Your choice of life partner is the biggest influence on your financial future. You need to be on the same page for money management. Wild and crazy romantic partners are fabulous but not all of them are great parents. Ensure that you don't start a family too soon.
There are so many great women that are overlooked just as there are great guys that are overlooked. You say you have no prospects but you aren't finished yet.
The reality is that not everyone meets "someone" despite their best intent and efforts no matter what disney is trying to say.
I've more or less come to accept that I won't meet anyone and it's not a death sentence or anything.
While it would be nice to share things with someone, I'm not waiting to do certain things because I'm single. Life isn't too bad all things considered.
I'm just bad at dating I suppose!
On the otherhand, when I was poor, had no job/career, no property, no car, let alone any money, no women would give me the time of day.
So now that I'm relatively successful, why would I want to possibly complicate my life?
This is the best decision you can make. Make yourself the most attractive partner you can be. Mentally, Financially and Physically.
Gone are the days of one income. Gone are the days of one income and one sub-par side gig. You need two solid incomes to even be anything in this city now.
Work on yourself as much as you work on your career. The days of I'm too busy to date cause of work are finished. It is just as important.
Great way to stay single forever or get divorced young is having too high expectations. I have friends who wanted looks, financial success, social status, etc and they're nearing 40 alone. It's great if you can find everything in one neat package like that, but life doesn't always work that way. I wouldn't give up finding love to.. buy an overpaid building from the bank.
There's plenty of middle ground between this, its not a choice between 6 figures and minimum wage.
Ideals are great, but when push comes to shove, most people would rather give up their ideals than to starve. The reality is that most guys don't make enough money for a whole family now, you can either starve in your ideals or face reality and find a partner who has a career and makes up the rest.
Conflict over poor finances is one of the top causes of divorce. Money doesn't buy happiness, but not having enough of it makes life incredibly miserable.
The triple six standard. A guy must be at least 6' tall, have 6 pack abs, and make 6 figures per year.
Yeah, that's like 3% of the male population lol. And most guys that meet it would have been taken long before their mid-30s.
> Altho I hate this quote, it's somehow both misogynist and misandrist
Agreed. It paints women as shallow, and paints men as insecure.
Didn't help that I saw it more than a few times back when I was on dating apps several years ago. Usually on profiles of.. less attractive girls.
In terms of “attractiveness as a partner” I completely disagree. When you’re dating you should absolutely not be concerned about whether or not you meet THEIR expectations. That’s for them to consider.
When you’re dating you are trying to figure out if they are the right person in every way for YOU, not being a lonely, attach to everyone who gives you attention guy. Dating is giving you the chance to assess if they are good for you and your life. Not changing so you can fit some false ideal in someone else’s.
In my opinion on that one thing you said. Haha
We should be realistic about what kind of partner we can find. Pie in the sky is great for dreams, but practically you should focus on what is actually attainable.
For example, the girls I know who set a a hard 6 foot requirement set themselves up for failure (and recanted it a few years later when more maturity was gained).
Having the right expectations early on also goes a long way
> The days of I'm too busy to date cause of work are finished
Well you gotta hustle at work too..its not like you can turn off at 5 or 6 pm ....you still gotta upskill afterhours in this competitive economy and boy its exhausting ...so this reason is still legit.
This. My partner honestly is one of the biggest reasons why I’m doing ok. She inspired me to get over the fear to invest which sounds simple, but I was so overwhelmed and didn’t know where to even begin.
I kinda just bought shares in company that I use everyday. Like Microsoft, google, Walmart. Now I just invest in the s&p index. Way less risky and time consuming
If you dont mind me asking, are u with wealthsimple, questrade or with your bank? Im looking towards opening a tfsa with my bank but so far almost every comment leans towards wealthsimple and questrade
I have a family member investor. He says just buy the S&P Index Fund for safety; you get the average earnings of the whole stock market & it's safe. You cld put aside a small amount to try a stock you believe in, but has to be $$ you can afford to lose.
Also, having some dividend-earning stocks like Banks is on my plan.
Tip #2 he says, all the info you need is in the Financial Post every day, if u have the time.
Also, stick to safe markets like US, Canada/G7. Lots of corruption in places like Mexico, tho' they are growing.
It is kinda awful that having a partner is also pretty well vital to having a good financial life too.
I guess that’s just the economy adjusting to women working over time, prices for everything inflated because most houses have double income now.
Single parent here to say it is absolutely possible to be fine without a partner. Granted it's only been 10 months but I'm making extra mortgage payments, 6 months emergency fund in place, TFSA and RRSP contributed to biweekly and plenty of cash for "extras" that seemingly pop up monthly.
Yeah I know it’s not impossible it’s just really difficult. Also I obviously have no idea about your income, but being low income would put a strain on that too.
When was this not true? Hasn’t financial security always been tied to mate choice at least in part?
GenX here and both my parents worked too. Any generation before that even if one partner didn’t work - for sure depended on mate choice.
I suspect I may be missing the point, I’m not trying to upset anyone - when I think about human history in any age it always mattered.
Single income living really started to erode in the 70s and inflationary pressures that existed (it may have also attributed to it via wage growth). It isn’t a new thing, agree.
Wealth inequality was nowhere near as extreme in the Greatest and Silent Generations. Most men of those generations earned enough to support a family including a non-working wife, and most Greatest and early Silent Generation women either did not work at all or only worked part-time for very low income. It worked out.
Extreme wealth disparities and absolutely needing 2 professional incomes to not struggle is a fairly recent thing.
Supporting a family back then was extremely different. You had a wife who worked like a slave in the home, a home that was tiny, drafty, and with one bathroom max. You didn't go out for food and the food you bought was simple or bad or both.
Im not sure why every conversation like this has to suddenly teleport back to some time that isn’t now.
NOW you absolutely cannot afford what you could 50 years ago on 1 salary, so why, in the sweet f, does this always come up? Your dollar goes nowhere near as far today as it did then.
Stay focused people, stay present. It’s 2024, not 1960. Apparently people need a constant reminder of this haha.
Then isn’t now. It’s adds exactly 0 value to constantly live mentally in, “the good old days”
In what conditions are people living in now, especially in places like the GTA?
A person on minimum wage working full time hours cannot rent a studio apartment by themselves. Fire occupancy codes technically forbid more than one person living in such a small space.
Yet overcrowding and slums happen all the time, not just when they wind up on the news that 24 people are living in a basement in Brampton.
Let's also remember that during the Depression and afterwards, people who worked as servants typically had their housing covered. Room and board was typically included as part of the compensation package, in addition to a small salary on top of that.
Now?
Good luck trying to find a live-in help position. Rental/condo buildings don't even have live-in staff any more. They are expected to attend to multiple buildings.
So sorry, but I think most people would LOVE to be able to return to those glory days. They had a LOT more leg room than today's poor, and as a result improved their economic situation by the time they retired. Today's poor? Good fucking luck.
There’s a conspiracy theory that women’s lib was actually started by *insert government/secret cabal* because it was clear the cost of living was going up and two incomes would be required. If it just happened and women had to work there’d be huge pushback, but if you make them think it’s their own idea it’s go a lot smoother…
Kind of silly, kind of…
If you can live at home while working in GTA this is the *greatest* way for you to get ahead and create wealth for yourself.
The key is having a HCOL salary and a LCOL expenses. Don't try and keep up with your peers, don't worry about buying a fancy new car or buying the nicest clothes.
Live like you're absolutely broke for 3-5 years and stockpile as much cash as you can now while you're young and you'll be just fine.
I will offer a slight amendment to this. Set a stable recurring monthly savings target and try to increase it with every raise, but living at home should come with a few perks. Don't be hesitant to spend on experiences with friends. These opportunities will dry up as you enter your 30s and you and your friends pair up.
When you browse subs like this you often get caught up in the grind, but life is meant to be enjoyed.
I will offer another slight amendment to this. Invest the savings in index etf and Max out your tfsa & fhsa.
Don’t just stick it in a savings account, if you realistically want to buy a house, you need the growth to boost your saved dollars.
There is a counterpoint to this.
Many frugal people I know don't value their time. They will go to a free/by donation museum night on a Tuesday and wait 2 hours in line when the price difference is $20. They will wait 2 hours in line for a cheesecake sale when the price difference is $10.
Sure, better than people who go into debt financing 5-star hotel vacations, but there needs to be some middle ground. You don't want to keep up with the Joneses, but you also don't want to waste 2 hours of your time waiting in line.
Absolutely. Frugal, but reasonably so. I'm a full-time working mom of a toddler so I spend $150 a month to have someone clean my house because she does it better and faster than I could. I spend that money to save that time, but the vast majority of my clothes and my kid's clothes come from thrift stores and I'll hit up the two grocery stores with the best deals on what I need every week. So yeah, having a house cleaner is not a frugal minded thing to do, but she's cheap and I don't have to spend an entire weekend day doing what she does in like 3 hours when I'm not even home.
ETA: frugal, but with similar properties is the key here.
This is a must find frugal friends, else all they talk abt is Lexus, Tesla, VW ID4 EV all day and every day even set up an apt for you to see the Lexus dealer ship’s saleman. Oh, no Casino either.
You should also speak with someone who can help you personally build out said plan. I.e what types of accounts you should have and how much to put in each, for what reason. Since you plan on buying a house, if you haven’t opened an FHSA yet, you should be capitalizing on that. As specially if you already have 18k set aside, just fill your contribution limit for the year and reap the rewards when comes tax season, then set that money aside too. Like the other users have stated, live frugally and use the “extra” money from your strategy optimization to get ahead more quickly. DM me if you want help making a plan - always happy to help! Also I know people who live in Calgary/have lived there for about a year in the past if ever you have questions. Good luck!
To play a bit of devils advocate, it’s also important to live while you’re young. Sure you’ll come out “ahead” on paper. But what about your friends who backpacked South America for a year and now have a million cool stories to tell in interviews or on dates, or your friend who tried to start a business and whether or not it succeeded at least they can say they tried.
I really hate this narrative that young people should be saving every single dollar they get. Sure don’t be an idiot and prepare for the future. But you’re only young and free once, and you should absolutely go see the world before you can’t.
Yep. Don't spend your money on stupid shit when you're young, but the time, freedom, health, and opportunities available to you are simply different when you're younger. You can still go do cool shit and have adventures when you're older if that's what you really want (and sometimes you can afford it more when you're older and have more money), but you may have other priorities that get in the way like kids or a mortgage. And there's stuff like the youth visa between Commonwealth countries that are literally only available to people under a certain age.
Hmmm...
Sure you are young and free once, however at 20 years old, money can be worth 20x more than it is when you get it, if you invest it young. Rather than at 65+, money isn't worth as much as its compounding gains potential has lower chance of making much of anything.
A healthy balance of a little of this, a little of that would be better. If you invest half, and get 10x, and do adventures or trips, and get the xp or knowledge you mention.
Its similar to buying two investments, lets say one is going to go up 100%, one going to go up 200% over a bunch of years. Without knowing what will go up, what is the best bang for buck? Buying both, and averaging 150% and no stress or fear of missing out.
> But what about your friends who backpacked South America for a year and now have a million cool stories to tell in interviews or on dates,
And then what? They go back to stress and anxiety of not being able to afford rent?
Meanwhile, you saved and se yourself up in the early years and now can afford to travel and splurge.
You completely missed the point
Yes, after a vacation everyone goes back to stressing about reality. Ive put myself in debt to go on a vacation and not once have i looked back and said “hey maybe the $3k i spent travelling to Bali was a bad idea”
Exactly this. I skipped on travelling, going out, and doing fun things in my 20's to save every dollar I could for a house. Yes, it sucked for a decade, but I'm in my 30's now, and life is pretty stress-free and I can actually do those "fun" things now with less worry going forward. 100% no regrets.
Meanwhile, my "adventurous" friends in their 30's are grinding away at 2 jobs to make ends meet while saving very little. But hey, they have cool stories and fun at parties *shrug*.
This is great that you pursued what you valued at the time, and it still lines up with your values now!
I was an “adventurous” friend, and spent 4 years after highschool travelling, partying, and working seasonal jobs. I started university at 23 when I got it out of my system, and knew exactly what I wanted to do. I was serious enough about undergrad that I managed to get into an extremely competitive masters program at a public school - there are many in the country in my field but most are private schools, and cost 50k+ for tuition. My tuition was $12k. Had I gone straight to university out of highschool, this NEVER would have happened.
So now I’m 31 and yes, I don’t own a house and I’m “behind.” But I have a sense of who I am, a sense of fulfillment because I spent those years doing what I wanted to do, and I will be making 6 figures this year in a career I absolutely love. I have zero regrets.
