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Re: Salary Calculations between UK and US
Originally Posted by Michael
(Post 10885836)
If you search out for good prices, they are there. When a friend of mine told me that she was paying $15 to have her front and back yard (both fairly small) grass cut, I thought she was under paying the workers but the crew cuts everyone's grass in the neighborhood because of the good price.
If you randomly called a lawn service, I suspect it would cost at $60-$100 to have the grass cut. £5 to clean windows doesn't even seem like minimum wage if you consider travel time. Given that your average primary school teacher is on £20-30k pa and the national average is £26k, that's pretty good going. Our windows get really mucky - we're under the flight path to SJC and they need doing at least every month. The wobbly stick thing sort-of works, but we do get some very strange looks from the neighbours. |
Re: Salary Calculations between UK and US
Originally Posted by Bink
(Post 10885966)
I'll pay someone to cut my lawn, but always do my windows myself. Can't bring myself to pay someone to do it (yet have no problem paying the lawn guy!). I only have 3 that are up high on the side of my house, the rest of them tilt inwards so you can clean them.
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Re: Salary Calculations between UK and US
Originally Posted by Bink
(Post 10885976)
Oh wow....! 16%?! You'd have to be crazy to borrow at that rate. Actually, I think you can borrow from your 401k tax free but there are limitations and it has to be paid back within a certain time.
I don't get the extra cars when you can't afford it/don't need it. I'd love a sports car - not going to happen anytime soon, I just couldn't justify it. My sports car is a big concrete hole currently sat waiting for water in my back yard! :rofl: I'm not against borrowing money sensibly though. Sometimes it makes more sense than using up cash reserves, depending on the rate you get and what you do with the cash in the meantime. Don't know about borrowing on a 401k (we don't have one) - just going on what a bloke on the radio says - he is always banging on about if its not a qualifying loan, you pay the tax plus 10%. And he's on the radio, so must be right, no;) I think the car thing is part lack of self control, part lack of maturity....and wholly inexcusable - but that's just me - all folks are different, and have to make their own choices - me, I sleep happier knowing I don't owe folk for things I can't afford! As for the hole in the ground...I guess water would work, but I believe its money you're supposed to pour into it............:p |
Re: Salary Calculations between UK and US
Originally Posted by Yorkieabroad
(Post 10886002)
me, I sleep happier knowing I don't owe folk for things I can't afford!
Neither a borrower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. |
Re: Salary Calculations between UK and US
It sounds good, but do people save up and buy a place outright, or always rent? Genuine curiosity.
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Re: Salary Calculations between UK and US
Originally Posted by Yorkieabroad
(Post 10886002)
I assume the 16% was because their tappable credit pool is rapidly dwindling....
Don't know about borrowing on a 401k (we don't have one) - just going on what a bloke on the radio says - he is always banging on about if its not a qualifying loan, you pay the tax plus 10%. And he's on the radio, so must be right, no;) I think the car thing is part lack of self control, part lack of maturity....and wholly inexcusable - but that's just me - all folks are different, and have to make their own choices - me, I sleep happier knowing I don't owe folk for things I can't afford! As for the hole in the ground...I guess water would work, but I believe its money you're supposed to pour into it............:p |
Re: Salary Calculations between UK and US
Originally Posted by Sally Redux
(Post 10886025)
It sounds good, but do people save up and buy a place outright, or always rent? Genuine curiosity.
None of our friends or family in Europe own their own home, and none of them are inclined to do so. Also, the trend has been moving steadily away from owning to renting in the UK - the majority now rent again as they did in the past. The key appears to be the ability for tenants to have security and control as owner-occupiers do, and both law and social acceptance has changed in their favour over the last few years. After all, a mortgaged house really belongs to the bank, and in truth you are no more than a part owner/part tenant. Recent shenanigans have shown how precarious this position is. |
Re: Salary Calculations between UK and US
Originally Posted by dlake02
(Post 10886031)
It's only really ever been the US and the UK where owner-occupier has been the norm.
