In our Blog Bites series we like to take a bite-sized look at a concept or idea, and leave our readers with some food for thought.
Recently I heard a intriguing story of a 22 year-old woman from Austin, Texas.
Its important we note what city she’s from because the cost of living in Austin is very high.
In fact, a annual salary of $50,000 in Houston, Dallas, or San Antonio would go much, much further than it would in Austin.
Another thing we should note is she is single, and has no children. Keep that in mind as we prepare to look closely at her numbers.
With all that said, let’s take a look at her finances which illustrate today’s story.
The Numbers
This lady makes $22.75 a hour, and works full-time which means 40 hours a week.
Her yearly income is about $47,000 a year as a reference. Monthly she brings in about $3,000, has a rent payment of $1,200, and spends close to $700+ in eating out at restaurants.
It would take about 30 hours of her working at Target just to afford how much she spends on restaurants in a month.
That’s almost a full work week of her time just so she can eat out at restaurants!
Additionally, she made 22 separate purchases at her job last month. 22 separate times she bought something from Target.
Think about that for a moment.
She actually giving money back to the people who pay her.
She’s helping to pay the light bill at Target!
And this was the inspiration behind today’s blog post.
What Kind Of Paycheck Do you want?
When I thought about how many purchases this woman made at her job, it made me ponder the following :
“What if she received stuff at the end of each week instead of a normal paycheck?”
What if Target came to her and offered clothes, housewares, accessories, and snacks rather than paying her a full paycheck for the hours worked?
So instead of paying her for the total amount of time she worked, they’d split the “paycheck” into a mixture of cash and “stuff”.
Does that sound like a good deal to you?
It sounds crazy right? Who wants to work all week long and get clothes instead of money?
Can you pay your rent with a t-shirt? Are salty snacks and trinkets helping you reach financial independence?
The Moral of the Story
The story I shared with you today is actually about a real person. The numbers were real as well.
But before we judge we should note that this lady is in a situation not so different from the average American.
We earn, we spend, and we assume it’ll all work out in the end. But what actually happens?
We end up having to face the reality of our bad decisions.
So in closing always remember the following :
“We pay for things with hours of our lives”.
You deserve to be happy. I really believe that. But I also believe your future self deserves to be happy as well.
If you’re reading this post today, and it’s probably because you don’t want to be average.
And if you don’t want to be average I’ve got some advice for you.
Don’t do what “everyone” else does. It’s pretty simple.
Until next time, yall have a good one.
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