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Minimum salary required in London: £500k?

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Re: Minimum salary required in London: £500k?

#21

Post by cmdkeen »

The article is also making an assumption that people on £500k a year are using the NHS. Unless you're Mrs Miliband private health insurance is almost certainly going to be part of your employment package, because if you're earning that much then the productivity hit of waiting for NHS treatment is likely to be more than the cost of private health coverage.

This is another reason why I love living in Edinburgh, the salary difference is far smaller than the "nice life" cost of living difference.

Re: Minimum salary required in London: £500k?

#22

Post by pjc50 »

hugofirth wrote: post #20

I should also chime in and say that even for people living in London and sending their children to private schools these estimates are very high. I was luck enough to go to Eton and honestly, for most parents it was a question of affording the fees by: a) not spending that kind of money on other activities; b) lifelong saving; c) selling substantial assets (like second houses etc...); and d) inherited wealth and/or g…

Is that double-counting babysitting and sending the kids to boarding school? It's certainly a tradition of the English aristocracy to spend as little time with your children as possible.

Re: Minimum salary required in London: £500k?

#23

Post by boothead »

I just about to buy a house outside of London. I'm also about to send my 2 kids to private school as all the decent local state schools are full with waiting lists (thankfully a lot cheaper than the figures mentioned here). I had a look at one of the options for commuting into London. This is the quickest option from where I am (via HS1). I'm already up to the following monthly expenses:

Mortgage: £3200

School Fees: £1375

Travel: £450 (next cheapest is £300)

Insurance: ~£300 (Critical Illness, Life insurance)

Bills: £1500 (guestimate)

These are a mix of expenses I'll have to pay personally, and some that I can pay as business expenses.

So I'm up to £7k monthly outgoings already, without even trying. In reality I'll need to add another £3k ish for loan repayments and other bits. As a contractor I'm able to be quite tax efficient, but as a single salary earner, http://www.thesalarycalculator.co.uk/salary.php tells me I'd need to be earning > £200k to cover this.

I could economize. I could get a cheaper car for example and I could have bought a cheaper house - the one I'm buying certainly isn't a palace though.

But, yeah - London is expensive!

Re: Minimum salary required in London: £500k?

#24

Post by pjc50 »

cmdkeen wrote: post #21

The article is also making an assumption that people on £500k a year are using the NHS. Unless you're Mrs Miliband private health insurance is almost certainly going to be part of your employment package, because if you're earning that much then the productivity hit of waiting for NHS treatment is likely to be more than the cost of private health coverage. This is another reason why I love living in Edinburgh, the sa…

Upvoted for Edinburgh. It's lovely here, affordable by comparison with the south-east, and has a reasonable tech centre. Still trying to find the startup clique, though; is there an "HN Edinburgh"?

Re: Minimum salary required in London: £500k?

#25

Post by keithpeter »

hugofirth wrote: post #20

I should also chime in and say that even for people living in London and sending their children to private schools these estimates are very high. I was luck enough to go to Eton and honestly, for most parents it was a question of affording the fees by: a) not spending that kind of money on other activities; b) lifelong saving; c) selling substantial assets (like second houses etc...); and d) inherited wealth and/or g…

Scholarships still in evidence at all?

Re: Minimum salary required in London: £500k?

#27

Post by prawn »

collyw wrote: post #2

That is nowhere near a minimum salary required. Private schools and £300 a week on groceries, and 20K a year on holidays!??!

Minimum salary to live that particular lifestyle.

20k/year on holidays might be realistic for a family of 4-5 depending on where they went. If they're teenage children, you're getting family suites or two hotel rooms and could easily pay $400+/night.

3-4 trips totalling say 25 days. Airfares add up for 4-5 people. $3k+ on airfares, $10k+ on accommodation. Four people eating out 1-2 times/day. Car hire (SUV rather than a hatchback to fit all luggage), entertainment, etc.

I earn peanuts compared to those examples but just had a trip to the States with wife, toddler and infant. Probably cost $20-30k in one 8 week trip and that was without the fourth airfare and generally cramming four of us into budget hotels where possible.

Re: Minimum salary required in London: £500k?

#28

Post by lmm »

irremediable wrote: post #9
JohnyLy wrote: post #7

I would say 50K is required to live well in London and 20K as a minimum salary. 500K as a minimum is ridiculous.

£20k is a much better estimate. A twentysomething without children can live comfortably on that -- with plenty of money for drinks, gadgets and eating out.

I think that's overstating it. My first job in London I was on £28k and I was ok but wouldn't want to go lower. Take-home pay was about £1800/month, I spent £850/month rent (Zone 3, noisy loft conversion in an old building), maybe £450/month general shopping (food and clothes and the like), £200 going out and the rest on occasional stuff like a computer or holidays.

You can live much cheaper - I've seen 11k claimed by someone who shared a tiny basement and cooked all their own meals off the cheapest supermarket food - but you're making significant lifestyle compromises.

Re: Minimum salary required in London: £500k?

#29

Post by pjc50 »

jdimov9 wrote: post #17
pjc50 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like it or not, it's a lifestyle that only about 10% of the UK can afford. £20k is the holiday budget for a whole decade for most people. And that tax number includes healthcare and pension.

Oh, I fully agree with that - in fact, in certain other European countries it is more like 0.10%, but that's not the point. The point is - I don't understand all the whining going on here. If I make £500K a year, and I gave it up for £20K a year, would that really make any of you better off? REALLY?

Replacing the £500k job with ten £50k jobs would make at least nine people better off, yes. The ten people could then manage at least four hundred hours a week of work. It's strange how indivisible the really high paid jobs are.

Re: Minimum salary required in London: £500k?

#30

Post by lmm »

jdimov9 wrote: post #17
pjc50 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like it or not, it's a lifestyle that only about 10% of the UK can afford. £20k is the holiday budget for a whole decade for most people. And that tax number includes healthcare and pension.

Oh, I fully agree with that - in fact, in certain other European countries it is more like 0.10%, but that's not the point. The point is - I don't understand all the whining going on here. If I make £500K a year, and I gave it up for £20K a year, would that really make any of you better off? REALLY?

Given that London house prices are a function of supply and demand, if everyone on £500k did that then I personally would be a lot better off.
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