It depends where you are to a large extent I imagine.
Larger houses cost more, they’re more expensive to heat, more things to break etc etc. Even then, in the South low six figures doesn’t get you a great deal in a lot of places anyway.
£100k isn’t close to what it was 20 years ago in spending power terms.
If you are earning more than 100k a year then it’s 100% your fault if you’re struggling to survive to the end of the month.
My wife and I earn 70k combined, live in a good sized 1 bed flat with a balcony in Shepherds Bush, have a perfectly nice lifestyle, regular holidays with big trips thrown in (USA, Colombia, Peru) and still manage to save.
What on earth are these people spending that much money on??
I can only think it’s kids and childcare, combined with reckless spending, of which we have/do neither
So is everyone who spends all their income each month, what is the point of this article, might I ask?
All lifestyle dependent. I know a co-worker of mine who earns the same as I do who had to get two massive cars out on finance for him and the wife, plus big house and 2 abroad holidays a year. Constantly complaining about waiting for payday.
Is that article just an advert for RBC Brewin Dolphin? Surely any self respecting journalist would get more concrete information on what those one in four people’s expenses look like, where the biggest increases have come from, stuff like that. Instead it’s just quotes from that company’s financial planner.
They need to cut down on the Starbucks and the avocado toast
Now imagine those living with less than £30k a year, who are likely in worse off condition with fewer commodities and disposable income, living paycheque to paycheque.
These articles are just out of touch.
It’s very simple to happen without ‘over spending’
You leverage yourself against your salary several years ago – with a big mortgage and a low interest rate. Time comes to remortgage and suddenly you need to spend hundreds more a month more than did before. Your gas & electric bills on that big house jump up too. Your childcare costs go up
All that stuff that left you with several hundred a month left over, maybe even a grand or more – because you were leveraged against ‘expensive stuff’ – and stuff you can’t quickly (or don’t want to) give up – it ends up making you skint at the end of the month.
High lifestyle inflation puts you at risk when *actual* inflation blows away your disposible income. You can’t rapidly un-inflate having an expensive house/mortgage without a lot of pain and stress either.
Yeah especially a single household earner your not exactly rich. I’m in £100kish and I’m not exactly rich
In fact 2 people on £40k each probably make more money than I do as I pay more tax and don’t get the child benefit
My partner and I earn over £100k combined. Mortgage payment went up £600 per month. Energy went up over £100 per month. We only bought our house four years ago and used savings and credit cards to get it fixed up. The garden was unusable until last year so we got a loan to fix that too. We have two children (5 & 2) so childcare costs for the youngest is nearly £2k per month, but that does go down next year. My oldest is growing fast so needs new clothes and shoes quite regularly. We’re not buying expensive stuff but we are in our overdraft each month. We spend quite a lot just repaying debt.
We are in the bracket of six figure earners (combined income of around £140k pa between the two of us). We have no kids and live fairly modestly. Our only real luxury is two ‘nice’ cars and they are both second hand (a Nissan and an Mitsubishi). We are not living hand to mouth by any means – unless you have a daft mortgage, several kids, expensive cars, eat out all the time, holidays abroad etc. I don’t really see how anyone can be struggling.
Cutting their cloth badly.
6 figure earner, 2 children and a part time public sector low wage partner can live quite happily and not really worry about money.
Alternatively they can over stretch, think they’re entitled to upper class flights, multimillion £ mortgages and nice cars on leases with Waitrose weekly shops and find they’re struggling.
Scary times when you have to consider turning off the champagne fountain.
The more income you get, the more you spend. Payments for that shiny car, subscription services etc, the normalisation of debt… it all adds up.
Anyone who bought a house recently will be finding it pretty tight irrespective of their salary.
Better that they do rather than horde it all, I guess. Puts value back into the economy in a taxable way.
I’m sure this won’t descend into the usual reddit hatred of anyone earning more than 5p above minimum wage.
No wonder businesses get away with paying Brits so little when we are happy to cut down anyone that dares to try and do any better in life.
Damn, how the hell are the rest of us meant to cope??
If anybody earning 100k pleads poverty then thing of the real victims here who earn buttons. Don’t ever feel sorry for those earning telephone number salaries.
Can they not just cancel their Netflix and buy fewer coffees?
Mainly dependent on how nice your house/car/childcare is no? And in london. 100k is still a lot of money.
