How much do you earn?

YorkshireBoy

liltzero wrote: »

Over 6 figures

7? 8? More than 8?

meer53

liltzero wrote: »

Over 6 figures

I'm sure the OP will find that really helpful. Not.

enthusiasticsaver

We have roughly the same income as you but OH is retired and I work part time and am retiring this December. We have plenty of disposable income but our children are now living independently and we have no mortgage and a large savings buffer.

You may find some people spend on credit, take on large mortgages, have parental help or some just find ways to make their money stretch. We tended to do expensive holidays every two or three years and cheap breaks in between. We always saved for holidays and cars, home improvements and so on. If you are budgeting, have no debt and manage the odd holiday you are doing something right.

elephantrosie

have a discipline of no debts. you can get CC without interests for a whole year or longer now, but make it a life rule to say no to these. i would much rather pay the interest rate to keep me on my toes than to have free loan.

Westminster

I'm not sure how useful it will be for you knowing other peoples income as that is just a number - but perhaps a little further background may help on how that income is spent / managed. One person on £20k pa could have a more 'fulfilled' and enjoyable life than someone else on £80k pa who spunks that money up the wall within days of pay day.

Anyway - this is us:

Currently on 60k basic (£2970 net per month after 20% salary sacrifice to pension), monthly per-diem of £300-600 per month depending on how much I am away from home.

When at home, I am a full-time carer for my wife who is in receipt of approx £1040 per month in PIP / ESA.

We have 2 kids (3 & 5) and just remortgaged to release equity to improve our current property so mortgage is now £1350.

However - in the past I have had very substantial issues with debt from a period of time when I had to stop work for 3 years to care for my wife on my own (having been self-employed). We survived on my wife's benefits + carers allowance and a little bit of income support and what was a much more generous ISMI (Income Support Mortgage Interest - which at the time paid the interest on our mortgage at a higher rate than the interest only mortgage we had at the time .... so DWP were slightly over paying our mortgage for a while ... thanks very much!)

I came away from those hard years with a totally new outlook on money and it reset my previous attitude to credit and living within your means.

I do have a number of credit cards but these are all 0% spending and fully backed up by cash sitting in a variety of high(ish) interest accounts - at last count, my wife & I have more than 20 current accounts between us - so I now make the credit card companies work for us.

Most of us have significantly more control over what we spend than what we earn. So despite having a family net of over £4500 per month, I am still extremely careful in how I spend that money.

• We budget - most of our excess income is now saved / invested in our future and that of our children. Young kids don't know any better so have no expectations of vast spending on them if you don't give them those expectations.
• We buy most of our kids clothes from bulk bundles on ebay - it's amazing how much people seem to spend on branded clothes which will only fit their children for a few months
• I'm happy with unbranded clothes etc - although my wife does like M&S so she gets her stuff from there - not that often though.
• We shop at Aldi (having made a weekly meal plan and a shopping list to go with it.)
• If we want something, we save for it (often by the time you have saved up, you realise you don't really need whatever it was anyway) - that said, I did treat myself to a 3 year old £17k 5-series last year having spent a long time waiting for the right deal to come up - I could have paid in cash but instead got a pair of 0% money transfer cards and used those, putting the cash into savings at a rate higher than the money transfer fee)
• We don't go on fancy holidays - our boys are excited to go visiting friends and family around the UK and we occasionally will do a self-catering week somewhere in the UK (usually a larger property which we share with other members of the family - making this quite cost effective)
• We don't have sky (or any other paid TV)
• I use this website extensively to ensure I am on the best deal for all those things we have to have - such as insurance, council tax (this site helped me get rebanded on my previous property), utilities, phones etc

brewerdave

...just an observation....there was a similar thread some time ago,on the pensions board. What came out of that,was that some pensioner couples were living quite happily on £1200pm after tax, whilst others with considerably more,( I seem to remember a figure of £4500pm) were permanently in their overdraft!
You pays your money and takes your choice!

phillw

kitkatt1982 wrote: »

On paper our income looks ok but in reality although we get by and pay our bills we never seem to have any disposable money despite my husband working away all week and me budgeting quite efficiently I believe.

Like the people who say they can eat anything and not put on weight and others who say they only need to look at food and they put on weight, it mostly comes down to perception.

If you're a real MSE then you'd making sure you're on the cheapest energy, phone & broadband deal, shopping at aldi, using cashback sites etc, don't buy sandwiches/coffee etc when out, don't eat out/get takeaways. It all adds up. I was easily able to stop spending £100 a month when I started.

The more you get into it, the more you'll think that you don't have enough money. People who live beyond their means have the perception that they'll always have enough money to pay for the things they put on credit cards. They see it as a treat that they deserve, but you've just set your baseline of what is normal so nothing is really a treat anymore & you want to spend more and more.

You don't want to get financial dysmorphia, but I'm sure there are things you can do to save money.

[Deleted User]

kitkatt1982 wrote: »

Yet people we know seem to all have nicer houses, new cars, regular holidays abroad, always eating out and going for nice weekends away

They could just earn lots more than you... it does happen. Our household income after tax/pension ect is roughly double yours. We've also got 2 kids, not 3, and I work from home so we only run one car. We're trying to not fall into a trap of spending more and more as our wages have increased but I don't suddenly find myself with 20k in savings at the end of the year so I guess we're not doing very well at that.

And yet.. my wife looks at her sister, who's husband earns 3x my salary, a bit enviously.

There's always someone earning more than you. You've just got to make the happiest situation out of your own.

Shakin_Steve

liltzero wrote: »

Over 6 figures

In your dreams.:D

robwalker

About 53k according to my recent P60 (after adding back my child care voucher salary sacrifice). My other half earns about 33k or so.

Mortgage about £760, loan about £350, childcare about £800 or so but works out to about £650 I think as we both get the tax relief via vouchers.

About £6700 on a 0% card from the last several years. My income have increased significantly over the last year or two. Working to pay this off over the next few years, but not in a hurry as we've got a second kid on the way and I'd rather save it and pay it off instead year or two.

We feel very very privileged, but we do waste money on eating out and takeaways. I'm terrible for buying tech and gadgets too. Just this week I've started tracking spend on some of these things on a noticeboard in the kitchen. I already feel better about it. I think we should be saving much more from now on.