What would you class as a decent salary?

[Broody85]

I'm curious as to what people perceive as a decent salary? I know that lifestyle etc plays a role in what you need to earn to be able to support yourself but putting all of that aside how much do you think is a decent salary?

I've just been doing some googling and have seen that the average UK salary for females is £24k and for males £30k. This has kinda shocked me as I think it's quite high. I personally think that a salary of about 20k is good. On 20k I would imagine you could live comfortably as an individual. You could rent a flat and afford to live and possibly save a bit. Obviously this wouldn't be so comfortable tho if you were trying to support a family on the same salary.

So, yeah, what do you guys think?

 

[blondey]

It really depends where you live as well. I'm in Essex and full time I would be on 21k and if I was single etc I probably wouldn't be able to move out of my parents on that as take home on 21k is about 1200 and rent around here is about 750/800 minimum so not really feasible!!

I think a decent amount all depends on location and life style.

 

[Natasha2605]

I think that 's very high. Our joint salary ATM is less than 20000 and we live pretty well and put £650 to private rent and £140 to council tax every month. He works part time and I work full time. His salary along will go up to 23000 over the next few years, to me that it a lot! We live in Edinburgh in a lovely 3 bed house, can afford holidays abroad etc and have loads of treats, would it be nice to have more? Of course!

So I dunno, I think it depends on where you live , what you pay out and what you class as necessities and what you class as treats!

 

[baby_mama87]

I live in north east too so 20k for me is a very decent salary, OH is doing a contract at the moment and earning 39k which is a massive salary to us but people living down south would probably need to double that to live! I definitely agree with a PP it all depends on where u live in UK. My uncle lives in London somewhere near heathrow and pays about £1200 a month for a flat. I pay £450 a month for a new build house on a nice estate so just shows the differences.

Xxx

 

[Pink Flowers]

Martin earns £33ishk and I earn about £7k so thats nearly £40k and we live a comfortable life style. I think around here you need to be earning that sort of money to have spare money and live a nice life style x

 

[Missy86]

I would have said about 20k but I agree it won't get you much in Essex

I am lucky hubby earns a decent amount

 

[aliss]

Yes I think it's all about priorities and perspectives. I *personally* would find that fine but I also don't mind living in a small apartment, taking public transit, etc. whereas my OH is the opposite and wants the house, 2 cars (one which just sits there) etc. He makes about $85k/yr (which is like £55k for UK gals) and our cost of living is LOWER here but he doesn't think it's enough..........hmmm.

I dunno. I was raised on a low income and never developed a taste for material things. His parents were both high finance/big lifestyle in that sense and I suppose our backgrounds rubbed off on us.

 

[PixieM]

we together earn £24k a year and pay £950 a month on rent and council tax then bill but can live ok on what we earn but it does take a lot of budgeting on my behalf!

 

[Fabby]

My dh earns nearly 50k and I earn about 6.5k!! Massive difference between the two of us lol. But we live to our means. We spend our earnings each month. We do enjoy our holidays though and we are going on our 2nd abroad holiday of the year in 2 weeks time and the 2 holidays together will amount to 4k. We live in the midlands.

 

[LoraLoo]

When i was working before i went on Mat Leave I was earning about £22k and DH was earning about £18k, we lived quite comfortably, we were never 'well' off but we were never overdrawn etc either xx

 

[Fizzoid]

Hmm, 20k would just about cover the rent, excluding bills, food and general living. I also probably couldn't afford to get to work on 20k

Again, it's all down to where you live. Rent for us alone is £1100 a month...

 

[Blah11]

we joint earn around £26k & live comfortably on that.

 

[PixieM]

I should also add though we dont get any benefit but child benefit and am often getting complemented on how well we do lol i do love mse!

 

[TFSGirl]

Yes I think it's all about priorities and perspectives. I *personally* would find that fine but I also don't mind living in a small apartment, taking public transit, etc. whereas my OH is the opposite and wants the house, 2 cars (one which just sits there) etc. He makes about $85k/yr (which is like £55k for UK gals) and our cost of living is LOWER here but he doesn't think it's enough..........hmmm.

I dunno. I was raised on a low income and never developed a taste for material things. His parents were both high finance/big lifestyle in that sense and I suppose our backgrounds rubbed off on us.

This is really the only post I can relate to, as I am in Canada as well. It really must be the way people are raised that indicates what they think might be decent... as I grew up in a pretty upper-middle class family, and thus I don't expect any less for myself. We still struggle to make eneds meet sometimes due to the fact that there is some financial burden coming from OH's ex, but still we both make decent wages I guess, and both work part time here and there to have a bit of extra pocket cash.

 

[maryp0ppins]

Oh and i earn 44k a year together. Would like to have a baby but atm we would struggle on just his wage if i didnt go back to work.

 

[lozzy21]

To me 20k would be an amazing wadge, at the moment we earn about 23 between and we manage.

 

[x Michelle x]

.

 

[tallybee]

Yes I think it's all about priorities and perspectives. I *personally* would find that fine but I also don't mind living in a small apartment, taking public transit, etc. whereas my OH is the opposite and wants the house, 2 cars (one which just sits there) etc. He makes about $85k/yr (which is like £55k for UK gals) and our cost of living is LOWER here but he doesn't think it's enough..........hmmm.

I dunno. I was raised on a low income and never developed a taste for material things. His parents were both high finance/big lifestyle in that sense and I suppose our backgrounds rubbed off on us.

This is really the only post I can relate to, as I am in Canada as well. It really must be the way people are raised that indicates what they think might be decent... as I grew up in a pretty upper-middle class family, and thus I don't expect any less for myself. We still struggle to make eneds meet sometimes due to the fact that there is some financial burden coming from OH's ex, but still we both make decent wages I guess, and both work part time here and there to have a bit of extra pocket cash.

This I can relate to. DH earns £39K which would be a brilliant wage, but his ex drew out their divorce something chronic and we still have debt from paying solicitors fees (in addition to the hefty whack that goes on maintenance, the maintenance on its own is a lot but it's for the boys so that's not a complaint). I'm finishing off my degree and not working currently, finding a job is def not as easy as it sounds, to juggle with school/childcare etc etc. We managed to buy a house due to me having received inheritance from my late mum, mortgage is £400 a month, we're way out of town (for price reasons) and DH has a headache of a commute (which also costs silly money) and wouldn't have even afforded this place without the inheritance.

We often have 'too much month at the end of our money', DH is used to having a lot more, he's a nightmare as I have to constantly rein him in or he would use the credit card like it were free extra money

I really hope I can find skilled work after I finish studying!

 

[Broody85]

Thanks for all of the replies. It's interesting to see other peoples perspective on this x

 

[Abz1982]

Hmm it depends.

For my job, FT is 21k...which is the low end of the grade, and low for the industry. OH is on 24k, which isnt bad given her has only highers and is working in an industry where he realyl should have a qualification.

But, these are still not enough to really say, buy a house. Not without help. and Private rent for a decent place is near 1k a month.