If only you’d worked harder at school...

[Bren]

14 hours ago, SiC said:

Average UK salary is £30k. Take home thats £2k pcm. Say someone is bringing that in and their partner is bring in £12k pcm. That's £2975 after tax brought into the household. 

Say £900 rent/mortgage and £700 bills, you get £1600. £350 (high spec A4) and a £200 (Fiesta) lease you're at £2100. Leaving £875 disposable income per month left. 

That's going to be the vast majority of these lease deal customers. Why I know this? Well as Cheggers have said, the default rate on car finance is low. So there had to be plenty of people making the numbers perfectly fine. 

I was reading a few weeks ago that the average wage is nearer 16k and that the 30 k is bollocks. To be honest I can believe it.

[warch]

24 minutes ago, Bren said:

I was reading a few weeks ago that the average wage is nearer 16k and that the 30 k is bollocks. To be honest I can believe it.

People are often pressurised into feeling bad about not being able to afford new or expensive stuff these days, or being made to feel like they are a failure if they aren't able to afford to buy these things, it's the price of consumer culture I'm afraid. 

The thing I like about things like Bangernomics or the whole Autoshite ethos is that it is very much a rejection of the idea that you simply must have a new(ish) or even conventionally desirable car to fit in. I can let a modern Aston Martin pass me with nary a second glance but I'll be fascinated by an original shape Ford Sierra (like the one I saw the other day). I don't think this is necessarily inverse snobbery either, there are cars and motorcycles I love that are worth an absolute fortune, especially things like rally cars or homologation specials, but this is irrespective of how recently they were made or their performance characteristics (I also quite like 125cc bikes and basic cars). 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

1 hour ago, Bren said:

I was reading a few weeks ago that the average wage is nearer 16k and that the 30 k is bollocks. To be honest I can believe it.

It might be dragged back nearer to £16k because of modern slavery / min. wage / zero-hours contracts, though I would have thought that the massive growth of the generally well-paid management and consultancy sectors would pull it back towards £30k.

[chadders]

The ONS reckons median earnings were 585 a week in 2019 so roughly 30k a year.

As with all statistics, Covid 19, Brexit etc. they can be very misleading but ideal for attention grabbing headlines in the media.

[Tamworthbay]

But is that Median, mean or mode? A few people earning hundreds of millions can off set a lot of people earning below the 30k. My guess is that the majority of people don’t come close to that £30k

[chadders]

As it says in the post median.

[wuvvum]

I would imagine that if you take London out of the equation, the average salary (however measured) will drop significantly.  London has a tendency to skew the stats in a lot of areas.

[chadders]

That's one of the problems.

Who or what do you include?

I find them little or no use unless it's clear what is and what isn't included and how the data has been sourced etc..

[The_Equalizer]

16 hours ago, chadders said:

If you have kids those numbers are decimated.

Just paying nursery fees, if you're both working, used to cost us 400 a month in the 1990s and I don't imagine they're much less relatively now.

When my youngest of two finished creche in 2018 the bill had just gone up to £900/month. Yes, the best part of £11K after tax per year, although there are child care vouches available to take it down to about £9500 (from memory). We had very little choice as we her mum and my parents live miles away. I have just totted up what they have cost me and I am off to cry ...

[warch]

I found this from the ONS statistics for tax liabilities from 2011-12. Obviously they are a bit out of date but it gives a fair idea of the current state of affairs.

29.9% of taxpayers earn more than 20k.
10.1% more than 30k.
2.4% more than 50k.
1.2% more than 100k.

[Bren]

I remember reading about the UK's addiction to credit - while there are many that are reckless with their spending there are also many that are'nt.

My personal belief is that the average wage for most would be nearer 20k than 30k. For many crdit is the only chance to have something - without it it would mean saving for years or simply not having it.

[The_Equalizer]

2 hours ago, Bren said:

My parents fell foul of the high interest rates 30 years ago which made me very wary. I would sooner drive a heap and have savings than a new car but be on the bones of my arse.

I am fairly sure a lot of it comes from your parents. I clearly remember those high interest rates where my Mum, sister and I cycled to school because there wasn't enough money for petrol. My Dad recently told me that there was a point were his entire monthly salary went on the mortgage payment and he had paid no tax on it because this was the days of MIRAS (Mortgage interest relief at source). Debt and being skint scares the living daylights out of me.

