What is rich? Am I poor? I make a total of about 56 thousand dollars a year working as a teacher, along with two part time jobs and some child support. I just bought a condo which I will pay about 1500.00 per month in payments. This means I have to work a little extra this summer as a substitute teacher in order to have any extras. I haven't been on a vacation in over a year(the last was to California-driving from Nevada). I don't own a big screen TV, I drive a 2005 Malibu and I support a teenage daughter.
We used to eat fast food but we don't anymore-I shop at Albertsons and the big treat is Trader Joe's. I have 40,000 in school loans having earned my Master's in Education. I have very few debts beyond that, but I make ends meet each month and with a little savings, that is about it.
So what is rich? I see people driving brand new SUV's, which I know have got to be a killer in gas. I looked at a condo the other day and the woman had two families living in it, yet she still had huge TV screen, a brand new SUV and beautiful furniture in her house.
I must not be middle class anymore. Middle class must be somewhere in the 100 thousand category?
In the west, housing, food, gas, utilities are all more expensive than the Midwest. Most teachers cannot afford to buy a house-or even a condo unless they have two incomes. Most single teachers I know share living space with others.
The school district in Clark County, Nevada, which encompasses Las Vegas, had to fill 2000 teacher positions last year. People quit and move to other states because they can no longer afford the cost of living here.
The district still came up short 500 teachers and filled the positions with substitute teachers-meaning very few had any experience or education to teach.
My salary (of 46,400.00 per year) is the salary a teacher with a Masters degree plus over 32 hours of additional master's credits receives-after five years of teaching.
So what is rich?
I would consider myself rich if I had a little extra in the bank-enough to take a summer vacation-or if I could buy a new car-maybe a Honda or a Toyota-or even a Mazda-instead of an American car that seems to die-little plastic bit by little plastic bit...
I would feel rich if I had a bedroom set that matched.
I know I am just talking about stuff. At my age stuff is not as important as other things in life-my kids-the time I spend with people I love-even my kitties, the turtles I have in my classroom and my little eight year olds with smiling faces-are worth more than being rich and miserable.
I just wonder what it would be like to go to sleep at night and know there is a little cushion for something special.
That would feel rich to me.
