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 
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