Part 14 (1/2)
Copy the top five items in Column C, onto the Favorite Working Conditions petal of your Flower Diagram.
Now, on to another side of Who You Are.
I Am a Person Who ...
Prefers a Certain Level of Responsibility and Salary
Fifth Petal MY PREFERRED SALARY AND LEVEL OF RESPONSIBILITY.
My Preferred Salary Petal
Goal in Filling Out This Petal: To gain a realistic picture of how much money you will need to earn, or want to earn, at whatever job you find.
What You Are Looking For: A range, because most employers are thinking in terms of a range, too. When you negotiate salary, as you will almost certainly have to, you want the bottom of your range to be near the top of theirs.
Form of the Entries on Your Petal: Total dollars needed, weekly, monthly, or annually. Stated in thousands (symbol: K).
Example of a Good Petal: $75K to $85K Example of a Bad Petal: $300K Why Bad: Well, it's not a range, which it needs to be; and it's too high unless you put on the petal the reason why such a high income is expected, and justified.
Money is important. Or else we've got to barter for our food, clothing, and shelter. So, when we're out of work, unless we have huge amounts of money in our savings account or investments, we are inevitably thinking: ”What am I going to do, so that I have enough money to put food on the table, clothes on my back, and a roof over our heads for myself-and for my family or partner (if I have one)?”
Happiness is important, too. So, we may find ourselves thinking: ”How much do I really need to be earning, for me to be truly happy with my life?”
Are these two worries-money and happiness-related? Can money buy happiness?
Partly, it turns out. Partly. A study, published in 2010, of the responses of 450,000 people in the U.S. to a daily survey, found that the less money they made, the more unhappy they tended to be, day after day.10 No surprise, there. And, obviously, the more money they made, measured in terms of percentage improvement, the happier they tended to be, as measured by the frequency and intensity of moments of smiling, laughter, affection, and joy all day long, vs. moments of sadness, worry, and stress.
So, money does buy happiness. But only up to a point. That point was found to be around $75,000 annual income (at the end of 2011, median household income was $51,41311). If people made more money than $75,000, it of course further improved their satisfaction with how their life was going, but it did not increase their happiness. Above $75,000, they started to report reduced ability to spend time with people they liked, to enjoy leisure, and to savor small pleasures. Happiness depends on things like that, and on other factors too: good health, a loving relations.h.i.+p, loving friends, a feeling of competence, gaining mastery, respect, praise, or even love, because we are really good at what we do.
So, this petal cannot be filled out all by itself. It is inextricably tied to the other petals-most particularly, to what you love to do, and where you love to do it.
Still, salary is something you must think out ahead of time, when you're contemplating your ideal job or career. Level goes hand in hand with salary, of course.
1. The first question here is at what level would you like to work, in your ideal job?
Level is a matter of how much responsibility you want, in an organization: Boss or CEO (this may mean you'll have to form your own business) Manager or someone under the boss who carries out orders The head of a team A member of a team of equals One who works in tandem with one other partner One who works alone, either as an employee or as a consultant to an organization, or as a one-person business Enter a two- or three-word summary of your answer, on the Preferred Salary and Level of Responsibility petal of your Flower Diagram.
2. The second question here is what salary would you like to be aiming for?
Here you have to think in terms of minimum or maximum. Minimum is what you would need to make, if you were just barely ”getting by.” And you need to know this before you go in for a job interview with anyone (or before you form your own business, and need to know how much profit you must make, just to survive).
Maximum could be any astronomical figure you can think of, but it is more useful here to put down the salary you realistically think you could make, with your present competency and experience, were you working for a real, but generous, boss. (If this maximum figure is still depressingly low, then put down the salary you would like to be making five years from now.) Make out a detailed list of what you will need monthly, in each category:12 Housing Rent or mortgage payments: $____________ Electricity/gas: $____________ Water: $____________ Phone/Internet: $____________ Garbage removal: $____________ Cleaning, maintenance, repairs13: $____________ Food What you spend at the supermarket and/or farmer's market, etc.: $____________ Eating out: $____________ Clothing Purchase of new or used clothing: $____________ Cleaning, dry cleaning, laundry: $____________ Automobile/transportation Car payments: $____________ Gas (who knows?14): $____________ Repairs: $____________ Public transportation (bus, train, plane): $____________ Insurance Car: $____________ Medical or health care: $____________ House and personal possessions: $____________ Life: $____________ Medical expenses Doctors' visits: $____________ Prescriptions: $____________ Fitness costs: $____________ Support for other family members Child-care costs (if you have children): $____________ Child-support (if you're paying that): $____________ Support for your parents (if you're helping out): $____________ Charity giving/t.i.the (to help others): $____________ School/learning Children's costs (if you have children in school): $____________ Your learning costs (adult education, job-hunting cla.s.ses, etc.): $____________ Pet care (if you have pets): $____________ Bills and debts (usual monthly payments) Credit cards: $____________ Local stores: $____________ Other obligations you pay off monthly: $____________ Taxes Federal15 (next April's due, divided by months remaining until then): $____________ State (likewise): $____________ Local/property (next amount due, divided by months remaining until then): $____________ Tax-help (if you ever use an accountant, pay a friend to help you with taxes, etc.): $____________ Savings: $____________ Retirement (Keogh, IRA, SEP, etc.): $____________ Amus.e.m.e.nt/discretionary spending Movies, Netflix, etc.: $____________ Other kinds of entertainment: $____________ Reading, newspapers, magazines, books: $____________ Gifts (birthday, Christmas, etc.): $____________ Vacations: $____________ Total Amount You Need Each Month: $____________ To download a printable PDF of this budget planner, visit rhlink.com/para14020 Multiply the total amount you need each month by 12, to get the yearly figure. Divide the yearly figure by 2,000, and you will be reasonably near the minimum hourly wage that you need. Thus, if you need $3,333 per month, multiplied by 12 that's $40,000 a year, and then divided by 2,000, that's $20 an hour.
Parenthetically, you may want to prepare another version of this budget: one with the expenses you'd ideally like to make.
Now, enter the salary figure and any notes you want to add, about the level of responsibility you want to take on, to justify this salary, plus any ”non-monetary” rewards you seek (from the Optional Exercise below), on the Preferred Salary and Level of Responsibility petal.
Optional Exercise
You may wish to put down other rewards, besides money, that you would hope for, from your next job or career. These might be: Adventure Challenge Respect Influence Popularity Fame Power Intellectual stimulation from the other workers there A chance to be creative A chance to help others A chance to exercise leaders.h.i.+p A chance to make decisions A chance to use your expertise A chance to bring others closer to G.o.d Other: If you do check off things on this list, arrange your answers in order of importance to you, and then add them to the petal.
I Am a Person Who ...
Prefers Certain Places to Live