FAO Londoners - salary to live in London (and enjoy yourself)?

Associate
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I think the big problem in this thread is the interpretation of "enjoy yourself". Personally living in some hovel that you share with others doesn't enter at all into "enjoy yourself". Personally for *me* to "enjoy myself" I'd want to be able to do the following:

+ Live independently or have the ability too if I chose.
+ Enough disposable income to enjoy a few hobbies (E.g. computing / sports)
+ Enough disposable income to run a car or at least rent when I wanted to visit family / friends
+ Enough disposable income to eat out once or twice a week and go to the pub a few times a week.
+ Enough disposable income to afford a foreign trip or two a year.
+ Buy a reasonable phone and have a decent contract.

My head suggests around
£1250 [Rent and utilities]
£100 [Hobbies E.g. a decent PC every 2 years]
£120 [Car expenses E.g. cheap lease + insurance + fuel]
£120 [Eating out and pub]
£60 [Holiday funds]
£40 [Decent phone]
£100 [Food shopping]

You'd need to be on a gross salary of around £26-28K to enjoy that, and that would leave no room for *anything* else (forget clothes or shoes, or that odd show you want, or netflix etc...) and I'm assuming too no student loan repayments or any other debts.

In reality you need to put another 10k on top before it gets aware close to comfortable where you can start to save some money, build a future etc. It's all good and well to say to folks in their 20's to go and do it on a low income, but when they hit their 30's and start wanting a home they'll have no savings to do that with.

Just IMHO
 
Soldato
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My mate was in the Met for 8 years and was on 38k. He said that was tight to get by on so ended up after a couple of years commuting back and forth every 2 days (2h 30mins drive each way)!
 
Soldato
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Not everyone wants to live alone, and shock horror you can actually be great friends with your house mates. :p

I don't live alone i have a house with my Mrs, like i said before great having mates round, but it's also great saying goodbye to them at the front door and knowing you have the place to myself to do as i please.

House sharing is not for me that's all i said. :)
 
Soldato
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IMO Live in central London, not Greater. Like Clapham, Balham, those sorts of places. Otherwise you'll most likely be living in some horrible dreary suburban nightmare that is miles away from the city
 
Caporegime
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I don't live alone i have a house with my Mrs, like i said before great having mates round, but it's also great saying goodbye to them at the front door and knowing you have the place to myself to do as i please.

House sharing is not for me that's all i said. :)

You asked why other people were doing it. The reasons being single people don't want to live alone, and it's a huge saving. Plus you can get a much nicer place to live in for less money. :)
 
Associate
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I don't live in London personally, but I've a lot of friends that do. One earns 35k and his parents have to help out as it isn't enough, he has a flat share with a friend. Another earns 50k and that just covers the rent on a one bed flat for him and the missus. They rarely ever go out, finances too thin, they have no debt at all. It really depends on what you class as "comfortable living".

If I was single I wouldn't even entertain working in London for less than £50k. But I have a family to support, so would turn my nose up at anything paying less than £75k now. And yes, I work for a Bank lol.
 
Soldato
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I don't live in London personally, but I've a lot of friends that do. One earns 35k and his parents have to help out as it isn't enough, he has a flat share with a friend. Another earns 50k and that just covers the rent on a one bed flat for him and the missus. They rarely ever go out, finances too thin, they have no debt at all. It really depends on what you class as "comfortable living".

Sounds like they must be in horrendous debt already.
 
Soldato
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I'm a Nurse, live with my girl who is also a Nurse. We both make about 28k and, rent is about 1200 per month so we're able to save a bit each month.

We don't plan on getting a place in this country or ever getting a mortgage, heading to Oz in a year or so.
 

TS7

TS7

Soldato
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I don't live in London personally, but I've a lot of friends that do. One earns 35k and his parents have to help out as it isn't enough, he has a flat share with a friend. Another earns 50k and that just covers the rent on a one bed flat for him and the missus. They rarely ever go out, finances too thin, they have no debt at all. It really depends on what you class as "comfortable living".

If I was single I wouldn't even entertain working in London for less than £50k. But I have a family to support, so would turn my nose up at anything paying less than £75k now. And yes, I work for a Bank lol.

Yea something not right there. Finances too thin earning 50k and having a partner (who I would assume also works) :confused: - they're either lying about wages or have spending habits
 
Man of Honour
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I don't live in London personally, but I've a lot of friends that do. One earns 35k and his parents have to help out as it isn't enough, he has a flat share with a friend. Another earns 50k and that just covers the rent on a one bed flat for him and the missus. They rarely ever go out, finances too thin, they have no debt at all. It really depends on what you class as "comfortable living".

If I was single I wouldn't even entertain working in London for less than £50k. But I have a family to support, so would turn my nose up at anything paying less than £75k now. And yes, I work for a Bank lol.

50k in London and "just covering the rent" and finances are too thin? When I was on a similar wage (a bit less actually) I managed to save up enough to go on several holidays a year, have a car and dine out a few times a month, and not be in debt. I was also living in fairly decent parts of London by myself!

They're either not careful with their money, or they're paying an exorbitant amount of rent or buy silk toilet paper, and use caviar instead of butter.
 
