Ok, quick comparison of Sydney to Mt Isa.

A gentleman who is considered wealthy by local standards is wanting to buy something to run the family around in.

Sydney
Porsche Cayenne $150,000
Method of payment: multi-year finance lease through line of credit owned by the family trust


Mt Isa
Piper Malibu $3.5M
Method of payment: $100 notes coz fifty's won't fit in the back of the ute



A young twenty something year old steps out of a car like this. You immediately think

Sydney
Drug Dealer

Mt Isa
Young mine worker with an alcohol and pokies allergy

An example of peak hour

Sydney


Mt Isa


I think you get the idea.
Really it comes down to 3 things:
A) there's some good money to be made here either on land or under it
B) there's no one to impress, no image to keep up with andC) if you avoid the pokies and the pubs you end up saving a stack of money

That plane above is a plane I've seen here and in Cloncurry. And yes it was bought brand new for $3.5M and it's used as the 'family runabout'. And the other thing, there's no finance around here. Banks won't touch land owners after all this drought. I can pretty much guarantee you that it would have been a case of 'here's the cheque, where's me plane?'

When you see things like this, you realise how image driven Sydney is.
Beautiful city, beautiful harbour, beautiful looking people. It's almost as though living there you're implicitly driven to keep up and look good. And when you're only earning the average of what everyone else is around the country, there's not a lot of change left in the piggy bank at the end of the week. That cycle of work, borrow, buy repeat seems to be getting worse by the day. I've never met so many good looking broke people than in Sydney. I'd be willing to bet, most under thirties in Sydney would have less than half or even a quarter of their net assests in cash. The rest is all fluff. Flashy car, flashy clothes, flash home and no money left at the end of pay day.

I get it now when people say Sydney is an expensive place to live. It's not just about how much rent or houses cost (as ridiculous as they are), it's also about living like you belong there. How much it costs to eat out, to look good, to buy things, it all adds up. And unless you wish to be ostricised as some bogan, you'll do what you can to keep apperances up.
I haven't travelled to many of the major cities like NY, London, LA etc but I think the story is much the same.

"Pretty broke people"

So much for the laid back land of opportunity of beaches and a laid back lifestyle that we get stereotyped for...

BTW, your measure of your wealth has got nothing to do with what you've got. It's about how much you can afford to give away. Have a think about the sheik in the UAE that just donated $12 billion dollars to advance literacy in his country. How much do you think you could give away without it affecting your next latte. Well, that's your measure of wealth.