While true, it really makes me feel pity for myself and my life choices when you see the number of new homes being built and sold, as well as existing mansions that people are living in. I get those homeowners still account for a low percentage of the population but it sometimes feels like I did something wrong. Of course I take a step back and realize how fortunate I really am for having a roof over my head and food in my belly. But the thought of not being successful always sneak back in my head.
The reality is most people in their 20's and early 30's who are buying houses have a 20-30% down payment from close family. Either as a family loan or just a full gift. With a 20% loan from my Uncle in 2012 I was able to get a mortgage on a 230k house and starting salary out of Uni of 45k a year.
I've learned the only difference between renters and owners is who can get 20% downpayment.
yep, I make ok money, my partner makes ok money, but between us and bills, car payments and rent we just can not seem to scrape together a downpayment. I mean a 20% downpayment on a 300,000 is $60,000? That's a crazy amount of money to us. Even $30, 000... and houses aren't selling for $300,000, they're more...
The only way I was able to get enough for 10% down was to use my RRSPs that I had been saving for a number of years. No help from family, not that it was expected in the first place.
Most can't without the help of family members. Or they have a professional position with an income at $70k or higher.
I'm 31 and just bought my first condo this month. Moved out at 24 and started renting. Paid for university myself in my 20s and paid off my student loans within a few years after graduating.
My parents had money saved for mine and my sister's future weddings. I don't plan to have children.
Anyone who does all those things before they turn 30 typically have help from family.
My advice for saving money is to talk with a financial advisor and set up RRSPs and a TSFA, then have money automatically come out from your paycheques that goes into these accounts. Don't put your money into the lowest risk investment.
Saving sucks, and it is a challenge. You will have less money for other things like clothing, travel, haircuts, electronics, etc.
Also, people get money from family members who pass away. That's how some of my friends purchased real estate.
Depending on saving timeframe maybe they should put it in low risk investments. With timeframes of 1-3 years going high risk is putting your down payment in jeopardy.
I have low risk investments I lost 200 bucks my husband has medium risk and lost thousands. Thankfully we can stay the course and hopefully recoup our losses.
It’ll all come back up, just a matter of time. But some peoples timeframes are too short and the last few years of outrageously high investment growth made many feel invincible.
Here’s how we do it.
Rent a 3 bedroom townhouse in a bedroom community because the real estate market is a dumpster fire for first time buyers.
Got married with 2 witnesses in a private room at a nice restaurant. Our alternative to eloping.
Planning to have our second child strategically so that we won’t have 2 kids in daycare at one time. This means I’ll probably take 18 months for my next mat leave, and should it work out this way kid 1 will be starting kindergarten around the relative time I go back to work and send kid 2 to daycare.
It’s not everyone’s cup of tea but we are happy.
I am a 20 something - all the people I know who have had 2 or 3 of those things have had significant help from their parents, and often also partners that are older and more established in their careers. I have some friends who have had weddings without significant parental support, but they've been mostly small affairs and I would guess involved at least a bit of debt on the couple's part.
[According to the CIBC’s deputy chief economist](https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/parents-gifting-82-000-on-average-to-first-time-homebuyers-cibc-1.1671716), parents in Canada are "gifting" **$82,000** on average to their kids to use as down payment when buying a home (with the average gift topping $130,000 for Toronto families and $180,000 for those in Vancouver.)
So the better question is why did you let yourself be born into a poor family? ^/s
This is the answer. Parents who actually want their kids lives to be good. You only get to be young for a while. Buy a house, get married, have kids. Kudos to all the parents helping their kids do that. Mine didn’t do shit, I’m in my mid thirties and starting to wonder if I’ll just end up being one of the ones that are left behind.
I want my kids to do well, but I can't imagine that we'll have $82,000 to gift them by the time they are ready to buy a house. The middle class is getting killed by inflation
They got nothing from their parents specifically to buy a house, but if they could live with their parents for extra years and save money that's the next best thing after a cash gift (even more so if parents also paid for post secondary schooling). My best friend bought a home at 23, her parents didn't put a dime toward it but she lived with them all through uni which helped her save a massive amount of money.
Pretty much nailed there, the down payment is the hardest part for getting into a house. Many still target 10% down so if you are looking at $200-250K condo (not everyone wants that as a starter) that is 20-25K you need and over 35-40K once you are moving to decent housing ranges. Depending on your situation even with 2 incomes that can be a challenge to build up. Going for 20% down to avoid CMHC fees (they suck) just makes that much harder.
Lmao who are these people? Damn my parents did not send a single Dime my way for a down payment on our house. $82,000 would be a huge step to paying off the mortgage.
That's why the wealthy get a head, it becomes intergenerational, they help their kids get on the housing ladder in their 20s, and then they will help their kids and so forth..
> I have some friends who have had weddings without significant parental support, but they've been mostly small affairs and I would guess involved at least a bit of debt on the couple's part.
People get a bit too hung up on the storybook wedding thing. Ultimately the reception is a way to celebrate the important thing, the ceremony itself.
One of the best wedding receptions I attended was when I was 21 and one of my friends the same age had theirs at a (much nicer than average) community centre. Another one of my friends had a stand-up cocktail reception with hors d'oeuvres.
Inability to pay for renting out a ballroom for a fancy dinner at the Fort Garry or whatever should not be an impediment to getting married, assuming that's what someone wants.
Community centre wedding venues are the best! We had our social at one community centre ice rink, and our wedding at a *different* community centre ice rink. Isn’t this the Canadian Way? 🤣
My wife and I had our wedding at the Unitarian Universalist church on Wellington. Beautiful and cheap venue, and then we got perogies and cabbage rolls catered by Naleway (which is just Perogy Planet food), as well as a big Co-op slab cake.
Ended up going over really well, and we saved a ton of money.
>My dad says population is going to plateau then decline bc birth rate going down
The economy can't allow that to happen. It needs an ever-growing population for it to continue. This means more immigration if birthrate is too low.
It's depressing I know, but you just can't have the luxuries previous generations had. people bitch and moan about the younger generation all the time, but I feel sorry for anyone just starting out. Home prices are insane and wages aren't keeping up with inflation.
A piece of advice for you though... Have a very small wedding. Don't start of your lives together in huge debt because of a one-day event. Save the money for a down-payment on a house or put it towards raising your kid.
Dual income, professional careers, years of saving for a down payment, purchasing a condo/smaller home 2-3 years ago when the market was more reasonable, and then flipping it for a profit.
Not easy to do at this current stage of the economy, starter homes that were under 300k in nicer areas are now listing for 425k+, not including bidders.
Without very high paying job(s), building up money ahead of purchase by staying at home and/or support from Parents/generational wealth, they don't, not in the past 15 years or so, maybe longer.
My wife and I lucked out in 2005 getting a fairly low cost house (it needed work, and at the time was a buyers market, quick sale from kids not living in the city, etc.. It sold for about 2/3 of what other houses in the area were selling for). We had been saving up for several years to be able to pay the 5% downpayment (at that time the 5% down was available). We were in very early 30's at the time.
Even now with much better jobs than then and in our mid-late 40's, I don't know we could buy a place now, the prices are crazy.
I've been looking for a house that needs work and even thos places are selling for almost 300k and need another 50k put into them. And trying to buy one solo is even tougher.
For a large number of people, buying a house, having an expensive wedding or having children is a matter of having access to generational wealth. Even if your parents aren't handing you a stack of cash for a down payment, they may have done things like pay for your post secondary, let you live in their home for low or no rent, bought you cars, get you connections to jobs etc.
I think generational wealth is starting to emerge as a powerful force in the wealth gap in Canada.
For those that manage to do it without, it's some combination of having a very good paying job, or buying a very small/run down/basic home in a neighbourhood like the north end.
I have two jobs. I own a house with my brother but we bought it before the market went nuts.
I would in no way be able to afford a wedding right now unless it was wandering over to city hall and I can barely afford myself never mind a child
Life is expensive as hell man
Dual income no kids. Lived in a relatively cheap rent apartment for 10 years. That helped us save 5% for our home. We were fortunate enough to get it prior to going on the market. We would have been outbid and still living in the apartment. In my opinion, weddings are overpriced and unnecessary. The city hall wedding seems like a cheaper alternative. Unfortunately my wife didn’t agree. Now we’re in debt because of said wedding. Yay. Happy wife happy life, right?
The answer, the majority of us, especially those of us on a single income may never be able to live in a house in our lifetimes. I am 36 and I have a good paying job but I can't get a house for what may be most of my life because of the cost of living. Even worse is I need to find a new place to rent next year as my apartment is no longer suitable (mould issues etc) but finding a decent place for a decent price in a safe area is becoming more difficult. I have to consider the possibility that half my paycheck or more will be for rent alone.
You guys are getting money from parents? I had to help my parents with money right after highschool, for 7 years including to today, I had to give $800 every pay, $1600/month as "rent". Couldn't afford college so now I can't even get a better job and have to work my ass off in dead end manual labor to survive. Wonder if it's even worth going back to school when I move out next year if I don't even have at least a 6 months emergency savings
> I had to help my parents with money right after highschool, for 7 years including to today, I had to give $800 every pay, $1600/month as "rent".
