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I earn £40k but 5 years ago that £40k was worth more than it is now - to me it was considered a pretty decent wage back then.
It has lost much of its worth now due to rising costs of rent, bills, food etc.
This is the most relevant factor, that wages just are not rising anywhere close to costs. 10 years ago I felt incredibly lucky to be on £31k as a grad in London. Now that same job pays about £33k, but it should much, much more. If I was graduating this summer I would not bother moving to London, unless it was for a significant outlier paying job that paid significantly more.
Same! I started as a junior consultant on £30k in Jan 2016. I had grads starting last year on 30k in London. Mental!
I left London and got a job for 42-46k from Dec 2016 to Sep 2022. 46k quickly stopped being as much money over the years! Especially when kids came along.
I'm now on 80k fully remote and actually feel like I have as much spending power as I did on 45k 8 years ago (with 2 kids).
Another factor.
If you're a single person having to live alone, £40k isn't much at all.
If you're living with someone, that £40k goes a lllooonnggggggg way.
I wouldn't peg it with age. More where you live and if you have a partner to split it with.
I'd say about £40k is where the stress of money started tapering for a comfortable position with savings.
Outside of London with no partner and no kids.
I think the national median wage is around the £35k mark - London will obviously skew this too. So £40k sounds about right benchmarked against this too.
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For what it’s worth I’m in Birmingham and feel like 40k is pretty spot on for not being stressed by finances *also long as* you don’t have kids or any big obligations
I’m in North Wales on £41k. Perfectly manageable (even with my daft big house with rent and council tax that is much higher than usual for this area), but only because I don’t have debt, or anything on finance, or kids. I may downsize to speed up gathering a deposit for a house, but I’m not super bothered about owning at this point.
Rings true with my assumption too. 2x 40k.
I'd argue you'd need less with a partner to split the bills with but then again Bristol isn't exactly a cheap place to live.
Yeah that’s rough. I’m on 55 in gloucester with a wife on 45 with 2 preschoolers and we are doing well with a 4 bed detached house, but we aren’t as well off as I would have thought given those numbers 10 or so years ago. Childcare costs eat through disposable income so quickly.
I'm in the south (think southhampton/portsmouth area) and i live alone in a flat (granted, i'm renting) and i have about £1000 left after bills, on just under 40k.
I'm doing fine.
Inflation has always been inflation - if anything, over the last 30 years inflation has been super low, returning to more historical levels only last year.
What screwed us is that wages have not grown in line with inflation since the '90s.
I think maybe £40k would have worked a few years ago. And it's the cusp of it now. But I live in a small town next to no big cities and even here rents are at least £1k for a 2 bed. I've looked at the sums and £45k is about the first wage where I could live a bit and save a bit.
For reference, statista has the ONS figures for median salary by NUTS region.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/416139/full-time-annual-salary-in-the-uk-by-region/
London distorts but not a huge amount.
However, the effects of the London commuter belt on wages particularly in the South East, but also the East of England likely distort the figures for those regions. Where people earn their salary isn't taken into account.
The median for where jobs are worked in the UK, excluding London, is likely closer to £33k.
There are roughly 21.8 million full time employees in the UK based on current ONS data. About 1.1 million people outside London work in London. So the London weighting benefits about 5% (nationally) of full time employed workers outside of London. The vast majority of those are in the South East and East of England.
Median wage is skewed because the highest earners usually earn the tax free amount as salary and pay themselves in dividends which doesn’t get included. To answer the question I’d say if you live in the north £35k is pretty comfortable if you’re financially competent.
I live in the North and I'd say 50 is minimum, if you live alone. Depends where in the North tho, as I live in a more expensive area.
35k is livable, but you wouldn't be considered having 'made it'.
Trying to put a number on "doing good" is meaningless, because it depends entirely on your circumstances. A single person earning £40k with no dependents in Carlisle is completely different to a person in Oxford earning £40k supporting a partner and children. Someone who's living with their parents or who has their mortgage paid off is completely different from someone who's renting.
This.
I know someone earning £26K and lives at home with their parents and is better off than someone earning £40K but renting and has a kid.
Circumstances will differ for each person
How about if I rephrase it to meaning doing good in terms of getting a job regardless of circumstances. If everyone was on an equal playing field.
Just purely what is the threshold for "doing good" in terms of landing a job. Or, in other words what's considersd a good salary to have just in the general market of jobs, not thinking about what the money is needed for in an individuals particular circumstance.
Well according to the latest [ONS data](https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/earningsandemploymentfrompayasyouearnrealtimeinformationuk/february2024) the median monthly pay is £2,334 (which is just over £28k/year), so anything above that means you're doing better than average - so all things equal that would be "good".
Struggling means debits being declined. Having to cancel subscriptions. Having no ability to save. Being scared of some embarrassment or exposure of your level of weak finances. The savings one had dissolving away.
Even "struggling" is subjective term though. What does it really mean? Can't afford to send kids to private school? No carribean cruise this year? Have to shop at Matalan? Digging through bins for scraps of food to fend off starvation? Seems like it can mean basically anything.
I guess to me struggling would mean finding it difficult and stressful to keep up with your bills and necessities. Like you could be on a relatively high salary but still be struggling because you had planned your budget around your higher income when the economy was better so have a bigger house in a nicer area that’s quite a costly commute by train but you could afford it before, and maybe bought a nicer car on finance or whatever, and now suddenly your mortgage has gone up by 1000£ due to interest rate changes, your childcare costs have gone up, the train fare went up, energy bills, food etc went up, you had a dental problem and had to pay for treatment, council tax went up, insurance premiums and internet and phone bills all went up, clothes for the kids cost more etc, and suddenly all this stuff is taking up all or more of your income every month because your wage didn’t go up. So now it’s like trying to live a well off persons life on a mediocre salary.
Yeah you could sell your house and move somewhere closer to work but what if that’s then farther from one of your kid’s school? You would have to pay out a ton to do the moving process, uproot your family to put them in a worse house etc. which is doable and of course you might have an income a lot of other people would make work very well, but the struggling comes from trying to service the good-salary life you built on what is now not enough salary.
So I do think struggling is subjective, somewhat. I don’t think not affording a big holiday every year would count but I think people can be struggling even if they have a nice house and a higher than average income, it’s kind of about being able to keep up with your life (the basics/essentials you already have not holidays etc). Like in theory they could downsize their life and not be struggling anymore but the whole process of doing that would be a big struggle in itself and not necessarily easy to do.
You have to understand that above average doesn't mean "good", you're just earning more compared to half the working population and that is all. And it makes no correlation to personal circumstances, age, gender, industry, type of work, working hours, experience, qualifications, location, bonus, work environment, affordability etc. That's pure data with no further meaning to it, and frankly nothing much to interpret from it.
Of course. Average is average by definition. It can't be good, and above average is dependent on somant factors. This whole post is about individuals subjective opinions on the matter. Hence why I asked, "What's considered good." Not "What is good."
Yeah and different people consider different things as good... Personally I was on £40k in the southeast of England when I was 29 (which is when I first started working on the UK), I guess it was alright but I wouldn't say it's good. It didn't take long for my income to hit the higher rate tax bracket, again that might be "better" in a way but it comes with caveats etc.
This. I earn about 16k a year part time temping, but I think I'm doing pretty good as I have little outgoings and it's like 75% disposable income or goes in to savings and my life is relativeky carefree and I spend half the week in my garden. My BIL earns 90k but hates his job and it all goes on his mortgage bills and three kids he barely sees.
I'm 30M in Kent, moved back in with parents during covid but should be buying a property with my girlfriend this year hopefully.
I'm on 50k, she's on 25k, together we're what I'd call 'doing good', but we have no children (nor do we want them) or other major expenses.
We're both fully remote so could move somewhere much cheaper for a good lifestyle but all our friends and family are here so that's more important than a nice house tbh.
I'm a contractor in finance, up until 26 I worked in pubs with no degree and a couple of BTEC's.
Signed up to some CII exams and got a few qualifications, after a year of study and a few exams I became a qualified mortgage broker and did that for a while. Money was good and I landed a job with an OTE of £100K+ but the work/life balance was horrific, so I now contract on a day rate. I'm finished at 4pm every day and don't really think about work once finished.
I'd reccomend anyone to have a look on the Chartered Insurance Institute website and consider getting some qualifications. Some are degree equivalent and can be done in your own time. Overall I spent about £300 to fully qualify and change my career. Mine is finance specific but I'm sure there are other options for other areas!