None of our friends or family in Europe own their own home, and none of them are inclined to do so. Also, the trend has been moving steadily away from owning to renting in the UK - the majority now rent again as they did in the past. The key appears to be the ability for tenants to have security and control as owner-occupiers do, and both law and social acceptance has changed in their favour over the last few years. After all, a mortgaged house really belongs to the bank, and in truth you are no more than a part owner/part tenant. Recent shenanigans have shown how precarious this position is. |
Re: Salary Calculations between UK and US
Originally Posted by Sally Redux
(Post 10886042)
Yes that's true. The house we have now is a bloody albatross around our necks, and as you say, doesn't belong to us but the bank.
- No overdraft. Ever. Going even a penny overdrawn was an instant meeting with the Admin Manager and a black spot on your record. - Had to bank with N**W*** - No credit cards, no loans, no HP from outside sources. - Could take N**W*** staff loans and house-purchase loans at very good rates, but only at fixed amounts determined by the Admin dept. - Loan value was based at 30% maximum of take-home pay for everything - car, rail ticket, house, etc. No flexibility at all. House loan was 15 year max ! It was bl**dy harsh when you're 21 and trying to find your way in the world, but this was pre-Big Bang, pre de-regulation of the credit market, and they were all about setting a good example. When I see what has happened to my former employer in the intervening years, I attribute a lot of it to too much easily-available credit and a rush to Casino banking. The result was that I owned my own flat outright in about 10 years. Set me up to never have to rely on credit, and even though I swore up hill and down dale at the Admin Manager cos I wanted to live in a "nicer" area than I was allowed to afford, in the long run, it gave us a level of financial stability and an understanding of planning for the long term. |
Re: Salary Calculations between UK and US
Originally Posted by kins
(Post 10884536)
Do you have to live in CA?
I only ask because we are in Maine and $120k is a comfortable salary here. We are in an excellent school district, and we don't get constantly hit for extra money. A 5-bed house in a great school district is around $400k. Life here is pretty wonderful as long as you like skiing/snowshoeing in winter. And it's $35 to get the driveway ploughed here, not $200 :-) |
Re: Salary Calculations between UK and US
Originally Posted by kins
(Post 10885435)
I was asking the OP because they didn't sound like they had to move to CA - it sounded like they were only moving there because that is where family is.
Pointing out that not all of the US has the same high costs of living, and often you can 'live the dream' better in other states. |
Re: Salary Calculations between UK and US
Originally Posted by dlake02
(Post 10886031)
..... Also, the trend has been moving steadily away from owning to renting in the UK - the majority now rent again as they did in the past. ....
I will concede that there has been a downward trend, but the percentage is only down 5% from its all time peak of 69%. |
Re: Salary Calculations between UK and US
Originally Posted by Pulaski
(Post 10886094)
Utter twaddle. Owner-occupiers still outnumber tenants in the UK by almost 2:1. Here's an apparently reliable article from last December, loathed though I am to cite a Grauniad article, that reports more than 64% of the population are owner-occupiers: http://www.theguardian.com/money/201...est-since-1988
I will concede that there has been a downward trend, but the percentage is only down 5% from its all time peak of 69%. http://hoa.org.uk/wp-content/uploads...of-a-Dream.pdf The Guardian and the Indy are my papers of choice, so I would never disagree with them :) |
Re: Salary Calculations between UK and US
Originally Posted by dlake02
(Post 10886126)
OK - not a majority at the moment, but on a steep downward trend:
http://hoa.org.uk/wp-content/uploads...of-a-Dream.pdf The Guardian and the Indy are my papers of choice, so I would never disagree with them :) |
Re: Salary Calculations between UK and US
Originally Posted by Pulaski
(Post 10886147)
I'd dispute "steep" too. The graph of national and English/ Scottish/ Welsh/ Irish percentages is a non-zero graph, and ownership has taken about ten years to drop 5-6%, and even looking at the most recent years, the ownership percentage has dropped about 1% a year, during the worst recession in eighty years. Once the economy stabilises, so will the ownership percentage, and I'd be shocked if ownership drops more than another 2-3% before trending upwards again.
I just don't see the same rush in the younger generation. I have two cousins, both married, both in their late 20s with kids, renting privately and very, very happy to do so. Ask them about buying, and they have no desire to. |
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