2018: What's considered a decent wage within reason?

36k wage a year in south east
£110k mortgage share to buy so have to pay rent on top a month (total around £900 a month)
£12k loan to consolidate years of debt prior to earning that kind of money (£250 a month)
x3 kids (god knows a month)
x1 wife (as above)
x1 cat (not too much)
x1 car

Its been an uphill struggle over the last 3 to 4 years I have found, The wife is a stay at home mum so earns nothing. I don't have enough £ to save anything a month (outside of a tenner or twenty quid) which generally gets used at end of month anyway.

So whenever something big comes up like broken car or birthdays I panic and we end up scrimping on general stuff day to day, buy less food, scrimp on petrol etc.
I have not had a holiday since before the kids (8 years ago) and even then it was 2 days in Amsterdam :)

This is all hopefully going to change a bit in a couple of months as I have secured myself a new job for 55k a year 40 minutes away but have had to finance a car to get there (doh) I have always driven old bangers tbh my whole life, but I'll still be much better off!
 
413x said:
Does this thread say kids are a bad idea :p
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It says look at the state of our economic affairs :p

Look at Scandinavia for example, fairly high but flat tax rate, low corruption, labour union, low crime, low pollution, free education, free healthcare, good pensions etc

No wonder the people are so relaxed and happy ;)
 
dacads said:
It says look at the state of our economic affairs :p

Look at Scandinavia for example, fairly high but flat tax rate, low corruption, labour union, low crime, low pollution, free education, free healthcare, good pensions etc

No wonder the people are so relaxed and happy ;)
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Funny story. In my younger days I used to hang with a bad crowd. Not bad as in they were drug users or criminals, just that they were going nowhere in life.

One of them figured out that benefits were more generous in other European countries so he decided to become a benefit tourist and move to Germany.

The only problem was that in a matter of weeks they had found him a job to work in a factory and he was devastated. He honestly thought he could spend the rest of his life collecting NEET bucks and playing Dungeons & Dragons.
 
Skiddley said:
I never knew about this until recently. That was a shock when my tax code went from a healthy 12xxL to Kxxx, i.e., all tax allowance removed :(. Can't help but feel it's somewhat excessive.

To make matters worse, we then lost childcare free hours.

I think I was actually worse off, after a pay rise.
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Yep - and that 60% is before NI and any pension deduction. I ended up with sub-30% net benefit in my pay packet after all deductions. :(
 
I was offered a job recently with a 10k payrise near MK.
But with the extra rent, and less pension wasn' rreally a draw.
It was shocking how much more you have to be paid net to make any difference. And stress isn't worth it. (if it's more responsibility)
My current pension being 10pc matched makes it tough to find a 'better' job

Without kids life is so much more easy. Most stres I get is if my car suddenly demands some cash. But its annoying at most.
Don'tthink I could cope with stress of work + life of having kids. More stressful job to support a more stressful home life. Admire people who do it. Even more so when single.
 
413x said:
Don'tthink I could cope with stress of work + life of having kids. More stressful job to support a more stressful home life. Admire people who do it. Even more so when single.
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I'm the same, I've respect for people who can manage both worlds well, for me it just seems like a life of living to serve. I've never been great at responsibility or authority though, struggle to see the bigger picture and most of my viewpoints would be considered narcissistic.
 
Ayahuasca said:
I'm the same, I've respect for people who can manage both worlds well, for me it just seems like a life of living to serve. I've never been great at responsibility or authority though, struggle to see the bigger picture and most of my viewpoints would be considered narcissistic.
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I find it incredibly stressful to plan. I'm happiest when I can just wake up and think 'it's a nice day, I'm going kayaking'. I think if I had to plan for child care etc I would lose my hobbies. And I'd need a more stressful job to boot. Had no time last night at all and that was just getting back late, gym and TV while eating.

Having to downgrade living while getting paid more just doesn't work in my head. Childcare is obscene amount of money.
 
413x said:
Having to downgrade living while getting paid more just doesn't work in my head. Childcare is obscene amount of money.
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I guess it depends what position you're in once you have children, taking on more stress and responsibility just to pay someone else to bring up your child doesn't compute with me, but if you're already in a position where you can afford to do that then it makes sense. You get the feeling with some folk that they actually prefer work duties than home duties.
 
