comfortable salary

Apparently I earn about 56k but I was say its far from comfortable, the wife earns about 24k so in theory we should be well off. However having two little angels, nursery fees, clothing, cars, mortgage fuel, food etc were not comfortable. 40% tax rate does not leave much.

On 56k your total tax on your income will be around 30%.
 
Christ, I would be wiping my arse with £50 notes if I was on £50k per year. What kind of lifestyle do you lot lead ????
£50k after tax is £2720/mo
If you're earning that much you're probably spending 1-1.5k on rent/mortgage/bills, leaves a fairly generous but not mind blowing 1.2-1.7k for everything else.

imo 50k would leave most people living very comfortably, but you will always live to your means, if that means your holiday costs £3k rather than £300 then it eats up a lot of that "extra" money
 
How do you not know what you earn?

Overtime, on call etc? Offhand I couldn't tell you what the figure on my P60 was the past few years. I know roughly as it seems he does as well. I tend to worry more what I'm getting paid each month, an exact annual figure isn't really that important to me.
 
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Christ, I would be wiping my arse with £50 notes if I was on £50k per year. What kind of lifestyle do you lot lead ????

It all adds up if you have a nice flat/house and pay a fair bit in rent, have a nice car and have to keep that running (fuel, tires, servicing etc), then if you go out every weekend, eat well and want to go on multiple holidays it all adds up.

There isn't really a normal, everyone has different tastes, ambitions and ways they spend their free time.

I know if I was in London I'd want to be on £50k+ to enjoy myself. You can never have enough money :D
 
Apparently I earn about 56k but I was say its far from comfortable, the wife earns about 24k so in theory we should be well off. However having two little angels, nursery fees, clothing, cars, mortgage fuel, food etc were not comfortable. 40% tax rate does not leave much.

So 40% on earning over £35k (£21k) leaves you with £12.6k.

Your first £7.5k is tax free, taking you up to £20k when added to the above.

The remaining £27.5k is taxed at 20%, leaving £22k, leaving your total after tax at roughly £42k.

Current national average is around £23.5k now (took a big dip last year).

7.5k free of take, the remaining £16k taxed at 20%, leaving the average UK person with £20k.

After tax, you still have more than double that of the average person in the UK.
 
with absolutely no savings it'd have to be way way over 30k if you ever wanted to get on the property ladder in your life time (saving a deposit) and live a reasonable life style on the way.

35-40k would be a comfortable wage for out of london and not being bothered about ever buying.
 
It's OCUK forums where everybody is a high flying exec with a big house a nice BMW and ten computers.

Anything less would be classed as poverty. :D

Haha yes very true. I must be a tramp then living in the 16th century.


leaves a fairly generous but not mind blowing 1.2-1.7k for everything else.

Jesus. Me and my missus have about £200 pm left over (after all bills etc are paid) We live a great happy life, yes more money would be nice but its makes us who we are.


imo 50k would leave most people living very comfortably, but you will always live to your means, if that means your holiday costs £3k rather than £300 then it eats up a lot of that "extra" money

Very true indeed. Or in my case a £9.50 sun holiday*



*Actually that's untrue. Well I went on one like that and will not do it again. I nearly caught syphilis from eating fish and chips.
 
I'm on £25k in London and am quite comfortable. After tax, rent, bills, food and transport I have ~ £800 per month to spend how I wish.
Renting a flat, own a car.
 
I earn between 30k - 40k per year and live in North Notts.

We're comfortable and my wife is allowed the freedom of being a full time Mum and not having to work, though this is probably only because we don't have a mortgage to pay any more.

To me how comfortable you are all depends on the lifestyle you want to lead. Plenty of my friends earn far more than I do yet they struggle even day to day because of huge debt commitments.
 
I'm on £25k in London and am quite comfortable. After tax, rent, bills, food and transport I have ~ £800 per month to spend how I wish.
Renting a flat, own a car.

My gf and I are both on £24k, have just bought a flat, run a car, she has a horse, and I spend £250 a month clearing debt I racked up in my youth.

We don't really eat out, but eat very well at home, and go the cinema / theatre from time to time.

Sure, I might be a bit of deal/discount whore and we both use TopCashBack, but we're perfectly comfortable for the time being (things will change when we want a house and kids).
 
Only on OcUK could people suggest needing £50-£60k+ for someone to live a comfortable "not rich" lifestyle outside of London!

To actually ENJOY life you need to earn about 60k + easily.

Should be rocking that by the end of the year... looking forward to it! lol


By this definition any person earning less than £60k per year can't enjoy life? Or is it an attempt to show off what you will be earning?
 
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To actually ENJOY life you need to earn about 60k + easily.

Should be rocking that by the end of the year... looking forward to it! lol

:rolleyes:

What a load of rubbish. And i'm not just saying that because i don't earn that much.

By this definition any person earning less than £60k per year can't enjoy life?

This is what i was wondering...

Or is it an attempt to show of what you will be earning?

Hmmmm.... makes you wonder doesn't it. And for him to even suggest that you can't enjoy life unless you earn over £60k suggests to me that he's never had much less than this and that he may have got a higher paying job with a bit of a helping hand...

Just speculating of course.
 
:rolleyes:

What a load of rubbish. And i'm not just saying that because i don't earn that much.



This is what i was wondering...



Hmmmm.... makes you wonder doesn't it. And for him to even suggest that you can't enjoy life unless you earn over £60k suggests to me that he's never had much less than this and that he may have got a higher paying job with a bit of a helping hand...

Just speculating of course.

Problem is what do you define as 'comfortable' and 'enjoying life'. Does 'enjoy' mean you're just not unhappy on the salary you earn? Does it mean you can afford most of the things you want to buy (holidays, cars etc)?

I guess the issue is that to different people they mean different things.

I'm sure I could live in London on £25k and enjoy myself (go out with mates etc) but probably couldn't afford many holidays/trips away or afford to live in a nice/central area. It's all very subjective.
 
More than I earn.

But I think outside London, things get comfortable £35k+. To actually enjoy it, if you have a family, a lot more than that.
 
But I think outside London, things get comfortable £35k+. To actually enjoy it, if you have a family, a lot more than that.

Most people don't earn that much. Are you really saying that most people aren't "comfortable" and have holidays?

There really must be some kind of reality distortion field in effect in this thread.
 
I think most people would define it as "about 20% more money than I have".

Take me, for example. I'm officially well below the poverty line as I get paid less than 14K before tax, but I manage well enough because I have a small mortgage (I bought my house at the right time) and I don't need a car. If I had a pay rise to ~£17K (like that's going to happen), I'd be well pleased and consider myself comfortable...for a while. Then I'd become accustomed to having a bit more money and think of maybe 20K as comfortable. Etc.

I wouldn't be surprised if there are people with a million in assets and an income of >£100K a year who are thinking that they could use maybe 20% more to be comfortable.
 
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