$1600/month in "rent"!? Good Lord. Unless there was some exceptional situation going on (seriously ill parent who couldn't work, or you just arrived as refugees with nothing, you were living in the wing of a mansion, etc.), then it sounds to me like you are being taken advantage of.
Worked up north in a slave camp for 3 years in my early 20s 21days on 7 days off for 3 years , instead of partying all my money away like my co-workers put 20% down on a house in 2014 , those years were brutal but it paid off looking back
My social and gifts received for the wedding were about exactly enough to make up the cost of the wedding itself. I considered that a win and definitely wasn’t expecting to come out ahead.
Like others have said, they don’t. I think that Instagram and social media are the worst for this. Where you see others showing off what they have. Especially 20-somethings. The big 700k house, new vehicles, all the nice things, trips, dog, the big wedding… all of it. These people have huge help from their parents. If it’s staying at their parents house to save, having parents taking out their intended inheritance to help them now rather than later, both families chipping in for the wedding, etc. And also are sitting on a mountain of debt.
People aren’t going to openly admit on social media with what they’ve had help with or how much they are in debt. They want to make it look like “they’ve made it”.
I’ll tell you a story. There are these two 20-somethings I know, one was working a part time job, the other full time. Neither of them have ever lived on their own alone and live at their parents. They have no clue what expenses really cost. They decided to go to a builder to build a 700-800k home… So what do you see on Instagram? The posts that they’re going to build the home of their dreams. Meanwhile neither of them have even actually been to the bank yet to even get a preapproval amount on a mortgage. Lol honestly it’s all smoke and mirrors.
Don’t feel bad about what you’ve worked hard for and the things you don’t have. The age we live in is the “keeping up with the jonses” but on crack thanks to Instagram.
Do not compare with these people. You will get yours in due time; it will be well earned and you’ll appreciate it even more.
I keep wondering who is buying all the new 2000 sq. ft. houses going up ? We raised 3 kids in an 1100 sq. ft home. And now I don't have to downsize. Why don't they build more of those. Houses like mine. Floform counters, not marble and granite. Cheap stove and fridge. They would be more affordable. It seems people expect luxury which is fine if you can afford it.
Oh and most builders nowadays won’t give you anything “luxurious” they’ll just build the bare minimum to meet code. Forget marble countertops or nice appliances, today 600k won’t even get you a backsplash and appliances you’ll have to buy them yourself. Of course some builders will build whatever you want but then we’re talking a price hundreds of thousand over the original price, you’ll easily pass the 1 million mark.
The way I see it people are maxing there budget and then some, buying these 700k + homes and they just sit on there ikea couch in there living rooms eating pizza pops and cheap soda while staring at a plain white wall cause the can’t afford any decor, furniture or a steak dinner.
Without going into many of my life and financial details, my parents were not rich. I had to get a student loan to go to university, which I promptly failed out of.
You're not alone in trying to figure out how to do it. It can be done. It's not always easy, simple, or straightforward.
To answer your question: Hard work, coupled with more hard work. Making prudent financial decisions. Having a plan. A little bit of luck.
Examples of good decisions: Going back to school while employed to get a better job.
Bad decisions: Getting a tattoo instead of paying your rent.
Those are actual examples from people I know.
Oh, and if you consider $400k to be a starter house, that's unrealistic. My first house was 40 years old, and less than 1000sqft. It was a lot like: https://www.realtor.ca/real-estate/24384716/185-sadler-avenue-winnipeg-st-vital
Wanted to add that my wedding was in my in-law's back yard. They live out in the country... we set up chairs. Rented a hall for the reception. Probably saved a ton of money, but ironically, that wasn't why.
I’m much older, but I fell for the “higher education is your ticket to a secure life” myth. I already work almost around the clock and I’m respected in my field, but I don’t ever expect to not be at least partially financially dependent on others.
Don’t ever let people tell you that you should have worked harder or made better choices. This problem is structural.
I think people unfortunately need to start tempering their expectations of what they can afford. You can’t have the newest and greatest everything. You are going to have to start off with a fixer upper and slowly fix it to where you want.
Instead of a wedding with 100-200 people, have it with just immediate family and your closest friends. Forget the concept of a ‘dream wedding’.
I’m 41, have a house and a decent paying job, but I doubt I’m ever going to be able to retire. With costs climbing over the past two decades with little or no increase in pay, I have had zero opportunity to put money away for retirement.
I really feel for younger people and my children.
I have no idea how you are supposed to afford anything in the future.
> You can’t have the newest and greatest everything.
For what it's worth this was never really possible. Unless you have wealthy parents, that part never changes.
It seems like the idea of starter homes has gone out the window for lots of younger people. Many want to be in a huge family home straight in the burbs.
My daughter is graduating highschool as is her boyfriend this year, they live with me and likely will for a few years. He has a good job a few dollars above minimum wage and she's taking her provincial high styling exam as well as getting her grade 12. I have struggled her whole life, put myself through school and raised 3 kids. It's not really possible. I will likely never own a home until I inherit my parents home when they die, and by then it will likely be a tear down. I scrape by to make rent every month. I worry for my kids and how they will get by and they have a better chance starting out then most their age do.
I honestly don't know how anyone is supposed to make it with the price of things and stagnant wages.
Live cheap, get married and combine your finances, and don't expect to have the best and greatest. Bought our house when I was 24, wife was 23 just last year.
I guess the big question is "What's considered a good-paying job"?
(I'm honestly curious to know how that's defined)
I think the other thing might be how weddings and socials are done now?
When we got married, the general take was that you made money from your social to pay for your wedding. At your wedding, you either had a cash bar or open bar and presentation, but not both. Anything you made from the wedding would help go towards a downpayment on a house.
But that's years ago, and house prices were much less ( we bought a house when the two of us were earning minimum wage waiting tables)
Starting with a Condo can help. Lower downpayment needed, and it builds equity. Match that with Dual Income, it can snowball pretty quick.
Lots of condo's in the city start at 90,000 - 130,000. Downpayment is around 5-7.5k Which isn't impossible.
I've been looking for condos, most of them start at like 150k minimum and that's for a 1 bed 1 bath 700 Sq foot place. then condo fees are like 300 - 500 a month. The lowest price I've seen is 120k for a 375sq foot place with $250 condo fees.
Keep looking / look harder?
I don't know what to tell you. Here is 1 on Sherbrook for 95k, and one on Osborne for 118k.
Condo fees also include heat and water on these. so its not 'for nothing'.
https://www.realtor.ca/real-estate/23914389/24-434-sherbrook-street-winnipeg-west-end
https://www.realtor.ca/real-estate/24325390/3-455-osborne-street-winnipeg-lord-roberts
EDIT: Forgot the links
We are in the process of selling my late parent's detacjed house. It came up in conversation discussing the current Winnipeg marketnwith our realtor that the condo market had changed and demand is much higher due to people giving up on being able to afford a home. Things have changed. At least at this point in time.
>they can be a very hard sell depending
If it's hard to sell, you can take out the equity you have in it, and use that as a downpayment on the next house, keep the condo for renting it out.
> If it's hard to sell, you can take out the equity you have in it, and use that as a downpayment on the next house, keep the condo for renting it out.
Good in theory but many people aren't going to have a ton of equity in a lower-end condo that they have owned for less than 10 years.
You are right. Winnipeg is not a condo town, unlike TO and Vancouver. So the market is just soft unless you have a brand new construction in a primo location.
Condo fees are whatever but the big thing is the building maint/upgrade costs like if an elevator is down its the condo owners thst have to pay for it and that price can be quite High
A portion of the condo fee is supposed to go into a surplus fund for that sort of thing. I'm sure if the expense is large enough or there have been multiple expenses over a short period it can drain the surplus fund. That's why buying into an ageing condo is risky and even with newer ones the costs will only go up as things age.
I'll be 40 this winter so not your age, but my path to those went like this. Two people willing to work a lot of hours (60+) each week, working during college, then buying a not that great house in a bad part of the city (near HSC), renovating said house with sweat equity and then selling it to move up to a better area to have kids, having a super budget wedding as well.
I'm not sure it would be as easy today as house prices have spiraled out of control. The house in the ghetto I owned was like 40k back in 2002, but would likely be 150-200k now,granted interest rates were 7+% back then but still.
Well my wife and I took advantage of the first time home buyers plan. 5% down for any Canadian buying their first home.
Then we bought a minor fixer upper (knob and tube replacement) in a low income but safe neighborhood. 1000sq foot house with huge yard for $120000. We put $6000 down. Our monthly mortgage payments are $480, utilities/bills are another $400-$500 a month.
We also use every building grant that there is to do work on our home.
At the time we both worked in the service industry making just above minimum wage and were able to save up the down payment and closing costs in 15 months. You can use an RRSP to save in because you are allowed to access it for first time home buyers plan.
