It's basically minimum wage
40 hours per week, 6 quid/hour ~ £12K,
not far off
If you worked on that wage you wouldn't be able to eat in a restaurant ever , or drive a car
Interesting perception of wealth. I earn 15.5, and have enough money to do more than "scratch" a living, with a wife and child. (Fine for me starting out at work, and without a useful degree! Compared to the % of other people unemployed at my age group.)
Hobby spend- albeit second hand or special offers. I play hockey, go on holidays (including eurobash) we go out for dinner etc. We don’t have a car, but when we get a mortgage we will be saving £250 a month over the rent we pay at the moment.
Thankfully my wife is a great bargain hunter. We got our pram for £60 second hand. It was still £400 in the shops. So if you earn 60k, you probably just go “lets spend 800 quid” and then you feel like that is what you need.
You don’t need 60k, but humans spend what they earn. You maybe even feel like you can't afford kids.
I always get annoyed at the bbc articles Written by people earning 40k complaining they are poor.
I also don’t understand the mortgage argument.
If you don’t have a mortgage it means: You are really wealthy and bought a house without one. You are older, and have paid your mortgage off (neither applicable to most people). You are renting somewhere. You live at home. Or you are homeless.
So for most people not paying a mortgage means you are paying rent.