Working for a living or living for work?

While reading Boston Gal’s Open Wallet Blog, I came across a post about an article in the Boston Globe titled
“To feed a lifestyle, some are taking second jobs”.

It mentioned stories about several well-educated people having decent jobs that were taking on minimum wage jobs to help pay for Christmas gifts. The people in the story weren’t those faced with hardship and had trouble paying for the necessities of life, but middle-class families whose incomes weren’t probably enough to cover they’re consumer spending. There was a young software engineer making $75,000/yr who took a job paying $800/month [probably more like $500 after taxes] so she could buy gifts and an expensive wedding dress. While its commendable that people take 2nd jobs rather than additional debt, if you need an extra few thousand a year after making 75 grand there’s something wrong with the picture.

The people in the article are probably the same kind of people who refuse to spend 6 hrs/month learning about finances/investing or planning for their future. Instead of working minimum wage jobs for which they’re vastly overqualified, if they spent more time at the library and gym instead of the malls and restaurants, they’d be smarter and healthier!

However, as one of my uncle’s said, “anytime your aunt spends working, that’s time not spent shopping!”, so I guess there’s a silver lining in everything.