Money sucks - lets hang out

When I started working $38,000 a year was a pretty good salary. Ten years later, countless jobs and two careers, I'm still earning $38,000 a year. The bit that's changed is that back then you could live off that sort of money. Now, I doubt $80,000 would cut it for the same lifestyle. Why is this so? Inflation? No... inflation means as things increase in price, so does my pay, right?

Everything cost $100 these days. Even the little things. I recently took my family to the movies. It cost $50 just to get in the door. Then the popcorn, ice cream, and a beverage to wash it all down. You walk out thinking "I could have bought three DVD's, microwave popcorn, a tub of ice cream and had an entire weekend of movie viewing if only I waited three or so month for the movie to hit DVD." But the kids would have lost interest by then and would have probably seen the movie 97 times, know it line by line and don’t shut up about it while you watch it for the first time.
A holiday I took with my wife 3 years ago cost $2,500 with flights, car hire and places to stay. This included a cruise for 10 nights in the Pacific Islands. A while ago we spent some time in Tasmania on our first holiday since the cruise, though we went back again for our honeymoon. It cost the same. Minus an Island hop-a-long on a cruise ship. That's not to say I didn't have fun in Tassie. I love the place. But the same amount of money provided much less holiday.

Some of the places we ate at were great. Some were not. The amount we paid for food at one place, where a McDonald's would have fit a kings table cost more then another place we ate at that was fine dinning according to me. I started to think, what possessed the crappy restaurant to charge so much? Or was it the decent place charging too little?

Speaking of charging too little. Back home after the holiday I invited my close friends to come out to dinner with me and check out this Korean Hot Pot place for the first time. You book a table, walk in and there's a giant pot of boiling stock in the middle of the table. Your chosen meats, vegetables and sauces come out and you cook it all yourself. All the while making a total mess and laughing about it. There were 5 of us. I was expecting a bill of $200 or more. We kept ordering more and more food, more drinks, more more more everything!!!!

I don't know about everyone else, but I was stuffed, there was a lot of food. Except my best friend Sash. He complained that he was still hungry. He's the thinnest of our group, and we suspect has tape worm. I convinced him that I'll drive him over to my place and I'll cook up some food for him. He ate what I would consider a meal for ten. Yet the guy is as thin as a rake handle. So I fried up 6 barbecue sausages, which he ate all of. Satisfied, he sat outside with a cigarette for dessert. Mmmmm yum.

Back to the thirty eight thousand dollar question - Can one survive comfortably on just that a year? Let's see... the tax man takes his cut. That leaves you with about $25,000. Rent is approximately $300 a week for a run down 2 bedroom flat 20 minutes away from the city. That's $15,600. Which leaves you with less then $10,000 to pay your bills, maintain your car, go out on hot dates, buy birthday presents, and maybe catch a movie unless your kids haven't seen it 4 billion times already. You wouldn't buy those Levi's jeans... you'd more then likely wait for the specials at Big W. Forget going to a cafe for breakfast. It’s 2 minute packet noodles for you. You can stay home in your shell and become this hermit that only comes out once a year, only if you can afford it.

Ideally, I think you need about $100,000 a year to be able to live comfortably. When I say "comfortably" I mean, being able to take your car to the car wash and have them detail it. When you can take your wife and children to the movie theatre and not be worried if the kids are going to ask for everything behind the counter that's made by Cadbury or Nestlé or dipped in chocolate. When you don't have too much concern about what you pay in rent, lease repayments on the car, ever increasing petrol prices or that shiny new video game console that might bring a glimmer of false hope in your life. Yep, you are doomed.

They tell us that people are buying more houses then ever. New car sales are at their highest. So, for once people are starting to have some fun and live a little when the man jumps in and says "We can't have people working hard and getting what they want.... We want some of what you want" And they take it. Yet the same law can convict someone if they stumble upon my wallet while they keep their hands warm in my pockets. Meanwhile, they forget that there are the others on Broken Boulevard (The new Struggle Street - thanks to American culture seeping into our lives), still watching the news on the 31cm Palsonic that was handed down from their better off relative who just got his $5000 new baby grant and spent it on his shiny new LCD TV that’s been expertly mounted off their Swarovski chandelier.