Mine cost £220K around 5 years ago. Should probably have been around £235 but they priced low to sell quick. New builds atthe time were around 280 for 4 bed detached. Some new builds are ridiculous in price for what you get a friend of mine bought a 3 bed semi and in all honesty it's tiny. I also did not borrow £220k hence the lower payments.
I've recently moved up a position at work and I am now on just over £40K. I was feeling really good about this but I know realise having read this thread just how poor I am.
This high-horse of yours is not a good look and you're normally a good poster. So many points on this: 1. As has been mentioned many times £50k may be a high wage in Barnsley, but it is relative and may not be elsewhere in the country. 2. Of course those earning more should pay more tax. They already do. Tax brackets rise the more you earn. If you earn £30k a year you pay £4,900 a year in tax and NI. At £50k it's over double at £10,300 and at £100k it's £31,400. Someone on £50k is already contributing a lot, I believe it's a low bar to start taxing more at this entry point when it isn't a high wage in a lot of the country. 3. People who earn more have GENERALLY got their heads down in school, got good grades, not earned for 3-4 years and paid to go to university instead, have moved away from the comfort of their home area to a big city, or a different country to further careers and have worked bloody hard to climb the career ladder. IF you haven't done all these things then maybe look in the mirror instead of being 'appalled' that others earn more than you. 4. The main issue in the UK is productivity. It's becoming a low wage society. I grew up in Ireland and we always looked to Britain as our wealthy and affluent neighbour. This has changed massively through **** governance in the UK creating an uneducated workforce and electorate who can't be trusted to vote in a way that helps themselves, see Brexit. In Ireland the average wage is now €10k higher a year than the UK. 70% of people go to university, in England it's 35%. The difference is the cost in Ireland is basically zero. I don't believe kids in Ireland are born any different than over here and believe 70% in England would go to uni if given the opportunity. 1 in 3 kids are clearly being robbed of that opportunity. Get more people properly educated and then there are more people on higher wages, more tax is generated and we can pay teachers, nurses, doctors, care workers etc what they deserve. 5. As this thread illustrates, a lot on this board are 'champagne socialists', myself included. We are happy to vote left, pay more taxes and improve the country for those who are struggling. A huge issue with this is we have a government who squander it and hand it to their cronies. You then get uneducated posters pushing Reform who'd be even worse, but as ever it won't affect the middle class as much as the working class Reform voters who continue to not understand the system and shoot themselves and the country in the foot. I'm happy to pay more taxes to a government that will use it correctly.
Wage growth has been outstripped by inflation for basics such as food, energy and housing for at least the last ten years. Insane energy costs in particular have led to pretty much everything becoming more expensive, but certain things in particular - such as eating out (granted by no means an essential, but it's a very illustrative example as it's pretty much doubled in the last 5 years) have suddenly become unaffordable to many people, at least on a regular basis. The key workers who you mention above - and by "key" workers, I mean not just teachers, police and NHS staff, but all those others you mention who literally keep the country functioning, are now in a situation where many of them are not earning a living wage unless they're in a dual-income family. In some of the more expensive parts of the country, even people towards the top end of those professions you mention are struggling, mostly thanks to a completely out-of-control housing market. Just because someone is earning an above-average salary, it still doesn't necessarily make that income objectively "good", especially once you take into account that person's individual circumstances, with all the financial commitments that those circumstances may entail. Just to reiterate, I live in one of the less expensive parts of the UK housing-wise, and I don't live anything like a life of luxury, despite only running one car and having one child. I shop mostly at Lidl, rarely eat out, and only go to the pub for a special treat. We don't have Sky, but my wife and I do have gym membership at £30 a month each. I do a professional job, but still only keep my head above water because I do a shedload of freelance work on top. My wife is considerably under-employed for her skills and qualifications and only earns during the school term (which is another story for another day), but most of her extremely modest income goes on our daughter - clothes (essentials, not designer stuff), and extra-curricular activities, because we think they're important. If we're lucky, we have a bit left over at the end of the month, but if I've had a lull in my freelance work and there's been a school holiday so our income has dipped that month, our outgoings can often be more than our combined income. And yet, I know full-well that objectively we're still in a much better situation than most people in the UK.That's really scary.
Congratulations. Its weird - I'm not having a pop at those earning nice money, that would be weird and backwards. People often work hard for promotion or take a risk and move jobs to try to increase their standard of living. I applaud that. Good luck. But just recognise that 50k is a lot ot brass.
