Higher salary for better livelihood or lifestyle?

Higher salary for better livelihood or lifestyle?

Definition of livelihood and lifestyle

What is the real meaning of livelihood? – A person’s livelihood refers to their “means of securing the basic necessities (food, water, shelter and clothing) of life”.

What about lifestyle? – Someone’s way of living; the things that a person or particular group of people usually do

Food – Livelihood versus Lifestyle

Livelihood may mean buying wholemeal loaf of bread (not white yeah) and having it for 3-4 mornings as breakfast. Bringing it to office, eating it with the free coffee provided in the office. Maybe buying a tray of eggs and include a boiled egg with the bread every morning. Cost effective and yet nutritious and certainly can ensure the person reduce the expenses for food.

Lifestyle means the person may mind if people see them eating bread and drinking the office coffee. They may prefer to get a latte at the cafe downstairs and hold it in their hand to show they could afford it. The brand of the coffee has to be a main brand known by everyone. Maybe buying some nasi lemak with ayam goreng, maybe a nice sandwich with eggs mayo and grilled chicken

The former is likely to cost many times lower than the latter. Now imagine doing this for 52 weeks x 10 years and we should see the main reason why earning higher salary will not help much. The morning latte will just include afternoon latte as well and then a nice dinner every other day since one has to treat themselves well, else earning higher pay has no meaning!

Shelter – Livelihood versus Lifestyle

If we truly need to save money, renting a room is perfectly fine. Sharing the bathroom, sharing the living room, sharing the kitchen… well, it’s okay. The reason is simple. The room rental plus the shared electricity and water bill would be less than RM1,000. Maybe lower depending on the location and the size of the room; bigger or smaller or maybe a space…

Renting a room will not cut it when one is earning enough to rent a fully furnished place. A place where friends could drop by to watch the football during the weekends. (The friends are renting room and needs a place to watch football…) Add in the electricity bill… the water bill… the broadband bill… and do not forget that the condo has to be in a well regarded area. Surely it cannot be at some areas that people will ask ‘why rent there?’

Shelter is where the money truly flows out… RM1,000 rental versus RM2,500 or more, every month. 5, 10, 15 years and then everyone is questioning why people could not save enough for a downpayment to own a house even after working for 10 years.

Clothing – Livelihood and Lifestyle

Go Shopee, type ‘Polo Shirt’ and we will see choices after choices. The only thing is that these are not branded ones. Or the brand is unknown. In other words, totally fine to wear except the fact that they are not coming with the best design, a known brand and maybe, just maybe comes with the clothing technology such as the best sweat wicking technology etc.

Well, if we are someone with a higher pay, of course we need better clothing. The brand defines the man (or woman). People would see that we have arrived when we wear the right type of clothing and the right brand. Else, people would look down on us instead. In fact, we should not be wearing the same Polo Shirt every year. We need new colours, new design, newest technology etc. We need to be comfy, so just spend some money…

Take a look at how cheap a Polo Shirt could be. I am choosing only those with high ratings yeah.

Typical Branded Polo Shirts? Even if they are not the luxury brands, the typical ones are easily RM89.90 or higher… In other words, many times higher priced than the unbranded ones.

Transport – Livelihood versus Lifestyle

Before anyone tries to even say that only in Singapore or Hong Kong that people can take the public transport. In Malaysia, better drive the car. Well, I just want to focus on Kuala Lumpur and below would be ALL the areas which has a station. Just stay nearby lah… Just be prepared to walk maybe up to 8 or 10 minutes lah. Hello, even in SG, people have to walk lah. You think the train stops at the ground floor of your flat meh…

Meanwhile, we can ignore all these. We can choose NOT to walk and maybe sweat a little. We can choose to show that we could afford a proper car, not just some national brands. We will also prefer the more powerful ones, not just the ones without a turbo engine for example. Definitely a 1 litre or 1.3 litre engined cars are a no-no lah. How to bring friends and colleagues if the car is small in size and small in power.

Again, unlimited travel via all the public transport and unlimited every month is just RM50; My50 Unlimited Pass. Info Source: https://myrapid.com.my/our-products/my50/

I do not need to tell you how much or how many times would buying a car be versus this RM50 and we have yet to include the fact that people will prefer a non-national brand, they will also have to pay toll… pay for petrol… and pay for maintenance too. Oh… that’s where my money gone to! This car brand is so unreliable, I better with to the T or the H brands. Super reliable…

Conclusion for Livelihood versus Lifestyle?

No conclusion lah. Everyone deserves to spend their salary the way they like. If someone has worked hard and they earned the pay then they really deserve the pay. Thus, they should spend as per what they want to spend. On second thought, if everyone stops spending, then who will power the economy lah. Just remember, the power is in our hand. We decide if we prefer to enjoy and take the day as it comes or we may prefer to just save more since we are unable to anticipate the future happenings. Thank you.

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