Salary review

I’ve been offered the job in the UK (near Southampton)
The salary is £36,000  per year + £5000 for relocation.
Can some one evaluate it and let me know if this amount is decent for this area for the family of 4?



Thank you.

Ahh...this old chestnut again.

You will find that opinions will vary and there is no exact format.  Not knowing you and your family at all, it will be very difficult for anyone to give you a straight YES/NO answer.

My opinion is that a family of 4 would struggle on £35K a year. 
Do you hope to buy a place or just rent? 
Do you hope to take holidays to Europe or are you happy with a weekend breal to the english countryside? 
Do you like to buy new clothes or is fashion not a top priority?
Do you like to go out to eat?  Do you have any debt in the US that you will need to continue to pay off? 
How often do you want to bring your family home to the US?
Is your spouse able to work and would they want to?
Do you need a car?  Two???

All of these things will decide just how comfortable you will be.  I personally would not want to live on £35K a year with a family of 4

fundamentally i agree with karin.  your best bet is to draw up a proposed budget for yourself...

£36,000 = £26,000 in take home pay a month, or £2190/month

Food= go to Tescos.com and do a make believe shop (you'll need to enter a postcode i think to shop- just go to any UK website, find their postcode and enter it to get around that)

Rent/Mortgage= hunt around for the property you as a family of 4 would want to live in.

Gas/Electric= highly dependent on where you live/house you live in.  perhaps budget £30 - £60 info on utilities http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=27914.msg353442#msg353442

Phone= min £15 month

Internet= min £10-£15 month

Going out.... how often are you as a couple or you as the kids going to go out for meals, day trips, trips back to the US, etc

council tax- you pay this (kind of like property tax) regardless of whether you rent or own.  find out the local council that you'll be living in (from the estate agent or letting agent).  take a typical property and find out what band it's in.  this will be £70 - £300/month

car- you'll need to factor in massively increased petrol prices.  this thread talks about car maintance costs: http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=28637.0

i think i covered most.  good luck with your planning... here is a thread about someone going through something similiar:

http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=23090.0
http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=22987.0

Hi!

We are moving to the UK  next month and expect DH to earn about 36k. This is considered a "good salary". However, we will not live in the south, because our money will go further in the North. I worked out a budget for our family (of 4). Here is what I came up with:

transport (bus pass for DH) £50
Council Tax £80
rent £600 (this can be done around Manchester)
Auto Insurance £75
TV License £12
gas/ electric £50
water £25
cable/ phone internet £75

groceries £300
spending cash £150 (£75 for me, £75 for DH)
fun/ entertainment £150
petrol £100

save/ pension £125
save for car £75 (at least 5 years down the line)
save for travel £100
save for house £150

total = £2117

We have friends in Exeter who are doing it for less than 32k. So, it can be done, even in the South.

The variables are… can you cook?
Can you find accommodation for a reasonable price? We hope to find a 3 BR but will make do in a 2BR if we have to. On this budget I don't feel comfortable going over £600 per month. I have accepted that it is going to take years to save the deposit for a house. No big deal. (I personally expect the market to flatten anyway over the next several years).

You can go to Rightmove.co.uk to research the cost of accommodation.

How old are your kids? Ours are tiny so are still fairly cost effective!

If you can find reasonably priced accommodation, and you are efficient at preparing meals you will be fine as long as you have realistic expectations about shopping and traveling. You will still be able to travel and shop but it will take planning.

Hope this helps. Also, there's not really any room for debt in the budget. Not all the categories are as fully funded as I might like, but we'll manage.

Hiya—
Without more details from what you expect from that £36,000 it’s tricky to give an evaluation or an opinion strictly on the salary level, especially given that the term ‘decent’ is so personal and can be defined in many ways.

But you can look at it this way:

The average salary in the UK is £23K so at £35K you’d be making 50% over the average, which some people may consider decent.

