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

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?

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 ...

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.

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 🦕

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!

£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.

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

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.

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?

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

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

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 enough to live on in London. I manage in the NE but some months my expenses exceed my income.

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

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.

I've just seen a house for sale on TikTok for £35000,000. I'm not sure what that proves, but whatever it is it's not a typical house price. It's in Chelsea, but that's not important either. Here's another one for £40million if anyone doesn't believe me. www.onthemarket.com/details/14025797/

Again, it proves nothing, other than that there are people with a lot of money to spend.

£500 a week per child is expensive, but not outrageous. £1000 a week for one child is, obviously, double that, which may be the rate for an exclusive nanny, but again, is not typical.

None of this is relevant to whether or not a £5000 a month salary after offtakes is a good salary though. These things are relative, and in many ways unrelated to expenses, as the are not taken into account when salaries are set. It is, in answer to the question, undeniably above average though.

Lets put London house prices into persepctive. I have just looked up the leafy part of south London my family come from. adjacent to Lewisham with local parks and Blackheath and Greenwich less than 2 miles away there are plenty of pleasant 2 bedroomed flats in purpose built blocks for sale at £250,000. The area has good access to Canary Wharf and central London.

Lets keep things in proportion. Most people baught their homes probable 5-50 years ago so mortgage costs have a varying effect. Children are only under 5 for 5 years so childcare costs are not for ever and most households do not include children under 5, or even under 11.

So yes £5,000 a month is a significantly large household income, even in London and the South East and in areas and it is quite easy to live modestly, but well on considerabluy less than that even in London.

Go somewhere where house prices are very low and you can live in the lap of luxury - dependng on ones difinition of luxury.

According to Zoopla:
The average sold price for a property in London in the last 12 months is £733,647. Different property types in London have different average sold prices over the last 12 months: Detached. £1,296,827.
www.zoopla.co.uk › london
Yes, you may be able to get a flat in an undesirable area for £250,000, but the average is more meaningful for the average family.

There are still childcare costs involved for working parents with children over 5 years old.
Also a 2bed flat is not suitable for a family of 4 or more. The jump from a starter flat to family home is enormous anywhere near London. The current government is not at all family friendly and it needs to smell the coffee.
Also of course areas with low priced affordable family houses won’t have a local economy supporting incomes of £5k per month after tax in the main.

Lets put London house prices into persepctive. I have just looked up the leafy part of south London my family come from. adjacent to Lewisham with local parks and Blackheath and Greenwich less than 2 miles away there are plenty of pleasant 2 bedroomed flats in purpose built blocks for sale at £250,000. The area has good access to Canary Wharf and central London.

Goodness, I am surprised!
A young couple with children in our family paid far more than that for a two bedroomed flat with garden in that area. They both work in the public sector but their combined salaries are not going to be large by London standards.

OP originally said the mortgage payment =£1,700. The loan amount is likely around £350,000 (using chart and knowing when rates changed) matters not, just what is affordable to his pay.

It really doesn't matter what childcare costs either, the wife stays home. No commute, work clothing, meal costs to work.

Do I think they could live very modestly in London? Yes, I assume so. I suspect money is quite tight and someone is unhappy - thus the post.

I doubt there are many families who have no childcare costs Norah. It would unusual for a child not to attend playgroup, at least, and there will be costs associated with keeping them entertained, as well as the usual food, clothes, equipment etc.

Casdon

I doubt there are many families who have no childcare costs Norah. It would unusual for a child not to attend playgroup, at least, and there will be costs associated with keeping them entertained, as well as the usual food, clothes, equipment etc.

I was merely not adding cost of childcare into the mix, as there is none. Yes, there are the usual clothing, food, perhaps playgroup costs.

As I said, that sum will be very tight, in London. Someone is unhappy.

Casdon The south London area I searched is not and never has been undesireable.

To be precise
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find.html?locationIdentifier=REGION%5E87405&maxBedrooms=2&minBedrooms=2&sortType=1&propertyTypes=flat&includeSSTC=false&mustHave=&dontShow=&furnishTypes=&keywords=

Average price values give you no guide at all. First time buyers are generally buying houses in the lowest quartile of house prices and the variation of house prices in any post code is so variabl.

I live in a post code where about 7 of the houses are vauled (and are selling ) for £1 million and more. The remaining houses, about 15-20 in all, sell at under £500,000. The average price for the post code, on that basis, is roughly £600-650,000, yet there is not one house in the post code that would sell for any figure even near the average.

I merely quoted the average price Monica, which also tells you the average price of a detached house, which is the aspiration for most families. I know a young couple who have just bought a flat in south London, it was two bedroomed and just over £500k. If you don’t believe what I’ve said, here is the Statista analysis.
www.statista.com/statistics/1029409/average-price-of-flats-in-london-by-borough/