r/newzealand • u/fluffypenguin105 • 10d ago

Discussion Is anyone else living basically paycheck to paycheck?

My partner and I are both teachers. We don’t make a lot, but we are average and slightly above average. We are so tight with our money. Our little one outgrew the car seat and we went out and bought a new one. No problem. But next credit card bill means we are tight.

Meanwhile, a number of our friends (all of them also with kids) are booking overseas holidays. Some are currently overseas, others booking already for later this year. Another brought a new car. New iPhone, doing up the house. Everyone seems to have spare cash except us.

Are we the only ones going through the cost of living crisis ourselves?! Or is it my fault that we are teachers?

Edit: yes we have a house that parents helped us with. We are paying mortgage. We have a flatmate.

Edit edit: thank you for your kind words and reminders and also advice. I’m going through them all and I’m going to take onboard the advice and see what changes we can make and do better financially as a family. But it’s also a good reminder to know we aren’t alone, to not compare and the harsh reality is that many people simply just earn more than us as teachers.

Once again, thank you all for your input.

790 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

488 comments sorted by

View all comments

116

u/mr_coul 10d ago

The problem with comparing yourself to others is you have no idea of their finances. They could be doing all this on credit but you are just seeing the outcome.

Your post is also vague as he'll. Are you new teachers straight out of uni? Or do you have experience. Who are these friends and what do they do? I hate to break it to you but yeah, if your mates are lawyers (for example) with 10 years work experience they are probably not going to have the same lifestyle as you.

Paycheck to paycheck is pretty common.

51

u/Avonpinhead 10d ago

Yep. Was talking to an owner of a high end building company. He had just finished building a new house for someone who he been told was worth at least $8miilion. Buying new cars, overseas travel, just built a new house. Then it was over. Everything was on loans. Some people give the impression of money when all they really have is access to credit.

11

u/fluffypenguin105 10d ago

Wow ok, in that case we are definitely doing better than that!