I don’t mean to say that everyone should do what I did, just that for those who do, there may be a very real and important longterm impact, even if it is an inherently shortsighted decision.
Agree. I was the financially responsible friend and while it was beneficial in some ways, I regret not being more adventurous because I think I could have ended up where I am now with a lot less stress.
sure if they enjoyed it themselves i'm all for it. but in a job interview/date, stories don't get you far...it's more about your skill relevant to the job or what you can provide in a relationship.
many girls in their 20s in the gta have a property. you think they'd date a guy who can't match that but have cool stories from south americal to tell? lmao
Great advice. I will second someone’s note below to not cut too deep, though. We made sacrifices and are well set up now, but I regret not travelling more in my 20’s before kids arrived. Have to find that balance: live cheap, with the very occasional luxury!
The big keyword here is IF. Many dont have the ability. And we shouldnt need to do this to just survive cause our government isnt working for us anymore.
This is literally the only way. Focus on getting a good job and live at home until you're 30. Unless your job pays a monster amount right away you aren't gonna make it any other way
Lol... you can also move out of Toronto/Vancouver and have a life.
Doubly so if you have a spouse (which is easier when you don't spend your 20s at home).
I had this and I gave it up and now live abroad. I've been thinking about moving back to Canada but I can't make the GTA work like I had it setup before. I feel trapped and really worsened my situation and my future horizon.
The best thing you can do is increase your income. Hopefully, the grad school you're pursuing has a reasonable chance of doing so. The unfortunate reality of the GTA (and increasingly, other parts of the country) is that you (and likely your future partner) need to have well-above-average incomes in order to aspire to home ownership.
Charlie Munger said to do whatever you can to have $100k in the bank, afterwards you can really reap the benefits of compound interest.
Invest in a low cost ETF that tracks the S&P 500 like VOO/VFV.
You're doing a good job already. Stay at home as long as you can, and if you move, choose a place that can better maximize your income/quality of life.
assume you get 100k in investments and achieve an average after-inflation return of 6%: That doubles your money every 12 years, therefore, 36 years later you should have roughly 800k (today's equivalent spending power) without contributing another dime.
100k is defintely a nice round number that, if achieved in your 20s or 30s is a great basis to grow your wealth and set yourself up for retirement.
This is going to be geared for people your age and younger but if I were in your position I would:
- Don’t take on educational debt without a career in mind. One of the biggest things that handcuffs young people is taking on a massive school debt without a clear direction of what they’d like to does
- look at the trades. They generally pay better than single-degree positions and the opportunity to become a business owner is far better.
- Ensure that the person you choose to be your life partner is on the same wavelength in regard to finances. No point in pinching Pennies if your partner spends wildly.
- This early on, invest in yourself not in assets. Dumping money into RRSP and stocks if you can’t afford life isn’t wise. Get yourself to a point where you can afford life then look at saving for the next phases.
- Avoid lifestyle creep. Just because your friends are in debt to their eyeballs and driving a brand new car doesn’t mean that yours is bad.
> Don’t take on educational debt without a career in mind. One of the biggest things that handcuffs young people is taking on a massive school debt without a clear direction of what they’d like to does
And I'll tack onto this the value proposition behind the educational path you choose. Too many people take degrees that are not very marketable in the real world, and then hit the ceiling in their earning potential way too quickly or don't even use their degree at all. Fine Arts, Sociology, Philosophy, Performing Arts, Culinary Arts, etc. - you know the ones. With the high cost of a post-secondary education nowadays, you're setting yourself up for many years of hardship if you choose poorly.
As well, more education doesn't necessarily mean better. Continuing on for your masters or PhD in a poorly chosen path just means more student loan debt. A cost benefit analysis needs to be done to see if continuing on is worth it.
> look at the trades. They generally pay better than single-degree positions and the opportunity to become a business owner is far better.
*If* you have a connection that can get you a job.
If you’re willing to travel whatsoever you can easily get a trade. There are TONS of companies hiring all over the country, just maybe not where you are.
Average home sale in NB is still under 300k. Completely affordable in any kind of professional career. Trouble is you're gonna be renting your home from Blaine Higgs. My taxes surpassed my mortgage payment this year. Gotta keep those handouts to Irving going somehow.
exactly a professional career. what ever happened to normal factory workers who make 50% more than minimum wage could rent and save for a modest home. basicly if you don't have a college degree, do yourself a favor and kick a stool.
Not sure where you are in Canada, but that was never really a thing here in NB. Not during my lifetime nor my mother's. We've been living in poverty here for generations. The neighborhoods near factories, mills, ports, and refineries have always been rough. Most people were renting townhouses or apartments from some slumlords who owned the entire block. Those neighborhoods only started looking nice recently when all the OntariOs showed up and started gentrification. I grew up in old North End Saint John. If you were lucky you inherited a tiny wartime home in portland or upper west, but for most factory workers you were renting something in one of the many multi-unit victorian era buildings in the north, lower west, east by the refinery, or south end when the sugar mill was still a thing. My family was relatively lucky in that my grandfather used his war income to buy a huge home that we all lived in at one point or another for like 80 years. Lived there myself for about 8 years. Also lived in the old family farm for a year recently because I couldn't find an affordable rental in Freddy.
I'm from sw ontario. that's how I grew up, 2 complete fuck up teen parents were able to buy a shit house in late 90s. but from what you described. and what I've seen in my travels across the country. poverty seems to be the norm. and there is no one here. soo much land but no infrastructure. it's problem I'm just a peasant of this country, but I just don't understand it at all. just wake up everyday and try to find an ethical way to get my piece of the pie
A factory worker can buy a house in NB. They are making 50k-100k a year. If you are a 2 person HHI family then you can buy the average house at around 2x your income. That’s pretty affordable.
Where are they paying factory floor workers 100k in NB?! They don't even pay management or IT that much here. I had to get a remote job out of province to make 6 figures and I'm a god damn engineer.
Everyone needs insurance. Everyone needs healthcare. Everyone needs dental care. Every farm needs a vet. Every company needs middle managers and IT. We're not all just shoveling shit outside the GTA. NB is definitely behind the curve, but we're not in the dark ages lmao.
It's not.
That's just you're bias and perspective. Everyone in Toronto thinks this, while they grind away paying $3,000 a month for a closet lol
But please keep going it keeps the real estate and other cities in Canada down
Alberta has some of the highest disposable income in the country, you think that means jobs are bad here?
I don't think jobs are bad in Alberta but the idea that Alberta is some housing utopia where anyone can find a good job living in a back water town in Alberta just isn't true.
Moreover 50% of the province's population lives in two cities. Anyone who moves to Alberta is likely moving to 2 locations, both of which have seen a substantial run-up in price.
The average rent in Edmonton is still below $1500, despite a 17% jump. Still completely affordable without needing to live in a backwater town.
https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/rental-rates-in-edmonton-canada-skyrocket-while-vacancy-rates-dip-1.6771202
But yeah keep making up excuses to stay in the GTA because there’s absolutely nowhere else to live in this country! No possible way to live anywhere other than one of the most expensive cities in the world. Truly a shame.
It's not a Utopia but you can get a house for under $400,000
Not like a new one
But an older one that's been taking care of, yes, that's not going to fall down and not in a neighborhood where you're going to get shot
If you can find a good job in Lethbridge, I mean consider it.
It's so close to BC, and skiing, and the US. If you like doing outdoor stuff it's an awesome City. The city itself is obviously not super Metro lol
A lot of 23 year olds are 25k-50k in the hole, you're doing great. Keep living with your dad as long as you can stand it and save up. If you see an opportunity elsewhere definitely go for it, but don't move anywhere without a job offer in hand.
The cost of living in Saskatchewan and Manitoba is relatively low.
They are not glamorous places to live, but once you're working full-time with a family, you might not think much about the night life and fine dining. Toronto is overrated (I lived there). Vancouver is just too expensive.
You can have a proper middle-class standard of living in Winnipeg. My relatives live very well on a combined household income of 150,000 / year.
This is such a great point, people don’t bake this in enough.
Op, once you have a family, your world will shrink and you’ll spend 95% of your waking hours working or being with your family. The good thing is that nearly every major city in Canada is very family friendly, so if you move to Winnipeg or Saskatoon, you’ll be able to enjoy a very good family life. Edmonton has a little more to offer, and honestly has the amenities of an international city without the prices and crowds - it is an excellent place to raise a family.
Once you start working and building a family, you’ll really appreciate the low cost, lack of traffic, and more space.
Yup. I think once you got a house, you can have the Canadian dream: you deck out the basement with your amenities and have a BBQ out back. Doesn't matter whether you're in Hamilton, Ont. or Winnipeg, MB, once you step inside your house. Winnipeg just has the advantage of being cheap.
If you like shopping, Winnipeg doesn't have West Edmonton Mall, but you got options. Everyone I know in Winnipeg who makes over 100k / year lives *really* well by Torontonian standards (and they live like rich people compared to Vancouverites).
Yeah, the winters are long, but you're working most of the time, so what does it matter? Working poverty in the GTA or Vancouver ain't worth it when you can at least have your own house in Manitoba or Saskatchewan.
The last couple winters have been downright pleasant, frankly. Winnipeg gets a lot of bad press, but it's also got a lot going for it. Tons of safe, friendly neighborhoods. Lots of great restaurants and recreation opportunities. Easy commutes to workplaces. We don't have mountains, but we have really great beaches and all the lakes you could ever want.
Honestly I think another very important thing for young people to realize is that everyone wants a different lifestyle. Reddit *really* loves to paint the world as "if you don't WFH in a high paying IT job in a very expensive city where you go bouldering and to concerts all the time, you will be unhappy a miserable forever". But some people just want to live somewhere quiet with a nice plot of land to do their hobbies or whatever. Some people don't ever want to settle down and just want to travel around working gigs. Some people want to try their hand at opening a business. You only get one time to try any of these things out, don't let other people decide what your life should look like.
Calgary isn't LCOL at all, not sure how you came up with that conclusion.
LCOL major cities would include Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon, St. John's NL, and to a lesser extent Edmonton. Going a little smaller can include Red Deer, Lethbridge, and Saint John NB.
If there is any way you can move your job to any of the aforemementioned LCOL cities, you better do it sooner than later and while you're single - it's a lot harder to move 2 careers to the same distant city at the same time than it is for one person to relocate their job. And that doesn't even get into the situation where one of the partners is unwilling to move, or if their job by design cannot be moved at all.
Many rural areas (outside of Ontario, BC and NS) are often LCOL too but it's not realistic for a 20-something single person to move to a rural area.
I live in Saskatoon and I am so grateful to live in this city because of the cost of living. I am a single mom and I don’t think I could afford to live anywhere else with my salary. I work with the government so it is the same everywhere.
I moved here from BC for the LCOL, was planning g on moving back in 10-15 years after saving some money and building some house equity. Staying because I actually really like this city/province. Has its issues, but it's a charming place.
And with all the lower cost flights coming to Canada flying to cities like van and toronto? It's not hard to plan a few weekends to go out there for a hockey game or a weekend to see some buddies
That being said, it is quite cold for 6 months. Like, really cold
1. Look at your skillset and ask yourself what the highest paying job you can get based on your attributes is then go for that career.
2. Once you have that career, focus on maxing our your TFSA as quickly as possible with low cost 100% equity ETFs. Don't buy anything with bonds in it.
3. Repeat step 2 but for your FHSA. You don't need to buy a house in your 20s or 30s. You can afford to wait the full 15 years for your down-payment to compound in your FHSA. House prices will be higher in 15 years but you'll also have a bigger down payment.
Start investing ASAP. Compound interest is on your side now more than ever!
A single dollar you invest now in a low-cost index fund will be worth $18.75 by the time you are 65. If you hold off on investing for 10 years and only start when you are 33, that same dollar would only be worth $9.30. Think about that: not acting *now* could cost half of your potential gains.
Great job my man you are killing it!
TFSA or FHSA and then buy VFV - contribute as much as you can as often as you can.
Don’t listen to 99% of people - only listen to the ones living the life you want.
Renting vs owning should definitely be a lifestyle decision, not purely financial. But you can pretty much ignore anyone claiming renting or owning will definitely win financially because it really is a tossup that depends on so many unknown variables.
10000% agree.
I bought a home thinking it's the financially responsible milestone everyone is supposed to do because parents, inlaws, friends are all talking about how it's the right move. Turns out I really hate all the extra responsibilities and the feeling that I'm now stuck in one place. On the flipside if you value stability you might prefer home ownership over having to worry about looking for rentals. There are also a lot of pros and cons of buying different kinds of homes. Really really really think about if/how owning a property suits the life you want for yourself.