I agree with everything you've said about rising costs, and you correctly state that many are living hand to mouth even on 50k or more. But that doesn't mean that it's not a good salary. To try to pay everything you mentioned as a newly qualified teacher, a social care worker, someone picking on nights at Aldi, a call centre worker or your local Wetherrspoons barstaff. It's even harder. That's my 50k is a good wage.
I think it very much depends how you define "good". If we're defining it as "above average", then £50k is definitely a good salary in the UK. That's an objective fact. But if we're defining "good" as "being able to live comfortably", then it's clearly a lot more nuanced, especially as we live in one of the most expensive countries in the world, one with a lot of regional variations in living costs.
This. I’ve been poor. I’ve earned crap wages. 50k is definitely not that. Daft to say it is when the vast majority of people earn significantly less. Are you minted and buy a jag a day of course not but are you reasonably comfortable of course yes.
Not sure where your Gym is, but Active at Yarborough are doing £179 for the year, in that it also gives you access to the Birchwood one too. Birchwood are also doing one for £150 if you sign up by end of month, main difference between the two is Birchwood doesn’t have a pool etc.
I think most think 50k is a good wage. The jobs you mentioned are mostly low skilled apart from teachers who may not earn 50k but get good perks like holidays and pension. Who's to say he doesn't earn 50k from delivering parcels I'd imagine it's based on how many you deliver. The point I was making is there's tradesmen working for people on more than 50k a year, 50k a year your hardly living the high life driving a range rover.
Don't forget, a lot of these tradesmen also work self employed, and an accountant can get very creative to pay little if any tax, and often a nice bonus of "tax back" pays for their holidays etc. Granted they don't get paid when they don't work, but I've seen many of my mates boast almost every year, they haven't paid a penny in tax...
Bingo. One of my mates is a self employed joiner. Pays himself a wage of 30k a year to satisfy the taxman. Has his business in his and his dads on company house. Wife doesn't work. 5 bed detached house at the top of Swinton. But then he does all work for me as cash jobs so I'm just as bad as him probably.
Cheers for the heads-up. We go to Everlast - hugely convenient as it's opposite the YMCA where our daughter goes climbing, loads of extra classes included, option to pause membership when we're away, and it's within easy cycling distance of home. Plus the pool is much nicer than at Yarborough. But if things go tits up with any of my freelance work I'll definitely bear it in mind!
Average train driver - £57k, Average Lorry driver - £31k Average Bus driver - £32k Average teacher - £34k I would say anyone on £50k is earning a good wage, its not staggeringly well off, but its definitely above average - how far that goes depends where you live of course, 50k in London is not the same as 50k in Grimsby, or indeed Barnsley. As for the policy itself, it works out at £5.46 extra a week in tax for anyone earning over £55k, for that they are promising £20bn funding for adult social care and £8bn for the NHS. I'd be happy to pay that extra if I know its going on those particular things, personally. Its probably easy for the Greens to say these things knowing they're not going to win, it would be interesting if Labour had the balls to do it, they don't, of course, as we're beholden to the screeching headlines of news channels and journalists and talking heads where we can never pay more for better services, only pay less and then complain about the shocking state of said services. This is how California bankrupted itself - budge changes went to public votes and the public continually voted for more spending but lower taxes.....
Has anyone said it isn’t a ‘good wage’? I think people have said it isn’t a fortune or ‘enormous’. What puzzles me is where this £50k figure has come from as a target for extra tax/NI, when there is already doubling of the tax rate above this level.
With respect, you don’t know what I earn, and as I have stated in multiple posts, I’m giving a view as someone that has spent all my working life looking at people’s incomes and budgets and therefore has seen the financial picture on all different incomes, not just my own.
Yes - throughout this thread. One poster would struggle to survive on it. And the figure probably comes from the national averages, which I think was 34k as quoted earlier in the thread. A 50% increase on that average gives 51k, so that's probably the maths.
Yes, I’m sure they would, many people struggle on more than that, and aren’t necessarily living a lavish lifestyle. Seen it many times. I’ve also spoken to many people and seen budgets for where there’s one £25k salary and then benefits to cover a family of 4. So I see and hear that side too. My opinion is still that people on incomes up to perhaps £60k-£70k already pay enough taxes and that the Government, councils etc need to spend the money better rather than taking even more.
