The average couple with children had £26,616 to live off after housing costs in 2022 while those with no dependents had £32,238, according to new IFS analysis of figures from the Office for National Statistics.
One response is and? People do different things with their lives, they earn different amounts of money. Shrug.
Another is to think for a little bit. Incomes generally rise through a working life. Those couples – for household formation is fairly late these days – with children will, on average, be younger than those whose kids have left home. Thus we need age adjustment to these income figures.
At least as far as I can see the IFS does no age adjustment.
The numbers are, therefore, more than a little suspect. For we simply do not know how much this is the difference between a couple of 27 year olds with a babby and a couple of 55 year old empty nesters.
Ho Hum.
This is the reason why birth control was invented. If you can’t afford any sprogs you don’t have them.
I’ve noted that you’ve pointed out that the birth rate of rich countries is falling, Tim.
In that case, Boganboy, why is my Facebook full of ‘our council house isn’t big enough for our 8/9/10 children, we need a bigger one’ articles?
The birth rate isn’t dropping for these people. Perhaps because they aren’t funding it themselves.
The whingers are mainly immigrants Julia?????
JuliaM, I’ve mentioned the movie ‘idiocracy’ here before. Give it a go if you want to see the (possible) results of smart people choosing to not have kids and the state subsidised, IQ lower than 85, morons having lots.
I’ll just go to my local ASDA, Addolff….
£26k after tax and housing costs is a lot of money.
Before I got married a couple of years ago I was paying a mortgage, running a car, and living a fairly comfortable life on a wage of about £26k before tax.
These days the house is paid off, wife and I live comfortably on less than £20k a year, and until child no1 arrives in 3 months time we’ve basically got a bit more than one salary piling up unused in a savings account.
Main trick to this – buy older cars cash, service them yourself. I’m fairly sure it’s the cult of having a pair on fairly new cars on lease which accounts for the “poverty” of a lot of middle class households.
(also the madness of childcare – why on earth people are paying £1500-2000 a month to dump their one year old at nursery all week so they can earn £500 more than the nursery costs after tax I’ve literally no idea – it may be good news for the tax man, but missing out on your child growing up for the sake of a net £4 an hour seems like truly terrible value!)
I’d been wondering where you’d got to. Glad to hear it’s all working well!
@theProle
+1
Be frugal