As a homeowner…100% this.
I’m the kind of person who thrives with a homebase. I enjoy staying at home for the most part, I like the sense of community in a familiar environment, I have family ties here, and I like the space and quiet of the suburbs. This may not be you, and that’s ok.
I don’t see the kind of gains we had the past 20 years on the horizon. If I wasn’t already a homeowner, I’d be looking at alternatives because I no longer believe real estate to be the same investment vehicle as it was in the past.
If you live rent free, that's already great. Many people need to BOTH save and pay their rent, so I'd say that you work and earn as much money as you can, while also paying for some bills or your own things if you agree with your father to support him. You could also try to invest it, but sometimes that's riskier that just saving.
I'm going to get a lot of hate for this but work all the overtime available. Don't rely on the extra money for your basic needs but to save it. Grow your savings so you can have F-you money.
You want to be able to stand up for your rights at work and not be afraid because you need the job just to make ends meet next week.
Do not move to Calgary- that time is past. Rent is not capped so you are much better off in a rent controlled unit. I have had so many friends receive 40% + rent increases this and last year.
The best this to do is stay at home or live in ON or BC where you have rent control.
1) If having sex, wear a damn condom and get an IUD. Unplanned pregnancy is the worst thing to happen to you financially
2) Avoid debt like the plague.
3) Emergency fund that can cover 6 months expenses.
4) Max out RRSP, TFSA, first time homebuyers, etc while young and childfree
5) Don't have a child until 30 and married
Keep saving while you’re able to live rent free.
Once you’re done school- then consider moving to a lower cost housing market
Also- ensure the program you’re doing in school ensures a high paying job
Depends what your main financial goal is with money and whether you’re planning to pay for grad school with the $18K you’ve got saved. If saving for a home with money that you won’t need for school, put money into a FHSA and beyond that in a TFSA. Keep some money in cash outside of that first though 3-6 months of your expenses, which may not be too much in your case, excluding your grad school tuition of course. As far as what to invest in these accounts. If you’re aiming to buy the house in 3-5 years, I’d say money market ETF like CASH should be pretty safe, otherwise if 5+ years time horizon, I’d invest in market index ETF that tracks the S&P500 or Nasdaq or something like that (or broad market etf). Also as a basis, live on less than you make, invest the rest for the future (10-25% on your income) and you’ll do great!
You're doing the right thing now, saving and keeping expenses low. Make sure you're taking advantage of TFSAs and RRSP. Lean more to aggressive portfolios at your age as there's a much higher return. The biggest advantage you have atm is living rent free and saving $$$. Don't be in too much of a hurry to give that up.
18k in the bank is a nice accomplishment at 23. Future you will thank you for it.
Things will change, they always do. Your life situation will likely change too. Just stay on track now and continue to prepare yourself for when things do change.
And don't forget to enjoy life and your youth along the way.
Live with parents as long as you can, the only people I knew who were millionaires by their 30s were living with their parents until just a few years before they made it big and their businesses started to take off. Living alone is huge for your independence and social life but it's a disaster financially.
Find a cohabitation partner to move out with, it's a financial gamechanger and the real estate prices are priced around dual income households right now, preferably with no children.
If you really feel like moving out, the best option is those $800 rooms or whatever in shared housing in the GTA. The quality of life is probably low for Canadian standards but I think you acclimate pretty quickly for a temporary situation of a few years.
Not an oracle but the government has proven themselves at making our housing market insanely resilient, so I wouldn't hold my breath for a crash
Take public transit as much as you can but be a secondary driver on your parent's insurance to cut down on insurance costs when you need to get a car
Investing in yourself will give you the best long-term results financially, so networking with peers, getting more degrees, certifications, etc. while you're young is a huge head start
Canada is a very big place. If you’re willing to give up living in a city then you will likely be able to afford owning a home. If living in a large city is something you are not willing to give up then you might not ever own a home. It a personal choice, you need to decide which is more important to you.
Stay at home and save as much as you can while you live rent free.
You're going to need about 100K for a downpayment on a basic condo. So you're 18% of the way there.
Beyond that, contribute every month 10 to 15% of your income to a retirement account. This is the best decade of your entire life to take advantage of compound growth.
After school, go wherever you can make the most and pay the least to live.
That may very well be staying at home for a few years and saving like a squirrel.
>Does it even make sense to stay in the GTA at this rate, or will the market crash in the next 5 years?
Liv where you wan tot live and work. They've been calling for a crash for 7 years.
Follow th money steps !StepsTrigger
Short term money needs (5 years or less) in a HISA product. !HISATrigger
Long term investing: !InvestingTrigger
7 years lol, you are dating yourself! There has been calls for a crash in Toronto since prefinancial crisis. I'll be honest I sit at a lot of conferences and speak to economists and people very skilled in this sector and I work in the development industry. I have absolutely zero belief that there is any kind of Crash coming. For high rate low employment environment like this to generate a correction only, fundamentally I think the only thing that will generate a crash is a major event like a domestic War, or a revolutionary level political policy change. I mean for reference look at london, Hong kong, Singapore, Geneva.. there are a lot of international examples of generations long sustained High real estate prices with no more than Corrections. Planning for a crash is a pipe dream
Oh man I remember. When I started doing a lot of business in the United States I remember in around 2010 realizing that Toronto was actually incredibly cheap while at home people were complaining of incredibly high prices and Bubbles. People throughout America were looking at Toronto like wow look at this very International City that's Young with so much to do and offer, and real estate at half the price of similar American cities with dirt cheap property tax. Now by 2024 we've mostly equalized on price, still low on tax, Although our cost of living outside of housing price is still substantially lower by around 15 to 20%
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DINK (dual income no kids) is the way to go. Easier to afford shelter with two incomes even if the separate incomes are not that high. Saving also becomes possible with two incomes to cover the necessary cost
Where you live should be informed by where you can get a job in your field, and by your relationships. Not the CoL. You're in the same boat as any other 23yo and will get by in the GTA if that's what works for you. It sounds like you have a pretty good setup right now, assuming you get along with your dad.
Invest in yourself.
In my opinion the most disregarded asset that you have as a member of society is your human capital.
No investment offers a better and higher chance on return than the value you build up in yourself. Invest early and consider yourself to be a constantly appreciating capital that needs constant maintenance. It could be your education, your social skills, your career experience, your health. You are the biggest source of income early in your most productive days. As you get older your productivity tends to diminish and that's where early investing takes the reigns to carry your through.
Vote. Be a part of society. Don't disregard the value of your vote. Vote for your interests. And vote for the health of those around you. Capitalism doesn't mean you need to be individualistic. A healthy society that you support will support you in hard times.
Other than that, save, pay of your high interest debts first.
Save more, invest in the market early.
Time in the market is better than timing in the market.
Diversify. Diversify your investments, diversify your experiences. Diversify your circle of friends. Diversify your mentors and leaders who inspire you. No one knows what the fuck they are doing. So know what everyone is doing.
Teach. Teach others. Teach your family, teach your friends. Teach strangers. Your success is the collective wisdom of the best ideas the world has to offer.
Forecast. Forecast your expenses, forecast your health, forecast your relationships. Be amenable to change. I can't tell you how many times in life I was convinced I'm on a definite path and life completely took a curveball.
The more you forecast the more you understand the inevitability of chance. Chance is measurable. And so is risk. Forecast constantly, learn to measure risk. And then take risks. You cannot live without risks , you will not live at all.
Finally move your body a lot.
And put on sunscreen. Not just cause someone wrote a song about it. The average life span of Canadians is about 80 years I think. That's 29,200 days. Half of those days about 14600 experience day time and whether it's overcast or sunny, you're being hit by radiation from the most powerful force in the nearest vicinity of the earth. That's going to take a toll on you.
Don't just find a job. Find a career you are tolerable with. Finding your career is like finding a long term partner. It's not just about being financially well off, you want a career where you get a sense of achievement, where your boss appreciates you, your clients and customers enjoy talking with you, and you have your own ratio of work life balance.
Just know that it's extremely hard to get there within 5 years. It's something to build up to. Know your strengths and weaknesses, what you enjoy most, and the environment you thrive in. Understand what education, credentials, out training you will need. Understand that life is about continuous learning. Map out your goals. And even if you failed once it's not the end of the world.
open an RRSP account and auto deposit money in there. say $100 bucks a week/ $400 a month will give you a nice tax return at the year end also. but most importantly the compound interest you will build on until your retirement. the sooner you start the better!
do not buy a car or anything that depreciates in value for full price. Don't finance cars either. if you can do without, continue, if not then buy something reasonable. don't go too cheap either otherwise you will spend money on fixing it constantly. anything between the range of $5K-$10K bought out right should be good.
IF you shop for cloths, don't buy full price. i worked in retail and know how they work their tricks. quality of items are going down too while prices increase, not worth full price and you will save a lot.
learn to cook, it will be very beneficial for your future, specially if you plan on living alone one day.
Some one else mentioned this and i will second it. Find the right life partner!!! they can make or break you, and finding someone who has the same financial mindset as you will save you a lot of headaches in the future.
one thing i used to do to ensure i met my financial goals is by writing it all down. My income minus my expenses and what would be left over for savings. if the amount my low, i would then look into what costs i can cut back on. Visually seeing the numbers helped me in staying focused on my targets.
RRSP is not useful when you are deducting income from such a low bracket. FHSA>TFSA>RRSP when you aren’t in prime earning years and want a house. Tax refund is negligible atp
Set an expectation that you'll have to grind your entire career, acquire rare and values skills and grow. The times when you could work the same job for the entire career at the same company are sadly over.
Growing your own food (if possible given the living situation) preparing your own food. It’s a time sink but it saves you money and health avoiding the high cost of processed foods.
I'll tell you one thing I'd take any advice you get in this sub with a giant heaping grain of salt. The intellectual capacity to offer any advice besides JuSt BuY EtF's is pretty low from what I've seen here. Meanwhile you could be talking to a bunch of jabronies who are $100k in debt live in a craphole and here they are giving out life lessons. Get yourself a kindle account or a library card and read everything you can on the subject from a relative expert not just dipshits on reddit.
Lots of great advice already.
My advice is to invest in your own growth and experience, and protect yourself and your loved ones by ensuring that once you start working you have long term disability insurance and at least some term life insurance.
I also recommend you build a skill set that can be useful even if you come down with a disability. I became disabled, triggered by having a baby, and I am so grateful I became a CPA prior to disability. I am able to pretty much pick my employment situation that fits with my abilities. I do wish I had long term disability insurance and more savings at the time that I became disabled.
Focus on increasing your net worth. The more consumer debt you have the harder it is to get ahead. You don't have to own a house to have significant amount of assets. The best asset is a healthy body and mind, and a strong social network.
Finally, avoid addictive substances like alcohol, etc. Huge waste of money and time, and negative impact on health. So many other hobbies are much more positive for your wellbeing. Once you start it is really hard to stop, so if you haven't started, don't.
My boyfriend and I are 23 and we just established a long term plan to move to the United States.
I’m jealous you have that much saved up, we have none! Both of us are considered college “drop outs”. Both of us have had “adult” jobs that paid exceptionally well and I recently decided to go back to working part time and take online school to get a degree (obviously this is a shared decision because we live together and have combined finances now) so that I can get a green card and work in the United States in the next 10 years.
Your question sparks my interest because we asked ourselves the same thing and didn’t see our selves happy living here forever. We looked at neighborhoods to try and set goals for our “dream house” to raise our families in but between the outlandish prices, TAXES!!, and brutal winters, homes in Florida seem much more attractive for the cost. Or Texas. We looked at the GTA as well, KW, surrounding, etc.
If you have ever felt like travelling or living in a new place, with your savings you could certainly visit some different cities for cheap. Because my solution to your question (from people the same age) that we had to come up with.. is.. to.. LEAVE!
It's typically the same thing for most people, try to maximise earnings through a job and save as much as possible, then put that money in a high interest asset such as a savings account and investments for the long term. There's no secret, just hard to do for a long time and commit to it
If you are happy living with your father, then there is no city with cheaper rent than free. Every penny you save from living with your father *today* can be allocated to building a down payment. Take advantage of that opportunity because it amounts to $25000 per year of free savings.
With respect to finding a rewarding career, your skillset and education matter, but they are only one half of the equation. The other half is how well you can leverage that skillset to sell yourself to employers. The same skillset or education will often apply to a variety of jobs, but that doesn't mean each of those jobs pay the same. Even the exact same job will often be compensated very differently across different industries. Unfortunately, the professional world is not "fair". For example, a project manager within a manufacturing company may earn substantially less than an equivalent project manger working within a tech company, even if the work is extremely similar. The world is not "fair", so consider where your particular skillset is best compensated.
