Look at the Standard of Living--Not Just the Salary

The cost of living is just as important as your salary. Ifand quality of life as a whole. Many people think they
you make $60,000 per year, but live in an area whereare rich because they are making a lot of money
the average house costs $500,000 per year you maywhen in reality they are poorer than people with half
be better off taking a job for $30,000 per year wheretheir income living somewhere else.
you can buy the same size house for $80,000. MostYou can't just focus on your income you have to look
people tend to look at their yearly income, but forget toat your income and expenses in order to be able to
pay any attention to their expenses.make a good decision. You also can't focus just on the
There are a host of other expenses to consider asmoney, you have to look at your life holistically. If you
well. If you take an expensive job some where thatjust look at one part you can convince yourself that
requires a two hour commute each way the cost isyou are making a good decision, when in fact you are
really going to add up. Even more important than thesetting yourself up for poverty.
cost of gas and mileage, is the amount of your life thatIt isn't how much you make that matters. What is
you'll be giving away. If you end up in traffic for 4more important is whether or not you are getting to
hours each day, you are basically having to spend thelive your life in a way that you are happy with. If you
same amount of time you'd spend on a part time jobjust focus on the money, you can convince yourself
just to get to work. You might be better off taking athat you are happy with a situation that really amounts
lower paying job and putting in 20 hours per week atto living in poverty. Look at your life as a whole. If you
McDonalds.don't you'll get to retirement age and wonder where all
The point is that you need to really consider howthe years went and why you didn't spend them
taking a particular job will impact your financial situationdifferently.