August 22, 2011
Let’s talk middle class in Chile.
I’ve heard many people I know who live here mention that they are middle class. I usually don’t say anything, because why fight? But usually the people saying this, are not. Even Seba’s family, who lives in Estacion Central is not. They’re upper class.
The problem is the circles we run in. Of my Gringa friends, most travel back and forth to the U.S. at least once a year. Of my Chilean and Gringo friends, not all, but lots of them have cars. For the most part, they live in Providencia or Bellas Artes. They go out to eat fairly often. They live good lives.
And while YES, there are even higher up barrios altos, I think a lot of people fool themselves into thinking that Providencia is not a barrio alto. It may not be the highest of the barrios altos, but it’s certainly not living in the slums. It’s more than a middle class neighborhood. My guess is if you went by the income chart below, you’d find mainly people living in Providencia who are amongst the top 30% of earning households in the country. That’s just a guess, I couldn’t find data to show what average income is per neighborhood in Santiago.
For those of you who don’t know, a barrio alto is both a geographic and a sociographic term in Chile meaning a “high neighborbood.” These neighborhoods are physically higher up in altitude towards the Andes and are also populated in general by families with higher income levels.
According to this graph, the average income per family in Chile in 2009 was 735,503 pesos a month. At today’s exchange rate, that equals 1,570 dollars.
Average incomes are always screwed up though because you just know that somewhere out there some dude is making like 200k a month and put that in the survey and totally messed up the results. And yeah, the same can happen with people on the low end of the spectrum, however, you can’t get any poorer than zero dollars a month, whereas the high end of the spectrum can always keep going up and up and up and there’s no cap.
This graph is a little hard to explain — I had to send out an email asking for help! So basically, the chart is divided up into tenths or deciles. For example, the far right X, that’s the first tenth of the population. So 0-10% of all homes in Chile make 2,958,175+ per month. That’s $6,315+ dollars a month according to today’s exchange rate. 0-20% of all homes in Chile make 1,149,137+ per month. Last year Seba and I made enough to be on the very high end of the IX decile. In all actuality that means we probably made, I’d guess, more than 88% of all homes in Chile and less than 11% of all homes in Chile. That’s pretty mind boggling when you consider that we don’t feel materially rich. I see how people make the mistake of feeling like they’re middle class in Chile, even though they’re not. We were denied a mortgage by the bank multiple times. We have to watch our spending. We budget. We have an old car that’s falling apart. We save, but very little, for retirement. All that doesn’t make us feel like we are in the top 11% percent of highest earning families in Chile, but we are.
ETA: I’ve had multiple explanations for how these deciles are actually interpreted and Emily says, “I think the top decile is an average of $2.9 millones al mes, not $2.9 millones and above. So that actually makes it kind of crazier because in the top 30% it’s not that everyone’s making over $819,000. Some of them are making less (to make the average of that 10% what it is), and they’re still considered top 30%.”
The thing is though, that Chile is EXPENSIVE. If you’re making 625,524 pesos a month, especially between two people, odds are good that you feel like you’re scraping by — according to this, in 2011 the average cost of rent per month in Santiago is 104,000 pesos, though I can’t imagine that price being for rent anywhere I’d feel safe living. So considering the demographic group of people we’re talking about to live in Providencia, El Centro, parts of Nunoa or Las Condes, I’d say the average spent on rent there would probably be closer to 200,000 pesos. Add in another 200,000 pesos per month for food. Plus say 50,000 for things like gastos comunas, electricity, water, etc. Then let’s add on 30,000 more for internet. Add onto that 100,000 pesos per month if you’re paying for private health care for two people. With that, your total is 580,000 a month. You’re left over with 45,000 pesos for any unexpected expenses. It’s crazy to me that somebody making more than 60% of the country can have trouble scraping together enough cash to live a “middle class” life.If you and your partner (boyfriend/girlfriend/person you live with/whatever) make a combined total of 625,524+ then you fall somewhere from 0-40% of the highest earners in the country.
And let’s not even talk about a household with children making that amount. How is it even possible?
Where do you fall on this spectrum? If you’re in say, the top 30% of highest earners in Chile, do you feel that you’re living a rich lifestyle?
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August 21, 2011
Last weekend I promised that if people were interested I would upload pictures to the blog of old trips we’ve taken. Well, it seems you all don’t mind that most of these photos were taken on a point and shoot camera before being a professional photographer was ever a twinkle in my father’s eye. Or something like that.
Seba and I traveled to Costa Rica when we were wee little muffins, many many moons ago in 2006. We took advantage of a free stopover in Costa Rica on our way back from Santiago to Miami (on the lovely Taca Airlines. Now, you couldn’t pay me to fly them. But in those days I was far less concerned with my life than I was with money).
Costa Rica was insanely beautiful. We couldn’t have found better national parks and waterfalls even if we were on Lanzarote Holidays. These particular photos were from a hike we did in a forest filled with monkeys.
Yeah. That’s actually all I remember 
There were wild little monkeys all over the place. I have no clue where we actually were, but I do know it was a national park. Helpful, I know.
Even though this water was super blue, I was actually kind of freaked out to go in just because there was nobody else around and I had no clue how deep the pool was or what kind of fish/insects/scary things might be lurking below the surface. Seba didn’t get in. He doesn’t like to swim. Me, get me near a body of water, and before you can say, “Hey Ky…” you’ll be feeling the spray of my splash on your skin as I cannonball in.
I thought I was kind of badass since I was swimming out in the middle of nowhere in a waterfall we’d hike to with no other human beings visible. But really, that rock I was standing on was so slimy with moss that I screamed and jumped off the second Seba was done taking the picture.
I remember thinking how fat I looked when I saw this photo right after it was taken. Now I would cut off my left nut to be in that good of shape again. I don’t actually have a left nut, but you get the idea of the level of sacrifice I’d be willing to make
If you enjoyed this post, please click +1 or Like! It’s really helpful for me and my business, so I appreciate it!
August 20, 2011
Hey look, we’re in the newspaper! I can’t link to it, but you can see the article here (and read it if your eyes are good with small letters). ETA: Thanks Trillia, she figured out a way to link to the article. You can see it here!
Damn liars told me they were taking pictures of all the other bloggers to go in the story.
Emily, Eileen, Andrea, Abby and Margaret were all quoted as well!
Just had to spread the word about our 15 minutes
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