Minimum wage has just gone up to £24000 per annum. In the late 1990s and early 00s this was considered a pretty good wage for people in the first few years of their careers. With a combination of inflation and slow wage increases, people are likely to be worried about money.
For those who don’t worry about money, what was the point of earning where you stopped? Or was there anything distinctive that you achieved where you stopped worrying in lieu of higher earnings?
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You can live off 24k if you live frugally personally me and my missus have only become comfortable with money now that we both work full (she didn’t work for the 1st year of our relationship). We were getting by on my wage so now we can essentially go on a nice holiday and save 75% of her money. I don’t think it’s so much as what you earn iv always been more comfortable and stress free when iv had decent savings behind me
My wages (IT bod) went up, so I put the extra into my mortgage.
Effectively never had a raise for about 15 years.
Once my mortgage started to come down , and I knew I could survive if the boiler blew up, the stress was a lot less.
When I graduated from university started on grad scheme that paid £40k per year and was not a high cost of living area.
So I’ve been lucky where I was comfortable from the beginning really as it more than covered all my expenses and allowed for savings.
stopping worrying for me = rent, bills and food covered with money left for reasonable socialising and savings.
I never worried about money. Even when I was on minimum wage, I just rented a tiny room with shared bathroom in a tumbledown house and made the best of it. Key is to live within your means, and find what makes you happy. E.g. my evenings out would often be something like sharing a bottle of very cheap wine and a baguette in the park with friends, while foreign holidays would be a last minute discounted ticket on Eurostar, hiring the smallest car available between four of us, and driving round France with a tent, camping wherever we could get a cheap pitch and eating from the supermarket. These were all good times.
ETA: I sense some of the comments are critical of this optimism in the face of adversity. To clarify: the question was when did you stop worrying, and so that’s the only question I answered. Do I find it nicer to have more money? Of course. Do I think it’s as easy for young people today? Absolutely not. Would I like to see not-for-profit housing associations which benchmark rent against affordability rather than free market cost? Yes sounds great. But these were not the questions asked.
24k? Are you saying there are no full-time jobs that pay 16-18k? I know loads of people on below 20k full time.
I’ve never worried about income to be honest, largely because I was single and lived in a house share (albeit in an expensive area). At around £20k+ I still had enough to live a good life and put some savings aside and not get into debt.
That said, I also had a safety net with my parents, who would have been happy to help me if I needed it. I never did, but I think there’s a big psychological benefit having that!
£24k in 2000 = £44k in 2024
How any single person making less than £40k a year gets by in the south baffles me, unless they’re older, haven’t had major pay rises but were able to take advantage of the cheaper years
I haven’t. When my FIL passed a few years back we were left enough to clear the mortgage and in a good place financially but then a redundancy and over 2 years without a decent job meant all savings depleted and a loan to cover the shortfall. Never really recovered.
Now in a decent job and very slowly reducing debts but it’s a constant struggle and I doubt I will ever be worry free again.
Through constant focus on my savings. I have £100k left on my mortgage and hopefully want to pay it down in the next 10 years. Once that’s gone money will be irrelevant largely because I’ll always have a home.
I have never stopped worrying about money. I earn quite a nice salary now (under £50k but quite a bit higher than the UK median salary) and I still always worry about money.
Is minium wage 24k now?
Between me and the misses we earn 112k a year, and can easily save 2k a month. But the worry has shifted from worrying about if we spent too much this month to how do we keep up with inflation and increasing the wages.
During the first lockdown. We don’t have a budget but, the risk of losing jobs made us sit down and work it all out. We realised that we could afford one of us to have no income and the other to drop 60% before shit would hit the fan and we also had enough overpayments to technically take a 6 year mortgage holiday.
The problem is, short of megawealth you can never stop.
Even if you have say, a year’s salary in savings, what if you can’t get a job for 13 months?
“Minimum wage has just gone up to £24,000″ per annum.”
Minimum wage is £11.44 an hour which equates to £23,795.20 a year ASSUMING…
You actually work 40 hours a week. Being there isn’t the same as working. Employers will deduct break times from attended hours. For example if your working week is, say, 9 till 5 Monday till Friday and you get a half hour break every day, you will be paid for 37.5 hours a week. Your minimum wage annual salary is then reduced to £22,308.
That’s assuming you’re lucky enough to get a full-time job and not a zero hours contract.
I’ve never worried about money. Don’t come from wealth, just normal working class and quite poor really but parents provided everything needed and started earning when I was 15. Always had money to spend, never over spent and always had enough to do what I wanted.
I don’t think I’ve ever stopped worrying about money but the issues I was worrying about changed.
When I was in late teens and early 20’s it was worrying about staying out of the overdraft.
When I was in mid twenties it was worrying about saving up a deposit for a house.
Now in late 20’s with a house and savings it’s worrying about job/career. At the moment we can save a grand or 2 a month but if our jobs went tits up how long would we realistically last and how much would it set us back? Would I have to sell my car? Would we both find jobs which pay the same amount?
Until we’re retired (if we retire!) I think money will always be a concern to some extent.
What’s money? I’m a pensioner, worked all my life- on less than £16k. Still have full rent £600 pcm, utility bills etc. on a single income.I’m struggling to survive. Still have to pay for dental care, because I don’t qualify for pension credit ( due to a small works pension).
Don’t know why I bothered working for 40+ years…
My partner and I both make just under 50k and I’d say we’re just at the point of not needing to “worry”. We have a baby on the way so childcare is going to really eat into that, but we can both buy a new phone when we need, we have money for things breaking, we can afford the occasional takeaway when we fancy.
What I’m trying to say is, we still watch what we spend but I don’t think we worry and that’s only since our last wage increase
I remember the minimum wage coming in around 1997 and it was £2.50. The only people who made £24K then were either higher ups, or people with trades skills or truck drivers. But thats in Manchester, so it will no doubt differ city to city.