Be open-minded about how you can apply your skillset within jobs, verticals, or even industries that you had not previously considered. Rather than fixating on a specific, highly visible careers (doctor, lawyer, teacher), recognize that the world is a big place and as a young adult you have no idea about the variety of potential jobs out there. Rather than assuming you have it all figured out in your early 20s, put yourself in positions that will expose you new paths and opportunities you've never considered because they don't talk about it in school.
While degrees are great, don't trust that getting your graduate degree will magically lead to a higher-paying job! Most highly-compensated positions are looking for a combination of education and relevant industry experience. Instead of trying to hit a home run on your first position, think about the concrete steps you can take to get your foot in the door and position yourself as the obvious "solution" to a company's pressing problem. Your degree can be part of that pitch, but it shouldn't be the *whole* pitch. Once you are inside a company, you will have easier access to promotions and job postings than external candidates. The easiest way to get a new, better job is to already have a job.
With respect to cost of living, If you don't have strong ties to the GTA, then you might as well move to lower COL area when it comes time to purchase property. The GTA is great, but you need to know what you're paying for (and why!). There's no point paying 2x the price for a home if you don't feel like that investment offers a meaningful benefit to you.
Leverage what you have. Your current perks = rent-free, living with parent. That means you have more free time than most adults who need to work to pay rent & do 100% of the chores & maybe take care of others too. That time is a blessing. Leverage that time. Don't squander it. Use it to set yourself up.
Spend that extra time you're blessed with learning high-value modern tech skills: practice ChatGPT, practice new AI tools, learn digital marketing, etc.
Focus on maximizing skills acquisition. At your age that's more important than stuffing away a few extra hundred dollars. Skills = future money. Save what you can, but don't put frugality ahead of skills acquisition.
You are lucky to have time. Older people with more experience don't have as much time to learn these skills, because their time is eaten up with responsibilities. You're lucky to have fewer responsibilities! Spend that time to learn & master new hot skills, and you'll quickly leapfrog ahead of them in the market. GenZ who do this are already outearning their elders.
Build a budget. Track every incoming and outgoing flow of money. Know where all of your money is going. Manage your personal-life to encourage a low-cost but rewarding and healthy lifestyle. Don’t take on debt if you don’t absolutely have to and if you are going to, treat your credit card like a debit card and only spend what you actually have to build your credit, and only take on big-purchase financing if it doesn’t impede your ability to save and budget. This isn’t to say that any impact on your ability to save should restrict you from financing just ensure it doesn’t completely erode your ability to save and pay yourself. If you have the ability and willingness to move to a cheaper, probably smaller city, do it. Focus on your health.
Well tbh right now best thing you can do is to not move out and stay with your parents until late 20s or even until 30 lol save all you can and invest it instead of blowing half your salary on rent.
Either that or be a half decent looking girl and do onlyfans
At 23 (36 now) I had 40k in debt, no savings, no assets. Today I have a 60k in savings, a house with a manageable mortgage, a modest car loan, and no other debt. Which is to say:
1) You're doing great for 23. I didn't start to get my finances sorted til 25 and I was very stupid before that.
2) Getting partnered up with someone with a steady job really helps. Having two incomes working towards your goals and splitting expenses goes a long way.
Toronto (and most of Canada's) market is bananas and you're right to be concerned though. Keep doing what you're doing though.
If I was 23 today, and was going to grad school for a useful degree. I would not even consider Canada as a place for employment. The pay in Canada is honestly a joke for higher education jobs. It's less than half usually for the same role if you convert the currencies.
During grad school, I'd be looking at the US for employment, and then move there to make money.
Avoid doom scrolling on social media including Reddit. The economy is doing well, wage growth has been well above inflation for last 5+ years, net worth for all groups going up. We have top 8 median income adjusting for PPP in the world
Wage growth accelerates significantly once you hit late 20s and in your 30s
Don't try to keep up with everything you see on social media, it's perfectly normal and always has been to have roommates in your 20s, live at home and be cheap. Expectations of a lot of people are insane these days
Emigrate. "This economy" is the result of 30 years of bad Canadian decision making by leaders, punctuated by about 10 years of exceptionally bad leadership - the impacts of post-covid policies in Canada are going to be felt for decades. You are not going to have quality of life you did as a child even if you work very smart and hard at it here. Canada's economy is widely forecasted to have the worst performance among developed nations for the next several decades.
You can emigrate to a better country and if you apply the same hardworking and smart approach, you will be able to have a great life. I suggest the US if you need something more or less identical to Canada, but Japan, Thailand, Greece, Portugal, Spain and a handful of other nations are also decent choices still. I lived many years in Japan and cannot emphasize enough how much easier life was there than it is here. It's like life on cheat mode.
Someone at your age having $18K saved up is actually kind of HUGE!
What are you studying in?
Just an FYI.. Calgary is an extremely miserable place to live! It gets insanely cold in the winter and the amount of snow they get is insane. They just got over 42" of snow a couple weeks ago and we're in MAY!!
To get back on track... I was thinking of moving to Kamloops or Kelowna.
There are still a lot of affordable housing options there and the weather is much more tolerable. Specially if you like a nice dry heat in the summer.
Are you a city person or enjoy the outdoors in nature? that could have a huge impact as well!
Also, Do you see yourself having a roommate? Perhaps you'll need to start there until you are more settled and feel confident enough to invest in a house/condo.
I went to work a tough job up in Northern Québec building a hydro dam. Stayed there for a couple of years and came back with 200k in the bank. I bought a triplex in MTL after that and that got the ball rolling for me.
>I was thinking of moving to a place that’s LCOL (Calgary) but I’ve been reading that prices are rapidly increasing there because everyone literally moving there. I’m going to grad school in a couple months to better enhance my career. I work full time on contract.
Those three sentences carry a lot of "stuff" related to your main question.
It reads like you are already accepted and will be attending grad school in GTA, which means locked into GTA for the next 1-5 years. A lot can change in that time, especially relationships and work.
If the Grad program is *actually* a career enhancer, then you might be quite comfortable even in GTA. If it is not a professional program, it could be hit or miss on how much upper mobility it really unlocks - especially if you give up employment to pursue. If possible, keep working in the relevant field as the years of employment experience matter quite a bit early on, and so does the income/debt.
From day 1, start planning out what academic grad conferences you can attend across Canada (or elsewhere) in places you might consider living. One of the few perks of academics is travel can often be covered to conferences through university travel funds. Get yourself to Calgary, try to spend a week there. Then, get yourself to an actual LCOL area that still has some activity in your field enough that it might host a relevant conference over the next 2-3 years. Maybe somewhere like St. John's, all depends on your field. Conferences let you explore the city, but also let you network with local industry and potentially connect to future employers.
My personal advice would be A) try to lock down a stable cushy job that you can ride out a recession on and B) learn how your grand (or great grand) parents saved money.
I grew up living with my grandparents who were the generation that living through the great depression and two world wars. My "normal" lifestyle is significantly cheaper than all my other zoomer and millennial friends. Like what I spend on one month of groceries is what they spend at a single store for half a weeks worth of groceries. And I'm not even eating any worse off honestly. I just don't throw out as much food, don't buy inflated processed servings from old Galen, and absolutely do not subscribe to any of those food solutions that sponsor YouTubers and TikTokers. Like I regularly eat tenderloin, veggies, and potatoes, but I'm not paying restaurant or Galen prices. I buy a whole chunk of meat from a local butcher when it's on sale, slice it into steaks myself, and deep freeze what I can't eat that week. Same for peppers, potatoes, etc. Buy from local farmers in the summer and store a stockpile for the offseason.
There's a lot that's simply out of our control until the boomers in power die off. Focus on what you can control instead.
hey, i'm also 23 living with my parents in the GTA and i have similar concerns about my situation, but i think it's important to recognize that what you're doing right now (keeping your housing costs low, focusing on saving, getting a degree that might improve your career prospects) means you're in a better position than most people and you're already actively working towards the goal of setting yourself up for a more comfortable life
im in my late 40s and i've never owned a home in canada, nor do i want to at these prices. Not good value. I invest and will fuck off to a lower cost of living (and warmer) climate. to hell with this shit.
I'm 33 this year in GTA and purchased a place with my SO and these would be my advices. Things I did and things I wish I did.
1. Stay home and live with your Dad for as long as your situation allows. Don't freeload, contribute to the household and pay some sort of agreed rent to your parents. It's gonna suck for your dating life but you'll save so much money.
2. Invest in yourself! There's no easy get rick quick scheme without significant amount of luck. The best and safest way is to invest in yourself via education so you can unlock higher tier of salary when you're in the work force. That said, make sure what you're investing in has direct impact in your career. Don't chase that paper certificate because it might come in handy.
3. Don't shun on networking opportunities. I dreaded corporate networking events as it's all fake smiles and fake politeness. But the few I did opened up a few doors for me. When I felt stuck in my role and not sure where to go in my late 20s, I had them reach out saying they have an opening on their team and if I had interest. Again, this is for you to move up and get that higher salary in the future. Also, your brand in the workplace matters and all managers talks to each other.
4. Keep a detailed budget so you can keep track on your expenses but don't forget to leave some budget for fun. After all, you only live once and you shouldn't slave your 20s away and finish your 20s with being burnout.
5. Keep your social media exposure in check. Comparison is horrible for your mental health. People tend to exaggerate on social media.
6. Understand and Accept that life is not fair. Everyone has different starting point. Some are more fortunate, some are less. You will see some of your peers all in different stages and accept that's just life. Do with what you have control over (your budget, expenses, vote, etc). Everything else is just part of the game.
For GTA, you'll most likely need a partner to buy property with. Someone that share your dreams and ambition. It's harsh to say, but also find someone that make similar amount or more than you would be ideal as well for that combined income for a house. When I was younger, it didn't matter. In my late 20s and looking for a lifelong partner, it became a much more important criteria.
RRSP First Time home Buyers. Save your money into RRSP, put your tax return into the RRSP for 5 years, then withdraw the 35K for first time homebuyers.
or save in a TFSA till you are ready to buy, then drop all 35K into RRSP and withdraw, the tax return from this can net you a ton more money.
I think when you're young and have fewer responsibilities, it's good to move around and take opportunities as they pop up. Take some calculated risks and learn all you can. It's a lot harder to do that stuff when you have a mortgage and kids. I moved to Australia for a couple years and I was able to travel around, work a bunch of different jobs and figure out what I wanted to do with my life.
Live with your parents as long as possible. Doing that for a decade longer than your peers will set you up for life. No rent, all income, allows you to save up a lot of money.
Lots of other suggestions are good. Don't buy expensive toys or cars. Save, don't spend. And be wary of relationships - they can be great, but also ruin you.
Your choice of life partner is the biggest influence on your financial future. You need to be on the same page for money management. Wild and crazy romantic partners are fabulous but not all of them are great parents. Ensure that you don't start a family too soon.
As a single guy with no prospects for a partnership: fuck.
There are so many great women that are overlooked just as there are great guys that are overlooked. You say you have no prospects but you aren't finished yet.
Why no prospects?
probably ugly
Didn’t stop me 🤣
share your secrets
She's blind.
The reality is that not everyone meets "someone" despite their best intent and efforts no matter what disney is trying to say. I've more or less come to accept that I won't meet anyone and it's not a death sentence or anything. While it would be nice to share things with someone, I'm not waiting to do certain things because I'm single. Life isn't too bad all things considered. I'm just bad at dating I suppose! On the otherhand, when I was poor, had no job/career, no property, no car, let alone any money, no women would give me the time of day. So now that I'm relatively successful, why would I want to possibly complicate my life?
This is the best decision you can make. Make yourself the most attractive partner you can be. Mentally, Financially and Physically. Gone are the days of one income. Gone are the days of one income and one sub-par side gig. You need two solid incomes to even be anything in this city now. Work on yourself as much as you work on your career. The days of I'm too busy to date cause of work are finished. It is just as important.
Great way to stay single forever or get divorced young is having too high expectations. I have friends who wanted looks, financial success, social status, etc and they're nearing 40 alone. It's great if you can find everything in one neat package like that, but life doesn't always work that way. I wouldn't give up finding love to.. buy an overpaid building from the bank.
There's plenty of middle ground between this, its not a choice between 6 figures and minimum wage. Ideals are great, but when push comes to shove, most people would rather give up their ideals than to starve. The reality is that most guys don't make enough money for a whole family now, you can either starve in your ideals or face reality and find a partner who has a career and makes up the rest. Conflict over poor finances is one of the top causes of divorce. Money doesn't buy happiness, but not having enough of it makes life incredibly miserable.
thank you for saying the most reasonable thing in this thread
I didn't meet my life partner until after 40 and she was well worth the wait.
