Income brackets: PERCEPTIONS of low and high?

115K

My husband earns about £50,000 with overtime but I would consider high wage as around £60- £65k or more.

I don't know how people survive on lower than £25,000 in London because of the rents. I lived in the Midlands at uni and I think £50k would be a good wage there.

Anything over £100k a year would be high IMO.

Tancred

lostinrates wrote: »

Thank you tancred.

The op specifically asks that we don't talk about actual figures but rather our perceptions.

The whole point is not to refer to the figures which we all either know or can google but to let out perceptions stretch a little.

I know its strange an alien to some but it was really enjoyable last time.

If we are talking purely about perceptions then I would call myself a middle income person. My wife and I earn around £91-95k a year combined, depending on yearly bonus, and we have no children. According to the IFS that puts us in the top 7% of household incomes nationally, which seems completely ridiculous. We have a very substantial mortgage and make equally substantial pension contributions. However, all this perception is based purely on my middle class background etc. I am fully aware that many families survive on a fraction of our income, which puts everything into perspective.

grizzly1911

bugslet wrote: »

I also work in a low wage industry, so that possibly colours my perception.

I think that ^^ along with michaels first post affects a lot of what we think.

Back gound, upbringing, getting by getting on with differing wants all colour perceptions.

Many on higher incomes don't feel well off because they live to it and beyond. They have higher hopes, aspirations and wants.

The income tax thresholds are arbitrary cut offs to maximise revenue, in the round, without the proponents getting lynched and don't really relate IMO.

moneyistooshorttomention

Tancred wrote: »

The median average full time UK salary is £26,500, with the mean average around £31,000.
On this basis, someone who is 'middle income' would be earning around the £27-35k range or thereabouts. That might seem strangely low for a white collar worker living and working in London/South-East, but this is what the statistics reflect. It could be argued that in the London/commuter belt area the 40% tax rate affects a very broad range of people, but that is in itself not sufficient to define it as a tax on middle incomes. London salaries are skewed to a great extent by the high number of professionals, the City of London and the need to pay more due to higher cost of living.

I tend to regard the average income as "My" level of income and I am not satisfied with less than that. Over and above that...I don't feel its unreasonable to have whatever extra income is needed personally to cope with the extra expenses involved in being single.

Thus...right now...I'd be okay about getting about £30,000 income p.a. if I were married/coupled-up plus an extra £15,000 say for "extra expenses involved in being single".

So...basically then and counting out those extra expenses for singledom that some of us have...then I would count around £30,000 as reasonable/normal level income. Beneath that is "lower than average". Lower than £20,000 is :eek: "Agh terrible" territory. Higher than £40,000 is high income. £80,000 or above is Very High Income. £100,000 or more is What a Greedy Person Has income (if they keep it all themselves).

As for what my own personal actual income is...it comes into the Very Low category (around £16,000pa) but, right now, whilst I'm a half-pensioner (ie I have reached Retirement Age of 60 and duly retired) then my current income (whilst waiting to reach my personal Revised State Pension Age and get the rest of my income again) is obviously Obscenely Low (ie only around £30 per month more than State Pension Credit level income is obviously that).

At a personal level, I don't even know whether I am actually managing to live on this temporary Obscenely Low Income or no. I've been retirement age/retired for over a year now and am spending in accordance with my Normal Level Income and I honestly couldn't tell you whether I am eating into my savings by doing so or no (as I'm still in process of a different-to-normal expenditure pattern courtesy of having recently moved from Starter House to Forever Home and having to renovate Forever Home).

lostinrates

Tancred wrote: »

If we are talking purely about perceptions then I would call myself a middle income person. My wife and I earn around £91-95k a year combined, depending on yearly bonus, and we have no children. According to the IFS that puts us in the top 7% nationally, which seems completely ridiculous. We have a very substantial mortgage and make equally substantial pension contributions. However, all this perception is based purely on my middle class background etc. I am fully aware that many families survive on a fraction of our income, which puts everything into perspective.

Thank you, super answer !


Can I ask why it seems ridiculous? Are you saying you don't feel in the top 7 percent?

Tancred

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

At a personal level, I don't even know whether I am actually managing to live on this temporary Obscenely Low Income or no. I've been retirement age/retired for over a year now and am spending in accordance with my Normal Level Income and I honestly couldn't tell you whether I am eating into my savings by doing so or no (as I'm still in process of a different-to-normal expenditure pattern courtesy of having recently moved from Starter House to Forever Home and having to renovate Forever Home).

I think that for retired people the level of income is a completely different issue altogether. As a pensioner you would normally not have a mortgage or need to spend money on commuting. You would also not have children to maintain. £16k a year is a normal income for a pensioner; infact quite a good one if your outgoings are low.

lostinrates

grizzly1911 wrote: »

I think that ^^ along with michaels first post affects a lot of what we think.

Back gound, upbringing, getting by getting on with differing wants all colour perceptions.

Many on higher incomes don't feel well off because they live to it and beyond. They have higher hopes, aspirations and wants.

The income tax thresholds are arbitrary cut offs to maximise revenue, in the round, without the proponents getting lynched and don't really relate IMO.

Absolutely agree, though would expand what you say about higher incomes to different incomes. I also think experience and perception changes our expectations. If we see how things work in more than one place for example we extrapolate and see there is not only one way to do things.

Tancred

lostinrates wrote: »

Thank you, super answer !


Can I ask why it seems ridiculous? Are you saying you don't feel in the top 7 percent?

There is a difference between gross income and income after necessary pension contributions and mortgage repayments. This is what is making me feel poorer than I should be. If I had children I would feel even poorer. However, I emphasize that this is a very subjective impression.

lostinrates

michaels wrote: »

I know it is a perceptions thread but I think the context behind the perceptions that people have been giving is important and I don't think it does any harm for a few bits of data to be included to as personally I find putting the perceptions into context is helpful.

Absolutely. My fear is that too much 'reality' can impact on our perception too soon. Of we metaphorically wipe our feet at the door of the thread to sigh and say how we feel about it then get a cold hard fact as we read down its going to impact on how we feel about our perception. See what I mean?

moneyistooshorttomention

A thread like this is so likely to lead to self-justification by those on higher than "reasonable income" level, ie "I deserve more because I have children" v. "Well...I deserve more because I live in London", etc, etc that its virtually impossible to get even a reasonable level of consensus on this imo...but good luck on you if you DO manage to get round the "personal excuses for more syndrome".:rotfl: