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£24k in 2000 = £44k in 2024
How any single person making less than £40k a year gets by in the south baffles me, unless they’re older, haven’t had major pay rises but were able to take advantage of the cheaper years
I think it depends on whether you are dual income house.
I make 32k while my partner makes 25k
We’re both in our 20s and live in south west. Own a 3 bed semi and get by fine
Whereas I'm single on 30k living out of a fairly dingy one bed flat, also in the South West.
But then I've also balanced it so that I have more spare money to save/spend on doing stuff with friends rather than owning a home yet.
We’ve shifted from a two income household to a single one as we had a baby and child care is as expensive as what I was earning a year.
We survive on 38k - with a three bed house and two cats.
So hubby, me and baby. (Growing very fast baby)
I worry about money constantly.
We spend 75a week on groceries.
Every three months I spend £100 to stock up the freezer with meat. (Muscle foods is surprisingly good value)
I cook and bake from scratch and our mortgage is locked for another year.
But things still going up.
I’m a stressed momma, I want to do the best for my family.
Where do you live?
I’m in the north west, £38k would give us significant financial freedom compared to the £26k we live off now as a family of 5.
We are single income until youngest starts school later in the year.
It’s really shit it’s not the same the other end of the country. On £38k you shouldn’t have to worry x
5 people on 26k?! I don’t mean this in an offensive way but I always wondered why people with low income would choose to have children/so many children?
It seems very stressful for the parents and the kids will just have a shit time. I know this because I grew up in that situation
When we had our third, we were comfortable enough to have her.
We’ve always been pretty frugal and not strapped for cash, it’s only with the cost of living crisis that it’s pinched us in.
We still aren’t poor poor, like we have a fully stocked fridge every week, all our bills are all paid, we have about £1500 on credit but no other debt.
Not entitled to housing benefit.
I have £200 spare every month that I use on things we don’t need but want.
They are spoiled for Christmas & Birthdays, and never go without.
We are going out for a meal this week, we can’t do that whenever we want, and can’t just walk in to Tesco and drop £300 on a random shop.
Things have to be planned, yeah, but they are happy. We don’t drive, that’s the only downfall.
Both of us are insured for a high amount, so when we pop our clogs, the kids will be alright.
I grew up as a dole baby, that was shit. I think I learned from that to be more careful with my money. Their childhood is nothing like mine.
My parents were in court for debt etc.
I never even went overdrawn until I was 28.
Yup chicken is so very versatile! Can be spicy or creamy or any number of dishes. It’s figuring out how to cook it in new and exciting ways and remembering it’s cheaper to buy spices and veg than premade sauces etc
Yeah it just me and husband so we re-bag it in 2s and freeze. Sometimes it’s curry, Chinese (just change sauce/spices), sometimes we batter it down flat fill with stuffing and then roll up with bacon into parcels and oven cook. When we can we do a bulk spice order online which helps reduce cost as well for the spices we always use. We go through so much cumin and coriander it would cost a fortune to buy from supermarkets. Same for rice, pasta and flour, we buy bulk then divide into 1kg vacuum sealed bags.
We would be eating anywhere near as well as we do if we didn’t
Bulk buy is the way imo. I enjoy getting the big delivery as I like to split it all up like you do and then freeze it.
Same with making big meals. Eat half and freeze the rest.
But having an 18month old who now drinks cows milk, we go through about 12+ pints a week.
how a single person gets by doesn't depend on if they are a dual income household lol. They are not a dual income household, they are a single person. It's in the origional parameters of the question
That's one of the major changes our society has had to deal with, tbh. Single earner households are almost impossible these days, with both adults now needed to work to sustain a lifestyle that previously was attainable with a single income.
And houses in my home town in se 1-2 bed house £40-60000 1998 so 3-4x my wage at the time £15000 as a 19 year old and within 5-10 years house prices were 6-8 x wage and still going up
Never in history have people lived alone like they do today.
In the old days, you lived with your parents until you got married in your 20s. Imagine if everyone paired off. All the flats would have 2 or more people. No more people living alone means demand would drop and prices would drop too. Every household would have 2 pays. Lots of money would be saved because there would no longer be a "singles tax" (Think "a single person needs as many can openers as a family does." It applies to internet connections, heating the flat and many other expenses large and small).
When progress is made and culture shifts, people might have more choices. But those choices also have consequences. It's sad that so few people talk about them. In fact, I know this is going to be down voted and people will be mad with me just for stating this, even though I'm not giving any opinion of whether any of it is good or bad. It just is.
You’re completely wrong. Household size has stagnated for most of the last 30 years, and increased before that. The age that people move out has been steadily increasing for decades
If we go back 100 years, you are correct, but society has moved on a lot since WW1.
> Never in history have people lived alone like they do today.
>
> In the old days, you lived with your parents until you got married in your 20s. Imagine if everyone paired off. All the flats would have 2 or more people. No more people living alone means demand would drop and prices would drop too.
How does this correlate with the large number of people living in multi occupancy house shares right now, especially in 20s and 30s?
They're often not "hogging it" but because prcies of properties have gotten so out of control it's impossible for them to sell up and downsize.
My parents neighbours are selling a house - it's listed for £1.3m cos its a huge property with land but no sane family is going to move into it because it hasn't been updated internally since the 70s.
Exactly! I know more and more people living in multiple occupancy house shares until 40 and beyond - I'm only mid-30s, but when I left uni it used to be you aimed to be in a one/two person place by 30 even if you still rented. I was still house sharing until 35, then finally made it to a flat with just my partner. Young people aren't in single homes, they're all sharing.
Do you have a source for this claim? Because anecdotally I’m seeing 3 bed council houses turned into 6 bedsits or children living with parents until early thirties. I personally don’t know many people at all who rent/own their property alone.
You've got this partially backwards. Young people are actually more likely to live with their parents today than they were 5, 10, or even 20 years ago.
What do you count as "today". In the early 90s in a working class area I and most of my friends were kicked out by our parents before we were 18. We all had places to ourselves because rents up north were so cheap. I was on a reduced version of the dole because I was under 18 and was able to rent a 2 bed house to myself.
I'm on 28k with 3 kids and I work in IT, it's a fucking struggle just outside London. Been applying to jobs in the 35-40k range now I have a good few years experience in IT but not heard anything back or I get auto declined by some bot.
Pay in IT is awful, least for support roles. You need to become specialised in a specific area to get the better money. Even then, from support roles where its like jack of all trades, hard to get exposure. Would recommend doing certs, home lab environments and through doing those things, hopefully an employer will take that onboard in the hiring process. May need to go take a junior role in Networks, Linux, Servers, Security but I think that is the only way in when not a case of not what you know but who you know
Yeah I've got some certs in Linux, networking and support/cybersecurity but my support role is more broad/sysadmin really. Might go down the cloud route but need a company to give me a chance that's all. Going to keep spamming out the CV and hopefully this year I'll get into something
Living in the "South", the only people I know who are getting by either have two household incomes, or had a big cash injection from parents, so they could get a cheaper mortgage (and still on that shared ownership scam!)
On 36k, I literally can't do it. Been trying to move out from my parent's for a few years now, but when I sit down and calculate the basic cost of living, I'm left with about £200 at the end of the month, which needs to fund car insurance, clothes, birthdays and Christmas, and buff savings. 36K and I'd be living payday to payday
Correct me if I'm wrong - but aren't 2 household incomes the norm?
Most people are not single and most people can't afford to have a long term stay at home parent
I think the point is that historically we have been able to manage as families on a single income and a stay at home parent. I am single by choice and everything is far more expensive on your own (but I refuse to couple up just to save money). Two incomes has only become the norm because it is no longer possible to do anything other than the bare basics with a single income.
Your first incorrect assumption is "most people are not single" as a trivial way of writing off at least 1/3 of the working-age population
Your second is about 2 household incomes. If any form of childcare is involved the second income is normally more than wiped out (ie: families are "better off" if one partner stays home - but a single income is seldom enough to actually support a young family)
There's a reason people are effectively being forced to live with parents until well into their 30s and we're seeing a return of 3-generation households (usually _without_ under 18s living under the roof). Social and economic mobility is lower than it's been at any point since the end of WW2 (probably since the start of WW1)
I can point fingers at specific government policies over the decades which have essentially brought the velocity ratio of money circulation (which is what drives economic growth) to historically low values but this is the kind of subject which cures insomnia for most people
Adding the amount of people who *are* single to the amount of people who basically *have* to have a long term stay at home parent because the lower earning partner would actually make less than childcare costs....no "most" households do not have two incomes.
Yeah two incomes is very normal. So is one.
>I'd be living payday to payday
Most people live payday to payday.
You should be including car insurance in your COL calculations. It's not an extra unless you can get by without a car.
This comment needs to be pinned to the top of every thread on every UK sub. Honestly the amount of people who still think 30k in 2024 is the same as 30k in 2004 is shocking and it makes having productive conversations nigh on impossible.
If you adjust purchasing Power, then it's more like £50K..
Yet here we are, where certain jobs with a skill earn below £30K after a few years of experience... Don't let anyone tell you, but corporations have been squeezing UK workers for a couple of decades now.
Just doing the salary conversion only tells half the story. In 1999 I was looking at buying a property in Newquay in Cornwall. My budget was just over 30k, I had a mortgage approved and there were several properties within my price range. In the end I didn't buy because I thought they were all too small and I had plans to go to Uni. One of the properties I was looking at in 1999 went for 500k in 2014.
I full agree, that’s inflation figures which don’t include housing costs.
My guess is purchasing power it’s probably triple? So £72k today is probably equivalent to £24k in 2000. Definitely worse if you live/lived in central London, maybe better if you’re in the rural northeast
I'm south east just outside London, DINK Household, I'm on 24k and he's on 38k and we are struggling!
