Average Salary/Good Salary

In London I would say £45k+ is needed to be able to afford a nice house and live comfortably.

My first goal is £60k before I'm 40, then who knows.
 
I know a lot of people here have professional jobs, hence the large numbers being thrown about but I blatantly refuse to believe that everyone here is >20k. Are those on sub 20k wages just not owning up to it?
 
I'm 23, I live in London, I earn £35k and I feel incredibly poor all the time. £35k in London is very average to low.

What? Depends on what sector you work in I guess.

I and most of my mates are mid twenties on between 20k-30k, and are fine, if you can't survive on £35k, then you are either ******* your money away, or have far higher 'acceptable' standards of living than most.

Median Salary by Employer Type - City: London (United Kingdom)
Median-Salary-by-Employer-Type---City-London-United-Kingdom_GBP_20081118112810-v1.0.jpg



don't swear.
 
The old saying is that your salary coincides with your age, so at age 30 you should earn 30k and so on. So all the time for your age you should be on a decent wage, but as you get older your money drains increase (Mortgage, Kids, etc) so you'll never seem to have any money no matter what you do!
 
im on a low salary nearer 15k than 20k but due to having kids this is topped up quite a bit and only do 3/4 nights a week we have a nice car have a very nice hillside location in yorkshire (mine in 2 years) spend a lot of summer in our modest place in cornwall and are looking to buy a villa in Greece in the future so i think its how well you manage your money i.e theres a stall on my local market selling 501s genuine but 2nd hand for £1 where some may buy from new, im also a member of the Martin Lewis website always looking to shave those variable costs and hotukdeals where i tend to buy then resell
Anyway got a 5 day weekend to enjoy let other people chase the money lifes just passing them by imho
 
I know a lot of people here have professional jobs, hence the large numbers being thrown about but I blatantly refuse to believe that everyone here is >20k. Are those on sub 20k wages just not owning up to it?

I'll happily own up to it.

I'm on 19.1k at the moment in Newcastle. About £1200 a month after tax. I do however pay ~£500 in loans, CC\OD interest etc so in real terms I'm probably on minimum wage or so. I still have enough to get by with rent and bills of £450 a month or so.
 
What? Depends on what sector you work in I guess.

I and most of my mates are mid twenties on between 20k-30k, and are fine, if you can't survive on £35k, then you are either ******* your money away, or have far higher 'acceptable' standards of living than most.

Median Salary by Employer Type - City: London (United Kingdom)
Median-Salary-by-Employer-Type---City-London-United-Kingdom_GBP_20081118112810-v1.0.jpg



don't swear.

I guess we all have different standards of living etc... However for london and wanting to live a reasonable life and go away on at least 1 foreign holiday a year, own a car, and actually have a bit of a social life 20-30k in london's not great let's be honest. Unless of course you have no debts, no bills to pay and if you live with your parents then of course it's a fantastic amount of money to have disposable.

Unfortunately, I do have some old student debts to clear, rent and bills as everyone else does, and run a car and try and go on a couple of holidays a year at least, so for me to live to the lifestyle I'm used to I'm never going to be able to achieve that with a lower salary. :)
 
would agree a good salary depends on age, location and circumstance..

I have always worked of the rough rule of Salary = Age in 000s, if you are at Salary = Age *1.5 then you are doing well
 
would agree a good salary depends on age, location and circumstance..

I have always worked of the rough rule of Salary = Age in 000s, if you are at Salary = Age *1.5 then you are doing well

Pretty high standards then. So by the time you are 33 you will be in the top 10% earners in the country.

I always aimed to earn more than my age but I do live up North so living is cheap.

Added bonus is we have no kids and my other half earns well so we have a pretty good lifestyle I think.
 
would agree a good salary depends on age, location and circumstance..

I have always worked of the rough rule of Salary = Age in 000s, if you are at Salary = Age *1.5 then you are doing well

I don't feel I'm doing well! :p Well, considering the hours I work anyway - I worked out my hourly rate would be in single figures! lol!
 
I guess we all have different standards of living etc... However for london and wanting to live a reasonable life and go away on at least 1 foreign holiday a year, own a car, and actually have a bit of a social life 20-30k in london's not great let's be honest. Unless of course you have no debts, no bills to pay and if you live with your parents then of course it's a fantastic amount of money to have disposable.

Unfortunately, I do have some old student debts to clear, rent and bills as everyone else does, and run a car and try and go on a couple of holidays a year at least, so for me to live to the lifestyle I'm used to I'm never going to be able to achieve that with a lower salary. :)

Ah, you thow owning a car into the mix, then yes, you need way more money.

Owning a car in London is the biggest waste of money, MOT, road tax, petrol, it's silly.

And yes, debt is annoying, the only reason I'm not as comfortable as I could be, is because a fifth of my take-home pay is clearing debt I stupidly racked up when I was younger.

Still, I managed to do South Africa for 2 weeks earlier this year, have been out a bunch of times, upgrade my pc, bought a new lcd tv, and the like.
 
Looks like I'm on above average. But as has been said, the 'average' will always be weighted towards the lower end and is possibly mirepresentative of a 'standard' salary. Depends also on your job & the industry you work in. My industry tends to be better paid than others so I'm probably benefitting from that, I know I certainly did when I was less qualified/experienced.

As an individual, my income would be more than comfortable (depending on what rent/mortgage I'd have to pay) but as it is I'm the sole earner in our household so things get much tighter then. A mortgage is the only debt I have but after repayments on that, food & bills there's little disposable income left. We have a reasonable amount saved but that is slowly being depleted by some of the 'need to haves' that come with home ownership & parenthood. If Mrs Nelson was back at work and Baby Nelson at school there'd probably be an extra grand a month in the kitty, which would make things much easier all round.

So despite being on an above average salary I'm worse off than many on lower incomes who have less outgoings/responsibilities.
 
I am not going to comment on the size of my salary because I think 'willy waving' is inherently a flawed pursuit.

You see the problem is that you may think that your willy is quite big, bigger in fact than other people's willies. Once you've waved it around, your satisfaction is quickly lost when someone comes along and waves their much larger willy! So it's better for everyone just to keep their willy to themselves :)

Well said. :)
 
I live in the midlands, at home with my parents. Earn £21k and I personally find it a very good salary. I live very comfortably buy what I want generally when I want. However if I lived on my own I'm sure that would be very different. I think a "good" salary is defined by your lifestyle.

Aero
 
Define "In London" ? I work on the outskirts of London approximately 30 miles away from the center, which is still inside the M25. is this "in London" ? I consider it not in London personally, but it's still damn expensive to live in this area. I earn reasonably well. Probably just above average but very much struggle to get by with Rent for my family, and this is in a small two bed house. Mortgage is simply unobtainable without a lottery win/miracle so it has to be rent for what seems like forever currently. I recently had a pay rise but it's just been absorbed by rising cost of living.
 
Define "In London" ? I work on the outskirts of London approximately 30 miles away from the center, which is still inside the M25. is this "in London" ? I consider it not in London personally, but it's still damn expensive to live in this area.

I live just inside the M25 and work in The City. I consider both where I live and work to be 'in London' in economic terms.
 
I and most of my mates are mid twenties on between 20k-30k, and are fine, if you can't survive on £35k, then you are either ******* your money away, or have far higher 'acceptable' standards of living than most.
Even *sharing* a crap flat somewhere near central london is going to cost you upwards of £600/month each. If you want to live on your own with £30k, forget it.

EDIT: And that's without electricity, gas, water, council tax, tv license, phone, internet etc. You'll soon end up spending over half your take home pay just to have somewhere to sleep.
 
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