Associate
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50k in London and "just covering the rent" and finances are too thin? When I was on a similar wage (a bit less actually) I managed to save up enough to go on several holidays a year, have a car and dine out a few times a month, and not be in debt. I was also living in fairly decent parts of London by myself!

They're either not careful with their money, or they're paying an exorbitant amount of rent or buy silk toilet paper, and use caviar instead of butter.

I suspect all three. And the other half doesn't work, she's an artist.
 
Caporegime
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lol what makes you think that:confused:

just the aversion to house sharing - the OP is seemingly single so a house/flat share could make sense for him

bobs it is rather different if you're in a relationship, but when you're young and single and have first moved to a new city then living by yourself in a studio/bedsit etc.. would be rather depressing IMO in comparison to sharing a larger place with some good people
 
Soldato
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Great information so far. The figure I head in my head based on my rough calculations was 35k so it's good that is being reaffirmed by you guys with experience of living in London.

I don't drink alcohol but I do dine out a lot :p

I was on £36k until September and lived very comfortably, albeit in a flatshare. You could do £36k pretty happily living alone, as long as you're reasonably sensible.

Edit: I live east, near West Ham, and it's great for me. Considerably cheaper than most areas, fantastic commute in the morning (9 mins on an overground train to Fenchurch Street with a 5 min walk at either end), and there are more and more young professionals moving there all the time - the difference from when I moved in 18 months ago is staggering. I've got a few friends nearby, and plenty either central or near Canary Wharf, both of which are really nearby. And if you're into sport, being near Stratford is excellent, I swim, play tennis, go to the gym there all for pretty reasonable prices.
 
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Man of Honour
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I suspect all three. And the other half doesn't work, she's an artist.

Aha! An artiste!! Makes sense now - finer tastes in everything ;)

I wasn't meaning to character assassinate your friend - just airing my surprise.

£30k in London, I don't know how you do it...

I'm on double that in South East and still need more!

Some people are better at managing their money than others.

Also, once you start earning more, you become progressively less careful with willy nilly spends. For example, I'd always make my lunch, and bulk prepare foods, not put the heating on unless I had to, take public transport instead of the car, not buy gadgets and things unless they were broken or beyond repair or unusable etc... the list goes on. You can make a very modest amount of money go a long way if you're careful.

I also always liked to have 3 months salary stashed away in case of dire circumstances - after that, any excess I would put into a "fun" pot, and every month either spend it, or roll it over for the next month if I wanted to buy something more expensive.

I was still able to have a social life and enjoy life - I just didn't have the latest gadgets or the best clothes (I hate fashion anyway) - but I was quite happy with that.

I get over £30k living in the North West, and struggle every month lol

I blame the forums and the "what have you bought" threads - I get insanely jealous and want to buy lots of useless rubbish that I don't need. :D

I think London is definitely a young single persons game. Get in there and make the most of it, then move further afield when you want to settle down.

Completely agree. I'm glad we don't live in London any more. It's still expensive in the home counties, but at least you have fields, and large gardens and detached house living for only 1 kidney, rather than 1 kidney, spleen, liver, an eye, and your soul.
 
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Aha! An artiste!! Makes sense now - finer tastes in everything ;)

I wasn't meaning to character assassinate your friend - just airing my surprise.



Some people are better at managing their money than others.

Also, once you start earning more, you become progressively less careful with willy nilly spends. For example, I'd always make my lunch, and bulk prepare foods, not put the heating on unless I had to, take public transport instead of the car, not buy gadgets and things unless they were broken or beyond repair or unusable etc... the list goes on. You can make a very modest amount of money go a long way if you're careful.

I also always liked to have 3 months salary stashed away in case of dire circumstances - after that, any excess I would put into a "fun" pot, and every month either spend it, or roll it over for the next month if I wanted to buy something more expensive.

I was still able to have a social life and enjoy life - I just didn't have the latest gadgets or the best clothes (I hate fashion anyway) - but I was quite happy with that.



I blame the forums and the "what have you bought" threads - I get insanely jealous and want to buy lots of useless rubbish that I don't need. :D



Completely agree. I'm glad we don't live in London any more. It's still expensive in the home counties, but at least you have fields, and large gardens and detached house living for only 1 kidney, rather than 1 kidney, spleen, liver, an eye, and your soul.

You are very wise :)

god I wish I was good with money, London would be the death of me. Getting my first credit card at 18 was probably a bad idea, oh look free money!
 
Soldato
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I've been living on the outskirts of Poplar for the past year. If I don't spend any money on gadgets I can save 500-600 per month. This is earning just over 26k and sharing with 3 others. The house is decent enough as it was just refurbished when we moved in and each room has an ensuite. Rent works out 660 pcm for me, travel is ~120 and food maybe 200 per month. Bills aren't too bad as we don't hammer the heating as we all work so the house is empty most of the time. Then i've just got various subscriptions to pay such as gym,cinema and netflix but that only comes to £50 per month.

It helps that i'm incredibly boring and I really only watch films, go to the gym or game, I'm very low maintennance :p

I will start earning more soon so I just end up saving the extra I do earn. My priority is to get myself a house within a few years but I need to get 'settled' somewhere first, preferably somewhere that isn't London.
 
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