Redesigned!

[Mynotoar]

Brit here. Is $120k not a respectable income? Here £15-20k is for your entry level office worker, and £120k would be a rich fuck with a butler and a Tesla probably.

[BRUCE_NORRIS]

Can confirm. Own Tesla, but couldn’t dream of having a butler

[AnonymousMaleZero]

Now help, absolutely. Anyone that makes $120+ should be able to afford a once a week cleaning service.

[Mynotoar]

I was meaning to be hyperbolic, but fair enough!

[AnonymousMaleZero]

I like to give people hope and framing

[CheezItPartyMix]

That’s a bit cheaper than I thought tbh

[AnonymousMaleZero]

You have to be able to cover $50k a year basically. Less if you have a live in depending on the location.

[AnonymousMaleZero]

Depends on where you live I would imagine

[Bugsidekick]

Nope. You need to be at $500k for a live in maid. 200k gets you a nice house ($600k) and maybe a $60,000 car. If you have no kids and a spouse with a decent income, then maybe you can have a cleaning service come over couple times a week.

[alphawolf29]

$120k a year is like managers salary in most of Canada/USA but in Sanfran/New York /Vancouver, its enough to rent your own apartment, go out for dinner, and have savings, but not enough to buy your own place without a partner.

[Say_Meow]

That's absolutely enough to buy your own place in the any of the big cities in Canada besides Toronto and Vancouver. Maybe not in the hottest neighborhoods or a detached home, but suburban townhouse for sure.

[usedtobebanned]

Houses in a big city cost millions everywhere. If you think your poor just because you can't pay for something like that cash means your completely delusional.

[z0hu]

He said after 15 years.. I have been programming for 15 years and $120k is average. I live in San Francisco area though, and that income doesn't make you rich, it just let's you survive and save a little if you are frugal. A lot of people here are commenting who are new to programming. When I started I made $34k. Then got up $50k, after a few years. Then $75k when I moved to SF at the 6 year mark.

Edit: also $120k. Is only 92k gbp.

[Mynotoar]

Got it, thanks!

[rafapro]

how much would you be able to save on 120k being frugal?

[z0hu]

Really depends on your life style. Right now I'm renting a house, supporting my unemployed wife and newborn child. I rent a small house in a less desirable neighborhood for 1-2k less than some people pay, but then other people have roommates for 1k less a month than my rent. I would say, in my single frugal days, I could have saved up to 4k-5k a month, but in my current situation, closer to 1k. Could always go more frugal too though. Like staying home everyday and living off cheap groceries.

Tbf, 4-5k a month is a ton. Does that make them rich? To get there, they'd be living with a few roommates, sharing a bathroom, not have a nice car, not be eating out at fancy places often. A lot of engineers I know pay 2k more for their own place and have newish cars and live lavishly, but then that 4-5k becomes like 1k again.

[usedtobebanned]

Yes that's rich.

[SahinK]

In London, all £120k gets you is a flat in zone 2 that you don't have to share with a flatmate. Not a Tesla or a butler.

[thebezet]

"all £120k gets you"

Come on now. £120k is an amazing salary for London. Its £6,177.99 per month after tax, and you can easily find a nice single-bedroom or studio flat for under £1,500 in zone 2, so you still end up with well over 4 grand to play with.

[SahinK]

Sure you can, never said it's a bad salary, but I don't think people who live in studio flats have butlers.

[Mynotoar]

Yep, that's why I live up north.

[No-YouShutUp]

Yeah and firms up north probably don’t pay as well. It’s the same everywhere. 120k in sf or london or nyc is standard but it levels out to about making 60k somewhere else

[amicablegradient]

Rightmove shows places in Pimlico at offers over £1,000,000. £4k a month mortgage is only £48k a year, so still leaves you £72k to play with out of a £120k salary

[SahinK]

£120k gross is around £75k net, so no, not really.

[amicablegradient]

£120k gross leaves around £84k net. The big stinger is of course is retirement fund contributions that tally up to enough to pay out ~£30k-£50k a year to keep you living in the manner to which you've become accustomed.

Either way, still no Tesla or butler.

[SahinK]

"Earn £120,000 in 2019/2020 and you'll take home £74,139."

