How much will my husband need to earn when we return from overseas. Post Reply

[JJ1985]

Our outgoings are around £9,000 pcm not including the mortgage. This is with our two young boys in prep school (£40k total/year).. we could easily live off less but that is a 'relaxed' spend.

[Baseballmom]

Something to keep in mind that I haven’t seen yet in the comments is the tax difference between US and UK. US taxes are much more favorable, especially for families. The UK gives essentially no meaningful tax relief for families with children, even when only one parent is working. Even if your husband earns 150k gross in London, don’t expect much more than 7k net each month after taxes, pension contributions, health insurance, etc. That certainly won’t be enough to cover mortgage, private school for 2, and food each month, let alone anything else. Realistically 250k should probably be your starting point unless you don’t need a mortgage

[Homeward Bound]

A huge thankyou to everyone for your replies.

I think that we have a lot of thinking to do. To be honest the £180 - £250K mark is what we had in mind as a range but from most of the replies here we will need to earn the top end of this if we want to enjoy the comforts that we have now and do private schools.

We are both keen to return to the Clapham area but think that something will have to give possibly schools fees at least in part.

So kind of everyone to reply, really appreciate it.

[szerma]

Hello,
I was the one that threw in the £400k figure (I was assuming 2 incomes adding up to that amount). It was not implied that you have to earn that kind of money to live BTC, it was merely in response to the original question about how much is needed to live comfortably, buy a house, send 2 kids to private school, and afford nice holidays. Our mortgage is more than £4K a month, and any renovations or house maintenance cost an arm and a leg on our Victorian house. This year we paid £6.5k to replace 2 sash windows and it was the cheapest quote by a long mile.

Once both kids are in private secondary, we have to earn £100k just to pay for that.

I would like to point out that above £100k earning the marginal tax rate increases to 45%, and that’s before you pay NI, and you lose your personal allowance. Overall, only just under half of your income will go to taxes, if you are in the higher tax bracket.

Yes you can live BTC with a lot less income, but unless you have substantial house equity, or help from parents, I would bet I am not far off what the people who send 2 kids to private school and relatively recently got on the housing ladder would feel you would need to earn to be comfortable. When I look around, the majority of parents who can afford that kind of lifestyle have either one high paying earner in the household (lawyers, financial industry) or they have two good incomes (eg, consulting, IT). Please also note that I am counting total income in that bracket, not just salary.

[DavidWT]

Hi Homeward Bound. I don't blame you for wanting to move back to this wonderful area of London. To fully understand your options I would recommend that you speak to an experienced Mortgage Broker who understands this scenario and can work with you throughout the process. If it helps I have over 30 years experience as a mortgage broker and the majority of my clients over this period of time live, or have lived, in the various SW postcodes.  I have also advised many people over this period of time who are looking to move back from overseas too. Mortgage lender's credit policy changes all the time and for you I would suggest that talking things through thoroughly with an experienced mortgage broker should be your first port of call. Feel free to PM me if you would like to chat through.

[Paulette]

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[Honestmamma]

London is not what it used to be. It’s changed a lot since you were last here 6 years ago. I don’t think it’s worth the hard slog anymore. We are all paying a fortune for what is a rather poorer quality of living. And with the new government, we are all, doubtless, going to get significantly poorer. 20% VAT is just the start…