Quote:
Originally Posted by _Q_
It seems as though there's some misunderstanding of my post above.
As a reminder, this post was a response to Weitz' post from earlier claiming that the average household income in Calgary of $100-$140k is enough to be able to afford "average" things.
So I did some quick math to show that the average family that earns about $120k per year would have a very difficult time purchasing a whole bunch of "average" things. Yes, they can purchase a $350k home and a $15k car. They can find a cheaper daycare (though I have yet to find anything in this city much lower than the average). That's not the point though. The point is that if a family, making average income set out to purchase a regular 3 bedroom detached home, 1 new vehicle (though most families need 2 vehicles if they live in the suburbs) and put their two children in daycare, they would have a very rough time. In order to make it work, they would need to cut out some of those fairly "average" things and find cheaper, less desirable alternatives.
For the record, I do agree with a lot of the sentiment around here. Nobody "needs" a new Rav4. Nobody needs a $512k home. My wife and I make a fairly decent sum of money that would be considered well above average. Yet we live in a 2 bedroom condo with our 2 kids and drive a 12 year old Toyota. We're happy knowing that we dont have to struggle and live paycheque to paycheque.
|
Maybe the majority of people shouldn't own a detached home in the burbs where they "need" two depreciating assets to get around
you dont even believe this to be true as you make more than the average and yet consciously decide to live in smaller than average housing using an older than average vehicle
The planet cant support 6 billion people living an average 2 car single detached home life and the quicker more people realize that and stop spouting this idea that we should all have and want that kind of extravagance the better
The last few generations had it real good, and while its inconvenient we missed that boat, it's like a person with terrible spending habits suddenly deciding to budget: its gonna feel bad at first as you adjust to the life you actually can afford instead of what you idealized or are used to, but you gotta rip the bandage off eventually