Im talking about pooning 1-2 times a month,eating decent food, owning a decent size home, and not driving a shit car. Seems like we need to be making 100k or more a year to have fun in Vancouver. This is something i usually talk about with a pooning buddy of mines.
50-60k a year enough in Vancouver?
- Thread starter LittleAsianGuy
- Start date
S
Smother
NO its decent. If your single and no kids you should be fine.
I think anyway. It's all within your realms. Meaning the more you make the more you'll spend on other things you never would of before. And not just pooning. You'll find other things to spend on.
So the flip side by making a little less you'll be budgeted more towards your wants and needs.
I think anyway. It's all within your realms. Meaning the more you make the more you'll spend on other things you never would of before. And not just pooning. You'll find other things to spend on.
So the flip side by making a little less you'll be budgeted more towards your wants and needs.
Last edited:
From your list, everything is pretty easy to cover at that income except owning a decent size home. Decent size is pretty open to interpretation but I'd say no way you are affording that at that income even if you gave up the other things on the list.
It's all relative, I have friends who live there making $20,000 and they live comfortably and are happy with it. I also know business executives who make a fuck of a lot more than you're talking about and they feel like they don't have enough $$. It all depends on your standards.
To live in Vancouver (with the high housing prices), 50-60K isn't enough to live "comfortably" and poon. Maybe in a smaller town and such, but Vancouver is becoming a very expensive place to live, one needs at least 80K to poon and live comfortably. again - all a matter of perspective and level of tastes.
Hmmm... well my income in the range of 50-60K.
I spend about 6-700/month on the hobby, usually a single SP, usually one 2 hour appointment.
I eat well, but cheap, because I cook for myself, and I that's by choice.... I like to cook. I don't own a home, I rent a modest one bedroom apartment downtown. I drive a 11 year old car, in good condition, but since I live just a couple of blocks from my workplace, it's all I need. I only drive on weekends.
And I max my RRSP contributions, through a monthly investment plan. If I wasn't saving my money, I could indulge more in the hobby, but the long term plan means more to me.
Or, if i wasn't saving my money, I could probably handle a mortgage on a modest condo.
So you can live here and have a little fun at 50-60K.
S
Smother
Living comfortably has a different meaning to each and everyone of us. None of us can speak for each other than ones self. It all depend what someone means by living comfortabley -- wants and needs. I know people who own houses and make around that level or maybe alittle more and they seem fine. These are friends I know well.
Also depends what your morgage is too. If it's manageable....easy then.
Make a list of expenses and deduct all of your expenses leaving some room for error ( depend on what you do ) then take it from there.
This is an interesting topic with no correct answer...
Here is how I see it. Income is only one factor in affordability and purchasing power. To me, the more important question is how much you spend relative to how much you earn.
In LittleAsianGuys scenario, he puts out $50 or $60K as a benchmark. Lets use the $60K as an example. After you deduct all the legal taxes you should net approximately $36K per year or $3,000 per month in after tax dollars. Now comes the interesting part of the equation – only you can establish how your money is spent and whether you can afford to do any number of things. This is done by determining your priorities. Some people refer to that as making a budget.
First, you have regular re-occurring monthly expenses such as food, hydro, telephone and the like. Most of these expenses can be estimated fairly accurately.
I call the second set of monthly expenses discretionary or optional expenses. These are totally dependent on your personal preference. The question comes down to how much of the $3K p/m do you want to dedicate to items such as clothing, entertainment, vehicle, insurance (car, house and life), vacation, pension, recreation, schooling and of course, pooning. Where I may spend only $100 p/m or less for clothes (a Value Village regular
) the next person might consider that foolish and spend $400 for clothes alone. It all depends on your priorities.
A quick drill down example can reveal a lot about your priorities. Take your re-occurring monthly expenses and minus from your after tax income (i.e. if you spend $600 p/m on food, hydro, cable and telephone – you have $2,400 left to spend on discretionary items). Then establish how much you want to spend on each discretionary item (i.e. vehicle payment $350. p/m; gasoline, maintenance and vehicle insurance $300. p/m; clothing $200 p/m; vacation $100 p/m; pension $100 p/m; recreation $100 p/m; pooning $500 p/m). Once again, only you can assign the actual cost amounts to each of these optional items.
You are correct. We haven’t even looked at housing yet...
No one would argue that purchasing housing in the Greater Vancouver area has a high sticker price. However, a large percentage of single detached homes have suites in them that add to your revenue and allow you to ‘service’ a larger mortgage. Once again, more revenue brings more choice on your priorities. On the other hand, many people feel more comfortable renting and avoiding the normally much larger mortgage payments. This choice allows more $$s to be spent on other priorities.
In the end, everyone can tell you how much they earn – I am not sure how many realize how much they spend and, most importantly, on what… I believe $60K is enough to do pretty well any of your five top priorities (within reason), but little else... I prefer the wiggle room that 100K+ provides
Here is how I see it. Income is only one factor in affordability and purchasing power. To me, the more important question is how much you spend relative to how much you earn.
In LittleAsianGuys scenario, he puts out $50 or $60K as a benchmark. Lets use the $60K as an example. After you deduct all the legal taxes you should net approximately $36K per year or $3,000 per month in after tax dollars. Now comes the interesting part of the equation – only you can establish how your money is spent and whether you can afford to do any number of things. This is done by determining your priorities. Some people refer to that as making a budget.
First, you have regular re-occurring monthly expenses such as food, hydro, telephone and the like. Most of these expenses can be estimated fairly accurately.
