Income and Quality of Life

Salary should be part of what you look for in a job, but if you just focus on how much you will be making you are setting yourself up for problems. If you make $60,000 per year, but live in an area where the average house costs $500,000 per year you may be better off taking a job for $30,000 per year where you can buy the same size house for $80,000. Most people tend to look at their yearly income, but forget to pay any attention to their living expenses. You’ll be able to pay off a $80,000 house off much quicker on a $30,000 per year salary than trying to pay off a $500,000 house on a $60,000 salary. On top of that if the real estate market takes a dive, the $500,000 is likely to lose a whole lot more value than the less expensive house.

There are a host of other expenses to consider as well. If you take an expensive job somewhere that requires a two-hour commute each way the cost is really going to add up. Even more important than the cost of gas and mileage, is the amount of your life that you’ll be giving away. If you end up in traffic for 4 hours each day, you could just as easily take a lower paying job near your home and spend your reclaimed commute time working at McDonalds 20 hours per week. By the time you consider all the expenses it is quit possible you’d come out ahead from a financial standpoint.

It isn’t just about the money. You need consider how taking a particular job will impact your financial situation and entire quality of life. Money is an important ingredient in the quality of life mix, but it isn’t the only part. Many people think they are rich because they are making a lot of money when in reality they are poorer than people with much lower income living elsewhere.

You cannot just focus on your income you have to look at both your income and expenses in order to be able to make a good decision. You also cannot focus just on the money; you have to look at your entire life holistically. If you just look at one segment you can easily convince yourself that you are making a good decision, when in fact you are setting yourself up for poverty.

It isn’t how much you make that matters. What is more important is whether or not you are getting to live your life in a way that you are happy with. If you just focus on the money, you can convince yourself that you are happy with a situation that really amounts to living in poverty. Look at your life as a whole. Think about your free time, your family, your friends, etc. If you don’t you’ll get to retirement age and wonder where all the years went and why you didn’t spend them on things that were more important.