The most I have ever spent on a car for use ( and not a classic to fiddle with and sell on) was £1550.  

[Bren]

Just now, The_Equalizer said:

I am fairly sure a lot of it comes from your parents. I clearly remember those high interest rates where my Mum, sister and I cycled to school because there wasn't enough money for petrol. My Dad recently told me that there was a point were his entire monthly salary went on the mortgage payment and he had paid no tax on it because this was the days of MIRAS (Mortgage interest relief at source). Debt and being skint scares the living daylights out of me.

The most I have ever spent on a car for use ( and not a classic to fiddle with and sell on) was £1550.  

The summer of 1990. My parents expected us to be homeless. Once you've been there you never want to go there again.

[The_Equalizer]

10 minutes ago, warch said:

I found this from the ONS statistics for tax liabilities from 2011-12. Obviously they are a bit out of date but it gives a fair idea of the current state of affairs.

29.9% of taxpayers earn more than 20k.
10.1% more than 30k.
2.4% more than 50k.
1.2% more than 100k.

And about 300,000 people pay 27% of the UK's entire income tax take. Oh and about 44% of workers pay no tax at all. 

[chadders]

12 minutes ago, Bren said:

The summer of 1990. My parents expected us to be homeless. Once you've been there you never want to go there again.

We'd just got married and took out a big mortgage. The first Gulf War then destroyed our finances further as we had oil heating and an oil AGA so we trawled the local woods for wood for the open fire.

Our mortgage was stabilised at 16%, we paid interest at that rate as part of the monthly payments but the excess, about another 3%, was added onto the debt.

Just over a year later our first son was born and two salaries became one for a while.

It was totally shit apart from our son being born. 

[warch]

22 minutes ago, The_Equalizer said:

300,000 people pay 27% of the UK's entire income tax take. Oh and about 44% of workers pay no tax at all. 

Yes, ironically the real key workers in society are the high earners. Although they have a vested interested in the rest of society not being a knife ridden Mad Max-esque dystopian hellscape shound they ever want to park the Bentley in town whilst they lunch. 

[The_Equalizer]

16 minutes ago, chadders said:

We'd just got married and took out a big mortgage. The first Gulf War then destroyed our finances further as we had oil heating and an oil AGA so we trawled the local woods for wood for the open fire.

Our mortgage was stabilised at 16%, we paid interest at that rate as part of the monthly payments but the excess, about another 3%, was added onto the debt.

Just over a year later our first son was born and two salaries became one for a while.

It was totally shit apart from our son being born. 

In retrospect, if you could just about keep your head above water and your salary kept up with inflation the principle of your mortgage debt was eroded quite a bit. It was just getting through few years was the killer. For my parents it worked out in the end, but I do remember those days and the fairly knackered Rover P4s my Dad ran. I didn't half get some flack at school for my Dad driving 'bangers'.

[The_Equalizer]

1 hour ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

It might be dragged back nearer to £16k because of modern slavery / min. wage / zero-hours contracts, though I would have thought that the massive growth of the generally well-paid management and consultancy sectors would pull it back towards £30k.

The median household disposable income (ie after tax, pension costs and the like) is about £30.7K in the UK with the mean being £37.1K. This is weighted by household type (number of kids and the like). The 2020 provisional figures are available on ONS site and I would recommend a read as it does at least give an idea of what is really going on as opposed to hearsay. I would suggest that the real killer these days is housing costs. 

[chadders]

I was running a 6 year old Punto 55SX when my colleagues had new ML270s and so forth on the company.

It worked out fine in the end though as you said.

[Eyersey1234]

On 8/7/2020 at 3:05 PM, stilo_active said:

The drive plate made more noise than skeletons having an orgy in a tin bath and the previous owner had done some seamless* touching up on the bodywork. It drove well, though. 

Is this the same skeleton that likes wanking in a biscuit tin or a different one? ?

[New POD]

3 hours ago, Bren said:

 

My parents fell foul of the high interest rates 30 years ago which made me very wary. I would sooner drive a heap and have savings than a new car but be on the bones of my arse.

Indeed. Mortgage at 15.5% when I'd planned it to be 9% 

Our Current mortgages are fixed at 2.4 and 2.22232 % 

[Eyersey1234]

I'm happier in my old Focus than I would be in something new and shiny, but each to their own. 

