Live Like You Work At Burger King!

 

Living beyond your means is a recipe for financial disaster.  All of my life, as a single mom, I made it my mission to live so, that if I had to, I could work at a fast food job and still manage to pay all of my bills.  With that in mind, I was careful not to rent too much apartment or buy too much house, too much car, too much anything that would cause me to have big credit card bills and live as simply and economically as possible.  If you, or you and your partner, would not be able to sustain you own cost of living on a Burger King income, then you are probably living beyond your means and your money is not going in the direction it should.

 

The best way to know if you are living within your means is to calculate your income based on the average fast food worker’s wage for the area you live.  In my case the average wage is $15 per hour.  If I calculate that it equates to $600 per forty hour work week or $2,600 a month, which is $31,200 a year before taxes.  If your expenses, as a single worker are more than that you are living beyond your means.

 

The average fast food manager’s wage where I live is $20 per hour, equating to $800 per forty hour work week or $3,466 a month, which is $41,600 per year before taxes.  If you have a partner and one of you is making more than the other or is in a managerial position, take this amount plus the average worker’s salary and that is what you would earn together.  However, there is one caveat when it comes to doing this and that is imagine what it would be like should one of you become unable to work or lost your job.

 

Just because you have it, doesn’t mean you need to spend it.  In fact the opposite is true.  You need to save.  Save, save, SAVE!  If you or you and your partner cannot sustain your current standard of living based on these wages and you have debt with no savings then it is time to review with a critical eye your current standard of living.  If you are unable to live on this lower income you are spending too much.

 

I remember one day picking my daughter up from band practice when she was in high school and she started telling me that her friend was “rich”!  His parents drove fancy cars and they all lived in a big fancy house in a fancy neighborhood and wore fashionable clothes and he had a really expensive clarinet and he had a music tutor, etc.  I listened to her chatter on and then when she was finished I said, “Honey, in all likelihood they aren’t rich they just have a lot of debt.  I’d be willing to wager that I have more money in my savings account than they do, if they even have one.”  I might’ve been wrong about that, but chances are I wasn’t.  She grew quiet and didn’t say anything more.  I thought she might be mad at me for saying that, but as we were about to arrive home she said, “You know, you’re probably right.”  I probably was.

 

Sudden job loss happens.  No one is recession proof or indispensable so don't kid yourself.  We can always be replaced by someone for a lower wage, a robot or even nowadays, AI.  I’ve lost jobs suddenly and unemployment insurance was only a third of my wages at the time.  However, because I was living like a fast food employee it was just enough to cover my mortgage and utilities until I was able to find another job.  I also had a stockpile of groceries and money in my savings account so I didn’t have to worry so much.

 

I’ll be going more in depth on other areas for living like a Burger King employee as time goes on, but for now take a good hard look at your income and how it compares to fast food wages in your area.  If you have one, discuss with your partner how you could manage on lowered wages and if you can’t then it is time to make some changes until you can.  It is important to live below our means and make sure you have some money in savings because you never know what could happen.  Better to be prepared and not need it then to need it and not have it.