how much would you need to earn to live in London, comfortably?

Jhoney_2

At 40K+ and still not able to afford living in London, someone would have to have taken work-hard/play-hard a little to literally...

It's not just about money though, its mindset. E.g 3 friends looking for a place to live - presumably houseshares. Why not buy together, set a future date of sale, get out clauses and terms at the outset and get on with it?

Plus those seeing the £40+ jobs, don't factor in the high cost of living enough, or it's more the experience of London they want. There's a perception that that's where all the 'action' is.

The living wage farce, is why people don't see the point of working. Why would you if your just as well off as the people going to work? kind-of-thinking.

Pay increases, devolution of investment and a requirement for unemployed people to move to regions where the is work, cheaper homes etc would be much more of a leveller than pushing the disabled and a bunch of supposedly newsworthy benefit seekers/cheats out into the workplace.

18-40K may get you a mortgage offer and should certainly offer a bit of a lifestlye (hardly jetsetting), but in central London it will never buy you a home. Too much demand for the same few square meters and the cost eventually ripples outwards.

theEnd

princeofpounds wrote: »

You can do London for a year or two on 18k but then you want to be pushing up and up. Sometimes it is worth the struggle so you can be earning 25, 30, 40+ in jobs that simply don't pay like that or even exist in the regions.

Yep, if you're young are doing a job with good prospects, it's probably worth doing a year or two in London on 18k.

If you're older and coming to London to earn £30k in a job with little prospects, when you could make £25k somewhere cheaper, then I probably wouldn't bother.

But don't underestimate how many opportunities there are in London.

zarf2007

one thing I will say about this having come from North East England originally is the salaries in the North and Midlands (with the exception maybe of parts of Scotland) were roughly the same (bar a couple of K per year which you lose mostly in tax anyway) so for the industry I work in (IT) it really was London/South East and literally double/treble the salary/opportunities.

Personally on a Salary of Less than 100K I wouldnt think about central london or hampstead unless you want a crap quality of life.

You can get by in zones 4-6 on less but ideally you should be aiming for that as a single or joint income.

While London has its faults it is a long way better than that wasteland of opportunities in the North East and the similar joke of the Midlands....

kingslayer

Comstock wrote: »

Hampstead is a particularly expensive part of London. Any particular reason you want to live there (admittedly it is very nice!)

I doubt 16k would even cover the rent on a 1bed flat in Hampstead.

Highgate is a tiny smidgen cheaper, but you are still talking well over £200 a week for a studio flat.

My uncle and aunt live in Hampstead. I am infatuated with the area since visiting lol. I may be able to live with them if I wanted as they have no children (well, my uncle has a grown up daughter who has a family, but lives in Surrey) and he said I could visit any time I wanted, so a little convincing and I could live there to help me with a head start, but as of right now I need to find a job with good prospects first. It is such a nice area though and I'm aiming to buy there in the future *crosses fingers* and London does have so many more opportunities than where I am in rural essex.

kingslayer

zarf2007 wrote: »

one thing I will say about this having come from North East England originally its the salaries in the North and Midlands (with the exception maybe of parts of Scotland) were roughly the same (bar a couple of K per year which you lose mostly in tax anyway) so for the industry I work in (IT) it really was London/South East and literally double/treble the salary/opportunities.

Personally on a Salary of Less than 100K I wouldnt think about central london or hampstead unless you want a crap quality of life.

You can get by in zones 4-6 on less but ideally you should be aiming for that as a single or joint income.

While London has its faults it is a long way better than that wasteland of opportunities in the North East and the similar Joke in the Midlands....

See, I really like the north due to it's vast and beautiful terrain. I really like Scotland (my nan was Scottish) and for natural scenery it's amazing and I would never get bored of running through the dales and up hills, and just admiring it all.

Do you not miss the scenery? London is a far cry from all of that. But yeah, work and happiness comes first.

kingslayer

theEnd wrote: »

Yep, if you're young are doing a job with good prospects, it's probably worth doing a year or two in London on 18k.

If you're older and coming to London to earn £30k in a job with little prospects, when you could make £25k somewhere cheaper, then I probably wouldn't bother.

But don't underestimate how many opportunities there are in London.

Yeah, the opportunity is amazing. Whenever I look at specific courses and classes, most of the best & unique ones are based in London somewhere. However, you obviously have to be earning good to afford to attend these courses/classes. The opportunity is one of the main things I envy of people living there.

Baby_Angel

pickles13 wrote: »

My partner and I work in central London and he is from West London but even on a joint salary of 80K, we can't afford to live in London near his parents (Harrow) so have moved out to Buckinghamshire, which is only 30 mins by train to Marylebone anyway.

We have a joint salary of 55k. We couldn't afford to buy in Harrow, but we rented there for 5 years. So bought a property in the Ealing council, about 500 yards away from where we lived in Harrow . Commute into central london would take 30 mins by tube. We would say we live comfortably, leaving us savings at the end of each month. However we do not live beyond our means. A co-worker rents a room for £600 (bills paid) a month in Zone 2 on a 32K salary. He doesn't have any transport costs though. He says he can live comfortably on that salary.

OP: I personally think it varies on the location you choose, the kind of house/flat you want and what you think you can sacrifice on.

Baby_Angel

theEnd wrote: »

But don't underestimate how many opportunities there are in London.

This is very true. I managed to do part-time master's degree attending university, while working full time. My OH has 2 jobs working in various locations and doing shifts not a lot of people want to do. He is always on "demand". However he sticks to just about 40 hours a week to have a normal family life. I also volunteer in a Sunday school teaching. The best thing is all these opportunities are not far from where you work or live.

hazyjo

Take a look on rightmove at rentals. No one bed flats to rent in Hampstead for under £1,100 a month. Do you really want to live in a studio (ie everything in one room)?


Jx

Jitterbug123

When I first moved back to London (I grew up here) I was in a flat share in zone 2 for £600pcm. I was saving up for a deposit. Am now on approx £40k and have recently bought a one bed flat in zone 3.

I wouldn't consider moving back for jobs that paid less than £25k.