“Financially stable” – But you have to live in a house-share.
Glad the article does point out at the end there is another study that found a “happy” income in London is closer to £80k which sounds more like it.
Getting kind of fed up with all these pundits seemingly being unable to grasp that living in a shared house in your 30s and paying nearly half your income for the privilege carries quite a heavy burden in and of itself.
I get by on £25k working in central London. It’s definitely tough, but not too bad when your hobbies & interests are essentially free.
£102 on subscriptions seems quite expensive, what would that typically include?
More. What ever you earn the answer is more.
I think you need to be approaching six figures to feel wealthy in London. But to a single person earning £25 they may well say £35.
We have a household income of around £70 and we don’t feel well off. We pay our rent and bills and we can afford more than the basics but we aren’t far away from instability. Loose one income and we are screwed.
>Money experts at Finder, who worked out the figure, also say that we should spend 40% of our salaries on rent
I’ve heard this figure lots of times before, but where does it come from? It really feels very arbitrary, especially considering the article concedes that 40% of a £37k salary equates to less than a grand a month, which means house sharing in London.
You may _just_ be able to subsist in London on 37k, but it would be a miserable existence.
[deleted]
How much do you need to buy the median house in London
£37,000.
I live outside London and earn 21k more, and save £0 every month.
Last holiday 2017. No car monthlies. Basic staple foods. Never go out.
I am sure it is a LOT more than £37,000.
I spent six months,in a couple of doorways near Elephant & Castle, I could easily beg over £600 a week.
I read that as “mentally stable” and knew I wasn’t going to make the cut.
Love that our standards have now dropped to basically not being in poverty…
As someone who’s just crossed a significantly higher income threshold thinking it’d put me into some financial bliss I am kinda shook how little it can actually afford you in today’s UK economy.
£37k/year in London sounds ok, but then you realise the requirements are never to have dependents, live a lucky life where you never need contingency or have periods where you can’t work, and you make restaurants and pub trips an absolute luxury. If you’re able-bodied then good for you cos you can avoid TfL’s prices and cycle to work (until your bike gets nicked).
It’s no wonder that birth rates are crashing, restaurants are struggling, and people are frustrated.
Before I looked closely, I saw the headline and a bunch of pound coins with a fiver so I naturally thought OP was taking the piss 😂
Surprised it isn’t more. It’s hardly worthy of news, London is recognised as one of the most expensive cities in the world
To be fair I don’t think “slightly more than the UK average” is a totally insane salary requirement for a city that’s probably one of the most desirable places in the world to live.
By comparison I think you’d need waaaaay more than the average US wage to live comfortably in Los Angeles.
I graduated in 2009.
In my first grad job in 2010 i was 17k with a 10k bonus and lived in a nice large double room flat share in Bow E3 for about £400pcm. Having a look on that street now its now upwards of £750.
The next year my salary went up to £30k per month and I was doubling that with my bonus – I had a unexpected baby this year so me and my gf got a nice 2 bed flat in ilford for £800pcm. My gf didnt have to work and we were comfortable. A similar flat there is circa £1500pcm today.
it appears to me salaries have stayed about the same – i dont think many grads are earning more than 30k in their first year – but living costs have seemingly doubled . its broken
As a millenial i always thought we got f’d over in regards to rent and housing prices but I dont think gen z would be able to graduate today and expe to have nearly the same experience living in london as a 20 somthing year old – espeically with a young family and that is only a difference of 10 years. Its quite scare really
Excuse me, rent at £921??
You gotta let me in on that, I can’t find anything cheaper than £1000, there’s no way
I feel like it all depends on the person and their standards. In this thread I’ve seen people say you’d live a miserable existence on 37k in London, and others say they’re currently quite happy on 24k in London.
You can cost cut a lot, far more than just the traditional “don’t pay for Netflix and avocado toast etc”. But then what does that say about us if we’re made to be happy with the bare minimum?
I’d say if you’re a single person, renting, you could probably live a quite happy life. Ie with all the amenities, on around 45k a year. If you wanted to go on holiday twice a year, have a nice car, and generally live your life like that, then I’d say you would need to be making at least 65-70k.