But even so its insane that for whats we’d like to belive as one of the most prosperous countries on the planet that if 100k is “paycheque to paycheque” for a middle class lifestyle in the capital; the average wage is less than a third thank that.
Like the fact the “average” brit has to get by on 30k is wild. Like its an absolute death grip on the economy: no ones having kids. No ones spending like they used to. The impact that has on us *now* is big; but in 5 or 10 years? We are fucked unless theres genuine radical change.
The amount of people agreeing in the comments is mind boggling. If you can’t manage to live comfortably on £100,000 then you are doing something massively wrong.
Considering the average wage should be 50-60k a year for people under 35 dealing with stupid house prices and ridiculous taxes, 100k really isn’t all that. The only Americanism we need to adopt is one about wages. So often British people turn their noses up at big wages as if people should take pride in getting by on a pittance. We need a much higher percentage of workers earning over 100k.
If you live in London on 100k and you have 2 children sub 5 – I’d argue that’s harder than the north on 50k. Childcare, rents, cost of living, less government help / credits makes a huge difference.
The higher rate tax band is in desperate need of adjusting in line with inflation – it should be £60-65k minimum; it’s effectively a stealth tax
Mo money, mo problems.
Basically in this country, the harder you work the more successful you are, the more you are punished for it.
You can’t out-earn bad financial habits. It’s why most lottery winners go broke, and many celebrities end up filing for bankruptcy. You need control, no matter how much you earn.
£100k isn’t enough money for an extravagant life for a family, but it should definitely be comfortable.
What exactly is paycheque to paycheque?
Does it mean that literally the person has 0 money left by the time their next pay packet arrives?
It wouldn’t be Reddit if people making 25-30k wouldn’t defend people earning 3-4 times more for not being able to survive on their poor 100k income…
I’m finding it quite hard to be sympathetic.
Do what tells low earners do to. Move, go out less, cut out coffee, and get a new job.
How can you not spend within your means on a six figure salary?
Tax needs to be rebalanced. It’s insane people are paying 40% tax @50k these days. It should be 40% at 100k, poss 150k.
It was only ever supposed to capture ultra high earners.
32 comments
It depends where you are to a large extent I imagine.
Larger houses cost more, they’re more expensive to heat, more things to break etc etc. Even then, in the South low six figures doesn’t get you a great deal in a lot of places anyway.
£100k isn’t close to what it was 20 years ago in spending power terms.
If you are earning more than 100k a year then it’s 100% your fault if you’re struggling to survive to the end of the month.
My wife and I earn 70k combined, live in a good sized 1 bed flat with a balcony in Shepherds Bush, have a perfectly nice lifestyle, regular holidays with big trips thrown in (USA, Colombia, Peru) and still manage to save.
What on earth are these people spending that much money on??
I can only think it’s kids and childcare, combined with reckless spending, of which we have/do neither
So is everyone who spends all their income each month, what is the point of this article, might I ask?
All lifestyle dependent. I know a co-worker of mine who earns the same as I do who had to get two massive cars out on finance for him and the wife, plus big house and 2 abroad holidays a year. Constantly complaining about waiting for payday.
Is that article just an advert for RBC Brewin Dolphin? Surely any self respecting journalist would get more concrete information on what those one in four people’s expenses look like, where the biggest increases have come from, stuff like that. Instead it’s just quotes from that company’s financial planner.
They need to cut down on the Starbucks and the avocado toast
Now imagine those living with less than £30k a year, who are likely in worse off condition with fewer commodities and disposable income, living paycheque to paycheque.
These articles are just out of touch.
It’s very simple to happen without ‘over spending’
You leverage yourself against your salary several years ago – with a big mortgage and a low interest rate. Time comes to remortgage and suddenly you need to spend hundreds more a month more than did before. Your gas & electric bills on that big house jump up too. Your childcare costs go up
All that stuff that left you with several hundred a month left over, maybe even a grand or more – because you were leveraged against ‘expensive stuff’ – and stuff you can’t quickly (or don’t want to) give up – it ends up making you skint at the end of the month.
High lifestyle inflation puts you at risk when *actual* inflation blows away your disposible income. You can’t rapidly un-inflate having an expensive house/mortgage without a lot of pain and stress either.
