last week Batir wrote about his personal financial situation as a middle class Jordanian man living in Amman and how he feels lucky that while he has to work 12 hours a day to maintain a decent life for him and his family, his work is mainly based on mental work rather than physical one.
Batir’s post is an excellent piece of work that helps highlighting what people are going through in Jordan in order to maintain a good life. I thought that maybe we can turn it into a tag and pass it around in the Jordanian blogsphere so that we all can testify and give real examples of Jordanian citizens dealing with everyday life’s responsibilities.
Like Batir, I feel also lucky for having a job that doesn’t require any hard physical work. I am also lucky for having a good English language, computer skills and good educational background that are essential to modern economy.
Unlike him, I don’t have a family of my own to support, which lay back a lot of responsibility and pressure for having to look for a second job. I work for 10 hours a day and I know that my current salary wouldn’t be suitable to give a decent life for a whole family. I am approaching my 30s next year while knowing that if I ever wanted to get married, I would be able to make it financially before another 5 to 10 years without compromising much of my level of living.
Most Jordanian young men, if not supported by their families, spend their first 5 years of their professional life saving for their marriage, and another 5 years after their marriage paying the loans they took to cover wedding and opening a new house expenses. Some of them start their lives with a big loan to buy a new house that they most probably carry it with them through their entire life.
My dad started his marriage life with loans, and till today he is struggling to meet them up. Through the years he has been able to provide us with a very decent life. Our family income may have been to the lower side of a middle class Jordanian family income, but we have always lived a lifestyle that has been above than we make. My mother had to work as well for years in order to help my father with family expenses.
My father’s business has always done well, but never good enough to get rid of the never ending loans cycle. He mainly worked the last 30 years to cover the bank interests and our family expenses forgetting any luxuries in life that he would life to treat himself with. We were his only luxury.
Even with his tough financial situation, he provided us with an excellent education. He taught us in one of the best private schools in Amman. Investing most what he gets in us in order to provide us with the essential tools to carry on in life.
I am afraid that I am taking my father’s path once again. I already took a loan to start my own business (Licky Licious) with my friend. Meeting up with the loan’s disbursements along with others expenses that we face daily for starting this business are eating up most of my salary. I have learnt the hard way that starting one’s own business in Jordan is never an easy task.
I have big hopes for my new business to give me the financial uplift that I am looking to. It took me 7 years in order to be able to take such a move, and while others spend their first couple of years saving to get married, I decided to take the risk and doing something for my own. Ofcourse my working hours would be doubled once we open it and ofcourse I will be dealing with a lot of more hectic, but maybe one day I would be able to look back and say: I did the right thing.
Let’s pass this as a tag. I tag Hayat, Hala, Kinzi, and Pheras
Fadi Zaghmout فادي زغموت 
عندما تفتح محل الحس زكاوه،هل ستقدمون عروض وخصميات للمدونين؟؟ولا راح تفرمونا بل الاسعار،يعني أنا مثلآ عندي عشر انفارواربع نسوان ومعاشي مش كل ولا بد ،يا هل ترى راح تعطونا خصميه علي عدد أفراد العائله ولا أيش؟
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An honor, Observer, I will begin thinking.
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ايش رأيك تحل عن سماه للزلمه ؟ بعدين مين جابر ربك تتجاوز ٤ أو تخلف ١٠ و بدك تتدلل عبوظة
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جمعية تنظيم الأسرة و ألبياخة ياأخي أنت ليش زعلان،والله لو بصحلي أتزوج عشر نسوان مابقصر،لني بحب النساء والبنين، أنا فقط سئلت سوأل عن اي خصميه مكن يقدموها الي عائله بعشر أنفار،ويعدين بدي أسئلك انت محامي oberver؟
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Good luck with your upcoming business. You belong to a very rare group these days called the middle class.
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alurdunialhurr, having 10 kids and 4 wives? Dont you think you should care for providing them with bread first? Kinzi, I will be waiting 🙂جمعية تنظيم الأسرة و ألبياخة, thank you 🙂Hareega, thank you. I dont think middle class as rare as you think it to be.
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I GOT TAGGED!!! WOOHOOOO! I’ll definitely do this one – I already have a few ideas in my head. As soon as my lazy-ass-self decides to stop being lazy, expect a post :p
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“alurdunialhurr, having 10 kids and 4 wives? Dont you think you should care for providing them with bread first?” هذا يعني أنك أن الفقراء غير مرغوب فيهم في محلات البوضه،أليس كذالك؟؟
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Alurduni Alhur, actually that’s true, but if you decide to have 4 wives and plenty of kids then you shouldn’t be buying them ice-cream even if it’s for 2 piasters a scoop. I’m totally with you that the middle class is disappearing and that’s a threat to the country, but if someone decides to have pnety of kids thinking things will be ok then he’s gotta be responsible for this decision to have them.
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حريقه،،والله لو أنا عايش في المانيا أو فرانسا أوحتي كندا لقبضوني عشر معاشات لكل طفل عندي، وأكلت بوظه يوميآ مع العائله،
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Hala, thanks, I will be checking your blog to read what you are going to say about this.alurdunialhur, so basically you want me to turn my business into a charity organisatin? I would love to do so if you manage to provide me with a source of funding to carry on with my business and meet the bank disburesement.Businesses are done to cater those who can afford paying. It is why it is called business. We make different choices, you chose to marry 4 women and get 10 children, while I chose to work hard on improving my living standard. Do I have to throw away all of my hardwork and risk going to jail for not being able to meet my bank disbursements just because you can’t get your 10 kids some ice cream? Does that sound fair to you?It doesn’t mean that I would never do charity. I may do that when I am capable of doing. In the meantime, I am the one in need for the money. Would you help me meet my debts?
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Yaaaaaaaiiii..My mind has been too crowded to fouces on one thing.. and write it.. thanks for giving me one Observer..I will do it soon..I love your last comment too! 🙂 Good one!
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Ya observer ,Who is asking you to turn your business into charity ,if you are really smart businessman you should encourage families to come to your place and how you do that, by keeping your price reasonable for families like mine , unless your are looking for fast buck then that’s different story,and most of the time when businessmen look for fast buck ,they usually fail miserably
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Hayat, I will be looking forward to read yours. I know you are working hard to support yourself 🙂alurdunialhur, now i agree with you, we are not after the quick big bucks as you put it. We are looking for a long term successful business. We will try to put our prices where we can keep our business going and attract as much people as we can.
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I’m glad you pointed that post out. i usualy only read Batir’s English blog because I find it difficult to read Arabic on a pc.I have a friend at work who is always fond of saying:Wallah il-haya Sa3beh (By God life is really difficult), and I always respond along the lines that he should consider himself lucky. There are people minding traffic in the cold rain, other picking garbage, others doing manual labour, still worse yet others with no job at all, and even worse, no job at all and a family to feed. Whose life is difficult ?On the other hand, everyone has problems at their own level and size.I am going to be 31 next month, and I am not even considering marriage. To maintain a level of happiness, it is wise to only want the things that you can get, and I don’t see a net improvement in marriage.Your dad providing an excellent education is the best luxury he could have provided you, an investment in your future.I’m sorry about the dificulties you had registering a business. I remember when I registered mine in Canada online, I didn’t even have to leave my apartment. Here’s to hoping we get that e-gov initiative going some time before 2020 !
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Hani, you are right man, life is not easy. It is hard for most of young men to get married these days. Listen why dont you do the tag? I want everyone to do it, and only Pheras answered it so far 🙂
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While I’m honored to be tagged with Pheras, Hala, Kinzi, and Hayat, I’ve already said all I had to say about the subject in my previous comment.
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