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What is a comfortable salary for a family of 4?

And that is indeed the problem, you can only advise based on your personal experience. Of course you don't need £500,000 for a four bedroom house in the greater london area. Here is one for £185,000 for instance - if I spent another few minutes looking I would find you much cheaper ones.

good point, forgot about that part of London lol. Although I did say in the part of Greater London I live in.

Reply 21

DaddyT

12

Lol @ the negs. I have a joint family income of c 43k and I wouldn't say we are comfortable. Don't get me wrong we arnt scraping the barrel and could live on less but neither are we able to not watch what we spend all the time. That would be my idea of comfortable - a very subjective question.

Reply 22

wactm

14

Well, my single mother and 3 kids love quite comfortably on £10k per year. We all have the latest technology, 30mb broadband, food, clothes etc. Rent is cheap (~£450 per month) because we live in a bad area but our house has 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and is only 17 years old.

You can probaly round that to £13-15k including money I give to my mum if she needs it for extras like school trips for my brothers and other luxuries. And then probaly round it to £17-20k when you include benefits. (Note: my income is actually part of my dads household income and I save the vast majority of it)

I reckon £25k per year with no debt would allow you to be comfortable, if you want 2 cars and more luxuries I would take it to £40k.

Reply 23

MostCompetitive

2

Before statutory and any voluntary deductions:

father, mother, 2 daughters - £100,000
father, mother, 1 son, 1 daughter - £60,000
father, mother, 2 sons - £40,000.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 24

The_Goose

18

Original post by bellx

This would be for a house etc in a suburban area, what would the total household income be for life to be comfortable?

I would say combined of 35k. That what my household was growing up, mum worked part time to fit in around school, we went on holidays most years and live in a four bed detached house 12 miles from York.

I know families that earn less and are happy, but their children share a small bedroom and they don't have a garden or anything, so I don't know. Depends on what you would consider comfortable.

Reply 25

Datbreh

2

80K after tax.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 26

CallieCat

9

We're comfortable on around £30K a year.

Reply 27

DaddyT

12

Original post by The_Goose

I would say combined of 35k. That what my household was growing up, mum worked part time to fit in around school, we went on holidays most years and live in a four bed detached house 12 miles from York.

I know families that earn less and are happy, but their children share a small bedroom and they don't have a garden or anything, so I don't know. Depends on what you would consider comfortable.

Unrelated to the thread but I'm intrigued if you have plans to pursue a career in law now you have graduated

Reply 28

Rule of Idiocracy

'Scraping by on £100,000-a-year' ???

Jheeeez, maybe we should do a collection for them or something :/

Reply 29

NotSoCool.Fly

11

30 k would be comfortable :smile:

Reply 30

Ronda

14

I'm from a family of 8 and we live comfortably on 35k after tax. We have enough to keep us going along with luxuries like internet, sky, games consoles, days out and smallish family holidays (nothing abroad, just somewhere nice in the UK which does us fine). We do have only a 3 bedroomed house (was 2 before we had to get the attic done) in not the nicest of areas, but that's never really bothered me much, I'll probably be moving out within the next few years anyways. I reckon a family of 4 could live pretty comfortably on 20k. Depending on where they lived, of course.

Reply 31

Vitamin D

15

Well we currently have a family of four (my oldest sister has her own house) and we get by just fine on around £25K. I do suppose that you have to take into account that both my brother and I work and we're both "grown-up" so that probably makes a huge difference. We live in a 3-bed house (it was a 4-bed when they bought it) and my parents finished paying the mortgage a few years ago, my dad has three cars and my brother has one too (they all get driven regularly) and at the moment we're basically redecorating the whole house. We do live in a small Scottish town though, so it's not really comparable to somewhere like London.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 32

username494912

14

Original post by KJane

My household income is around 26k a year and we live comfortably as a family of 5 (2 parents, 3 kids - USED to be 4 kids)

what... did they do to the 'extra' kid? :s-smilie:

Reply 33

Vitamin D

15

Original post by ErinLeigh

what... did they do to the 'extra' kid? :s-smilie:

Maybe they grew up and moved out? :tongue:

I'd say about 40K?

A lot of it depends on mortgage. If you have to meet mortgage repayments or pay rent, you are going to need a MUCH higher income to be comfortable.

Reply 36

Wenger

10

Original post by Selenax

you'll need around £250,000 per year in total for a big house, 2 cars 4kids and holidays definately. Kids are expensive , I know families who scrape by on £100,000 a year but then I guess personal debt is a major factor aswell

Does 'scraping by' still include the children's private school tuition fees, only 1 holiday a year instead of 3, and the maintenance of their two cars? :doctor:

Reply 37

KJane

15

Original post by FinalMH

So both your parents earn £13,000?

No, only my mum brings in the sole household income of £26k.

Reply 38

KJane

15

Original post by ErinLeigh

what... did they do to the 'extra' kid? :s-smilie:

My older sister used to live with us, until she moved out, I was just being specfic as to say that even though there's only 3 kids here now, we used to survive on a 'lower' income when there was yet another one of us in the house.

Reply 39

ian.slater

12

Original post by bellx

This would be for a house etc in a suburban area, what would the total household income be for life to be comfortable?

Housing costs are the big factor. Where I live in the Midlands, a 'nice' family house can be bought for £250k or a bit more. So two salaries of £35k each will just about buy this from scratch. But once you've paid off the mortgage, actual living costs are much lower. Many middle-aged people have comfortable lives on modest incomes because they bought their house years ago.

Nearer London, it might well cost £400k for the same house. Buying that from scratch needs two incomes of about £60k each. So most people work up to a house of that value.

What is a comfortable salary for a family of 4?

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