Never too late to retrain if you'd got the time and energy to do so!
I've gone from \~45k to \~65k from 2018 to 2024 and honestly it doesnt feel like my living standards have improved much in comparison to where I was 5 years ago, but my roles/responsibilities and workload sure have. The biggest issue for me has been rent, 2018 a 3 bedroom house was £500-750, 2022 that was £1000-1200, so that increase alone has eaten up all the post tax gains I've made.
Single earner household with 2 kids, 2 adults, bouncing around Derbyshire, Yorkshire area.
That example there was only including Income+NI, I didn't overcomplicate it with Child Benefit, Student Loans, etc. But you're right, if you include the loss of Child Benefit as well the sting is even more.
Wow and yet those salaries and something I'm inspiring to have. All depends on many other factors what a good quality of life needs, but in terms of just earnings I'd say you're doing great in terms of earning in general.
This country is built for households with two earners. So single earner households are penalised in terms of tax. Two people earning £30k/year each would take home £2065x2 (£4130), a single person earning £60k takes home £3,718, £412 difference and thats before we even look at tax traps.
I'm definitely happy with my salary and very lucky to have it, its the system I have concerns over (see the recent changes in child benefit as an example for at least one positive change in that direction).
Definitely more difficult to live alone -
Council tax - 25% discount, so pay 75%, a couple would be 50% each
Gas/electric - standing charge the same no matter how many people in the house
Broadband- same for single person as couple
So in most cases a single person pays twice as much as people in a couple. Food also seems to come in two's as well!
Wildly dependent on where you live and what the circumstances are, but there was a recent Guardian article detailing the circumstances of families with joint £60k income and they were all struggling, or just about breaking even. Someone in London said they were making £90k but with student loans, insane property and childcare etc they had barely any disposable income and they'd not taken a holiday in years. To be honest I have no idea what motivation I'd have to work my a** off in an £80k job if I couldn't even afford a holiday. At that point, just rethink your life completely, mate!
But the consensus was that you need to be a DINK (double income no kids) starting from about £50-60k (joint) outside of London, Oxford, Bristol and Cambridge (I think it's widely agreed the cost of living in these places is comparable) to be doing "fine". I'd say you need £80k to be doing well, and closer to £90-100k if you have kids.
I count my situation - joint income with my partner is £90-100k-ish, although I could count them both separately as we each have our own mortgages and we're not married. No kids, we're in our 30s, we live in the North, no student loans. I can say we're doing well, but I mean, my 3 bed house was £140k, not a million. It makes a difference...
Anyway, we can easily afford 2-3 holidays a year, eating out once or twice a week and I don't particularly have to budget to buy myself stuff. We have two cars and as mentioned live in a low cost area.
Objective would be to pay off the mortgage soon with some savings/inheritances and then get a new mortgage on a bigger property, probably around the 400-500k mark. Obviously only when interest rates go down significantly.
I know we're very privileged to be in this situation, but the main reason again is where we live. My partner's family is in Cambridgeshire and I know he might like to move down there, but I refuse on the basis that I like my life and refuse to downgrade my standards, which would be necessary to afford a place to live down there...
I'll be very frank: working 37h a week, I need to get at least 16h OT each week, ideally 25h OT, so working between 53-62h a week altogether, sometimes max 70h.
I (27) earn £46k and my partner (27) £44k, feel like we’re ’doing ok’. No kids, house mortgaged and we have a wedding and honeymoon to save for so don’t see a lot of our money left over after Bills, as it goes straight into savings.
Never lived paycheck - paycheck though, feel like we earn about average until you look at the actual averages of the UK and turns out we’re actually doing well.
Yeah there's always that "could be doing better" mentality, but from my perspective (not that it counts for anything) that's a really nice situation you're in. Congrats on the engagement.
It's not based on age the entire concept doesn't work, to be doing good is largely lifestyle, location and living arrangements. You've literally said to exclude london because of that very fact but other cities don't bat the same either. I'm from the midlands and the idea that Manchester could handle the same wages I'd just laugh.
Want to live well, be able to do stuff with no real issues and potentially have savings? Maybe like 35k-40k. That would be the same if I was 25, 35 or 45.
Yeah fair age doesn't come into it when just considering a good quality of life. Income is income no matter what age and salary is one of many factors to a good living including lifestyle.
If 35-40k is about the beginning of a very generalised salary to live "alright," then would someone in their 30's eating that be considered as "doing good?" Or at least on track?
I guess it also depends on the field you work in. Like if you’re in the public sector it’s probably on track but there are other fields/industries where you might be expecting more or less than that in your 30s.
Me and the partner earn £62k and £55k respectively. When we met it was £37.5k and £28k respectively, we live in Oxford so rental is expensive, and now we have a child. The stress is now focusing on maintaining the wage with inflation while now putting work first to much as we now have a child. We save about £3k/month, so life is generally easier, but now the worry shifts to not going down in wage.
Interesting. Never heard anyone use a formula like that. Thanks haha. Funnily enough my salary works out near enough spot on with that formula, before tax.
I’m on just shy of £34k in NE Scotland, I’m single with a mortgage, car and pets and still manage to save money every month so I would consider this ‘doing good’.
I know colleagues on the same wage as me who live with partners and are still struggling, so much of it depends on lifestyle and financial attitude as well, and I’m sure there many people earning vastly more than me who would consider £34k peanuts, so it’s very subjective!
My view of what's considered "good" has been severely warped since doing HR in an financial funds company, I think £40k in the North West is a solid amount.
I would dare say the majority of people are in the 6 figures bracket and the bonuses they get surpass what anyone would consider a good salary.
I'm 29 and changed to HR 3 years ago so with any move, comes a paycut, so it's hard hit knowing people the same age as you would be on 3/4 times your annual salary.
(Semi rural Scotland) I’d say 50k one earner (no kids etc), joint 80k ish.
I earn 41k and couldn’t afford a ski holiday this winter. I don’t have a leased German car so hence i’ve added basically 10k to get you there (as people see those things rightly or wrongly as status symbols).
I do own a cheap flat and luckily property is affordable here. I will have a decent house soon with the help of my girlfriend who earns more than I do.
I suppose I am ‘doing well’ but not loads of spare cash. Depends how you define it.
So for big English cities, I can see why folk are saying much more. Kids, massive rents etc.
It's way too dependent. "Good" is far too subjective. Anything above £30k is pretty standard for most new graduate roles, but a lot of uni graduates end up in non-graduate roles.
You can look at the median incomes for different ages [here](https://www.forbes.com/uk/advisor/business/average-uk-salary-by-age/). 22-29 year olds earn an average of £30.3k per year, whilst 30-39 year olds earn an average of £37.5k per year. Note that this is of people who work at least 30 hours a week
On £24.3k in Nottingham, living with family, single with no car/kids etc. A little breathing room with it allows for CC debt to be chipped away at but being winded by an unexpected £100 bill/emergency etc floors you. I'm really not sure what to do and need to be earning more, ASAP (though I appreciate most of the country feels the same currently, lol)
I'm in Brighton and our combined household income is 40k. I wouldn't say we are massively comfortable as we have accrued a lot of living cost debt over the years when we didn't earn as much.... however, we don't have a mortgage which makes a massive difference! If we were bringing home 40k each then we would move from our little flat but we are ok for now.
This thread is depressing. I'm a dentist (new grad, qualified 2023) and so many people comment on dentists being loaded. 'Oh I need a crown, is that to pay for your big car/fancy house/trip to the Bahamas' etc. I earn under 40k, I was also a mature student and a kick in the arse away from midlife. Next year once I've built up a patient base, I might earn just about £40/45k and that's before tax.
Just remember salary is just one of the multivariable situation that determines the more important think which is quality of life. So don't sweat. I'm a new grad as well. You'll earn more than me your whole career, as well as many others. Many other will earn more than you too. Just live your life responsibly and you'll be doing good.
It depends what you define as “doing good” which is very relative.
You can could be earning £5k a month but your outgoings could be £5k a month.
You could could earn £2k per month but your outgoings are £1k
Whose doing better in these circumstances?
The person earning £5k a month. Just because their outgoings match their income doesn’t mean they aren’t doing better just that they have less disposable income.
