What is the perfect salary to be happy?

[cerebus]

Doesn't your domestic also deserve to be happy?
Or do you view her as some kind of subhuman?

Of course but when I was in SA we had a domestic twice a week

 

[Thor]

Grow your own food.
Invest in Solar and own water Supply.
Homeschool kids.
Plan car trips.
Max Ebucks for both you and partner. (Don't use from the allocated BANKS Cash from Credit Card, instead transfer over from Cheque to Credit on what you will be spending.)
House paid off.
Car paid off.
Only buy cash.!!!
No contracts and No, you do not need a R25/35 000 phone ever and never every two years. (Too use the same 10 apps you have been using since forever.)
Put R500 away a month for Car main.
Invest.!!!!

Life is actually pretty easy on R15000 for a family of four if the above can be done. You are stinking rich at R25000.

Your wants is what normally gets Every.Single.Person.
Live for what you NEED.

Well you can't get to that point on R15k


You can certainly downgrade to R15k if all of that stuff gets paid off.

Like I can't take a salary cut, but as I get to a point where my bond and car is paid off in 20 years then sure I can take a salary cut and make it work.

Defeats the purpose though.

Trying to say, building wealth on R15 to R25k isn't a walk in the park, unless you live in a bad area so the rent / bond isn't 30% of your salary.

 

[CruelBreeze]

I don't like using the word literally too liberally, but that's literally what 90% of the country is doing. No need to join them if you can help it.

Based on official definitions, 50% of the country is living in poverty. So not literally 90%. Only on your definition are 90% living in poverty.

 

[Thor]

If you are ever grocery shopping and you need to look at your finances to check if you can pay for it. You need more money.

This is basically my definition of comfortable.

I'm not a heavy spender, but I'd like to be in a position where if I wanted to buy something, I can just buy it without thinking about what it costs.

Within reason.

But now I am in Woolworths and then I want to buy the Chocolate Cupcakes, but then I notice it costs R68 and then I pause.

I'd like to be in a point in life where that pause doesn't register.

 

[Thor]

Doesn't your domestic also deserve to be happy?
Or do you view her as some kind of subhuman?

I was waiting for that.

 

[Thor]

Very much so. I earn more than R25k a month, but I'm quite happy with the standard of living that R25k buys. My last couple of increases, I actually couldn’t think up anything to spend the money on, so my lack of imagination is saving me money.

That's a good thing.

Its so important for young people to not fall into the standard of living trap.

Of course get a better standard of living, but don't upgrade everytime you get an increase.

 

[notayoba]

Based on official definitions, 50% of the country is living in poverty. So not literally 90%. Only on your definition are 90% living in poverty.

That definition of poverty is $5.50 per person per day. If you think $6 a day isn't poor, well then good for you. Even earning 10 times their definition of poverty you'll barely be scraping by. My gardener makes more than 6 times the poverty definition, and let me tell you, he's still poor.

 

[Chunk20]

Most people are budgeting R5k+ per month on car loans. Are used R150k corollas or swifts mutually exclusive with happiness?

What am I an Uber driver

 

[cerebus]

I was just making the point that @notayoba seems to be confusing "a living wage" with "the perfect salary to be happy"

I seem to remember an article quoting a study saying that ~$100K/year is the sweet spot in terms of happiness, those earning more and those earning less than that amount seem to on average less happy than households earning ~ $100K

I'd image adjusting to local purchasing power that amount would be slightly less for South Africa

I'm not sure if the amount would be less here tbh. South Africa can be surprisingly expensive in a lot of ways if you want to live a middle class lifestyle. For example, real estate is much cheaper here than EU/US in real terms, but the interest is so high that it evens out the amount you pay on a bond. You need to pay for your kids' education, and maybe private schooling, and medical aid. Food is much cheaper and especially eating out in SA is ridiculously cheap. I think the figures I gave are pretty realistic here.

Most people are budgeting R5k+ per month on car loans. Are used R150k corollas or swifts mutually exclusive with happiness?

Well, that's certainly something you don't need to spend all that money on. Somehow we always managed to buy a car in cash or pay it off quicker, and once you have a good car, you can keep it for 10 years or more. But I guess R200k is a reasonable amount for a decent 2ndhand family car.

 

[Thor]

I think my other biggest want is to have a full suite medical.

Medical in SA feels very close to the US in terms of out of whack pricing.

 

[krycor]

I stick to my guesstimate a year or two ago..ie +/-35k/m/person (post tax + incl ra) in an urban professional household.

+/- 50k/m/p is where you’d stop worrying as much as it would cover most asset accumulation at a steady pace while catering for risk.

I dunno.. utility price + inflation + usd exch (most goods are imports) + interest etc all influence it and with lower interest rate lately you likely can drop the above by +/-3k.

Just a guess I made a while back. Reality is, as seen with the FIRE movement it really depends on how you define your expenses and QoL. Ie one person my think traveling to Europe annually is part of the minimum lifestyle etc so their costs would look different to someone who lives off the grid or someone who buys a place near a cbd but uses Uber etc.