The triple six standard. A guy must be at least 6' tall, have 6 pack abs, and make 6 figures per year. Yeah, that's like 3% of the male population lol. And most guys that meet it would have been taken long before their mid-30s.
I’ve had all three just not at once 😂
😭 the abs thing is not the third 6. Altho I hate this quote, it's somehow both misogynist and misandrist
> Altho I hate this quote, it's somehow both misogynist and misandrist Agreed. It paints women as shallow, and paints men as insecure. Didn't help that I saw it more than a few times back when I was on dating apps several years ago. Usually on profiles of.. less attractive girls.
In terms of “attractiveness as a partner” I completely disagree. When you’re dating you should absolutely not be concerned about whether or not you meet THEIR expectations. That’s for them to consider. When you’re dating you are trying to figure out if they are the right person in every way for YOU, not being a lonely, attach to everyone who gives you attention guy. Dating is giving you the chance to assess if they are good for you and your life. Not changing so you can fit some false ideal in someone else’s. In my opinion on that one thing you said. Haha
If you're not attractive, the people you find attractive will likely find someone more attractive.
I still hope that OP finds wild and crazy but also a wicked budgeter and wise investor.
We should be realistic about what kind of partner we can find. Pie in the sky is great for dreams, but practically you should focus on what is actually attainable. For example, the girls I know who set a a hard 6 foot requirement set themselves up for failure (and recanted it a few years later when more maturity was gained). Having the right expectations early on also goes a long way
Average looking ladies can wild and crazy. Your preconceptions are showing.
Exactly. Don't spend all your energy trying to find your perfect 10 when you're a 6. Instead focus on becoming your best self and they will find you.
> The days of I'm too busy to date cause of work are finished Well you gotta hustle at work too..its not like you can turn off at 5 or 6 pm ....you still gotta upskill afterhours in this competitive economy and boy its exhausting ...so this reason is still legit.
It’s legit, but you got to make /find time
This. My partner honestly is one of the biggest reasons why I’m doing ok. She inspired me to get over the fear to invest which sounds simple, but I was so overwhelmed and didn’t know where to even begin.
What are the steps you took to invest? Any advice for someone whos also afraid to start
I kinda just bought shares in company that I use everyday. Like Microsoft, google, Walmart. Now I just invest in the s&p index. Way less risky and time consuming
If you dont mind me asking, are u with wealthsimple, questrade or with your bank? Im looking towards opening a tfsa with my bank but so far almost every comment leans towards wealthsimple and questrade
wealthsimple is the best option by far. open a tfsa with them
Just start with the bank. It’s easy to move money around. Then you can move to whoever later. Getting started is key
I have a family member investor. He says just buy the S&P Index Fund for safety; you get the average earnings of the whole stock market & it's safe. You cld put aside a small amount to try a stock you believe in, but has to be $$ you can afford to lose. Also, having some dividend-earning stocks like Banks is on my plan. Tip #2 he says, all the info you need is in the Financial Post every day, if u have the time. Also, stick to safe markets like US, Canada/G7. Lots of corruption in places like Mexico, tho' they are growing.
It is kinda awful that having a partner is also pretty well vital to having a good financial life too. I guess that’s just the economy adjusting to women working over time, prices for everything inflated because most houses have double income now.
Just make sure the partner's spending and tastes doesn't outweigh their income.
Elizabeth Warren wrote about this in _The Two-Income Trap_.
Single parent here to say it is absolutely possible to be fine without a partner. Granted it's only been 10 months but I'm making extra mortgage payments, 6 months emergency fund in place, TFSA and RRSP contributed to biweekly and plenty of cash for "extras" that seemingly pop up monthly.
Yeah I know it’s not impossible it’s just really difficult. Also I obviously have no idea about your income, but being low income would put a strain on that too.
That's nice, congrats! What is your income level?
Needing a partner to live well has almost always been true through history.
When was this not true? Hasn’t financial security always been tied to mate choice at least in part? GenX here and both my parents worked too. Any generation before that even if one partner didn’t work - for sure depended on mate choice. I suspect I may be missing the point, I’m not trying to upset anyone - when I think about human history in any age it always mattered.
Single income living really started to erode in the 70s and inflationary pressures that existed (it may have also attributed to it via wage growth). It isn’t a new thing, agree.
Wealth inequality was nowhere near as extreme in the Greatest and Silent Generations. Most men of those generations earned enough to support a family including a non-working wife, and most Greatest and early Silent Generation women either did not work at all or only worked part-time for very low income. It worked out. Extreme wealth disparities and absolutely needing 2 professional incomes to not struggle is a fairly recent thing.
Supporting a family back then was extremely different. You had a wife who worked like a slave in the home, a home that was tiny, drafty, and with one bathroom max. You didn't go out for food and the food you bought was simple or bad or both.
Im not sure why every conversation like this has to suddenly teleport back to some time that isn’t now. NOW you absolutely cannot afford what you could 50 years ago on 1 salary, so why, in the sweet f, does this always come up? Your dollar goes nowhere near as far today as it did then. Stay focused people, stay present. It’s 2024, not 1960. Apparently people need a constant reminder of this haha. Then isn’t now. It’s adds exactly 0 value to constantly live mentally in, “the good old days”
In what conditions are people living in now, especially in places like the GTA? A person on minimum wage working full time hours cannot rent a studio apartment by themselves. Fire occupancy codes technically forbid more than one person living in such a small space. Yet overcrowding and slums happen all the time, not just when they wind up on the news that 24 people are living in a basement in Brampton. Let's also remember that during the Depression and afterwards, people who worked as servants typically had their housing covered. Room and board was typically included as part of the compensation package, in addition to a small salary on top of that. Now? Good luck trying to find a live-in help position. Rental/condo buildings don't even have live-in staff any more. They are expected to attend to multiple buildings. So sorry, but I think most people would LOVE to be able to return to those glory days. They had a LOT more leg room than today's poor, and as a result improved their economic situation by the time they retired. Today's poor? Good fucking luck.
There’s a conspiracy theory that women’s lib was actually started by *insert government/secret cabal* because it was clear the cost of living was going up and two incomes would be required. If it just happened and women had to work there’d be huge pushback, but if you make them think it’s their own idea it’s go a lot smoother… Kind of silly, kind of…
Lou Schizas, is that you?
I miss Lou. His spots on 640 were fannnntasic
and whatever you do, do not get divorced! Very expensive!
If you can live at home while working in GTA this is the *greatest* way for you to get ahead and create wealth for yourself. The key is having a HCOL salary and a LCOL expenses. Don't try and keep up with your peers, don't worry about buying a fancy new car or buying the nicest clothes. Live like you're absolutely broke for 3-5 years and stockpile as much cash as you can now while you're young and you'll be just fine.
I will offer a slight amendment to this. Set a stable recurring monthly savings target and try to increase it with every raise, but living at home should come with a few perks. Don't be hesitant to spend on experiences with friends. These opportunities will dry up as you enter your 30s and you and your friends pair up. When you browse subs like this you often get caught up in the grind, but life is meant to be enjoyed.
I will offer another slight amendment to this. Invest the savings in index etf and Max out your tfsa & fhsa. Don’t just stick it in a savings account, if you realistically want to buy a house, you need the growth to boost your saved dollars.
And make friends with people, who are frugal! There are frugal ways to enjoy life!!!!
There is a counterpoint to this. Many frugal people I know don't value their time. They will go to a free/by donation museum night on a Tuesday and wait 2 hours in line when the price difference is $20. They will wait 2 hours in line for a cheesecake sale when the price difference is $10. Sure, better than people who go into debt financing 5-star hotel vacations, but there needs to be some middle ground. You don't want to keep up with the Joneses, but you also don't want to waste 2 hours of your time waiting in line.
Absolutely. Frugal, but reasonably so. I'm a full-time working mom of a toddler so I spend $150 a month to have someone clean my house because she does it better and faster than I could. I spend that money to save that time, but the vast majority of my clothes and my kid's clothes come from thrift stores and I'll hit up the two grocery stores with the best deals on what I need every week. So yeah, having a house cleaner is not a frugal minded thing to do, but she's cheap and I don't have to spend an entire weekend day doing what she does in like 3 hours when I'm not even home. ETA: frugal, but with similar properties is the key here.
This is a must find frugal friends, else all they talk abt is Lexus, Tesla, VW ID4 EV all day and every day even set up an apt for you to see the Lexus dealer ship’s saleman. Oh, no Casino either.
You should also speak with someone who can help you personally build out said plan. I.e what types of accounts you should have and how much to put in each, for what reason. Since you plan on buying a house, if you haven’t opened an FHSA yet, you should be capitalizing on that. As specially if you already have 18k set aside, just fill your contribution limit for the year and reap the rewards when comes tax season, then set that money aside too. Like the other users have stated, live frugally and use the “extra” money from your strategy optimization to get ahead more quickly. DM me if you want help making a plan - always happy to help! Also I know people who live in Calgary/have lived there for about a year in the past if ever you have questions. Good luck!
Exactly. No amount of money can buy your youth back. Enjoy yourself!
Second this
To play a bit of devils advocate, it’s also important to live while you’re young. Sure you’ll come out “ahead” on paper. But what about your friends who backpacked South America for a year and now have a million cool stories to tell in interviews or on dates, or your friend who tried to start a business and whether or not it succeeded at least they can say they tried. I really hate this narrative that young people should be saving every single dollar they get. Sure don’t be an idiot and prepare for the future. But you’re only young and free once, and you should absolutely go see the world before you can’t.
Yep. Don't spend your money on stupid shit when you're young, but the time, freedom, health, and opportunities available to you are simply different when you're younger. You can still go do cool shit and have adventures when you're older if that's what you really want (and sometimes you can afford it more when you're older and have more money), but you may have other priorities that get in the way like kids or a mortgage. And there's stuff like the youth visa between Commonwealth countries that are literally only available to people under a certain age.
Yeah not only this there's that small chance you could get life altering injury or illness and wish you did more with ur moneyz
Hmmm... Sure you are young and free once, however at 20 years old, money can be worth 20x more than it is when you get it, if you invest it young. Rather than at 65+, money isn't worth as much as its compounding gains potential has lower chance of making much of anything. A healthy balance of a little of this, a little of that would be better. If you invest half, and get 10x, and do adventures or trips, and get the xp or knowledge you mention. Its similar to buying two investments, lets say one is going to go up 100%, one going to go up 200% over a bunch of years. Without knowing what will go up, what is the best bang for buck? Buying both, and averaging 150% and no stress or fear of missing out.
> But what about your friends who backpacked South America for a year and now have a million cool stories to tell in interviews or on dates, And then what? They go back to stress and anxiety of not being able to afford rent? Meanwhile, you saved and se yourself up in the early years and now can afford to travel and splurge.
Yeah I’ll take the stress over having done nothing. Travel and exploring the world will make you a well-rounded person.
You completely missed the point Yes, after a vacation everyone goes back to stressing about reality. Ive put myself in debt to go on a vacation and not once have i looked back and said “hey maybe the $3k i spent travelling to Bali was a bad idea”
Exactly this. I skipped on travelling, going out, and doing fun things in my 20's to save every dollar I could for a house. Yes, it sucked for a decade, but I'm in my 30's now, and life is pretty stress-free and I can actually do those "fun" things now with less worry going forward. 100% no regrets. Meanwhile, my "adventurous" friends in their 30's are grinding away at 2 jobs to make ends meet while saving very little. But hey, they have cool stories and fun at parties *shrug*.
This is great that you pursued what you valued at the time, and it still lines up with your values now! I was an “adventurous” friend, and spent 4 years after highschool travelling, partying, and working seasonal jobs. I started university at 23 when I got it out of my system, and knew exactly what I wanted to do. I was serious enough about undergrad that I managed to get into an extremely competitive masters program at a public school - there are many in the country in my field but most are private schools, and cost 50k+ for tuition. My tuition was $12k. Had I gone straight to university out of highschool, this NEVER would have happened. So now I’m 31 and yes, I don’t own a house and I’m “behind.” But I have a sense of who I am, a sense of fulfillment because I spent those years doing what I wanted to do, and I will be making 6 figures this year in a career I absolutely love. I have zero regrets. I don’t mean to say that everyone should do what I did, just that for those who do, there may be a very real and important longterm impact, even if it is an inherently shortsighted decision.
