FO job not paying enough - Europe
I’m in 20s and I live in Europe (Spain) and I’m a First Officer with 1100h on the 737 (Total 1300h). Last month I flew 85 hours, and had a couple of paid annual leave days (so what I would call a “good month”) just to get paid, after taxes, EUR 3400 (3500 USD). I am aware that my experience is limited but still, it cost me about 150k (without going into debt) to be where I am at right now and I still have to wake up at 3am to go to work and get the same dose of radiation as everyone else does. Last week my iPhone broke down after 4 years, so I checked the price of today’s equivalent model. I cannot afford it, and I have no intention of financing it or using my emergency fund. Not the end of the world, I still have fully functional spare phone, but I find it unacceptable that after working hard I cannot afford a stupid device. What upsets me the most is that maybe this career is not good enough, at least where I live - a city that’s considered expensive for European standards (but what can I do, this is where I am based). I pay about 1k/mo in rent (cheaper options are just rooms in shared apartments here), drive a beater that runs on LPG and invest a fixed amount each month for my retirement (cannot trust the government over it, even though we cannot opt out of the public pension scheme). Should I change country (I’m not from here), change airline or both?