According to Novosibirskstat, the average salary in the Novosibirsk region for the period from January to November 2020 was 39,862 rubles. We interviewed residents of Novosibirsk, and it turned out that the real statistics differ from the official ones — and it is impossible to save money with such salaries.
But we found a person who earns 300 thousand a month — UX / UI designer Vladimir told how you need to work in order to have such a salary, why a well-opened IE and why Novosibirsk is bad. We publish his author’s column.
I have been working in this area for a long time, since 2007-2008. He started with freelancing and small, by modern standards, amounts — 10 thousand rubles a month, sometimes for an order. Now my salary is 300 thousand rubles, because I am a fairly qualified specialist. I am senior by gradation — this is considered one of the highest degrees. I do product design, maintain sites and products, deal with current features (properties or characteristics of a product. — Ed.), Development, functionality. All this needs to be drawn, tested.
What to do and how to find such a job?
Since the baggage is large, experience is already more than 12 years, then, accordingly, I am a specialist in demand. We need to constantly study the situation on the labor market, and if we talk about the last three years, then few of the Novosibirsk people working in my industry receive such amounts. Often on job search aggregators there are vacancies without an offer (an incoming job offer and its conditions. — Ed.). This means that large sums cannot be counted on there. It also happens that vacancies indicate deliberately inflated salaries.
In Novosibirsk, by the way, salaries are quite low. In Moscow, people with lower qualifications receive large salaries, although it is clear that there are multiple expenses. But there is a «remote». Even my friends who work remotely from Novosibirsk expect to move to more comfortable cities in the future.
How to increase your salary?
How did I manage to break through the salary ceiling? To begin with, I started an individual entrepreneur — this allows me to agree with the employer about a larger amount, since the burden on the wage fund is reduced, and taxes are not paid for me yet.
I, as an individual entrepreneur, pay only 6% and agree that the rest of the amount will be compensated to me. Thus, I manage to carve out an additional 10-20 thousand rubles. I also work with foreign companies.
For example, now I have a client who pays 2.5 thousand euros for my services, which is multiples of the salary that I receive in Novosibirsk. It turns out that for the last three years I have been working in two jobs: at first it was two jobs with a salary of 80 thousand each. And now at one job I get 80 thousand, on the second — plus or minus 220 thousand. It is clear that the salary in a foreign company depends on fluctuations in the exchange rate and taxes.
And how is life?
Now it’s worth talking about everyday life — yes, it’s enough to go somewhere, buy something. Still, it is formed from needs, and I can perfectly manage them. If I don’t have such amounts to spend on large purchases, I don’t think about them.
When the salary was 150 thousand, it was problematic to make large purchases: expensive things like a MacBook or a telephone had to be borrowed. And 300 thousand is enough for me to make large purchases or allow myself to travel from Novosibirsk — without loans, installments and other things. In general, for the last two years, I have not had any loans or mortgages, we do not borrow and do not live. We also have a need for better quality clothing or products; we are looking for healthier products in the store.
The financial burden is now 80 thousand, and the rest is free money. For a family of two (plus cats and dogs), the monthly consumption is approximately the following. About 20 thousand is spent on renting housing and small things like paying for the Internet and telephone, another 20 thousand is spent on food. There are also additional costs for taxis, bars and restaurants — it turns out about 60-80 thousand rubles to go somewhere and feel comfortable in Novosibirsk.
At the same time, even receiving 300 thousand, you hardly think about a mortgage in Novosibirsk. For me, a comfortable price tag for rental housing is 40 thousand, and the purchase — from 6 million rubles. At the same time, if you choose about the same prices near Moscow, you can consider St. Petersburg or Nizhny Novgorod. With a salary of 150 thousand, I did not even think about taking out a mortgage, but with the current salary I did. But I realized that I would definitely not take out a mortgage in Novosibirsk.
How much do you have to work?
I have two jobs, it’s hard to rest. When I have to work at each job for 8 hours, it turns out that my whole day is a working day. The time difference also plays a role, because I work with Cyprus and Novosibirsk. In the morning I work in Novosibirsk, and until 12 noon I work in Cyprus. When I get tired, I start to postpone some work on the weekend in order to rest a little more time. In general, I have a fairly free schedule. Somewhere I can write that I did work for 3 hours, not an hour, while the rest of the time I walk or go about my business. It all depends on your efficiency: if a client or employer sees your efficiency, then everything is fine.
Over the past two months I have traveled to Sochi and St. Petersburg, in the summer I will go to Altai. The borders are closed, and these are the only places where you can go. I would not call it a vacation, because a sole proprietor does not have sick leave or vacations — and then how can you agree. Always tense with time, eternal stress. Therefore, you also go on vacation with a laptop, constantly at work, in work chats.
I moved to Novosibirsk about 10 years ago, and for me it was the first big city. I did not think about moving until I visited other places. The same Sochi or St. Petersburg is much cleaner than Novosibirsk. I am planning to move this autumn or winter.
In Novosibirsk, I have no reason to stay: a dirty city, if we talk about the same purchases, the choice here is not very large compared to the same Moscow. I remembered one more observation about clothing. When I was in Sochi, I saw a lot of people who were dressed just well — I was there out of season, and mostly there were people who came from Moscow and St. Petersburg for the winter. Well, that is, in large cities it is much easier with a choice and better with quality. Although leisure in our city can be organized — we also have bar yards, and they know how to make a beautiful vacation. But this is happening in Novosibirsk. And you go out again into the dirt, into the dust, someone’s pig farms smell, all these candles, new buildings, bald lawns, uncleaned snow — disgusting, to be honest.