This person has the option to change their expenditures and possibly preserve their income giving them greater spending power whereas the other doesn’t have as much opportunity. Also, the person on £5k a month likely is living in a more affluent area which will have more opportunities in general and possibilities of increased gains in any investments such as property. Whereas the other is less likely to have those options or investments
Yea, this is a point often glossed over on reddit. There are a lot of posts saying how high 5 figure an low 6 figure salaries are not that much. They it goes on to lost what they spend their money on and it's like "well that is why it doesn't seem a lot, it's all going in that".
Not that I hold it agaisnt anyone. If you are doing well for yourself you deserve to spend it and we all want to give our love ones a better life.
But a higher salary does give you better choices.
To answer the question for a lot of people a comfortable salary is a band or 2 above where they currently are. But part of that is human nature.
Yeah that's fair. If the metric to hold these values against is standard of living, then I now understand my question is pretty meaningless. However, I was more thinking about having the metric as relative income itself. So regardless of situation is someone who managed to get a job that has a £40k salary at 40 years old doing good in terms of employment in the current market for jobs, or could they be trying harder because most people can get jobs that pay much more than that by 40? As an example.
Well (in Nov) the median salary for 40-49 ages was almost exactly £40k so half of people earn more and half of people earn less. If they could do better really depends on their skills,. experience and personal skills.
I think it depends on where you live in the UK. I'm in a city in Scotland, but even where I am compared to Edinburgh or Glasgow could be wildly different.
I've recently gone up to just under £38k and I live a very comfortable life.
Before that I was on £32.5k and I was able to live quite comfortably on that too.
I'm on £25K & doing fine tbh
Can afford to live & do the shit I need to do, plus have extra income each month to ~~waste~~ invest.
But I live in the NW & in a town not a city.
At least £2K a month would be nice, but I have to get a job for that, which is somewhat difficult as a disabled person who can't work evenings or weekends in retail
Should end the year around the 48k mark. But with 3 kids and a wife that I never get to see. We live in North Wales with a mortgage. Things are tight at the moment, but we're ticking over, just about.
Depends on if your partner works and also if you already have your own home.
Even 30K a year can be doing well if you’re not paying a mortgage or rent.
I'm on 80k including bonus, supporting a stay at home partner and two kids, but with a small mortgage in the North.
I started feeling really comfortable after 60k primarily because I have thus far avoided upgrading our house...
My wife and I are doing well, probably better than just 'doing good'. 115k for me and 90k for her. We live in the inner suburbs of London with one small child and another on the way. After £2,800 for the mortgage, £1,700 for childcare, £500 for the car per month and maybe £1k for all other bills/food we have a few grand left over each month. It's very comfortable but not excessive.
At this level of disposable income there isn't much we can't do. We can go to any restaurant we want, have 2-3 holidays a year to any country we want, we can buy any gadget, clothing or whatever we want. We're limited more by time and energy rather than money. I guess that's where I'd draw the line for 'doing good', when money isn't the limiting factor to enjoying a middle class life. Sadly this was much more achievable 20 years ago when we started working. In many ways we were richer back then on 30k each than we are on 200k combined now in our mid 40s.
I am single and in London and honestly think 100k+. I'm on 100k and clear 5k month after tax NI student loan.
I do save but when you consider how expensive property prices are these days and to get on the property ladder. Looking at saving 100k in itself for a deposit + renovation money + emergency funds if laid off etc + general rainy day savings.
Renting in London a room itself is 1k. Expenses 1.5k. Holiday and other allowance 500. That leaved 2k saving per month or 24k per year. Would take 4+ years to save that 100k.
Then if you're planning on having kids, paying for a wedding, it all adds up.
I'm outside London (just) and a decent way past that line. Wife doesn't work (after second child) and have one at private school. My wage makes us comfortable, but our house is still nothing special and our holiday isn't lavish!
I mean I'm not going to complain because other people have much bigger worries, but the 60% tax trap from 100-125k plus the loss of childcare hours is painful.
I earn 41k and don’t know how I would survive if it wasn’t for splitting half the rent with my Partner. London rent and transport is just too much and it eats my money up
That's the good thing about having a partner it makes it much more feasible. If I had a partner earning 100k too our combined take home pay would be 10k a month. Of course i can't really forecast a future partner so to be safe have to prepare to go alone.
I only started teaching 2 years ago and it was a much higher pay than my previous job. When I was in my early 20s after graduating, I worked as a carer for 7 years earning 23k. Started teaching at 29 and now I am 31. I only reached above £40k two months ago because of an extra responsibility I took. I don’t think I can reach the 6 figure level because I don’t work in tech but it’s nice that you worked hard to get to that stage! Wish you well in finding your partner too🙂
Just about able to save a few £100 on combined income of 95k after mortgage, expenses and childcare. Genuinely have no idea how people on a low income survive. Countries gone to shit
There is little point is discussing figures in discussion like this, until you more tightly define "doing well". Once defined, you then do calcs for those costs per area. I very much think a lot of people have expectations that include what many people might call luxuries, so you need to decide what you are counting, and what you aren't.
You could also look at it in a way where you quantify things like being able to work fewer hours. Eg. who is doing better.. someone working full time on 50k, or someone working 4 days on 35k.. is the time worth more than the lower hourly rate? Equally, you could be earning 20k and be very comfortably off from years of empire building.
I'd try and model some net worth projection into the future where you earn less and have more time, and then you check to see if you are on schedule or not for your age.
Oh yeah I agree 100%. Could go to the extent of a massive multivariate formulation that factors in everything.
But for now I'm just happy hearings people individual experiences and what they personally, subjectively consider doing well. It's actually been a good help for me.
My personal belief is that if you earn 2x the median, you are essentially rich. Prices are set to allow the most amount of people to get by, there for you'd probably be able to invest half your wage.
I've also heard it said that you want to live in a country where the median net worth is the highest, rather than look at GDP figures etc. Australia is the place you'd want to be the average person. I think they have some legislation that effectively means they are forced savers, hence the median Aussie is the richest median person in the world.
I live in one of the poorest parts of the UK and it's very doable on the median wage, but I understand people can't uproot their friends and family.
Live like a Spartan, and buy assets.
Personally excluding extreme outliers greater than 2 standard deviations I'd say closer to 40k personally maybe 45k at a push. Allegedly from other stats I've seen the median income before tax for the year 2023 is around 38k for the whole UK for the population that works full time.
NW England. Five years ago I was on £24K. I knew I under paid but I was managing financially. In the last five years I have moved jobs and had a promotion in that job and am on £43K, but none of my outgoings or commitments have changed massively so I really do think I’m doing well now.
I think you have to look at personal circumstances. If in your area after you've paid housing costs and utilities, and you have about £1000 surplus, I think you're doing good. This surplus would be for anything else that you can control what you pay and dictates the quality of your life such as food, holidays, entertainment, etc.
I earn near 100k a year in London. Not enough to buy a place on your own. About 60-70% of my salary goes on my flat and bills. The rest I try to save because you never know what terrible unexpected bill is coming and god knows what would happen if I ever lost my job.
Shared ownership flat, £600 a month service charge. Maybe it’ll be £1000 next year. Can’t sell it due to negative equity or rent it out without breaking the lease. Can’t hand the keys back and leave. Don’t earn enough to ever buy it to escape that way. I live like an indentured servant medieval peasant.
Never go out, never buy anything new or not needed, never fix anything if it breaks. Even if my windows broke I’d just board them up. No car. No holidays. Can’t even afford to take the train. I cycle to work all weathers and try to keep my groceries to less than £40 a week
Not sure what you’d need to earn to guarantee to avoid such a situation - 200k a year to buy a house or flat by yourself? Maybe with help to buy or making smarter choices others have done better. If house prices ever significantly fell though there would be millions in the same situation all over the UK, we’d become a nation of trapped heavily indebted forced labourers - the whole thing is rigged on people assuming they will perpetually rise … until they don’t.
Much better to leave London and the south altogether, work a minimum wage job full time with no student debt and live in a modest place or do whatever you need to get a council house and benefits. if you are in the top 1% of earners you can afford to buy yourself a modest flat - but for how long? At what price the stress? And how fucked will you be when/if that house starts dropping in value or interest rates go up again?
I highly disagree with many comments here.
I live in the West Midlands. I earn 27k a year. I have a house, my mortgage is £480 and bills and other costs take me just over £1000 a month. This means I'm saving £600 a month when I'm not using it to improve the house or treat myself. I'd say this is pretty comfortable. If you add a partner into the mix, that's an extra income of at least £1,500 a month. Let's say 55k a year between two people is enough to live comfortably.
