Comfort, as far as living conditions and standards is concerned, is quite a relative subject. People are accustomed to various kinds of lifestyles. This gives a totally different meaning to the phrase, “living comfortably”. How much money do you need to live comfortably in the UK? However, for someone living a comfortable life, there are basic needs and maybe a few luxuries.
Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs may be of great help in trying to come up with how much money you needed to live comfortably in the UK in the year 2021 helps with evaluating how much money do you need to live comfortably in the UK.
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Maslow categorized human needs into three distinct groups. These are basic needs, psychological needs, and self-fulfillment needs. Under basic needs are; the need for food, shelter, health care, clothing among others. Psychological needs include the need to have friends, intimate relationships, and a sense of belonging, while self-fulfillment is more of the extras.
People define comfort differently. For the purposes of this discussion, I will use Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Let’s figure out what can be deemed a “comfortable life” and what is important for man’s survival. Looking at Maslow’s illustration, you will realize that basic needs are the only phenomena that contribute to a person’s comfort that also require money for one to access. This positions us better, to answer the question that makes up the headline of this discussion.
Basic needs according to Maslow are food, water, rest, health care, safety, security, etc. Hence, the sum of the monthly cost of these commodities is how much money a person needs to live comfortably in the United Kingdom. In our previous interaction, we gathered, London is not only more expensive than other cities but also one of the most expensive cities in the world.
What this means is, the amount of money one needs for a comfortable lifestyle in London is different from what you need in other major regional cities and small towns.
How Much Money You Need to live Comfortably UK
Here is a breakdown if you want to know how much money do you need to live comfortably in the UK and how much money you need to live in a 1 bedroomed apartment in London; an apartment costs approximately £1,662 and three meals at midrange restaurants will reach about £60 while transport costs sit at about £158. The total is approximately £1500, rounded off this is how much money you need to live comfortably in the UK.
This does not mean you need exactly that amount to live comfortably. Remember under basic needs are, a sense of belonging, need for friends, and relationships. The second activity that nurtures this is how much money you need to live comfortably in the UK, including the need to have pocket money of some sort. Depending on your spending habits, you can put the pocket money at £500 meaning your total cost for a comfortable life in London is roughly £2,000.
To live a similar lifestyle in Edinburgh or Manchester, the breakdown of costs- respectively- is like this; £828, £60, and £57 for Edinburgh and £849, £60, and £71 for Manchester. When you then add pocket funds, the totals will be approximately £1,435 for Edinburgh and £1, 480 for Manchester. Of course, these costs will vary from place to place because the United Kingdom covers quite a large geographical space. Another differentiating factor is how each family defines comfort.
When taking a look at the cost of a comfortable life in the UK we can use the country’s official Poverty Datum Line (PDL). This is a calculation made by the economic departments to calculate how much an average family needs to survive comfortably. When your money is just adequate to cover the basic needs, then you are living on or above the PDL.
A detailed presentation in 2020 revealed; for a single working individual not to be in poverty, they will need at needs a weekly income of £276 in the heart of London or £253 in the outskirts of London. This translates to £1104 and £1012 respectively.
In the case of a working-age couple, they would require £408 in inner London and £378 in outer London. These incomes are weekly, therefore; Living in the UK would generally cost the former £1632 per month and the latter £1512 to not be in poverty. In other words, living comfortably under rationally agreed-upon basic needs is managing an income above the poverty datum line.
The issue of living comfortably can bring about some debate. The huge differences in values, preferences, culture, and even religion sometimes. As critical thinkers and young entrepreneurs, we need to have an eye that notices these aspects of human life. Businesses that tend to make it to great heights are those that solve a particular set of problems.
Yes, this discussion is about how much money you need to live comfortably in the UK. But hello! Our minds are never limited to the subject as following it blindly subjects us to critics for generalizing everything. We then, need to be ready to answer questions like, “Living comfortably according to whose standards?”
There are many other questions the human mind will get while going through papers of this sort. If you are an entrepreneur and reading this, apply those questions in your head to come up with new ideas. Those questions are the problems that need solving and if approached right, businesses are born.
This paper is a discussion on how much money one needs to live comfortably in the UK. I decided not to limit the subject, given the nature of the papers that have been presented on my desk (Entrepreneurial Topics). I love to speak to a generation of entrepreneurs, hence I bring forth new questions.
How much money does an entrepreneur need to make in order to sustain their associates? This is just but one question that sprouts in my head. Guidelines are important but they also tend to limit our intellectual capabilities of deriving potential problems from those guidelines. This is why comfort is relative and not generalized.
