I remember when we were newlyweds. 12 years ago. We made $550/month between the two of us, and even in 1993 dollars that is really really poor. Our apartment, laughably billed as a one-bedroom when it was really just a studio with a big closet, cost $239/month. We made this work by not having a car.
I clearly remember wondering what I would ever, ever do with $1000/month. It seemed like an incomprehensibly large amount of money.
At my first job out of college, I was assigned to write an article about using the budget templates in Quattro Pro. Remember Quattro Pro? That was the spreadsheet software that came with WordPerfect back in the day. Actually WordPerfect's day was pretty much over by that time, but it did provide me with a couple of years of employment -- 1996 to 1998.
In my budget article, my fantasy income was $3000/month. Hey, I was a girl with an English degree. I was keeping it real. It still seemed like plenty of money to dream about to me. We were, of course, still living in Wymount Terrace at the time. The old complex, with the cinder block walls. Rent was $350/month.
These days, I've surpassed my previous dreams. I don't feel squeamish about revealing that online, because really it would be embarrassing if I hadn't made it past that milestone. But I still can't buy a house in the town where I live and work. Maybe my problem is that I don't know how to dream big enough. I need to start fantasizing about really large amounts of money. Like, large enough to afford a 3/2 fixer upper in California.
Don't get me started about those out-of-town landlords jacking up the prices. Jerks.
1 comment:
Honey, we net just under $3000 a month and we can't afford to live in our crappy apartment complex filled to the gills with car thieves! You need to think more in the $8300 range to be able to buy the fixer-upper here...
On a lighter note, they found the car.
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