When I hit 35k. Single male no kids
Being in a committed relationship is really the difference maker. In a lot of places, a one or even two bed flat doesnt actually cost 2x a room in an HMO. The difference is what you end up putting away as savings instead, which is what makes it possible to find financial stability. You’re also less at risk from job loss, as would only be losing 1/2 your total salary.
Me and my partner are both on around 30k and feel pretty comfortable (Edinburgh.) We live fairly frugally (no car, holidays are just to stay with family, inexpensive hobbies, etc.) and no mortgage yet, but we’re getting a deposit together gradually. And we do our shopping online at Sainsbury’s – rather than lugging it back from Lidl in big blue IKEA bags like we used to.
If you’re single, the threshold for what you would have to earn to actually be secure is fucking unhinged.
My wife and I are childfree, which lowers costs significantly, but once we got to 80k combined, then I didn’t have to worry about anything at all.
I’m grateful in the sense that I can afford a major hit to my finances without worrying about it, especially after years of being poor as shit and eating dry pasta twice a day.
Having said that, we still penny-pinch like fuck, which makes a bigger difference than one might think
Before covid I was doing fine on 20k, now I’m struggling on 35k
45k for me. I was earning 4x what my rent/mortgage cost (NW England) and found I had a lump of spare cash every month after pension and savings contributions. I could have invested that lump into my mortgage/savings/pension but instead I chose to reduce my working hours to 34 per week, meaning I get a long weekend every week. Which made a huge difference to me personally.
My wife got promoted and got a good payrise this year, so she has also reduced her working hours too.
I’m at the age (close to 50) where I feel time is more important than money.
I work a skilled, relatively dangerous job and my basic is 31K. I work a minimum of 50 hours a week and am on standby 5 times a month which gives an extra 5K a year. I never stop worrying about money.
Never, and this is what I always tell people. If your lifestyle remained static, then yeah eventually you will reaching a level of comfort, but this isn’t what happens. More money opens up more opportunities and so you continue to push to your maximum level.
Let me give you an example. I was a contract software engineer just before Covid hit. I went from making around 120k a year to 180k a year as contracting became highly sought due to uncertainty in the job market. When I moved contracts and went back down to 120k a year ( Roughly as contracts are varied ) I felt it really severly to the point where it felt like I was struggling for a while. Later I would move away from contracting because it was becoming less secure and went down to 90k and I felt that just as severly.
I am considered a fairly high earner but it doesn’t feel like it. Your money is just as stretched, you just have nicer things. And when things slip out of your affordability range, you really notice it, no matter what that may be.
Recently picked up a contract for 850 a day which is the highest paid single contract I have ever worked but it still doesn’t feel like I am comfortable or safe. I want a home and I want investments. I am 40 so it feels like everything goes into my future considerations. I can’t really have fun with my money anymore as it gets invested or put toward a house fund.
The day we paid off the mortgage. We have good salaries and pensions are sorted – but there was something about owning the house which made my shoulders drop where money was concerned.
Only very recently, in mid 40s.
Covid saw a lot of change in my industry, suddenly WFH meant I could earn more money doing the same job that had previously been impossible due to geography.
Immediate 30% pay increase, only then did I feel secure. Not wealthy, but secure.
I haven’t ever really stressed over money. Always had an emergency fund since shortly after graduating and lived comfortably below my means.
When our household income hit over £50k over five years ago though something clicked, and I relaxed a bit more, or felt less guilty about spending. I’ll spring for cocktails rather than pints if I feel like it. I’ll have that side in the restaurant. I’ll pay a bit more for convenient flight times.
I’m on £60k and I worry about money, living in Bristol alone. I am fairly frugal. My income went up from £50k earlier this year. I have takehome pay of about £3500. £1300 goes to essential housing costs, £1000 goes to paying debts (mostly student loan). I have about £7k of savings and stock& shares combined. A year left on my contract. I also get £650 every 3 months from a contracting gig before tax.
E: I grew up in poverty (we didn’t even have running water until late 90s), and so I am aware of how easily things can go south. It worries me. I have no safety net – not many friends and family are dead or very sick.
I’m living reasonably comfortably these days but it still worry about money.
I’ve been at rock bottom, homeless and unemployed and I think the fear of ever ending up back in that position keeps me anxious.
I never really worry about money but I t think alot of it depends on where you live. I live in the North west and take home £2k/month. After mortgage/billls/food/petrol I’m left with around £1k to do whatever I want with. The Mrs is the same, she earns more but pays a little more towards the monthly bills. We are nowhere near rich but we have a good life
What I’ve learned from this thread is to have an emergency fund set up and actively look for a loving relationship
I stopped worrying in 2007 when I got made redundant after 26 years. Got a decent payoff, and had savings of 50k. Bought a narrowboat with the intention of moving somewhere outside London to live/work, but the banking crisis led to a year on the dole and the realisation that living on the boat for £8k/yr was reasonable. Worked out I had 10 years worth of savings (if nothing catastrophic happened to the boat – but then again, I could afford to replace it), and decided to relax for a little bit. The budget turned out to be realistic. After a few years I inherited ~100k and this is going to see me out to state pension in 6 years….
I broke past 50k a few years ago and I’ve found since then I don’t worry about money anywhere near as much. I’m in a relatively low cost of living area with a modest mortgage though so that plays a huge part.
Having said that now I worry even more than I did previously about what would happen if I lost my current job, it’d be difficult to find a comparative role in the area (I’ve looked) and I’d end up taking a big hit somewhere in my life if that happened.
Weirdly I think I was happiest when I had a more junior position at around 40k as I always knew I could find other jobs and it was still a pretty great amount of money.