The Pay Scale

Why do people seem to always be focused on money? Sure, it is a “universal language”, and “money talks”, but it shouldn’t be our main focus.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying money can’t buy happiness. In fact, not having enough of it, can drastically lower a person’s happiness level. This is often do to the person having to compromise significantly on their quality of life. Maybe they can’t afford to get their broken tooth taken care of, and this brings them pain everyday. Maybe they can’t afford new floors. Maybe they can barely afford to eat. Maybe they can’t afford to live on their own, and end up quarreling with the people they live with everyday. One way or another, if this person isn’t bringing home enough bacon, they suffer. And their happiness levels decrease.

Statistics show that optimum happiness is reached at an average annual salary of about $70,000 dollars. Any more than that provides a negligible increase in happiness. You could make that much money replacing windshields. So what does this mean? Should minimum wage be increased to $35/hour to ensure everyone is happy? Of course not; that would increase the cost of living tremendously. What it means is that you should try to reach this goal somehow, whether through earnings or investments. This is enough money that you could easily take care of yourself and not have to worry about suffering due to monetary reasons.

Scale of happiness

Now, for the reason I bring this up. I am constantly asked how much money I make by house sitting for my clients. Have you googled it? You might be surprised by the average annual salary of a house sitter. The results came up at around $50k per year. Are you surprised? Now what if I told you that was just the average. Some of us professionals make quite a bit more than that. I will tell you that I am above the “happiness line”. I don’t suffer due to monetary reasons.

It was NOT easy getting to this point however. People have to trust you, and to build trust takes time. Time and references. References and time. I am in these peoples’ houses, day after day, all while they are gone. I am in their sole private place. This takes immense trust, and I am rewarded for it. You see, I have the ability to wreak havoc if I wanted. If I was a teenage girl, I could throw a house party and invite all of my friends and tear the place up and never get another house sitting job. That would be the end of my career. But luckily, I am not a teenage girl, so I still have a career. I could sell all of their possessions in their home, which is usually worth a sizable portion of money, all before they got back. And that would be the end of my career, and my life, because I would probably end up in jail.

Let me tell you, people who make a sizable amount of money, have usually earned it. We have put in the time, the dedication, and effort. We have waded through the setbacks and slow times. We have been there with no money, and suffered. It is all these trials that have made us who we are today. They were our “trials by fire”. They gave us an appreciation for what we have now. We don’t take these high paying jobs for granted, as we know the amount of work it takes to get them. We know what it means to fail, over and over again, and to get back up, over and over again. It isn’t easy. Please don’t think that I am saying that we are better than you. Understand that we have been in the same situations as you have. Understand that we now have wisdom, instead of knowledge, and we now have the scars to prove that we went through our own battles.

If you would like advice on how to become a house-sitter, well, I hope this article has helped you. If not, I am sorry, and you will have to just get out there and try it for yourself.