Having Ā£20k a year free after all other expenses and requirements puts you in the rich category. Nothing wrong with that, but your surrounded by rich people.
But then the lack of snorting coke is why your a well off rich person and not a poor rich person.
there is a difference in having money free āafterā expenses, and putting money aside ābeforeā expenses. a lifestyle choice difference.
the first you can only really do if you earn a lot and canāt spend it all, say Ā£100,000+
the second can be done even if you are on a typical salary of just Ā£40,000.
and thatās assuming you donāt have anything on the side to supplement your income.
Also earnings reports donāt count for all that much when a large part of the economy is off-the-records cash transactions.
A big one for me was my unhealthy habit of spending stupid amounts of money on coffee (Starbucks, Costa Coffee, Cafe Nero). Now that Iām investing, Iāve stopped, but from time to time I have a coffee here and there 
Thatās not a typical salary at all, that puts you in around the top 10% of earners.
And if your earning 40k and still managing to put 20k away in an ISA the your either doing really really well or arenāt really having much of a life.
What companies did you invest in?
I remember living ok off about 20k when I just graduated, but then again I could get 5 pints and change for under a tenner at the time. Lucky to get 3 if that nowadays unless you head to a spoons.
Just make sure its in a coffee shop you own 
My suggestion, buy Nespresso machine.
https://www.amazon.com/Nespresso-Creatista-Espresso-Breville-Stainless/dp/B01LYTP2SG
Best investment I ever made.
Makes perfect espresso, zero effort.
Once you try it, you would never drink that puke of Starbucks or Costa coffeeā¦
Someone on 40k a year with a standard student loan and basic auto entitlement pension would take home about Ā£2,402.
Ā£1666 a month towards your ISA leaves you with Ā£736 for home, food, fuel, insurance, entertainment, and other costs. Its not a lot. But it doesnāt matter to much at 40k still puts you in the top 10% of earners which is pretty high.
Most people cant cap out an ISA allowance.
Why does spending money mean you have a good life?
sorry if I didnāt include the word āhouseholdā as the basis of my lifestyle calculations. I am not assuming everyone in the UK lives aloneā¦ itās also a before tax number and the FYE 2020 average household disposable income was Ā£30,800 and the top 10th percentile Income isnāt Ā£40,000 either, in 2017-2018 it was already Ā£54,900 and it goes up every year.
so I am saying the cash savvy/frugal can meet the limit, not everyone will at that wage. the average accounts for the people at the bottom who donāt earn a proper/full wage at all due to shorter hours or other reasons, which drags the average down. there is no sense in saying a savings cap shouldnāt be kept in line with inflation just because everyone wouldnāt be able to fill it. thatās not the point, higher ISA limits are an incentive for people to earn and save more.
I gave the Ā£40k number arbitrarily, which would be around the top 25%. I earn half that but do well for myself because I donāt live with countless money pits and keep looking at ways to improve on reducing my wastefulness.
frankly speaking, many people donāt hold a well paying job for all that long either and using the full ISA limit on that short period is the aim rather than thinking you can fill the limit year on year, a higher limit just means better savings in your good years for further down the line when money is worth a lot less. ten years ago you couldnāt put more than Ā£10,000 in your ISA, for many years before then (1999-2008) it was just Ā£7,000. would that be enough now? the current limit hasnāt moved for 4 years all the while inflation has further increased, so have wages and unfortunately the typical households living costs.
Ideally, VAT should be reduced from 20% and people should buy less stuff they will end up wasting and throwing away to keep more of their income. taxes donāt need to be high if we can reduce the amount of work we force the government to deal with.
For 2018-2019, 1 in 3 working adults were subscribed to an ISA. the average account funding size was Ā£6049 (averaged down because of uneven distribution across the 4 ISA types). The S&S ISA average contribution was Ā£9,331 while Cash ISAās averaged Ā£5,187.
this PDF has some pretty interesting numbers for ISAās that is worth a good read, I found part 9.10 tables quite interesting:
Statistically the isa allowance verses average UK wages has never been better imo, allowing almost 90% of the annual average wages after tax to be invested tax free?
I think its one of best ideas the government has ever had.