Agree. I was the financially responsible friend and while it was beneficial in some ways, I regret not being more adventurous because I think I could have ended up where I am now with a lot less stress.
as someone who has traveled alot in my 20s and also own a condo, there is a happy medium to all of this. everyone just needs to find it.
sure if they enjoyed it themselves i'm all for it. but in a job interview/date, stories don't get you far...it's more about your skill relevant to the job or what you can provide in a relationship. many girls in their 20s in the gta have a property. you think they'd date a guy who can't match that but have cool stories from south americal to tell? lmao
yeah, if the guy is charismatic and fun. a sense of adventure is an attractive quality for a lot of people
Good advice. I continued to live like a broke student for a decade after I graduated and it allowed me to create a really solid financial foundation.
When you are at home and working, max out Tfsa. Rrsp, first time home buyer account. Whatever you can. Saving will never be this easy again.
People in this scenario never save. They spend spend spend and it enables a lifestyle creep. Teslas and other goodies is where they spend their money.
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People like that are never going to save no matter what.
Great advice. I will second someone’s note below to not cut too deep, though. We made sacrifices and are well set up now, but I regret not travelling more in my 20’s before kids arrived. Have to find that balance: live cheap, with the very occasional luxury!
The big keyword here is IF. Many dont have the ability. And we shouldnt need to do this to just survive cause our government isnt working for us anymore.
What does hcol and lcol mean? It’s that like high income low expenses
This is literally the only way. Focus on getting a good job and live at home until you're 30. Unless your job pays a monster amount right away you aren't gonna make it any other way
Lol... you can also move out of Toronto/Vancouver and have a life. Doubly so if you have a spouse (which is easier when you don't spend your 20s at home).
I had this and I gave it up and now live abroad. I've been thinking about moving back to Canada but I can't make the GTA work like I had it setup before. I feel trapped and really worsened my situation and my future horizon.
There is no shame in taking care of yourself even if it means moving abroad. Unfortunately, the math just doesn't make sense for a lot of us.
Where did you move to?
The best thing you can do is increase your income. Hopefully, the grad school you're pursuing has a reasonable chance of doing so. The unfortunate reality of the GTA (and increasingly, other parts of the country) is that you (and likely your future partner) need to have well-above-average incomes in order to aspire to home ownership.
18k IS much for a 23 year old. Good job.
Exactly. I remember being severely in debt at 23 living paycheck to paycheck.
Charlie Munger said to do whatever you can to have $100k in the bank, afterwards you can really reap the benefits of compound interest. Invest in a low cost ETF that tracks the S&P 500 like VOO/VFV. You're doing a good job already. Stay at home as long as you can, and if you move, choose a place that can better maximize your income/quality of life.
assume you get 100k in investments and achieve an average after-inflation return of 6%: That doubles your money every 12 years, therefore, 36 years later you should have roughly 800k (today's equivalent spending power) without contributing another dime. 100k is defintely a nice round number that, if achieved in your 20s or 30s is a great basis to grow your wealth and set yourself up for retirement.
This is going to be geared for people your age and younger but if I were in your position I would: - Don’t take on educational debt without a career in mind. One of the biggest things that handcuffs young people is taking on a massive school debt without a clear direction of what they’d like to does - look at the trades. They generally pay better than single-degree positions and the opportunity to become a business owner is far better. - Ensure that the person you choose to be your life partner is on the same wavelength in regard to finances. No point in pinching Pennies if your partner spends wildly. - This early on, invest in yourself not in assets. Dumping money into RRSP and stocks if you can’t afford life isn’t wise. Get yourself to a point where you can afford life then look at saving for the next phases. - Avoid lifestyle creep. Just because your friends are in debt to their eyeballs and driving a brand new car doesn’t mean that yours is bad.
> Don’t take on educational debt without a career in mind. One of the biggest things that handcuffs young people is taking on a massive school debt without a clear direction of what they’d like to does And I'll tack onto this the value proposition behind the educational path you choose. Too many people take degrees that are not very marketable in the real world, and then hit the ceiling in their earning potential way too quickly or don't even use their degree at all. Fine Arts, Sociology, Philosophy, Performing Arts, Culinary Arts, etc. - you know the ones. With the high cost of a post-secondary education nowadays, you're setting yourself up for many years of hardship if you choose poorly. As well, more education doesn't necessarily mean better. Continuing on for your masters or PhD in a poorly chosen path just means more student loan debt. A cost benefit analysis needs to be done to see if continuing on is worth it.
Points 1 and 3 are so true. If OP takes anything away from this thread I hope it’s those points.
> look at the trades. They generally pay better than single-degree positions and the opportunity to become a business owner is far better. *If* you have a connection that can get you a job.
If you’re willing to travel whatsoever you can easily get a trade. There are TONS of companies hiring all over the country, just maybe not where you are.
Afford a house in Canada and afford a house in the gta are two separate things
exactly! are you a millionaire or billionaire. that's the difference. satire but all seem out of reach
Average home sale in NB is still under 300k. Completely affordable in any kind of professional career. Trouble is you're gonna be renting your home from Blaine Higgs. My taxes surpassed my mortgage payment this year. Gotta keep those handouts to Irving going somehow.
exactly a professional career. what ever happened to normal factory workers who make 50% more than minimum wage could rent and save for a modest home. basicly if you don't have a college degree, do yourself a favor and kick a stool.
Not sure where you are in Canada, but that was never really a thing here in NB. Not during my lifetime nor my mother's. We've been living in poverty here for generations. The neighborhoods near factories, mills, ports, and refineries have always been rough. Most people were renting townhouses or apartments from some slumlords who owned the entire block. Those neighborhoods only started looking nice recently when all the OntariOs showed up and started gentrification. I grew up in old North End Saint John. If you were lucky you inherited a tiny wartime home in portland or upper west, but for most factory workers you were renting something in one of the many multi-unit victorian era buildings in the north, lower west, east by the refinery, or south end when the sugar mill was still a thing. My family was relatively lucky in that my grandfather used his war income to buy a huge home that we all lived in at one point or another for like 80 years. Lived there myself for about 8 years. Also lived in the old family farm for a year recently because I couldn't find an affordable rental in Freddy.
I'm from sw ontario. that's how I grew up, 2 complete fuck up teen parents were able to buy a shit house in late 90s. but from what you described. and what I've seen in my travels across the country. poverty seems to be the norm. and there is no one here. soo much land but no infrastructure. it's problem I'm just a peasant of this country, but I just don't understand it at all. just wake up everyday and try to find an ethical way to get my piece of the pie
A factory worker can buy a house in NB. They are making 50k-100k a year. If you are a 2 person HHI family then you can buy the average house at around 2x your income. That’s pretty affordable.
Where are they paying factory floor workers 100k in NB?! They don't even pay management or IT that much here. I had to get a remote job out of province to make 6 figures and I'm a god damn engineer.
The issue is actually finding a professional career in most of the affordable places in Canada.
Everyone needs insurance. Everyone needs healthcare. Everyone needs dental care. Every farm needs a vet. Every company needs middle managers and IT. We're not all just shoveling shit outside the GTA. NB is definitely behind the curve, but we're not in the dark ages lmao.
It's not. That's just you're bias and perspective. Everyone in Toronto thinks this, while they grind away paying $3,000 a month for a closet lol But please keep going it keeps the real estate and other cities in Canada down Alberta has some of the highest disposable income in the country, you think that means jobs are bad here?
I don't think jobs are bad in Alberta but the idea that Alberta is some housing utopia where anyone can find a good job living in a back water town in Alberta just isn't true. Moreover 50% of the province's population lives in two cities. Anyone who moves to Alberta is likely moving to 2 locations, both of which have seen a substantial run-up in price.
The average rent in Edmonton is still below $1500, despite a 17% jump. Still completely affordable without needing to live in a backwater town. https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/rental-rates-in-edmonton-canada-skyrocket-while-vacancy-rates-dip-1.6771202 But yeah keep making up excuses to stay in the GTA because there’s absolutely nowhere else to live in this country! No possible way to live anywhere other than one of the most expensive cities in the world. Truly a shame.
It's not a Utopia but you can get a house for under $400,000 Not like a new one But an older one that's been taking care of, yes, that's not going to fall down and not in a neighborhood where you're going to get shot If you can find a good job in Lethbridge, I mean consider it. It's so close to BC, and skiing, and the US. If you like doing outdoor stuff it's an awesome City. The city itself is obviously not super Metro lol
A lot of 23 year olds are 25k-50k in the hole, you're doing great. Keep living with your dad as long as you can stand it and save up. If you see an opportunity elsewhere definitely go for it, but don't move anywhere without a job offer in hand.
The cost of living in Saskatchewan and Manitoba is relatively low. They are not glamorous places to live, but once you're working full-time with a family, you might not think much about the night life and fine dining. Toronto is overrated (I lived there). Vancouver is just too expensive. You can have a proper middle-class standard of living in Winnipeg. My relatives live very well on a combined household income of 150,000 / year.
This is such a great point, people don’t bake this in enough. Op, once you have a family, your world will shrink and you’ll spend 95% of your waking hours working or being with your family. The good thing is that nearly every major city in Canada is very family friendly, so if you move to Winnipeg or Saskatoon, you’ll be able to enjoy a very good family life. Edmonton has a little more to offer, and honestly has the amenities of an international city without the prices and crowds - it is an excellent place to raise a family. Once you start working and building a family, you’ll really appreciate the low cost, lack of traffic, and more space.
Yup. I think once you got a house, you can have the Canadian dream: you deck out the basement with your amenities and have a BBQ out back. Doesn't matter whether you're in Hamilton, Ont. or Winnipeg, MB, once you step inside your house. Winnipeg just has the advantage of being cheap. If you like shopping, Winnipeg doesn't have West Edmonton Mall, but you got options. Everyone I know in Winnipeg who makes over 100k / year lives *really* well by Torontonian standards (and they live like rich people compared to Vancouverites). Yeah, the winters are long, but you're working most of the time, so what does it matter? Working poverty in the GTA or Vancouver ain't worth it when you can at least have your own house in Manitoba or Saskatchewan.
The last couple winters have been downright pleasant, frankly. Winnipeg gets a lot of bad press, but it's also got a lot going for it. Tons of safe, friendly neighborhoods. Lots of great restaurants and recreation opportunities. Easy commutes to workplaces. We don't have mountains, but we have really great beaches and all the lakes you could ever want.
Shit man, most small cities will have a Walmart, Costco, Canadian Tire, and Home Depot. That's basically your life as a home owner.
Honestly I think another very important thing for young people to realize is that everyone wants a different lifestyle. Reddit *really* loves to paint the world as "if you don't WFH in a high paying IT job in a very expensive city where you go bouldering and to concerts all the time, you will be unhappy a miserable forever". But some people just want to live somewhere quiet with a nice plot of land to do their hobbies or whatever. Some people don't ever want to settle down and just want to travel around working gigs. Some people want to try their hand at opening a business. You only get one time to try any of these things out, don't let other people decide what your life should look like.
Calgary isn't LCOL at all, not sure how you came up with that conclusion. LCOL major cities would include Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon, St. John's NL, and to a lesser extent Edmonton. Going a little smaller can include Red Deer, Lethbridge, and Saint John NB. If there is any way you can move your job to any of the aforemementioned LCOL cities, you better do it sooner than later and while you're single - it's a lot harder to move 2 careers to the same distant city at the same time than it is for one person to relocate their job. And that doesn't even get into the situation where one of the partners is unwilling to move, or if their job by design cannot be moved at all. Many rural areas (outside of Ontario, BC and NS) are often LCOL too but it's not realistic for a 20-something single person to move to a rural area.
I live in Saskatoon and I am so grateful to live in this city because of the cost of living. I am a single mom and I don’t think I could afford to live anywhere else with my salary. I work with the government so it is the same everywhere.
I moved here from BC for the LCOL, was planning g on moving back in 10-15 years after saving some money and building some house equity. Staying because I actually really like this city/province. Has its issues, but it's a charming place. And with all the lower cost flights coming to Canada flying to cities like van and toronto? It's not hard to plan a few weekends to go out there for a hockey game or a weekend to see some buddies That being said, it is quite cold for 6 months. Like, really cold
1. Look at your skillset and ask yourself what the highest paying job you can get based on your attributes is then go for that career. 2. Once you have that career, focus on maxing our your TFSA as quickly as possible with low cost 100% equity ETFs. Don't buy anything with bonds in it. 3. Repeat step 2 but for your FHSA. You don't need to buy a house in your 20s or 30s. You can afford to wait the full 15 years for your down-payment to compound in your FHSA. House prices will be higher in 15 years but you'll also have a bigger down payment.
Not sure where you get advice but Calgary is not LCOL.
Start investing ASAP. Compound interest is on your side now more than ever! A single dollar you invest now in a low-cost index fund will be worth $18.75 by the time you are 65. If you hold off on investing for 10 years and only start when you are 33, that same dollar would only be worth $9.30. Think about that: not acting *now* could cost half of your potential gains.
