Occupation: Teacher
Industry: Education
Age: 35
Location: Hertfordshire
Salary: £48,719
Paycheque amount: £2,950
Number of housemates: Three plus the dog!
Pronouns: She/her
Monthly Expenses
Housing costs: £1,900 mortgage for our three-bedroom house. We got hit with the bad rates.
Loan payments: £200 student loan, £300 car payment.
Savings? After a series of big life events such as our wedding, moving house, a first child and now a second child, my savings feel nonexistent. This is something I want to focus on in the next few years. I have about £1,500 in various pots to see me through this spell of mat leave and a safety net of £1,000, which I’m hoping to not touch.
Pension? I have a pension which is around 10% of my salary. Teacher pensions are said to be the benefit of the job with employers contributing 28%.
Utilities: All shared with partner: £45 water, £15 TV licence, £170 council tax, £175 gas/electric, £80 phone/wi-fi.
All other monthly payments: £1,000 approx. on childcare, £25 phone, £2.99 iCloud storage, £70 car insurance, £16 road tax, £40 teaching union/professional body fees. Subscriptions: £39.99 Symprove, £10.99 Netflix, £16.99 Apple Music.
Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?
Yes, I did a foundation degree and then a bachelor’s degree in design, which I paid for with loans. I will forever be paying this off! I then trained to be a teacher, paying £9,000 with no bursary due to the subject I teach. I lived at home for all of this time to save money. I was the first and only member of my family to go to university so it was a financial first and no one really told me about the employability aspect. It was still a time when the message that ‘any degree will do’ was prominent.
