stress of a £400-600k mortgage under PAYE employment anyway. What's the alternative if you haven't had a hand out and were starting for scratch today? Traditional 2.5 x £120k = £300k mortgage. Plus say £70K saved up. £370k buys what sort of family home?? Certainly nothing you'd want, especially if you've both worked hard to earn £60k each.
vinnie83 said:
And sorry, look at how much money I have? When did I say that? Anyone can look at someone's garage on here and see what they drive, and saying I earn UNDER £50k is bragging now? Really?
vinnie83 said:
And as for the comment about my wanting an impressive house saying it all - what is wrong with that? If I'm going to spend £1.5 million+ on a house I damn well expect it to be impressive!
iphonedyou said:
vinnie83 said:
And sorry, look at how much money I have? When did I say that? Anyone can look at someone's garage on here and see what they drive, and saying I earn UNDER £50k is bragging now? Really?
vinnie83 said:
And as for the comment about my wanting an impressive house saying it all - what is wrong with that? If I'm going to spend £1.5 million+ on a house I damn well expect it to be impressive!
vinnie83 said:
iphonedyou said:
vinnie83 said:
And sorry, look at how much money I have? When did I say that? Anyone can look at someone's garage on here and see what they drive, and saying I earn UNDER £50k is bragging now? Really?
vinnie83 said:
And as for the comment about my wanting an impressive house saying it all - what is wrong with that? If I'm going to spend £1.5 million+ on a house I damn well expect it to be impressive!
Du1point8 said:
vinnie83 said:
iphonedyou said:
vinnie83 said:
And sorry, look at how much money I have? When did I say that? Anyone can look at someone's garage on here and see what they drive, and saying I earn UNDER £50k is bragging now? Really?
vinnie83 said:
And as for the comment about my wanting an impressive house saying it all - what is wrong with that? If I'm going to spend £1.5 million+ on a house I damn well expect it to be impressive!
I'm sacrificing 6 years of adult life to get into a highly paid profession.
If that means bragging, so be it - I'm bragging.
Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm far from the type to brag about anything - whether you guys on a forum agree or not isn't going to cause me to lose any sleep
vinnie83 said:
I purchased my first property at 23 - the age most were pissing their money up the wall.
I'm sacrificing 6 years of adult life to get into a highly paid profession.
If that means bragging, so be it - I'm bragging.
Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm far from the type to brag about anything - whether you guys on a forum agree or not isn't going to cause me to lose any sleep
FWIW the posters criticizing you sounded a bit sour IMO, possibly jealous of your 911TT.I'm sacrificing 6 years of adult life to get into a highly paid profession.
If that means bragging, so be it - I'm bragging.
Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm far from the type to brag about anything - whether you guys on a forum agree or not isn't going to cause me to lose any sleep
Nobody in London would bat an eyelid at someone on £50k. £50k pa is around £3k take home a month. Say you're paying £1k for rent and bills (which means you would be sharing), minus transport, entertainment and other expenses you'd be saving for 5-10 years for a deposit on a 1 bed in a slightly dodgy area. If it takes you that long to just get a 1 bed place after living in shared accommodation all that time, you could say that is just getting by.
Shaoxter said:
FWIW the posters criticizing you sounded a bit sour IMO, possibly jealous of your 911TT.
Nobody in London would bat an eyelid at someone on £50k. £50k pa is around £3k take home a month. Say you're paying £1k for rent and bills (which means you would be sharing), minus transport, entertainment and other expenses you'd be saving for 5-10 years for a deposit on a 1 bed in a slightly dodgy area. If it takes you that long to just get a 1 bed place after living in shared accommodation all that time, you could say that is just getting by.
Agreed on all points - £50k for london is a crap wage, and the people criticising Vinnie have a distinct whiff of jealousy about them... Nobody in London would bat an eyelid at someone on £50k. £50k pa is around £3k take home a month. Say you're paying £1k for rent and bills (which means you would be sharing), minus transport, entertainment and other expenses you'd be saving for 5-10 years for a deposit on a 1 bed in a slightly dodgy area. If it takes you that long to just get a 1 bed place after living in shared accommodation all that time, you could say that is just getting by.
Does anyone else take pleasure in watching Location, Location, Location and spending an hour laughing at the TV at the quite simply awful properties people are wetting themselves to buy in London ?
Well I do- eg last nights episode: two women looking at some awful postage stamp of a flat at £420k and some bloke looking at some tiny terrace with a postage stamp for a garden at some similar insane price.
I must admit, all in areas which quite frankly looking shocking.
the week before, a couple were viewing houses at circa £600/£700k "with only 90 mins commute, by train into London".
Well I do- eg last nights episode: two women looking at some awful postage stamp of a flat at £420k and some bloke looking at some tiny terrace with a postage stamp for a garden at some similar insane price.
I must admit, all in areas which quite frankly looking shocking.
the week before, a couple were viewing houses at circa £600/£700k "with only 90 mins commute, by train into London".
swerni said:
austinsmirk said:
the week before, a couple were viewing houses at circa £600/£700k "with only 90 mins commute, by train into London".
And your point is?For many in London, a 90 min commute isn't that bad.. especially if it pays generously. I commuted an hour each way to Birmingham from Leicester when the recession hit to work full time earning less than I am now.
That's why I live 45 mins away from Uni instead of living in a shoebox somewhere closer. Not to mention that to some, living in inner city London is not an attractive prospect either.
swerni said:
austinsmirk said:
the week before, a couple were viewing houses at circa £600/£700k "with only 90 mins commute, by train into London".
And your point is?vescaegg said:
swerni said:
austinsmirk said:
the week before, a couple were viewing houses at circa £600/£700k "with only 90 mins commute, by train into London".
And your point is?Suppose it might change when kids are involved, depending on the mentality, but by then, you can swap the shoe box and have next to no mortgage in the same town as the other people
Edited by Du1point8 on Friday 22 August 16:30
because as a parent its lovely to fall out of bed, be able to take the children to nursery/school if I want and take a massive 15 mins by car in total from home/nursery/school or cycle the 15 mins to work if I want.
not spend mega money on train tickets/bus tickets
be able to actually afford to live in a nice house, nice area and have free cash: rather than be enslaved to a commute, just to live somewhere you think is nice.
don't have to use public transport, with quite frankly, the underclass of society.
not spend mega money on train tickets/bus tickets
be able to actually afford to live in a nice house, nice area and have free cash: rather than be enslaved to a commute, just to live somewhere you think is nice.
don't have to use public transport, with quite frankly, the underclass of society.
austinsmirk said:
...don't have to use public transport, with quite frankly, the underclass of society...
Steady on... the guys on my train appear very much of the PH Director ilk.The car park certainly has its share of R8s, Maserati GTs, Jaaaags, and some pristine Defenders.
Non-poverty-spec German premium appears to be the minimum permissible!!
[green eyes]Some guy has a fricking V10 R8 Spyder as his station car FFS![/green eyes]
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