What is a good salary in UK at present?

[darkblade]

At that point you'd be upping your pension contributions (or doing APC/AVCs if you've got a DB pension) to keep below the threshold, and for tax relief.

But that's another example of a threshold that has not been adjusted inline with inflation.

 

[aspiring]

I know you are generalising with the figures, but once you start to earn over £50,270, you become increasingly impacted by the cost of living. You will unlikely be able to afford a holiday at all with a £4k/month mortgage on £100k a year after tax. (ignoring the fact that lenders won't allow you to take a mortgage with those amounts)

Pay rises are a joke compared to inflation. If you get a 5% pay rise and earn over £50,270, boom, you only get a 3% increase in take home pay after tax. So you now have a 3% increase to offset against price inflation 3 times that amount.

Raising interests rates isn't working either. Inflation has increased far higher on the items that we have very limited choice in the amount of spending - energy, fuel, food, etc. The logic seems to be, spend less on food and the price will drop along with inflation (most have already switched to cheaper brands etc). The reality is, people are spending less on clothes, holidays, cars etc - but it's not making any difference, people still have to buy food.

Inflation has been caused by the pandemic, Brexit and the Ukraine war. People's spending habits are not going to fix it.
The country is being forced to make sacrifices to ensure the top 1% can continue to live their extravagant lifestyles.

So your saying no point earning over 50k?

 

[[FnG]magnolia]

Is that a huge concern for you? Sometimes we have the choice made for us.

 

[MatsyLR]

So your saying no point earning over 50k?

You then need to look at the whole 4k mortgage thing. There are ways to not have a stupidly high mortgage.

 

[a1ex2001]

Ukraine war has pushed up prices, but this is not inflation, market sentiment and various supply/demand side surges is not inflation.

People are not spending less, forget about car registrations look at companies that sell something you can cut, like holidays, look at the airlines, they are doing well, look at the travel industry and other consumer discretionary, spending is not reduced.

You undermine your point when you say the war in Ukraine is pushing up prices but this isn’t inflation when it literally is inflation.

I also like how you waive away an indicator of Massively declined spend on a luxury item ie cars while pointing to the profits of other companies selling luxury items ….. you can’t have it both ways. Loads of companies are reporting huge profits on the back of inflation based price increases it’s not hard to see that if you put the price of something up and maintain your profit margin you can make the same or more money selling less things.

 

[platinum87]

You undermine your point when you say the war in Ukraine is pushing up prices but this isn’t inflation when it literally is inflation.

I also like how you waive away an indicator of Massively declined spend on a luxury item ie cars while pointing to the profits of other companies selling luxury items ….. you can’t have it both ways. Loads of companies are reporting huge profits on the back of inflation based price increases it’s not hard to see that if you put the price of something up and maintain your profit margin you can make the same or more money selling less things.

My entire point is that prices going up is not inflation, So its not undermined, inflation is the money supply. The BOE causes inflation, Putin can cause price shocks.

Registrations is not indicative of anything, if you want to say car companies are doing badly, then tell me which car company is doing badly.

Its like trying to measure how many people are smoking by looking at sales of lighters.

Edit: In short, inflation is a money supply issue, and it has been combined with price increases due to other factors today.

This leads to the incorrect thinking that, Putin can cause inflation, he cannot cause inflation in the UK, he can cause it in Russia by ordering the Russian central bank to buy government bonds or corporate bonds.

 

[aspiring]

You then need to look at the whole 4k mortgage thing. There are ways to not have a stupidly high mortgage.

But the 50k post was about tax?

 

[Freefaller]

OP will be happy to know I'm considering a few roles at 20k less than I'm currently earning. Frankly it'll make my tax affairs easier!

 

[[FnG]magnolia]

My entire point is that prices going up is not inflation, So its not undermined, inflation is the money supply. The BOE causes inflation, Putin can cause price shocks.

Registrations is not indicative of anything, if you want to say car companies are doing badly, then tell me which car company is doing badly.

Its like trying to measure how many people are smoking by looking at sales of lighters.

Edit: In short, inflation is a money supply issue, and it has been combined with price increases due to other factors today.

This leads to the incorrect thinking that, Putin can cause inflation, he cannot cause inflation in the UK, he can cause it in Russia by ordering the Russian central bank to buy government bonds or corporate bonds.

>_ Economics enters the chat.

 

[sx_turbo]

I'm on 42k and wife 27k, £69k and we live comfortably and have many family days out

But struggle to afford foreign holidays and can't afford to replace both cars, so exchanged one pooper for a 2nd hand replacement, with the other on its last legs..

Mortgage is only £800 month.

Childcare is a killer, child costs (whole new wardrobe every quarter at the moment, though finding vinted has helped greatly with that)

We could alter our lifestyle a bit to afford 2 new cars, but would mean we have to really start thinking about what we do when we go out etc which then takes the joy out of living.

We've both decided to tip Botox to a pension can't afford to pay a meaningful amount and what can afford wouldn't be anywhere near enough to retire anyway, so plan is to work till we drop, though if we become almost vegetables then we going to Switzerland to put ourselves out of misery. Leaving the house to our boy as a nest egg (hopefully the mortgage be paid by then)

 

[Bobmunkhouse]

I'm on 42k and wife 27k, £69k and we live comfortably and have many family days out

But struggle to afford foreign holidays and can't afford to replace both cars, so exchanged one pooper for a 2nd hand replacement, with the other on its last legs..

Mortgage is only £800 month.

Childcare is a killer, child costs (whole new wardrobe every quarter at the moment, though finding vinted has helped greatly with that)

We could alter our lifestyle a bit to afford 2 new cars, but would mean we have to really start thinking about what we do when we go out etc which then takes the joy out of living.

