FINANCE COLUMNIST GLEN HARE DISHES THE FINANCIAL TRUTH TO THOSE SUFFERING ‘SIX FIGURE SECURITY’
Sydney, I’ve got some bad news. You’re not as wealthy as you think you are. I mean, sure, there’s a lot of cash flying around. Flash bars, flash cars, it’s all very exciting until you look under the hood and realise most of the people around you are flat broke. They’ve got a six-figure salary, yet still can’t afford the repayments on the four maxed out credit cards they used to pay for Mykonos in 2019 – never mind the ridiculous loan for that brand new BMW (that’s already lost $20k in value).
What is going on here? Who are we trying to impress?
I’m not going to tell you that breakfast out once per week or takeaway coffee en route to the office will send you broke. We all know that’s rubbish. Do you want to know what will, though? Spending $36 per class at the gym, dropping $300+ weekly on ‘drinks’ and a brand-new outfit every time you step out the front door. There’s a lot of sympathy spent in central and eastern Sydney for the malnourished, unrefined Western Suburbs and those supposedly condemned to live there, yet owner occupation rates in Blacktown are close to DOUBLE those in Surry Hills, Potts Point and Bondi Beach. Who’s really disadvantaged here?
There’s a crisis looming in many of the Inner City’s trendy enclaves I call “six figure insecurity”. That is, professionals who’re earning the big bucks but still living pay cheque to pay cheque. They’ve all the potentials in the world but peeing it down the drain for the sake of looking wealthy. My question to them is always the same – is it worth it? What’s going to happen when the music stops and all that’s left is a pair of fallen apart Yeezy’s, car that’s more than halved in value and the rental receipts for an expensive apartment in Potts Point?
IG: @Glenharefinancial