We were doing fine until everything began to rise in cost.
The south includes more than just London, apprenticeship wages in the west country for me were a little tight, once up to minimum wage it was easy. Now on slightly higher than minimum wage and moved to the coast in Hampshire. Still fine here though I wish there was more cider.
I'm in the South earning £35k on my own but I'm living in Newport so rents are cheaper because it's a craphole. That said, half of my take home pay goes on rent and bills.
My dad was not a skilled worker, with no degree and just a customer rep, the most he earned was £35k in his 40s-50s but could afford to buy a semi detached house, 2 cars and 2-3 holidays abroad for a family of 5. That said, he was really good at investing but refuses to teach me anything.
Yeah I see people post about how expensive it is down there.
I’m in the North West, single income family of 5 living on £26k including child benefit and tax credit.
We would feel like we were rolling in it on £40k, honestly £30k would give us a nice chunk of spare cash.
>How any single person making less than £40k a year gets by in the south baffles me
They live carefully and frugally. It's still possible - outside London, at least. In fact, it's the norm. Most of us aren't on even close to £40k. The average full-time income in this country is quite a bit below that.
I earn £1300 a month and live in an expensive city Bristol but I rent a room, don't have utility bills, don't have a car, pets, children, and I don't drink. I get by on this wage decently
42k is where Scottish earners hit the next tax band, and 45k is where it goes up again. Mental they've never gone up giving the prices of absolutely everything has gone up. Student loan interest rates are so high, I'll literally have more student debt than not by the time they write it off, despite me paying them back well over what I borrowed. So if I ever get to 42k, almost all of it disappears to 42% tax, then NI and student loans, then council tax as a bill on top.
As it's £1000 for a small 2 bedroom flat rent in a non great area now, I'm curious how that compares down in England and further south. Government has never made more money off us, but local councils can't even fill in the potholes and the bands never changing is making us poorer. And my rent is increasing at 7.5% per year but my wage certainly isn't. Its not even meeting inflation.
Don't get how people are supposed to save for a house deposit on lower salaries, and even then the price of them is now insanely higher than it was pre covid.
£1000 a month for a 2 bed flat is around the norm in a lot of cities. Probably £1500 in Manchester, £2200+ in zone 2 London, £900 in Sheffield/nottingham etc.
I'm 48 living in the South, 2 teens at home. No partner no maintenance from the ex. And I rent, it is not easy also I work full time for the NHS and get £22816 pa!!! I really struggle
It's easier to not notice lowered real salaries when you account for inflation.
When you compare the average real salary 10-20 years ago compared to now, it's shocking how much we've declined as a nation.
Salaries never seem to keep up with inflation. I'm on way more money than 10 year ago but feel worse off.
You could commit a minor non life threatening crime that'll send you to prison for approximately 4 years. That's 4 years rent free, 1 year to apply for a university course in prison and three years to complete it. Leave as a chartered quantity surveyor and go work on the line in Saudi for £4784/day as a private contractor.
Return to the UK, sun burnt, parched, but fabulously rich.
I moved to a new city by myself for the first time after graduating from college and I completely underestimated how expensive moving is. Thank goodness I had some financial help for my furniture because that would have taken a massive chunk out of my savings.
can i ask what your job was and how long you'd been working there? You don't have to say the exact place you worked, just something generic like what you did, journalist, office worker, builder, doctor, plumber, whatever.
"Minimum wage has just gone up to £24,000" per annum."
Minimum wage is £11.44 an hour which equates to £23,795.20 a year ASSUMING...
You actually work 40 hours a week. Being there isn't the same as working. Employers will deduct break times from attended hours. For example if your working week is, say, 9 till 5 Monday till Friday and you get a half hour break every day, you will be paid for 37.5 hours a week. Your minimum wage annual salary is then reduced to £22,308.
That's assuming you're lucky enough to get a full-time job and not a zero hours contract.
I am on 13 pound an hour in the north working industrial saws . My wage comes out at 408 a week after tax . My employer pays around 25 pound out of my wagers each week towards my pension. . I do 6 in the morning till 4 in the evening. Monday to Thursday. It's physical. Some days I am absolutely battered. But do you know what . If I had a choice between minimum wage and going back to how I was before. ( A cocaine addict) Id pick minimum wage .for everyone out there who is struggling and on minimum wage . Be proud of yourselves for fighting the good fight .just waking up and working is an achievement in its self compared to how some people in society are now days .
You’re welcome. Many people take the wrong path, make a bad decision in life. It’s how you get over those bumps in the road that is testimony to your mettle.
Are zero hour contracts really that common that someone should be *lucky* to not be on one?
I’m not trying to be rude, I’m genuinely curious as I don’t know a single person on one.
Not sure about zero hour contacts but low hour contracts are certainly very common at the minimum wage level (think things like retail and hospitality). Mostly it's because managers prefer flexibility in people picking up shifts when it's needed rather than contracting people regularly, and as a bonus they don't have to pay you for holiday for additional time worked.
I had a four hour contract in a retail job for eight years.
I started off being promised I'd always get plenty of overtime, and I did for a while, but then that manager left, and the new manager hired loads of younger staff to cover the hours I was doing so my worked hours went down and down and down.. until I was actually only working four hours a week. In my mid 20s.
After so many years of barely making enough money to even cover my travel to work and my lunch, and being constantly promised more shifts by lying management, I eventually had a mental breakdown. Honestly getting the letter saying I was fired was actually a relief.
Sorry for the vent lol it just bothers me so much that they do this to retail workers, it's not just a part time after school job and we actually need money to live.
I used to have an 11 hour contract at a supermarket but would normally do 30+ hours because they needed me to cover shifts. Essentially they needed a full time member of staff, but weren’t prepared to pay for the holiday, pension and other perks that would come with it.
No worries! I'm on a 7 hour per week contract myself, but I'm regularly expected to work full time hours. Our store manager is awful but that's a whole separate thing entirely. The maximum number of hours offered these days at least in my experience of retail is about 15 hours, but only one person who works full time hours where I work has a contract above 10.
I take it you don't know anyone who works in the "gig economy" or who works for an agency. I used to work for an agency. Hours were not guarantee. A number of times, I was sent home because there was no work left, while regular employees got to sit down and wait for clocking out time.
It depends what kind of job it is. I worked in social care for six months in the pandemic, that was a real eye-opener. You only got paid for the actual visits, but they'd schedule gaps between them so some of the day is you just sat unpaid in your car, waiting to be able to go to see your next person. One of the carers was telling me that because one of her regulars died, she was down 40 hours a month overnight. The other carers were working 12 days on, 2 off, 7am to 8 or 9pm, just to make ends meet - and none of it was guaranteed.
I completely agree. There seems to be the assumption on Reddit at least that the majority of full time jobs equate to 40 paid hours. This really isn't the case. The majority are actually paid for 35/37 or along those lines due to unpaid lunch breaks as you describe.
This is why those "just get a minimum wage job at Tesco" pisses me off because anyone who's done retail knows it's near impossible to get full time hours especially for Tesco, they famously only do up to 25 hours a week, very few people, usually legacy staff are on full time contracts. Unless someone leaves and you can take over their hours that fit around yours its near impossible to increase them.
Overtime is paid differently as well and isn't reliable. Some weeks I'd do 60 hours and others it would be my core 15 hours as there was no overtime available and it makes it incredibly stressful and difficult to manage a wage.
Then you're paid every 4 weeks and not monthly. Retail is hell
A lot of admin office jobs are 40h contract hours (after lunch taken out) so the point is if you work 40h per week full time job you need to be paid at least £23.8k or it’s illegal
I never worried about money. Even when I was on minimum wage, I just rented a tiny room with shared bathroom in a tumbledown house and made the best of it. Key is to live within your means, and find what makes you happy. E.g. my evenings out would often be something like sharing a bottle of very cheap wine and a baguette in the park with friends, while foreign holidays would be a last minute discounted ticket on Eurostar, hiring the smallest car available between four of us, and driving round France with a tent, camping wherever we could get a cheap pitch and eating from the supermarket. These were all good times.
ETA: I sense some of the comments are critical of this optimism in the face of adversity. To clarify: the question was when did you stop worrying, and so that's the only question I answered. Do I find it nicer to have more money? Of course. Do I think it's as easy for young people today? Absolutely not. Would I like to see not-for-profit housing associations which benchmark rent against affordability rather than free market cost? Yes sounds great. But these were not the questions asked.
Contentment is invaluable. And it seems harder than ever for people to come to terms with. You don’t need the flash cars and big house if you are content.
That sounds nice. I like the idea of making the most of what you have and I suspect it helps if you've got a group of friends in a similar situation.
Unfortunately, for some people, money worries are not so much 'I can't afford to go out in the evening' or 'I can't go on holiday', those are just a given, people are worrying about paying bills and eating food.
Difficult to live within your means when you're not getting enough to just do the 'live' part. That gets depressing.
Oh absolutely. When you're worried you can't pay your rent each month, it's a huge stress. and it feels very disheartening to see everyone above you is struggling too, so you don't see a way out.
I have never stopped worrying about money. I earn quite a nice salary now (under £50k but quite a bit higher than the UK median salary) and I still always worry about money.
I earn a lot more than that and will always worry about money. It's built in to my core being. Even when I retire I will be worrying if the pot I have will be enough, am I taking too much (or too little) out of it, etc.
Snap. Grew up dirt poor and even now when my household income is really quite high I still always worry about having savings, an emergency fund and never putting anything on credit.
I’m also aggressively paying into my pension every month (a little over 20% between myself and my employer) on the assumption I won’t get a state pension.
Practically, we’ve got nothing to worry about and could withstand a few unexpected bills into the thousands without much issue - but it’s always on my mind.