In the US the average salary is approximately $36K. If you currently earn $54K and feel that it’s an amount that let’s you maintain a lifestyle that’s comfortable for you and your family than it’s a good chance that £36K will allow you to do the same in the UK.

Personally, I agree with Karin that £36K for a family-of-four may prove difficult (but not impossible, I would think there are many British family-of-fours who live on that or less) and it’s a good idea as meegles and others suggest to draw up a budget -- you won't know until you run the numbers.

But with that said you can adjust to your circumstances …  and a chance to live outside the US may prove rewarding in ways non-financial.

Thank you for your replies. I knew that this question is quite broad, but I hoped that you provide me with some guide to it. Thank you for the budget draw. It really helped. I don’t want to ask how much money everyone makes, but to find out about basic expenses everyone have are quite helpful.

ouside London 36K is considered an upper middle class salary, at least as far as it's an individual salary i.e., not household income (therefore not as good if there's a stay at home mother with kids)

in my profession - lawyer/solicitor - 36K in southampton is about the average salary that would be paid by one of the larger firms to a lawyer with 2 to 4 yrs experience, so go figure?

i would say most people in southampton earn a lot less than 36K, more like 18-24K on average. however, most families now have two incomes and household income is more close to circa 40-50K.

the problem with southern UK is that is not that much cheaper than London and yet London salaries are disproportionately higher. what is really crazy (at least in my job) is that solicitors up-north earn the same as and often a few K more than solicitors down south outside of London, and yet property prices are often a third to a double higher down south! this is very different to the US where generally the more expensive a city the higher the salaries.


i'm not gonna be popular for saying this, but i blame the liberal late 60s. more women entered the workforce and eventually that meant an end to the one income household. the economy adjusted and that put an end to the idea of a husband being able to support his stay-at-home wife and the kids. the result is kids spending much much less time with mother during the early most important years, less marriage, more break ups etc etc.

i'm not gonna be popular for saying this, but i blame the liberal late 60s. more women entered the workforce and eventually that meant an end to the one income household. the economy adjusted and that put an end to the idea of a husband being able to support his stay-at-home wife and the kids. the result is kids spending much much less time with mother during the early most important years, less marriage, more break ups etc etc.

I'll just go put my apron on and bake some cookies.  That way you can earn a higher salary and feel like a real man - supporting his family.
 

karin- you wanna join me in my kitchen where i'm barefoot & pregnant?

tenthplanet- i do see your point.  however, your implied solution is what i'm disagreeing with.

karin- you wanna join me in my kitchen where i'm barefoot & pregnant?

tenthplanet- i do see your point.  however, your implied solution is what i'm disagreeing with.

That's your third child you're pregnant with, right?  Don't forget the other two need to look prestine and have perfectly ironed and starched uniforms for school.  Not to mention that dinner better be ready when the man of the house gets home from work!  Oh, don't forget to hand him an ice cold beer as he walks in the door, the poor man has been working all day and deserves it!

June

Oh, don't forget to hand him an ice cold beer as he walks in the door, the poor man has been working all day and deserves it!

Beer??? You should be able to pour him a glass of champagne given that great big old salary he's pulling in!

Beer??? You should be able to pour him a glass of champagne given that great big old salary he's pulling in!

You're right, silly me!  Sorry, I only have a high school education because my husband is the most important thing in my life and my place is in the house, making sure he lives like a king.  my apologies.

Pamaris - Kudos for you drawing up a projected budget, it's definitley a smart thing to do in terms of helping you see and adjust. Without wanting to pour cold water on what you've done so far, I just want to make you aware of the 'extra' costs you've currently not written in your post (although you may have already factored these into possibly drawing from the savings/fun/spending figures)

1. You need more insurance - House/buildings (for when you do buy), Contents Insurance, disability insurance (in case of injury etc) - Also remember to keep some 'slack' as inurance rates can/do vary alot

2. Seasonal variances in the amount of gas/electric you'll all use. Also, the telephone charges will probably vary. Other elements can/do vary, think increases in council taxes, tv license, food (which we all know can vary alot!)

