How much do you earn?
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Hello.
My net income is in the region of £2,000 per month, just over half of which goes out in rent.
I'm single and have no debt.
I work as a budget manager which, unsurprisingly, has been a help in making decisions about how to manage my own finances.
I live in a very expensive city so while I could afford monthly mortgage payments, saving enough for a deposit will probably take another decade. I've taken the choice to live centrally so my rent is expensive but literally everywhere I need to go on a weekly basis is within a 10 minute walk. Sometimes on a weekend I walk 30 minutes to the big supermarkets and take a bus back if I bought ice cream.
I budget carefully and have done so for many years. Each year I build a budget using a basic template that comes with MS Excel automatically, and track average spends on categories across the years. For example my food bill has gone up from £150 per month to about £170 over the last three years. I collect cashback and coupons etc. and keep an eye on the best bank account deals to accumulate some interest on the modest savings that I do have. Oh and I keep a very keen eye on reduced food in the supermarkets and buy it for the freezer.
All in all I can cope very well and spend whatever I like within reason, and the only thing I can't do is buy a flat simply because local prices start at about 250k. For me the location is more important than whether I buy or rent, but I appreciate many others might have a different view. I go on 3-4 holidays per year but at least two of those will be to Europe to visit my parents so accommodation is free (and Mum won't let me buy anything anyway!!).
I hope this helps
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Only around £25,000 from my job, which is on the low side for the role I do, however I am too comfortable where I am (and I hate the job application process) to try elsewhere. This is roughly around £1600 a month. This is supplemented with around £500-£1000 per month matched betting income.
Single, live at home, no expenditures really to speak of other than a nominal credit card repayment and phone bill. Everything has been going into savings for years, so I am in a good position to put down a large deposit on a good house (Glasgow) when the time comes.0 -
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I'm early twenties and get around £23k a year pre-tax/pension.
Live alone, mortgaged house, save around £300 a month minimum, no other debts, no other income or the bank of mum and dad.
Baffles me when two full-time working adults talk about how they're just getting by and up to their eyeballs in debt.0 -
I don't think been on this board before, I normally hang around pensions and investing. One of the things that I have observed from the comments there and on this thread is the Micawber happiness index is all around spending rather than income. I've been a MS Money user since 1993 and so have 24 years worth of data of where it goes. (the sunset edition is free to download now). Learn how not to waste money and I will (almost) guarantee you will feel better. What others get up to should have no bearing on how you behave.
I have been lucky to earn 6 figures for a number of years, but my iPad is 6 years old (what a great piece of kit that is), my phone is out of contact and so costs £10 a month, my car is 16 years old, I don't pay anything to Mr Murdoch but I can retire at 54. You don't have to live like a hermit or exist on lidl beans, but cutting unnecessary spending is actually quite liberating. The amount some people like to fritter away (especially on cars) amazes me. When the net worth dial starts to creep up (or become less negative), it becomes a habit to keep it that way.0 -
My mother is the master of a good turn of phrase, and one of her favourites when I was growing up was 'Any fool can spend money'.
Rather than asking how much we earn, asking how much we spend might be more helpful to you.No longer a spouse, or trailing, but MSE won't allow me to change my username...0 -
Me and my wife are in the same bracket as the OP, we have a mortgage and 2 young children.
We aren't extravigant but the kids want for nothing, we just spend wisely (wife is excellent at food shopping!).
This year we invested in a car and caravan, both though loans but we costed it all out before hand and have budgeted (sp?) for the payments.
Most of the people I know with new cars buy them on lease or PCP, after 3 years they swap to a new one but never actually own it.
We had our last family car for 10 years and only changed because we needed a heavier one for towing.
A customer and good friend at work earns 3 times what I do, but he's financed up to the eyballs and interest only mortgage with no chance of paying it off and I can't really get my head around that!.0 -
I'm not able to give an answer to the earnings bit but I know people earning similar amounts who have a very different financial situation and those earning less who are doing better.
There are the people who are constantly in their overdraft despite running new cars or constantly eating out/spending on "things". We run a 10 and 16 year old cars that owes us nothing, house with mortgage yet have decent investments and savings. Others might run a brand new car yet have no money in the bank as savings.
When you see the stats that nearly 70% of people have either no savings or under £1000 then that gives a clue as to where the money is to buy a lot of these things.Remember the saying: if it looks too good to be true it almost certainly is.0 -
21,000 and single. But I still live at home.Aiming to pay debts & save! :T0
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