 

[krycor]

I think my other biggest want is to have a full suite medical.

Medical in SA feels very close to the US in terms of out of whack pricing.

It’s because people don’t really shop around and I’ve noticed that people also sometimes believe the fallacy that the higher the cost the better the service. Which isn’t true as there are a few price gourgers. Just saying I’ve heard many stories and choosing a good medical professional vs cost efficiency is something few get right.. it goes badly for one party more often than not.

Wrt full suite.. this reminds me of ambulance thread. Granted past was the past.. but until 10yrs ago.. if someone in family needed to go to hospital and it wasn’t a mva, someone would take them or a doc in family would do house calls. Ok Doc in family skews things but it was weird for me thinking back through my life and realizing I’ve never heard or seen a family member use an ambulance. granted Cpt is small but still.

Similar with medical aids till the more recent decade and a half.

 

[Erohann]

With 15K having been referencewd often, I'd just like to say the lack of comprehension and keyboard warriors not reading or thinking, they ought not to earn 15K. If I was the boss, I'd pay you less. Be better

 

[Erohann]

Everyone and their dog talks about how private school is better than public. Yet zero schools teach the things we all need in life.
Investments.
How credit cards should be used.
Credit score.
Debit order rejections due to insufficient funds and how that affects your credit.
Buying brand new cars "for the peace of mind crap" every 3-5 years.
Paying all free extra cash, like Bonuses into your Capital Amount of your Car or house to pay it off early.
Buying the biggest house you can mostly "afford", yet the Bank buys it and you owe them almost double.
(++Family of 4 in a 6 bedroom house, totally dumb. Now the wife needs to buy crap to fill the extra 2 rooms and neither of you clean the big house, cos that what maids are for right.?++)

Sad to say but it'd be best if we could learn this at home due to the lack of being taught Life101 in schools

 

[Not_original]

As I've upgraded my lifestyle from sharing a flat with a friend, to living in a Golf Estate and then driving everything from a basic Fiat Uno to an Audi, I can honestly say that happiness comes more from having the funds to have experiences in life, more so than material possessions. I personally also get far more "happiness" and comfort from feeling safe and secure than from the things I own. There is also a lot of satisfaction from having spare funds available for life's ups and downs and having enough to go on nice holidays. It is also important to have funds available for your interests and hobbies. It can really suck not being able to afford a nice PC if you like gaming as an example but...

The material possessions do give you pleasure and entertainment, but not really much more happiness.

People confuse "Entertainment" and "Happiness". Money buys a lot of Entertainment, but not much happiness.

That said, I reckon about R35k a month net take home pay will meet pretty much all your desires in life and buy you comfort and security.

I would say R40k. A nice place to stay and not feel like your living in a matchbox is now R1m which burns about R13k with insurance and property taxes. My car is paid off but say you would want a decent set of wheels that would be anything from R2500 to R4k. The rest is up to you but you have to eat at least and save up some.

 

[JohnStarr]

A basic middle class existence requires about 60k pm before tax. You'll clear around 40. 12k to a cheap house, 6k to a cheap car, add medical aid, insurance, rates, electricity, cell, internet etc and you are basically broke. Add 20k pm before tax for each kid.

R20k pm for each child...are you talking about sending them to a private school? Because there are public schools for far less than that with more of a name, history and academic/sports record than most private schools.

 

[cerebus]

R20k pm for each child...are you talking about sending them to a private school? Because there are public schools for far less than that with more of a name, history and academic/sports record than most private schools.

Yeah that number is really high. I think 5-8k is what most people would spend.

 

[notayoba]

R20k pm for each child...are you talking about sending them to a private school? Because there are public schools for far less than that with more of a name, history and academic/sports record than most private schools.

Kids eat, wear clothes, have hobbies, use electricity, require a bigger house, have cellphones, needs to be transported, medical aid. etc etc. 20k before tax comes to 12k after. Government schools in the 4-7k PM range. Suddenly 12k (after tax) per kid doesn't look like much.

 

[JohnStarr]

Kids eat, wear clothes, have hobbies, use electricity, require a bigger house, have cellphones, needs to be transported, medical aid. etc etc. 20k before tax comes to 12k after. Government schools in the 4-7k PM range. Suddenly 12k (after tax) per kid doesn't look like much.

Lol, we earn a decent salary each; our kids go to a very good public school; we buy clothes as required, and as a family we get by on around r2000 food per week. None of that adds up to R12k. That's excessive.
Medical aid is around R1000 per child. School is R3k per child. Food probably around R500 per child. Electricity is required by the house so not included, neither is is the bond. Neither is water.

 

[Aghori]

This is basically my definition of comfortable.

I'm not a heavy spender, but I'd like to be in a position where if I wanted to buy something, I can just buy it without thinking about what it costs.

Within reason.

But now I am in Woolworths and then I want to buy the Chocolate Cupcakes, but then I notice it costs R68 and then I pause.

I'd like to be in a point in life where that pause doesn't register.

Don't waste your money on those... Go look in the mirror if you want to see a cupcake.




j/k. I hope you can buy those without pause though - you're a half decent chap.