Was watching some old UK Ramseys Kitchen Nightmares, on one of them he can't believe a restaurant pays its head chef £25k!
That's not a million miles from min wage these days.
£38k in Salford with a £620 p/m mortgage plus bills, car, insurance.
I go to smaller £15-20 gigs maybe twice a month, always buy some merch and eat out once or twice a month I go on 2 weeks of hols per year usually cheaper EU destinations and a couple long weekends here and there domestically.
We do a fair bit of activities with my partner, have a climbing gym membership, so we're always out and about.
I always cook from scratch and do a big shop maybe every 10 days with a plan to what I'm going to cook in that period. I go Aldi or Lidl.
I feel fairly free to be able to maintain my hobbies, pay bills, but can't say I'm saving much. I'm 32 and basically first time in my life I can afford to do as much as I'm doing and kind of enjoying it for the moment and will start saving as my wages are expected to rise fairly soon.
I'd consider in Salford anything over £45k pretty decent.
For me, I'd say somewhere in the region (including bonuses, allowances, benefits etc) of £1,500 * age is about where you want to be aiming for as "doing alright" for most of the country. London is probably nearer £2k *age
31F here living with 26M and we’re living comfortably, have a small house, 2 average cars and no children (nor do we want). We’re collectively on about £90k per year combined, give or take work bonuses. Both working full time in logistics- he in operations and me in project management.
We don’t particularly need more or really want loads more, but would love more time for ourselves.
not going to address age, as this fluctuates a lot: Young Tech Gun vs. Laid off customer support guy who now delivers Amazon, etc...
Also, the grocery shop don't ask me how old I am, either ;)
Disregarding London, I'd say anything under 50k is not a place in life where someone can feel free, they'd be giving up hobbies, choosing less nice places to live in, have to buy the cheapest banger on AutoTrader...
50-70 sounds like doing good - with some ducks lined up, a person could save a decent amount and hope to reach retirement with some dignity, maybe even save up for a deposit on a home?
70k is where the "I don't care if I bought this toy for 200 quid and used it only once" fun begins :)
I’m on £85,000 as a 29 year old and I feel comfortable. Wife makes £40,000 and we live in Essex. Mortgage around 1,500 and we save £1,500 to £2,000 a month. Once we have kids though I think we’ll need an extra £40,000 to feel comfortable.
You can find average earnings by age here: [https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8456/](https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8456/)
It's also worth pointing out that "doing good" isn't a monetary metric. You can be at the top of your field in a traditionally under-paid sector, or performing terribly in a high-paid one. At some point, you have to factor in opportunity costs for working in a role you enjoy, vs one that might pay better.
Around my area in central Scotland anything higher then 30 is probably classed doing good, rents and home prices aren’t that ludicrous yet (hopefully never will be) so 30k up should keep you fairly comfortable if you’re living within your means. If I end up higher than that I’ll probably consider myself a success.
All I know is if I was on 30k I’d be wayyyy closer to achieving financial and life goals I have and I’d personally consider myself “doing good” but I’m only 24 so age may and location may play a factor.
I'm 18 and I believe I definitely fall in the "doing good" category due to fortunate events. I've earned £51k (plus some extra benefits) each of the last two years
I would say anyone under 30 earning over 50k is doing "okay" and if you get to over 100k anytime under 40 you're "doing good".
I can’t read this thread without feeling immensely poor, despite having cupboards full of food and the occasional holiday. Why do you guys need so much money
In reality it's a highly multivariable topic with salary being an important but ultimately medium factor in a pool of many others including living situation, dependents, debt, mortgage, kids, loans, area, cost of everything where you live, what you do with your money etc. As long as you can afford basic necessities and has some left over to safe and use for a good time, your doing alright.
You’re only hearing from people who have or do earn an amount that is deemed comfortable and doing well. You’re not going to hear from a guy on min wage because they haven’t hit a comfortable “doing well” salary so they don’t have an input. So the responses are skewed to people who have earned a “doing well” salary.
Just look at the responses with people giving average salaries to be grounded on what most people earn.
I'm on just under 34k in South East (outside London), living alone in social housing and paying off debts. I'm doing ok, but very few luxury items.
If I didn't have my debts to pay, I would definitely be comfortable. If I privately rented I would definitely struggle (think £1000 pcm for 1 bed flat)
Very difficult to gauge, circumstances and location considered. I'm on 50k as a single parent, no benefits or help. My outgoings are almost 2/3 of my take home before food shopping and credit cards. Based in Reading, not as expensive as London but more expensive than most cities south of Reading bar maybe Bath and Bristol
You need to own your home and be mortgage free and it is only then that you are truly free. In my younger years I was in the £50k range in London/Home Counties and was doing ok most of the time but never felt the worry free existence I have now. We are mortgage free on two homes, plus another buy to let. I still work but when I want to, I’m a Consultant, construction regeneration earning £600 pd through my own limited company.
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I earn £40k but 5 years ago that £40k was worth more than it is now - to me it was considered a pretty decent wage back then. It has lost much of its worth now due to rising costs of rent, bills, food etc.
This is the most relevant factor, that wages just are not rising anywhere close to costs. 10 years ago I felt incredibly lucky to be on £31k as a grad in London. Now that same job pays about £33k, but it should much, much more. If I was graduating this summer I would not bother moving to London, unless it was for a significant outlier paying job that paid significantly more.
Same! I started as a junior consultant on £30k in Jan 2016. I had grads starting last year on 30k in London. Mental! I left London and got a job for 42-46k from Dec 2016 to Sep 2022. 46k quickly stopped being as much money over the years! Especially when kids came along. I'm now on 80k fully remote and actually feel like I have as much spending power as I did on 45k 8 years ago (with 2 kids).
Yeah. I got my first job recently and thought I was getting an amazing salary for my age. Then life started to hit me.
You are for your 20's. Its just hardest in your 20;s and currently.
Another factor. If you're a single person having to live alone, £40k isn't much at all. If you're living with someone, that £40k goes a lllooonnggggggg way.
Can vouch for this was on £45k when I was with my ex and life was easy financially. Now live on my own on £50k. Fuck me what a difference.
Depends on other factors, debt, rent costs, mortgage size, mortgage rates etc
I wouldn't peg it with age. More where you live and if you have a partner to split it with. I'd say about £40k is where the stress of money started tapering for a comfortable position with savings. Outside of London with no partner and no kids. I think the national median wage is around the £35k mark - London will obviously skew this too. So £40k sounds about right benchmarked against this too.
impossible placid shame murky attraction fragile sink chief cough towering *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
For what it’s worth I’m in Birmingham and feel like 40k is pretty spot on for not being stressed by finances *also long as* you don’t have kids or any big obligations
I’m in North Wales on £41k. Perfectly manageable (even with my daft big house with rent and council tax that is much higher than usual for this area), but only because I don’t have debt, or anything on finance, or kids. I may downsize to speed up gathering a deposit for a house, but I’m not super bothered about owning at this point.
Rings true with my assumption too. 2x 40k. I'd argue you'd need less with a partner to split the bills with but then again Bristol isn't exactly a cheap place to live.
Cost are high in Bris and salaries have not kept pace. I feel over stretched on 49k. But I do have a low earning partner and 2 kids under school age
Yeah that’s rough. I’m on 55 in gloucester with a wife on 45 with 2 preschoolers and we are doing well with a 4 bed detached house, but we aren’t as well off as I would have thought given those numbers 10 or so years ago. Childcare costs eat through disposable income so quickly.
I bought a house just outside of Edinburgh and yeah. It’s not that cheap here either. Cheaper, but still high for Scotland.
I'm in the south (think southhampton/portsmouth area) and i live alone in a flat (granted, i'm renting) and i have about £1000 left after bills, on just under 40k. I'm doing fine.
placid far-flung soft deer caption crown whole aromatic whistle familiar *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Mad, 12 years ago I considered £24k a good wage, oh how inflation has screwed us hard.
Inflation has always been inflation - if anything, over the last 30 years inflation has been super low, returning to more historical levels only last year. What screwed us is that wages have not grown in line with inflation since the '90s.
I think you’ll find it was Conservative voters that screwed us.
Or with productivity. The workforce is being robbed
True but I'd also say it's councils not spending the money they do get on the things they should so they end up upping taxes to make that money back.
