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Hmm. What is the percentage of your net income you pay for rent? I'm asking because across the street from Hyde Park must be an expensive area and I agree that

Hmm. What is the percentage of your net income you pay for rent? I'm asking because across the street from Hyde Park must be an expensive area and I agree that 65k salary in London is nothing to write home about. It's decent but doesn't make you rich. How many bedrooms are you renting? I assume that if you wanted to start a family you would need to move to a cheaper location and adjust your lifestyle?

dogma1138 9y ago
Central london isn’t as expensive as some of the suburbs, £2500-3000 is a pretty nominal rent for the area for a decent sized 2 bed 65-70 sq/m (check the rent for Lancaster Gate which is where I live for example https://www.foxtons.co.uk/living-in/lancaster-gate/ https://www.foxtons.co.uk/living-in/lancaster-gate/) Food and rent and utilities sum to about a 1/3rd of the combined total salary, a big vacation is 1-2 months rent weekend trips in Europe can easily be done on less than £500 heck even under £250 for a city tour flights can be found for <£100 for 2 via low-cost deals of the week, 1-2 nights in a hotel isn’t expensive either so just food since most stuff you visit like museums etc tend to be free or very cheap in Europe.
- bostik 9y ago
  It also helps, significantly, that you can arrange your holidays outside of the school breaks. That's a luxury on its right, not available to anyone with a family. The price gouging - excuse me, "dynamic pricing" - the travel industry savages families with amounts to nothing less than a punitive tax on having children.
  - toast0 9y ago
    Dynamic pricing is usually meaning showing different prices for the same itinerary (including dates) to different people or to the same person at different times. Travel being more expensive during peak times doesn't need much dynamism; orlando hotels are going to be full in summer, every year forever, with you get to pay full price; if you go the 2nd week of January, it's probably pretty empty so you get a big discount.
    - lotsofpulp 9y ago
      I thought dynamic pricing could also include when the price changes as the supply changes, so you see a flight or hotel room night for x price, and then two days later they're now y price because some of them sold.
      - toast0 9y ago
        Sometimes yes, but the sumner/vacation time blocks start out highly priced, because the demand is known to be high (since it's been high for at least decades)
  - dogma1138 9y ago
    Well some of it yes, much of it is supply and demand, but even that isn't really the case take for example Japan I got tickets for one of the peak seasons which is the end of march to the mid of april for about 1000 GBP with SAS for 2 people, hotels were about 2000 GBP more but we picked pretty decent ones and add to that about 500 GBP for the monthly rail pass and you can have 2 people spending 2-2.5 weeks in Japan for under 5000 GBP (we end up spending more but that was because of restaurants and shopping, Naniwa whetstones are expensive even in Japan :(). While that is expensive the truth is that on a young professional salary today a couple can afford that and many of use chose to have fun rather than have kids. On an anecdotal note I always thought that the way children are raised could change, and maybe should change to incorporate both young parents and earlier retirement and that is to effectively have the child care taken care off by the grandparents, basically having kids as early as possible (18-24) and then have the grandparents act as the primary caregiver during the first 10-13 years as that that point they would be around 40 and effectively by the time the kids grow up and have kids of their own you have now established yourself in a position to be a primary caregiver for what is now your own grandchildren. This might sound dystopian but I'm not entirely sure how we'll cope with not needing to do manual labor (even at home, so no need for little helpers), women seeking career (nothing wrong with that, but man can't get pregnant) and the fact that despite living longer than ever our optimal reproductive age remains more or less the same.

dogma1138 9y ago

Central london isn’t as expensive as some of the suburbs, £2500-3000 is a pretty nominal rent for the area for a decent sized 2 bed 65-70 sq/m (check the rent for Lancaster Gate which is where I live for example https://www.foxtons.co.uk/living-in/lancaster-gate/ https://www.foxtons.co.uk/living-in/lancaster-gate/) Food and rent and utilities sum to about a 1/3rd of the combined total salary, a big vacation is 1-2 months rent weekend trips in Europe can easily be done on less than £500 heck even under £250 for a city tour flights can be found for <£100 for 2 via low-cost deals of the week, 1-2 nights in a hotel isn’t expensive either so just food since most stuff you visit like museums etc tend to be free or very cheap in Europe.

bostik 9y ago
It also helps, significantly, that you can arrange your holidays outside of the school breaks. That's a luxury on its right, not available to anyone with a family. The price gouging - excuse me, "dynamic pricing" - the travel industry savages families with amounts to nothing less than a punitive tax on having children.
- toast0 9y ago
  Dynamic pricing is usually meaning showing different prices for the same itinerary (including dates) to different people or to the same person at different times. Travel being more expensive during peak times doesn't need much dynamism; orlando hotels are going to be full in summer, every year forever, with you get to pay full price; if you go the 2nd week of January, it's probably pretty empty so you get a big discount.
  - lotsofpulp 9y ago
    I thought dynamic pricing could also include when the price changes as the supply changes, so you see a flight or hotel room night for x price, and then two days later they're now y price because some of them sold.
    - toast0 9y ago
      Sometimes yes, but the sumner/vacation time blocks start out highly priced, because the demand is known to be high (since it's been high for at least decades)
- dogma1138 9y ago
  Well some of it yes, much of it is supply and demand, but even that isn't really the case take for example Japan I got tickets for one of the peak seasons which is the end of march to the mid of april for about 1000 GBP with SAS for 2 people, hotels were about 2000 GBP more but we picked pretty decent ones and add to that about 500 GBP for the monthly rail pass and you can have 2 people spending 2-2.5 weeks in Japan for under 5000 GBP (we end up spending more but that was because of restaurants and shopping, Naniwa whetstones are expensive even in Japan :(). While that is expensive the truth is that on a young professional salary today a couple can afford that and many of use chose to have fun rather than have kids. On an anecdotal note I always thought that the way children are raised could change, and maybe should change to incorporate both young parents and earlier retirement and that is to effectively have the child care taken care off by the grandparents, basically having kids as early as possible (18-24) and then have the grandparents act as the primary caregiver during the first 10-13 years as that that point they would be around 40 and effectively by the time the kids grow up and have kids of their own you have now established yourself in a position to be a primary caregiver for what is now your own grandchildren. This might sound dystopian but I'm not entirely sure how we'll cope with not needing to do manual labor (even at home, so no need for little helpers), women seeking career (nothing wrong with that, but man can't get pregnant) and the fact that despite living longer than ever our optimal reproductive age remains more or less the same.