19K salary london

I graduated from Uni in July and have been offered a graduate scheme in london with a 19k salary. Is this enough to live on in london? The company have said that I will have a performance review after 6 months, where my salary may increase. I'm not sure whether to accept or not

Reply 1

Laomedeia

21

19k is a good wage actually. Take it, jobs are hard A.F to get these days.

Reply 2

josh_v

17

Original post by danb93

I graduated from Uni in July and have been offered a graduate scheme in london with a 19k salary. Is this enough to live on in london? The company have said that I will have a performance review after 6 months, where my salary may increase. I'm not sure whether to accept or not

19k is a very low wage for a grad scheme, and in London that becomes even more difficult to live on. Its not impossible, but once you've paid tax, NI, pension, student loan its not much left at the end of each month.

You would have to consider how much you would have at the end of each month. You can look at http://www.uktaxcalculators.co.uk to work it out but id guess it would be about £1300 a month. Then consider rent, bills, transport, food etc etc. Its not impossible, but you would be unlikely to have any money spare beyond the essentials.

And then also consider how competitive the graduate market is right now. Perhaps it may not be easy in the short run, but is it worth it long run? Would you want to take the risk of waiting for something else to come along and perhaps it might not?

Reply 3

Jackieox

19

I'm moving to London in Septmber. You're going to be looking at £1000 per month AT LEAST if you want your own place, less if you're prepared to house share.
once you've taken out tax/national insurance/ect then rent/food/bills/travel (With London you either pay a fortune to live in the centre with no travel costs or a fortune on travel costs with cheaper rents) you're not going to have anything left =/

Reply 4

danb93

OP

yeah i have looked at the numbers and it works out that i will have about £100 a week to spend on food and whatever else i want, which isn't a lot for london. All I know is that I would get a performance review where my wage may increase, but may not which is the risk. I am through to assessment days for 3 other companies so feel that rejecting this offer may be the better option

Reply 5

adil_

9

Original post by danb93

yeah i have looked at the numbers and it works out that i will have about £100 a week to spend on food and whatever else i want, which isn't a lot for london. All I know is that I would get a performance review where my wage may increase, but may not which is the risk. I am through to assessment days for 3 other companies so feel that rejecting this offer may be the better option

good idea

Reply 6

M1011

19

Original post by danb93

yeah i have looked at the numbers and it works out that i will have about £100 a week to spend on food and whatever else i want, which isn't a lot for london. All I know is that I would get a performance review where my wage may increase, but may not which is the risk. I am through to assessment days for 3 other companies so feel that rejecting this offer may be the better option

Whats the job?

Why not hold on to the offer and wait to see how the other interviews go? No harm in having a fall back.

Reply 7

josh_v

17

Original post by danb93

yeah i have looked at the numbers and it works out that i will have about £100 a week to spend on food and whatever else i want, which isn't a lot for london. All I know is that I would get a performance review where my wage may increase, but may not which is the risk. I am through to assessment days for 3 other companies so feel that rejecting this offer may be the better option

It might be worth asking if there are any bonuses/perks with the job. Some companies provide you with a lunch allowance or travel allowance. Given that youre probably looking at £40-£50 a week in transport costs depending where you live thats quite a large amount when youre only on £19k. Same with a lunch allowance. Saving £5 a day really starts to add up when you've only got £100 a week spare.

Id just accept the offer and then decline if something better comes along. Not much they can do about it in that situation I don't think.

Reply 8

danb93

OP

I have been told I have to make a decision today as they are pushed for time. They have said that there are no perks to the job that would save me any money, the only thing they can offer me is a performance review after 6 months where my wage may increase. The job is in supply chain for a pharmaceutical company. The only other thing is that I have a job now which pays very similar but I am living with my parents so don't have to pay rent, but this job isn't a long term job, probably for a maximum of 12 months.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 9

roflcakes1

14

Totally okay to live off in London. I feel like often people can be very dramatic about living in London but there are ways to reduce your living expenses, it's just that many are not prepared to make them. Most people our age don't live on their own in London - housesharing is often the default for people in their 20s even at higher salaries, and that substantially reduces rent. Try and get a deal where you pay the landlord bills and rent in a fixed sum and then it's easier to budget. I've found some for £500-600 bills included which gives you enough left over for travel (which would be higher as cheaper rents are less central but again you can cycle/walk where you can), food, luxuries etc. Just fyi as someone above mentioned this, but you won't be paying student loan at that salary and normally you can opt-out of pension schemes when young. And to be honest when you're young you kind of get used to having a lower than ideal living standard - we've just been students after all!. It's when you're older and you can't afford the things you want that it will start to grate. If you don't get a pay rise in 6 months you can move on to another job.

Any salary is better than no salary. But if you have other AC's along the way I would accept the job (it will take a while for the contract to come through), but go to the ACs and see if you have any luck with them. Then it's a win-win. But would remind you that you are young and have nothing to lose from this job. Even if you do it for 6 months that's some experience, if you get an AC you may spend 6 months doing nothing anyway if you start in September. You can easily move around jobs, especially in London and when you don't have any children or a mortgage to think about.

19K salary london

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