i lived in london at varying salaries for a while and would say 120k is a bit OTT.

20k - you can survive (barely)
40k - you can live comfortably
60k - you can live in zone 1 and eat out every week at a starred restaurant
80k - you can buy a flat in zone 1 and eat out 4 times a week
100k- you can buy a flat in zone 1, eat out every day and light your cigars with £5 notes.

EDIT: of course, you might have got to your 120k figure by having to halve your salary on account of married, or worse, reduce by even more because you have kids

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Hi there, I have just moved from south Yorkshire to Switzerland 4 months ago. I earn't bang on 38 k before arriving, have 2 kids both at school. We own our own house and the mortgage (equivalent to rent) was low (less that £500 per month) and drove just one car. With all this in mind we could not afford to live off just my wage with lifestyle that included holidays, decent Xmas, treats for the kids and regular social outings. My partner earn't half my wage and life was reasonable with no worries, so I would at least recommend your partner finding a part time job. If your children are below school age remember that childcare is not cheap and you will get very little support from the government with these salaries. Hope this helps, we are not frivolous with our money ( who is from yorkshire!) so I think this is relatively good insight. Good luck!

Thank you for the detailed explanation, that's how I imaging it now. To say in Switzerland daycare is about twice expensive than in UK. But this is another subject.

yes, motor insurance rates are increasing big time in the uk and for a decent sized engine you can easily pay £2-£3k

You are welcome. I have not looked into cost of childcare here yet so cannot compare and dare not now :-/

Do not be disheartened ... my personal experience is that childcare is between 20 to 35% cheaper here than what I paid in the UK - comparing day nursery prices. Of course there are huge variations and everyone will have different experiences but my experience is that I was pleasantly surprised!

See! That's why I bought "Woman" magazine! Keeps yer in touch dontcha know!