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Life is tough for the average French family. How careful they are. This is the reality.


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Wooly - sad isn't it, that is the real life for many of the people I know here.  Our local cinema costs 5.50€ but most of my friends can't afford to go with me.  I know people don't complain much, but it isn't much of a life.  Maybe the reason for so may anti-depressants.  All work and no play ..
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What I find really disturbing about those INSEE numbers is the difference between a private sector employee and a state one, particularly as the productivity of the state sector is 25% below the private sector. France is a body feeding on itself to live yet apparently not knowing it is killing itself. Belgium is even worse.
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I am sorry I think I missed something - are these people receiving 3000+ euros per month after paying tax or before? If that is after tax it is not a particularly pathetic sum of money IMHO, as house prices are pretty cheap in that area.  What would that be in £ given the current exchange rate - about £2300?  We don't live on a huge amount more than that with a second home in France and a rather large mortgage in the UK.

Please explain!

Pix

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If you look at the bottom of the page of the site I posted it tells you how it is calculated.

Or as is quoted in the article "Avec leurs deux salaires, la prime de Noël de Pascal, les allocations

familiales et la prestation concernant le mode de garde, le couple, qui

n'est pas imposable, gagne près de 3 050 euros par mois"
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"With

their combined salaries, Pascal's Christmas bonus, child benefit  and

the allowance towards child care, the couple, who do not have to pay income tax, earns nearly 3050 euros per month"

She earns €980/mth for working 80% of a full-time job, she also has a part-time job earning €150/mth. He earns €1550/mth.

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The OH has worked for the railways in the UK for 34 years and still brings home between 1K and 1.5K a month depending on his overtime, whilst with my bit I suppose we have around 1.5K to 2K a month for the three of us - including mortgage and the home in France, so are we poor? I don't think so - we have the friends around us, and family, plus we have never expected more from life - trust me, waking up each day is a good start!

I know from our friends in France they too live each day as it comes, but again if you have what you need, what more can you want?

 

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There's not exactly a lot to do en famille where they are. Even if they take a trip into Caen, the nearest city. As their commune has an average annual household income of 11,156€ and over 18% unemployment, they are actually pretty well off compared to their neighbours.

 

 

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[quote user="Cerise"]No it wasn't the money that I thought was sad, simply the grimly having no fun.  When your children are only little why would you need to do up a ruin for them and deprive you, and them, of any amusement in life?[/quote]

Because once the ruin is done up they will not have rent to pay and will have more money to spend on themselves and their family whilst having an appreciating asset to pass on to their children, which is the number one priority of most of my French friends

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I understand JR and that is what I find sad.  Children need to have fun while they are young.  Parents who work all the hours god send - he reckons he does a 41 hr week plus all weekend on his ruin and she is doing paperrounds at 5 am.  Furthermore, they'll probably end up like my neighbours kids (now in their 30s) who've both gone off to foreign countries and have just broken their parents hearts by telling them to sell that 'dump' (the country house parents have lovingly preserved) as they'd like the money.

No life is for living - prudent yes - only thinking about what you pass on, no.

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[quote user="Will"]

There's not exactly a lot to do en famille where they are. Even if they take a trip into Caen, the nearest city. As their commune has an average annual household income of 11,156€ and over 18% unemployment, they are actually pretty well off compared to their neighbours.

 

 

[/quote]

At 36600 income compared to a commune average of 11156 I would suggest that "pretty well off" is very mild. They are Bl**dy well off by any standards.

How many Forum members are living on a lot less than that, come on be honest!!!

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[quote user="J.R."]

Because once the ruin is done up they will not have rent to pay and will have more money to spend on themselves and their family whilst having an appreciating asset to pass on to their children, which is the number one priority of most of my French friends

[/quote]

This isn't quite true, once the ruin is done up, they'll still have to pay back their loan of 930€ per month until 2025.  They're only currently spending about 300€ per month on renovations.

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[quote user="powerdesal"][

At 36600 income compared to a commune average of 11156 I would suggest that "pretty well off" is very mild. They are Bl**dy well off by any standards.

How many Forum members are living on a lot less than that, come on be honest!!!

[/quote]

It's only just over £27000 a year, which doesn't seem very high to me with their committments.

I would imagine that a good many working Forum members who have two incomes in the family have more than that, and the ones who are retired will probably have lower expenditure..

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