Does your household have the “two good salaries, but still feel broke” problem? You’re not alone. Financial planners say they are meeting an increasing number of comparatively high-earning households who say they’re still feeling the pinch.“On paper, these families are doing quite well. They are professionals with a couple of solid incomes, well-educated, in stable employment, yet they are under constant financial pressure and struggling to build any kind of momentum at all,” says Michael Sherlock, head of wealth and financial planning with NFP Ireland.Soaring inflation is hitting everyone, but higher earners have more of a buffer than most. So if your household has two good salaries and is still feeling broke then what’s behind it and what can you do?What is a ‘good’ salary?First of all, what’s a “two good salaries” household? Some may not realise just how good their salary is compared with most other people. Average gross pay across all PAYE employees was €43,800 last year, figures from the Revenue Commissioners show. That figure will include those working part-time. About 45 per cent of all employees are earning €30,000 or less.By contrast, those who earn more than €100,000 represent 7.2 per cent of employees, but account for 29 per cent of overall gross income. The number of people on this kind of money is increasing. Twelve per cent of all “taxpayer units” – that’s almost 420,000 individuals or jointly assessed couples – will exceed incomes of €100,000 next year, Revenue has said.Comparatively bigger salaries are the norm in some sectors. Amazon, Google, Meta, Salesforce, Microsoft and its subsidiary LinkedIn paid average annual salaries of up to €155,000 in 2024, an Irish Times analysis of their accounts showed. All these figures give some perspective on what might constitute a household with two good salaries in this State. But then there’s tax – and Ireland’s progressive taxation system means that higher earners pay more. [ Financial literacy: how do you score? ]Indeed, about a half of all income tax in Ireland is paid by taxpayers earning more than €100,000. About a third of all income tax comes from the smaller group earning above €150,000. So, if you are in one of these “good salaries” households, you are paying more in tax than most. The median disposable income for a household in Ireland is €61,666, Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures show. Disposable income is income after tax, social insurance, pension contributions and inter-household transfers are paid .That equates to about €5,140 a month. If you’re in that “bang-in-the-middle” place, know that there are as many households with less disposable income than you as there are with more. To have this kind of “middle” disposable income, your household will be bringing in about €74,000 a year.By contrast, the 10 per cent of households with the lowest disposable income had average nominal disposable income of about €1,316 a month, CSO figures show. At the top of the scale, the 10 per cent of households with the highest disposable income had an average nominal disposable income of €3,396 a week – or €14,716 a month, the CSO says. These households – it could be a married couple where both spouses are working – are bringing in roughly €280,000 a year.That household will pay about €112,730 of their combined income in tax and charges, a PwC income tax calculator shows. This will leave them with disposable income of €167,275 a year, or about €13,940 a month. “The person with the joint income of €100,000 can say they are really feeling the pinch and can feel they are alone,” Sherlock says. That’s even though they are bringing home more than most.“But it can be the same feeling for the person who is earning much more, it’s just at a different level,” he says.The impact of taxes and deductions, and whether you ramped up your lifestyle as your earnings grew, means this pinched feeling can follow you up the salary scale.Lifestyle creepOne household can feel the pinch on a joint income of €75,000 while another can say they are feeling it on a joint income of €300,000. This can be down to lifestyle creep. Lifestyle creep means spending more as you earn more. When you are working hard and earning good money, of course you want to enjoy the fruits of your labour. But if your increased income sees you increasing spending on non-essentials then you are back to square one. With more money, more options hove into view. “There can be a bit of keeping up with the Joneses. ‘I want the new cars, I want to move to the bigger home’, the regular holidays, all the subscriptions – these choices can come with earning extra,” Sherlock says.But this increased discretionary spending can really leech your disposable income. It can leave you tight at the end of the month and financially worse off overall.“Suddenly, you are aged 45 and you realise your fixed monthly outgoings are just too high and you have no flexibility at all,” he says. “You are asking, ‘When will I get out the other end?’”