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    1 Year in the life of a Middle-Class South African
    1 Year in the life of a Middle-Class South African
    1 Year in the life of a Middle-Class South African
    Ebook86 pages1 hour

    1 Year in the life of a Middle-Class South African

    By William Paul

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    About this ebook

    Follow the full year inside the life of a middle-class South African. Every Chapter is a monthly look at the difficulties one faces being a middle-class South African. The Middle-class are often overlooked with regards to most financial aspects regarding schooling and housing as they are considered to be too rich, but don't have funds to even own a home.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWilliam Paul
    Release dateMar 2, 2019
    ISBN9780463141489
    1 Year in the life of a Middle-Class South African
    Author

    William Paul

    I am a Middle class South African working two jobs and still make time for my true passion.. writing... "Write without pay until somebody offers to pay." -Mark Twain

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      Book preview

      1 Year in the life of a Middle-Class South African - William Paul

      1 Year in the life of a Middle-Class South African

      By

      William Paul

      1 Year in the life of a Middle-Class South African

      By William Paul

      Copyright 2019 William Paul

      Smashwords Edition

      Prologue

      I am an average Man, married to an average woman. I have by chance the average amount of children, two. I live an average life, renting a home in an average neighbourhood. My wife and I both have average jobs, she works for lawyers and I work in finance. Our kids go to average government schools. Even our income is by South African standards, average. We are what the call middle-class.

      The question is why is living and being average or middle-class by certain pre arranged standard really considered to be average, when in fact nothing about it is average at all. I have wondered about this for a while, trying to make sense of life and the problems that come along with it. As the years fly by, you cant help but wonder when this average life will become, well more than average.

      You buy a lotto ticket and dream about the day you win millions and plan in secret how you will live and what you will buy, which debts you will settle first, or even in what spectacular way you might resign. You convince yourself that this time you will win, and when you don't, you convince yourself it wasn't meant to be. Seems like such an easy thing to do when things don't work out, just say to yourself, it wasn't meant to be. And somehow the heartache of rejection or failure becomes justified and it just becomes acceptable that thing don't work out. You say it with a smile and battle on.

      It has become the norm to have the mind set that you can try and be positive. But never to be negative, but rather just accept failure as fate.

      What is Fate? Google even corrects me in explaining that it is not Fate, it is actually called Destiny, but sometimes referred to as fate. Latin 'fatum' – meaning Destiny. Easily explained and pinned as the believe in a predetermined future.

      In the movie Knowing, staring Nicolas Cage he talks about randomness and determinism, and then he touches on aspects of science and faith.

      He seems to lean towards agreeing with randomness and continues in saying that There is no meaning, there is no purpose. This is disturbing to say the least. Especially being a person of faith you would want to believe that there is a meaning, and that there is a purpose. Life in the very essence will be pointless if this is not true.

      Randomness – The idea that there is no predictable order to things compared to Determinism-the idea that all things are predetermined, including our very own choices we make, or in this case, we think we are making. This seems to be a debate that can never be settle as the outcome of any situation could be passed to fit the bill on both these ideas.

      During 2015 and right through to 2018 the Fees must fall outcry from students in South Africa brought about a number of issues nobody really thought or considered before. (My personal opinion is that schooling must be for free and not University) Students demanded that fees be dropped as they wanted Universities to be free of charge, To which large number of people agreed and demanded that the poor be granted these wishes as they are set aside as these fees are way to high. The Current Minister of Finance at the time highlighted a number of issues that might arise if this is ever granted and also mentioned the missing middle which will need to be looked at.

      The Missing middle is labelled as the middle class individuals that are not poor enough to receive government funding but also not rich enough to be able to afford to study anyway.

      The very idea behind this book is to document a specific time in my life, so others can read and compare it to there own lives. It could answer a lot of questions the rich or the poor might have regarding average or middle-class people, earning an average income.

      Looking at my life, statistical things should not change much in the next twelve months, but if they do this could serve as a book of inspiration to others to just believe and never stop trying. And if things are still the same as they are at the start of writting this book, then its safe to say that its either meant to be or that there was no predictable order to these events in any case and things are just the way they are. It is what it is!

      Those reading this that are average working, middle-class individual like my self would agree that in many ways we are the missing middle as its not just University studies we loose out on, but so much more. Each chapter will be 1 month in my life starting March 2018. (I thought it would be fitting making this book look at a financial year in ones life)

      All ups and downs will be recorded as to give anyone a view into the life of an average working life of the Missing middle , lets hope it's a good year. All we have is hope.

      Isaiah 26: 3-4 You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal.

      Chapter 1:

      March 2018

      This has not been a good year, guess many people will be saying the same thing. Seeing the financial situation the whole world finds itself in, one can only wonder why things have become so bad so fast. I was diagnosed with No Tension Glaucoma in January. Glaucoma is an eye disease that damages the eyes optic nerve and in return could result in vision loss. The fact that I don’t have medical aid has made this ever so more tricky as I need to go to a government facility to get my tests done. This has put extra stress on us other than the normal every day financial problems we already sit with.

      As a working class individual I had to put in a days leave as I have to join long queues to be helped, compared to those lucky enough to have medical aid, who can just make an appointment and slip out at lunch time for an hour and get the tests and scans etc. done.

      The tests are part one to a two part saga, as I am now on chronic medication I have to join these queues every month to pick up my medication. Luckily a staff member at the government pharmacy shared with me the fact that they hardly ever have my medication and that it is in fact better to purchase it privately every month. It would cost me R80 form the government pharmacy every month, and as they never really have my medication I now have to buy it privately for R300. So to add to the long list of bills is another R300 I have to make sure I have every month.

      March has started off with a bang in South Africa, as our President has just been fired following a long battle by opposition parties pushing for

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