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How much does one need, to actually live on?

Started by Fr.Bigley, May 05, 2021, 02:21:47 PM

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Emma Raducanu

The median income is £29k in Britain apparently. When I'm judging myself, I do wonder how I managed to be £4k behind the average idiot. I haven't had a pay rise for 4 years either so I'm proportionally poorer each year.

That said, I'm saving my hardest to get my mortgage paid before turning 43, which would make a massive difference. Like someone up thread, I had childcare bills upward of £700 every month for nearly 4 years, so I've learned to live on very little.

mothman

Quote from: GoblinAhFuckScary on May 05, 2021, 05:29:37 PM
i get that. i scrubbed off my wankers comment because i realise that attitude is just pissy and short sighted. all too easy to paint the middle class as parasites when they're not really our true enemies

Nah, you're right, there ARE decadent wankers. Even - ESPECIALLY - in the middle class. I've probably become one - we've had a good few years, been lucky AND worked hard - but I don't want to be and I try hard not to be. It's taken me a long time to even contemplate that I can now buy things not because I need them but because I want them. But I still feel guilty about it, like, I got something off eBay the other day for £15 and I feel wasteful and profligate.

peanutbutter

If the current system was suppposed to actually work I imagine someonne who is renting is also supposed to be saving about 300-500 a month towards a deposit?

Cuellar


mothman

Quote from: peanutbutter on May 05, 2021, 08:30:52 PM
If the current system was suppposed to actually work I imagine someonne who is renting is also supposed to be saving about 300-500 a month towards a deposit?

You'd think. But the size of the deposits required makes that a lengthy and daunting prospect - and no size of deposit is going to help when properties are priced way beyond 3 or 4 times the salaries people earn. As you say, if the system worked...

Zetetic

#35
Quote from: DolphinFace on May 05, 2021, 07:01:57 PM
The median income is £29k in Britain apparently.
It's worth noting that this figure is equivalised "disposable" household income - it's post-direct-tax household income, divided by a weighting based on the number of people in the household and how they're related. (This weighting includes that one household with two adults costs less to run than two households with one adult each.)

This is a pretty meaningless figure anyway, because of the immense regional income inequality in the UK.

Median weekly pay for full-time employees in Wales, NI and most of England is £520-560 per week - around £28k.
Median weekly pay for full-time employees in London and South East is £630-716 per week - around £35k.

mothman

I think I only hit 28k in my mid-forties, so, about five years ago? OK that's just a median figure anyway, but it's sobering all the same. So many commercial and governmental decisions are being based on notions that everyone earns 28k when in reality so many earn a lot less and very few earn a lot, lot more...

kittens

28,000 of pounds a year is an insane sum of money. it must feel like you've won the lottery every month

bgmnts

I reckon I could retire after a few years on 28k.

mothman

Yeah, you'd think but I'm past that now and I'm still planning on the death in service benefit to look after my family.


flotemysost

I'm on a comfortable salary and pass the middle class wanker test with flying colours, but I work in an industry notorious for being basically a bit shit at giving people promotions/pay rises/any sort of career progression, and this partly manifests itself in there being hardly any transparency about what anyone earns, so I still feel a bit in the dark about what a "good salary" is. Friends at work were telling me for years I should get a pay rise, but inside I'd feel guilty because I thought I was already on a decent amount, definitely more than most jobs I'd done previously, and surely it was greedy to ask for more when I didn't really need it.

I read an article last year by a woman in the same industry, saying she could only afford to stay in that career because she had a partner who was on a higher salary. Which is sad and damning, but on the flipside I've always been single, and so (with the exception of a stint of living on my own last year, thanks to a combination of a temporary secondment pay rise and lockdown savings - which I appreciate was a massive privilege, even though it wasn't exactly the nicest flat) I've always had to live in flatshares, which can hold you back in other ways (not least feeling like an immature loser in your thirties compared to everyone else getting on the property ladder with their joint salaries with partners).

Also I live in London where many things (not everything, but certainly significant stuff like rent and childcare) are horrifically, stupidly expensive. I appreciate this is my choice and even though I'm from here it's still a privilege itself of sorts, and if I was one of the people who thrive on working from home (again, massive privilege for those for whom this is even an option) then I can see the appeal/logic of flocking to the suburbs. However I'd be even more lonely and miserable if I did that, there'd be absolutely no point even if it did mean I'd be able to save a lot more.

Many jobs (not mine, but lots of people I know) are commission based, meaning you can earn a lot in a short space of time but you're essentially only as good as your last sale/sign-up/etc. and from what I've heard these often get looked down on by mortgage advisers and the like, so you could be absolutely shit hot at your job and bringing in a very decent amount of cash each month but still be persona non grata in many contexts.

Just all bollocks basically, we should all just go back to swapping shells/bones/pogs.