[ How to avoid being influenced into spending your hard-earned money ]An expectation that your salary will continue to climb at the same pace as it did earlier in your career can also be misguided, he says. Inflation, the cost of living and mortgage interest rate hikes can eat into pay rises too. A lifestyle like this might feel abundant, but it can leave you short at the end of the month and be problematic for your future financial security.StructureIf you are a household with two good incomes, but you are still feeling broke, it could be a problem with structure. “The most common thing I see in families that feel they don’t have enough disposable income is they just don’t know where they stand,” says Cian Callaghan, director of private clients at Metis Ireland.If salaries are paid into two separate bank accounts for example, it can be hard to keep track.“Some people we meet, who are just absolutely squeezed, they are doing everything they can and they just have to keep their heads down and that’s okay,” Callaghan says.“But for 70 to 80 per cent of people, if you just get a good structure in place, you get organised and try to have a bit of foresight with your expenditure, you probably will be able to find a little bit more disposable income.”Do you know how much is coming in and going out of your household each month? Do you have visibility of your total spending on fixed outgoings such as mortgage, utilities, insurances, memberships and subscriptions?What about variable outgoings such as food, eating out, entertainment, clothes and grooming?Getting your salaries paid into one joint account is the first step to having clarity, Callaghan says. “Transfer all of your income in and have all of your expenditure coming out from that account and then start investigating from there.”You will know in three months what the cost of your lifestyle is, he says. Look at average annual expenses, too, such as holidays, car maintenance, club memberships, children’s camps and activities.Running a detailed cash flow review often brings some relief, Sherlock says. “Maybe you can lose some of those costs and get a little bit of breathing space for yourself,” he says. “You can make choices rather than reacting on a month-to-month basis,” he says. Structure makes it easier to quantify spending, identify duplication, predict bills – and feel less squeezed. Life stage squeezeOf course, you could just be in a life-stage squeeze. Do you have small children, a clutch of teenagers under your roof or someone at college? Any of these could be the cause of your feeling of broke-ness.A life-stage squeeze is one of those expected periods in the life cycle of a household when outgoings rocket.“The most intense period of your life can be your 30s and early 40s,” Sherlock says. “You can have a new mortgage with high repayments, even higher childcare costs, as well as trying to save for your children’s education while putting a bit into your pension.“All of this will pay dividends down the road, but it’s having a massive impact on your disposable income right now.”Childcare costs are up to €258 a week per child before subsidies in parts of Dublin, figures from Pobal for 2024 show. Working parents with two children can be forking out more than €2,000 a month, which is a big drain on after-tax income.“It’s like another mortgage and you will have that for several years… Even good salaries can quickly get absorbed,” he says.But this is a cash flow issue, not an income problem, he says. Much of this kind of broke-ness can be down to the period in your life, Callaghan says. Yes, it can feel like you are running to stand still, but keep in mind that each of these phases is time limited. There isn’t a fix, but there are things you can do to avoid making it worse.“For people who are squeezed, if you can get through this period without incurring short-term debt, you are doing great. Things will start to turn around for you,” Callaghan says.This might mean a bit of hunkering down – holidays go on hold, keep driving that older car and put up with that dodgy kitchen for a bit longer.“Just say to yourself, ‘This is a certain period in our lives, and we just have to make do and get through it’,” he says.Good broke?Feeling a bit broke on two good incomes can also be a good thing if your money is being siphoned into securing your financial future.“With a really good financial plan, you should feel almost a little bit broke at the end of every month because it means you’re putting all of the income you have to work,” Callaghan says.If you haven’t earmarked at least some of it for longer-term financial goals, the extra can be absorbed into spending, leaving you without much to show for it.“If you’ve maxed out your pension contributions, if you don’t have any high-interest debt – like car loans or credit union loans, if you have a rainy-day fund and you are feeling a little bit squeezed, that can be okay,” he says.“But, if you are sitting on €3,000 or €4,000 in your current account at the end of the month, that’s actually very inefficient.”