We earn £190k a year. Do we need to sell our flat to afford private school fees?

It’s like something out the Daily Mash…

Their respective careers – in management consultantancy and personal injury law – give them a joint income of £190,000. The couple also own two properties with a combined value of more than £1m, putting them in the wealthiest 1pc of households in Britain.

But the pair are worried about becoming “financially broken” as the sheer cost of middle-class life in London means they are stretched to the brink.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/pensions/12000288/We-earn-190k-a-year.-Do-we-need-to-sell-our-flat-to-afford-private-school-fees.html

I love some of the advice:

If we then take into account holidays of say, £5,000 per year

Even people with seemingly loads of money worry about having enough of it.

These two will be first up against the wall when the revolution comes…..closely followed by the Telegraph journalist who can’t spell consultancy

Abandon all hope

I’ve some thoughts, none of them are particularly nice though, so I’ll take my mum’s advice I think.

The couple also own two properties with a combined value of more than £1m

Dear lord that journalist needs a lesson in arithmetic. They don’t have properties with a value of £1m, they have properties with a net value or £360k, which isn’t that much given the inflated London property prices.

Sadly it’s just one more example of people living at, or beyond, their means and that happens at all levels of income.

I wonder if even they can read back that article and think “yeah, that’s a fair representation of our difficult situation”

has to be a pisstake, surely. Not even the telegraph could come up with that sort of shit and actually mean it

When Dave talks about the ‘Culture of Entitlement’ in modern society, he refers to benefits ‘scroungers’ , but its people like this I always think about.

“We’d like to have our cake and eat it”

And if we can’t it must be someone else’s fault…

jealousy is such an ugly emotion.

You would hope that the story has gone some way to funding their dreams.
A couple of ITV interviews and schooling for the wee munchkins is sorted,happy days.

Pretty sure justice4rinkas avatar sums it up nicely*

*see comments

I don’t want to read the article because I hate the Telegraph, but if when earning £15k a year you find yourself struggling financially, it will feel exactly the same on £150k if you increase your outgoings proportionally, which for some strange reason people feel the need to do.

has to be a pisstake, surely. Not even the telegraph could come up with that sort of shit and actually mean it

Clickbait innit.

Their dilemma is how to fund the cost of the girls’ education without sacrificing their lifestyle

doesn’t matter whether you earn 5k or 500k. everything you buy is at the detriment of something you could have bought.

I could have a much nicer car if i didn’t spend all my cash on bikes.

If we then take into account holidays of say, £5,000 per year

I don’t see the issue, that’s roughly ho much 10 days in Majorca with 2 kids costs these days, which is only about £15 more than Centre Parcs

Doesn’t matter how much people earn or not. If you insist on playing the game of “keeping up with the Joneses” and living beyond your means, you’re going to feel financially crippled! Its a personal choice, they don’t need to live in the property they choose to, send their kids to private schools, and have several holidays a year. We all have to make sacrifices somewhere to get by.

People spend what they earn. I’ve got mates who will complain to me about being broke all the time, but then they’ve got stupid mortgages, new cars on heavy monthly payments, they eat out twice a week and have 3 holidays a year… I’m self employed, pay myself considerably less than they earn, and bikes aside (perk of the job to be fair) I live a much more meagre existence than they do… Still can’t work out why they insist on complaining to me about being broke though!

It’s simple, spend more each month than you earn, you will be unhappy.

By contrast, my little sister is in the fortunate position where she owns her own home outright (she worked hard, made a couple of good decisions, and made enough capital in another property she sold to buy this one with no mortgage). This has allowed her to take a big step back in life, work a job she enjoys despite the low pay, and spend loads of time with her dog. She rents her spare room out cheaply to her best mate, and is relatively frugal with her spending (compared to when she lived in London). Even though by most people’s standards, her near minimum wage job would make her poor, she earns more each month than she spends!

Hilarious article. Only £5k on holidays, what a couple of plebs.

Also do my eyes deceive me or has ‘justice4rinka’ got a ladies undercarriage as their avatar on that page? (edit- hadn’t seen thestabiliser’s comment – my eyes did not deceive me then!)

MrSmith – Member

jealousy is such an ugly emotion.

Envy.

How does anyone who can’t work this out for themselves in about 30 seconds end up earning that much money?