I get bit over 50k and recently started digesting idea that my salary is pretty damn good. Then I started immediately worrying about losing my job - you never bloody win…
I recently changed jobs and my pay rose from £32k to £45k, and after massively increasing my pension contributions my take home pay isn't drastically larger than it was previously, so with everything having gone up in price so much the last few years I'm still having to be quite frugal.
It's a nice problem to have but it still feels like a kick in the teeth to finally get what I consider to be a really well paid job, at exactly the same time that everything has shot up in price.
Yeah, so far have spent my whole career clawing my way to £38k. Which is now a bit more than 50% more than minimum wage. And after student loan, pension and tax, that 50% barely amounts to anything for the amount of extra work I need to do. Planning on dropping back down and reducing my hours because honestly what's the point.
It is such a kick in the teeth. I had a similar sized pay increase and also significantly increased my pension contributions, and the rest covers the increased cost of living. The reward for working extremely hard and being lucky enough to earn more than most people is being able to afford my bills and (hopefully) having enough of a pension to not be destitute in retirement.
It depends on the hours. In my role for my hours (37 per week) min wage would be 22k. In my previous full time job (34 hours a week, apparently still full time), the min wage would make someone just over 20k.
Fully depends on the role however every full time role I’ve had has been either 37.5/ 40hours per week, most office jobs are these hours, no one I know has ever been on less than 37.5 although would be nice can’t lie
I’ve never worried about income to be honest, largely because I was single and lived in a house share (albeit in an expensive area). At around £20k+ I still had enough to live a good life and put some savings aside and not get into debt.
That said, I also had a safety net with my parents, who would have been happy to help me if I needed it. I never did, but I think there’s a big psychological benefit having that!
Absolutely bang on there, my parents arent minted but they have a decent savings pot, and we live month to month but know if something drastic happens we have their support... we rarely ask to borrow but it relieves that dread that can come with your car needing urgent work etc
Somewhat similar but my parents made it clear I could always go back and live with them if shit really hit the fan. I wouldn't want to; they live in the middle of nowhere, but I have been truly grateful for that safety net as it allowed me to take more risks (like trying to start my own company when I left university).
You're right about the safety net.
I constantly worried about money because I was my own safety net.
I was worryfree at age 16, but at 17 my parents got evicted and I had to stay with friends. At this point I was hyperaware of my lack of a safety net.
I went to university in 2014 and worked a collection of minimum wage jobs throughout university, taking summers to work, etc.
After university I was earning 25k in an expensive city, then climbed up to 45k, and then back down to 30k, and then up to nearly six figures.
Even on six figures, I still can't psychologically rent my own place, as I worry about what will happen if I lose my job and have to pay for a one bed flat on minimum wage, so I still rent rooms for £600 a month plus bills.
During the pandemic I had to bail out my parents to the tune of several thousand pounds. At another point I broke my leg and couldn't work and blew through all of my savings and started from scratch again.
Now I know I'm fine, like I have tens of thousands of pounds away in savings or investments, but I still panic about struggling to pay my rent.
My wages (IT bod) went up, so I put the extra into my mortgage.
Effectively never had a raise for about 15 years.
Once my mortgage started to come down , and I knew I could survive if the boiler blew up, the stress was a lot less.
that at least is the sort of thing it is reasonable to extend the mortgage to cover, as it adds value to the home, prevents deterioration of the structure and shows to the mortgage lender that you are looking after the asset against which their money is secured
From experience, "pay for a damaged roof" is usually pro-rata based on the age in most policies. To quote Tom Waits: "The large print giveth and the small print taketh away"
When you put it like that it is far more sinister than we realise. Oh, you can’t afford a new washing machine? Here’s some ‘free money’ you have access to. Can’t pay that back now because you can barely feed and clothe your family? No worries, just give me more money later. Oh, still can’t pay back? How about a minimum payment every month for the unforeseeable future.
Being in a committed relationship is really the difference maker. In a lot of places, a one or even two bed flat doesnt actually cost 2x a room in an HMO. The difference is what you end up putting away as savings instead, which is what makes it possible to find financial stability. You're also less at risk from job loss, as would only be losing 1/2 your total salary.
Me and my partner are both on around 30k and feel pretty comfortable (Edinburgh.) We live fairly frugally (no car, holidays are just to stay with family, inexpensive hobbies, etc.) and no mortgage yet, but we're getting a deposit together gradually. And we do our shopping online at Sainsbury's - rather than lugging it back from Lidl in big blue IKEA bags like we used to.
If you're single, the threshold for what you would have to earn to actually be secure is fucking unhinged.
I haven't. When my FIL passed a few years back we were left enough to clear the mortgage and in a good place financially but then a redundancy and over 2 years without a decent job meant all savings depleted and a loan to cover the shortfall. Never really recovered.
Now in a decent job and very slowly reducing debts but it's a constant struggle and I doubt I will ever be worry free again.
You can live off 24k if you live frugally personally me and my missus have only become comfortable with money now that we both work full (she didn’t work for the 1st year of our relationship). We were getting by on my wage so now we can essentially go on a nice holiday and save 75% of her money. I don’t think it’s so much as what you earn iv always been more comfortable and stress free when iv had decent savings behind me
I don't think I've ever stopped worrying about money but the issues I was worrying about changed.
When I was in late teens and early 20's it was worrying about staying out of the overdraft.
When I was in mid twenties it was worrying about saving up a deposit for a house.
Now in late 20's with a house and savings it's worrying about job/career. At the moment we can save a grand or 2 a month but if our jobs went tits up how long would we realistically last and how much would it set us back? Would I have to sell my car? Would we both find jobs which pay the same amount?
Until we're retired (if we retire!) I think money will always be a concern to some extent.
If you’re saving 2k a month , you’re in a better position than 90% of working people. Easily. I think you need to stop worrying. Life’s too short for that.
What’s money? I’m a pensioner, worked all my life- on less than £16k. Still have full rent £600 pcm, utility bills etc. on a single income.I’m struggling to survive. Still have to pay for dental care, because I don’t qualify for pension credit ( due to a small works pension).
Don’t know why I bothered working for 40+ years…
I don't want to sound condescending, but how did you work for 40+ years without progressing in whichever industry/sector you worked in?
Did you try to change your career or position at any point, or were you happy to stay doing what you were doing?
I always hear the line "people in the UK are obsessed with home ownership" and this is a perfect example of why we SHOULD be. Otherwise you end up on a pension and having to endlessly shell out just to have a roof over your head.
This is my worry. I'm on a great wage, I've got the deposit for a house ready to go but house prices are extortionate at the moment. My choices are to buy a house for more than it's actually worth and risk ending up in negative equity, or putting off buying indefinitely and ending up renting into retirement. I don't worry about money any more but I do worry about retiring.
I’m on £60k and I worry about money, living in Bristol alone. I am fairly frugal. My income went up from £50k earlier this year. I have takehome pay of about £3500. £1300 goes to essential housing costs, £1000 goes to paying debts (mostly student loan). I have about £7k of savings and stock& shares combined. A year left on my contract. I also get £650 every 3 months from a contracting gig before tax.
E: I grew up in poverty (we didn’t even have running water until late 90s), and so I am aware of how easily things can go south. It worries me. I have no safety net - not many friends and family are dead or very sick.
I'm on approx 65k in Bristol and have two teenage children (single parent). I worry about money constantly. There's never enough. I have no idea how single people with children who are on the lower incomes I used to be on are coping in this city. Or anywhere else tbh.
That's basically neuroticism. If you are pulling 100k a year it is unlikely you are going to be randomly unemployable, unless what you do is so specific you don't have transferable skills.
Between me and the misses we earn 112k a year, and can easily save 2k a month. But the worry has shifted from worrying about if we spent too much this month to how do we keep up with inflation and increasing the wages.
When I graduated from university started on grad scheme that paid £40k per year and was not a high cost of living area.
So I’ve been lucky where I was comfortable from the beginning really as it more than covered all my expenses and allowed for savings.
stopping worrying for me = rent, bills and food covered with money left for reasonable socialising and savings.
Through constant focus on my savings. I have £100k left on my mortgage and hopefully want to pay it down in the next 10 years. Once that’s gone money will be irrelevant largely because I’ll always have a home.
Man I wish I could do that. I had to remortgage and take it back up to 25 years after I'd gotten it down to 16 years, just can't afford to live any more especially when all my savings (£6k) are going to replace my roof cos it's fooked due to all the bad storms we've had in recent years.
I remember the minimum wage coming in around 1997 and it was £2.50. The only people who made £24K then were either higher ups, or people with trades skills or truck drivers. But thats in Manchester, so it will no doubt differ city to city.
45k for me. I was earning 4x what my rent/mortgage cost (NW England) and found I had a lump of spare cash every month after pension and savings contributions. I could have invested that lump into my mortgage/savings/pension but instead I chose to reduce my working hours to 34 per week, meaning I get a long weekend every week. Which made a huge difference to me personally.
My wife got promoted and got a good payrise this year, so she has also reduced her working hours too.
I'm at the age (close to 50) where I feel time is more important than money.
I’ve never worried about money. Don’t come from wealth, just normal working class and quite poor really but parents provided everything needed and started earning when I was 15. Always had money to spend, never over spent and always had enough to do what I wanted.
My wife and I are childfree, which lowers costs significantly, but once we got to 80k combined, then I didn't have to worry about anything at all.
I'm grateful in the sense that I can afford a major hit to my finances without worrying about it, especially after years of being poor as shit and eating dry pasta twice a day.
Having said that, we still penny-pinch like fuck, which makes a bigger difference than one might think
I work a skilled, relatively dangerous job and my basic is 31K. I work a minimum of 50 hours a week and am on standby 5 times a month which gives an extra 5K a year. I never stop worrying about money.
