A journalist’s annual spend

Some people track every dollar spent
I tracked every dollar I spent in 2020-21 and this is where it went — The Sydney Morning Herald

 

The lesson for me here is that a "Senior economics writer" is low paid and has very little idea about money and economics.
No wonder my expectation of their writings is so little.

 

"By far my biggest category of spending was housing. I paid $15,623 to the bank in interest charges on a mortgage of about $700,000. That’s an average of $1300 a month. My minimum repayments, of course, were closer to $2800 a month. But I regard the difference between the two – the roughly $1500 a month of repayments of my principal – as a form of savings, and I exclude that from this spending analysis".

That adds about 18k to her budget and brings her spending up to about 88k. Assuming 88k was her net pay her gross income would be 120k assuming she doesn't have any of that 88k coming from investment income. I wouldn't call 120k "low paid" especially for a journalist who's average salary is 65k.

Salary: Journalist | Glassdoor

Personally if I was her I would ditch the private school fees and save 10k per annum.

 

Kudos to her for keeping a budget. She's living on a shoestring in many respects.

I suspect that she's on a higher than average journalist salary. Probably has some child support coming in as well.

I've read a number of her articles over the years and I do have to question her economics credentials. She's generally very negative on property overall and has rarely written about any sort of investment. Most of what she writes tends to be fairly fluffy and the meatier stuff has been very bias.

 

I did consider that her salary may have been higher depending on whether she salary sacrificed money into super. However, from an article that she wrote recently she clearly hadn't set up automatic deductions. Therefore, if she was putting money into super she probably would've wrote it into her spending budget. It was interesting that she didn't appear to be investing money into shares either but I suppose if you have a 700k mortgage on a 120k salary there really isn't much left to invest.

 

You haven’t factored in that she probably gets child support.

Also, I find it hard to believe she has only spent $400 on new clothes for the year.. I mean… she’s a professional. Corporate wear ain’t cheap.

 

Economists operate on the premise that there is scarcity in the world and hence resources have to be rationed. This is why economic professors look to manage what is. They cannot (or find it very difficult to) think of possibilities or abundance. So they find it difficult to amass wealth.

Putting that aside, many economist's ideological and philosophical leanings push them even further away from wealth creation.

Re budgets, my opinion is rather than being too obsessed with saving a dollar, put that obsession into expanding and multiplying the dollar and you'll see wealth grow much faster.

 

There would definitely be child support, if she has her child for half the week. Plus the private schooling costs look a little lean, so presume that the father pays some of that.

The fact that she doesn't add in the principal payment of the mortgage as an expense is also telling. If she's not counting that, then she's not counting any savings, super or investments either, if there is any at all.

 

$18 on make up…per annum? Should send my wife to see her for tips.

 

Maybe she only wears cheap foundation, and she ran out of it?

 

She probably gets access to the freebies journalists get - I've forgotten what they are called. Lots of free gifts directly, then a store cupboard at work. I have a friend who used to work at the same place. You are supposed to review them.

Apart from food & makeup, my friend got a cruise!

 

I write a lot on PC too....when do I get my cruise..?

 

Better ask @Simon Hampel

 

You don't want to be on a cruise... good way to spread illnesses....

 

Gee thanks! Not like I'm asking for much

 

Boss said no....

 

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Clearly you haven't performed well enough to deserve that kind of perk.