3. Travel - You've missed out Road Fund License, Parking costs, fines (i just forgot to pay my cental london congestion charge last night DOH!!). Quite unlikely, but in case you need to move to different accomodation, factor in moving costs, removal services etc. Rental agreements can come to a relatively abrupt end which means quite a bit of upheaval and expense (reason I say this is Im currently thinking of booting out my current tennants so I can sell off my rental apartment!)

4. Maintenence - Factor in a good proportion into maintaining your living accomodation (granted if you're renting it'll be fairly lowish) but the Car will take up quite a bit. figures relaeased last week show on average it's now on average 22% more expensive than only a year ago to run a car in the UK. Maintenence of your computer, home furnishings, breakages etc all need to factored in.

5. Increased costs - We all know utility bills are rising to stupid levels - factor in the proposed and probable forthcoming increases. Unexpected drives for whatever reason which have the potential knock on of more parking costs and fines etc - be wary!

6. Without wanting to sound rude - I think the £75 a month freeby spending money you've allocated may be a tad unrealistic - especially when it comes to sale time! it's easy peasy to blow 75 quid or more on a single pair of shoes! - but, in perspective, if you control your spending (and your other half too) then it's wise to include this in your budget - i'm just saying, impulse buying can knock out your spending VERY easily.

These are just the things I see from your posting and things I can think up off the top of my head right now, there's probably some I've not thought of. Looking at your budget figures, most/all of what I said can be poached from your savings/fun money in order to pay for them all if/when they occur.

As for the rest of the post in terms of society and possible reasons for economic adjustments, I think it cannot be wholly 'blamed' on the liberal 60's - I'd say it was a factor only and even then I'm not at all sure at the amount it's significance. I'd say a more pressing situation is the ridiculous Pay gap between Men and Women for the same job which I think is utterly stupid, and the fact on top of that, for everyone the costs of living compared with average salary incomes is insanely stupid seeing as costs are always increasing whereas avaerage salaries are not = less disposable income.

I agree with the other posters that 'on the whole' £35K is not enough for a family of 4 in most parts of the UK. take a look at this report http://money.uk.msn.com/guides/salarycentre/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1199755

and finally here's an article which covers spending habits

http://money.uk.msn.com/guides/salarycentre/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1199715

Hope this helps !

cheers! Dennis! West London & Slough UK!

Well done getting this thread back on track Dennis!! I do think it's a really useful one - just got a bit sidetracked. 

6. Without wanting to sound rude - I think the £75 a month freeby spending money you've allocated may be a tad unrealistic - especially when it comes to sale time! it's easy peasy to blow 75 quid or more on a single pair of shoes! - but, in perspective, if you control your spending (and your other half too) then it's wise to include this in your budget - i'm just saying, impulse buying can knock out your spending VERY easily.

That is a good point, though if you're on a tight budget, impulse buying is not something you allow yourself to do anyway.... But I will say that I allow for £20-£30 per week for myself. That covers my lunches while at work (though if I were being practical and thrifty I could get an extra loaf of bread and some peanut butter included in the weekly shop and free up some of my spending money!), a magazine or two, the occaisional pop into the pub after work and any bits and bobs that come up like running to the shop for a paper and milk in the morning! I take it out (along with petrol money) at the beginning of the week to keep myself from running over budget.

i'm not gonna be popular for saying this, but i blame the liberal late 60s. more women entered the workforce and eventually that meant an end to the one income household. the economy adjusted and that put an end to the idea of a husband being able to support his stay-at-home wife and the kids. the result is kids spending much much less time with mother during the early most important years, less marriage, more break ups etc etc.

I think you will find it has more to do with women having to take the men's jobs in the 1940's when the men were out fighting a war.  But no, will you not be popular for saying this, because it is a bloody stupid thing to say, irrelevant to this topic, and generally pathetic.  I hope you don't practice family law.

Vicky