I live in canada
Im 30 and finally got my career job, i went to university and got my degree. Im making $35hr and still cant afford to survive
I live paycheck to paycheck, no debt and i rent. My apartment is $1,700 which is the cheapest place in my area
I did groceries today, $220 and my fridge is empty
Is this what life is!!! I went to school, i got my degree just to be poor
$290 goes to my penaion which is great, but $700 goes to taxes
Im taking home $3,000 a month by they way. Canada is a joke!!!!
University and still poor
byu/No-Breadfruit9418 inpersonalfinance
Posted by No-Breadfruit9418
10 Comments
If you lived in America you’d have to pay 400+ per month for healthcare.
$35 an hour sounds good until you see how much is actually spent on taxes, rent, and bills. University won’t magically make you rich – it will just help you cross the threshold. However, things aren’t going too badly for you, it’s just that you’re stuck at “the barely making ends meet” stage
It’s time to look for additional gigs, cheaper groceries, or roommates if you need a break. It sucks, but you’re not alone
Are Canadian groceries crazy expensive? How are you spending $220 as what I assume is a single person, and still having an empty fridge?
Get a roommate or significant other. Honestly it’s probably the second best if not best thing a person can do to better their financial situation obviously assuming you don’t shack up with a leech.
You say “finally” got your career job. I’m assuming you’re just starting out post-grad? Time to grow and scale and expand. This is not the end, this is the beginning, right?
What is your actual take home and budget?
Doing some quick math,
$35 x 37hours =$1295/week
=$67340/year
÷12
=$5600/month
-1700 rent
-700 tax
-290 pension
=$2910/month leftover
Where is this going?
Not saying it’s not difficult with increasing costs on all fronts. But I think you also need a couple of months of tracking your spending and building a budget
If you’re spending 220$ and your fridge is empty you’re not grocery shopping well. I eat a high protein body-building diet as a 6’7 dude(I eat a lot) in Canada, I can keep my groceries under 500$ a month while having meat every meal. I’d take some time to learn to cook cheaper meals. Rice, frozen veggies and slow cooked meat if done right you can easily get tasty, nutritious meals that are also less than 7$ per meal. Two meals a day, 30 days a month. If I wanted I could easily go cheaper, but lean meat isn’t cheap.
Also, do you have roommates? I know at 30 you’d really rather not, but typically splitting a 2 or 3 bedroom is cheaper than a single bedroom.
Also, maybe you should consider applying for jobs in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. It sounds like you’re either in Vancouver or Ontario(Toronto and surrounding areas) based on your income. Income tax is dumb and you can’t expense living costs. Obviously degree requiring jobs are harder in those areas, I don’t know your specialization.
You could also switch careers if you don’t see any obvious progression and increases to income in your near future. I’m trained in engineering, I’m doing blue-collar work right now cause it pays better. If money is that hard, retraining into a trade is an option before you get too old to make that swap.
That sucks, and a practical first move is to split each paycheck into strict buckets , rent, groceries, bills, and a small buffer , and only spend from the grocery bucket so you don’t run out of food. There are chat-based apps like SetForMoney that let you set digital envelopes and schedule funding to match your payday, which can make sticking to those limits a lot easier.
You are not poor, you suck at budgeting. $1700 is not that much to pay for rent if your gross wages are over $5k a month. You need to sit down and make a spreadsheet that shows what you are spending money on, then cut out some of the excessive spending. You probably spend a lot on prepared food and eating out. Learn how to buy ingredients and cook for yourself.
Supply and demand.
Reduce the population by 25% and demand drops.
Cost of living should drop.
Too simplified.