Are you financially comfortable?

ManofLeisure_2

LilElvis wrote: »

People are going to have vastly different views on what they feel being "financial comfortable" means - for some it might mean having enough left over at the end of the week to buy a bag of chips on the way home, for others it might be buying a new BMW every 3 years. Different standards of living, expectations and age are going to be major factors too.

Absolutely agree.

I'm sure many of us have also met people for whom 'enough is never enough'.

Goldiegirl

hazyjo wrote: »

We live carefully, but spend it on what we enjoy and indulge when we feel like it or can afford it.


We now have two lovely holidays a year abroad (last one, 5* luxury in Dubrovnik, next one a fab (generous) apartment in the Costa del Sol) (we go off peak and I get amazing bargains).


But we live on one salary (mine!). Almost half goes on the mortgage and bills and doesn't include groceries or the car.


I don't know how we do it really. I'm a legal secretary in London so am not earning big bucks but it's a decent salary.


We don't save. Work pays the equivalent of 12.5% of my salary into my pension. I don't add extra.


We hope to move within the next 3 years to Leigh on Sea (cheaper area than where we are) and be mortgage free with me doing 4 days a week.


Would be nice to have more cash so we can do the things we want like add shutters to the lounge bay window, have a few more weekend breaks, sort the front garden out, or get a new car, but our house is full of lovely things and is nicely decorated (again, I shop carefully) and the rest will get done eventually. I don't really stress about it...


Jx
PS No loans or anything. Up to a grand debt at any one time, but we try to get to zero again quickly.

As you say you live carefully, so you can have treats and holidays.


We were never high earners and lived reasonably most of the time, but weren't afraid to spend on things we enjoyed doing, and because of our balanced approach, it meant we could retire early

mai_taylor

Not quite although we are working towards it. Husband has started an apprenticeship so he is on terrible money and some months we take home £2000 after tax between us. We still manage to have a social life put a small amount into saying pay our fairly large mortgage (we only had 5% deposit) and pay all our bills without having any debts. It would be nice to have more money but we don't struggle.

hazyjo

Goldiegirl wrote: »

As you say you live carefully, so you can have treats and holidays.


We were never high earners and lived reasonably most of the time, but weren't afraid to spend on things we enjoyed doing, and because of our balanced approach, it meant we could retire early

Yep that's pretty much it. My ex earned a bit more than me and we just spent it all but still didn't have anything spare really.


Weird how you can adjust. We don't waste food (unlike my sister where half her groceries seem to end up in the bin), a takeaway for us is a treat, not a weekly occurrence, we have one 10 year old smart fortwo which costs £25 to fill up, we use deals a lot, I'm out once or twice a week with friends usually for food, my OH makes me sandwiches or I take tinned soup for my lunches, we don't buy micro-meals, he cooks a lot from scratch, he doesn't drink all week, we like our nights in... we're both in our mid-late 40s and have been there done that so just like a nice chilled time these days!


It's just a way of life. I don't think I go without. We never have to really worry too much about money. He stresses far more than me.


Jx

cyantist

Our mortgage is 31% of our income and after all essentials we have 30% left (though currently most of this goes on work in the house). So we do ok at the moment but we would love a family and can't afford to. I don't think not being able to afford to have a family counts as comfortable.

fairy_lights

After buying our first house last year our savings were completely wiped out. We have enough disposable income for a holiday every year, a few meals out etc every month so I think we are quite financially comfortable. I don't feel comfortable though because of how little we currently have in savings - we're slowly building the pot back up but a few DIY emergencies and a car that failed it's MOT have made it slow progress.
I won't feel financially comfortable until we've got at least a few grand in our emergency fund.

Person_one

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

But - being in my 60s - then...yep....its absolutely an age thing. That little thing in your head that goes "By my age I should......most people have...." etc etc.

That's not an age thing, some people start feeling like that when they're still in their teens and twenties! All that changes is what they think they 'should' have done and what they assume everybody else already is!

pipkin71

I would say we were financially comfortable but my level of comfort would be different to someone else's.

We don't have any debt, have savings so wouldn't struggle if any white goods broke down, for example, and can afford certain luxuries.

Of course, there are things I might like but couldn't afford but then these would be wants rather than needs so in the grand scheme of things aren't so important.

moneyistooshorttomention

Sort of another way to look at this whole question would be = what do we feel is a reasonable standard of living/home/etc to have and we will be satisfied with that and not look to have any more.

My suspicion there is that many would "set the bar" for that at a rather higher level than I personally regard as reasonable/fair enough. I wouldnt want a "mansion" if I could afford it - and wouldnt believe it was fair to have one either. 3/4 bed detached with 1/2 bedrooms and I'd stop at that even if I had loadsa money. It would be "Enough".

Though, on the reverse side of the equation, I'm well aware that a house of my own has been there from Year Dot in my mind as something that is "birthright" for me (my parents have their own house, my mothers parents had their own house, my mothers grandparents had their own house....dont know how far back that line goes.....). My mother would see it that way - my father probably wouldnt.

EDIT; Whoops...typing error....= 1/2 bathrooms.

Jagraf

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Sort of another way to look at this whole question would be = what do we feel is a reasonable standard of living/home/etc to have and we will be satisfied with that and not look to have any more.

My suspicion there is that many would "set the bar" for that at a rather higher level than I personally regard as reasonable/fair enough. I wouldnt want a "mansion" if I could afford it - and wouldnt believe it was fair to have one either. 3/4 bed detached with 1/2 bedrooms and I'd stop at that even if I had loadsa money. It would be "Enough".

Though, on the reverse side of the equation, I'm well aware that a house of my own has been there from Year Dot in my mind as something that is "birthright" for me (my parents have their own house, my mothers parents had their own house, my mothers grandparents had their own house....dont know how far back that line goes.....). My mother would see it that way - my father probably wouldnt.

But people often don't rate their comfort / security on whether they own bricks and mortar at all. There are other ways to feel financially comfortable.