What portion of income should be spent on rent?

squash91

Hello,
I'm going to be moving away from the parents' nest next year and was wondering what percentage of my income should I be spending on rent? I have absolutely no idea!
Bit of background, me and the boyfriend will have a combined take home income of 52K and want to live in London, Hackney area maybe.

On a separate note why is there no information on things like this at my university, I'm 21 and have no idea how the world works!

V_Chic_Chick

Work out a budget, and see how much you have left for rent. Then try and get it at least a bit lower than that so that you can put away some savings and have a "buffer".

There's no such thing as an amount that "should" be spent on rent. I spend about half my income on rent, but my income is less than 20% of yours, and rents around here don't come much cheaper!

G_M

There's loads on the web. Try google.

http://www.essex.ac.uk/studentfinance/cost_of_living.aspx

http://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/international/finance/cost-of-living

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080715172402AA1jc0Y

http://www.workgateways.com/working-cost-of-living.html

etc etc

kidmugsy

squash91 wrote: »

On a separate note why is there no information on things like this at my university, I'm 21 and have no idea how the world works!

Because that's what parents are for?

Kynthia

I've tended to work on the basic rule of dividing my take home monthly pay in three. One third on rent/mortgage, one third on bills and one third on everything else (socialising, saving, unexpected costs, etc).