On the other end of the spectrum, there’s someone in this thread who claims they are quite happy on just 24k a year, so it definitely seems doable so long as you aren’t making literal minimum wage. It’s just all about standards. I’m sure Sunak would feel unbearably poor on anything below 65k a year, but I’m sure someone using a food bank and living in poverty would feel very comfortable on 35k.
It’s just down to the individual and what they themselves consider stable, well off, and happy.
Pro tip: don’t have kids because childcare is like £2k/toddler before they can go to school.
Depressing how the word “whopping” is used to describe a salary of £37k.
I’m job hunting right now and I see so many London-based job ads that require a university degree and several years of experience in the field and specific skills and knowledge of certain programs, and also expect you to work in the office in central London 5 days a week…
…And they’re offering £27,000.
Maybe I’ve been spoiled by a remote job with a good salary, but these companies just seem completely delusional to me.
1. Pays only £921 for rent?
2. Pays only £63 for council tax
3. Pays only £133 for utilities
4 Pays only £166 for groceries
All of that is just for people in a flat share. And even in a flatshare, rent unfortunately is often £1k for renting a room
Reading this, make me feel like i should just give up and die. Whats the point?
Your rent/mortgage is kinda the biggest factor here. If you’re paying 800 per month and not 1800 then of course you can get by on a lower salary.
Lmao… 37k? I fudging LONDON? I earn 60k in Cambs and still feel like I’m barely surviving
What a shit budget. 102 quid on subscriptions??
You can live quite well in a house share on a lot less than that
I asked one of the guys on Canary Wharf the other day how much he thinks you need to earn to enjoy living in and aspire to move beyond London. He gave it some thought then said “100k”.
He was not wrong.
London makes no sense at any salary level. It’s High CoL with mediocre salaries
28 comments
“Financially stable” – But you have to live in a house-share.
Glad the article does point out at the end there is another study that found a “happy” income in London is closer to £80k which sounds more like it.
Getting kind of fed up with all these pundits seemingly being unable to grasp that living in a shared house in your 30s and paying nearly half your income for the privilege carries quite a heavy burden in and of itself.
I get by on £25k working in central London. It’s definitely tough, but not too bad when your hobbies & interests are essentially free.
£102 on subscriptions seems quite expensive, what would that typically include?
More. What ever you earn the answer is more.
I think you need to be approaching six figures to feel wealthy in London. But to a single person earning £25 they may well say £35.
We have a household income of around £70 and we don’t feel well off. We pay our rent and bills and we can afford more than the basics but we aren’t far away from instability. Loose one income and we are screwed.
>Money experts at Finder, who worked out the figure, also say that we should spend 40% of our salaries on rent
I’ve heard this figure lots of times before, but where does it come from? It really feels very arbitrary, especially considering the article concedes that 40% of a £37k salary equates to less than a grand a month, which means house sharing in London.
You may _just_ be able to subsist in London on 37k, but it would be a miserable existence.
[deleted]
How much do you need to buy the median house in London
£37,000.
I live outside London and earn 21k more, and save £0 every month.
Last holiday 2017. No car monthlies. Basic staple foods. Never go out.
I am sure it is a LOT more than £37,000.
I spent six months,in a couple of doorways near Elephant & Castle, I could easily beg over £600 a week.
I read that as “mentally stable” and knew I wasn’t going to make the cut.
Love that our standards have now dropped to basically not being in poverty…
As someone who’s just crossed a significantly higher income threshold thinking it’d put me into some financial bliss I am kinda shook how little it can actually afford you in today’s UK economy.
£37k/year in London sounds ok, but then you realise the requirements are never to have dependents, live a lucky life where you never need contingency or have periods where you can’t work, and you make restaurants and pub trips an absolute luxury. If you’re able-bodied then good for you cos you can avoid TfL’s prices and cycle to work (until your bike gets nicked).
It’s no wonder that birth rates are crashing, restaurants are struggling, and people are frustrated.