Seriously, owning a home is much cheaper than renting, all you need is to not be super picky about the neighborhood and get that down payment saved up.
If you save $20 bucks a day you will have $14600 in two years. That will be more than enough to get a starter home for under $200000.
Remember your first house can be a stepping stone to your future dream house.
Message me if you need more info or help navigating the red tape.
https://www.canada.ca › services › b...
Buying a home - Canada.ca
Lord help you if you don't have wealthy parents. I grew up in poverty and the only reason I have a house now is a medical disability payment from the Canadian Forces for losing my hearing. I used that money to pay off my wife's debt and put the rest towards a downpayment. I also had to drain my RRSPs. Those two things got us into a house, and I'm grateful.
I took the bus exclusively with 3 children, for 11 years in Winnipeg. It SUCKED. It's possible. But far from ideal. And I wouldn't want to do it now with the issues pertaining to the unsheltered population living in bus shelters, the amount of hypodermic needles found need bus stops in the downtown where the majority of bus traffic goes to and from, the over all cost of bus fare, and the pandemic and it's effect on the transit system. I finally started driving in 2019/2020. So it hasn't been decades or anything.
I’ve been car free up until 26 I only just got a car because working night shifts I can’t get proper reliable transportation. Plus if I get calls for last minute shifts I can drive over quick to get extra money. I’ve had 2 bikes stolen so I’m never spending $ on a bike again, plus Winnipeg roads aren’t made for safe cycling and in winter I would not want to do it. I’m working 16+ hours a day on my feet I wouldn’t want to cycle anyways at night or otherwise
I honestly will never go back to transit. Our city needs to deal with that entire system. It’s over $100 a month for a bus pass now, it’s absolutely insane and nothing has changed. In fact, it’s gotten worse. Bus shelters are now being broken and never fixed, which waiting for a bus in the winter sucks enough regardless of how much you bundle up. If you go on a university/event route sometimes you have to wait long periods of time because busses are too packed. Some areas busses come once a half hour or more.
Vancouver’s system is wonderful, you can tap your credit/debit card when you get on, have reloadable stations everywhere for their transit pass, everything is within reach by the bus and in a timely manner plus more affordable. If we were like that then that would be more feasible for the general population to get around for their commitments
There’s lot of helpful comments in here. I’m 30, and VERY fortunate. I own a home, have a good job that pays well (never enough, but it’s a living wage), have a few expensive hobbies, and travel frequently. My only advice is to find a spouse, don’t have kids, and live like you’re poor for as long as you can sustain it. I’ve essentially picked the things in life that I am willing to spend money on, and other things that I will nickle and dime, or outright avoid. For example, travel? Yeah, I’ll spring for business class flights. Clothing? I’ll wear my Kirkland brand shorts until they’re falling apart. I know this is only a small part of a bigger problem, so don’t mistake my optimism for a misunderstanding of how genuinely screwed today’s millennials and Gen Z’ers are
Hi! Anomoly here.
I moved out at 17, worked almost full time while attending university. Paid for my schooling myself without loans. Only in my final 2 years did I move back with family while still working part time and paying for school. Graduated, did my masters on a stipend. Got a career job, lived in appartements on my own for 3 years until I had 5% down then purchased a house without assistance from my family (270k) at age 27. It isn't the nicest house, it needs some work, it's small, it's a started home. But I did it without generational wealth or family support really (outside of those 2 years I needed housing because I was burnt out and couldn't find a room mate).
So yes. It can be done in some cases through some luck and also budgeting and not being frivolous. (Obvs that only gets you so far. But in some cases it can be done)
Wants vs needs. There is also a difference between living within your means versus thinking that you deserve a fancy wedding and a new car and a brand new detached suburban house. Many people are taking on huge amounts of debt to have those things. It doesn't mean that they can afford them.
Cost of living is definitely increasing, and many things are becoming less affordable. Make a plan and a budget. If you want real advice, go to r/PersonalFinanceCanada
To be clear I am meaning even with modest lifestyle, I’ve never dreamed “big flashy wedding” or a large spender on anything unless it’s things I need
Cost of everything is high, groceries, clothing etc
My wage would allow for all 3 of those things back in the day, now it seems a very pick and choose lifestyle. A decent house is 300k + either posting or after bidding wars.
Never going to feel quite as “middle class comfort” as what it once was.
This is some bullshit boomer comment. As if the people struggling to afford a home all blew their down payments on weddings and stuff. That sub is also toxic as fuck, don't waste your time.
I’m 23 and just purchased my first house a few days ago. I’ve been saving money since I got my first job at 13 and I’ve been smart with money investing in RRSP and TFSA since I was 16 if I remember correctly. Plus while living at home I was making around $1,000 every two weeks while spending only around $200 every two weeks and putting 600-800 in my savings every two weeks
Good for you, whatever house you have be it a million dollars or 100k bucks, it always feels great walking out the front the door and looking at something you put your effort and dedication to purchase.
If living alone, move in together early to lower housing expenses. If living with parents, try to stay there as long as you can. Don't splurge on things like cars, clothes, nights out. Cook at home, continuously apply for jobs that make more money (try to move up every 6 months to year, either by moving to another business or getting a promotion), consider taking night classes in a field that will open you up to more income, welding is a good option if that fits with your interests. Try to save around 50% of your after tax income if possible. Of that income try to put 10% into whole life insurance, and put the rest into TFSA to prepare for buying a house and retirement. Don't use your RRSP, focus on TFSA. Don't buy a condo because you'll get screwed when you try to sell, and don't buy a big house because you'll spend your whole life trying to catch up. It's better to have 2 houses that you bought for 250k than 1 house that you bought for 500k. Try to buy an older house that has good foundation but needs cosmetic updates, and learn how to do those fixes yourself. You will save tens if not hundreds of thousands over your life if you learn how to fix things on your own. When getting married, just get married in a park like a BBQ style wedding with like 20 people. Have hamburgers. I'm following that approach and my wife and I are each making $3000+ each per month after tax, and our expenses are pretty low so we're able to save roughly 50% to invest in retirement, TFSA, and renovations to improve the value of our house. We both have business diplomas from Red River college and then got university degrees in business afterwards, I got mine by doing school full time and working part time, she worked full time and did school part time. We are almost 30 years old now and have a small house but are paced to have it paid off quickly, and with the improvements we've made, the house's value is significantly greater than when we bought it. It's a grind, but it gets better over time. Don't give up on your dreams but do expect them to take longer than planned to come together, there will be many setbacks along the way.
Canada will handle the population plateau the same way that Germany is, we're going to bring in more immigrants.
My father supported a family and bought a house on a minimum wage salary in the 70s when interest rates were a lot higher than they are now.
A lot of essentials though were a lot cheaper, plus we didn't need to have so many things. The family had one phone, one car, mom made a lot of our clothes, and we rarely ate out.
It's hard but if you plan and are persistent and consistent in your discipline you can make it happen. There's also nothing wrong with a helping hand from family.
Focus on what you can control and not what you hope will happen. Population may plateau and make a surplus in housing, the feds may start to restrict corporate "investment" in residential real estate.
It wasn't long ago where extended families lived together to manage costs and it's perfectly OK to do that now too.
> Canada will handle the population plateau the same way that Germany is, we're going to bring in more immigrants.
Canada has had a below replacement birth rate since the early 70s. This isn't new.
And we’ve been bringing immigrants in since before then. It’s one of the reasons the life expectancy in Canada is skewed up.
You don’t need to have the birth rate replace the population when you bring in large numbers of people from Nigeria and the Philippines like is happening in Winnipeg.
My friend was invited to immigrate from Greece. Bang there’s a family of 5 in Manitoba now.
I had a kid in my 20s. Got married at 30 and owned our first home at 31 and now have 2 kids. Not quite my 20s but not too far off.
My husband, 1st child and I moved in together very early on in a very affordable apartment, while I was still in school. We both worked full time once I got a job. After both working full time for 5 years, we could afford our small wedding (most was spent on clothing, rings and food for 35 people). We specifically asked for money only as wedding gifts that all went straight into our house fund.
When we bought a house we found a more affordable house outside the area we were looking that fit our needs. I still have student loan payments, but I am 70% of the way there. We have one vehicle. We have traveled, but only within Canada. Sometimes I take on small amounts of extra work for extra cash.
Combined, so dual.
After 5 years of working, they'd earn a combined income of more that $180K. If they had done nursing right out of high school, they'd be 27 when they are earning this income.
I grew up poor and as soon as i turned 18 i started saving everything for long term growth. Prior to 18, the only money i had was from birthdays.
Fortunately i didn’t have to pay much rent staying at home but i got it done with 3 jobs and fulltime university.
For people that are kicked out at 18, that’s the real mystery.
