What I Spend In A Month As A Corporate Lawyer Living In London

can you talk about the left over please, what you manage to save/invest? if you do pension, isa etc

As a corporate lawyer your salary will be comfortable, try NHS salary of £35,000 per year 😂

In the past 2.5 years you and your partner have paid £52,500 to live in your two bedroom flat. You say that a mortgage would have cost you more, but you would have gained some equity in a property if you'd bought it with a mortgage and would also have much more security of tenure. As things stand at the moment, your landlord could issue a section 21 and you'd have to move. OK, that may improve in the future with new legislation but there will still be the loophole of the landlord wanting to sell the property. Do you intend to rent for the next ten or twenty years?
Personally, if I had your income as a first priority, I'd be saving hard for a house purchase and would cut out all unnecessary spending such as on eating out and drinks. Unless I had a final salary pension, I'd be looking as a second priority, to improve my pension contributions as much as possible.

beth must cook and iron for you. the day you find someone that will cook and iron for you, youi will regret your time wasted with beth

my guy spends 480 quid on his ironing a year. My god

Sorry, £1,750 a month for a place in London? I believe you're lying, prices that low for anything more than a closet in London are unheard of. Regardless, amazing video Liam. Only just seen this to watch now but off to university in weeks time to study an LLB with Business to hopefully break off into a corporate or finance career, so to see a video of real life costs and what a salary in that field can afford in this day an age is amazing. Keep up the great content!

what about God? no money or time for the kingdom of heaven? what a fool you are!

I've really enjoyed watching your videos. I actually worked as a paralegal at CC in Canary Wharf a lifetime ago (around 15 years ago). Now I'm a corporate lawyer and partner in my own firm back in my country. We still work with CC from time to time on international transactions! Who knows, I may work with your team one day 😀. Subscribing.

Wow you just made me throw my phone at my TV.

Did you say that you have a high salary? Think you might have neglected to mention it.

This is the first time I’m hearing of someone paying for ironing 😂

My mortgage is 2900 USD. I feel like 2K rent in USD is not bad at all.......

I feel depressed after watching this

I am really happy with how transparently you explain everything & also relate the costs to your life situation and priorities. A much more inspiring way to look at budgeting than I have ever seen before to be honest... Thank you! Really helpful for me in this stage of life too!❤

Can you make the graphics of the expenditures not blend in with the background (note for your editor I guess). When some of those number would come up, they would get lost.

Funny, charging your friend for a shag

Your rent is so cheap for a two bedroom flat!!! Omg i used to pay 1.5k just for renting a one bedroom flat exc bills

No savings, investments, pension contributions, benefits paid through payroll? Would have been helpful to know your pay per month as well. Maybe in another video?

When I do this exercise for my own finances, healthcare, retirement, student debt, and transportation are always the biggest expenses. I'm surprised to hear that you're not even factoring in the former 3 as they account for more of my budget than food and housing combined.

4 nights out in London and you only spend 120? I spend over 200 each night I go out.

I spend about £1,000 a month on food, thats 1/3 eating out and 2/3 eating in, no idea how you can do that for less with quality products. I spend about £1,000 per month on travel. No Rent or mortgage. 300 on bills a month. Rarely buy clothes, i dont have many nor want any.

I live in a lovely 2 bedroom 2 bathroom flat in Hampshire, so although our rent is £925 a month my council tax is nearly £130 a month.

Video may be sponsored by Huel😂
Great video dude always thought living in London would be more expensive!

You are poor as a successful
Corporate lawyer

For people who watch this and think they get the full picture of cost of food in London - this is not it. I don't know where he is getting his numbers from, or how many meals he has per day, but what he presents here is either a very loose estimate or completely twisted and unreal.

1. £100 on supermarket food per month is absolutely not realistic in London. Between me and my partner we spend £450-600 per month on food. We eat 3 meals a day plus snacks: fruit and nuts. We mostly shop in Waitrose and M&S. We don't buy alcohol nor typical supermarket snacks (crisps, cookies, etc.). This is excluding restaurants.