We've both decided to tip Botox to a pension can't afford to pay a meaningful amount and what can afford wouldn't be anywhere near enough to retire anyway, so plan is to work till we drop, though if we become almost vegetables then we going to Switzerland to put ourselves out of misery. Leaving the house to our boy as a nest egg (hopefully the mortgage be paid by then)

Hmm not sure on skipping the pension....what happens when your made redundant in your 60's and no one else want to employ you....say your healthy and have 20 years of extreme poverty to enjoy?

 

[Begbie]

Hmm not sure on skipping the pension....what happens when your made redundant in your 60's and no one else want to employ you....say your healthy and have 20 years of extreme poverty to enjoy?

Definitely, why would you risk that. Especially on that income and mortgage.

 

[adam cool dude]

Hmm not sure on skipping the pension....what happens when your made redundant in your 60's and no one else want to employ you....say your healthy and have 20 years of extreme poverty to enjoy?

What happens if you die at 60? What happens if you find a golden part time job that you do 2 days a week. What happens if the government suddenly say you have enough private pension we are not going to give you a state one?

There has been plenty of studies that keeping yourself active leads to a long life. Working a couple of days a week will more than supplement. Especially if it gives you 5+ years of extra quality life.

Say I get to 60 and work on the agency doing holiday cover 2 days a week for a Haulage firm. £200+ a day is 20 grand a year. I still have 5 days a week to do whatever I want. Considering retirement age is 67. Those 7 years working is equivalent to 120,000 ish thousand of pension pot.

I currently work 3.5 days a week (I work 10+ hours on my days in) and the amount of time I have to do what I want is crazy. I am off Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday this week.

My grandfather retired at 78. He lived to 93 so still had 15 years of doing what ever he wanted. He took me alone to Australia at 92 years old so lived his life to the max.

 

[dlockers]

I'm on 42k and wife 27k, £69k and we live comfortably and have many family days out

But struggle to afford foreign holidays and can't afford to replace both cars, so exchanged one pooper for a 2nd hand replacement, with the other on its last legs..

Mortgage is only £800 month.

Childcare is a killer, child costs (whole new wardrobe every quarter at the moment, though finding vinted has helped greatly with that)

We could alter our lifestyle a bit to afford 2 new cars, but would mean we have to really start thinking about what we do when we go out etc which then takes the joy out of living.

We've both decided to tip Botox to a pension can't afford to pay a meaningful amount and what can afford wouldn't be anywhere near enough to retire anyway, so plan is to work till we drop, though if we become almost vegetables then we going to Switzerland to put ourselves out of misery. Leaving the house to our boy as a nest egg (hopefully the mortgage be paid by then)

This is an outrageous post lol.

 

[EvilRob]

I'm on 42k and wife 27k, £69k and we live comfortably and have many family days out

But struggle to afford foreign holidays and can't afford to replace both cars, so exchanged one pooper for a 2nd hand replacement, with the other on its last legs..

Mortgage is only £800 month.

Childcare is a killer, child costs (whole new wardrobe every quarter at the moment, though finding vinted has helped greatly with that)

We could alter our lifestyle a bit to afford 2 new cars, but would mean we have to really start thinking about what we do when we go out etc which then takes the joy out of living.

We've both decided to tip Botox to a pension can't afford to pay a meaningful amount and what can afford wouldn't be anywhere near enough to retire anyway, so plan is to work till we drop, though if we become almost vegetables then we going to Switzerland to put ourselves out of misery. Leaving the house to our boy as a nest egg (hopefully the mortgage be paid by then)

Not sure if trolling, but if not:

I hope future you + family are happy with this poor decision making. With (I assume) 30 or so years to go until retirement, any contribution you make now will give you much more flexibility to make decisions based on circumstances later. With employer contributions and tax benefits, it isn't really that expensive to build a meaningful pot part particularly if you plan to work all the way out to state retirement age.

 

[Trifid]

We've both decided to tip Botox to a pension can't afford to pay a meaningful amount and what can afford wouldn't be anywhere near enough to retire anyway, so plan is to work till we drop,

Terrible decision. It's free money and should be a priority. Especially over cars and other expensive assets.

Holidays abroad are not a priority in life either.

 

[EvilRob]

Say I get to 60 and work on the agency doing holiday cover 2 days a week for a Haulage firm. £200+ a day is 20 grand a year. I still have 5 days a week to do whatever I want. Considering retirement age is 67. Those 7 years working is equivalent to 120,000 ish thousand of pension pot.

Probably a lot more than that after you take into account additional pot growth from not taking it and the lower growth of the pot once you do start taking it.

Agree with all the "what ifs?" but they exist on both sides of the argument because the future is unknown. That's why it's best to come up with a plan that gives you the flexibility to react to reality when you get there rather thank banking on a set of "what ifs" based on what you hope will happen.

 

[kai]

Totally depends on lifestyle, circumstances as well as industry/role. Go ask a Software architect or a AI developer is <£50K a good salary etc.

 

[Shoza]

Around £55k for me and £175k for my wife. Live very comfortably and it’s clearly quite a lot compared to the average and we know it.

Both currently contributing £8500 a year to pensions (which includes contributions from firms) but not trying to max out for a later life and lose out on now. House to be paid off in 15 years when we’re 55.

 

[EvilRob]

Both currently contributing £8500 a year to pensions (which includes contributions from firms) but not trying to max out for a later life and lose out on now. House to be paid off in 15 years when we’re 55.

What do you spend on to not "lose out" if not contributing much to pensions or paying off your mortgage very quickly? Genuinely curious.