Like me, he lives in London and pays those wonderfully hyped London Prices. I'd love to be able to buy in the area that I live in (Mornington Cresent), but I pay £1500PM for a one bed place near Regents Park. If I wanted to buy there, I'm looking at around £400K for a one bed flat. For the 70K a year I'm earning, I'd still have to move out to at least zone 4, in order to afford something decent. It's a true, but depressing fact that London is, and will be for a long old time; a renters market.
It isn't throwing money away, it would cost me more to buy and sell within 3 years than it does to rent and save.
If you read my post again you will see that i said pay a moetgage OR save. I was just trying to help the op gauge what a decent salary was, because if you can live and save on your salary your doing ok! I think 30-35k is a decent wage for your age but less so in London. I dont think sharing my salary will help? Because i work in IT outside of London so not sure it would be a fair comparison. But if you disagree then sure no probs!
I was on a fair hourly rate contracting at ~£25 p/hr for just over a year at the age of 24. The downside, I've hit a dry spell for the last 12 months and my reserves are gone, it's not because I'm being picky or putting my rates too high. There is very little out there for me, and what little chance I get a recruiter usually f**ks it up for me, by chucking his rates high. If I don't work, he don't get his commission. FML The upside is I've finally found a decent recruiter who seems to be worth his weight in gold, and when the next lump of work comes in, I shall be sending him an awesome gift. North cambs sucks for my line of work, and I am running out of here asap. I thought it would be great, but it really isn't.
I currently work at a bank in London and at the age of 21 I'm earning around the 20k mark, whilst this isn't exactly bad for my age I have colleagues who are on probation (first 6 months) that work under me and get paid more (talking 5k+ more) than I earn just because they have a university degree (which has nothing to do with the jobs we do) The worst part for me though is that I'm not being paid enough to really move into London and in the meantime my travel costs me in excess of 4k a year
I think as a rule of thumb, if you're not setting your sights too high then you should be able to achieve at least £1000 per year of age in your chosen profession. Obviously this would depend dramatically on said profession. This works best if you start work at 18 and knuckle down, don't spend your early twenties dossing and temping around like yours truly then wonder why you're only earning £15k after 16 years of education.
Excellent advice here. I too, spent the first few years of my working career dossing and temping. I've got pretty far, but I've lost a few moral teeth along the way.
Thanks for all the feedback here guys. Really appreciate it. I've heard of the £1k per age year as a rule of thumb, but didn't know if inflation was factored in! Ok, seems like I'm comfortable at the moment. Not doing amazing, but comfortable for my age. Doubt I'll ever have that killer salary but at least I'm happy in the work I do!
If your happy in what you do then that is priceless. I earn good money but i wish i was doing something else Good for you
Never doubt that you can get that salary. Self doubt is the biggest career killer anyone can have. I could kick myself for all the years I spent procrastinating in a job that I thought I could never better.
From knowing people in roughly the same line of work, and about the same age, I'd be putting you down on circa £30k. I'd also echo Nexxo and have a grump about the pay scale for medical stuff. Bah.
That hurts a lot. I'm glad that I live "Ooop North" and where £150K will get you a decent 2-3 bed house while £400K will get you a very generous 4 or 5 bed place.
London seems pretty comparable to DC. I'm still in "sticker shock" and it's been over a year since I've moved here.
Walk onto an oil rig working for an operator and you will be earning more than 40k instantly. You will earn 20k a year in allowances before you even get to your salary.
