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Let's Get More Specific: Is a £43,607 a year Salary as a Teacher Outside of London Enough?

A

Admiral Benbow

Well-Known Member
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At risk of diabetes
My question is in the title. Here are a few more factors to consider:

-Looking for a town or city with good public transportation (thinking anything on or near the Midline Mainline), i.e. Leicester, Nottingham, Leeds, Birmingham, but would consider Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle.
-2 people; my Mrs and I;
-Visa status-UK ancestry
-1 person working only;
-looking for rent ideally at not much higher than 1000 pounds a month; (no shared accommodation, studio flat minimum)
-aiming to save 1000 pounds a month (12,000 pounds a year);
-Don't smoke, don't really drink, quiet introverted couple
-Nandos and Chinese buffets are the priciest restaurants for me
-Shop for food at Morrisons, Tescos or Sainsbury's
-Intend to buy furniture from Ikea (Does it deliver right to the door in the UK?)

What are my best options? Looking for Geography, History, or A-level law jobs, if that adds anything. Permanent positions. Not supply. Looking for stability now that I am getting older. Want to purchase a property soon as well.
 
On that much money and trying to cover the cost of living for both of you, that’ll be difficult.
The further up north you go, the lower rent tends to be but it’ll still be higher within the major cities.
Have a look on Rightmove at rent prices for the places you’re looking at, that’ll give you an idea.
Where are you moving from? Have you taught A Level before and do you have the qualifications needed to teach in the UK?
History jobs are usually like gold dust, Geography might be doable.
Law at A Level I’m not too sure about.
 
My thoughts are and trying to be a specific as possible that we live in London a retired couple no kids living with us and in a three bed semi bungalow we run a car and our strongly contemplating moving to hiring and electric vehicle because the costs are much cheaper that way we have a mortgage for life and live pretty well food wise but don't do much in terms of buying clothes etc our normal salary is about 30 grand a year we feel we run a fairly comfortable life we see our friends and children very often and get around into London to major exhibitions up and down the country and two or three international flights for holidays a year so I would have thought your 40K for a creative job in a big city and a small house was very doable best luck
 
We would say it this way we live just inside Central London and manage on a combined salary of 30,000 a year we are married but retired myself being an engineer and my wife NXT teacher we have grand kids and a good selection of friends who is see quite frequently run both with the NHS and private medicine and have a very good lifestyle we are vegetarian and although we run a car thinking quite quite likely we will move to renting a car in the near future we also do not own the house having bought it on a mortgage for life we do not own very much preferring to rent where possible and make sure that we are very well in short for any problems that come along so it seems to us that it's very straightforward to run our lives for 30K a year and would think that that's quite achievable on 43,000 you do not say by the way if you have any dependence
 
Actually when I checked the salary is 40K a year so getting a bit close but still doable I think if you were to try for example running allotment or growing your own stuff would also be very helpful in getting the total balance right
 
My hubby and I survive on not a lot more than that we both work but neither earn much over minimum wage, still have a mortgage and live just outside London. again we don’t smoke, don’t drink, rarely go out to eat or have take always, have to set budgets for grandkids birthday presents, Christmas presents, etc but we get by, have one older car between us, but don’t really have any frills or luxuries.
 
Lily123 said:
On that much money and trying to cover the cost of living for both of you, that’ll be difficult.
The further up north you go, the lower rent tends to be but it’ll still be higher within the major cities.
Have a look on Rightmove at rent prices for the places you’re looking at, that’ll give you an idea.
Where are you moving from? Have you taught A Level before and do you have the qualifications needed to teach in the UK?
History jobs are usually like gold dust, Geography might be doable.
Law at A Level I’m not too sure about.
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Moving from Taiwan. Canadian guy, Taiwan wife. I have UK QTS as Canadian teaching licenses are fully accepted in UK and they issued me a QTS certificate in 2014 with no statutory induction required. Agencies say I can get a job no problem and would be around that salary on the Main Pay Scale based on experience. Not thinking of working in London though as I am familiar with how expensive it is. I thought the average salary was like 35000 pounds in the UK so am surprised to hear that it would be difficult to live.
 
