People gotta do what they gotta do.
I was in my way back from a customer visit. The factory is located somewhere around Cibubur or Bekasi or lets just say near there, not sure myself. Then a thought flashed.
For many of you who work in Jakarta offices may already know what it takes to support the lifestyle. What I mean here is lifestyle as a working middle ranked staff in a medium to big company.
In that kind of position, people may got paid a lot better than many of other Indonesian worker with the same age and education background in other areas and that maybe one of the reasons many of fresh graduates willing to throw themself in to the recruitment battlefield and gain the honors to call themself as employee of (put a name of a company).
Being relatively well paid, during the first years of working when you are single, it may reasonable for you and most likely that you will choose to rent a place and pay around 1 to 3 million rups a month and enjoy living in the center of the crowd. By doing this you can walk to (maybe) the hypest mall in the country. Watch the latest released movie and tweet or blog it afterwards and later on having a meal in a very nice dining and talk about hottest gossips that not even talked in those infotainment.
The heavenly lifestyle that many of our fellow Indonesian may only dreams about or only watch it from their televisions.
But then you get married. Having a family and start to settle down. Buy a house.
Unless you come from a ultra rich family or own a very succesful business beside the job I mentioned before that brings you money way a lot that your salary or you are someone who landed yourself a job with a very big salary, buying a land house in the middle of Jakarta is an option far beyond the calculation of bank mortgage based on your salary. Or so most of the cases are.
Apartment then is an option, either buying or renting. But many people here still want to have a land house for their family. Bekasi, Bogor, Cibubur, Serpong and those satellite cities are created.
Many of us live in those areas.
Commuting then coming as a direct consequence. One or two hours from home to the office for a single trip is nothing. Nothing compared to the salary amount received every single month. For some it even takes 3 hours or more just for a daily single trip.
I’m lucky enough to live in an area with commuter line that can bring me to my office only for around 45 minutes. Yet I stil try to land myself a job within 5 to 30 minutes motorcycle driving distance away. I don’t know whether is it me being too lazy or I value other things more than others but for me, now, if I manage to get a job with a decent enough salary with less time spent for commuting I don’t think I’ll spend 2 to 3 hours commuting.
But then again, till now I’m still trying to come to train station early enough to get an empty seat to sleep along the way or just write a post. People gotta do what they got to do for their life. Don’t they? 🙂
Annie Tjia
I don’t think I want to pay that much for a living just because the view is nice and eye-catching. Seems like an unnecessary wasting life style. It won’t be wise for future and I’m not sure I like that much. Just being humble and spend what is worth to spend is better than a short-term luxury. I’ve heard someone saying, “if you can only afford to buy one million rups shoes, don’t force yourself to buy one hundred million shoes. Not only you lied to yourself, but you’ll waste money and time for something that is unnecessary to buy.”
ryan
love the saying…
it’s true. such a waste of money and time for something that we didn’t need it.
leonyhalim
Dan, it’s so darn true that the average salary in Jakarta is not even close with the mortgage cost to own a landed house. Property price is ridiculously expensive. And Jakarta itself is such a dense city. People tend to forget how hard it is to work and commute because we’re just got used to it. Some times I thought of giving up my Jakartan lifestyle. Go somewhere more secluded and calm. No pollution. No distraction. I could open a small cafe maybe. But am I ready?? I love this city too much. It’s a love and hate relationship.
ryan
really nice post and i really relate to this one. i’m living in Cibubur. and to get to work, i need to spend an hour if i went to office before 5AM (more than 5? got me 2-3 hours). And for coming back home, i need an hour if i went home after 10PM (and need 2 – 3 hours if i went before 10PM).
need some commuter line here in Cibubur. đ
sarip2hamid
damn it, it’s so touchable story Mas Dani. love the sentenes and it flowing ike air Eh.. salah ya. đ
~Amela~
must I comment this post in english? No? Oke..
bener banget mas, rumah di jakarta mahal gila, bahkan yang jakarta pinggir pun juga mahal. tapi semoga suatu saat bisa beli rumah deh.. đ
Mrs. Tyasye
I think until me and husband can buy a house near to our office, our area (you know where it is ;)) has less time-spent for commuting than other areas. We skipped the option to live in Bogor although my parents live there, spending 1,5 hour by train in a single trip is too much for both of us. Well, i cannot say that we are too lazy, but we value the time spent at home with our daughters :).
della
Dan, is it you? Is it really you? Hihihhii..
My husband and i have decided to buy something else first rather than house, that’s why we prefer to rent house near Bonjer, so we won’t spent so much time on the way to our offices.
But we still hope and pray and do the saving and investment to buy our own house. IMHO, it’s okay if it’s far, it’s okay if it’s not luxurious, as long as it ours đ
Men, so tiring and frustating ya bo, comment not using our own language, wkwkwkkwk..