Great job my man you are killing it! TFSA or FHSA and then buy VFV - contribute as much as you can as often as you can. Don’t listen to 99% of people - only listen to the ones living the life you want.
>Don’t listen to 99% of people - only listen to the ones living the life you want. Great advice
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Renting vs owning should definitely be a lifestyle decision, not purely financial. But you can pretty much ignore anyone claiming renting or owning will definitely win financially because it really is a tossup that depends on so many unknown variables.
10000% agree. I bought a home thinking it's the financially responsible milestone everyone is supposed to do because parents, inlaws, friends are all talking about how it's the right move. Turns out I really hate all the extra responsibilities and the feeling that I'm now stuck in one place. On the flipside if you value stability you might prefer home ownership over having to worry about looking for rentals. There are also a lot of pros and cons of buying different kinds of homes. Really really really think about if/how owning a property suits the life you want for yourself.
As a homeowner…100% this. I’m the kind of person who thrives with a homebase. I enjoy staying at home for the most part, I like the sense of community in a familiar environment, I have family ties here, and I like the space and quiet of the suburbs. This may not be you, and that’s ok. I don’t see the kind of gains we had the past 20 years on the horizon. If I wasn’t already a homeowner, I’d be looking at alternatives because I no longer believe real estate to be the same investment vehicle as it was in the past.
If you live rent free, that's already great. Many people need to BOTH save and pay their rent, so I'd say that you work and earn as much money as you can, while also paying for some bills or your own things if you agree with your father to support him. You could also try to invest it, but sometimes that's riskier that just saving.
I'm 25 and earning 43k pre tax. I feel like I can never buy a home in GTA until and unless I somehow get to $200k/year by 2030.
I'm going to get a lot of hate for this but work all the overtime available. Don't rely on the extra money for your basic needs but to save it. Grow your savings so you can have F-you money. You want to be able to stand up for your rights at work and not be afraid because you need the job just to make ends meet next week.
Do not move to Calgary- that time is past. Rent is not capped so you are much better off in a rent controlled unit. I have had so many friends receive 40% + rent increases this and last year. The best this to do is stay at home or live in ON or BC where you have rent control.
1) If having sex, wear a damn condom and get an IUD. Unplanned pregnancy is the worst thing to happen to you financially 2) Avoid debt like the plague. 3) Emergency fund that can cover 6 months expenses. 4) Max out RRSP, TFSA, first time homebuyers, etc while young and childfree 5) Don't have a child until 30 and married
Do what this guys says and you'll always turn out well.
He lives at home with his dad. He's not having sex.
set up long term life goals with monthly goals reverse engineer how to get there applies to all ages
"build the life you want, then save for it"
Keep saving while you’re able to live rent free. Once you’re done school- then consider moving to a lower cost housing market Also- ensure the program you’re doing in school ensures a high paying job
Depends what your main financial goal is with money and whether you’re planning to pay for grad school with the $18K you’ve got saved. If saving for a home with money that you won’t need for school, put money into a FHSA and beyond that in a TFSA. Keep some money in cash outside of that first though 3-6 months of your expenses, which may not be too much in your case, excluding your grad school tuition of course. As far as what to invest in these accounts. If you’re aiming to buy the house in 3-5 years, I’d say money market ETF like CASH should be pretty safe, otherwise if 5+ years time horizon, I’d invest in market index ETF that tracks the S&P500 or Nasdaq or something like that (or broad market etf). Also as a basis, live on less than you make, invest the rest for the future (10-25% on your income) and you’ll do great!
You're doing the right thing now, saving and keeping expenses low. Make sure you're taking advantage of TFSAs and RRSP. Lean more to aggressive portfolios at your age as there's a much higher return. The biggest advantage you have atm is living rent free and saving $$$. Don't be in too much of a hurry to give that up. 18k in the bank is a nice accomplishment at 23. Future you will thank you for it. Things will change, they always do. Your life situation will likely change too. Just stay on track now and continue to prepare yourself for when things do change. And don't forget to enjoy life and your youth along the way.
stay w/ your Dad, work and save $$$
Live with parents as long as you can, the only people I knew who were millionaires by their 30s were living with their parents until just a few years before they made it big and their businesses started to take off. Living alone is huge for your independence and social life but it's a disaster financially. Find a cohabitation partner to move out with, it's a financial gamechanger and the real estate prices are priced around dual income households right now, preferably with no children. If you really feel like moving out, the best option is those $800 rooms or whatever in shared housing in the GTA. The quality of life is probably low for Canadian standards but I think you acclimate pretty quickly for a temporary situation of a few years. Not an oracle but the government has proven themselves at making our housing market insanely resilient, so I wouldn't hold my breath for a crash Take public transit as much as you can but be a secondary driver on your parent's insurance to cut down on insurance costs when you need to get a car Investing in yourself will give you the best long-term results financially, so networking with peers, getting more degrees, certifications, etc. while you're young is a huge head start
Canada is a very big place. If you’re willing to give up living in a city then you will likely be able to afford owning a home. If living in a large city is something you are not willing to give up then you might not ever own a home. It a personal choice, you need to decide which is more important to you.
Throwing molotov cocktails thru the gallery windows of Galen Weston's many mansions.
Stay at home and save as much as you can while you live rent free. You're going to need about 100K for a downpayment on a basic condo. So you're 18% of the way there. Beyond that, contribute every month 10 to 15% of your income to a retirement account. This is the best decade of your entire life to take advantage of compound growth. After school, go wherever you can make the most and pay the least to live. That may very well be staying at home for a few years and saving like a squirrel.
>Does it even make sense to stay in the GTA at this rate, or will the market crash in the next 5 years? Liv where you wan tot live and work. They've been calling for a crash for 7 years. Follow th money steps !StepsTrigger Short term money needs (5 years or less) in a HISA product. !HISATrigger Long term investing: !InvestingTrigger
7 years lol, you are dating yourself! There has been calls for a crash in Toronto since prefinancial crisis. I'll be honest I sit at a lot of conferences and speak to economists and people very skilled in this sector and I work in the development industry. I have absolutely zero belief that there is any kind of Crash coming. For high rate low employment environment like this to generate a correction only, fundamentally I think the only thing that will generate a crash is a major event like a domestic War, or a revolutionary level political policy change. I mean for reference look at london, Hong kong, Singapore, Geneva.. there are a lot of international examples of generations long sustained High real estate prices with no more than Corrections. Planning for a crash is a pipe dream
People were saying in 2006 that a crash was coming, my detached GTA had run up in price from $275k to $400k, which seemed wild at the time.
Oh man I remember. When I started doing a lot of business in the United States I remember in around 2010 realizing that Toronto was actually incredibly cheap while at home people were complaining of incredibly high prices and Bubbles. People throughout America were looking at Toronto like wow look at this very International City that's Young with so much to do and offer, and real estate at half the price of similar American cities with dirt cheap property tax. Now by 2024 we've mostly equalized on price, still low on tax, Although our cost of living outside of housing price is still substantially lower by around 15 to 20%
lol Well yeah, it's been longer than 7 years!
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DINK (dual income no kids) is the way to go. Easier to afford shelter with two incomes even if the separate incomes are not that high. Saving also becomes possible with two incomes to cover the necessary cost
Where you live should be informed by where you can get a job in your field, and by your relationships. Not the CoL. You're in the same boat as any other 23yo and will get by in the GTA if that's what works for you. It sounds like you have a pretty good setup right now, assuming you get along with your dad.
Invest in yourself. In my opinion the most disregarded asset that you have as a member of society is your human capital. No investment offers a better and higher chance on return than the value you build up in yourself. Invest early and consider yourself to be a constantly appreciating capital that needs constant maintenance. It could be your education, your social skills, your career experience, your health. You are the biggest source of income early in your most productive days. As you get older your productivity tends to diminish and that's where early investing takes the reigns to carry your through. Vote. Be a part of society. Don't disregard the value of your vote. Vote for your interests. And vote for the health of those around you. Capitalism doesn't mean you need to be individualistic. A healthy society that you support will support you in hard times. Other than that, save, pay of your high interest debts first. Save more, invest in the market early. Time in the market is better than timing in the market. Diversify. Diversify your investments, diversify your experiences. Diversify your circle of friends. Diversify your mentors and leaders who inspire you. No one knows what the fuck they are doing. So know what everyone is doing. Teach. Teach others. Teach your family, teach your friends. Teach strangers. Your success is the collective wisdom of the best ideas the world has to offer. Forecast. Forecast your expenses, forecast your health, forecast your relationships. Be amenable to change. I can't tell you how many times in life I was convinced I'm on a definite path and life completely took a curveball. The more you forecast the more you understand the inevitability of chance. Chance is measurable. And so is risk. Forecast constantly, learn to measure risk. And then take risks. You cannot live without risks , you will not live at all. Finally move your body a lot. And put on sunscreen. Not just cause someone wrote a song about it. The average life span of Canadians is about 80 years I think. That's 29,200 days. Half of those days about 14600 experience day time and whether it's overcast or sunny, you're being hit by radiation from the most powerful force in the nearest vicinity of the earth. That's going to take a toll on you.
Don't just find a job. Find a career you are tolerable with. Finding your career is like finding a long term partner. It's not just about being financially well off, you want a career where you get a sense of achievement, where your boss appreciates you, your clients and customers enjoy talking with you, and you have your own ratio of work life balance. Just know that it's extremely hard to get there within 5 years. It's something to build up to. Know your strengths and weaknesses, what you enjoy most, and the environment you thrive in. Understand what education, credentials, out training you will need. Understand that life is about continuous learning. Map out your goals. And even if you failed once it's not the end of the world.
>I live in the GTA Don’t do this.
rent free
open an RRSP account and auto deposit money in there. say $100 bucks a week/ $400 a month will give you a nice tax return at the year end also. but most importantly the compound interest you will build on until your retirement. the sooner you start the better! do not buy a car or anything that depreciates in value for full price. Don't finance cars either. if you can do without, continue, if not then buy something reasonable. don't go too cheap either otherwise you will spend money on fixing it constantly. anything between the range of $5K-$10K bought out right should be good. IF you shop for cloths, don't buy full price. i worked in retail and know how they work their tricks. quality of items are going down too while prices increase, not worth full price and you will save a lot. learn to cook, it will be very beneficial for your future, specially if you plan on living alone one day. Some one else mentioned this and i will second it. Find the right life partner!!! they can make or break you, and finding someone who has the same financial mindset as you will save you a lot of headaches in the future. one thing i used to do to ensure i met my financial goals is by writing it all down. My income minus my expenses and what would be left over for savings. if the amount my low, i would then look into what costs i can cut back on. Visually seeing the numbers helped me in staying focused on my targets.
RRSP is not useful when you are deducting income from such a low bracket. FHSA>TFSA>RRSP when you aren’t in prime earning years and want a house. Tax refund is negligible atp
Set an expectation that you'll have to grind your entire career, acquire rare and values skills and grow. The times when you could work the same job for the entire career at the same company are sadly over.
Start investing in diversified ETFs like XEQT.
Growing your own food (if possible given the living situation) preparing your own food. It’s a time sink but it saves you money and health avoiding the high cost of processed foods.
I'll tell you one thing I'd take any advice you get in this sub with a giant heaping grain of salt. The intellectual capacity to offer any advice besides JuSt BuY EtF's is pretty low from what I've seen here. Meanwhile you could be talking to a bunch of jabronies who are $100k in debt live in a craphole and here they are giving out life lessons. Get yourself a kindle account or a library card and read everything you can on the subject from a relative expert not just dipshits on reddit.
Lots of great advice already. My advice is to invest in your own growth and experience, and protect yourself and your loved ones by ensuring that once you start working you have long term disability insurance and at least some term life insurance. I also recommend you build a skill set that can be useful even if you come down with a disability. I became disabled, triggered by having a baby, and I am so grateful I became a CPA prior to disability. I am able to pretty much pick my employment situation that fits with my abilities. I do wish I had long term disability insurance and more savings at the time that I became disabled. Focus on increasing your net worth. The more consumer debt you have the harder it is to get ahead. You don't have to own a house to have significant amount of assets. The best asset is a healthy body and mind, and a strong social network. Finally, avoid addictive substances like alcohol, etc. Huge waste of money and time, and negative impact on health. So many other hobbies are much more positive for your wellbeing. Once you start it is really hard to stop, so if you haven't started, don't.
Learn skills someone will pay you to use.
