Is this Salary Enough for a Single?

I've been offered a job in London on 38,000 pounds a yr and am wondering if I can maintain my current lifestyle on this amount?

I'm currently earning $65,000, single female with 6 years working experience as an account mgr. And I'm hoping someone can advise if I'm being offered too little.

I know it's hard to justify and everyone's lifestyle is different, but I'm thinking I'll probably need to budget 2,500 pounds every mth to survive, but I'm not sure if I'm under or over estimating this. Any help here is appreciated

I personally would say yes but it's VERY hard to say. It sort of depends on how much you like to shop, go out, etc. But that's a very good salary in my opinion, especially for a single person.

There are loads of threads here that talk about budgets and how to work out what you might need on a monthly basis....

Well that depends what your current lifestyle is now.  Allow at least £1000 per month for a good sized flat in a decent area. The rest depends, like Anne says, on how much you go out etc. Eating out is expensive in London compared to the US, for example, but I think on the whole you will find £38 000 is more than enough for a comfortable lifestyle for a single person. The average wage in London is about £27 000 I believe.

The salary amounts are roughly comparable, maybe the British one slightly more since you won't have to pay health insurance. The other factor is that you should get more vacation/personal days here.

But the question really depends on where you live in the US as comparable to London prices. If you're earning 65K in, I don't know, Nashville, then its lower cost of living amplifies actual purchasing power. If you live in SF or LA or NYC, then you'll have a sense of London costs.

If you were single, and moving to the Midlands or the North, then 38K in sterling should be more than ample. It's a question of London living, really, which is like deciding to live in Manhattan or other preserve parks for the super wealthy nowadays.

I think it depends greatly on where you live now as to how the salary compares, too. For instance, if you are making your current income in Alabama, it will be a *huge* drop in lifestyle to take this offer. If you are making that current amount in NYC, it will probably be fairly comparable.

Thank you all for the input. I'm in LA and I did some calculations based on Mercer's cost of living survey.

NY as base city scoring 100 points, London = 110.6 & LA = 86.7

Difference factor = 110.6 / 86.7 = 1.28

$65K X 1.28 / 1.89 (exchange rate) = $44k

Seems like I need to negotiate for more but they are finding my expectations too high. Sighs...

Just to be clear, by that equation, you'd be asking for 75K USD for a job in NYC.

I think monster.co.uk (and probably other job search sites) has a salary checker in which you can find out the average salary for someone with your job title/experience/qualifications working in the same part of the UK.

I think £38K is plenty to live on as a single person.  I live on much less as a single person.

You also need to weigh out the opportunity to move over and work in London, if you have a strong desire to do so then you may have to make a few sacrifices. Its not going to be like for like. As Britwife mentioned that average salary is £27k and others have suggested that £38k is liveable for a single person. The salary bandwidth is much narrower over here than in the states. Don't forget to ask about an annual bonus because some companies in the UK give very good ones which tops up your overall compensation package.

I agree with Jules, you have to factor in how badly you'd like to live in London as part of the cost. It does sound like you won't have quite as much spending power, and you may discover you can't afford as nice of a place as you have in the U.S., or other such factors. But if you want to go, you'd certainly be making enough to live well -- just maybe not as well as you have been in the U.S. Another factor: you may get more vacation time in the UK, and if you want to take trips to Europe, it will be cheaper and quicker to take them than if you lived in the U.S. So that's a bonus beyond actual pay.

If you are earning $65k now, then yes, going to 38k GBP is a pay cut.  The analysts in my firm make about 38k GBP and they would be thrilled to be making $65k in Chicago or a comparable city.  They would probably make about $45-50k I am guessing, perhaps more in NYC.  I'm guessing about the same in LA - but not sure.  I could find out for you if you want more info - let me know. 

However, that being said, as others have mentioned you need to think now about the other factors that play into the decision.  For instance in the US we don't get the same vacation time, benefits, etc.  And obviously there are more intangible reasons to live in one place over another. 

I took a big pay cut to move over here.  I was happy with it because of my desire to do something different, to continue getting global experience, and because of the opportunities the position would offer me.  Plus getting to move to London and my husband can also work here at will.

You can try to negotiate up but perhaps it's this way in your field - in my industry at least, the people are just not paid as much as they would be in the US.  That's just the going rate over here for what I do.  No amount of negotating would have worked to get them to pay me more.  At least in my firm, they wouldn't be willing to pay me so much more than the other people at my level simply because I used to work in the US for $X.

Thank you all.
The analysts informed me that based on their calculations, London is only 15% more expensive than LA, and hence their offer. I find it hard to believe that the difference is that narrow, so it's a hard struggle to justify that I'm getting my pay equalize when it may not be. Does anyone know if this is accurate?

It is true that money aside, I should consider other factors like more holidays / benefits and job opportunities etc etc, and of course, current market value for the job.
However, they had agreed to equalize my pay, so I'm just trying to make sure what they have offered is in line and I'm not being offered something that's below the pay equilibrium.
 

i was surprised how much was deducted from my salary... check out http://www.listentotaxman.com/

Respectfully, there's just not going to be anyway that we can answer this, given the lack of job details you've provided. Ultimately, you'll have to choose whether to take the leap or not, and if you want to come here at what, in fact, may be a lower rate, and then after a year, renegotiate. We can give you a rough steer, but not much beyond that. When making these life moves, it's all like consulting the magic ball anyway: yes, no, uncertain, try again.