In the same vein as the earlier debt thread (25713), what proportion of your income do you spend on the big things in life? I've always wondered how others' spending strategies compare to my own, and while I recognise that this is completely down to ones priorities and stage of life, I think it could be interesting.I spent: 5 times my gross salary on my house3 months gross salary on my car1 month gross salary on my now wife's engagement ringAnd I'm 27

I like this post!I spend: 2/5 of gross salary on rent1/5 of gross salary servicing debtand the VERY little left over trying to get by.I'm 23, have just finished uni, and didn't have the benefit of grants, unlike those dirty politicians who then decided that they could afford to pay for their kids due to the education that grants allowed them and that everyone else could do without (sorry, a little bitter!)

Amusing post, so here are my scores on the doors. I spent:8 times gross salary on our house (although, we had huge downpayment from sale of previous house)2 months gross salary on school fees for our twins (per year)3 months gross salary on my now wife's engagement ring (although, I was only a lowly consultant at ACN when I proposed about 7 years ago!)I've just turned 30. Overall, touch wood, no real debt concerns.

As a Londoner, the car would be a pointless indulgence... nice but economically unjustifiable. As I once heard "if it's got ***s or wheels, cheaper to rent than buy" - lovely eh - yet we make emotional concessions in both cases, of course.My mortgage is less than 20% of net salary and I live comfortably on less than 2/3 of it - on a low to fairly typical salary for a Senior Consultant. This is just because I bought years ago and although on a man-sized 4.4 income multiple of a pitiful salary at the time, now earn a good bit more and have shrunk this to 1.7 or something.I'm now about to trade this comfortable and secure position for a new place on an income multiple of 5, at least until some other stuff comes through. Hopefully this will not prove to be madness...

I have to have a car because my family live outside of London and I can't afford to use public transport. With all costs factored in, the car is still cheaper than even buying cheap-rate train tickets months in advance. Nor is the public transport practical either when carrying luggage or travelling at off-peak hours.

Well I am older...Zero on the house - mostly paid off and the rest is interest only with a payment holiday...will pay it off when it is sold.50% on pension contributions.....cuts down on the 40% tax.50% saved for when I get made redundant...ever looked around and wondered where all the 50+ year olds have gone.Live off my wife's salary and by being frugal.

right... good for you then! ambition does pay off in the end.. i am 28, just got mortgage of a mil, golf gti on finance, and fiance's ring was 18k on the card. lots and lots and lots of debt - for a salry of circa 170k

Good start, fellas.This is intersting - huge spending on houses at relatively young age as expected. Also, evidence suggesting that spending expands to fit the salary - no surprises there!I'm based up north and am surprised by the lack of spending on cars - I thought every London-based consultant drove a 911!Keep it up.

Peter - if you earn 170K (I'm not disputing this though it's very impressive!!) then why did you guy a Golf GTi on finance? Surely you could have paid for this out of your wallet? Same with the engagement ring really... 18K is a huge sum of money (more than half what I earn!) but at 170K per year surely you have a huge disposable income and big savings built up?

He's talking crap, that's why.

We bought a house last year for 4.6x joint gross income, but mortgage only 1.05x joint gross, no other debts, drive old scuzzy polo, and live relatively frugally. plan to pay off mortgage early, and have significant savings to ease the pain should we have children and I choose to take a career break / pay school fees. We're both in our early thirties - husband an engineer and I'm a programme mgmt contractor.