Before I looked closely, I saw the headline and a bunch of pound coins with a fiver so I naturally thought OP was taking the piss 😂
Surprised it isn’t more. It’s hardly worthy of news, London is recognised as one of the most expensive cities in the world
To be fair I don’t think “slightly more than the UK average” is a totally insane salary requirement for a city that’s probably one of the most desirable places in the world to live.
By comparison I think you’d need waaaaay more than the average US wage to live comfortably in Los Angeles.
I graduated in 2009.
In my first grad job in 2010 i was 17k with a 10k bonus and lived in a nice large double room flat share in Bow E3 for about £400pcm. Having a look on that street now its now upwards of £750.
The next year my salary went up to £30k per month and I was doubling that with my bonus – I had a unexpected baby this year so me and my gf got a nice 2 bed flat in ilford for £800pcm. My gf didnt have to work and we were comfortable. A similar flat there is circa £1500pcm today.
it appears to me salaries have stayed about the same – i dont think many grads are earning more than 30k in their first year – but living costs have seemingly doubled . its broken
As a millenial i always thought we got f’d over in regards to rent and housing prices but I dont think gen z would be able to graduate today and expe to have nearly the same experience living in london as a 20 somthing year old – espeically with a young family and that is only a difference of 10 years. Its quite scare really
Excuse me, rent at £921??
You gotta let me in on that, I can’t find anything cheaper than £1000, there’s no way
I feel like it all depends on the person and their standards. In this thread I’ve seen people say you’d live a miserable existence on 37k in London, and others say they’re currently quite happy on 24k in London.
You can cost cut a lot, far more than just the traditional “don’t pay for Netflix and avocado toast etc”. But then what does that say about us if we’re made to be happy with the bare minimum?
I’d say if you’re a single person, renting, you could probably live a quite happy life. Ie with all the amenities, on around 45k a year. If you wanted to go on holiday twice a year, have a nice car, and generally live your life like that, then I’d say you would need to be making at least 65-70k.
On the other end of the spectrum, there’s someone in this thread who claims they are quite happy on just 24k a year, so it definitely seems doable so long as you aren’t making literal minimum wage. It’s just all about standards. I’m sure Sunak would feel unbearably poor on anything below 65k a year, but I’m sure someone using a food bank and living in poverty would feel very comfortable on 35k.
It’s just down to the individual and what they themselves consider stable, well off, and happy.
Pro tip: don’t have kids because childcare is like £2k/toddler before they can go to school.
Depressing how the word “whopping” is used to describe a salary of £37k.
I’m job hunting right now and I see so many London-based job ads that require a university degree and several years of experience in the field and specific skills and knowledge of certain programs, and also expect you to work in the office in central London 5 days a week…
…And they’re offering £27,000.
Maybe I’ve been spoiled by a remote job with a good salary, but these companies just seem completely delusional to me.
> Budget for Londoners earning gross £37,000
> Rent – £921
>
> Transportation – £200
>
> Groceries – £166
>
> Utilities – £133
>
> Council Tax – £63
>
> Eating out – £173
>
> Holidays – £176
>
> Saving – £239
>
> Health & Fitness – £51
>
> Subscriptions – £102
>
> Discretionary drinks & snacks – £115
>
> Clothing – £32
>
> **Total – £2,371**
**I’m sorry but who the fuck in London:**
1. Pays only £921 for rent?
2. Pays only £63 for council tax
3. Pays only £133 for utilities
4 Pays only £166 for groceries
All of that is just for people in a flat share. And even in a flatshare, rent unfortunately is often £1k for renting a room
Reading this, make me feel like i should just give up and die. Whats the point?
Your rent/mortgage is kinda the biggest factor here. If you’re paying 800 per month and not 1800 then of course you can get by on a lower salary.
Lmao… 37k? I fudging LONDON? I earn 60k in Cambs and still feel like I’m barely surviving
What a shit budget. 102 quid on subscriptions??
You can live quite well in a house share on a lot less than that
I asked one of the guys on Canary Wharf the other day how much he thinks you need to earn to enjoy living in and aspire to move beyond London. He gave it some thought then said “100k”.
He was not wrong.
London makes no sense at any salary level. It’s High CoL with mediocre salaries