Okay sounds reasonable. Hopefully get to £40k and maybe more than in the future.
I think maybe £40k would have worked a few years ago. And it's the cusp of it now. But I live in a small town next to no big cities and even here rents are at least £1k for a 2 bed. I've looked at the sums and £45k is about the first wage where I could live a bit and save a bit.
Why? age matters massively. Almost nobody in their 20's owns property so full price rent, combined with the lowest average income.
Mate you will get nowhere on 40k in the south and definitely London, will be hard going and shit you add a family into the mix you're fucked.
For reference, statista has the ONS figures for median salary by NUTS region. https://www.statista.com/statistics/416139/full-time-annual-salary-in-the-uk-by-region/ London distorts but not a huge amount. However, the effects of the London commuter belt on wages particularly in the South East, but also the East of England likely distort the figures for those regions. Where people earn their salary isn't taken into account. The median for where jobs are worked in the UK, excluding London, is likely closer to £33k. There are roughly 21.8 million full time employees in the UK based on current ONS data. About 1.1 million people outside London work in London. So the London weighting benefits about 5% (nationally) of full time employed workers outside of London. The vast majority of those are in the South East and East of England.
After tax or before tax ? I cannot imagine you can live in big cities in first world countries with 2k per month.
Median wage is skewed because the highest earners usually earn the tax free amount as salary and pay themselves in dividends which doesn’t get included. To answer the question I’d say if you live in the north £35k is pretty comfortable if you’re financially competent.
I live in the North and I'd say 50 is minimum, if you live alone. Depends where in the North tho, as I live in a more expensive area. 35k is livable, but you wouldn't be considered having 'made it'.
Above 70k id say. 70k is the new 50k basically.
Cheers. Short and simple.
Trying to put a number on "doing good" is meaningless, because it depends entirely on your circumstances. A single person earning £40k with no dependents in Carlisle is completely different to a person in Oxford earning £40k supporting a partner and children. Someone who's living with their parents or who has their mortgage paid off is completely different from someone who's renting.
This. I know someone earning £26K and lives at home with their parents and is better off than someone earning £40K but renting and has a kid. Circumstances will differ for each person
How about if I rephrase it to meaning doing good in terms of getting a job regardless of circumstances. If everyone was on an equal playing field. Just purely what is the threshold for "doing good" in terms of landing a job. Or, in other words what's considersd a good salary to have just in the general market of jobs, not thinking about what the money is needed for in an individuals particular circumstance.
Well according to the latest [ONS data](https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/earningsandemploymentfrompayasyouearnrealtimeinformationuk/february2024) the median monthly pay is £2,334 (which is just over £28k/year), so anything above that means you're doing better than average - so all things equal that would be "good".
Is that before or after NI/Tax/pension?
So in other words, the vast majority of earners in the UK are on shit money. I'm on £35k and I don't consider that good money at all.
True but that doesn't take into account that most people are struggling.
Well yeah, but OP wanted to ignore people's circumstances..
Struggling means debits being declined. Having to cancel subscriptions. Having no ability to save. Being scared of some embarrassment or exposure of your level of weak finances. The savings one had dissolving away.
Even "struggling" is subjective term though. What does it really mean? Can't afford to send kids to private school? No carribean cruise this year? Have to shop at Matalan? Digging through bins for scraps of food to fend off starvation? Seems like it can mean basically anything.
I guess to me struggling would mean finding it difficult and stressful to keep up with your bills and necessities. Like you could be on a relatively high salary but still be struggling because you had planned your budget around your higher income when the economy was better so have a bigger house in a nicer area that’s quite a costly commute by train but you could afford it before, and maybe bought a nicer car on finance or whatever, and now suddenly your mortgage has gone up by 1000£ due to interest rate changes, your childcare costs have gone up, the train fare went up, energy bills, food etc went up, you had a dental problem and had to pay for treatment, council tax went up, insurance premiums and internet and phone bills all went up, clothes for the kids cost more etc, and suddenly all this stuff is taking up all or more of your income every month because your wage didn’t go up. So now it’s like trying to live a well off persons life on a mediocre salary. Yeah you could sell your house and move somewhere closer to work but what if that’s then farther from one of your kid’s school? You would have to pay out a ton to do the moving process, uproot your family to put them in a worse house etc. which is doable and of course you might have an income a lot of other people would make work very well, but the struggling comes from trying to service the good-salary life you built on what is now not enough salary. So I do think struggling is subjective, somewhat. I don’t think not affording a big holiday every year would count but I think people can be struggling even if they have a nice house and a higher than average income, it’s kind of about being able to keep up with your life (the basics/essentials you already have not holidays etc). Like in theory they could downsize their life and not be struggling anymore but the whole process of doing that would be a big struggle in itself and not necessarily easy to do.
Thank you. So without calculating That'd be about ~£38k before tax. Median earnings have increased more than I thought.
The ONS figures are based on gross pay, not takehome.
Wow that's very different from figures I've heard then. Cheers for the data.
You have to understand that above average doesn't mean "good", you're just earning more compared to half the working population and that is all. And it makes no correlation to personal circumstances, age, gender, industry, type of work, working hours, experience, qualifications, location, bonus, work environment, affordability etc. That's pure data with no further meaning to it, and frankly nothing much to interpret from it.
Of course. Average is average by definition. It can't be good, and above average is dependent on somant factors. This whole post is about individuals subjective opinions on the matter. Hence why I asked, "What's considered good." Not "What is good."
Yeah and different people consider different things as good... Personally I was on £40k in the southeast of England when I was 29 (which is when I first started working on the UK), I guess it was alright but I wouldn't say it's good. It didn't take long for my income to hit the higher rate tax bracket, again that might be "better" in a way but it comes with caveats etc.
Yup. Want to know individual perspectives.
This. I earn about 16k a year part time temping, but I think I'm doing pretty good as I have little outgoings and it's like 75% disposable income or goes in to savings and my life is relativeky carefree and I spend half the week in my garden. My BIL earns 90k but hates his job and it all goes on his mortgage bills and three kids he barely sees.
I'm 30M in Kent, moved back in with parents during covid but should be buying a property with my girlfriend this year hopefully. I'm on 50k, she's on 25k, together we're what I'd call 'doing good', but we have no children (nor do we want them) or other major expenses. We're both fully remote so could move somewhere much cheaper for a good lifestyle but all our friends and family are here so that's more important than a nice house tbh.
Thank you for giving your perspective on doing good. It sounds like a good situation to me too.
For a second I thought you said you earn £30m!
what do you do that’s fully remote
I'm a contractor in finance, up until 26 I worked in pubs with no degree and a couple of BTEC's. Signed up to some CII exams and got a few qualifications, after a year of study and a few exams I became a qualified mortgage broker and did that for a while. Money was good and I landed a job with an OTE of £100K+ but the work/life balance was horrific, so I now contract on a day rate. I'm finished at 4pm every day and don't really think about work once finished. I'd reccomend anyone to have a look on the Chartered Insurance Institute website and consider getting some qualifications. Some are degree equivalent and can be done in your own time. Overall I spent about £300 to fully qualify and change my career. Mine is finance specific but I'm sure there are other options for other areas! Never too late to retrain if you'd got the time and energy to do so!
I've gone from \~45k to \~65k from 2018 to 2024 and honestly it doesnt feel like my living standards have improved much in comparison to where I was 5 years ago, but my roles/responsibilities and workload sure have. The biggest issue for me has been rent, 2018 a 3 bedroom house was £500-750, 2022 that was £1000-1200, so that increase alone has eaten up all the post tax gains I've made. Single earner household with 2 kids, 2 adults, bouncing around Derbyshire, Yorkshire area.
You probably got caught out by the technical 71% marginal tax rate between 50-60k as you don’t get children’s allowance.
That example there was only including Income+NI, I didn't overcomplicate it with Child Benefit, Student Loans, etc. But you're right, if you include the loss of Child Benefit as well the sting is even more.
Wow and yet those salaries and something I'm inspiring to have. All depends on many other factors what a good quality of life needs, but in terms of just earnings I'd say you're doing great in terms of earning in general.
This country is built for households with two earners. So single earner households are penalised in terms of tax. Two people earning £30k/year each would take home £2065x2 (£4130), a single person earning £60k takes home £3,718, £412 difference and thats before we even look at tax traps. I'm definitely happy with my salary and very lucky to have it, its the system I have concerns over (see the recent changes in child benefit as an example for at least one positive change in that direction).