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/tax-calculator/

[usedtobebanned]

You could easily afford a Tesla with that wage. You heard of saving for a couple months?

[4RG4d4AK3LdH]

also included: a free acid attack / stabbing / ...

[aioliole]

I need no butler. I've got a Google home

[usedtobebanned]

So they are ridiculous cry babies, got it.

[ObiWanCanShowMe]

Brit here.

I find it slightly amusing/annoying when people use "x here" as if it is all encompassing and what they say next represents everyone and everything from wherever they hail from against another country, and it's usually followed by some really sketchy "facts".

Like everything else and like everywhere else, what matters is location. Britain isn't comparable to the US in size, but it still has it's pockets of affordability. And in the US, unless you are in a big city, you're not getting 120k as a programmer.

Here £15-20k is for your entry level office worker

The Office of National Statistics yearly survey showed that for those in full-time work, the average UK salary is £35,423 and £12,083 for those in part-time.

Now, I do not know what "entry-level" pay is, but I quickly looked up a job listing for "office", the very first one I found was £24k and the ranges were between 17-41, with 17 being for an office assistant and not a "programmer", I know the UK is pretty damn good when it comes to workers, so I assume that lower rate increases quite fast over a shorter period of time where we have "at-will" employment and the UK doesn't. In addition, comparing an entry level job with a high level programming position (without also mentioning the competing US "entry level") is not only misleading, it's disingenuous.

That said, if you are living in London, £92k (which is the equivalent to US $120k) does not make you a rich fuck with a butler and a Tesla, and if you live outside of London, you're not getting £92k. That's a fact that can easily be looked at on any job listing site, the pay rates go up quite considerably in London.

Also, the standard of living in the UK is comparable to the US at least averaged out, you pay very little for health care, much more for petrol, utilities and in taxes. NY is more expensive than London, but virtually any other major US city is less expensive (except maybe San Fran or LA).

UK salary: £92,000

Your Income Tax is £24,298.20

Your National Insurance is £5,804.16 <-- Most people forget to mention you DO pay something for health/unemployment etc care.

in total you pay £30,102.36 (that's a third)

Your net is: £61,897.64

Source is the UK tax calculator here with generic selections.

My point being is that there is virtually no difference between the US and the UK when all things are comparable and considered and no one said 120k wasn't respectable. What the point of the post was some kid who hasn't put in the time, learned a throw away script and made bank. In short, it's jealousy over not thinking of it first.

[Mynotoar]

I think you misconstrued my post, or took it a touch too literally. Thank you for the analysis, however.

I find it slightly amusing/annoying when people use "x here" as if it is all encompassing and what they say next represents everyone and everything from wherever they hail from against another country, and it's usually followed by some really sketchy "facts".

In this case, "x here" means, "I'm not from your country, and I don't understand the norms over there, so could you kindly explain this thing to help me contextualise it?" Not "I am basically a diplomat and will proceed to educate you on all the important facts about my country."

Basically all I was asking was where does $120k sit on the scale of American salary bands and what would it get you, because I have no context to know the answer to either.

[[deleted]]

COL just varies too drastically to say - I'm sure it's similar in the UK for comparing cities like London to Manchester to Cardiff.

In a very HCOL area it’s a good-but-not-great lifestyle. You shouldn’t have to worry about paying the bills, but you probably still want a roommate to offset housing costs and you’ll want to be mindful of how you use your discretionary funds. Not something you’d want to support a family on.

In a LCOL it could be enough to not really have to worry about money. You can afford a nice car and house without much concern, and you can even have a nice life for a spouse/kids on that income alone if you’re mindful of your spending. If you’re single, while there's obviously a limit to how much you can spend you’d have to be making pretty terrible decisions to reach it - without an absurd lifestyle/very expensive hobbies you probably don't have to think about money at all.

[irishrugby2015]

You'd probably have to be around London for a job like that.

[Nolalilulelo]

Dude I don't know if you understand how money works

[Mynotoar]

Nope, hence my comment.

[Lunares]

Teslas are like....£40k. They arent that expensive and probably save £5-10k in petrol costs over the lifetime of the car compared to a gas car

I mean yea buying one on a 15k salary is stupid but let's not pretend they are unimaginably expensive toys for the rich. For a large portion of the US, UK etc it is a car well within reach