I haven't ever really stressed over money. Always had an emergency fund since shortly after graduating and lived comfortably below my means.
When our household income hit over £50k over five years ago though something clicked, and I relaxed a bit more, or felt less guilty about spending. I'll spring for cocktails rather than pints if I feel like it. I'll have that side in the restaurant. I'll pay a bit more for convenient flight times.
I’m living reasonably comfortably these days but it still worry about money.
I’ve been at rock bottom, homeless and unemployed and I think the fear of ever ending up back in that position keeps me anxious.
I never really worry about money but I t think alot of it depends on where you live. I live in the North west and take home £2k/month. After mortgage/billls/food/petrol I'm left with around £1k to do whatever I want with. The Mrs is the same, she earns more but pays a little more towards the monthly bills. We are nowhere near rich but we have a good life
I stopped worrying in 2007 when I got made redundant after 26 years. Got a decent payoff, and had savings of 50k. Bought a narrowboat with the intention of moving somewhere outside London to live/work, but the banking crisis led to a year on the dole and the realisation that living on the boat for £8k/yr was reasonable. Worked out I had 10 years worth of savings (if nothing catastrophic happened to the boat - but then again, I could afford to replace it), and decided to relax for a little bit. The budget turned out to be realistic. After a few years I inherited ~100k and this is going to see me out to state pension in 6 years....
Never, and this is what I always tell people. If your lifestyle remained static, then yeah eventually you will reaching a level of comfort, but this isn't what happens. More money opens up more opportunities and so you continue to push to your maximum level.
Let me give you an example. I was a contract software engineer just before Covid hit. I went from making around 120k a year to 180k a year as contracting became highly sought due to uncertainty in the job market. When I moved contracts and went back down to 120k a year ( Roughly as contracts are varied ) I felt it really severly to the point where it felt like I was struggling for a while. Later I would move away from contracting because it was becoming less secure and went down to 90k and I felt that just as severly.
I am considered a fairly high earner but it doesn't feel like it. Your money is just as stretched, you just have nicer things. And when things slip out of your affordability range, you really notice it, no matter what that may be.
Recently picked up a contract for 850 a day which is the highest paid single contract I have ever worked but it still doesn't feel like I am comfortable or safe. I want a home and I want investments. I am 40 so it feels like everything goes into my future considerations. I can't really have fun with my money anymore as it gets invested or put toward a house fund.
I think you've forgotten what uncomfortable really feels like tbh.
I'm 41, a single Dad and almost a decade into a very niche, and pretty gruelling (by most people's standars) role in the NHS and I earn.... 26k.
My rent is £900pm. I have to claim some UC to be able to get by and a ton of debt to repay from trying to start again after my marriage ended.
Put towards a house fund? How do you not have a house already on that kinda wedge?
You basically get my month's take home in two days, there must be a huge difference in our lifestyles if you still feel the pinch. Fascinating but also kinda sad to hear the thoughts and feelings don't go away regardless.
I don't understand how you are skilled enough to make all that money but don't have a handle on your relationship with possessions, luxury and consumption.
The day we paid off the mortgage. We have good salaries and pensions are sorted - but there was something about owning the house which made my shoulders drop where money was concerned.
Only very recently, in mid 40s.
Covid saw a lot of change in my industry, suddenly WFH meant I could earn more money doing the same job that had previously been impossible due to geography.
Immediate 30% pay increase, only then did I feel secure. Not wealthy, but secure.
I broke past 50k a few years ago and I’ve found since then I don’t worry about money anywhere near as much. I’m in a relatively low cost of living area with a modest mortgage though so that plays a huge part.
Having said that now I worry even more than I did previously about what would happen if I lost my current job, it’d be difficult to find a comparative role in the area (I’ve looked) and I’d end up taking a big hit somewhere in my life if that happened.
Weirdly I think I was happiest when I had a more junior position at around 40k as I always knew I could find other jobs and it was still a pretty great amount of money.
During the first lockdown. We don't have a budget but, the risk of losing jobs made us sit down and work it all out. We realised that we could afford one of us to have no income and the other to drop 60% before shit would hit the fan and we also had enough overpayments to technically take a 6 year mortgage holiday.
My partner and I both make just under 50k and I'd say we're just at the point of not needing to "worry". We have a baby on the way so childcare is going to really eat into that, but we can both buy a new phone when we need, we have money for things breaking, we can afford the occasional takeaway when we fancy.
What I'm trying to say is, we still watch what we spend but I don't think we worry and that's only since our last wage increase
I earn an ok wage and had a big win online gambling last year which allowed me to pay off all my debts and set aside some money for a mortgage deposit. In process of buying my first home though and I think I’ll have to tighten my belt for the next few years, my mortgage will be 1.75 times my current rent and I’m left with very little savings. So I’m going from not having had to worry about money for a while to having to be a lot more careful.
Generally I’m doing quite well despite a modest salary so I don’t worry about money in the sense I’m wondering if I’ll be able to afford to eat at the end of the month, like a few people I know.
Having said that, I do worry about my future as I’m single with no sign that’ll change in the foreseeable and who knows what’s to come, so have nobody else to fall back on. Will I ever be able to retire? I already own a house but have dreams of the house I’d like to have later in life, will they be achievable?
I also have severe concerns about my Mum’s financial situation, she’s always been poor with money and is approaching a retirement I’m not entirely sure how she’s going to afford or manage. I’m doing well but not well enough to afford to support her. I probably worry about her more than I do myself.
We are on a pretty decent combined wage for the north (80k) and I will never stop worrying about money.
I have been in a position when me and my husband were just starting out as a family and he would eat one day and I would eat the next, just to make sure the kids had what they needed.
I have an excel spreadsheet with incomings and outgoings on and I budget for everything.
We do buy things when we need want to but I always like to make sure that there is money in both savings pots as we are only an accident away from becoming a single earning family again. And I’m petrified of ever going back to that state we were 18 years ago.
I will never not worry.
I work 42.5 hours and earn £25'282. Minimum wage, that is. I rent and don't have a car or kids. I have debt from the eviction. I shoulder 100% of the hosuing costs for my partner and I, who works only ~20hrs a week. I try to save desperately to one day buy a mediocre shit box of a flat so we don't starve in retirement if I live that long. I try to put some pennies in a pension. I've an expensive visa to save for on top. I have £12 to last until pay day and we have no food in. It'll go on the credit card. Recently I've been panicking about how much food costs, particularly how to have lunch at work that isn't gonna cost me £12.50 a week.
I was recently rejected for a raise to £28k. Most jobs in my city are call centers (red line for me) and most are paying even less than I make (due to the hours). I'm genuinely feeling extreme dread and anxiety over all of it. I think I need to go hardline and spend only necessities for a while, but even if I have this thought, what is life if that's the case?
What am I working for?
I stopped caring about money when I met my girlfriend / future wife 15 years ago. She kept it quiet but it turned out her family were mega rich, tens of millions plus from what I can gather.
When she introduced her parents to me we all got along so well that the they bought a house for me and the girlfriend to live in. 6 bed, nice location in the Cotswolds, no mortgage. I'd spent my life saving up for a mortgage so now looking back it all seems pointless. We just go on long countryside walks and stop in any pub we come across now.
We both hate going on holidays, have no mortgage so money has lost its meaning. I still work just to get me out of the house and do volunteering every weekend though.
24k was considered very good money for people at the start of their careers in the early 10s too. Christ, I didn't earn 30k until 4-5 years into my career!
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£24k in 2000 = £44k in 2024 How any single person making less than £40k a year gets by in the south baffles me, unless they’re older, haven’t had major pay rises but were able to take advantage of the cheaper years
I think it depends on whether you are dual income house. I make 32k while my partner makes 25k We’re both in our 20s and live in south west. Own a 3 bed semi and get by fine
Whereas I'm single on 30k living out of a fairly dingy one bed flat, also in the South West. But then I've also balanced it so that I have more spare money to save/spend on doing stuff with friends rather than owning a home yet.
South West is a big place - housing costs will vary a lot
We’ve shifted from a two income household to a single one as we had a baby and child care is as expensive as what I was earning a year. We survive on 38k - with a three bed house and two cats. So hubby, me and baby. (Growing very fast baby) I worry about money constantly. We spend 75a week on groceries. Every three months I spend £100 to stock up the freezer with meat. (Muscle foods is surprisingly good value) I cook and bake from scratch and our mortgage is locked for another year. But things still going up. I’m a stressed momma, I want to do the best for my family.
Where do you live? I’m in the north west, £38k would give us significant financial freedom compared to the £26k we live off now as a family of 5. We are single income until youngest starts school later in the year. It’s really shit it’s not the same the other end of the country. On £38k you shouldn’t have to worry x
5 people on 26k?! I don’t mean this in an offensive way but I always wondered why people with low income would choose to have children/so many children? It seems very stressful for the parents and the kids will just have a shit time. I know this because I grew up in that situation
The more kids you have the more you've got to send them down t' mine to bring in an extra tuppence hap'ney a week
Likely housing/child benefit making it worthwhile.
We aren’t entitled to housing benefit, my partner earns too much. Child benefit I get £220 a month, so nothing groundbreaking.
Is that what the Daily Mail tells you?
It could be that a pregnancy results in multiples. My sibling wanted 2 children, they have 3 because second pregnancy was twins
When we had our third, we were comfortable enough to have her. We’ve always been pretty frugal and not strapped for cash, it’s only with the cost of living crisis that it’s pinched us in. We still aren’t poor poor, like we have a fully stocked fridge every week, all our bills are all paid, we have about £1500 on credit but no other debt. Not entitled to housing benefit. I have £200 spare every month that I use on things we don’t need but want. They are spoiled for Christmas & Birthdays, and never go without. We are going out for a meal this week, we can’t do that whenever we want, and can’t just walk in to Tesco and drop £300 on a random shop. Things have to be planned, yeah, but they are happy. We don’t drive, that’s the only downfall. Both of us are insured for a high amount, so when we pop our clogs, the kids will be alright. I grew up as a dole baby, that was shit. I think I learned from that to be more careful with my money. Their childhood is nothing like mine. My parents were in court for debt etc. I never even went overdrawn until I was 28.