Zizy Damanik
Seperti iklan TV itu, kerja di big company belum tentu ngerjain hal yang penting, seringnya malah hanya gaya saja. Gaji tetap pas-pasan if you compared to expat…. đ
danirachmat
Saya bikin postingan ini sambil mikirin iklan di tipi itu juga Kak hihiji
Rawins
angkat tangan…
dan langsung angkat kaki
haha gak mudeng…
danirachmat
Ah si Kang Rawins..
ceritasofi
*lagi dipojokan perpus…cari kamus english – Indonesia*
danirachmat
Hueeee. Buka google translate ajah. Yakin pasti bakal langsung pingsan baca hasil terjemahannya. Hihihi
Wong Cilik
hope that Jakarta will have good mass transportation system soon so that people don’t have to spend so many hours in their way to office …
danirachmat
Yes Mas. Hopefully Jakarta will. MRT and monorail developments had been started a few weeks ago
Indah kurniawaty
Jujur, sekarang gw susah bedain mana yang kaya beneran sama yang keliatan kaya, Dan.
Lah sekarang banyakan yang duitnya pas-pasan tapi lifestyle selangit, daripada yang duite akeh, penampilan ndeso tapi duit gak abis-abis tujuh turunan.
Semua balik lagi ke kemampuan. Kemampuan kantong dan kemampuan menggempur peer-pressure.
Alhamdulillah, gw gak lama terjerat peer-pressure.
Makin ke sini, gw udah masabodo amat sama lifestyle. Yang penting hidup gw bahagia. Period.
danirachmat
So truuuee. Beneran deh. Yang gaya hidupnya selangit ituh bikin jiper kita-kita yang benernya duitnya lebih banyak. Huahahahaha.
ladeva
Iya bener banget tulisan bang Dani di sini.
Udahlah ya…gaya hidup yang tinggi kalau kuat ngikutin ya diikutin tapi kalo gak, ya hidup sesuai kemampuan aja đ
danirachmat
Meskipun mampu kalo ngikuton rasanya sayang ya Dep.
ladeva
Ember. Mikir panjang ke depan dech kalau aku. Sekarang bisa ngestarbuck tapi kalau diikuti terus bisa-bisa besok cuma minum kopi seribuan, meskipun memang lebih enak yang seribuan.
bebe'
Setelah pindah ke sini dimana ga ada traffic dll, gw jadi ngerasa betapa banyak waktu gue terbuang di jalan loh Dan selama kerja dulu. Apalagi sekarang liat si bubu bisa pulang cuma dalam waktu 10 menit jalan kaki itu rasanyaaaa.. seneng banget.
Kayak gini2 bikin gw jadi skeptis buat balik pulang.. Lagipula lumayan yaaaah, ga nambah2in kepadatan Jakarta.. hahaha
danirachmat
Hehehe. Tadinya mau sedih kalo bandingin di sini ama di sana tapi gajadi deh. Alhamdulillaah masih diberi kesempatan merasakan hidup di Jakarta. đ
Mechta
aiih… kenapa ga ada warning suruh bawa kamus tadi yak? haha…. Dan, yg penting enjoy saja.. nikmati apa yg bisa kita raih saat ini sambil berikhtiar untuk lebih baik nantinya… *haha…komennya nyambung ga ya?..maapin lah klo jddi OOT.. đ
danirachmat
Nyambung kok Mba Mechta. Hihihi. Maturnuwun.. đ
bintangtimur
Waduuuh, langsung tepok jidat nih, Dan!
Hehehehe…berhubung nggak paham apa maksudnya, saya mau ngucapin selamat menunaikan ibadah puasa aja deh, mohon maaf lahir batin ya, dan…mudah-mudahan ibadah puasa kita diterima Allah Swt.
Amiiin…
titip cubit sedikit buat Aaqil, dan salam buat Bul
đ
julie
that’s why i rather choose what they so called “Real Life”, working in the company that located in marginal of Jakarta. No incidents, no demonstration, and the best thing is no need to push our wallet to get the style as what the executive dressed up.
Everyday is a bad hair day, a wrong dress-code, no problem as long as the brain is working for the company đ
danirachmat
Ahahahahahahaha. The way you put it. Superb. đ
Lina Marliana
aku sudah buka google translate.. tp kok tetep ga mudeng sm maksudnya.. wwkwkwkwkkk… pakabar mas ?? lama ga BW nih.. đ
Surya
Yeah, thats life Dan… đ
And I said that living in Jakarta is not only living, but being survivor đ
Anyway, how do you do Dan, long time no see đ
danirachmat
doing great Sur. đ long time no see indeed
lieshadie
Dan, aku mlipir di pojokan …kqmusku sampek lecek iki…hhihihi
Btw, yg penting pemasukan maksimal pengeluaran minimal…pelit yo Dan…hahaha
lulu
oooo sambil terinspirasi iklan iku tah? senengane Inot iku, hehehehe
aku sekarang juga mengejar-ngejar mas Damri Dan. Yo kamu tau sendiri kalau aku pernah nulis, jarak itu teman lama buatku. Asalkan lalin dan angkutan lancar aja ya Dan, all is well…..
danirachmat
hehehehe, Semoa all is well ya Luk.. đ
anak kampung indonesia
Sumpah Pemuda (kalau merasa pemuda indonesia sih), cinta tanah air indonesia, cinta bangsa indonesia dan CINTA BAHASA INDONESIA