2. Bare in mind, he says they are visiting their parents. This implies they are probably eating there which is a cost saving measure. Perhaps they get some extra food to take home and they use it the next day. I mention this specifically as for both me and my partner the cost of weekend lunches is the biggest one from the whole week. On average, if me and my partner were to visit our parents every weekend and eat family dinners with them, it would probably save us around £200-300 a month.

3. He mentions he buys his breakfast and lunch when in the office but he doesn't explain whether this is from the office canteen or whether there is some form of company reimbursement programme. Again - the numbers that he is using for this category are not realistic at all. If you were to buy breakfast and lunch in the office in London, you would be spending anything starting from £15-20 per day. That's per day. Not on weekly or monthly basis.

Wow 800 plus rent in London for a two bedroom is a feat..

Everyone is thinking this is a lot of money, this is pennies for amount of work he does ... He thinks he has a life, he doesn't, his life is work and its like this of 95% of the population. I spend more than him, I make more and my rent cost more yet I live in Thailand and only work I did was getting lucky on investments. The people that think this is living the dream, it isn't you only get one life and I spent my 20s banging hookers , going to edm festivals and traveling. I didn't spend it working 12 hours a day for some corp only to save money to buy a house I don't own (horrible investment).

not sure all thos spends were completely honest..bet not.

I'm beyond impressed that you don't spend more on clothing/shopping😅

I could learn something from you😂

Always interesting to hear what people spend. In would class business expenditure as coming off the business turnover however leaving the net business profit before tax going into the pool of what you earn (although as a sole trader lawyer I know the feeling that the expenses are simply that - expenses the come out of income). As I am an old lawyer I compare with me at the same stage and with my adult children some of whom are lawyers of the same age. It all sounds pretty sensible except I would buy a property come what may (at least once married) as soon as you can and before children even if out here in zone 5 - we did that after we married and before the first baby) even if more expensive than renting.

People need to prepare for babies. In my first job we spent 50% of our net after tax income (each of us) on full time childcare. In 2023 one lawyer child of mine spend £30,000 for each of them in the couple ie 60,000 or just under that in total on full time childcare (baby). London nurseries can be £24k per baby all from already taxed income and most people have more than one child. Just something to bear in mind for the future. The alternative is worse - the lower earner (I the woman was the higher earner) gives up work and shoots their career to pieces for life so whatever happens both keep working full time when babies come. Here endeth my lesson.... and they are the nicest thing I ever did, having children.

Crikey

I think Beth is your biggest expense 😅

Not sure, did he mention that he is an associate? ;-)

I grew up super poor and had nothing much. When I got my 80k job I took a few months before convincing myself a towel rack was justifiable when a coat hanger did the same thing lol. I have slowly increased replacing the stuff I had with good quality items that improve my life every day. I still dont really spend much however, unless it comes to my parents. They can get anything they want, although they dont ever ask me for anything.

Well its sounds pretty ordinary. I am surprised. I was thinking it would be radical but its not bad.

I had no idea that tenants must pay a property tax (council tax) in London. Those are always paid by the property owners in the U.S.

Your broadband is much cheaper than mine in the west coast of the U.S.!

Really enjoy your videos. BUT... u need to know u r not frugal at all🤣😅

Sport?

What desk is that ?

I am surprised you don’t spend money on a gym or sportive activities

If you are looking for a logistics firm to help you wijt your backpack business in shipping to customers then more than happy to help 😊

Did you spend as much monthly when you lived in Paris ?

You're doing great Liam!

$875 a month for rent?? need to move from NYC to London ASAP

is there car insurance in the UK?

Does your law firm knows that you have a YT channel? Considering you work in big law, are they ok with it and also ok with the fact that you have a few shots inside the office?

You should have a ‘Beth Expenses’ segment too

Come and live in Sydney - it’s far more expensive and there are no places to rent.

this is pointless bc you haven't stated yr income