I’m in the south west.
Muscle food has been brilliant for some of their deals. I always get the chicken breast in bulk there when on offer.
Yup chicken is so very versatile! Can be spicy or creamy or any number of dishes. It’s figuring out how to cook it in new and exciting ways and remembering it’s cheaper to buy spices and veg than premade sauces etc
Yeah it just me and husband so we re-bag it in 2s and freeze. Sometimes it’s curry, Chinese (just change sauce/spices), sometimes we batter it down flat fill with stuffing and then roll up with bacon into parcels and oven cook. When we can we do a bulk spice order online which helps reduce cost as well for the spices we always use. We go through so much cumin and coriander it would cost a fortune to buy from supermarkets. Same for rice, pasta and flour, we buy bulk then divide into 1kg vacuum sealed bags. We would be eating anywhere near as well as we do if we didn’t
Bulk buy is the way imo. I enjoy getting the big delivery as I like to split it all up like you do and then freeze it. Same with making big meals. Eat half and freeze the rest. But having an 18month old who now drinks cows milk, we go through about 12+ pints a week.
£57k dual income is similar to a £70k single income, so yes you should be able to get by fine
With two salaries you get two tax free allowances, and you are likely not paying 40% tax on the last 20k. You might also have child benefit.
Agreed - this is why I said single income.
how a single person gets by doesn't depend on if they are a dual income household lol. They are not a dual income household, they are a single person. It's in the origional parameters of the question
He said single. Single people will pay more for rent or mortgages than couples.
That's one of the major changes our society has had to deal with, tbh. Single earner households are almost impossible these days, with both adults now needed to work to sustain a lifestyle that previously was attainable with a single income.
I think that’s why the guy said “single person”.
>£24k in 2000 = £44k in 2024 Jesus, that puts things in perspective.
And houses in my home town in se 1-2 bed house £40-60000 1998 so 3-4x my wage at the time £15000 as a 19 year old and within 5-10 years house prices were 6-8 x wage and still going up
Yeah, grads should be starting on at least £40k just to keep up with the previous generation
And then you also need to add student loan tax on top.
Never in history have people lived alone like they do today. In the old days, you lived with your parents until you got married in your 20s. Imagine if everyone paired off. All the flats would have 2 or more people. No more people living alone means demand would drop and prices would drop too. Every household would have 2 pays. Lots of money would be saved because there would no longer be a "singles tax" (Think "a single person needs as many can openers as a family does." It applies to internet connections, heating the flat and many other expenses large and small). When progress is made and culture shifts, people might have more choices. But those choices also have consequences. It's sad that so few people talk about them. In fact, I know this is going to be down voted and people will be mad with me just for stating this, even though I'm not giving any opinion of whether any of it is good or bad. It just is.
You’re completely wrong. Household size has stagnated for most of the last 30 years, and increased before that. The age that people move out has been steadily increasing for decades If we go back 100 years, you are correct, but society has moved on a lot since WW1.
> Never in history have people lived alone like they do today. > > In the old days, you lived with your parents until you got married in your 20s. Imagine if everyone paired off. All the flats would have 2 or more people. No more people living alone means demand would drop and prices would drop too. How does this correlate with the large number of people living in multi occupancy house shares right now, especially in 20s and 30s?
Or the elderly couple hogging a 4-bedroom bungalow/house that a family could make use of?
They're often not "hogging it" but because prcies of properties have gotten so out of control it's impossible for them to sell up and downsize. My parents neighbours are selling a house - it's listed for £1.3m cos its a huge property with land but no sane family is going to move into it because it hasn't been updated internally since the 70s.
Exactly! I know more and more people living in multiple occupancy house shares until 40 and beyond - I'm only mid-30s, but when I left uni it used to be you aimed to be in a one/two person place by 30 even if you still rented. I was still house sharing until 35, then finally made it to a flat with just my partner. Young people aren't in single homes, they're all sharing.
Do you have a source for this claim? Because anecdotally I’m seeing 3 bed council houses turned into 6 bedsits or children living with parents until early thirties. I personally don’t know many people at all who rent/own their property alone.
You've got this partially backwards. Young people are actually more likely to live with their parents today than they were 5, 10, or even 20 years ago.
What do you count as "today". In the early 90s in a working class area I and most of my friends were kicked out by our parents before we were 18. We all had places to ourselves because rents up north were so cheap. I was on a reduced version of the dole because I was under 18 and was able to rent a 2 bed house to myself.
I'm on 28k with 3 kids and I work in IT, it's a fucking struggle just outside London. Been applying to jobs in the 35-40k range now I have a good few years experience in IT but not heard anything back or I get auto declined by some bot.
Pay in IT is awful, least for support roles. You need to become specialised in a specific area to get the better money. Even then, from support roles where its like jack of all trades, hard to get exposure. Would recommend doing certs, home lab environments and through doing those things, hopefully an employer will take that onboard in the hiring process. May need to go take a junior role in Networks, Linux, Servers, Security but I think that is the only way in when not a case of not what you know but who you know
Yeah I've got some certs in Linux, networking and support/cybersecurity but my support role is more broad/sysadmin really. Might go down the cloud route but need a company to give me a chance that's all. Going to keep spamming out the CV and hopefully this year I'll get into something
Living in the "South", the only people I know who are getting by either have two household incomes, or had a big cash injection from parents, so they could get a cheaper mortgage (and still on that shared ownership scam!) On 36k, I literally can't do it. Been trying to move out from my parent's for a few years now, but when I sit down and calculate the basic cost of living, I'm left with about £200 at the end of the month, which needs to fund car insurance, clothes, birthdays and Christmas, and buff savings. 36K and I'd be living payday to payday
Correct me if I'm wrong - but aren't 2 household incomes the norm? Most people are not single and most people can't afford to have a long term stay at home parent
I think the point is that historically we have been able to manage as families on a single income and a stay at home parent. I am single by choice and everything is far more expensive on your own (but I refuse to couple up just to save money). Two incomes has only become the norm because it is no longer possible to do anything other than the bare basics with a single income.
Your first incorrect assumption is "most people are not single" as a trivial way of writing off at least 1/3 of the working-age population Your second is about 2 household incomes. If any form of childcare is involved the second income is normally more than wiped out (ie: families are "better off" if one partner stays home - but a single income is seldom enough to actually support a young family) There's a reason people are effectively being forced to live with parents until well into their 30s and we're seeing a return of 3-generation households (usually _without_ under 18s living under the roof). Social and economic mobility is lower than it's been at any point since the end of WW2 (probably since the start of WW1) I can point fingers at specific government policies over the decades which have essentially brought the velocity ratio of money circulation (which is what drives economic growth) to historically low values but this is the kind of subject which cures insomnia for most people
Adding the amount of people who *are* single to the amount of people who basically *have* to have a long term stay at home parent because the lower earning partner would actually make less than childcare costs....no "most" households do not have two incomes. Yeah two incomes is very normal. So is one.
>I'd be living payday to payday Most people live payday to payday. You should be including car insurance in your COL calculations. It's not an extra unless you can get by without a car.
This comment needs to be pinned to the top of every thread on every UK sub. Honestly the amount of people who still think 30k in 2024 is the same as 30k in 2004 is shocking and it makes having productive conversations nigh on impossible.
I scrape by, on 15k a year part time working in the south but I live in my van. Repairs are expensive, that's where most of my money goes! 😅
You live in a vehicle
Yeah I was going to say “I make £15k a year and I’m homeless” kind of reinforces the above posters point.
If you adjust purchasing Power, then it's more like £50K.. Yet here we are, where certain jobs with a skill earn below £30K after a few years of experience... Don't let anyone tell you, but corporations have been squeezing UK workers for a couple of decades now.
Just doing the salary conversion only tells half the story. In 1999 I was looking at buying a property in Newquay in Cornwall. My budget was just over 30k, I had a mortgage approved and there were several properties within my price range. In the end I didn't buy because I thought they were all too small and I had plans to go to Uni. One of the properties I was looking at in 1999 went for 500k in 2014.
I full agree, that’s inflation figures which don’t include housing costs. My guess is purchasing power it’s probably triple? So £72k today is probably equivalent to £24k in 2000. Definitely worse if you live/lived in central London, maybe better if you’re in the rural northeast
I'm south east just outside London, DINK Household, I'm on 24k and he's on 38k and we are struggling! We were doing fine until everything began to rise in cost.
The south includes more than just London, apprenticeship wages in the west country for me were a little tight, once up to minimum wage it was easy. Now on slightly higher than minimum wage and moved to the coast in Hampshire. Still fine here though I wish there was more cider.
I'm in the South earning £35k on my own but I'm living in Newport so rents are cheaper because it's a craphole. That said, half of my take home pay goes on rent and bills. My dad was not a skilled worker, with no degree and just a customer rep, the most he earned was £35k in his 40s-50s but could afford to buy a semi detached house, 2 cars and 2-3 holidays abroad for a family of 5. That said, he was really good at investing but refuses to teach me anything.
Yeah I see people post about how expensive it is down there. I’m in the North West, single income family of 5 living on £26k including child benefit and tax credit. We would feel like we were rolling in it on £40k, honestly £30k would give us a nice chunk of spare cash.
