Do you consider £5000pm take home pay a good salary?

NotAGran55

Doodledog the thread you mentioned on Mumsnet was not for one child it was two, one toddler and one new born baby.

Our daughter has a London friend paying £1,000 week for 2 children.

What, on £5,000 per month harrigran? 😯

No, not enough to live on in London. I manage in the NE but some months my expenses exceed my income.

NotAGran55

Doodledog the thread you mentioned on Mumsnet was not for one child it was two, one toddler and one new born baby.

Ah sorry. I didn’t actually see it - I was responding to a previous post which said that someone paid £4k a month for one very young child and the poster didn’t understand why people who need to work have children.

I should probably have checked, but as there was no link to the thread it would have meant searching for it without even knowing the title. In the context of this thread about the cost of living in London it was more the idea that if you can’t afford exorbitant costs you shouldn’t have children that triggered my response.

No.... not if you're in London

Doodledog the thread you mentioned on Mumsnet was not for one child it was two, one toddler and one new born baby.

Kandinsky I actually feel sorry for people living here because housing is so expensive. But housing will he expensive in any nice area. Wages are higher here true.

But if a family in London needs £5000pm just to live comfortably - that’s nothing to envy surely?

Maybe the families living in cheaper parts of the country are the real winners.

Joseann Well said Kadinsky.
London is pretty unique in terms of work - opportunities, salaries, promotion prospects etc. Also, property values which have gone through the roof. Plus expensive entertainment and restauration. Good earnings are needed to "live" life in London the full. So why are some people so concerned -- envious-- about what those in the capital are earning?

I suspect it's just an interesting question, if you've nobody in London you've never considered. I know this is different to my life.

No envy here, just interest at the debate of childcare costs - she has none, nor any other work expenses. However, sil is likely working long hours and paying in 40% rate to provide. Perhaps that's a problem?

I don't believe it was 4k a month either. My daughter a single parent in a high paying job used a nursery and did not pay that much a month, nowhere near in fact and she lived, lives in a London Borough.
My Grandson is 10 now, and Mother works from home 2 days a week, and family including his Grandfather and myself do the aftercare after School, it saves her alot of money.
No dought childcare Is expensive but anyone receiving 5k a month on what my daughter paid would be sale to afford it. 5k a month is quote a good salary.

8 years ago my daughter was was paying 15k for our granddaughter in nursery, this was 8.30-5.00.
This was in Brighton, they had moved from London were charges were much higher!
The photo is a screenshot of some Nanny vacancies in London

£3200 for two children is a lot of money, but it's not £4000 for one child. Believe me, I'm not saying it's easy for young people - I know it isn't. But MN is not the most reliable source of information, and paying £52k after tax for childcare just doesn't ring true.

The OP is asking about a single income of £5k after tax, which means that there would be no need for childcare costs, or things like transport to work, lunches, work clothes or any of the costs of going to work for the partner who stayed at home.

Again, I'm not saying it is a lot or a little - just that it is significantly above average, and it is not being mooted as a combination of two salaries of £2,500 each, but a take home salary for one earner.

Doodledog it’s perfectly possible to pay £3200 for two children especially if it’s a 5 week month. The government has not exactly fallen over itself to help young families.
Also housing around London is extremely expensive and not enough family homes are being built. Even on a joint income of over £5k life is financially difficult… hard to believe but true!

Joseann

Well said Kadinsky.
London is pretty unique in terms of work - opportunities, salaries, promotion prospects etc. Also, property values which have gone through the roof. Plus expensive entertainment and restauration. Good earnings are needed to "live" life in London the full. So why are some people so concerned -- envious-- about what those in the capital are earning?

I'm not sure that we lived life to the full when we lived in London bringing up a young family!

At least museums were free 🦕

I don't think you can believe everything you read on MN. Who pays £1000 a week for childcare? There is help with childcare these days, and whilst I realise that it isn't as good as it sounds, it exists, and there are benefit top-ups for people on low incomes who work. I can't imagine anyone paying £4k a month for a nursery or nanny.

I sympathise absolutely with anyone who can't afford to put the heating on, and can understand people lashing out, but many women go back to work when their babies are young as an alternative to being dependent on the state or bringing their children up in poverty, and it is very unfair to castigate them for doing so.

People should be pulling together to improve conditions for everyone, not criticising the life choices of others.

As far as I'm concerned that amount is like Monopoly money. Saw a post on Mumsnet the other day - the poster was bemoaning the fact that she had to pay £4.000 a month for childcare for her very young child.

I don't understand it - why have children if you are going back to work as soon as the child hits a few months?

The LA are harassing me about contributing to the care and support I receive. I have a benefit income and can't afford to put the heating on, never mind pay for that. It has been 4* inside the last few days and I am being kept alive alive by a heated throw, and thank God I bought a spare as this afternoon the 'remote' stopped working - that sort of money sort of sounds obscene to me now ...

Well said Kadinsky.
London is pretty unique in terms of work - opportunities, salaries, promotion prospects etc. Also, property values which have gone through the roof. Plus expensive entertainment and restauration. Good earnings are needed to "live" life in London the full. So why are some people so concerned -- envious-- about what those in the capital are earning?

I suppose with small children and a mortgage at £1700 things might be quite stretched but it isn't anything new is it, if one parent stays at home?

Yes as Amalegra says it just shows the massive and quite unfair differences in life

But it’s not my family’s fault we were born in London. I was born here, my husband was born here, all our family are here.
So when we married we bought our 1st home here. What else were we supposed to do? Our jobs were here.
Were we supposed to uproot ourselves and move up north, just so we could buy a cheap house in a town we had no ties with & knew nobody?
We stayed here because this is where we’re from. Our children were born here.
Why should they have to move to Liverpool or somewhere?

I actually feel sorry for people living here because housing is so expensive. But housing will he expensive in any nice area.
Wages are higher here true.

But if a family in London needs £5000pm just to live comfortably - that’s nothing to envy surely?
Maybe the families living in cheaper parts of the country are the real winners.

Well said Bluebelle 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

I agree with you BlueBelle.

There is another way of considering whether this is a good salary. Is it good given the person’s qualifications, experience, the level of responsibility they carry and the hours they have to work to do the job (maybe in excess of 100 a week)?

I can only dream of that income!

I have never envied anyone able to afford an expensive watch, clothes or anything else.

I am qutie happy as I am and with what I can afford. Providing no one is in want, has a secure roof ove their head, can afford to eat and cloth themselves, does it really matter how much money some people have?

I am, of course, well aware that there are those who do not have that basic and I believe that all should be done to make sure that everyone possible can reach that minimum. but after that, what others do or don't have really doesn't woory me.

To those of you on here who have had high paid jobs and constant marriages it may seem an average wage
To some people on here who have worked hard (even in good jobs) but through life’s knocks haven’t had the high wages, it seems like a fortune
Yes as Amalegra says it just shows the massive and quite unfair differences in life
I often feel I m the poor relation on GN yet I had a very decent managerial level job after my children were all grown running a number of different projects but that was after I d struggled bringing children up on my own and paying a mortgage on my own without a penny maintenance so I could never really ‘‘catch up’ but I m not ashamed of my working class status and that I can’t afford cashmere jumpers or Rolex watches but I do know the difference life can bring and my empathy for hardworking low waged folk is high
£5000 a month is a lot of money

Saggi Tjat is below the Pension Credit basic, so you should apply for it.

Yes London is different it’s ridiculously expensive but that makes it even harder for people on average £25k salaries. Not everyone is a city worker earning shedloads and there is a lot of poverty in and around London and all woukd be in heaven to get paid such a great salary. .