It's the language tho bro, you can't see the echo chamber there?

HUGE MAJORITY.

Majority is already most by definition... you don't need to put the huge in front of it for gratuitous emphasis? Just makes it sound totally made up, which it is. Show me some statistics that more than 50% of people in Canada are living in poverty? You know what the actual statistic is from Stats Canada? 7.3% That's how many people in Canada are living in poverty. That's far from a huge majority.

When has there been a time in any country's history that people didn't, in general, feel like they're a wage slave? Even I am, I can't afford to not work. You probably can't either.

Things are as bad as they’ve even been for a lot of people.

1/4 of Canadians can’t afford food, need to utilize the food bank

https://torontosun.com/news/national...-fall-statscan

Equifax saying from their research 50% or more Canadians live pay cheque to pay cheque

https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/half...ifax-1.6849035

Longest wait times ever recorded for access to healthcare

https://www.fraserinstitute.org/stud...in-canada-2023

Good article how general unaffordability traps you in poverty

https://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/blog/202...ity-contagious

I’m fine, many of us on Revscene are likely fine. However societal issues like these, selfishly, are a black eye on Canada because everywhere I go I have to see homeless people and drug addicts.

Along with those issues, crime and social disorder tracks right alongside. It’s a lose lose for everyone involved, especially vulnerable people or people with families but have poor employment.

Also, it’s fairly annoying that I have triple the assets my parents did at their age, if not more. Our household income is more than double what my parents was at our age, have zero debt outside of our mortgage, and we live like fucking bums did 20 years ago.

The Canadian dream is waiting for government hand-outs now.

^ I don't know man, we make 270k annual household and we are paycheque to paycheque, so that figure is probably a bit skewed. 270k isn't A LOT of money and it's solidly midpack among people I know. It's probably solidly midpack here on RS anyways considering some of the fancy shit you guys drive.

Are there things we can cut back on? Yeah for sure, the kids don't need to eat mangoes, dragonfruit, papaya, kiwis etc for fruits. They don't need 3 different extra curricular activities to keep them engaged. They don't need 3 road trips and a big international trip a year either. We don't need to eat fresh or organic either, nor do we need two BMWs (granted they are both paid off)

But that's what will open their eyes, for them to see more and learn more. Health is also worth so much more, especially as you get older, what you eat will dictate how healthy you are as you age. And the BMWs keep my sanity in check.

I rather be healthy at 65 and be average financially, then be dealing with all the long term health issues of eating poorly but have more money.

you don't have to spend more money on food to be healthier. there is a very low threshold where as long as you are not too broke to afford non processed food, you don't have to spend more to be healthier. kiwis and mangoes are not "better" than apples and oranges, and asparagus is not "better" than green beans. you can be just as healthy on a lower-middle grocery budget than an upper end one.

270 and you’re pay cheque to pay cheque ?! Wowowo you sound like a longshoremen.

Shanghainese wife. There’s your problem.

270k today living “pay cheque to pay cheque” is equivalent to over 500k annually in 1994 as per the online calculators.

If you were making that in 94 you’d be living on the water in west van and galavanting the world on private yachts. Yet here we are in 2024 talking about affording fucking mangos :lol

Your math is fucked bro. 270 is like 70k~80k in 1994. Your money is worthless nowadays, not the other way around.

hmmm that calculation doesn't seem right. Moiney should be losing value over time i.e. $270k in 1994 is equivalent to $500k today

Whoops yea my bad, equivalent in 94 would be about $130,000

you know what though when you put it that way 270 sounds like a lot. in 94 you were rich if you were making 130k. the problem is that prices have far outpaced wages so 270 now feels more like 80k in 94 lol

Yah man. McDinks meal is easily 15-20 bucks. That’s messed up.

Two people eating out can easily hit 100 bucks.

Ramen is 25 dollars a bowl after tips.

Pho is 20 bucks.

I mean come on… even those cheapy Chinese food at yohan (3 meat dishes 1 veggy) used to be like 30 dollars. Now it’s 60 bucks.

Yea so I feel like even at 130k my previous comment still stands.

