How much do you earn?

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  • datlex
    datlex Posts: 2,237
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    My earnings are £25000 and again I live alone. I have no debts now. I am able to put aside nearly a third of my wage each week. I save separately for holidays/bigger purchases (e.g. new phone). I regard my lifestyle as comfortable. I enjoy a night out each week. I stay in hotels when I go away to visit friends and family. I have weekends away. I have no debt having paid it off last year. I put aside a third of my wage into savings. My last few holidays have been within the UK, however this is not for financial reasons, but more to do with other circumstances.
    Paid off the last of my unsecured debts in 2016. Then saved up and bought a property. Current aim is to pay off my mortgage as early as possible. Currently over paying every month. Mortgage due to be paid off in 2036 hoping to get it paid off much earlier. Set up my own bespoke spreadsheet to manage my money.
  • Dandytf
    Dandytf Posts: 4,795
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    edited 7 May 2017 at 10:30AM
    Single, mtg , 17900+300pip+100 wtc.
    Recently purchased 2014 plate Clio. 4 yrs finance.
    Note earnings are soon to be reduced to 3 day week (MS)
    I don;t bother with hoidays as 90% of my spare time is lving at home/hospital appts.

    Tried 1 or 2 calculators online, havent yet established new reduced earnings, though think it maybe a return to 14-15k mark-not sure if anyone finds the time to take away 2 days earnings from 5 day week, please advise.
    Replenished CRA Reports.2015 Zoe i nav -67-131 miles top charge. Savings depleted. VM Stream tv M250 Volted to M350 then M500.
  • Nebulous2
    Nebulous2 Posts: 5,072
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    £31,500net? So around £2600 per month?

    There aren't very many people living what is perceived as a middle-class lifestyle on that.

    Assuming that is fixed and can't increase, what you then factor in are lifestyle choices, or what you do with it.

    We had four children, on a modest income, and regularly went to France on holiday. We drove, scouted for cheap ferries, stayed in a gite or occasionally Eurocamp type big campsites. We did that because it was the cheapest way to take a big family abroad and because it was high on our priority list.

    Buyng sandwiches at work each day and having the occasional coffee can quite easily stretch to £1500 a year, which would have covered at least two thirds of our two weeks in France.

    Some of my colleagues are paying £60 a month for an iphone. I'm running 4 contracts, for myself and other family members, for less than that.

    You need to scutinise your outgoings, keep a record of what you do spend, and think about what you can cut. It isn't easy though. It's easier to go to the sandwich shop and buy a sandwich and a bag of crisps than to be organised enough to pack a lunch box every day and take it with you.
  • RG2015
    RG2015 Posts: 5,821
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    edited 7 May 2017 at 11:56AM
    Hi Kittkatt,

    I know exactly how you feel as I have often been confused by how little spare money I have. I am retired now and used to earn more than an MP but for me this only supported a modest lifestyle.

    Okay, I know MPs are different and may well have other income sources but surely at twice the average income I should have had more to show.

    There have been some excellent answers here but from my experience the best solution is for you to record all of your expenditure. My wife and I did this for cash spending a few years ago and our cash spending went down by over 50%. Don't ask me why but my wife said she stopped spending because she couldn't be bothered writing it all down!

    A more logical answer is that recording "non-essential" expenditure allows you to focus on whether you actually need to spend it. You can also check whether you are overpaying for the essentials by bench-marking what others spend on these items.

    Now that I am on a pension I am far more focused because I need to be. Price comparison sites are great and I am saving a fortune because I am questioning everything.

    To my mind it is not so much about what you earn but all about how cleverly you manage your finances.
  • ruperts
    ruperts Posts: 3,673
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    There are three possible explanations for people having more money than you. Either they've earned it, borrowed it or they've been given it. I suspect there is a fairly even split between the three.
  • RG2015
    RG2015 Posts: 5,821
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    edited 7 May 2017 at 2:07PM
    ruperts wrote: »
    There are three possible explanations for people having more money than you. Either they've earned it, borrowed it or they've been given it. I suspect there is a fairly even split between the three.

    I would add a fourth that they have spent less.

    PS Excluding money illegally acquired.
  • dawyldthing
    dawyldthing Posts: 3,438 Forumite
    Hi, I know this is a sensitive and personal question for some people but I'm really interested to know what people's household incomes are and how well they manage on them?
    I ask as a married mother of three with a mortgage. On paper our income looks ok but in reality although we get by and pay our bills we never seem to have any disposable money despite my husband working away all week and me budgeting quite efficiently I believe. We don't have many treats (smoke or anything) our holidays are from the Sun paper and I buy most things second hand, shop at Lidl and don't have debt.
    Yet people we know seem to all have nicer houses, new cars, regular holidays abroad, always eating out and going for nice weekends away. Don't get me wrong I'm glad for what we have and know we're better off than a lot of people but I just don't get how others afford it and can't really ask what they earn to pay for it all!
    Our total household income after all deductions (tax/NI/child maintenance for husband's son) including wages, child benefit, maintenance for my son is £31500.
    Thanks for any thoughts!

    I wonder how many of them live on the never never - I should imagine a few.

    Me I normally work upto 20 hours, sometimes more. On my own, no kids, mortgage paid off (I live in a reasonable part of the country), no debts and a bit in savings.

    You also often have to make money work for you - I don't have sky but have an ee box and buy the sports passes through now TV, shop around for the Internet, electric, house insurance each year. Look for deals on hotukdeals, do most things I can when I do (currently replays tearing bits of the back of the house then repainting it or it would have cost a grand at a guess)
    :T:T :beer: :beer::beer::beer: to the lil one :) :beer::beer::beer:
  • PasturesNew
    PasturesNew Posts: 70,698
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    Everybody who has posted so far earns shed loads more than me - and even if I were working full-time I'd still be the lowest earner here.

    :)

    I get by. I dip into savings.... so hoping not to outlive them.
  • Flobberchops
    Flobberchops Posts: 1,279
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    A lot of what you perceive is all smoke and mirrors.
    Leased or work cars, credit card holidays and meals out.
    Sad but a lot of what you think of people living a perfect life isn't always the true story.

    This one struck a chord with me. When I was a kid my parents constantly stressed how we were only just getting by and couldn't afford X, Y, Z. Meanwhile I saw my school friends who lived in council estates - presumable low-income, single parent households, although I wouldn't have articulated it in those terms back then - who miraculously *could* afford Sky TV, large screen TVs in every room, foreign holidays, and so on, and I began to wonder what on Earth my parents' problem could be. Were they just phenomenal misers, or not trying hard enough, or what?

    Looking back on it, I suppose it's a question of priorities. No doubt many of my school chums' mums were working multiple jobs to make ends meet, up to their eyeballs in debt, leaning heavily on the benefits system, or all of the above. I've also noticed that the people who have the least disposable income are often the people who make the most effort to make a conspicuous display of wealth - designer tracksuits and smartphones in the dole queue, and all those truisms.

    My advice to the OP would be firstly to not worry about what the Joneses are doing, because if you could see behind closed doors (or at their bank statements) the picture may not be so rosy. And secondly, that there's no especial virtue to being debt averse. If you can get something you need and want on very cheap finance (sometimes 0%) then why not do it?
    : )
  • liltzero
    liltzero Posts: 74 Forumite
    Over 6 figures
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