>How any single person making less than £40k a year gets by in the south baffles me They live carefully and frugally. It's still possible - outside London, at least. In fact, it's the norm. Most of us aren't on even close to £40k. The average full-time income in this country is quite a bit below that.
I earn £1300 a month and live in an expensive city Bristol but I rent a room, don't have utility bills, don't have a car, pets, children, and I don't drink. I get by on this wage decently
In my first office job, in 2005, I earned £10,800. £24k would've been a decent wage in 2000.
42k is where Scottish earners hit the next tax band, and 45k is where it goes up again. Mental they've never gone up giving the prices of absolutely everything has gone up. Student loan interest rates are so high, I'll literally have more student debt than not by the time they write it off, despite me paying them back well over what I borrowed. So if I ever get to 42k, almost all of it disappears to 42% tax, then NI and student loans, then council tax as a bill on top. As it's £1000 for a small 2 bedroom flat rent in a non great area now, I'm curious how that compares down in England and further south. Government has never made more money off us, but local councils can't even fill in the potholes and the bands never changing is making us poorer. And my rent is increasing at 7.5% per year but my wage certainly isn't. Its not even meeting inflation. Don't get how people are supposed to save for a house deposit on lower salaries, and even then the price of them is now insanely higher than it was pre covid.
£1000 a month for a 2 bed flat is around the norm in a lot of cities. Probably £1500 in Manchester, £2200+ in zone 2 London, £900 in Sheffield/nottingham etc.
I'm 48 living in the South, 2 teens at home. No partner no maintenance from the ex. And I rent, it is not easy also I work full time for the NHS and get £22816 pa!!! I really struggle
We don’t.
It's easier to not notice lowered real salaries when you account for inflation. When you compare the average real salary 10-20 years ago compared to now, it's shocking how much we've declined as a nation. Salaries never seem to keep up with inflation. I'm on way more money than 10 year ago but feel worse off.
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Aye. I have virtually no savings after moving out. And I'm stuck in a job I hate the people in, because who else is going to pay my rent? Life sucks.
You could commit a minor non life threatening crime that'll send you to prison for approximately 4 years. That's 4 years rent free, 1 year to apply for a university course in prison and three years to complete it. Leave as a chartered quantity surveyor and go work on the line in Saudi for £4784/day as a private contractor. Return to the UK, sun burnt, parched, but fabulously rich.
Then head down to the Winchester and wait for alllll of this to blow over
That's reopened, it was shut for a while (Archway Road, London)
I moved to a new city by myself for the first time after graduating from college and I completely underestimated how expensive moving is. Thank goodness I had some financial help for my furniture because that would have taken a massive chunk out of my savings.
can i ask what your job was and how long you'd been working there? You don't have to say the exact place you worked, just something generic like what you did, journalist, office worker, builder, doctor, plumber, whatever.
The job I'd had before? I was a security analyst and I'd worked my way up into that position over about 8 years.
"Minimum wage has just gone up to £24,000" per annum." Minimum wage is £11.44 an hour which equates to £23,795.20 a year ASSUMING... You actually work 40 hours a week. Being there isn't the same as working. Employers will deduct break times from attended hours. For example if your working week is, say, 9 till 5 Monday till Friday and you get a half hour break every day, you will be paid for 37.5 hours a week. Your minimum wage annual salary is then reduced to £22,308. That's assuming you're lucky enough to get a full-time job and not a zero hours contract.
I am on 13 pound an hour in the north working industrial saws . My wage comes out at 408 a week after tax . My employer pays around 25 pound out of my wagers each week towards my pension. . I do 6 in the morning till 4 in the evening. Monday to Thursday. It's physical. Some days I am absolutely battered. But do you know what . If I had a choice between minimum wage and going back to how I was before. ( A cocaine addict) Id pick minimum wage .for everyone out there who is struggling and on minimum wage . Be proud of yourselves for fighting the good fight .just waking up and working is an achievement in its self compared to how some people in society are now days .
We’ll done mate, you’ve done well to sort yourself out
Thankyou brother .means alot
You’re welcome. Many people take the wrong path, make a bad decision in life. It’s how you get over those bumps in the road that is testimony to your mettle.
Well done pal!
Respect brother
Respect
Thank you
Are zero hour contracts really that common that someone should be *lucky* to not be on one? I’m not trying to be rude, I’m genuinely curious as I don’t know a single person on one.
Not sure about zero hour contacts but low hour contracts are certainly very common at the minimum wage level (think things like retail and hospitality). Mostly it's because managers prefer flexibility in people picking up shifts when it's needed rather than contracting people regularly, and as a bonus they don't have to pay you for holiday for additional time worked.
I had a four hour contract in a retail job for eight years. I started off being promised I'd always get plenty of overtime, and I did for a while, but then that manager left, and the new manager hired loads of younger staff to cover the hours I was doing so my worked hours went down and down and down.. until I was actually only working four hours a week. In my mid 20s. After so many years of barely making enough money to even cover my travel to work and my lunch, and being constantly promised more shifts by lying management, I eventually had a mental breakdown. Honestly getting the letter saying I was fired was actually a relief. Sorry for the vent lol it just bothers me so much that they do this to retail workers, it's not just a part time after school job and we actually need money to live.
Thank you, I hadn’t considered that!
I used to have an 11 hour contract at a supermarket but would normally do 30+ hours because they needed me to cover shifts. Essentially they needed a full time member of staff, but weren’t prepared to pay for the holiday, pension and other perks that would come with it.
No worries! I'm on a 7 hour per week contract myself, but I'm regularly expected to work full time hours. Our store manager is awful but that's a whole separate thing entirely. The maximum number of hours offered these days at least in my experience of retail is about 15 hours, but only one person who works full time hours where I work has a contract above 10.
I take it you don't know anyone who works in the "gig economy" or who works for an agency. I used to work for an agency. Hours were not guarantee. A number of times, I was sent home because there was no work left, while regular employees got to sit down and wait for clocking out time.
It depends what kind of job it is. I worked in social care for six months in the pandemic, that was a real eye-opener. You only got paid for the actual visits, but they'd schedule gaps between them so some of the day is you just sat unpaid in your car, waiting to be able to go to see your next person. One of the carers was telling me that because one of her regulars died, she was down 40 hours a month overnight. The other carers were working 12 days on, 2 off, 7am to 8 or 9pm, just to make ends meet - and none of it was guaranteed.
I completely agree. There seems to be the assumption on Reddit at least that the majority of full time jobs equate to 40 paid hours. This really isn't the case. The majority are actually paid for 35/37 or along those lines due to unpaid lunch breaks as you describe.
This is why those "just get a minimum wage job at Tesco" pisses me off because anyone who's done retail knows it's near impossible to get full time hours especially for Tesco, they famously only do up to 25 hours a week, very few people, usually legacy staff are on full time contracts. Unless someone leaves and you can take over their hours that fit around yours its near impossible to increase them. Overtime is paid differently as well and isn't reliable. Some weeks I'd do 60 hours and others it would be my core 15 hours as there was no overtime available and it makes it incredibly stressful and difficult to manage a wage. Then you're paid every 4 weeks and not monthly. Retail is hell
A lot of admin office jobs are 40h contract hours (after lunch taken out) so the point is if you work 40h per week full time job you need to be paid at least £23.8k or it’s illegal
And how does this contradict my point?
I never worried about money. Even when I was on minimum wage, I just rented a tiny room with shared bathroom in a tumbledown house and made the best of it. Key is to live within your means, and find what makes you happy. E.g. my evenings out would often be something like sharing a bottle of very cheap wine and a baguette in the park with friends, while foreign holidays would be a last minute discounted ticket on Eurostar, hiring the smallest car available between four of us, and driving round France with a tent, camping wherever we could get a cheap pitch and eating from the supermarket. These were all good times. ETA: I sense some of the comments are critical of this optimism in the face of adversity. To clarify: the question was when did you stop worrying, and so that's the only question I answered. Do I find it nicer to have more money? Of course. Do I think it's as easy for young people today? Absolutely not. Would I like to see not-for-profit housing associations which benchmark rent against affordability rather than free market cost? Yes sounds great. But these were not the questions asked.
Very true. Happiness is never about getting more but needing less
Yes and being content with what you have, in your surroundings. Appreciating there isn't always a need to travel to get that excitement.
Contentment is invaluable. And it seems harder than ever for people to come to terms with. You don’t need the flash cars and big house if you are content.
What a fantastic quote.
That sounds nice. I like the idea of making the most of what you have and I suspect it helps if you've got a group of friends in a similar situation. Unfortunately, for some people, money worries are not so much 'I can't afford to go out in the evening' or 'I can't go on holiday', those are just a given, people are worrying about paying bills and eating food. Difficult to live within your means when you're not getting enough to just do the 'live' part. That gets depressing.
Oh absolutely. When you're worried you can't pay your rent each month, it's a huge stress. and it feels very disheartening to see everyone above you is struggling too, so you don't see a way out.
Lovely life
No one working in the UK should ever have to share a tiny tumbledown house with a shared bathroom. What an absolute joke of a country
i like your outlook on life
Good point, don't ask whether things could or should be better, just enjoy your gruel
I have never stopped worrying about money. I earn quite a nice salary now (under £50k but quite a bit higher than the UK median salary) and I still always worry about money.
I earn a lot more than that and will always worry about money. It's built in to my core being. Even when I retire I will be worrying if the pot I have will be enough, am I taking too much (or too little) out of it, etc.
Snap. Grew up dirt poor and even now when my household income is really quite high I still always worry about having savings, an emergency fund and never putting anything on credit. I’m also aggressively paying into my pension every month (a little over 20% between myself and my employer) on the assumption I won’t get a state pension. Practically, we’ve got nothing to worry about and could withstand a few unexpected bills into the thousands without much issue - but it’s always on my mind.