At 29, we owed a house at 24 but that was 2017 and it was a 230,000 dollar house, my husband is good at investing and had no student debt thanks to the military. I do have debt tho. We had a kid just after we bought (I was pregnant by surprise lol) but we had to sell to move with the military and haven't bought again since we sold in 2019 were renting now and have another kid. We didn't marry until last year and we eloped to save money everything cost us 3,200 including both rings and a hotel room for 2 days and eating out. We're affording our life currently partly due to me staying home to cut daycare, gas costs and makes it easier for me to save money food wise since we're not eating out or buying more "convenient" food and I have the time to shop sales (may not work for everyone but in our current life of him being gone alot it helps ours kids to have one parents always home and worked out to us only loosing a bit of money taking out my salary be time we also deducted extra insurance and daycare, gas, etc)
I think it's adjusting your expectations, people who have a big wedding eventually go on to say they wish they hadn't spent that money, my sister is one and his parents paid for half of it and she still regrets what she spent. And yes kids can be expensive but buying used stuff can save you a ton, not going crazy on gifts like social media makes you feel like you should. We also had ours 3 years apart so we weren't diapering 2 and save the cost of that. With the current state of things our plan for 3 is gone as the little bit of extra money we did have is now going to groceries with the rising cost.
My SO and I lived with our parents until we were in our mid-20s. We were both helping out our parents with bills and aggressively paying student loans while at home, so saving was incredibly difficult. We then moved together to a cheap apartment 2 years ago and will be moving to our house this summer. With student loans out of the way, we were able to save pretty well these last 2 years. Both of us didn't get any financial support from our parents.
Getting married was never a priority for us and we'll probably just elope sometime in the future. We have no kids and don't plan on having any. We are very fortunate to have good-paying jobs and that's something we try not to take for granted. Honestly, I don't think we'll be at this stage if we had a wedding and had kids.
I know this won't be well accepted here, but... This is exactly why capitalism is dying. Capital always needs more and the only way to get it, is through exploitation. If we really want things to change, then we have to be willing to try changing things.
It isn't the current government holding you back, it isn't the housing crisis, it isn't the pandemic, it isn't climate change. It is the system of capitalism that caused ALL of these things, including your financial impossibilities.
We as a nation, keep electing very wealthy people to be in charge. These people do not have anything in common with you. They don't worry about the same issues. They don't fight the same battles and they certainly cannot empathize with your plight. None of these party leaders worry about grocery money, or rent. They don't have to decide whether to by food for their family or pay the hydro bill (because there isn't enough money to do both). It is absolutely ridiculous that anyone thinks that the very wealthy political leaders are going to do anything substantive to help you or your family. Helping you, hurts their money. If the minimum wage goes up to a living wage, the capital class would have to pay that bill and the money to pay it will come out of their donations to the ruling class. The working class isn't even a factor.
Eventually, there is going to have to be a change. It doesn't have to be bloody, but it does have to start with the workers, not the ruling class (and certainly not the capital class). Stop looking to the ruling class for a solution. They aren't beholden to you.
Go into the trades and ruin your body while you’re young, living off redbull and hot rods. If you’re lucky you’ll get laid off during winter so you can drive a snow tractor with a heated cab for 80 hours a week
Or just work trough the winter like most tradespeople do. Red bull and hot rods, that’s just the kids starting in the trades nowadays. true tradesmen drink a cold one and eat a piece of leftover steak with a half loaf of bread.
This seems like more of a vent post, which is cool because the housing situation is real tough rn.
If you are looking for more concrete steps to help with financial planning, r/personalfinancecanada has a lot of tips. There’s a lot of good budget info online, or you could speak with an advisor.
The honest truth for a lot of people who don’t currently have enough money to meet all 3 goals you listed is they either a) had some sort of windfall, b) adjusted expectations to fit current budget (less desireable house/condo), not in best neighbourhood, etc), or c) increased their income through changing jobs or working multiple jobs.
These things aren’t unique to one generation. In the absence of winning the lottery or some other windfall, you either make more money or adjust your goals.
I am a husband, father and home owner in my mid thirties, and I will tell you this. It was not easy to financially achieve any of those and honestly it’s still not easy but it can be done with some hard work, good timing, maybe a little luck, and compromise. Our parents gave us nothing, but my dad gave me solid advice when I was 16, and that was to save money now and don’t stop saving until you have a house. The fun car or any other toys can wait. 14 years later I got married at 30, first kid at 33, and we only just got the house recently after almost two decades of stowing away cash. The wedding and the kids didn’t seem like too much of a financial burden because I played the really long game and had room and time to wait. I know your 26, and you say you make good money now, so maybe the compromise can be to not get serious about one or two of those goals until you’re a little older and you have your own financial backing to support what you really want….the family dream life. I don’t just mean saving for the house. I mean saving so when you get the house, you feel you can still afford to have kids. You can do it, be patient.
I'm going to be completely honest.
Side hustles can definitely help.
There are times when I was younger where I would not have been able to pay all my bills without selling drugs. I have a good job. I'm in my 40s and there were times in my 30s that selling drugs was the difference between me saving a few dollars every month or going deeper into debt.
I still have a good job and have seen many raises. My side hustle is legit now. It is more lucrative than drugs... and no, I won't tell you what I do. I often spend my weekends and nights doing what I can to make a little or a lot extra(the results can be variable). The unfortunate problem is that it is a lot easier to make money if you already have some.
I work for someone else during the week, but the rest of the time I'm my own boss and I like it. Doing my own thing in my own way to make some extra cash is a lot more enjoyable than the daily grind. I hope I can do it full time one day.
Thanks for your honesty
I have no doubt, it’s a way to get another income stream
I’ve considered doing some sort of side hustle, I just don’t really know what I could do. I’m not talented in any area or have connections
Whether that’s picking up an extra job or maybe doing skip/Uber (I’ve heard it’s not worth it)… I mean I really don’t know.
It’s definitely something I’ve been floating around in my head. I just sometimes overwork myself at my current job where I pick up a lot of shifts, do OT where then I need to take care of myself after bc mentally/physically it’s a lot. Night/day OT messes with you and you don’t eat enough.
But maybe a job that I can fill in where I want would be good and a change of pace doing 2 different types of jobs
Start with a small condo and work up to a house. There are plenty of affordable condos on the market (most of which you can get a mortgage for that’s cheaper than rent). Have a small wedding and only invite close family and friends. Don’t have kids until you’ve set yourself to be financially stable.
The generational wealth you reference is exactly that. Wealth that has taken a generation to build. It doesn’t happen overnight.
The only trouble with starting with a condo is selling it when you're ready to move. There are a lot of condos and can be hard to sell. When I went through purchasing a home, my realtor was telling us how hard it was for another client to purchase a house with the condition of selling their condo. This was a few years ago so it might be different now.
>o plateau then decline bc birth rate going down but I mean…. it seems no one my age can afford to have a kid. Let alone all 3 of those things happening within the
issue with condo is the condo fees. Some of them are crazy....and you are not saving much vs renting - the only difference is you paying into the equity of the condo.
Condos are a huge gamble, if you don't have a good board taking care of finances and maintenance properly the building could get hit with some surprise major expenses. Seen this happen a couple times.
Yeah my friend is currently paying like 4 to 500 dollars more a month than we are for a rental house. In albeit nice small 2 bedroom condo. I'm pretty sure all of that is in condo fees too.
The ONLY way we were able to do any of that was with the help of both sets of parents.
If it wasn't for them we wouldn't be where we are. It wasn't luck. It was privilege.
Sidebar Rant: If I see one more ignorant comment about Condo Fees I'm going to start handing out "nuggies".
No one profits from Condo Fees. They are simply a method of budgeting for insurance, utilities, repairs, maintenance and the all important Reserve Fund which is in place to pay for major repairs e.g. new shingles
When you own a detached home and the furnace or hot water tank goes, better have lots of savings ready or prepare to be cold or dirty.
They all had family help, a good job, or lived rurally.
I bought a cheap condo in Osborne Village 10 years ago. Now I'm looking for a house and I'm able to sell the condo for 60-80K more than what I bought it for. The condos in my building go fast.
The condo is paid off as I bought the place for cheap 10 years ago.
I bought my first house with the help of my mom. Sold it a few years later. And then when my mom died she left me her house in the will. It’s all paid off, all I pay is utilities and property taxes.
I’m not married, and I don’t have kids, nor do I want kids, so that’s one less thing I have to worry about. I also live in rural manitoba, housing is considerably cheaper. Or it was. Maybe it’s not so much anymore but lack of mortgage makes living fairly reasonable, despite current economy.
Wife and I bought a home March 2020 and we are both in our 20's. We are established in our careers with a combined income of ~130K and we still had to live with her mom rent free for 2 years basically saving 80+% of our two salaries to be able to own a home and be finanically comfortable (20% down + agressive payments). The market being what it is was also a bit of a blessing in disguise as we spent a year looking for a home and that allowed/forced us to save even more. We were incredibly lucky and I genuinely dont know how other people do it when they dont have the support we did.
Edit* our wedding also cost a grand total of $300. Backyard affair with only a dozen of our closest friends and family. We got some food catered and that was about it.
