A woman who left home to earn big bucks in the mines has revealed that she can no longer return because she’s gotten too used to a six-figure lifestyle.
Sienna Mallon, 26, moved from Victoria to Central Queensland three and a half years ago and has now found herself shackled by ‘golden handcuffs’.
Ms Mallon explained the phenomena in a TikTok video where she went into detail about why she no longer believes she could live off $100,000 per year.
‘Look, there’s way worse things happening in life, I’m absolutely not saying this is the most terrible thing ever but it is one thing that we don’t talk about a lot,’ she said.
Sienna Mallon, 26, has found herself shackled in ‘golden handcuffs’ due to the luxurious lifestyle she’s become acquainted to since working in the Queensland mines
Ms Mallon said that the term is commonly used among her colleagues who find themselves buying jet skis and holiday houses with their generous paychecks
Ms Mallon said that nobody ever warned her that considering going back to an average paycheck would be so difficult after living the high life.
‘One thing they do not tell you is the term called the ‘golden handcuffs’,’ she said.
‘If you’ve never heard of it before, it’s a term used in mining regions and it essentially means once you’re here and you’re earning the money that you’re earning you never will or it’s essentially impossible to go back.’
Despite graduating university and gaining an entry level job Ms Mallon decided to throw it away and plant herself in the Sunshine State to work in the mines.
Now she has found herself accustomed to the lifestyle and culture that a mining job provides and she is struggling to think of what she would do without it.
Ms Mallon said that the people she knows are earning more than $200,000 per year and are spending their money on jet skis, boats and holiday houses.
‘A $100,000 salary would be really difficult to live off, like almost impossible to live off if I were to move back to a city, [it] is literally insane,’ Ms Mallon said.
‘Like the amount of people watching this video and what they would give to be earning $100k a year – the average wage in is not over $100,000.’
Elsewhere in others are struggling to put food on the table as the cost-of-living crisis continue to spiral out of control.
Ms Mallon acknowledged that though she does currently occupy a position of privilege it is still a tough spot to be in.
The university graduate moved from Victoria to Queensland three-and-a-half years ago and now can not imagine returning to an average-salary job in the city
Across the country mortgage rates and rents are increasing along with the cost of food, fuel and other basic necessities, according to the n Bureau of Statistics.
The average yearly salary in the country currently sits at $94,000 and financial adviser Alex Jamieson told news.com.au that when someone earns more they naturally spend more as well.
‘It is very difficult to go back to earning less when you have become accustomed to enjoy the lifestyle that more money brings. This is not only a trend, it is a fact,’ he said.
‘This is why people get trapped in jobs they don’t like because their spending and debt cranks up the more they earn. It is difficult to escape these spending habits, lifestyle and debt on a lower income.’
Mr Jamieson said that the only way to break the cycle was to shift from a mentality of spending money to saving money in order to not become trapped in a job.