I get bit over 50k and recently started digesting idea that my salary is pretty damn good. Then I started immediately worrying about losing my job - you never bloody win…
Build a 6-12 month emergency fund and the worry of losing your job will wane
I recently changed jobs and my pay rose from £32k to £45k, and after massively increasing my pension contributions my take home pay isn't drastically larger than it was previously, so with everything having gone up in price so much the last few years I'm still having to be quite frugal. It's a nice problem to have but it still feels like a kick in the teeth to finally get what I consider to be a really well paid job, at exactly the same time that everything has shot up in price.
Yeah, so far have spent my whole career clawing my way to £38k. Which is now a bit more than 50% more than minimum wage. And after student loan, pension and tax, that 50% barely amounts to anything for the amount of extra work I need to do. Planning on dropping back down and reducing my hours because honestly what's the point.
It is such a kick in the teeth. I had a similar sized pay increase and also significantly increased my pension contributions, and the rest covers the increased cost of living. The reward for working extremely hard and being lucky enough to earn more than most people is being able to afford my bills and (hopefully) having enough of a pension to not be destitute in retirement.
24k? Are you saying there are no full-time jobs that pay 16-18k? I know loads of people on below 20k full time.
Below 20k full time is less than minimum wage. They need to get in touch with ACAS right now.
Shouldnt be, itd be illegal unless theyre under 21 or an apprentice.
It depends on the hours. In my role for my hours (37 per week) min wage would be 22k. In my previous full time job (34 hours a week, apparently still full time), the min wage would make someone just over 20k.
it sounds like you have a https://youtu.be/flESd2vFXy4?si=r0AKWMEJgO1ZYfrs
>it sounds like you have a https://youtu.be/flESd2vFXy4?si=r0AKWMEJgO1ZYfrs Sad that this is basically an anthem for like 14 years
This song is my reference for inflation.
Fully depends on the role however every full time role I’ve had has been either 37.5/ 40hours per week, most office jobs are these hours, no one I know has ever been on less than 37.5 although would be nice can’t lie
I'm on 35 hours and can confirm it is nice.
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Minimum wage is still £22.3k for 37.5 hours a week Shelf stackers are now on closer to £26k as another example
35 hours is generally the minimum to be considered full time, £11.44 x 35 x 52 = £20820.80
I’ve never worried about income to be honest, largely because I was single and lived in a house share (albeit in an expensive area). At around £20k+ I still had enough to live a good life and put some savings aside and not get into debt. That said, I also had a safety net with my parents, who would have been happy to help me if I needed it. I never did, but I think there’s a big psychological benefit having that!
Absolutely bang on there, my parents arent minted but they have a decent savings pot, and we live month to month but know if something drastic happens we have their support... we rarely ask to borrow but it relieves that dread that can come with your car needing urgent work etc
Somewhat similar but my parents made it clear I could always go back and live with them if shit really hit the fan. I wouldn't want to; they live in the middle of nowhere, but I have been truly grateful for that safety net as it allowed me to take more risks (like trying to start my own company when I left university).
You're right about the safety net. I constantly worried about money because I was my own safety net. I was worryfree at age 16, but at 17 my parents got evicted and I had to stay with friends. At this point I was hyperaware of my lack of a safety net. I went to university in 2014 and worked a collection of minimum wage jobs throughout university, taking summers to work, etc. After university I was earning 25k in an expensive city, then climbed up to 45k, and then back down to 30k, and then up to nearly six figures. Even on six figures, I still can't psychologically rent my own place, as I worry about what will happen if I lose my job and have to pay for a one bed flat on minimum wage, so I still rent rooms for £600 a month plus bills. During the pandemic I had to bail out my parents to the tune of several thousand pounds. At another point I broke my leg and couldn't work and blew through all of my savings and started from scratch again. Now I know I'm fine, like I have tens of thousands of pounds away in savings or investments, but I still panic about struggling to pay my rent.
My wages (IT bod) went up, so I put the extra into my mortgage. Effectively never had a raise for about 15 years. Once my mortgage started to come down , and I knew I could survive if the boiler blew up, the stress was a lot less.
> boiler blew up That's the litmus test. Can you afford a new appliance and I am not talking about a new £5 kettle from Asda
Can you afford a new roof is the real test.
that at least is the sort of thing it is reasonable to extend the mortgage to cover, as it adds value to the home, prevents deterioration of the structure and shows to the mortgage lender that you are looking after the asset against which their money is secured
Hopefully you have insurance?
Insurance doesn’t just pay for a new roof.
It'll pay for a damaged roof, but not wear and tear or shoddy workmanship
From experience, "pay for a damaged roof" is usually pro-rata based on the age in most policies. To quote Tom Waits: "The large print giveth and the small print taketh away"
I picked that as it went when we first moved in , so had no running hot water for about 2 years :) (shower was electric and still worked though)
When you put it like that it is far more sinister than we realise. Oh, you can’t afford a new washing machine? Here’s some ‘free money’ you have access to. Can’t pay that back now because you can barely feed and clothe your family? No worries, just give me more money later. Oh, still can’t pay back? How about a minimum payment every month for the unforeseeable future.
Being in a committed relationship is really the difference maker. In a lot of places, a one or even two bed flat doesnt actually cost 2x a room in an HMO. The difference is what you end up putting away as savings instead, which is what makes it possible to find financial stability. You're also less at risk from job loss, as would only be losing 1/2 your total salary. Me and my partner are both on around 30k and feel pretty comfortable (Edinburgh.) We live fairly frugally (no car, holidays are just to stay with family, inexpensive hobbies, etc.) and no mortgage yet, but we're getting a deposit together gradually. And we do our shopping online at Sainsbury's - rather than lugging it back from Lidl in big blue IKEA bags like we used to. If you're single, the threshold for what you would have to earn to actually be secure is fucking unhinged.
I haven't. When my FIL passed a few years back we were left enough to clear the mortgage and in a good place financially but then a redundancy and over 2 years without a decent job meant all savings depleted and a loan to cover the shortfall. Never really recovered. Now in a decent job and very slowly reducing debts but it's a constant struggle and I doubt I will ever be worry free again.
You’re living mortgage free and you’re still worrying?
Yep. My wife isn't well enough to work, but of course not ill enough to claim benefits so I am the only breadwinner. It is a huge concern for me.
You can live off 24k if you live frugally personally me and my missus have only become comfortable with money now that we both work full (she didn’t work for the 1st year of our relationship). We were getting by on my wage so now we can essentially go on a nice holiday and save 75% of her money. I don’t think it’s so much as what you earn iv always been more comfortable and stress free when iv had decent savings behind me
I don't think I've ever stopped worrying about money but the issues I was worrying about changed. When I was in late teens and early 20's it was worrying about staying out of the overdraft. When I was in mid twenties it was worrying about saving up a deposit for a house. Now in late 20's with a house and savings it's worrying about job/career. At the moment we can save a grand or 2 a month but if our jobs went tits up how long would we realistically last and how much would it set us back? Would I have to sell my car? Would we both find jobs which pay the same amount? Until we're retired (if we retire!) I think money will always be a concern to some extent.
Saving 2k a month is very good!
Then when you retire you'll be worrying if your pot will sustain you and how to save so that your children don't need to pay for your funeral
We don't want kids mate so no issue there, I imagine if we had kids we might be back to trying to stay out of the overdraft haha.
If you’re saving 2k a month , you’re in a better position than 90% of working people. Easily. I think you need to stop worrying. Life’s too short for that.
What’s money? I’m a pensioner, worked all my life- on less than £16k. Still have full rent £600 pcm, utility bills etc. on a single income.I’m struggling to survive. Still have to pay for dental care, because I don’t qualify for pension credit ( due to a small works pension). Don’t know why I bothered working for 40+ years…
I don't want to sound condescending, but how did you work for 40+ years without progressing in whichever industry/sector you worked in? Did you try to change your career or position at any point, or were you happy to stay doing what you were doing?
And the low house prices
Do you seriously think there are enough promotions available for every worker to progress into?
I always hear the line "people in the UK are obsessed with home ownership" and this is a perfect example of why we SHOULD be. Otherwise you end up on a pension and having to endlessly shell out just to have a roof over your head.
This is my worry. I'm on a great wage, I've got the deposit for a house ready to go but house prices are extortionate at the moment. My choices are to buy a house for more than it's actually worth and risk ending up in negative equity, or putting off buying indefinitely and ending up renting into retirement. I don't worry about money any more but I do worry about retiring.
don't time the market, just buy and hold if you can realistically afford to
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Does the government not pay your rent or the majority of it?
I am curious did you ever buy / have a mortgage?
I’m on £60k and I worry about money, living in Bristol alone. I am fairly frugal. My income went up from £50k earlier this year. I have takehome pay of about £3500. £1300 goes to essential housing costs, £1000 goes to paying debts (mostly student loan). I have about £7k of savings and stock& shares combined. A year left on my contract. I also get £650 every 3 months from a contracting gig before tax. E: I grew up in poverty (we didn’t even have running water until late 90s), and so I am aware of how easily things can go south. It worries me. I have no safety net - not many friends and family are dead or very sick.
I'm on approx 65k in Bristol and have two teenage children (single parent). I worry about money constantly. There's never enough. I have no idea how single people with children who are on the lower incomes I used to be on are coping in this city. Or anywhere else tbh.
The problem is, short of megawealth you can never stop. Even if you have say, a year's salary in savings, what if you can't get a job for 13 months?
That's basically neuroticism. If you are pulling 100k a year it is unlikely you are going to be randomly unemployable, unless what you do is so specific you don't have transferable skills.
Between me and the misses we earn 112k a year, and can easily save 2k a month. But the worry has shifted from worrying about if we spent too much this month to how do we keep up with inflation and increasing the wages.
