Would you say 40k a year is a good salary? What salary would you be happy with?

£40k before tax is a heck of a lot of money for one person to live off, regardless of where. However, if you want to live in a good-sized suburban detached house and have a family, send the kids to private schools and maintain a couple of nice cars and still have money spare to go on holiday, you'd need a reasonable bit more.

Though if your spouse earns a similar amount, it wound't be too hard at all. Obviously luxuries increase with salary but 2 X £40k would be plenty for one household, especially seeing as neither earner breaks into the damn high tax band of 40%.

Well, if you did break in to the tax band, you'd only be charged that on what you earned over the amount, so you'd still be better off. It's not like they tax all of your income at that rate.

I think some people here are too accustomed to there lavish lifestyles and really fail to understand money at all. 40k isn't a graduation salary as some think, and it's more than enough for those of us who aren't looking to send our children to private schools, own seven hundred and fifty four cars or own multiple houses.

£380k like those GP's that were on the news would do me nicely.

Nah not really bothered, near £100k would be nice though.

I think I'd have to have a salary of at least 100K. It sounds greedy, but it's not because I'm some kind of money-whore, or because I have very expensive taste.

My family were very strongly advising me to do Medicine, and I did Mathematics instead, and they aren't exactly overjoyed about it. Their main reason for suggesting Medicine was because of the high salary. So if, with a Mathematics degree, I can earn more than a doctor would, I'd sort of feel as though I had justified myslf in front of them, and on their own terms.

No one's said even close to that, have they?

It's true that if you have a family with 2 or 3 kids living in London, £40k isn't going to leave tons spare for fun. A mortgage on a four or even three bedroom house will eat up a pretty big chunk of that, and with a big mortgage comes big risk - you'll need to put away some of that remainder to save with in case you ever lost your job and somehow have to raise £2k a month just to pay off the mortgage. For a single person it's plenty, but since the OP didn't specify a context, it's crazy to just unswervingly say "It's fantastic! Get real you idiots!"

No but 2 X £40k is much more take-home income for a family than just one earner making £80k - that's the point I was trying to make lol.

I think some people here are too accustomed to there lavish lifestyles and really fail to understand money at all. 40k isn't a graduation salary as some think, and it's more than enough for those of us who aren't looking to send our children to private schools, own seven hundred and fifty four cars or own multiple houses.