Average wages are also area dependent and so is the cost of living so people saying they lived comfortably on one amount might be a lot to one person and a lot less to another. Usually the cost of living is rated upon the average house price in that area and as that ranges vastly this is the reason the wages do also and why the smart workers work in the hot spots and commute to lower cost areas for a better standard of living
the wealth seems to be massively centred around the south east and london exclusively. dropping more as you go further north from the capital. with exception to the north west I think.
I think lots of people would see massive benefits in living much closer to their work, but in the areas above particularly, this can be far too expensive to do.
I find driving can be one of a households largest expenses, poor mortgage rates as well. if you can reduce these as much as possible, that frees up more funds for luxury/leisure/saving.
Correct sorry i took the wrong calculation on that %
Which isnt enough to fill an ISA. Thatās my only point. If you can fill an ISA, your not on an average wage and actually pretty well off compared to the population.
Thats not an argument to reduce or increase the limit, or that you can fill it on a lower wage with some good budgeting.
Money allows options, spending money its self doesnāt give you a good life. Itās just a tool
Itās just poor overall. I blame bad upbringing and education for a large part of it, people just piss money away.
Investing as well in generally is really poor, a tiny proportion of the adult population actually invest. its depressing that so few know how, or even know how to manage their own money to do so.
Or to encourage more remote working. I could buy a house tomorrow if i could remote work, and id save money in the process.
Naming every person that earns more than your perceived amount of enough as rich is frankly not a great approach.
earning 39400 before tax 2017-2018 puts you in 22nd percentile (this is the latest data, obviously the number is even higher today)
what I meant by ānot snorting cokeā is, these people I talk about are ordinary 9 to 6 working people. They donāt go fox hunting in their estates they are paying their mortgage and complain about nursery costs like everyone.
I think demonizing these ordinary people that earn a bit more than others is what the āactual richā wants and watches with joy. Remember all these people payed more tax than Richard Branson.
There is a team of scala developers on the floor. And I checked the statistics apparently average Senior Scala developer salary is 74K if you exclude banks, and 82K including banks. Are these guys well of? absolutely yes but are they the bastards that you need to tax, tax more and tar and feather publicly, I donāt think so. They just dedicated a portion of their lives to the profession lucky enough to get the proper education. Our lead dev says his first salary after uni was 18800. Today we canāt hire uni grads for 40k, even though we know theyāll be useless for at least a year.
Even if your earning 100k pre tax, after household bills and other living expenses, holidays etc most still wonāt be able to fill a 20k isa every year.
Top earners generally have high finance costs due to the norm with constant car changing, mortgage as high as allowed etc etc
Most investors are just savers its as simple as that, it does not matter how much you earn or save its relative to you and you only
wage corresponds to time invested learning necessary skills. doctors for example are vital, and they take a ridiculous amount of time and funds to fully educate and become skilled enough to allow them to do what they do for people. they also spend most of their earnings, every income bracket you climb, the more ridiculous the level of taxation. you rack up massive debt to do a profession very few are qualified for and then the government says they want almost half of your salary just for giving you the āopportunityā to experience hellish work-life stress.
the tables on section 9.10 is interesting as it basically says there are roughly 89,000 people who earn more than Ā£150,000 in annual salary, whose ISA market value is less than Ā£20,000. which is just one years contribution and you would expect that number to be 0 the way high-income earners get demonized for ānot paying enough taxesā.
the wage bracket that has the most ISAās with a market value over Ā£50,000 is Ironically the Ā£10,000-Ā£19,999 bracket.
@Lenos1980, I hope this comment was agreeing with @Dao and myself 
, because I genuinely know a lot of people earning a lot less than 100k filling that 20k every year. In fact, when the new financial year starts it is their first priority.
(edit: clarification)
Most people wonāt fill the 20k isa regardless of theyāre income thats what Iām saying, its down to strict money management and a willingness to save not down to how much you earn.
If you earn 40k take home and can save half of it then thatās down to great money management its not an automatic thing to do for āmostā people.
Unfortunately most people spend theyāre money on devaluing items and fail to grasp the concept of the future and the fact it needs to be paid for.
The kicking a can down the road concept.
Iād invest all my money if I could, the fact is the more you have the less you need it.
@kali what do you mean by this one? I do have a name
apologies, I meant āthis commentā not āthis oneā as in āitā and it was a direct reply to you, was not talking about you in third person.
Sorry my insult radar is in high alert mode atm
I will turn it down a bit