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FORTUNE.COM// JA N.1 .19Luxuries?Theyaren’ton themenuMemphis cook Bobby
Hagebusch, 43, rises at 5 a.m. for work—and eats alone.
I’M A PREP COOK ON BEALE STREET.Been doing it eight years. At $13.50 an hour.
I didn’t want to ask for more than that. I’m not greedy. Every day three alarms
wake me up at 5 a.m., and I ride my bicycle five miles to work. I make sauces,
soups, pastas, salad dressings, six desserts—an important job but low on the
totem pole. I bring home $1,400 a month after taxes, but $650 goes straight to
rent, even though I have a roommate. Money is so awful. What luxuries do you
choose? My luxuries are my friends. No dates, though. They’d have to be okay
with a beer and a shared app. And who is okay with that?—AS TOLD TO R.M.TimChen
CEO and Cofounder,
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EN
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