A friend of mines step dad was the CFO of a fairly large local company but it wasn’t anything special at the time. Very doubtful he made more than 150 at that time. But he bought a house for 450k on the water in Dundarave which is now worth 20+

Now you make the equivalent and can barely afford a 2BR condo

I think at 270k "paycheque to paycheque" is either lost on you or your financial literacy is a catastrophe. If you're a paycheque away from being homeless, starving, or losing your car you're basically a potato.

If you have a home (even with a mortgage) and multiple cars paid off, you’re not “paying cheque to paycheque” lol come on.

You could sell the home, you could sell the cars, you could probably get by for a few years not even working at that stage. You’re wealthy.

These people outlined in the aforementioned articles are a missed paycheque away from being homeless. They don’t have assets to pull from or investments to sell as a buffer.

I feel like Yaohan food court is better when you get the 3 items on rice/noodles for $17. I can split that into two meals and it's only $8.50 a meal for me :fullofwin:

The problem isn't making 'only' 270K. The problem is only making 270k and buying/owning a ~$2M house.

I'm sure you won't be paycheck to paycheck if you owned a 1m place instead.

For the questions of extra costs we incur from eating properly, that was one of the things and not the only one.

Choosing to eat cheaper would probably save us $200-$300 a month depending on the month
Not sending the kids to extra curricular activities would save us $200/m
Road trips are $1500 each and that's being cheap. If we shrink that from 3 to 1 it would be $3k in the pocket per year.
We went on a cruise last year which totaled about $9k after the whole trip was said and done. We are visiting extended family in a few weeks in HK which would probably cost us the same amount.

Just that above without the big trip is about $8k a year. How many people even manage to save $8k a year outside of company matching RRSP? Yes those are luxuries, but we would like to provide the experiences for our kids and also be healthy for them as they grow up.

Why would I consider ourselves paycheque to paycheque? Our mortgage is almost 8k/m. If I lost my job we would be able to service the mortgage and costs for 3-4 months before we start defaulting. We can cut back on costs and we still probably won't last more than 6 months.

Legitimately how many of you who has kids have 40k of liquid cash?

We can nitpick on things like us getting a X5 recently. We splurged because we wanted a bigger car with two kids. We could have survive with just a X3. We paid 55k for it on top of the trade, and that 55k would have bought us another 5 months if I lost my job, but that was also for my own mental well being of not having to try to tetris as much.

We put away $1k a month after we even out our annual costs, and all the deductions for stuff at work like RRSP and stock matching and stuff. Yes we are saving money, but not much. 4/5 of our monthly cost is just housing.

This right here. But what house is 1M back in 2021? Even Langley cost more than that.

You sound like a doctor lol. No liquidity with 200k in vehicles.

Tech bros are exactly the same. 270k household would be pretty weak for a doctor tbf

I mean, that right there is your problem. Definition of house poor.

I'd call the e30 a liquid 55k, but other than that, yes, we keep 30-40k liquid for issues that may arise. That said, we don't have a ton in our RRSPs or anything like that, but retirement savings doesn't do me any good if we are homeless in our 30s.
I'm not trying to be a dick, but your spending is the issue, not the cost of living. Our mortgage is $3500 a month and I feel like we live in a fuckin mansion.

what the fuck is a mortgage?

but he needed that 270k to get that 8k/month mortgage

hey , atleast your amortization is still 30 years, not 70 years lol

Together the both of us has about 300k in RRSPs. It's not much and definitely not enough to retire on.

The house was bought in 2021 in the height of the pandemic without knowing when it would end. We needed more space because we were both holed up working from home.

We do spend money, but not excessively so. When we bought the house the mortgage was 4500 because we did variable. We didn't expect the rates to go up so much so quickly. It is now dropping again and it'll only get easier/better from here. I expect it to drop to around 6-6500 when we renew in a year. We aren't in a position to sell because the market isn't a place where it wouldn't result in a significant downgrade and also incurring a ton of costs.

Other than buying a X5, I don't know what part of my spending is excessive.

Either ways I didn't post so you guys pick apart of finances, but rather to show that living paycheque to paycheque can be all over the map.