Young Australian FIFO Worker Reveals Her Big Struggle Earning a Six-Figure Salary: ‘The One Thing We Don’t Talk About’
A woman who left home to earn big money in the mines has revealed she cannot return because she has become too used to a six-figure lifestyle.
Sienna Mallon, 26, moved from Victoria to Central Queensland three and a half years ago and is now shackled in ‘golden handcuffs’.
Ms Mallon explained the phenomena in a TikTok video in which she detailed why she no longer believes she could live on $100,000 a year.
‘Look, much worse things happen in life. “I’m definitely not saying this is the worst thing ever, but it’s something we don’t talk about much,” she said.
Sienna Mallon, 26, has been shackled in ‘golden handcuffs’ because of the luxurious lifestyle she has been introduced to since working in Queensland mines
Ms Mallon said the term is often used among her colleagues who buy jet skis and holiday homes with their generous salaries.
Ms Mallon said no one ever warned her it would be so difficult to return to an average salary after living a good life.
“One thing they don’t tell you is the term called ‘golden handcuffs,’” she said.
“If you’ve never heard of it, it’s a term used in mining regions and it basically means that once you get here and make the money you make, you’ll never do that again, or that it’s essentially impossible to go back. ‘
Despite graduating from college and landing an entry-level job, Ms. Mallon decided to throw it away and settle in the Sunshine State to work in the mines.
Now she’s grown accustomed to the lifestyle and culture that a job in mining brings, and she struggles to imagine what she would do without it.
Ms Mallon said people she knows earn more than $200,000 a year and spend their money on jet skis, boats and holiday homes.
“A $100,000 salary would be very difficult to live on, almost impossible to live on if I moved back to a city, [it] is literally insane,” Ms Mallon said.
“Just like the number of people watching this video and what they would give to make $100,000 a year, the average wage in Australia is not above $100,000.”
Elsewhere in Australia, others are struggling to put food on the table as the cost of living crisis continues to spiral out of control.
Ms Mallon acknowledged that although she is currently in a privileged position, this is still a difficult situation.
The university graduate moved from Victoria to Queensland three and a half years ago and now can’t imagine returning to a mid-salary job in the city
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, mortgage rates and rents are rising across the country, along with the cost of food, fuel and other basic necessities.
The average annual salary in the country is currently $94,000 and financial advisor Alex Jamieson told news.com.au that when someone earns more, he/she naturally also spends more.
‘It is very difficult to start earning less again once you have become accustomed to enjoying the lifestyle that comes with more money. This is not just a trend, it is a fact,” he said.
‘This is why people get stuck in jobs they don’t like, because their expenses and debt increase the more they earn. It is difficult to escape this spending pattern, lifestyle and debt on a lower income.’
Mr Jamieson said the only way to break the cycle was to move from a spending mentality to saving money to avoid being stuck in a job.