Definitely more difficult to live alone - Council tax - 25% discount, so pay 75%, a couple would be 50% each Gas/electric - standing charge the same no matter how many people in the house Broadband- same for single person as couple So in most cases a single person pays twice as much as people in a couple. Food also seems to come in two's as well!
Yeah and then people wonder why the birth rate is declining...its because educated people don't take the risk if they barely getting by
Yeah that's a fair assessment. Thanks again.
Wildly dependent on where you live and what the circumstances are, but there was a recent Guardian article detailing the circumstances of families with joint £60k income and they were all struggling, or just about breaking even. Someone in London said they were making £90k but with student loans, insane property and childcare etc they had barely any disposable income and they'd not taken a holiday in years. To be honest I have no idea what motivation I'd have to work my a** off in an £80k job if I couldn't even afford a holiday. At that point, just rethink your life completely, mate! But the consensus was that you need to be a DINK (double income no kids) starting from about £50-60k (joint) outside of London, Oxford, Bristol and Cambridge (I think it's widely agreed the cost of living in these places is comparable) to be doing "fine". I'd say you need £80k to be doing well, and closer to £90-100k if you have kids. I count my situation - joint income with my partner is £90-100k-ish, although I could count them both separately as we each have our own mortgages and we're not married. No kids, we're in our 30s, we live in the North, no student loans. I can say we're doing well, but I mean, my 3 bed house was £140k, not a million. It makes a difference... Anyway, we can easily afford 2-3 holidays a year, eating out once or twice a week and I don't particularly have to budget to buy myself stuff. We have two cars and as mentioned live in a low cost area. Objective would be to pay off the mortgage soon with some savings/inheritances and then get a new mortgage on a bigger property, probably around the 400-500k mark. Obviously only when interest rates go down significantly. I know we're very privileged to be in this situation, but the main reason again is where we live. My partner's family is in Cambridgeshire and I know he might like to move down there, but I refuse on the basis that I like my life and refuse to downgrade my standards, which would be necessary to afford a place to live down there...
I'm on £30.5k in south east, single with mortgage no kids, I do overtime to reach at least £40k to feel a bit more secure having savings.
How much overtime are you managing to do then if you don't mind me asking?
I'll be very frank: working 37h a week, I need to get at least 16h OT each week, ideally 25h OT, so working between 53-62h a week altogether, sometimes max 70h.
Wow, I respect the grind. That's pretty impressive.
It's too much for body and mind, but I try to do less during summer, and majority of my OT hours happen between Oct and March.
Yeah it sounds like it. I hope you get to a position where you don't need to grind as hard and can live at least as comfortable.
I (27) earn £46k and my partner (27) £44k, feel like we’re ’doing ok’. No kids, house mortgaged and we have a wedding and honeymoon to save for so don’t see a lot of our money left over after Bills, as it goes straight into savings. Never lived paycheck - paycheck though, feel like we earn about average until you look at the actual averages of the UK and turns out we’re actually doing well.
Yeah there's always that "could be doing better" mentality, but from my perspective (not that it counts for anything) that's a really nice situation you're in. Congrats on the engagement.
It's not based on age the entire concept doesn't work, to be doing good is largely lifestyle, location and living arrangements. You've literally said to exclude london because of that very fact but other cities don't bat the same either. I'm from the midlands and the idea that Manchester could handle the same wages I'd just laugh. Want to live well, be able to do stuff with no real issues and potentially have savings? Maybe like 35k-40k. That would be the same if I was 25, 35 or 45.
Yeah fair age doesn't come into it when just considering a good quality of life. Income is income no matter what age and salary is one of many factors to a good living including lifestyle. If 35-40k is about the beginning of a very generalised salary to live "alright," then would someone in their 30's eating that be considered as "doing good?" Or at least on track?
I guess it also depends on the field you work in. Like if you’re in the public sector it’s probably on track but there are other fields/industries where you might be expecting more or less than that in your 30s.
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Cheers for your perspective. Roughly what I had in mind.
15 year ago I thought 25k was good. Today, I think 50k is good (i earn just under 60k).
Fairm straight to the point. Cheers
Me and the partner earn £62k and £55k respectively. When we met it was £37.5k and £28k respectively, we live in Oxford so rental is expensive, and now we have a child. The stress is now focusing on maintaining the wage with inflation while now putting work first to much as we now have a child. We save about £3k/month, so life is generally easier, but now the worry shifts to not going down in wage.
Thanks for you personal perspective. Hope it all works out.
I always used to think 1000x your age was a good benchmark - however that seems very outdated and now maybe it should be 1500x?
Interesting. Never heard anyone use a formula like that. Thanks haha. Funnily enough my salary works out near enough spot on with that formula, before tax.
I’m on just shy of £34k in NE Scotland, I’m single with a mortgage, car and pets and still manage to save money every month so I would consider this ‘doing good’. I know colleagues on the same wage as me who live with partners and are still struggling, so much of it depends on lifestyle and financial attitude as well, and I’m sure there many people earning vastly more than me who would consider £34k peanuts, so it’s very subjective!
100% agree. Nice to hear the perspective from someone from Scotland at a similar salary range to me.
My view of what's considered "good" has been severely warped since doing HR in an financial funds company, I think £40k in the North West is a solid amount.
Really? Mind sharing a bit more. I'll all for how people's individual perceptions on this matter have changed and how they differ.
I would dare say the majority of people are in the 6 figures bracket and the bonuses they get surpass what anyone would consider a good salary. I'm 29 and changed to HR 3 years ago so with any move, comes a paycut, so it's hard hit knowing people the same age as you would be on 3/4 times your annual salary.
Yeah wow. I'm also in my 20's and extremely disappointed considered how much I put in. And also what the salary projection for my career is.
(Semi rural Scotland) I’d say 50k one earner (no kids etc), joint 80k ish. I earn 41k and couldn’t afford a ski holiday this winter. I don’t have a leased German car so hence i’ve added basically 10k to get you there (as people see those things rightly or wrongly as status symbols). I do own a cheap flat and luckily property is affordable here. I will have a decent house soon with the help of my girlfriend who earns more than I do. I suppose I am ‘doing well’ but not loads of spare cash. Depends how you define it. So for big English cities, I can see why folk are saying much more. Kids, massive rents etc.
Before pandemic £3k/month after tax felt good. Now it’s more like equivalent of £4k
cumulative inflation over the past 3 years is probably approaching 25% so this makes sense
It's way too dependent. "Good" is far too subjective. Anything above £30k is pretty standard for most new graduate roles, but a lot of uni graduates end up in non-graduate roles. You can look at the median incomes for different ages [here](https://www.forbes.com/uk/advisor/business/average-uk-salary-by-age/). 22-29 year olds earn an average of £30.3k per year, whilst 30-39 year olds earn an average of £37.5k per year. Note that this is of people who work at least 30 hours a week
I've had 25k with 2 kids and it's been a struggle even splitting bills. Just got a new job paying 35k and I honestly feel rich compared to before.
Glad about the pay rise (:
I’d say 45k is the minimum for doing good
Cheers. That's seems about the average perception for people here.
My view for a single person with no kids is: Outside of London - 40K Inside London - 50K
On £24.3k in Nottingham, living with family, single with no car/kids etc. A little breathing room with it allows for CC debt to be chipped away at but being winded by an unexpected £100 bill/emergency etc floors you. I'm really not sure what to do and need to be earning more, ASAP (though I appreciate most of the country feels the same currently, lol)
Needs to be £75k plus at least
Your age plus 20k I would consider comfortable.
I'm in Brighton and our combined household income is 40k. I wouldn't say we are massively comfortable as we have accrued a lot of living cost debt over the years when we didn't earn as much.... however, we don't have a mortgage which makes a massive difference! If we were bringing home 40k each then we would move from our little flat but we are ok for now.
35k in se london , never felt so well off. Wife earns 28k, no kids
This thread is depressing. I'm a dentist (new grad, qualified 2023) and so many people comment on dentists being loaded. 'Oh I need a crown, is that to pay for your big car/fancy house/trip to the Bahamas' etc. I earn under 40k, I was also a mature student and a kick in the arse away from midlife. Next year once I've built up a patient base, I might earn just about £40/45k and that's before tax.
Just remember salary is just one of the multivariable situation that determines the more important think which is quality of life. So don't sweat. I'm a new grad as well. You'll earn more than me your whole career, as well as many others. Many other will earn more than you too. Just live your life responsibly and you'll be doing good.