Yeah especially a single household earner your not exactly rich. I’m in £100kish and I’m not exactly rich
In fact 2 people on £40k each probably make more money than I do as I pay more tax and don’t get the child benefit
My partner and I earn over £100k combined. Mortgage payment went up £600 per month. Energy went up over £100 per month. We only bought our house four years ago and used savings and credit cards to get it fixed up. The garden was unusable until last year so we got a loan to fix that too. We have two children (5 & 2) so childcare costs for the youngest is nearly £2k per month, but that does go down next year. My oldest is growing fast so needs new clothes and shoes quite regularly. We’re not buying expensive stuff but we are in our overdraft each month. We spend quite a lot just repaying debt.
We are in the bracket of six figure earners (combined income of around £140k pa between the two of us). We have no kids and live fairly modestly. Our only real luxury is two ‘nice’ cars and they are both second hand (a Nissan and an Mitsubishi). We are not living hand to mouth by any means – unless you have a daft mortgage, several kids, expensive cars, eat out all the time, holidays abroad etc. I don’t really see how anyone can be struggling.
Cutting their cloth badly.
6 figure earner, 2 children and a part time public sector low wage partner can live quite happily and not really worry about money.
Alternatively they can over stretch, think they’re entitled to upper class flights, multimillion £ mortgages and nice cars on leases with Waitrose weekly shops and find they’re struggling.
Scary times when you have to consider turning off the champagne fountain.
The more income you get, the more you spend. Payments for that shiny car, subscription services etc, the normalisation of debt… it all adds up.
Anyone who bought a house recently will be finding it pretty tight irrespective of their salary.
Better that they do rather than horde it all, I guess. Puts value back into the economy in a taxable way.
I’m sure this won’t descend into the usual reddit hatred of anyone earning more than 5p above minimum wage.
No wonder businesses get away with paying Brits so little when we are happy to cut down anyone that dares to try and do any better in life.
Damn, how the hell are the rest of us meant to cope??
If anybody earning 100k pleads poverty then thing of the real victims here who earn buttons. Don’t ever feel sorry for those earning telephone number salaries.
Can they not just cancel their Netflix and buy fewer coffees?
Mainly dependent on how nice your house/car/childcare is no? And in london. 100k is still a lot of money.
But even so its insane that for whats we’d like to belive as one of the most prosperous countries on the planet that if 100k is “paycheque to paycheque” for a middle class lifestyle in the capital; the average wage is less than a third thank that.
Like the fact the “average” brit has to get by on 30k is wild. Like its an absolute death grip on the economy: no ones having kids. No ones spending like they used to. The impact that has on us *now* is big; but in 5 or 10 years? We are fucked unless theres genuine radical change.
The amount of people agreeing in the comments is mind boggling. If you can’t manage to live comfortably on £100,000 then you are doing something massively wrong.
Considering the average wage should be 50-60k a year for people under 35 dealing with stupid house prices and ridiculous taxes, 100k really isn’t all that. The only Americanism we need to adopt is one about wages. So often British people turn their noses up at big wages as if people should take pride in getting by on a pittance. We need a much higher percentage of workers earning over 100k.
If you live in London on 100k and you have 2 children sub 5 – I’d argue that’s harder than the north on 50k. Childcare, rents, cost of living, less government help / credits makes a huge difference.
The higher rate tax band is in desperate need of adjusting in line with inflation – it should be £60-65k minimum; it’s effectively a stealth tax
Mo money, mo problems.
Basically in this country, the harder you work the more successful you are, the more you are punished for it.
You can’t out-earn bad financial habits. It’s why most lottery winners go broke, and many celebrities end up filing for bankruptcy. You need control, no matter how much you earn.
£100k isn’t enough money for an extravagant life for a family, but it should definitely be comfortable.
What exactly is paycheque to paycheque?
Does it mean that literally the person has 0 money left by the time their next pay packet arrives?
It wouldn’t be Reddit if people making 25-30k wouldn’t defend people earning 3-4 times more for not being able to survive on their poor 100k income…
I’m finding it quite hard to be sympathetic.
Do what tells low earners do to. Move, go out less, cut out coffee, and get a new job.
How can you not spend within your means on a six figure salary?
Tax needs to be rebalanced. It’s insane people are paying 40% tax @50k these days. It should be 40% at 100k, poss 150k.
It was only ever supposed to capture ultra high earners.