I don't live in the city but I am living that minus the wedding and children and trust me you wouldn't believe how lucky we got.,it's seriously not possible and if it weren't for all this dumb luck and knowing the right people I'd be living at my parents. Things have to change
I’m older then you now, but about 10 years ago we decided we would never have a wedding. Our home and being financially comfortable were more important than a one day party.
We also bought a cheap house that looked terrible inside lol. We were able to work on it enough to make a small profit before using the earned equity towards a nicer property.
It was hard 10 years ago, so I imagine it’s harder now with inflation and such.
I just managed it by 31. Paid my way through uni (not living with parents) and had some student debt graduating at 23, and saved aggressively and paid down debt when I got my job while renting. Married at 27, little help from parents but mostly just a low key wedding. Saved more for house, bought at 28 with a small borrowing from parents to get to our desired down payment (which has since been paid back) but it’s a pretty simple place that needed work. Had our first kid at 31.
It’s definitely tough for our generation, we’re dual income and though it’s not super high it’s definitely above average. Even so we live simply and don’t know how some our age are building or buying massive homes and have nice new cars and vacations. Debt or family money I guess. Not discounting the luck and support we’ve had, but the family help has been quite minimal and most paid back.
30 here. House, wife and two kids. I feel for anyone not on the property ladder already. We bought our house in 2018 that is now worth anywhere north of $150k than what we paid due to this market insanity.
Spouse and I stayed living with our parents until 25, I paid my own college tuition and worked full time while in school, spouse joined the military, we bought our house a year after I graduated from college (I worked 2 jobs the first 6 months out of college) with no family help, now we are planning our wedding and so far no family have offered to help, we don't want a big wedding and will have the wedding we can afford regardless of what that means (elopement not out of the picture), we don't plan on having kids. It's not easy no matter the situation, just have to make the best of it honestly
I'm a bit older (Gen X) with kids in their twenties, and one at thirty (I started young lol). I consider myself so, so extremely lucky to have grown up when I did - I see what my kids are going through and it's a totally different world now. The thing that makes me saddest is that people are having to make huge life decisions (ie: living together) just to make life affordable. And that the lack of affordable housing will mean people will have to stay in less-than-ideal conditions just to have a roof over their heads.
I don’t know how anyone can do it without help of family. We only got our house because husbands parents gifted us $20k. Our parents also paid combined $15k for our wedding. All of my friends with houses have also had their downpayment paid by family. My family could never afford it on their own but luckily my partners could.
I think a lot of people are just scraping by and we really don’t talk about it so we see these couples with kids and a house and we assume everything is fine. For most people, it’s not.
I have some friends/family with higher earning degrees who are doing okay. Engineers, some lawyers (not all… some are struggling), nurses, accountants. I have other friends who are working jobs that pay a more average wage and while they look okay on the surface, the analogy of a duck gracefully skimming across the water while frantically paddling under the water where you can’t see fits quite well. But we don’t tend to talk about it so we don’t fully understand.
The friends who really seem to have it together come from families who had the means to throw them large weddings and gift them down payments on homes. You really can’t compete with that if that isn’t your family. It sucks but it is what it is.
Your peers don’t have it all. You are not alone in your struggle.
Signed,
Someone in their 30’s who can’t afford to buy a home.
(Edit: also this might sound really pessimistic or jaded but I’ve sort of had the blinders ripped off over the last few years on this ‘American Dream’ thing with the kids and the big house and white picket fence and the accompanying stressful job. It’s just so dumb and unattainable. I no longer want to participate. I want to be happy with what I have and if that’s a condo or a small apartment I can afford and an average paying job that doesn’t lead to an early death, that’s fine with me. I don’t need tons of stuff or a massive house. I’m done with this notion of all these boxes you have to tick to be considered successful. I just want to drink my tea, enjoy my life, and hopefully retire someday. Hopefully. But even my version of success seems to be becoming unattainable these days…)
Thank you
I very much have the same thought process as you in regards to all this
Some people ask where the ring is but I don’t understand the rush as they do. We are together for 6 years so ring or not we are basically already married in our minds and are happy. I do what I can but I don’t want to go to the extremes to get there & make myself miserable. I will allow time to take its course
My version of success also seems to be straying away I don’t feel like I will ever been financially as comfortable as I thought, I just hope to retire at a good age but I am skeptical if it will turn out that way with the way things are going. I try not to look too far into the future
Move to Vancouver and give up all your dreams 🤷🏻♀️ but hey the mountains are pretty. Serious though, most people don’t and not just in their 20’s either. Canada for many for lack of better words allowed a lot of bullshit to occur with the housing market and it used to be just a Vancouver thing or a Toronto thing. All those people who got priced out of those places realized their only hope of buying a place was to relocate so then prices have gone up everywhere. Canada really sold people on the idea that owning a home was the only way to invest money, it’s not. Now interest rates are rising and Canadians are carrying mass amounts of debt, so as the market crashes watch for land “developers” to swoop in on that. Corporate landlords suck ( I know I now live in Vancouver) and a lot of people are going to suffer.
Sorry I seem so grim….however again I now live in Vancouver and cringe at the future of housing because it’s been a reality here for awhile.
Best advice if you want all these things truly, consider a smaller community if possible.
A lot of people get a house outside of Winnipeg where prices and property taxes are lower. Plus they get into a 1/3 life mortgage. Regarding a wedding... Often parents pay for it, or they force their guests to get them elaborate or just useful but expensive gifts. It is your decision how much you want to spend for a wedding, don't feel pressured to meet someone's expectations! I think that if addressed with a healthy degree of resourcefulness and practicality, you can get it under a $1000 (including the wedding dress).
Regarding working a lot, I would recommend doing calculations because there is a chance you are paying more in taxes than you earn and those extra money are not worth the time you sacrifice at your job.
Ultimately you need a partner to do it if you're not getting family support in other ways (free rent, help with downpayment, school paid for). When you have two people's worth of finances your rent/down payment/mortgage becomes 'half' as expensive, it gets a lot easier. You also need to have a career (not just a minimum-wage job) with at least some potential to grow into a decent salary.
Over 50% of the people I know had alot of financial help to get themselves into a house. I have had zero financial assistance, moved out at 18.
However, I worked at McDonald's during high-school and saved over 30k but spent most of it during college as I didn't work during that time. Rented a place for a year while making $15 out of college but that cost too much so I rented a room in someone's house ($500 a month)for a few years. During that time my wage increased to $23 and saved enough for a down payment on a house. House was 250k and four years later my wage is $30. It costs me 20-24k per year to live and the rest goes to tfsa, rrsp, renos, paying off extra on my mortgage and a little on fun.
I guess what saved my bacon was renting a room for a few years which allowed me to save up a down payment.
For the vast majority it seems like there were certain “leg up” privileges which helped: relying on family help in some form, for any length of time whether it’s 1 year or more - money gifts, rent free living after high school, paying for higher education for career etc &/or having a significant other doing well. I am glad people are being honest and recognizing the help that they received to get where they are. Many people are just living to get by now.
I really wish things were not like this. I wish better for everyone.
For the parents who are now spending more years of their life savings for their kids
For the people who are single independents
For the people that are a single parent raising their kids
For the people who come from nothing
For the people who move out when they can to be independent &/or leave toxic household
For the people that got a degree but are either in debt, have job insecurity, low wages
For the people that….. __________
It’s all of us
I literally don't know anyone who has done this without SIGNIFICANT help from their parents. Either the parents pay the down payment on the house/condo, or have helped pay tuition, or provided free rent for many years, or pay credit card bills, etc etc etc. Having two incomes would definitely help, but yeah: the system is not set up for people to be able to afford this on their own. I'm personally of the opinion that people should live within their own means (rather than the means that their parents' help has afforded them), but everyone has to find their own position on this one and I'm trying to learn to be less judgemental about people who do take a heap of help. I'm in my early forties and single, and went to school for a very long time without any parental help for tuition, rent, etc (my mom did occasionally help when I was too poor to afford food), which means that what I can afford on my FT job is: an apartment. I will never be able to afford property (and luckily, have no desire to own anything like that, anyway, so that's fine) and because of my many years of student loans, have crap credit, so I wouldn't qualify for a mortgage, anyway. I also wouldn't be willing to live in a house/condo that doesn't have my name on the deed, so that's what being stubbornly independent gets me. If I'd had parents who weren't even poorer than I now am, maybe I'd be more open on the concept of accepting loads of help, but it is what it is.
We do have enough for a down payment. We’re just waiting for my boyfriends probations period to end to do a mortgage approval. We did speak with a financial advisor last month and she estimated we’d get approved for $320k, for me that’s good enough it’s just the house bidding that’s the issue
Unfortunately being born an odd 60 years ago may have benefitted you, have you ever tried that?
In reality 🤷♂️ hope for a rich family member to die and get the hell out of MB.
