What is a decent salary?

I dont know about you guys but my dad earns 7k a year ( real less i know) and he manages to pay a morgage pay for the insurance of 2 cars, (he owns one) , and also manages to feed 3 teens. We even go abroad once a year. We live in england so we get benefits and such but still

so we get benefits and such but still

Wow...
I'm shocked by some of the figures on this page. Then again, I'd be willing to bet that the people with the most ridiculous numbers have never lived independently.
Minimum wage is more than enough, especially if you have no dependants - hell my sister and her financé both earn just over minimum wage combined, and they have a baby for goodness sake!

It's not about how much you earn, it's about how you treat your money; eat cost effectively, pay for things annually (avoid interests) and don't make stupid decisions! It's not hard, really.

And I thought students were supposed to be intelligent...


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How is that possible? Thats less than mininum wage.

What does he work as?

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I dont know about you guys but my dad earns 7k a year ( real less i know) and he manages to pay a morgage pay for the insurance of 2 cars, (he owns one) , and also manages to feed 3 teens. We even go abroad once a year. We live in england so we get benefits and such but still

To be fair it is possible to voluntarily pay NI contributions when working abroad. Otherwise, if intending to return for just 10 or 20 years, he might well find he doesn't qualify for a state pension. Or at least the maximum state pension. Or if he needs to return to the UK earlier than expected, and claim certain benefits such as (what is now) JSA or ESA, he won't be entitled to them.

If he's smart this is what he'll do.

I won't work for anyone or any company full time unless it paid between £60-90k per year tax free.

So you wouldn't work for a company that paid £500k per year? That seems bizarre.

Didn't I answer this already...?

I'm not denying they will be low by London/southern standards. I'm just illustrating that there is variation across the country. Admittedly that wasn't clear in my post, but I intended it to be.

And there can still be a plentiful supply of jobs in the north. It just varies hugely by sector. I'm looking at entering the charity sector and so many head offices of national charities are in or around London.

Generally speaking there'll never be as many as there are in and around London. But ultimately so many want to live in London, though not necessarily elsewhere in the south, so opportunities exist.

Aberdeen has its oil industry (and probably some high living costs), Newcastle and Sunderland have a decent IT and off-shore engineering opportunities (and even non-graduate roles, such as call centres and sales, aren't difficult to find and still provide a comfortable enough salary). Newcastle is not too bad for the heritage sector and arts either (even if not London standards). Liverpool too. Leeds has a strong legal and financial sector. Manchester's a big city...

But see my post above about how easy it can be for someone to leave what's still a relatively comfortable life on 20k in Newcastle, and a good number of other northern cities, I wager.



Absolutely. as mentioned I'm looking to enter the charity sector. One of my recent interviews was for an educational and employment charity in North Kensington. The salary was 18k. I'm well aware that living on 18k,even in (and around) a relatively deprived part of Kensington/London, would have been a struggle.



Meh, my brother probably earned a little over 30k when first moving to London (now probably earns 50k). He certainly had a comfortable enough life. Saved enough money to travel and go to music festivals, as well as save (and eventually got himself on the property ladder by getting one of those flats you part buy and then rent out another room to cover the rest of the mortgage).

Admittedly he did have some savings from when he worked in Manchester for a couple of years beforehand, and perhaps when he was working while doing his degree in Sheffield. But I don't think a huge amount. Besides, he did a lot of travelling and socialising, and continues to do so.

He could be living up north and, if not quite earning as much, for are still opportunities. He's a Java Developer and on Tyneside we do have success stories such as Sage who were recruiting and offering the same starting salaries as some of those in London.

Hmmm I never considered that. That is definitely something I will look into if i go ahead with working abroad. Thanks for that very useful insight.

Hell yeah across the country there is huge variation. In an ideal world you want to work up North with the pay of the South. With regards to work though, the majority is down south. For example, Reading has more IT jobs than Newcastle and Liverpool combined. In Newcastle I certainly would think 20k would probably equate to around 26-7k down South.
It sounds like your brother probably had quite a lot of savings, or was living in shared accommodation. Living on your own will easily cost you around £800 a month in London for somewhere which isn't a "studio" aka a dive.
I've been to Newcastle before and really enjoyed the city. It'd be nice if jobs were more evenly spread out in the UK rather than being centred around London.

As soon as you can show me how living on minimum wage in London is possible I'll retract what I said. I won't hold my breath.

Benefits must be making up a significant chunk of that.

Assuming a 3 bed house that's going to be at least 400 a month pretty much anywhere, that's 4800 off the bat, filling up even a small car now costs 25-30 quid, even at once a month that's still 600 quid a year plus insurance, plus tax. There's no way you could pay for food and bills out of the remaining grand or slightly more.

I know the word "decent" can be subjective. But for a single ADULT male to live comfortably, this means, tv, internet computer, mobile, decent housing, a small car, a night out once in a while, etc.. What would be a decent salary.
I am guessing 21k a year?