I call the second set of monthly expenses discretionary or optional expenses. These are totally dependent on your personal preference. The question comes down to how much of the $3K p/m do you want to dedicate to items such as clothing, entertainment, vehicle, insurance (car, house and life), vacation, pension, recreation, schooling and of course, pooning. Where I may spend only $100 p/m or less for clothes (a Value Village regular
) the next person might consider that foolish and spend $400 for clothes alone. It all depends on your priorities. A quick drill down example can reveal a lot about your priorities. Take your re-occurring monthly expenses and minus from your after tax income (i.e. if you spend $600 p/m on food, hydro, cable and telephone – you have $2,400 left to spend on discretionary items). Then establish how much you want to spend on each discretionary item (i.e. vehicle payment $350. p/m; gasoline, maintenance and vehicle insurance $300. p/m; clothing $200 p/m; vacation $100 p/m; pension $100 p/m; recreation $100 p/m; pooning $500 p/m). Once again, only you can assign the actual cost amounts to each of these optional items.
You are correct. We haven’t even looked at housing yet...
No one would argue that purchasing housing in the Greater Vancouver area has a high sticker price. However, a large percentage of single detached homes have suites in them that add to your revenue and allow you to ‘service’ a larger mortgage. Once again, more revenue brings more choice on your priorities. On the other hand, many people feel more comfortable renting and avoiding the normally much larger mortgage payments. This choice allows more $$s to be spent on other priorities.
In the end, everyone can tell you how much they earn – I am not sure how many realize how much they spend and, most importantly, on what… I believe $60K is enough to do pretty well any of your five top priorities (within reason), but little else... I prefer the wiggle room that 100K+ provides
The 'owning a decent sized home' is the non-starter on that list unless you have a LOT of money for the down payment.
First of all, on 60k income, you pay roughly 20k in taxes, UIC & CPP. So that leaves you with 40k after taxes.
Now, the average 'decent sized home' in Vancouver is going for about 700k if you get a pretty good deal.
Assuming you have the 20% down payment sitting around, so you don't have to pay the higher interest rates and CMHC premium etc... (you'd need about 160k cash with all the closing costs etc..)
So that leaves you with a 560k mortgage. Now let's assume you get a good interest rate, that's about 6% annual these days, so, keeping it totally simple, you're looking at about 33,600 a year in interest.
Add in the 4k of property taxes and you're up to just under 38k.
So, can you squeeze in everything else with $2,000 a year to live on? I doubt it.
So, unless you have a LOT of money to put down, you can forget the decent sized home in vancouver on that budget.
First of all, on 60k income, you pay roughly 20k in taxes, UIC & CPP. So that leaves you with 40k after taxes.
Now, the average 'decent sized home' in Vancouver is going for about 700k if you get a pretty good deal.
Assuming you have the 20% down payment sitting around, so you don't have to pay the higher interest rates and CMHC premium etc... (you'd need about 160k cash with all the closing costs etc..)
So that leaves you with a 560k mortgage. Now let's assume you get a good interest rate, that's about 6% annual these days, so, keeping it totally simple, you're looking at about 33,600 a year in interest.
Add in the 4k of property taxes and you're up to just under 38k.
So, can you squeeze in everything else with $2,000 a year to live on? I doubt it.
So, unless you have a LOT of money to put down, you can forget the decent sized home in vancouver on that budget.
Hope for an Major Earthquake in Van LittleAsianGuy!
Hey LittleAsianGuy, if you really want to own a home in Vancouver, you should be praying for a major earthquake or winning the 6/49. Otherwise, your best option is to get out of this living shithole they call Vancouver! My friend just got back from Calgary and was amazed at how clean the city was, how healthy everyone looked, no bums, no junkies, no beggars on every corner, and how well the jobs paid! Time to make a move my friend, apart from what you read in the paper, this city isn't the best place to live in North America...far far from it!
Hey LittleAsianGuy, if you really want to own a home in Vancouver, you should be praying for a major earthquake or winning the 6/49. Otherwise, your best option is to get out of this living shithole they call Vancouver! My friend just got back from Calgary and was amazed at how clean the city was, how healthy everyone looked, no bums, no junkies, no beggars on every corner, and how well the jobs paid! Time to make a move my friend, apart from what you read in the paper, this city isn't the best place to live in North America...far far from it!
This seems very high in terms of taxes. Were the taxes you were referring to just provincial and federal income taxes? Or were you including other taxes?
Gee, I like your thinking! Time to join a commune of professional adults who all live in one house and fuck each other's brains out! Hmm. Is it workable? Something tells me the guy with the biggest dick is gonna get all the mileage. That ain't gonna be me at a mere 6".
Playboy had the house thing already .It was called '' Seven Lives '' Hole lot of fukin , lots of drama too. Good show. I'm shocked you wern't a fan
GBM - you are correct from a straight income tax deduction perspective. (I am not in the financial field and was using the tax rate for my income.)
However, the excersize is still valid, as we only have a finite amount to spend every month (at $45K per year after-income tax dollars it would be approximately $3,750 p/m). Then there is the other taxes (GST, PST, CPP, gas tax etc etc etc...
.My point is that we can afford only so much within our income and many people, myself included, often times allow impulse purchases to set our priorities rather than figure out where to spend our hard earned money ahead of time and use that financial road map to meet our goals.
The other interesting excersize is to tally up how much you spent on pooning in the past 12 months (including gifts etc). I was astounded at the amount I willingly gave to lower mainland providers last year... There should be a volume discount or loyalty rewards program. I hope my ATF reads this
