{"id":109160,"date":"2025-05-17T13:52:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-17T13:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/109160\/"},"modified":"2025-05-17T13:52:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-17T13:52:10","slug":"i-earn-100k-and-own-my-flat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/109160\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I earn \u00a3100k and own my flat"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\t\t\t\t‘I don\u2019t live that expensive of a lifestyle. I was lucky to get on the property ladder in 2010, with a flat that doubled in price within five years of me buying it,’ Andrew says\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

Andrew* is a self-employed private tutor who, at the age of 38, owns a flat near Kensington Gardens in West London and earns a salary of \u00a380,000-\u00a3100,000 a year working for his family business. He earns an annual salary envied by so many, and yet Andrew is financially struggling<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the UK, one in 10 adults are saving no money at all, while a further 21 per cent have less than \u00a31,000 to draw on in an emergency, a new report<\/a> has revealed.<\/p>\n

The findings found that a quarter of the UK adult population have low financial resilience \u2013 term that describes having debts that are difficult to pay off; having failed to pay a series of bills; and having little savings.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is a financial strain<\/a> felt by even those earning more than double the UK\u2019s average salary.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not saving. Saving is not really a thing, unless you\u2019re working in finance,\u201d Andrew tells The i Paper. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t live that expensive of a lifestyle. I was lucky to get on the property ladder in 2010, with a flat that doubled in price within five years of me buying it. I was fortunate in that regard, but I\u2019ve got bills and a mortgage to pay. Life is expensive.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Andrew describes how he has had to cut back a lot on his personal expenses recently \u2013 although he does mention that his age and an introduction to spiritualism are contributing factors to a change of lifestyle. \u201cI don\u2019t go out much. I stopped drinking, and I\u2019m quite disciplined in my lifestyle. Bills are so high, so you go on the odd holiday once or twice a year.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

This life-altering financial toil is one he says is felt by nearly all of his peers and has resulted in many choosing to leave the country. \u201cMany of my friends have moved to either Dubai or Monaco because they can\u2019t afford to live in London anymore,\u201d he explains. <\/p>\n

\u201cNo one lives off their parents any more. That era of privileged upbringings and continuing the wealth of parents has diminished a lot; therefore, many of my friends are trying to make their own ends meet independently.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people who are successfully [living independently] are people in banking,\u201d he adds.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

When asked how much a livable income is in central London, Andrew replies: \u201c\u00a3100,000 is nowhere sufficient. If you are independently earning \u00a3200,000 a year, then you are comfortably safe.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

A TimeOut study<\/a> conducted in 2023 found that to enjoy a financially unburdened life in London, you need to be earning \u00a379,524.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite his monetary migraine, Andrew is \u201ccounting down the days\u201d to his upcoming holiday in two-and-a-half weeks, which immediately follows his last tutee ending their struggles with GCSEs. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re self-employed, you don\u2019t get annual leave and so I take limited time off because it costs money, even sickies cost money. It costs me around \u00a3300 to \u00a3500 a day,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

Yet, Andrew will be leaving his W2 postcode and will explore Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Montenegro \u2013 at the cost of \u00a33,750 to \u00a36,250.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

*Andrew is given a false name due to consenting to speak to The i Paper under the agreement of anonymity\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘I don\u2019t live that expensive of a lifestyle. I was lucky to get on the property ladder in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3093],"tags":[51,474,1232,2499,3028,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-109160","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-money","11":"tag-personal-finance","12":"tag-savings","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114523507432191367","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}