£5k a year, clearly only a summer or a winter holiday then, those poor kids, they probably aren’t learning to ski!

If only there was an alternative to private schools! Perhaps, in the future they will come up with schools funded by the government or something, maybe they could even score them with a rating so you can choose a good one?

Nah, rubbish idea, it will never catch on.

Possibly the most Telegraph article possible! Spend less, save more is the answer in almost all of these situations and they are spending a very big amount by the looks of the article.

Also two properties of near £1M and two mortgages of nearly £0.5M doesn’t mean that they are worth £1M.

Those poor poor ****, imagine being entirely reliant on your wages!!1! They’re plebs really though aren’t they, £10000 a month after tax, ain’t no one living on that, I bet they don’t even have a decent coffee machine.

They need a chart

I earn that sort of money. I went to comprehensive, expect the same for my potential kids and therefore feel absolutely minted. My wife went to a fee-paying school, expects the same for her kids and therefore feels like we need to find 3/4s of a million quid before we can safely have any.

It’s all about the difference between expectations and means, whatever you bring in.

🙂

jealousy is such an ugly emotion.

Agreed. But I don’t think anyone here is jealous of these people. 😕

They are mortgaged up to the hilt, they live in London, they think private education is a necessity, and they seem to be unsatisfied and scared and completely unappreciative of how incredibly privileged they are. Doesn’t sound that great to me.

If they sold up and moved to a terrace in Rochdale, they’d never need to work again.

I can’t believe they’ve not explored this option

Also, if youre ‘entirely reliant’ on you wages surely that makes you <gasp> working class?

That article is all over the place, it doesn’t explain anything in such detail that you can actually appreciate what the hell is going on. Like why they have £8k in credit card debt yet earn £10k a month after tax with a £2.5k mortgage. What are their other outgoings?

Dont see where people get an impression of entitlement from, they earn more than most and want to do right by their children, the bastards…

jealousy is such an ugly emotion.

Agreed. But I don’t think anyone here is jealous of these people.

Jealous? I can’t think of anything worse than their lifestyle. I also think, that given their obvious expectations, and sense of entitlement, they’d never be happy no matter how much they have.

mboy put it perfectly.

All about living within your means no matter how much you earn.
If you don’t then it’s not a nice place to be.

Dont see where people get an impression of entitlement from, they earn more than most and want to do right by their children, the bastards…

Well, thinking that you have to send your kids to private school, for starters. So everyone who hasn’t done this hasn’t done right by their children?

Their dilemma is how to fund the cost of the girls’ education without sacrificing their lifestyle.

I believe that’s called wanting to have your cake and eat it.

Bet they vote Tory aswell. Could do with a good hiding, might knock some sense into them.

TBH don’t have a problem with them earning a good wedge or sending their kids to private school, more the contention that they may have to ‘sacrifice’ the bi-weekly delivery of shite from the white company and switch from ‘artisan’ baked beans to aldi. Boofrickin’hoo

I hope they get cat aids, no pudding & end up living in a trendy ex-council 1.5m 2 bed shithole in London’s trendiest up & coming area only 3hrs by rancid public transport from their nearest organic hipster bakery. And the bakery is secretly re-selling them Aldi loafs for £7. And the kids go to private school & come out with nothing but attitude & resent them.

Other than that I wish them well in their chosen life path.

Their dilemma is how to fund the cost of the girls’ education without sacrificing their lifestyle.

So they want yet more than than can afford, despite being well into the richest 1% of earners in the country, with all the advantages that gives then, but they don’t see why they should have to sacrifice anything else to pay for it?

And you’re not seeing a sense of entitlement at all there, no?

You are a Tory cabinet member, and i claim my £5 in food vouchers 😆

Expensive coke habit is expensive.

They earn more than me but I have greater assets, I went to fee paying schools but not bothered about sending my son to one assuming I’m happy with the state school options. Their BTL annoys me most about this though, they’ll be benefiting from house price rises from their residence, having another is greedy in this instance and opens them up to a big hit of prices do fall back at some point.

I’d rather live in a nicer house than have another for income purposes – a 725k home in SW London is pretty average – but then they have large mortages so release the capital from the BTL, reduce the remaining mortgage and have a happier life.

All this article has told me is that a couple with two children need help with financial planning. They wouldn’t be the first by any means, whatever their income level.

Meh.

When did the wealthiest 1% become middle class?