[GeordieInExile]

3 hours ago, Bren said:

I was reading a few weeks ago that the average wage is nearer 16k and that the 30 k is bollocks. To be honest I can believe it.

Could both be right, there are different kinds of average - maybe 30k is mean and 16k median?

[Justin Case]

I worked hard when I was at school and eventually passed A level maths. I can do sums which is why I drive a 13 year old Mazda estate and not a PCPed Audi RS4

Edited August 9, 2020 by Justin Case

[iainrcz]

I did shit at school. I can well imagine if I was at school these days I'd have ADHD or something.

I'm terrible at maths, but reasonably good at slagging other people off for poor spelling and grammar.

 

One thing I am good at though is saving. Or, to quote various people "being a tight bastard"

If all my mates had fancy jeans and hair gel, I had cheap jeans and no hair gel. Rather than spunk a lot of money, or God forbid get finance - my first car was a very rusty, £100 FIAT Panda.

Then by the time those silly sods had "upgraded" to 1.4 pov spec Golfs, I had a slightly older Rover 420 SLi with electric windows, sunroof and alloy wheels.

 

To be honest, I think my Dad would disown me if I ever got finance on anything other than a house. I can imagine if I ever got a TV on the pay weekly, I'd probably end up being kicked in to the middle of next week.

My mantra has always been "if you haven't got the money, you don't get it" Although, I currently do have the money yet I am  still wearing jeans with holes in.

 

I will suffix all this by saying I was sensible enough not to have kids. So all those thousands most people have spent on their progeny are sat in my bank.

 

 

Gaining fuck all interest...

 

 

 

[camryv6]

3 minutes ago, iainrcz said:

I did shit at school. I can well imagine if I was at school these days I'd have ADHD or something.

I'm terrible at maths, but reasonably good at slagging other people off for poor spelling and grammar.

 

One thing I am good at though is saving. Or, to quote various people "being a tight bastard"

If all my mates had fancy jeans and hair gel, I had cheap jeans and no hair gel. Rather than spunk a lot of money, or God forbid get finance - my first car was a very rusty, £100 FIAT Panda.

Then by the time those silly sods had "upgraded" to 1.4 pov spec Golfs, I had a slightly older Rover 420 SLi with electric windows, sunroof and alloy wheels.

 

To be honest, I think my Dad would disown me if I ever got finance on anything other than a house. I can imagine if I ever got a TV on the pay weekly, I'd probably end up being kicked in to the middle of next week.

My mantra has always been "if you haven't got the money, you don't get it" Although, I currently do have the money yet I am  still wearing jeans with holes in.

 

I will suffix all this by saying I was sensible enough not to have kids. So all those thousands most people have spent on their progeny are sat in my bank.

 

 

Gaining fuck all interest...

 

 

 

Jeans with holes in, you trendy sod !!

[iainrcz]

3 minutes ago, camryv6 said:

Jeans with holes in, you trendy sod !!

I'm too tight to be trendy.

I best go put my other pair of non holed ones on. In case I get accused of being down with the kids...

Although to be fair, I don't think having a hole in your crotch so your underpant clad cock drops out of them is trendy.

[camryv6]

2 minutes ago, iainrcz said:

I'm too tight to be trendy.

I best go put my other pair of non holed ones on. In case I get accused of being down with the kids...

Funnily enough i have always been too tight to be trendy too.

Just thought if you bought them with holes in that classes you as trendy, but if you have worn the holes in them, then i guess that classes you as not trendy, but unless you have a sign that says you have worn the holes in the jeans, will people think you are trendy?

Am i over thinking this ?

[iainrcz]

2 minutes ago, camryv6 said:

Funnily enough i have always been too tight to be trendy too.

I think being me being a gawky, ginger twat is a lost cause anyway.

So rather than chucking £50 on jeans and aftershave, I worked on being a sarcastic bastard.

It worked.

 

Rarely.

Seemed to charm the woman I've been with since 2003 ?

[camryv6]

2 minutes ago, iainrcz said:

I think being me being a gawky, ginger twat is a lost cause anyway.

So rather than chucking £50 on jeans and aftershave, I worked on being a sarcastic bastard.

It worked.

 

Rarely.

Seemed to charm the woman I've been with since 2003 ?

Have you thought about a beard ?