Living from Paycheck to Paycheck
Finance July 22nd. 2008, 3:37pm
(Picture from stock.xchng.)
I’ve been thinking recently, why on earth I live from paycheck to paycheck. Each time, I receive my pay slip, all the money just “disappear”. After paying all the bills, I have nothing left.
When I worked in Germany, I managed to save at least 50% of my net income. Nowadays, it is difficult to save even 10%. Where has all the money gone?
Let’s calculate our monthly living cost (me and my wife):
- Mortgage payment: $1,800
- Food and other groceries: $500
- Property tax, insurance and maintenance: $250
- Utilities (electricity, gas, water, etc.): $150
- TV, phone, Internet: $250
- Car gasoline, insurance and maintenance: $350
- Transportation (bus ticket): $100
- Life insurance and health insurance: $100
If you sum up all the above, you’ll get $3,500. This number still does not include donation (for charity), contribution to pension and entertainment. If you add them, the number could easily top $4,000 every month.
That’s the expense. How about the income? Let’s take an example of a typical software engineer who earns $70K/year (this is not my salary, it’s just an example). After tax, the net income of a typical software engineer is $45.5K/year or about $3,800/month. How can he survive with $4,000 living cost every month?
I’ve been trying many different to reduce my living cost, but apparently it’s not that easy. The easiest thing to do is to reduce our mortgage payment, but it means longer amortization. 
July 23rd, 2008 at 1:22 am
Ohhh….
Sama aja ya itung-itungan soal biaya hidup cuma beda dalam mata uang, kalau pas-pasan emang “ribet” apalagi kalau “kurang”, yahh namanya nombok ga dimana-mana ?? nasib-nasib
Tapi Mas bagaimana kalau pindah ke Indonesia ??? dengan pendapatan sepeti itu !!! bagaimana ???
July 27th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
Anthony,
kamu bersyukur bisa kerja di US… kalau saya lihat ya pengeluaran kamu VS pengeluaran orang2 yang kerja di jakarta, itu udah hampir sama. banyak orang berpikir kerja di jakarta living cost di jakarta murah ? jawabannya tidak benar, saya kalau ada chance ke US mau ke US, di luar negeri antara income VS expense itu berimbang. karena ekonomi negaranya maju. coba orang yang kerja di indonesia pegang IDR, ga punya daya beli !!! kamu musti bersyukur bisa cicil apartment $1800 / month bisa punya rumah di US. bagi2 doang resep kesuksesan kamu sama saya bgm bisa kerja di USA ?
July 28th, 2008 at 6:40 am
@Kiki: Kebetulan saya tidak ada pengalaman kerja di USA sampai hari ini. Saya baru sempat kerja di Germany, Singapore dan Canada. Kalau di USA, ada beberapa hal yang bisa meringankan kita. Misalnya, biaya mortgage bisa mengurangi pajak, kemudian pajak penghasilan lebih rendah dibandingkan Canada, etc.
Selain itu, saya tidak membandingkan Canada dan Indonesia. Di posting di atas, saya membandingkan Canada dan Germany. Saya mengatakan bahwa dulu waktu hidup di Germany, saya bisa saving 50%, sedangkan di sini untuk saving 10% saja susah.
August 2nd, 2008 at 12:26 am
hi anthony, thanks banget buat share nya.. memang sih kalau menurut saya ya… kerja di negara bule mungkin pajak gede banget, tapi enak suasananya bagus, ga ada polusi.. kalau di singapore enaknya income tax nya kecil di banding negara barat.