What Life Looks Like at $22,433 a Year
This is my annual income now that I’ve increased my work hours at the office. The good news is that this is twice as much as I was making before the divorce started. I could have made more but I was focusing on being a stay-at-home parent.
On $22,433 a year, I can afford a whole lot less than I could afford on our two incomes.
Just for kicks, here is my balanced budget for my earned income. You’ll notice some major items that are in the budget at zero. At $22,433 annually, this is life.
My Budget
| Income | $1,869.43 |
| EXPENSES | $1,868.91 |
| House Payment | $ 825.00 |
| Property Tax | $ 91.67 |
| Home Insurance | $ 74.50 |
| Home Maintenance | $ 0 |
| Life Insurance | $ 11.90 |
| Health Insurance | $ 0 |
| Medical Co-pays & Prescriptions | $ 0 |
| Car Loan | $ 0 |
| Auto Insurance | $ 33.33 |
| Gas/Transportation | $ 323.56 |
| Auto Maintenance | $ 0 |
| Electricity | $ 180.00 |
| Telephone & Internet | $ 0 |
| Cell Phone | $ 0 |
| TV | $ 0 |
| Bank Charges | $ 3.95 |
| Groceries | $ 325.00 |
| Dining Out | $ 0 |
| School Lunches | $ 0 |
| Clothes | $ 0 |
| Haircuts & Grooming | $ 0 |
| Student Loan (on a temporary economic hardship forbearance) | $ 0 |
| Gifts & Christmas | $ 0 |
| Vacation | $ 0 |
| Savings | $ 0 |
As you can see, this is not a long-term, workable budget. Without funds for some of these categories, any normal person is going to become overwhelmed by the un-sustainability of this budget. If I get sick, how will I pay for it? If I want to watch TV, I’m out of luck. I can’t buy Christmas presents for my children. I can’t provide a single meal out of the home unless I sacrifice funds from my already unrealistically meager food budget for 3 people.
The good news is that this isn’t the only income I have. I do have a small amount of funds coming from a few websites I built that earn money from affiliate sales. I make about $150 to $200 a month. I also have child support coming of $825 dollars. This extra $1,000 doesn’t go far, when I spread it between telephone, internet, health insurance, Christmas, groceries, auto maintenance, home maintenance… In fact, there isn’t enough to go around, but it has to do, because that really is the extent of what I have available to work with for the moment.
Imagine what life is like for some Americans though, those that do have to live on an income of $22,433 a year? Because there really are many full-time jobs that don’t pay more than this. It’s scary to think of it. It really is. It’s no wonder there are so many people falling behind and getting so deep into credit card debt, because basic expenses like food and healthcare can’t be covered by a full-time salary.
Minimum wage is $7.25 an hour and that’s an annual salary of $15,080. All I can say is that I hope only teenagers are working these jobs, because anyone living on their own couldn’t make it.
I do know that likely I’ll be selling my home and purchasing something less expensive within the next year or two.
My financial journey is beginning again. I look at this as a chance to do it different, to do it right.
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