I have never earned more money, but I've never felt more broke

Chris Booy works three jobs. Despite this, he says that the Great Australian Dream of owning a home is feeling increasingly out of reach.

Chris Booy started working three jobs in 2023 to try to keep up with the cost of living. Source: Supplied

Cost-of-living spikes are pushing our living standards down. Watch Insight episode Tough Time$ on SBS On Demand.

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Tough Times

episode • Insight • 

News And Current Affairs • 

52m

episode • Insight • 

News And Current Affairs • 

52m

There have been many nights in recent years when I'd pull into our driveway at 11pm and sit in my parked car for a while before going inside — exhausted after a 16-hour day.

I'd stare blankly through the windshield and wonder how many other Australians were doing the same thing — and who also didn't get to see their partner that day, having left home before they were awake.

I was working 70 hours a week between three jobs in 2023 — earning more money than I had ever had, but at the same time, I had never felt more financially strained. 

Like almost one million other Australians, I had picked up an extra job.

On top of my full-time job in the insurance sector and side gig making YouTube videos, I picked up a few weekly shifts as a food delivery driver. All to try and keep up with the cost of living.

The Great Australian Dream

Growing up in the 1990s, the Great Australian Dream of home ownership was drilled into me from an early age by my parents, the media and pop culture.

The mentality seemed to be that owning a home is 'your stability, security and measure of success'. If you could put in the hard yakka, you could settle down and raise a family one day in a place you call your own.

Riding my bike around my local neighbourhood as a boy, the dream of a small house on a quarter-acre block with a Hills Hoist clothesline in the backyard seemed attainable.

My mum left the workforce when I was born in 1989 to be a stay-at-home mum, while my dad continued to work as a bricklayer. On that single income, they built a new house on a large block in Queensland's Sunshine Coast for just over $40,000.

Chris is trying to save for a house deposit. Source: Supplied

Now, the price of the Australian Dream has risen, but the size has shrunk.

Australian house values have increased by almost 50 per cent since the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown; and for some it now takes more than a decade to save for a standard 20 per cent deposit to buy in most capital cities — according to the Cotality Housing Affordability Report.

With housing affordability now the worst it's ever been in Australia, I believe the Great Australian Dream blueprint is changing.

The 'large block' is now 250 or so square metres. The Hills Hoist is now a small clothesline bolted onto a side fence, and the old gum tree in the backyard is now potted plants on a concrete patio. 

I think when Dad and Mum bought the land and built the house I grew up in — adjusting for inflation — it must have cost $100,000.

Today, in the same region, I am looking at approximately eight times as much for a block of land so small you'd probably hear the neighbours flush their toilet from over the fence.

I'm 36 years old, which is six years older than my dad was when he built his home and became a parent.

My partner and I would love to settle down, but we feel we must slug it out to leap over the first hurdle of home ownership and financial stability before starting a family.

Picking up more work

I consider myself an ordinary working-class battler, and like many, many other Australians, I knew life wasn't meant to be easy.

When house prices started to skyrocket after the pandemic, I realised that if I ever wanted to own my own home, I was in for a fight.

Rent shot up. Groceries shot up. Bills shot up. It wasn't looking feasible that I could put down a deposit any time soon solely using the income from my full-time job.

This is when I picked up another job to try to out-earn inflation and chase my dream of hanging my clothes out on my own Hills Hoist.

Chris started delivering food in 2023 as a third source of income. Source: Supplied

I worked. I did the long hours. I threw everything against the cyclone of inflation — and I still do.

I still rent. I still save. I still hope.

I feel overworked, as do so many other Australians. Do we all need to work multiple jobs for 30 years to achieve the Australian Dream?

How many millions of Australians locked out of the housing market will it take before something changes?

So that I don't burn out again, I've now limited myself to working 50 hours a week.

The standard full-time workload in Australia is 38 hours, so I am still working more than 30 per cent extra.

I'm hoping my fiancée and I might be able to scrimp together enough money to put down a deposit sometime in the next year.

The Great Australian Dream may look different in 2025, but I still have hope I will achieve it.

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