UK news has been covering this story a lot recently – The man who faked his own death and the story involving a canoe.
What I cannot get my head around is the financial motivation for doing this…
Anne Darwin appeared at Hartlepool magistrates accused of dishonestly obtaining sums of £25,000 and £137,000.
So they made £162,000 between 2 people over 5 years. In the context of what they went through to get this money, that’s really not a lot!
They would have earnt the same amount if they each had jobs paying salaries of £16,200 per year.
With a job description like this, I think I would want to earn more than £16,200 per year:
- letting your family think you are dead
- not being able to use your own name
- having to live a secret life forever more
- having to lie to get a passport
- losing your favourite canoe
- getting arrested or living as a fugitive
- being disowned by your family if you get caught
- losing the ability to ever get another job and earn more money once this lump sum has run out
Is it really that appealing for the sake of earning £16,200 per year for 5 years max? Wouldn’t you rather stack shelves at you local supermarket?
So, the next time you think you have a foolproof plan to earn £150k ask yourself, in the same period of time could I earn the same amount of money in a regular job? Is the hassle really worth it in the end?