This is what the MAFS Australia participants earn

My plan took on a slightly more serious form. The registrations for MAFS Australia were reopened and I thought: why not? I thought that for about five minutes, until I realized that one of the criteria to participate is that you must be a resident of Australia. Goodbye dream. Goodbye the chance to meet my own Mike. Okay, maybe it wasn't a very realistic dream either, because a ticket to Australia is quite expensive and you also have to stay there for a reasonable amount of time for the program. And in the meantime, the fixed costs here continue to run.

And so I came to the next question: what do those participants actually earn? Because whether it's fixed costs in the Netherlands or in Australia, all participants have to leave their homes for a reasonably long time and that mortgage or rent continues to run, of course. Now, a few participants are already busy working as influencers and getting a free shot from the doctor à la Jess here and there, but that's all only afterwards. Is participating in MAFS Australia actually a bit lucrative?

I can be very short and powerful about that: no. Absolutely not, even. You get paid 150 Australian dollars per day, which is about 92 euros. Now they ‘work’ seven days a week, so that comes out to less than 650 euros per week and just over 2700 per month. Sounds pretty good, right?

Well, realize that all your fixed costs continue and those that will still be deducted, but that you also have to pay for everything else yourself during the recordings. Only the rent is paid by the production, but all dinners and other outings with your new partner: all at your own expense. Now, life in Australia is not cheap, so you won't really get rich from this.

Interestingly, producer Chris Coelen also acknowledges that the participants do not necessarily get paid, but receive more of a ‘compensation’ that is purely for expenses. They would do this (according to Coelen) so that people sign up for the right reasons and not to make money. Okay, I get it, but it could also just be because they know that people will still sign up and are too stingy to pay normal amounts.

Where then is the money? Yes, in that Instagram career that many have afterwards as an ambition. But the tricky part is that they can only start that after all episodes have aired on TV. You don't get paid more if you're not filming, so when you're done with the recordings, you have to wait about a year before you can manage your own Instagram account again and thus earn money from it. So if you want to participate: I would start opening a savings account.