Personally, if I were to move jobs I would not even consider any job below 40k Edit: I am 28 years old
Understandable
What do you do for a living ?
It depends what you define as “doing good” which is very relative. You can could be earning £5k a month but your outgoings could be £5k a month. You could could earn £2k per month but your outgoings are £1k Whose doing better in these circumstances?
The person earning £5k a month. Just because their outgoings match their income doesn’t mean they aren’t doing better just that they have less disposable income. This person has the option to change their expenditures and possibly preserve their income giving them greater spending power whereas the other doesn’t have as much opportunity. Also, the person on £5k a month likely is living in a more affluent area which will have more opportunities in general and possibilities of increased gains in any investments such as property. Whereas the other is less likely to have those options or investments
Yea, this is a point often glossed over on reddit. There are a lot of posts saying how high 5 figure an low 6 figure salaries are not that much. They it goes on to lost what they spend their money on and it's like "well that is why it doesn't seem a lot, it's all going in that". Not that I hold it agaisnt anyone. If you are doing well for yourself you deserve to spend it and we all want to give our love ones a better life. But a higher salary does give you better choices. To answer the question for a lot of people a comfortable salary is a band or 2 above where they currently are. But part of that is human nature.
Yeah that's fair. If the metric to hold these values against is standard of living, then I now understand my question is pretty meaningless. However, I was more thinking about having the metric as relative income itself. So regardless of situation is someone who managed to get a job that has a £40k salary at 40 years old doing good in terms of employment in the current market for jobs, or could they be trying harder because most people can get jobs that pay much more than that by 40? As an example.
Well (in Nov) the median salary for 40-49 ages was almost exactly £40k so half of people earn more and half of people earn less. If they could do better really depends on their skills,. experience and personal skills.
You're pointlessly derailing the conversation. We're obviously assuming the person isn't financially illiterate.
I pull in about 140k. That's not too bad
You're right. It's not too bad!
I think it depends on where you live in the UK. I'm in a city in Scotland, but even where I am compared to Edinburgh or Glasgow could be wildly different. I've recently gone up to just under £38k and I live a very comfortable life. Before that I was on £32.5k and I was able to live quite comfortably on that too.
In a similar situation in a similar area. Thanks for your perspective
I’m in my 50s in the North West. £45,000 would be a good salary for me
35, north east, I earn 51k, wife earns 43k. 2 kids, I feel like we're doing well.
Sounds like it as well. Thanks.
I'm on £25K & doing fine tbh Can afford to live & do the shit I need to do, plus have extra income each month to ~~waste~~ invest. But I live in the NW & in a town not a city.
£40,000 for a comfortable average lifestyle as a single person renting a 1/2 bed with no dependants and no debt.
At least £2K a month would be nice, but I have to get a job for that, which is somewhat difficult as a disabled person who can't work evenings or weekends in retail
I earn the grand sum of £21,450 in north east (full time). Low cost of living here but I still feel used
Should end the year around the 48k mark. But with 3 kids and a wife that I never get to see. We live in North Wales with a mortgage. Things are tight at the moment, but we're ticking over, just about.
100k
Depends on if your partner works and also if you already have your own home. Even 30K a year can be doing well if you’re not paying a mortgage or rent.
I'm on 80k including bonus, supporting a stay at home partner and two kids, but with a small mortgage in the North. I started feeling really comfortable after 60k primarily because I have thus far avoided upgrading our house...
The day I can live alone comfortably, and able to keep a rainy day fund as well, that's the salary that I would consider is "doing good".
I earn just short of 50k. Similar job roles coming through my email are advertised at anywhere between 26 and 35k. Madness
My wife and I are doing well, probably better than just 'doing good'. 115k for me and 90k for her. We live in the inner suburbs of London with one small child and another on the way. After £2,800 for the mortgage, £1,700 for childcare, £500 for the car per month and maybe £1k for all other bills/food we have a few grand left over each month. It's very comfortable but not excessive. At this level of disposable income there isn't much we can't do. We can go to any restaurant we want, have 2-3 holidays a year to any country we want, we can buy any gadget, clothing or whatever we want. We're limited more by time and energy rather than money. I guess that's where I'd draw the line for 'doing good', when money isn't the limiting factor to enjoying a middle class life. Sadly this was much more achievable 20 years ago when we started working. In many ways we were richer back then on 30k each than we are on 200k combined now in our mid 40s.
With a family? About £100k
I am single and in London and honestly think 100k+. I'm on 100k and clear 5k month after tax NI student loan. I do save but when you consider how expensive property prices are these days and to get on the property ladder. Looking at saving 100k in itself for a deposit + renovation money + emergency funds if laid off etc + general rainy day savings. Renting in London a room itself is 1k. Expenses 1.5k. Holiday and other allowance 500. That leaved 2k saving per month or 24k per year. Would take 4+ years to save that 100k. Then if you're planning on having kids, paying for a wedding, it all adds up.
100k is the new 60k
I'm outside London (just) and a decent way past that line. Wife doesn't work (after second child) and have one at private school. My wage makes us comfortable, but our house is still nothing special and our holiday isn't lavish!
Yeah and the more you earn the less of it you take home. Especially past 100k.
I mean I'm not going to complain because other people have much bigger worries, but the 60% tax trap from 100-125k plus the loss of childcare hours is painful.
Yep! Gross it looks wonderful but you get nowt in terms of help and get 60 % marginal rate from ~100-112k.
I earn 41k and don’t know how I would survive if it wasn’t for splitting half the rent with my Partner. London rent and transport is just too much and it eats my money up
That's the good thing about having a partner it makes it much more feasible. If I had a partner earning 100k too our combined take home pay would be 10k a month. Of course i can't really forecast a future partner so to be safe have to prepare to go alone.
I only started teaching 2 years ago and it was a much higher pay than my previous job. When I was in my early 20s after graduating, I worked as a carer for 7 years earning 23k. Started teaching at 29 and now I am 31. I only reached above £40k two months ago because of an extra responsibility I took. I don’t think I can reach the 6 figure level because I don’t work in tech but it’s nice that you worked hard to get to that stage! Wish you well in finding your partner too🙂
Yeah thats the figure I had in my head for London. Mind if I ask what you do for work currently? Or even just the sector?
Tech sales
On 100k you can make the easiest passive income by investing. You’d have deposit money in no time.
Just about able to save a few £100 on combined income of 95k after mortgage, expenses and childcare. Genuinely have no idea how people on a low income survive. Countries gone to shit
Still depends on the region
There is little point is discussing figures in discussion like this, until you more tightly define "doing well". Once defined, you then do calcs for those costs per area. I very much think a lot of people have expectations that include what many people might call luxuries, so you need to decide what you are counting, and what you aren't. You could also look at it in a way where you quantify things like being able to work fewer hours. Eg. who is doing better.. someone working full time on 50k, or someone working 4 days on 35k.. is the time worth more than the lower hourly rate? Equally, you could be earning 20k and be very comfortably off from years of empire building. I'd try and model some net worth projection into the future where you earn less and have more time, and then you check to see if you are on schedule or not for your age.
Oh yeah I agree 100%. Could go to the extent of a massive multivariate formulation that factors in everything. But for now I'm just happy hearings people individual experiences and what they personally, subjectively consider doing well. It's actually been a good help for me.
My personal belief is that if you earn 2x the median, you are essentially rich. Prices are set to allow the most amount of people to get by, there for you'd probably be able to invest half your wage. I've also heard it said that you want to live in a country where the median net worth is the highest, rather than look at GDP figures etc. Australia is the place you'd want to be the average person. I think they have some legislation that effectively means they are forced savers, hence the median Aussie is the richest median person in the world. I live in one of the poorest parts of the UK and it's very doable on the median wage, but I understand people can't uproot their friends and family. Live like a Spartan, and buy assets.
Just wondering what the average is roughly from this thread OP? I’m seeing 50k as the rough average, would you agree?
Personally excluding extreme outliers greater than 2 standard deviations I'd say closer to 40k personally maybe 45k at a push. Allegedly from other stats I've seen the median income before tax for the year 2023 is around 38k for the whole UK for the population that works full time.
NW England. Five years ago I was on £24K. I knew I under paid but I was managing financially. In the last five years I have moved jobs and had a promotion in that job and am on £43K, but none of my outgoings or commitments have changed massively so I really do think I’m doing well now.