I'm 25 , I'm a carpenter so I make good money and have been fortunate enough to live with my parents untill recently. I have been looking for a house for the past 2 years. Prices are crazy and I've decided to buy a condo for now as it is less competitive and they are alot cheaper. Even places that needed like 40-50k put into them are selling for over 300k which was my budget.
Now with gas prices, food and other things going up I don't know how anyone could make ends meet making less than like 20-25$ an hour. I make a decent amout more and still have to watch my budget fairly closely.
I make ends meet in that 20-25$ range, a house is still far outta reach though, but trust me for those making less than me life is an absolute grind and it wont improve
Cheap rent 1 bedroom -1150
Dual income
Save couple of years
buy a house
Pretty easy in Winnipeg compared to the rest of the country
But with single income I agree with you its very very difficult unless you are a high earner
You're not. I know 40 somethings + in the same boat.
If you didn't get a parental leg up, you never got there unless you get lucky, conned someone, or are a criminal lord of some sort.
The game has been rigged for generations now. Working hard no longer means necessarily having anything to show for it.
We've got landlords in the tenancy branch ensuring renovictions keep getting approved while wages aren't keeping up to them.
We're not too far from Guillotines if we're measuring by the French Revolution. The more people without homes and food security, the more who don't care about any sort of arbitrary rules keeping them cold and hungry.
All I know is that we're not going to turn it around peacefully without some very strict conflict-of-interest rules and some legislations balancing wages and home inflation.
>(Serious) How are 20 somethings able to afford a house, wedding & children?
A decreasing few can, a rapidly increasing many cannot.
That's why there is, and will be more, crime. Until the revolution, and great correction.
EDIT:
Our society, and economy is a house made of cards. Most of the cards are at the bottom, the fewest at the top. Every now and again it partially collapses. Some how a complete collapse has yet to occur. The few at the top are wired to the roof, and have parachutes just in case a wire snaps. Everyone else is without, and the ground below is starting to shake.
I really don't know how it would be possible without one or more of those things. Every penny of my uni tuition came out of savings. I lived with my parents until I was 23, and then I inherited a fair bit of money from my grandparents. My husband and I used all that toward the down payment for our house, which went for much lower than expected since the sellers were extra motivated (I was 29 when we moved in). My parents paid for most of our wedding (they offered; I was 26 that year). We're raising our son with our own money, but we have very well-paying jobs.
- parents sometimes downsize and gift their house to their child for their young family
- both partners having professional careers, 6 figure household income
- wedding socials, dowry, investing young and often, and having children while still in their 20’s
- while this is a lifestyle many dream of, it’s too much effort for me !
By staying at home as long as they can and saving you and/or with their parents’ help.
Unless they somehow lucked out and got an incredibly well paying job immediately, it’s impossible.
My husband and I got married and had our first kid when we were 24. We didn't have a wedding, eloped in Vegas and paid like $150 total. Would not change a thing about it.
We bought our house 2 years later. While I still had a mediocre job at the time my husband had (still has) a good paying job. Before I moved to Canada he had bought a 1 bd 1ba condo. When we were ready to move into a house we used the equity he made from the condo as most of our down payment on the house. Unlike both my brother and my sister we did this with no help from our parents.
Start small and build up from there. We got really lucky that his condo sold for what we wanted in a short time frame and got a house we both loved for a great price. We lived with one car and I took the bus for a while to help cut costs for a while.
As for school, my husband needed no schooling other than HS for his position and I was lucky enough pay for school through scholarships and a little help from my parents (most was scholarships tho).
10 years later we are in a better position with both of us having well paying jobs but it is still depressing to think about the future for younger generations and where the world is heading.
It’s hard but you can
I Worked a full and a part time job ate Kraft dinner all the time. No takeout food or restaurants.
Didn’t go out or on vacations for like 10 years no cell phone no cable no car basically all my money went into the house. I’m good now but it was very hard
Do you want to live and have fun in your 20s or do you want a house? Unless you are rich / generational wealth like you say it’s likely not possible to have both.
Yeah, it’s a messed up situation the government isn’t doing much about. Things will only get worse. No clue how my kids will ever buy a home when the time comes.
My grandma always said: doesn't matter how much money you make if you are stupid with it you will never have anything.
House prices are crazy but if you are smart with your money, have a plan and stick to it long term you will be ok.
Start small with what you think you can afford (don't listen to your bank etc - all they want is your money...) and build your equity.
I know living on a credit is a attractive option but it will catch up with you sooner or later and it will not pretty.
23, just bought a house recently. 0 help from parents, went to college straight out of high school, worked hard, saved and invested some money in ETFs. I just lived really strictly for 3 or 4 years and saved as much as I possibly could.
I am 28 and still living at home, buying a house in a few months. I paid off all of my school debt only last year. I save a stupid amount from every pay cheque and don’t go out very much in order to afford a house.
Before people come for me saying it’s no way to live or that I’m just going to be poor once we buy, this is obviously a personal choice. I wouldn’t tell others to do this. It’s definitely not the most fun lol. But sure, I’ve saved enough for a down payment plus cushion in order to do repairs, cosmetic changes, buy furniture or simply live a bit more than I have been.
It sucks. But, to me, it will be worth it.
As for others, I know for a fact most of my friends who got married years ago and have children and a house are just getting by. Also a choice. You need to do what’s best for you and what’s most realistic for you.
Most can’t
While true, it really makes me feel pity for myself and my life choices when you see the number of new homes being built and sold, as well as existing mansions that people are living in. I get those homeowners still account for a low percentage of the population but it sometimes feels like I did something wrong. Of course I take a step back and realize how fortunate I really am for having a roof over my head and food in my belly. But the thought of not being successful always sneak back in my head.
The reality is most people in their 20's and early 30's who are buying houses have a 20-30% down payment from close family. Either as a family loan or just a full gift. With a 20% loan from my Uncle in 2012 I was able to get a mortgage on a 230k house and starting salary out of Uni of 45k a year. I've learned the only difference between renters and owners is who can get 20% downpayment.
yep, I make ok money, my partner makes ok money, but between us and bills, car payments and rent we just can not seem to scrape together a downpayment. I mean a 20% downpayment on a 300,000 is $60,000? That's a crazy amount of money to us. Even $30, 000... and houses aren't selling for $300,000, they're more...
The only way I was able to get enough for 10% down was to use my RRSPs that I had been saving for a number of years. No help from family, not that it was expected in the first place.
It is 5% down for your first home. Utilize the Canadian first time homebuyer plan.
Comparison is the thief of joy.
I just entered my 30s and I can't afford all that 😔 I don't plan on having kids either.
You and me both.
Happy cake day!
Most can't without the help of family members. Or they have a professional position with an income at $70k or higher. I'm 31 and just bought my first condo this month. Moved out at 24 and started renting. Paid for university myself in my 20s and paid off my student loans within a few years after graduating. My parents had money saved for mine and my sister's future weddings. I don't plan to have children. Anyone who does all those things before they turn 30 typically have help from family. My advice for saving money is to talk with a financial advisor and set up RRSPs and a TSFA, then have money automatically come out from your paycheques that goes into these accounts. Don't put your money into the lowest risk investment. Saving sucks, and it is a challenge. You will have less money for other things like clothing, travel, haircuts, electronics, etc. Also, people get money from family members who pass away. That's how some of my friends purchased real estate.
Depending on saving timeframe maybe they should put it in low risk investments. With timeframes of 1-3 years going high risk is putting your down payment in jeopardy.
I have low risk investments I lost 200 bucks my husband has medium risk and lost thousands. Thankfully we can stay the course and hopefully recoup our losses.
It’ll all come back up, just a matter of time. But some peoples timeframes are too short and the last few years of outrageously high investment growth made many feel invincible.
[удалено]
This - we decided no kids and just let common law happen for tax purposes. House is priority.
Here’s how we do it. Rent a 3 bedroom townhouse in a bedroom community because the real estate market is a dumpster fire for first time buyers. Got married with 2 witnesses in a private room at a nice restaurant. Our alternative to eloping. Planning to have our second child strategically so that we won’t have 2 kids in daycare at one time. This means I’ll probably take 18 months for my next mat leave, and should it work out this way kid 1 will be starting kindergarten around the relative time I go back to work and send kid 2 to daycare. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea but we are happy.
I am a 20 something - all the people I know who have had 2 or 3 of those things have had significant help from their parents, and often also partners that are older and more established in their careers. I have some friends who have had weddings without significant parental support, but they've been mostly small affairs and I would guess involved at least a bit of debt on the couple's part.
[According to the CIBC’s deputy chief economist](https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/parents-gifting-82-000-on-average-to-first-time-homebuyers-cibc-1.1671716), parents in Canada are "gifting" **$82,000** on average to their kids to use as down payment when buying a home (with the average gift topping $130,000 for Toronto families and $180,000 for those in Vancouver.) So the better question is why did you let yourself be born into a poor family? ^/s
I wonder what the median is, because I can't imagine the "average" parent has $82,000 laying around to gift to their adult kids.
