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Comment by JohnyLy | Hacker News Reader

I would say 50K is required to live well in London and 20K as a minimum salary. 500K as a minimum is ridiculous.

The article is a bit hyperbole but truthfully folks do think like this. My other half has bought into the private school and insanly priced brands mantra. Everyone successful and older than us is saying you _need_ to send your kids to private school pretty much from the start, but I can't really do the Math and see anything but a life of struggling for money it requires.

Combine this with property prices and I'm actually willing to believe the £500,000 figure isn't far off to have the same life as their parents generation have been able to achieve, but alas I grew up poor and I don't subscribe to needing any of this sillyness.

£20k is a much better estimate. A twentysomething without children can live comfortably on that -- with plenty of money for drinks, gadgets and eating out.

I think that's overstating it. My first job in London I was on £28k and I was ok but wouldn't want to go lower. Take-home pay was about £1800/month, I spent £850/month rent (Zone 3, noisy loft conversion in an old building), maybe £450/month general shopping (food and clothes and the like), £200 going out and the rest on occasional stuff like a computer or holidays.

You can live much cheaper - I've seen 11k claimed by someone who shared a tiny basement and cooked all their own meals off the cheapest supermarket food - but you're making significant lifestyle compromises.

That's pretty much the average graduate starting salary in London, so plenty of graduates are earning less. I started on £24k in 2008, but I shared a flat within cycling distance of work, which significantly reduced my expenses — £407/month in rent, plus £60/month in bills.

I'm a PhD student in London, on £18k albeit with no income tax. I'm surprised you paid so much on rent! I'm paying £600/mo (including bills), Zone 3.

Maybe I'm more frugal than I realise.

Are you paying national insurance on your income? Otherwise, without income tax and national insurance, you're effectively looking at a wage of £22k, and from what you've said thats just for a flatshare studio room.

Do you get any meals subsidised from your university, and do you actually have some savings while being able to eat out or get drinks at least once or twice a month?

Fair point! I am not paying NI.

I don't have any meals subsidised, and I do have savings -- about £3k/year. I eat out twice per week, and I get drinks more often than not -- although I do often get drinks quite cheaply, because I'm friends with some brewers.

PHD stipends are conveniently tax and NI free.

I wanted to live on my own, I could probably have paid <£600/mo in a shared house (indeed I did for a bit, but I hated it). Again, lifestyle choices.

http://www.entitledto.co.uk/

On a salary of £20,000 a single person living in SE1 would be entitled to £58 a week housing benefit.

Sure, I was comfortable on £24k just after graduating... but I was still living in a basement of a student house, making my own lunches, had no kids, rarely bought clothes, and never went on holiday.

How much is that person spending on rent in London?

Between £1k and £2k. You'll be a frequent customer of Wonga.

Edit

Proletariat: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-5304414...

Bourgeois: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-5061904...

your Bourgeois link is not even in London....

For a family with Kid, youar completely missing it: Preletariat 4k : http://www.zoopla.co.uk/to-rent/details/37300477?search_iden... Bourgois: 6.5k: http://www.zoopla.co.uk/to-rent/details/37341550?search_iden...

It definitely is. If you can vote for the Mayor of London, then you live in London.

"Richmond is a great location. This property benefits from a spacious luxury bathroom, and a generously-proportioned outside courtyard."

Nonsense. If you use some common sense in choosing where to live, you can easily find places in Zone 3 at about £400/mo.

Not sharing? Pics or it didn't happen.

Definitely sharing! Perhaps this is why everyone's estimates are so much higher than mine? It seems obvious to me that the best option is to share a flat.

It is the best option, if you're a single male able twentysomething. I had some good houseshares in Cambridge. But it's not for everyone and completely incompatible with children.

Fair point. Note that I did say, in my top-level comment, "twentysomething without children". I should have also said "able-bodied". Male/female, I'm less convinced of -- there are plenty of all-female flatshares.

Thanks for a very reasonable reply; I'd lost track of the original comment and that you were its poster as it's a long way up the tree, sorry.

If you're a single twenty-something you can flatshare and spend a third of that money.

I guess if you earn 20K there are still a few fine bridges in Zone 1.

I spend £600/mo for a studio in Zone 3, with its own shower and bathroom.

£650/pcm for a studio (with kitchen AND bathroom!) on the edge of z2 (GNW is z2/z3, BKH is z3, both walkable).

(Hasn't really gone up from the £525 it was in 1999 because my landpeople like an easy life and I'm no trouble.)

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