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

Yes. You need to earn a lot pre-tax to take that much home.

I'm in London, as is my daughter. She's a single parent earning around £60k gross including bonus and did struggle with nursery fees but now both her children are at school she can cope. She owns her own place without a mortgage which obviously does make a difference.
I think that whether £5000 a month in hand is enough will depend on how ambititious you have been in your choice of property and size of mortgage.
I have friends with children earning that much and more. Some have huge houses in expensive areas with large mortgages and they do a lot of moaning about how tough it is. Others have smaller, less fancy houses in less expensive areas and live happier lives.

Considering that teachers, nurses, other professions plus those in less well-paid jobs still manage to live and work in London, then yes, I'd say that £5,000 take home pay is comfortable.

It is all dependent on the price of housing, both rents and mortgages which can be extortionate in some areas.

I feel for younger people these days, two salaries are essential to afford a family but then family life is not as we knew it ( most of us at grandparent age ) .
The next generation is going to be worse yet.

Yes, a lot
more than I've ever earned!!

I would say that even at London prices £5000 a month is ample. It's a case of looking at your income and expenditure to see where you can save. CAP Money is a charity who can help with this.

Yes.

Yes it's a good income, unfortunately most people are in the 20-30k annually.

£5000 a month? Hmm, isn’t that what train drivers are paid? And they re holding us to ransom for more ! Just saying.

No it isn’t. There isn’t a single salary for all levels of train drivers, in all the regions of the UK. The most experienced drivers in the highest paid region - London - earn a little below £60k (c£3500 a month net) not over £90k pa.

Just looked it up, a new teacher in London earns £34,500. So that's 2.6 teachers.

Definitely, yes

The question is “is it a good salary? “ not “is it enough?”
Those saying it is inadequate- I wonder why we’re in the position that someone earning this much- twice the pay of say teachers or nurses- is not able to live really well. What has society become that you have to earn more than average, more than employers can or will pay, just to afford to live.

Absolutely yes!

Yes, that is the real question Dizzyribs

Are they aspiring to a lifestyle beyond their income or just finding it difficult to live within their means for some reason?

Those of us managing on a state pension have to survive on not much more than that per YEAR, regardless of where we live.

Absolute fortune!!!

LizzieDrip

Those of us managing on a state pension have to survive on not much more than that per YEAR, regardless of where we live.

I hope you are claiming any benefits you're entitled to LizzieDrip
That sounds impossible, however frugal you are.

mbody

Absolute fortune!!!

Not necessarily if you have a large mortgage and childcare costs

I live in the north east and don’t know anyone that’s taking that home around here as a couple. I can only wish.

Harris57 Quite anumber of neighbour hoods in the North East where the average income is over £50,000 - that will include households with incomes in excess of £5,000 a month.

Most of those households will probably have two incomes coming in to make up that amount.

www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/north-east-pay-gap-richest-23102310

rosie1959

mbody

Absolute fortune!!!

Not necessarily if you have a large mortgage and childcare costs

It really isn’t a fortune for professionally qualified workers. The working partner is supporting the other and a child. Most couples both work, so they earn this jointly if they are on average salaries, so are taxed at a lower rate. We aren’t comparing this with people living on a pension, but with other young couples with large mortgages who live in London.

LizzieDrip. I quote from the government website www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/understanding-pension-credit
^
Pension Credit tops up: your weekly income to £201.05 if you're single. your joint weekly income to £306.85 if you have a partner.^.

So the minimum annual income of a single pensioner should not be less than £10,454.60. So if you are not getting that, immediately cpontact the pension agency.

The one exception is if you have savings in excess of £10,000 that income will be reduced by £1 a week for every £500 in excess of £10,000. Here is a link to the Age UK Pension Credit Factsheet www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/money-legal/benefits-entitlements/pension-credit/ and the government document telling you what other benefits you could claim if you were on pension credit. www.gov.uk/pension-credit/what-youll-get

FlexibleFriend

I'm a Londoner and both my kids earn less than that but they think they're on good money. They both earn around £60k per annum. One is married and his wife also works, the other is still single. They're opinion is your Daughter doesn't know how well off she is and needs to give her head a wobble.

I agree! I live just outside London so know what rents and mortgages are like, but as others have said many people manage on much less. As a stay at home mum, many years ago I can remember our spending power dropped dramatically after having been on 2 salaries before the children arrived, but 'You cut your coat to suit the cloth'! If I'd gone back to work, childcare costs would have been high and I didn't have the ambition to want to put myself through the stress for a career that didn't excite me. I eventually got a small part time job at the weekend when my ex was able to have the children, to take the financial pressure off, but only went back to work properly when my youngest went to secondary school. By then, after a big gap, it wasn't a career but just a job! I was hit hard when I became a single mum and my standard of living is far worse now in retirement as my pensions are much less than if I'd returned to work, but I have no regrets. I loved my time at home with my children. I also know there are many far worse off than me! Sometimes we just need to count our blessing rather than look at what some people seem to have that we don't!

This thread sadly shows the massive difference between rich and poor in this country. So many people earn minimum wage for the most important jobs, care for example. I am happy for those with large salaries, which many people, myself included, perceive £5000 pcm to be. But it is not right that others who also work and strive cannot hope to reach this level of remuneration.