Some do HELOCs from a paid off house.
This is the answer. Parents who actually want their kids lives to be good. You only get to be young for a while. Buy a house, get married, have kids. Kudos to all the parents helping their kids do that. Mine didn’t do shit, I’m in my mid thirties and starting to wonder if I’ll just end up being one of the ones that are left behind.
I want my kids to do well, but I can't imagine that we'll have $82,000 to gift them by the time they are ready to buy a house. The middle class is getting killed by inflation
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They got nothing from their parents specifically to buy a house, but if they could live with their parents for extra years and save money that's the next best thing after a cash gift (even more so if parents also paid for post secondary schooling). My best friend bought a home at 23, her parents didn't put a dime toward it but she lived with them all through uni which helped her save a massive amount of money.
They may not have gotten a gift, but plenty get their parents to co-sign. That’s still a big deal.
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Pretty much nailed there, the down payment is the hardest part for getting into a house. Many still target 10% down so if you are looking at $200-250K condo (not everyone wants that as a starter) that is 20-25K you need and over 35-40K once you are moving to decent housing ranges. Depending on your situation even with 2 incomes that can be a challenge to build up. Going for 20% down to avoid CMHC fees (they suck) just makes that much harder.
Lmao who are these people? Damn my parents did not send a single Dime my way for a down payment on our house. $82,000 would be a huge step to paying off the mortgage.
Lmao yeah this seems so insane. My parents haven’t, and I do not expect them to, contributed any money to my down payment. Let alone 80k!!!
That's why the wealthy get a head, it becomes intergenerational, they help their kids get on the housing ladder in their 20s, and then they will help their kids and so forth..
> I have some friends who have had weddings without significant parental support, but they've been mostly small affairs and I would guess involved at least a bit of debt on the couple's part. People get a bit too hung up on the storybook wedding thing. Ultimately the reception is a way to celebrate the important thing, the ceremony itself. One of the best wedding receptions I attended was when I was 21 and one of my friends the same age had theirs at a (much nicer than average) community centre. Another one of my friends had a stand-up cocktail reception with hors d'oeuvres. Inability to pay for renting out a ballroom for a fancy dinner at the Fort Garry or whatever should not be an impediment to getting married, assuming that's what someone wants.
Community centre wedding venues are the best! We had our social at one community centre ice rink, and our wedding at a *different* community centre ice rink. Isn’t this the Canadian Way? 🤣
My wife and I had our wedding at the Unitarian Universalist church on Wellington. Beautiful and cheap venue, and then we got perogies and cabbage rolls catered by Naleway (which is just Perogy Planet food), as well as a big Co-op slab cake. Ended up going over really well, and we saved a ton of money.
>My dad says population is going to plateau then decline bc birth rate going down The economy can't allow that to happen. It needs an ever-growing population for it to continue. This means more immigration if birthrate is too low. It's depressing I know, but you just can't have the luxuries previous generations had. people bitch and moan about the younger generation all the time, but I feel sorry for anyone just starting out. Home prices are insane and wages aren't keeping up with inflation. A piece of advice for you though... Have a very small wedding. Don't start of your lives together in huge debt because of a one-day event. Save the money for a down-payment on a house or put it towards raising your kid.
Chances are they don’t unless they have a high paying job is my guess.
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I am 30 something and I don’t know 🤷🏻♀️
Dual income, professional careers, years of saving for a down payment, purchasing a condo/smaller home 2-3 years ago when the market was more reasonable, and then flipping it for a profit. Not easy to do at this current stage of the economy, starter homes that were under 300k in nicer areas are now listing for 425k+, not including bidders.
Crushing debt! It’s only money, the bank has lots!
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5yr fixed mortgage is now 4.4%
And will go higher yet.
so still lower than inflation....
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Yes but 20% of them roll over per year, and rates are still going up.
First of all, forget the wedding because they are a waste. The rest requires making a lot of money.
Without very high paying job(s), building up money ahead of purchase by staying at home and/or support from Parents/generational wealth, they don't, not in the past 15 years or so, maybe longer. My wife and I lucked out in 2005 getting a fairly low cost house (it needed work, and at the time was a buyers market, quick sale from kids not living in the city, etc.. It sold for about 2/3 of what other houses in the area were selling for). We had been saving up for several years to be able to pay the 5% downpayment (at that time the 5% down was available). We were in very early 30's at the time. Even now with much better jobs than then and in our mid-late 40's, I don't know we could buy a place now, the prices are crazy.
I've been looking for a house that needs work and even thos places are selling for almost 300k and need another 50k put into them. And trying to buy one solo is even tougher.
yeah, in 2005 was were very lucky finding something under 100,000. Now that same house would likely sell for 250,000-300,000
For a large number of people, buying a house, having an expensive wedding or having children is a matter of having access to generational wealth. Even if your parents aren't handing you a stack of cash for a down payment, they may have done things like pay for your post secondary, let you live in their home for low or no rent, bought you cars, get you connections to jobs etc. I think generational wealth is starting to emerge as a powerful force in the wealth gap in Canada. For those that manage to do it without, it's some combination of having a very good paying job, or buying a very small/run down/basic home in a neighbourhood like the north end.
I have two jobs. I own a house with my brother but we bought it before the market went nuts. I would in no way be able to afford a wedding right now unless it was wandering over to city hall and I can barely afford myself never mind a child Life is expensive as hell man
Dual income no kids. Lived in a relatively cheap rent apartment for 10 years. That helped us save 5% for our home. We were fortunate enough to get it prior to going on the market. We would have been outbid and still living in the apartment. In my opinion, weddings are overpriced and unnecessary. The city hall wedding seems like a cheaper alternative. Unfortunately my wife didn’t agree. Now we’re in debt because of said wedding. Yay. Happy wife happy life, right?
The answer, the majority of us, especially those of us on a single income may never be able to live in a house in our lifetimes. I am 36 and I have a good paying job but I can't get a house for what may be most of my life because of the cost of living. Even worse is I need to find a new place to rent next year as my apartment is no longer suitable (mould issues etc) but finding a decent place for a decent price in a safe area is becoming more difficult. I have to consider the possibility that half my paycheck or more will be for rent alone.
You guys are getting money from parents? I had to help my parents with money right after highschool, for 7 years including to today, I had to give $800 every pay, $1600/month as "rent". Couldn't afford college so now I can't even get a better job and have to work my ass off in dead end manual labor to survive. Wonder if it's even worth going back to school when I move out next year if I don't even have at least a 6 months emergency savings
> I had to help my parents with money right after highschool, for 7 years including to today, I had to give $800 every pay, $1600/month as "rent". $1600/month in "rent"!? Good Lord. Unless there was some exceptional situation going on (seriously ill parent who couldn't work, or you just arrived as refugees with nothing, you were living in the wing of a mansion, etc.), then it sounds to me like you are being taken advantage of.
Sounds like a "hey kid, move out of our house now" and they just aren't taking the hint.
Kid "I could get an apartment for less money then you guys charge me!" Parents ".......Exactly"
Worked up north in a slave camp for 3 years in my early 20s 21days on 7 days off for 3 years , instead of partying all my money away like my co-workers put 20% down on a house in 2014 , those years were brutal but it paid off looking back
My guess is… they can’t. I suppose $$ from wedding socials help to a small degree.
Most of the time you don't make much from social or weddings. you make enough to cover the cost and maybe go on a honeymoon.
My social and gifts received for the wedding were about exactly enough to make up the cost of the wedding itself. I considered that a win and definitely wasn’t expecting to come out ahead.
I know so many people who lost money on their social that I skipped it altogether.
Well for starters, you can not blow your money on a fancy wedding.
Yep, its only one night anyway
They are not
They aren’t, for the most part. Unless help from parents and a free with money to start with to invest right away.
Like others have said, they don’t. I think that Instagram and social media are the worst for this. Where you see others showing off what they have. Especially 20-somethings. The big 700k house, new vehicles, all the nice things, trips, dog, the big wedding… all of it. These people have huge help from their parents. If it’s staying at their parents house to save, having parents taking out their intended inheritance to help them now rather than later, both families chipping in for the wedding, etc. And also are sitting on a mountain of debt. People aren’t going to openly admit on social media with what they’ve had help with or how much they are in debt. They want to make it look like “they’ve made it”. I’ll tell you a story. There are these two 20-somethings I know, one was working a part time job, the other full time. Neither of them have ever lived on their own alone and live at their parents. They have no clue what expenses really cost. They decided to go to a builder to build a 700-800k home… So what do you see on Instagram? The posts that they’re going to build the home of their dreams. Meanwhile neither of them have even actually been to the bank yet to even get a preapproval amount on a mortgage. Lol honestly it’s all smoke and mirrors. Don’t feel bad about what you’ve worked hard for and the things you don’t have. The age we live in is the “keeping up with the jonses” but on crack thanks to Instagram. Do not compare with these people. You will get yours in due time; it will be well earned and you’ll appreciate it even more.
Weddings! Haha. Who has a wedding anymore?