Lungpuddle

Quote from: flotemysost on May 06, 2021, 12:10:44 AM
Just all bollocks basically, we should all just go back to swapping shells/bones/pogs.

Bit shellfish.

Quote from: flotemysost on May 06, 2021, 12:10:44 AM
Just all bollocks basically, we should all just go back to swapping shells/bones/pogs.

I look forward to you expanding on this skeleton argument

Quote from: flotemysost on May 06, 2021, 12:10:44 AM
Just all bollocks basically, we should all just go back to swapping shells/bones/pogs.

I doff my milk cap to you.

I'm doing my best to save up to move out of my parents' place, so this thread is greatly appreciated.

thenoise

Fucking rich cunts here, preferred it when you were all office temps with alcohol problems.

Never earned close to £28k, despite regularly settling for jobs i hate and/or am morally opposed to. Always paid over half my salary on rent too, and around 1/3 of the remainder on 'bills' which are basically set in stone by the landlord, so non-negotiable. A couple of hundred left over that I can actually choose what to do with.

robhug

for anyone short of a few bob and assuming you've never done it before, you could easily supplement your income by 100 quid a week through match betting



Pranet

At the age of 46 the most I've ever earned, before tax, was about £19000. Then I got a pay cut. Now around £16500-£17000 range depending on o/t.

I do ok but it helps that I don't have a car or need to commute much at the moment.

I do keep track of my money and one year I worked out that I earned £70 more than I spent. So that deposit is going to take a while.

olliebean

Quote from: robhug on May 06, 2021, 03:58:08 PM
for anyone short of a few bob and assuming you've never done it before, you could easily supplement your income by 100 quid a week through match betting

Not indefinitely. you'll make a decent amount at first from sign-up bonuses but after you've used them up it's slim pickings.

robhug

not my experience, still making at least that 6 years later for about an hours work a week


Shoulders?-Stomach!

Bit of a sliding scale innit. As an individual you really don't need much so long as you're savvy.

But if you want the whole caboodle I have no idea how someone on my salary in Leeds can afford rent, utilities, tax, kids, insurance, pension, loan repayments while also saving up for a deposit. My conclusion is that they don't, or have some really, really dangerous debt arrangements that one downturn could cause to put them on the streets.

Ultimately you're only here once. If wealth has eluded you why live in misery. Work out what you can cut out without going spare and indulge in the few things you can.

imitationleather

Quote from: robhug on May 06, 2021, 05:33:47 PM
not my experience, still making at least that 6 years later for about an hours work a week

Are you doing the riskier and more complex stuff like extra places on the horses?

Because from offers it seems really difficult to make above £50 a week now.

Icehaven

Quote from: flotemysost on May 06, 2021, 12:10:44 AM
... surely it was greedy to ask for more when I didn't really need it.

Do your employers need it more than you? Unless you work in the public sector or for a particularly efficient, effective charity the answer is almost definitely no.
That said I'd hate to be in a job where you're expected to ask for payrises and if you don't you don't get them, because I'd be crap at it.

robhug

Quote from: imitationleather on May 06, 2021, 05:51:11 PM
Are you doing the riskier and more complex stuff like extra places on the horses?

Because from offers it seems really difficult to make above £50 a week now.

BOG, acca insurance and price boosts mainly these days. Plus your virtually guaranteed 500+ plus during cheltenham, 250 during aintree and maybe that again for a bit footie tournament, All tax free.

Its not as lucrative as it was in 2015 when I first gave it a go that's definitely true. In that time id say ive garnered an additional 50K+.

In the 2000's 50k+ a year was a doddle apparently, the way the bookies were chucking offers about.

MrMrs

Would you say now is the time to get into this, given the Euros are about to kick off?

Is it worth doing if you have an active Skybet account already?

JamesTC

My bills per month:
Mortgage: £260
Council Tax: £85
Water: £25
Gas/Electricity: £50
Home Insurance: £25
TV/Broadband: £63
Mobile: £12
Netflix: £10
Total: £530

One off yearly expenses:
TV Licence: £150
Boiler/Plumbing Homecare: £300

So that is just less than an average of £600 per month.

I tend to budget £275 for food/drink/clothes/entertainment but at the moment I am going over that a fair bit. Cutting back a little on the food costs due to fewer takeaways though.

Overall I end up spending around £10k across the year. The rest of my earnings I use to overpay on the mortgage, buy shares in work (as I save on tax and NI), put into the workplace pension scheme and just let fester in a shitty current account with hardly any interest. Admittedly I live alone and in one of the poorest parts of the country so I have managed to buy my house for a good price and get a pretty great monthly mortgage for a "three-bedroom" house. I also don't drink alcohol or have any other really expensive habits.

I think if I absolutely had to, I could live on £700 per month.

Dex Sawash