Davetherave99 said:
We would say it this way we live just inside Central London and manage on a combined salary of 30,000 a year we are married but retired myself being an engineer and my wife NXT teacher we have grand kids and a good selection of friends who is see quite frequently run both with the NHS and private medicine and have a very good lifestyle we are vegetarian and although we run a car thinking quite quite likely we will move to renting a car in the near future we also do not own the house having bought it on a mortgage for life we do not own very much preferring to rent where possible and make sure that we are very well in short for any problems that come along so it seems to us that it's very straightforward to run our lives for 30K a year and would think that that's quite achievable on 43,000 you do not say by the way if you have any dependence
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I used to live in London years ago. If I went back now, according to the QTS pay scale I would start on 50K pounds. But I have a wife. No kids, no debts. Just us, and I don't think London is feasible as one of my goals in the UK is home ownership, which means London is out. It's like a Toronto or Vancouver crazy housing bubble. I am thinking Birmingham with a 43,607 salary, but I'm not sure. Do you think we could live decently on 43,607 outside of London?
 
I’d guess £1000-1300ish a month for rent in Brum.

Then there’ll be Council Tax (which you can look up online), £100 a month gas/elec, water rates, food, internet, savings, pension contribution, insurance, travel/car, occasional holiday/entertainment, contingency/repairs, etc etc.

You’d need to put that 43607 through a ‘take home’ calculator, and see how close your monthly income would be, and how much squeeze there is on the things like savings, contingency ‘spare’, and entertainment.

It sounds feasible to me, but I think it’s at the point where finding somewhere nice at £1100pcm, versus £1400pcm makes a big difference around the edges for the optional stuff.
 
On that salary, looking to buy a house, you're looking at a mortgage of around 160,000k+ if you want to buy somewhere.

In the city I live in, Coventry, that might get you a semi in an OK area, or a smallish terraced house in a popular area like Earlsdon. School catchment can inflate prices considerably.

Mortgage will be over 1000 a month, though. I've seen places for rent that are that much.

Prices can vary a lot depending on area, though. When you start looking at some of the more desirable areas, it's quite quickly getting up to 400k for a semi.
 
Admiral Benbow said:
I thought the average salary was like 35000 pounds in the UK so am surprised to hear that it would be difficult to live.
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Most households are dual income, to be able to afford a decent life on the average income, either a couple, friends buying together, or single people renting out the spare room to help with mortgage repayments, and people who can, tap into 'bank of Mum and Dad' for a deposit on a property. A good few years ago, banks were offering 95% or even 100% mortgages, on the basis that the value of the property was bound to go up, then came the first crash, and a lot of people ended up in negative equity, ie, owing the bank more than their house was worth, therefore unable to sell, so these days, mortgage lenders are looking for people to have a good deposit to put down.
 
I'd say its doable on £43k, especially if you stay away from expensive areas of the UK, but you would have to be careful and manage your spending/budget.
Is there a reason why only one income, can you not both work, even if one of you has a small part time job, it would be a an additional income that would help?
Cheers
 
You will need to clarify the visa situation for your wife if she is not a UK citizen and apply for a spouses visa. She may have to pay the NHS supplement to entitle her to medical treatment.
I'm not saying it will be a problem but you need to check.
 
Leadinglights said:
You will need to clarify the visa situation for your wife if she is not a UK citizen and apply for a spouses visa. She may have to pay the NHS supplement to entitle her to medical treatment.
I'm not saying it will be a problem but you need to check.
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Yes I will need to pay the NHS supplement for both of us for 5 years. It's about 10000 pounds.
 
pjgtech said:
I'd say its doable on £43k, especially if you stay away from expensive areas of the UK, but you would have to be careful and manage your spending/budget.
Is there a reason why only one income, can you not both work, even if one of you has a small part time job, it would be a an additional income that would help?
Cheers
Click to expand...
My wife has never worked since we've been married for almost a decade now. It works for us well because then only I get stressed about dealing with barbarians in the world and modern work culture. Happy wife happy life they say. Hehe.
 
Take home pay assuming normal English tax and NI rates is around £2800 p/m. So, after rent and your target savings that's £800 left.

Minus bills probably £400 for food, any entertainment such as it is etc.

The other question you need to think really carefully about is do you really want to teach in the UK?

I know a fair few teachers (including cost family and I went to university to do a teaching degree) who are close to burnout such is the stress of the job. They love teaching, love seeing kids thrive but are ground down by the education system more broadly.

You may just love it but it's something to put some thought to.
 
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