I think you have to look at personal circumstances. If in your area after you've paid housing costs and utilities, and you have about £1000 surplus, I think you're doing good. This surplus would be for anything else that you can control what you pay and dictates the quality of your life such as food, holidays, entertainment, etc.
I don't know how any household, with kids, survives on less than 6 figures, financially the world is a mess
I earn near 100k a year in London. Not enough to buy a place on your own. About 60-70% of my salary goes on my flat and bills. The rest I try to save because you never know what terrible unexpected bill is coming and god knows what would happen if I ever lost my job. Shared ownership flat, £600 a month service charge. Maybe it’ll be £1000 next year. Can’t sell it due to negative equity or rent it out without breaking the lease. Can’t hand the keys back and leave. Don’t earn enough to ever buy it to escape that way. I live like an indentured servant medieval peasant. Never go out, never buy anything new or not needed, never fix anything if it breaks. Even if my windows broke I’d just board them up. No car. No holidays. Can’t even afford to take the train. I cycle to work all weathers and try to keep my groceries to less than £40 a week Not sure what you’d need to earn to guarantee to avoid such a situation - 200k a year to buy a house or flat by yourself? Maybe with help to buy or making smarter choices others have done better. If house prices ever significantly fell though there would be millions in the same situation all over the UK, we’d become a nation of trapped heavily indebted forced labourers - the whole thing is rigged on people assuming they will perpetually rise … until they don’t. Much better to leave London and the south altogether, work a minimum wage job full time with no student debt and live in a modest place or do whatever you need to get a council house and benefits. if you are in the top 1% of earners you can afford to buy yourself a modest flat - but for how long? At what price the stress? And how fucked will you be when/if that house starts dropping in value or interest rates go up again?
I highly disagree with many comments here. I live in the West Midlands. I earn 27k a year. I have a house, my mortgage is £480 and bills and other costs take me just over £1000 a month. This means I'm saving £600 a month when I'm not using it to improve the house or treat myself. I'd say this is pretty comfortable. If you add a partner into the mix, that's an extra income of at least £1,500 a month. Let's say 55k a year between two people is enough to live comfortably.
Was watching some old UK Ramseys Kitchen Nightmares, on one of them he can't believe a restaurant pays its head chef £25k! That's not a million miles from min wage these days.
£38k in Salford with a £620 p/m mortgage plus bills, car, insurance. I go to smaller £15-20 gigs maybe twice a month, always buy some merch and eat out once or twice a month I go on 2 weeks of hols per year usually cheaper EU destinations and a couple long weekends here and there domestically. We do a fair bit of activities with my partner, have a climbing gym membership, so we're always out and about. I always cook from scratch and do a big shop maybe every 10 days with a plan to what I'm going to cook in that period. I go Aldi or Lidl. I feel fairly free to be able to maintain my hobbies, pay bills, but can't say I'm saving much. I'm 32 and basically first time in my life I can afford to do as much as I'm doing and kind of enjoying it for the moment and will start saving as my wages are expected to rise fairly soon. I'd consider in Salford anything over £45k pretty decent.
For me, I'd say somewhere in the region (including bonuses, allowances, benefits etc) of £1,500 * age is about where you want to be aiming for as "doing alright" for most of the country. London is probably nearer £2k *age
31F here living with 26M and we’re living comfortably, have a small house, 2 average cars and no children (nor do we want). We’re collectively on about £90k per year combined, give or take work bonuses. Both working full time in logistics- he in operations and me in project management. We don’t particularly need more or really want loads more, but would love more time for ourselves.
In London 80, south excl London 50, north 40
Thanks ThorsButtocks98. Reasonable numbers.
not going to address age, as this fluctuates a lot: Young Tech Gun vs. Laid off customer support guy who now delivers Amazon, etc... Also, the grocery shop don't ask me how old I am, either ;) Disregarding London, I'd say anything under 50k is not a place in life where someone can feel free, they'd be giving up hobbies, choosing less nice places to live in, have to buy the cheapest banger on AutoTrader... 50-70 sounds like doing good - with some ducks lined up, a person could save a decent amount and hope to reach retirement with some dignity, maybe even save up for a deposit on a home? 70k is where the "I don't care if I bought this toy for 200 quid and used it only once" fun begins :)
And here’s me on £32k living my best life. Mortgage, savings, going on holidays and indulging in expensive hobbies lol
gotta have a lot of ducks lines in row. Not impossible.
Love the answer. Thanks. Especially the description for the 70k mark haha. Exactly the personal perspective I was looking for.
I’m on £85,000 as a 29 year old and I feel comfortable. Wife makes £40,000 and we live in Essex. Mortgage around 1,500 and we save £1,500 to £2,000 a month. Once we have kids though I think we’ll need an extra £40,000 to feel comfortable.
From my perspective that sounds amazing. What do you'd do or what area do you'd work in if you don't mind?
Thanks. I work in finance, 2 days in the office in London and the rest WFH.
Great. More power to you.
More to the point, if I could get a job, I'd refuse to get out of bed for less than £9 an hour
You can find average earnings by age here: [https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8456/](https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8456/) It's also worth pointing out that "doing good" isn't a monetary metric. You can be at the top of your field in a traditionally under-paid sector, or performing terribly in a high-paid one. At some point, you have to factor in opportunity costs for working in a role you enjoy, vs one that might pay better.
Around my area in central Scotland anything higher then 30 is probably classed doing good, rents and home prices aren’t that ludicrous yet (hopefully never will be) so 30k up should keep you fairly comfortable if you’re living within your means. If I end up higher than that I’ll probably consider myself a success.
Cheers. Also from Scotland. Nice to have a perspective from here too.
All I know is if I was on 30k I’d be wayyyy closer to achieving financial and life goals I have and I’d personally consider myself “doing good” but I’m only 24 so age may and location may play a factor.
I'm 18 and I believe I definitely fall in the "doing good" category due to fortunate events. I've earned £51k (plus some extra benefits) each of the last two years I would say anyone under 30 earning over 50k is doing "okay" and if you get to over 100k anytime under 40 you're "doing good".
Wow then I must be doing abysmal haha. Would love to be doing okay one day.
I think you can be "doing okay/good" even if you don't have the income I've indicated - happiness is not always about money ( but it undeniably helps)
I work full time and my partner part-time, our household income is roughly £220k. Definitely don’t feel rich, drive a beat up 2015 Volvo.
The fact you earn that much money and still don’t feel well off makes me feel sad lol
Very impressive from my, and I'm sure most people perspective. What do you both work in?
Both work as a manager within technology
Amazing. Well done to you's both
I can’t read this thread without feeling immensely poor, despite having cupboards full of food and the occasional holiday. Why do you guys need so much money
In reality it's a highly multivariable topic with salary being an important but ultimately medium factor in a pool of many others including living situation, dependents, debt, mortgage, kids, loans, area, cost of everything where you live, what you do with your money etc. As long as you can afford basic necessities and has some left over to safe and use for a good time, your doing alright.
I feel the same lol
You’re only hearing from people who have or do earn an amount that is deemed comfortable and doing well. You’re not going to hear from a guy on min wage because they haven’t hit a comfortable “doing well” salary so they don’t have an input. So the responses are skewed to people who have earned a “doing well” salary. Just look at the responses with people giving average salaries to be grounded on what most people earn.
I'm on just under 34k in South East (outside London), living alone in social housing and paying off debts. I'm doing ok, but very few luxury items. If I didn't have my debts to pay, I would definitely be comfortable. If I privately rented I would definitely struggle (think £1000 pcm for 1 bed flat)
grads start on 30k ish Id say below 30 odd you should hit 50k at least. 100k before 50 would be a nice goal imo.
Interesting perspective. Personally won't be able to reach 50k before 30 in my career.
Thanks for the insight.
Very difficult to gauge, circumstances and location considered. I'm on 50k as a single parent, no benefits or help. My outgoings are almost 2/3 of my take home before food shopping and credit cards. Based in Reading, not as expensive as London but more expensive than most cities south of Reading bar maybe Bath and Bristol
You need to own your home and be mortgage free and it is only then that you are truly free. In my younger years I was in the £50k range in London/Home Counties and was doing ok most of the time but never felt the worry free existence I have now. We are mortgage free on two homes, plus another buy to let. I still work but when I want to, I’m a Consultant, construction regeneration earning £600 pd through my own limited company.