Where Money (aka A House) = Happiness

I had a very interesting convo today with a coworker. Somehow we got to talking about asking for raises and how happy/unhappy we are with our lifestyles, etc. She's unhappy with her salary and wants more money to buy things without saving up. A friend of hers' boss makes close to $400K a year and buys $500 shoes at the drop of a hat, no blinks. She wondered what that must be like and is striving for a raise to find out.

For me, I honestly don't know what I'd do with that kind of money. I wouldn't turn it down, of course, especially if I earned that doing what I do for work right now anyway. I got to thinking about what salary I could see myself having post-PhD, and my current state of income, what is missing in my life, and if money could fix it.

Right now I make well below average salary in NZ. I make about $30/hr in my part-time job (at 0.5 FTE) and have a $12.5K/year PhD stipend. It is tight, but I make this work, with my handy budget and savings plan. My proudest wins:

• I contribute 8% of my part-time work salary to my Kiwisaver retirement account. (Work adds another 3% on top of that.)
• I save $500/month to my long term goal funds (see right side-bar). 
• Any leftover money at the end of the month goes to short-term goals like international travel or a new phone or laptop.

Even with all the saving and budgeting on a small salary, I still feel like I am quite lucky and living large. These are the simple things I count as those luxuries:

• I can donate to charity whenever I am so inclined/inspired. 
• I participate in a car sharing scheme (Cityhop), which allows me access to driving a car once a week for an hour or two to run errands and get groceries. No WOF, maintenance, insurance, petrol, parking, etc., costs because the company takes care of all of that.
• I use Zoomy, the better, NZ version of Uber, when I don't want to drive. 
• Because of the above, I don't have to take public transport 99% of the time. I HATE Auckland buses--every one I've ever taken has been very (10+ minutes) late.
• I eat takeaway once a week or so. Thai curry is my weakness! At ~$12 a pop, it is also relatively cheap.
• I have money to travel, by being very smart about credit card rewards and airmiles and intense research on accommodation and activities and car rental hacks (check out autoslash.com!). 
• I eat very well--I never limit my grocery budget as long as the food I'm buying is healthy.
• I live in a pretty, cute, secure, dry townhouse complex 15 minutes walking distance to work in the middle of the city. It came fully furnished, with a washer and dryer and dishwasher, 2 bedrooms, and 1.5 bathrooms. I have my own quite large bedroom and a bathtub to soak in, and enough living space to entertain and have game nights or parties. I also have a cute patio that I've converted into nice potted garden space, with a palm tree, gardenia bush, lots of flowers, herb and veggie garden, and 3 citrus trees. I hacked my rent by sharing with a couple (who pay 2/3 of the monthly electricity and internet bills and 59% of the total rent) and by renting out the car park/garage space that comes with the apartment at $70/week. That all brings my total rent down to $160 per week, with utilities adding another ~$20-$30 per week. That is a STEAL in Auckland CBD.

 All of that is to say that I'm quite content with my income and I feel like I'm living quite luxuriously most of the time. There are a few things that I wish I had, though:

•  A house with a yard for a dog. I also want the stability of knowing I can't be kicked out whenever the owner wants to sell.
• A dog. Can't have a dog here while renting. It's almost impossible. Ergo, a house is 100% required. 
• My own living space. I kinda wish I lived alone a lot now. I'm getting too old and persnickety to share my personal space. Some sort of arrangement where there was a house with a sleepout/pool house/cottage to rent out on the land would be ideal. 

 If I REALLY were rolling in the dough, I'd spring for these things:

• A fancy gym membership. I can't afford to join the really NICE gym that is about 20 minutes' walk from my house. I took Pilates and got tennis lessons there a while ago. The facilities and amenities there are just beautiful and so high-quality (and everyone that goes there is absolutely gorgeous, bonus for meeting hot, accomplished men!). I would go to the gym every day if I could afford a membership there. Instead, I make do with the super gross gym on the University campus, which is cheaper at around $350/year, but I always feel dirty when I'm in there. It smells like sweat, bacteria, and tetanus.
• Enough money and time to take tennis lessons as well as all of the other activities I want to do. I checked out one interesting class last weekend and would continue it if I could, but it is $400 for 12 weeks of weekly classes. I just can't do it. Especially since that would cover a whole year at the gym I go to.

All of this introspection led me to believe that I would be perfectly content with my low salary if I could just afford to buy a house/yard here. The house would make it possible to get a dog, which is pretty vital to life satisfaction for me. I could easily have the same salary and lifestyle (but with a dog) and be happy with everything that my current salary can provide for me. I honestly would not need more $$ for anything else really.

On my current salary, however, a house is 100% out of the question. I'd get laughed out of the home loan office. Especially buying it outright.  There is absolutely no way, unless I won the lottery. So I am going to have to make more at some point to be happy, if I end up staying in Auckland. What would that look like, and what kind of salary can I reasonably expect in the future? Will I ever make enough?

This question made me flesh out my plans a bit more. I have to get through my PhD first, which is about 3-4 years away still. Post-docs in NZ make around $75K/year I think. So, reasonably, if I were employed at 1.0 FTE, that would be my base salary, and it would just grow from there. Given that I have no interest in becoming a professor or even staying in academia, I will definitely attempt to move into government at some point in my career. Going by the salary brackets on USAjobs.gov, my lifetime annual salary will probably max out around $90K at the highest level (I have no idea what that would be in NZ, but I'm assuming around the same). That is, unless I went full-on project management and administration and eschewed research altogether, which I don't think I'd want to do (but we'll see!). I could also do a right turn into policy or consulting, which would likely result in a huge raise, but I don't actually know what opportunities there are for me in those sectors, so I can't speculate at this point.

Going off of TradeMe, current prices for 1-2 bedroom places with small yards for dogs in Auckland are, at a minimum, $500K. Based off of mortgage calculators, I would guess I'll need a $100K house downpayment (that is 20%), with a salary of $75K to get a $500K place. My monthly payments would be about $2100 in a 30 year loan. Eek. That would give me barely enough left to live off of, and I'm not sure about house insurance and rates and dog costs (I budgeted about $300 per month for food/meds/pet insurance/etc.? Is that enough??). I think I could do it, though! So now I have to save up double what I initially aimed for ($50K--I always knew it wasn't enough, but it was an achievable yet stretch goal to keep me going) to get that $500K house with a yard. I will also probably need to get a 2 bedroom so I can get a flatmate for a while. (Also because there do not seem to be ANY 1 bedroom houses with yards anywhere in Auckland for sale. Weird.)

In this case only for me, money really is the key to happiness.

All of that is to say that I don't expect to make a whole lot in my career, but perhaps in 5 years I will make enough money that I can hopefully start to save up enough to make my house/yard/dog dream an eventual reality. Til then, I guess it is really good that I am good at and happy living quite frugally, and I will continue to add $$ to my house down payment fund!