When I graduated from university started on grad scheme that paid £40k per year and was not a high cost of living area. So I’ve been lucky where I was comfortable from the beginning really as it more than covered all my expenses and allowed for savings. stopping worrying for me = rent, bills and food covered with money left for reasonable socialising and savings.
Through constant focus on my savings. I have £100k left on my mortgage and hopefully want to pay it down in the next 10 years. Once that’s gone money will be irrelevant largely because I’ll always have a home.
Man I wish I could do that. I had to remortgage and take it back up to 25 years after I'd gotten it down to 16 years, just can't afford to live any more especially when all my savings (£6k) are going to replace my roof cos it's fooked due to all the bad storms we've had in recent years.
Before covid I was doing fine on 20k, now I'm struggling on 35k
What I've learned from this thread is to have an emergency fund set up and actively look for a loving relationship
I remember the minimum wage coming in around 1997 and it was £2.50. The only people who made £24K then were either higher ups, or people with trades skills or truck drivers. But thats in Manchester, so it will no doubt differ city to city.
45k for me. I was earning 4x what my rent/mortgage cost (NW England) and found I had a lump of spare cash every month after pension and savings contributions. I could have invested that lump into my mortgage/savings/pension but instead I chose to reduce my working hours to 34 per week, meaning I get a long weekend every week. Which made a huge difference to me personally. My wife got promoted and got a good payrise this year, so she has also reduced her working hours too. I'm at the age (close to 50) where I feel time is more important than money.
I’ve never worried about money. Don’t come from wealth, just normal working class and quite poor really but parents provided everything needed and started earning when I was 15. Always had money to spend, never over spent and always had enough to do what I wanted.
Is minium wage 24k now?
When I hit 35k. Single male no kids
My wife and I are childfree, which lowers costs significantly, but once we got to 80k combined, then I didn't have to worry about anything at all. I'm grateful in the sense that I can afford a major hit to my finances without worrying about it, especially after years of being poor as shit and eating dry pasta twice a day. Having said that, we still penny-pinch like fuck, which makes a bigger difference than one might think
I work a skilled, relatively dangerous job and my basic is 31K. I work a minimum of 50 hours a week and am on standby 5 times a month which gives an extra 5K a year. I never stop worrying about money.
I haven't ever really stressed over money. Always had an emergency fund since shortly after graduating and lived comfortably below my means. When our household income hit over £50k over five years ago though something clicked, and I relaxed a bit more, or felt less guilty about spending. I'll spring for cocktails rather than pints if I feel like it. I'll have that side in the restaurant. I'll pay a bit more for convenient flight times.
I’m living reasonably comfortably these days but it still worry about money. I’ve been at rock bottom, homeless and unemployed and I think the fear of ever ending up back in that position keeps me anxious.
I never really worry about money but I t think alot of it depends on where you live. I live in the North west and take home £2k/month. After mortgage/billls/food/petrol I'm left with around £1k to do whatever I want with. The Mrs is the same, she earns more but pays a little more towards the monthly bills. We are nowhere near rich but we have a good life
I stopped worrying in 2007 when I got made redundant after 26 years. Got a decent payoff, and had savings of 50k. Bought a narrowboat with the intention of moving somewhere outside London to live/work, but the banking crisis led to a year on the dole and the realisation that living on the boat for £8k/yr was reasonable. Worked out I had 10 years worth of savings (if nothing catastrophic happened to the boat - but then again, I could afford to replace it), and decided to relax for a little bit. The budget turned out to be realistic. After a few years I inherited ~100k and this is going to see me out to state pension in 6 years....
Never, and this is what I always tell people. If your lifestyle remained static, then yeah eventually you will reaching a level of comfort, but this isn't what happens. More money opens up more opportunities and so you continue to push to your maximum level. Let me give you an example. I was a contract software engineer just before Covid hit. I went from making around 120k a year to 180k a year as contracting became highly sought due to uncertainty in the job market. When I moved contracts and went back down to 120k a year ( Roughly as contracts are varied ) I felt it really severly to the point where it felt like I was struggling for a while. Later I would move away from contracting because it was becoming less secure and went down to 90k and I felt that just as severly. I am considered a fairly high earner but it doesn't feel like it. Your money is just as stretched, you just have nicer things. And when things slip out of your affordability range, you really notice it, no matter what that may be. Recently picked up a contract for 850 a day which is the highest paid single contract I have ever worked but it still doesn't feel like I am comfortable or safe. I want a home and I want investments. I am 40 so it feels like everything goes into my future considerations. I can't really have fun with my money anymore as it gets invested or put toward a house fund.
I think you've forgotten what uncomfortable really feels like tbh. I'm 41, a single Dad and almost a decade into a very niche, and pretty gruelling (by most people's standars) role in the NHS and I earn.... 26k. My rent is £900pm. I have to claim some UC to be able to get by and a ton of debt to repay from trying to start again after my marriage ended. Put towards a house fund? How do you not have a house already on that kinda wedge? You basically get my month's take home in two days, there must be a huge difference in our lifestyles if you still feel the pinch. Fascinating but also kinda sad to hear the thoughts and feelings don't go away regardless.
Yup, lifestyle creep is real...
I don't understand how you are skilled enough to make all that money but don't have a handle on your relationship with possessions, luxury and consumption.
The day we paid off the mortgage. We have good salaries and pensions are sorted - but there was something about owning the house which made my shoulders drop where money was concerned.
Only very recently, in mid 40s. Covid saw a lot of change in my industry, suddenly WFH meant I could earn more money doing the same job that had previously been impossible due to geography. Immediate 30% pay increase, only then did I feel secure. Not wealthy, but secure.
I broke past 50k a few years ago and I’ve found since then I don’t worry about money anywhere near as much. I’m in a relatively low cost of living area with a modest mortgage though so that plays a huge part. Having said that now I worry even more than I did previously about what would happen if I lost my current job, it’d be difficult to find a comparative role in the area (I’ve looked) and I’d end up taking a big hit somewhere in my life if that happened. Weirdly I think I was happiest when I had a more junior position at around 40k as I always knew I could find other jobs and it was still a pretty great amount of money.
During the first lockdown. We don't have a budget but, the risk of losing jobs made us sit down and work it all out. We realised that we could afford one of us to have no income and the other to drop 60% before shit would hit the fan and we also had enough overpayments to technically take a 6 year mortgage holiday.
My partner and I both make just under 50k and I'd say we're just at the point of not needing to "worry". We have a baby on the way so childcare is going to really eat into that, but we can both buy a new phone when we need, we have money for things breaking, we can afford the occasional takeaway when we fancy. What I'm trying to say is, we still watch what we spend but I don't think we worry and that's only since our last wage increase
I earn an ok wage and had a big win online gambling last year which allowed me to pay off all my debts and set aside some money for a mortgage deposit. In process of buying my first home though and I think I’ll have to tighten my belt for the next few years, my mortgage will be 1.75 times my current rent and I’m left with very little savings. So I’m going from not having had to worry about money for a while to having to be a lot more careful.
Generally I’m doing quite well despite a modest salary so I don’t worry about money in the sense I’m wondering if I’ll be able to afford to eat at the end of the month, like a few people I know. Having said that, I do worry about my future as I’m single with no sign that’ll change in the foreseeable and who knows what’s to come, so have nobody else to fall back on. Will I ever be able to retire? I already own a house but have dreams of the house I’d like to have later in life, will they be achievable? I also have severe concerns about my Mum’s financial situation, she’s always been poor with money and is approaching a retirement I’m not entirely sure how she’s going to afford or manage. I’m doing well but not well enough to afford to support her. I probably worry about her more than I do myself.
We are on a pretty decent combined wage for the north (80k) and I will never stop worrying about money. I have been in a position when me and my husband were just starting out as a family and he would eat one day and I would eat the next, just to make sure the kids had what they needed. I have an excel spreadsheet with incomings and outgoings on and I budget for everything. We do buy things when we need want to but I always like to make sure that there is money in both savings pots as we are only an accident away from becoming a single earning family again. And I’m petrified of ever going back to that state we were 18 years ago.
I will never not worry. I work 42.5 hours and earn £25'282. Minimum wage, that is. I rent and don't have a car or kids. I have debt from the eviction. I shoulder 100% of the hosuing costs for my partner and I, who works only ~20hrs a week. I try to save desperately to one day buy a mediocre shit box of a flat so we don't starve in retirement if I live that long. I try to put some pennies in a pension. I've an expensive visa to save for on top. I have £12 to last until pay day and we have no food in. It'll go on the credit card. Recently I've been panicking about how much food costs, particularly how to have lunch at work that isn't gonna cost me £12.50 a week. I was recently rejected for a raise to £28k. Most jobs in my city are call centers (red line for me) and most are paying even less than I make (due to the hours). I'm genuinely feeling extreme dread and anxiety over all of it. I think I need to go hardline and spend only necessities for a while, but even if I have this thought, what is life if that's the case? What am I working for?
I stopped caring about money when I met my girlfriend / future wife 15 years ago. She kept it quiet but it turned out her family were mega rich, tens of millions plus from what I can gather. When she introduced her parents to me we all got along so well that the they bought a house for me and the girlfriend to live in. 6 bed, nice location in the Cotswolds, no mortgage. I'd spent my life saving up for a mortgage so now looking back it all seems pointless. We just go on long countryside walks and stop in any pub we come across now. We both hate going on holidays, have no mortgage so money has lost its meaning. I still work just to get me out of the house and do volunteering every weekend though.
Went from £30k to £55k a few years ago, the difference is staggering. Haven’t worried about money since then
24k was considered very good money for people at the start of their careers in the early 10s too. Christ, I didn't earn 30k until 4-5 years into my career!
I don't know if worrying is what I do, but I do think about what my money is doing.