Yahoo Finance Tradie earning $1,200 a week living pay to pay: 'Not worth it'
The Aussie says he can’t “get ahead” and is “getting nowhere” each week.
An Aussie tradie said he is struggling to “get ahead” while earning $1,200 a week.
Perth labourer Asher Shaw said he is left with no money after paying for his mortgage, car, petrol, food and other bills for the week when he shared his financial woes on TikTok.
“I don’t even get ahead. I’m living week to week. I’m getting nowhere. I’m wasting my time, my younger age and my freedom. I’m just doing burnouts,” Shaw said.
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“It’s not worth it. A life that you work five days a week, 10 hours a day for two days off - sometimes six days a week - is simply not worth it.”
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Many Aussies agreed with Shaw, with some saying Australia had now become too expensive for the average person to afford.
“Australia is not the lucky country anymore … [too] expensive to live here,” one person commented on Shaw’s post.
“100 per cent agree! I don’t get how people have money after I pay my bills I'm back to being broke,” another said.
Others said they were earning less than Shaw and argued $1,200 a week after tax was more than enough to live on.
“No judgment but $1,200 after tax is plenty to save, you need to live within your means,” one said.
“I make $2,200 a fortnight and I’ve managed to save [to] buy a house, have four cars. I’m in Queensland. Have plenty of savings still. Just gotta budget properly,” another said.
“If you can’t get by on $1,200 a week you’re doing something the wrong way wrong,” another added.
Aussies need $346,000 to feel rich
Aussies now feel like they need to earn $345,819 per year to feel rich, a recent survey by Finder found. This is almost $10,000 more than one year ago.
That amount is almost five times greater than the average personal income of $72,753, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Finder head of consumer research Graham Cooke said cost-of-living pressures meant a lot of people felt they couldn’t get by day to day.
“At every level right now, Australians are reporting feeling the pinch between their paycheque and everyday costs,” Cooke told Yahoo Finance. “A lot of this is being driven by high inflation and a high cash rate.”
Aussies are currently facing “extreme” cost-of-living pressure, with the increased cost of mortgage repayments and rent, groceries, energy and petrol driving the squeeze.
The good news? Cooke said we might be at or near the end of the high inflation period.
“Some indications are that inflation has already started to come down. Hopefully we’re past the worst of it but things won’t get significantly better for quite a while,” Cooke said.
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