comfortable salary

You won't be able to change people's minds. Then again you have to realise that people start to live within their means, meaning that if they start to earn more they spend more and become used to it. It's easy to forget you can have a good quality of life on a lesser salary, you just cannot remember what it was like.
 
i was comfortable when i was earning 25k and im still comfortable today even though i earn more. its all to do with you income vs expenditure; and as the old adage goes "you spend up to what you earn (or more if your financially inept)".
 
I'd say comfortable was:

decent house near to work
nice car less than a couple of years old
2 or 3 decent holidays a year
enough to treat yourself to toys and meals out pretty much whenever you fancy
enough left over after to save 20% of your salary

for that i'd say you'd need about 80k
 
Hamish said:
I'd say comfortable was:

decent house near to work
nice car less than a couple of years old
2 or 3 decent holidays a year
enough to treat yourself to toys and meals out pretty much whenever you fancy
enough left over after to save 20% of your salary

for that i'd say you'd need about 80k
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Around the well off mark imo.
 
DAIR said:
Around the well off mark imo.
Click to expand...

Aye!

Comfortable = Being able to afford most of what you want with some planning.

Well off = Being able to afford almost everything you want without worry.

Rich/loaded/megabucks = Being able to afford anything you want (within reason).
 
To be honest, debt does play a major part in it all.

For example, the wife and I earn around 50k gross at the moment, but we've amassed a good amount of debt while getting there so things certainly aren't that comfortable for us at all (East Midlands).

Still, once the loans are paid (next summer they should all be gone) we'll finally be able to have a bit of fun with our hard-earned.
 
Hamish said:
I'd say comfortable was:

decent house near to work
nice car less than a couple of years old
2 or 3 decent holidays a year
enough to treat yourself to toys and meals out pretty much whenever you fancy
enough left over after to save 20% of your salary

for that i'd say you'd need about 80k
Click to expand...

3 holidays a year to be comfortable?
 
Hamish said:
I'd say comfortable was:

decent house near to work
nice car less than a couple of years old
2 or 3 decent holidays a year
enough to treat yourself to toys and meals out pretty much whenever you fancy
enough left over after to save 20% of your salary

for that I'd say you'd need about 80k
Click to expand...

You call that comfortable? That's well off. No that's very well off especially when you say 80k.

[TW]Fox;18308829 said:
3 holidays a year to be comfortable?
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Welcome to the OCUK Reality Distortion Field. :D
 
Comfortable? £30k if by yourself and NOT renting a place by yourself. If you have a partner.. Still £30K, and them on AT LEAST £15k to be 'comfortable' and renting a place together.

Much more in London.

Much MUCH more if you have any kinda of debt.

If you live at home... £15-20k.

BUT... you live within your means.. so you are unlikely to be 'comfortable' at any level as such, you just have to be very good at money management, period.
 
[TW]Fox;18308829 said:
3 holidays a year to be comfortable?
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say that having a skiing holiday, a summer holiday and a winter break somewhere was particularly extravagant for someone on a comfortable salary...
 
Here in Prague you need about 35,000Kc per month (£15k /yr) if you rent a 1 bed flat reasonably close to the centre, have an average car, mobile etc, you won't have a ton to spend but the essentials are covered. To live comfortably I'd say 40-50,000Kc per month.
 
I don't earn as much as most of the people who I would think are comfortable. However, I'm comfortable at the moment. Living alone in my own house, company car, own car and own motorbike. I save each Month and go on holidays when I want to. Have a decent PC, TV, HiFi etc so no complaints.

I had all this when I earned £21K around 6 years ago when I first stated my job so I don't think you need to earn loads to be comfortable.
 
Hamish said:
I wouldn't say that having a skiing holiday, a summer holiday and a winter break somewhere was particularly extravagant for someone on a comfortable salary...
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That would be for someone on a well off salary. The definition also hits at problems if you want to buy a house in the South East/Home counties, if you already have a mortgage from your house purchase in the 90's than you are going to be comfortable on a salary that is far lower than someone who is buying their first house now.
 
I find this really odd that most people here have mentioned buying a house, getting on the property ladder etc..

It's only in the uk that people are obsessed with buying houses for some reason.
 
englishpremier said:
I find this really odd that most people here have mentioned buying a house, getting on the property ladder etc..

It's only in the uk that people are obsessed with buying houses for some reason.
Click to expand...

So we're all obsessed with buying a house. Don't be silly.

My house cost's less per month than it would to rent. Why is it better for me to rent the same place if I'm not going to move for several years?
 
Comfortable -for me- in London is over 150k p.a at least

Btw, comfortable is a very individual state of mind. For me to be comfortable I'd need a house, you know a proper 3 or 4bed house with a very big back garden at a nice area, detached or at the very worst semi. None of that terraced 19th century crap.

Comfortable for me means a nice car, something that I enjoy driving and is luxurious to provide all sorts of comforts when I'm in it, not a bucket that takes me from A->B.

Comfortable is not needing to take public transport because a taxi is too expensive.

Comfortable for me is eating out at least twice a week, at a nice restaurant with a couple of good bottles of wine, not the local chippy with a diet coke or a pizzaexpress or other budget establishment.

Comfortable is to be able to afford 2-3 vacations a year wherever I like, including activities like skiing, scuba diving or whatnot. Experiences is all that we have after all and I want to enjoy the exotic things this world has to offer.

Comfortable for me is also buying the occasional gadget without having to wait for next months paycheck and planning it around my monthly bills. Yes, I'd like to be able to upgrade my computer, buy a tablet, a new smartphone or any other gadget on a whim because that's what I like and enjoy doing. Not upgrading my pc waiting for that second hand bargain or staying with a crappy phone because it does what I need.

Of course that's just me and that's how I'd like to live. That is comfortable for me, it's not well off or rich (that would be multiple properties, multiple cars, yauchts and not having to worry about working).

As for living within ones means, well of course you will live within your means whether you make 20k or 100k a year, what is that supposed to mean? You will always adapt to your earnings if you are sensible and you will always try to make the most out of life but that doesn't mean that you are getting what you wanted.

Of course all this will have to include the needs and wants of my wife and any children I may ever have.

As for the whole 'happy is having a roof over your head, pay your bills and food on your table' brigade, well excuse me for having aspirations and wanting to live the one life I got exactly the way I want it and not compromise. I live in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, in one of the biggest and most lucrative job markets with all sorts of opportunities and I don't intend to live my life like those who live at the poorest and have no better choice.

Of course each to his own and all that but this is what would make me materially happy.
 
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