Ayahuasca said:
I guess it depends what position you're in once you have children, taking on more stress and responsibility just to pay someone else to bring up your child doesn't compute with me, but if you're already in a position where you can afford to do that then it makes sense. You get the feeling with some folk that they actually prefer work duties than home duties.
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Agreed. I don't need a mega salary to be content. I do need a relatively relaxed and flexible life. Too many people get obsessed with career. Fine if you want it, need it to support kids you want. But I know a fair few who seem to do nothing in way of hobbies and just chase the ladder. Again, fine if you'e h, but many don't seem to be.

If I never have more free cash than I do now I'd be happy. And most of that goes to deposit. Makes me wonder what I will be driven to save for after that!
 
Past mistakes mean I'm repaying debt for the next 4 years, albeit fixed rates.

Earning low-mid 20s, partner on just under 20k, rent and bills combined of £800 total, all said and done I have around £200 a month "disposable", after allowing for travel, food etc, the essentials.

Not the best situation as I'm not saving, as anyone knows paying off debt is far more beneficial than putting money into a savings account in the long term.

But I'm happy enough. Work in a secure job, flat is rented from family who we both get on with and know well so a cheap rate, and he knows we will take care of it as though it were our own.

I expect the situation will only get better in the years to come, I'm progressing through training with work leading to higher salaries and the Mrs has just moved to a new industry, so no doubt she will be making progress too.
 
I honestly must have a skewed perception on wages as most of these seem a lot lower than I expected... Or it could be that houses just aren't affordable.
 
Very interesting thread, I always wonder how people do it single.

2017/2018 Joint income was around £78k
2018/19 Joint income is going to drop to around £54k due to a change of career.

£1800ish total monthly outgoings.

This last year allowed us to do a bit to the house - pay for a patio, built in wardrobes etc and put a but of money in the bank. From July my wage drops as I am starting a career as a police officer...I feel like we are going to be skint!!! Happy to say we have a small £6k loan for a car and bar the mortgage we are completely debt free.
 
413x said:
Does this thread say kids are a bad idea :p
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was going to say.. :) I'm glad I'm kid free at 27. No plans to have any either.

income combined with GF is a little over 90k but we're still renting while saving up for a house in west sussex.
 
413x said:
Does this thread say kids are a bad idea :p
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My partner and I earn a decent wage between us. We have our own house, lease a car, 2/3 holidays a year, saving for a wedding, but having kids, on paper, is still scary! We know we can obviously do it, and probably without much sacrifice. It is weird how kids shake financial stability on paper.

For reference we earn ~100k
 
We're looking to buy our first house in a couple of months, I have the following down as expenses:

HOUSE
Mortgage £1,463.00
C.Tax £160.00
Gax/Elec £132.00
Water £48.00
Home Insurance £32.00
Internet £36.00
TV Licence £12.12
Life Insurance £100.00
Cleaner £96.00
Gardener £80.00
E
Fuel £210.00
Website £25.00
Car Insurance £55.00
Car Tax £38.50
Phone £31.48
Business Insurance £14.98
Crystal Insurance £10.99
Hector Insurance £42.45
Hector Health Care £15.15
Misc £100.00
C
Fuel £110.00
Gym £44.00
Phone £42.00
Netflix £10.00
Seedbox £21.00
Car Insurance £32.00
Food £320.00
TOTAL £3,281.67

So that is with no savings and no contingency funds, I reckon that could be rounded up to £4000 total. Based on that, I reckon you'd need two people on £30K so about £60K combined? I think that would be comfortable. Obviously, you could cut quite a bit of money from the list above which is based on our actual outgoings with combined of just over 100K.
 
grudas said:
was going to say.. :) I'm glad I'm kid free at 27. No plans to have any either.
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Don't worry, the time will come. I was on 100K, happy as larry, and then out of the blue on a **** up in Belgium my Wife told me she wanted a baby. Nearly spat my beer out. Think I was 32 at the time ;)
 
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