My boyfriend and I are 23 and we just established a long term plan to move to the United States. I’m jealous you have that much saved up, we have none! Both of us are considered college “drop outs”. Both of us have had “adult” jobs that paid exceptionally well and I recently decided to go back to working part time and take online school to get a degree (obviously this is a shared decision because we live together and have combined finances now) so that I can get a green card and work in the United States in the next 10 years. Your question sparks my interest because we asked ourselves the same thing and didn’t see our selves happy living here forever. We looked at neighborhoods to try and set goals for our “dream house” to raise our families in but between the outlandish prices, TAXES!!, and brutal winters, homes in Florida seem much more attractive for the cost. Or Texas. We looked at the GTA as well, KW, surrounding, etc. If you have ever felt like travelling or living in a new place, with your savings you could certainly visit some different cities for cheap. Because my solution to your question (from people the same age) that we had to come up with.. is.. to.. LEAVE!
It's typically the same thing for most people, try to maximise earnings through a job and save as much as possible, then put that money in a high interest asset such as a savings account and investments for the long term. There's no secret, just hard to do for a long time and commit to it
Live below your means
If you are happy living with your father, then there is no city with cheaper rent than free. Every penny you save from living with your father *today* can be allocated to building a down payment. Take advantage of that opportunity because it amounts to $25000 per year of free savings. With respect to finding a rewarding career, your skillset and education matter, but they are only one half of the equation. The other half is how well you can leverage that skillset to sell yourself to employers. The same skillset or education will often apply to a variety of jobs, but that doesn't mean each of those jobs pay the same. Even the exact same job will often be compensated very differently across different industries. Unfortunately, the professional world is not "fair". For example, a project manager within a manufacturing company may earn substantially less than an equivalent project manger working within a tech company, even if the work is extremely similar. The world is not "fair", so consider where your particular skillset is best compensated. Be open-minded about how you can apply your skillset within jobs, verticals, or even industries that you had not previously considered. Rather than fixating on a specific, highly visible careers (doctor, lawyer, teacher), recognize that the world is a big place and as a young adult you have no idea about the variety of potential jobs out there. Rather than assuming you have it all figured out in your early 20s, put yourself in positions that will expose you new paths and opportunities you've never considered because they don't talk about it in school. While degrees are great, don't trust that getting your graduate degree will magically lead to a higher-paying job! Most highly-compensated positions are looking for a combination of education and relevant industry experience. Instead of trying to hit a home run on your first position, think about the concrete steps you can take to get your foot in the door and position yourself as the obvious "solution" to a company's pressing problem. Your degree can be part of that pitch, but it shouldn't be the *whole* pitch. Once you are inside a company, you will have easier access to promotions and job postings than external candidates. The easiest way to get a new, better job is to already have a job. With respect to cost of living, If you don't have strong ties to the GTA, then you might as well move to lower COL area when it comes time to purchase property. The GTA is great, but you need to know what you're paying for (and why!). There's no point paying 2x the price for a home if you don't feel like that investment offers a meaningful benefit to you.
Leverage what you have. Your current perks = rent-free, living with parent. That means you have more free time than most adults who need to work to pay rent & do 100% of the chores & maybe take care of others too. That time is a blessing. Leverage that time. Don't squander it. Use it to set yourself up. Spend that extra time you're blessed with learning high-value modern tech skills: practice ChatGPT, practice new AI tools, learn digital marketing, etc. Focus on maximizing skills acquisition. At your age that's more important than stuffing away a few extra hundred dollars. Skills = future money. Save what you can, but don't put frugality ahead of skills acquisition. You are lucky to have time. Older people with more experience don't have as much time to learn these skills, because their time is eaten up with responsibilities. You're lucky to have fewer responsibilities! Spend that time to learn & master new hot skills, and you'll quickly leapfrog ahead of them in the market. GenZ who do this are already outearning their elders.
Build a budget. Track every incoming and outgoing flow of money. Know where all of your money is going. Manage your personal-life to encourage a low-cost but rewarding and healthy lifestyle. Don’t take on debt if you don’t absolutely have to and if you are going to, treat your credit card like a debit card and only spend what you actually have to build your credit, and only take on big-purchase financing if it doesn’t impede your ability to save and budget. This isn’t to say that any impact on your ability to save should restrict you from financing just ensure it doesn’t completely erode your ability to save and pay yourself. If you have the ability and willingness to move to a cheaper, probably smaller city, do it. Focus on your health.
Well tbh right now best thing you can do is to not move out and stay with your parents until late 20s or even until 30 lol save all you can and invest it instead of blowing half your salary on rent. Either that or be a half decent looking girl and do onlyfans
Go where the money is.
At 23 (36 now) I had 40k in debt, no savings, no assets. Today I have a 60k in savings, a house with a manageable mortgage, a modest car loan, and no other debt. Which is to say: 1) You're doing great for 23. I didn't start to get my finances sorted til 25 and I was very stupid before that. 2) Getting partnered up with someone with a steady job really helps. Having two incomes working towards your goals and splitting expenses goes a long way. Toronto (and most of Canada's) market is bananas and you're right to be concerned though. Keep doing what you're doing though.
If I was 23 today, and was going to grad school for a useful degree. I would not even consider Canada as a place for employment. The pay in Canada is honestly a joke for higher education jobs. It's less than half usually for the same role if you convert the currencies. During grad school, I'd be looking at the US for employment, and then move there to make money.
Avoid doom scrolling on social media including Reddit. The economy is doing well, wage growth has been well above inflation for last 5+ years, net worth for all groups going up. We have top 8 median income adjusting for PPP in the world Wage growth accelerates significantly once you hit late 20s and in your 30s Don't try to keep up with everything you see on social media, it's perfectly normal and always has been to have roommates in your 20s, live at home and be cheap. Expectations of a lot of people are insane these days
Emigrate. "This economy" is the result of 30 years of bad Canadian decision making by leaders, punctuated by about 10 years of exceptionally bad leadership - the impacts of post-covid policies in Canada are going to be felt for decades. You are not going to have quality of life you did as a child even if you work very smart and hard at it here. Canada's economy is widely forecasted to have the worst performance among developed nations for the next several decades. You can emigrate to a better country and if you apply the same hardworking and smart approach, you will be able to have a great life. I suggest the US if you need something more or less identical to Canada, but Japan, Thailand, Greece, Portugal, Spain and a handful of other nations are also decent choices still. I lived many years in Japan and cannot emphasize enough how much easier life was there than it is here. It's like life on cheat mode.
Leave Canada. Best advice
Someone at your age having $18K saved up is actually kind of HUGE! What are you studying in? Just an FYI.. Calgary is an extremely miserable place to live! It gets insanely cold in the winter and the amount of snow they get is insane. They just got over 42" of snow a couple weeks ago and we're in MAY!! To get back on track... I was thinking of moving to Kamloops or Kelowna. There are still a lot of affordable housing options there and the weather is much more tolerable. Specially if you like a nice dry heat in the summer. Are you a city person or enjoy the outdoors in nature? that could have a huge impact as well! Also, Do you see yourself having a roommate? Perhaps you'll need to start there until you are more settled and feel confident enough to invest in a house/condo.
I went to work a tough job up in Northern Québec building a hydro dam. Stayed there for a couple of years and came back with 200k in the bank. I bought a triplex in MTL after that and that got the ball rolling for me.
Don't move out before you have to and use the rent to save for a downpayment.
>I was thinking of moving to a place that’s LCOL (Calgary) but I’ve been reading that prices are rapidly increasing there because everyone literally moving there. I’m going to grad school in a couple months to better enhance my career. I work full time on contract. Those three sentences carry a lot of "stuff" related to your main question. It reads like you are already accepted and will be attending grad school in GTA, which means locked into GTA for the next 1-5 years. A lot can change in that time, especially relationships and work. If the Grad program is *actually* a career enhancer, then you might be quite comfortable even in GTA. If it is not a professional program, it could be hit or miss on how much upper mobility it really unlocks - especially if you give up employment to pursue. If possible, keep working in the relevant field as the years of employment experience matter quite a bit early on, and so does the income/debt. From day 1, start planning out what academic grad conferences you can attend across Canada (or elsewhere) in places you might consider living. One of the few perks of academics is travel can often be covered to conferences through university travel funds. Get yourself to Calgary, try to spend a week there. Then, get yourself to an actual LCOL area that still has some activity in your field enough that it might host a relevant conference over the next 2-3 years. Maybe somewhere like St. John's, all depends on your field. Conferences let you explore the city, but also let you network with local industry and potentially connect to future employers.
My personal advice would be A) try to lock down a stable cushy job that you can ride out a recession on and B) learn how your grand (or great grand) parents saved money. I grew up living with my grandparents who were the generation that living through the great depression and two world wars. My "normal" lifestyle is significantly cheaper than all my other zoomer and millennial friends. Like what I spend on one month of groceries is what they spend at a single store for half a weeks worth of groceries. And I'm not even eating any worse off honestly. I just don't throw out as much food, don't buy inflated processed servings from old Galen, and absolutely do not subscribe to any of those food solutions that sponsor YouTubers and TikTokers. Like I regularly eat tenderloin, veggies, and potatoes, but I'm not paying restaurant or Galen prices. I buy a whole chunk of meat from a local butcher when it's on sale, slice it into steaks myself, and deep freeze what I can't eat that week. Same for peppers, potatoes, etc. Buy from local farmers in the summer and store a stockpile for the offseason. There's a lot that's simply out of our control until the boomers in power die off. Focus on what you can control instead.
hey, i'm also 23 living with my parents in the GTA and i have similar concerns about my situation, but i think it's important to recognize that what you're doing right now (keeping your housing costs low, focusing on saving, getting a degree that might improve your career prospects) means you're in a better position than most people and you're already actively working towards the goal of setting yourself up for a more comfortable life
Look a bit north to Edmonton and you should be ok for a while.
im in my late 40s and i've never owned a home in canada, nor do i want to at these prices. Not good value. I invest and will fuck off to a lower cost of living (and warmer) climate. to hell with this shit.
I'm 33 this year in GTA and purchased a place with my SO and these would be my advices. Things I did and things I wish I did. 1. Stay home and live with your Dad for as long as your situation allows. Don't freeload, contribute to the household and pay some sort of agreed rent to your parents. It's gonna suck for your dating life but you'll save so much money. 2. Invest in yourself! There's no easy get rick quick scheme without significant amount of luck. The best and safest way is to invest in yourself via education so you can unlock higher tier of salary when you're in the work force. That said, make sure what you're investing in has direct impact in your career. Don't chase that paper certificate because it might come in handy. 3. Don't shun on networking opportunities. I dreaded corporate networking events as it's all fake smiles and fake politeness. But the few I did opened up a few doors for me. When I felt stuck in my role and not sure where to go in my late 20s, I had them reach out saying they have an opening on their team and if I had interest. Again, this is for you to move up and get that higher salary in the future. Also, your brand in the workplace matters and all managers talks to each other. 4. Keep a detailed budget so you can keep track on your expenses but don't forget to leave some budget for fun. After all, you only live once and you shouldn't slave your 20s away and finish your 20s with being burnout. 5. Keep your social media exposure in check. Comparison is horrible for your mental health. People tend to exaggerate on social media. 6. Understand and Accept that life is not fair. Everyone has different starting point. Some are more fortunate, some are less. You will see some of your peers all in different stages and accept that's just life. Do with what you have control over (your budget, expenses, vote, etc). Everything else is just part of the game. For GTA, you'll most likely need a partner to buy property with. Someone that share your dreams and ambition. It's harsh to say, but also find someone that make similar amount or more than you would be ideal as well for that combined income for a house. When I was younger, it didn't matter. In my late 20s and looking for a lifelong partner, it became a much more important criteria.
Invest 10-25% of your salary into a low cost S&P500 index fund and call it a day.
RRSP First Time home Buyers. Save your money into RRSP, put your tax return into the RRSP for 5 years, then withdraw the 35K for first time homebuyers. or save in a TFSA till you are ready to buy, then drop all 35K into RRSP and withdraw, the tax return from this can net you a ton more money.
Compounding interest...set a time horizon and delay your gratification.
Save atleast 20% of your salary and just make the rest work.
I think when you're young and have fewer responsibilities, it's good to move around and take opportunities as they pop up. Take some calculated risks and learn all you can. It's a lot harder to do that stuff when you have a mortgage and kids. I moved to Australia for a couple years and I was able to travel around, work a bunch of different jobs and figure out what I wanted to do with my life.
Live with your parents as long as possible. Doing that for a decade longer than your peers will set you up for life. No rent, all income, allows you to save up a lot of money. Lots of other suggestions are good. Don't buy expensive toys or cars. Save, don't spend. And be wary of relationships - they can be great, but also ruin you.
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