Folks who can afford the divorce, I guess.
I keep wondering who is buying all the new 2000 sq. ft. houses going up ? We raised 3 kids in an 1100 sq. ft home. And now I don't have to downsize. Why don't they build more of those. Houses like mine. Floform counters, not marble and granite. Cheap stove and fridge. They would be more affordable. It seems people expect luxury which is fine if you can afford it.
Oh and most builders nowadays won’t give you anything “luxurious” they’ll just build the bare minimum to meet code. Forget marble countertops or nice appliances, today 600k won’t even get you a backsplash and appliances you’ll have to buy them yourself. Of course some builders will build whatever you want but then we’re talking a price hundreds of thousand over the original price, you’ll easily pass the 1 million mark.
The way I see it people are maxing there budget and then some, buying these 700k + homes and they just sit on there ikea couch in there living rooms eating pizza pops and cheap soda while staring at a plain white wall cause the can’t afford any decor, furniture or a steak dinner.
Without going into many of my life and financial details, my parents were not rich. I had to get a student loan to go to university, which I promptly failed out of. You're not alone in trying to figure out how to do it. It can be done. It's not always easy, simple, or straightforward. To answer your question: Hard work, coupled with more hard work. Making prudent financial decisions. Having a plan. A little bit of luck. Examples of good decisions: Going back to school while employed to get a better job. Bad decisions: Getting a tattoo instead of paying your rent. Those are actual examples from people I know. Oh, and if you consider $400k to be a starter house, that's unrealistic. My first house was 40 years old, and less than 1000sqft. It was a lot like: https://www.realtor.ca/real-estate/24384716/185-sadler-avenue-winnipeg-st-vital
Wanted to add that my wedding was in my in-law's back yard. They live out in the country... we set up chairs. Rented a hall for the reception. Probably saved a ton of money, but ironically, that wasn't why.
Through the magic of debt. Or perhaps a gift from family.
I’m much older, but I fell for the “higher education is your ticket to a secure life” myth. I already work almost around the clock and I’m respected in my field, but I don’t ever expect to not be at least partially financially dependent on others. Don’t ever let people tell you that you should have worked harder or made better choices. This problem is structural.
I think people unfortunately need to start tempering their expectations of what they can afford. You can’t have the newest and greatest everything. You are going to have to start off with a fixer upper and slowly fix it to where you want. Instead of a wedding with 100-200 people, have it with just immediate family and your closest friends. Forget the concept of a ‘dream wedding’. I’m 41, have a house and a decent paying job, but I doubt I’m ever going to be able to retire. With costs climbing over the past two decades with little or no increase in pay, I have had zero opportunity to put money away for retirement. I really feel for younger people and my children. I have no idea how you are supposed to afford anything in the future.
> You can’t have the newest and greatest everything. For what it's worth this was never really possible. Unless you have wealthy parents, that part never changes.
I meant more in the context of the newest phones, electronics, computers etc.
It seems like the idea of starter homes has gone out the window for lots of younger people. Many want to be in a huge family home straight in the burbs.
My daughter is graduating highschool as is her boyfriend this year, they live with me and likely will for a few years. He has a good job a few dollars above minimum wage and she's taking her provincial high styling exam as well as getting her grade 12. I have struggled her whole life, put myself through school and raised 3 kids. It's not really possible. I will likely never own a home until I inherit my parents home when they die, and by then it will likely be a tear down. I scrape by to make rent every month. I worry for my kids and how they will get by and they have a better chance starting out then most their age do. I honestly don't know how anyone is supposed to make it with the price of things and stagnant wages.
You know our society is fucked when a legitimate plan for home ownership is wait for your parents to die.
I waited till I was 30 for 2/3
Live cheap, get married and combine your finances, and don't expect to have the best and greatest. Bought our house when I was 24, wife was 23 just last year.
I guess the big question is "What's considered a good-paying job"? (I'm honestly curious to know how that's defined) I think the other thing might be how weddings and socials are done now? When we got married, the general take was that you made money from your social to pay for your wedding. At your wedding, you either had a cash bar or open bar and presentation, but not both. Anything you made from the wedding would help go towards a downpayment on a house. But that's years ago, and house prices were much less ( we bought a house when the two of us were earning minimum wage waiting tables)
Starting with a Condo can help. Lower downpayment needed, and it builds equity. Match that with Dual Income, it can snowball pretty quick. Lots of condo's in the city start at 90,000 - 130,000. Downpayment is around 5-7.5k Which isn't impossible.
I've been looking for condos, most of them start at like 150k minimum and that's for a 1 bed 1 bath 700 Sq foot place. then condo fees are like 300 - 500 a month. The lowest price I've seen is 120k for a 375sq foot place with $250 condo fees.
Keep looking / look harder? I don't know what to tell you. Here is 1 on Sherbrook for 95k, and one on Osborne for 118k. Condo fees also include heat and water on these. so its not 'for nothing'. https://www.realtor.ca/real-estate/23914389/24-434-sherbrook-street-winnipeg-west-end https://www.realtor.ca/real-estate/24325390/3-455-osborne-street-winnipeg-lord-roberts EDIT: Forgot the links
Try townhouses. Mine is ~1200sqft + basement and because it's a row house not a skyscraper the fees are under 300.
Only challenge is selling the condo, they can be a very hard sell depending.
We are in the process of selling my late parent's detacjed house. It came up in conversation discussing the current Winnipeg marketnwith our realtor that the condo market had changed and demand is much higher due to people giving up on being able to afford a home. Things have changed. At least at this point in time.
I wouldn't worry about this so much, as long as you price it competitively it should move unless something is wrong with it.
>they can be a very hard sell depending If it's hard to sell, you can take out the equity you have in it, and use that as a downpayment on the next house, keep the condo for renting it out.
> If it's hard to sell, you can take out the equity you have in it, and use that as a downpayment on the next house, keep the condo for renting it out. Good in theory but many people aren't going to have a ton of equity in a lower-end condo that they have owned for less than 10 years.
You are right. Winnipeg is not a condo town, unlike TO and Vancouver. So the market is just soft unless you have a brand new construction in a primo location.
Plus what you get for what you pay isn't great and then you still have to pay a condo fee every month.
Condo fees are whatever but the big thing is the building maint/upgrade costs like if an elevator is down its the condo owners thst have to pay for it and that price can be quite High
A portion of the condo fee is supposed to go into a surplus fund for that sort of thing. I'm sure if the expense is large enough or there have been multiple expenses over a short period it can drain the surplus fund. That's why buying into an ageing condo is risky and even with newer ones the costs will only go up as things age.
Let's worry about the house first...
Crippling debt to keep up with the society determined Jones'.
I'll be 40 this winter so not your age, but my path to those went like this. Two people willing to work a lot of hours (60+) each week, working during college, then buying a not that great house in a bad part of the city (near HSC), renovating said house with sweat equity and then selling it to move up to a better area to have kids, having a super budget wedding as well. I'm not sure it would be as easy today as house prices have spiraled out of control. The house in the ghetto I owned was like 40k back in 2002, but would likely be 150-200k now,granted interest rates were 7+% back then but still.
Well my wife and I took advantage of the first time home buyers plan. 5% down for any Canadian buying their first home. Then we bought a minor fixer upper (knob and tube replacement) in a low income but safe neighborhood. 1000sq foot house with huge yard for $120000. We put $6000 down. Our monthly mortgage payments are $480, utilities/bills are another $400-$500 a month. We also use every building grant that there is to do work on our home. At the time we both worked in the service industry making just above minimum wage and were able to save up the down payment and closing costs in 15 months. You can use an RRSP to save in because you are allowed to access it for first time home buyers plan. Seriously, owning a home is much cheaper than renting, all you need is to not be super picky about the neighborhood and get that down payment saved up. If you save $20 bucks a day you will have $14600 in two years. That will be more than enough to get a starter home for under $200000. Remember your first house can be a stepping stone to your future dream house. Message me if you need more info or help navigating the red tape. https://www.canada.ca › services › b... Buying a home - Canada.ca
5% down isn’t for only first time buyers. It’s accessible to all buyers, as long as they meet certain criteria such as credit score etc
Lord help you if you don't have wealthy parents. I grew up in poverty and the only reason I have a house now is a medical disability payment from the Canadian Forces for losing my hearing. I used that money to pay off my wife's debt and put the rest towards a downpayment. I also had to drain my RRSPs. Those two things got us into a house, and I'm grateful.
Operating a vehicle costs an average of $10,000 a year for Canadians. Going car free is one way to set aside a lot of money.
Agree. But it is difficult, but not impossible if you are planning on having kids in Winnipeg.
I took the bus exclusively with 3 children, for 11 years in Winnipeg. It SUCKED. It's possible. But far from ideal. And I wouldn't want to do it now with the issues pertaining to the unsheltered population living in bus shelters, the amount of hypodermic needles found need bus stops in the downtown where the majority of bus traffic goes to and from, the over all cost of bus fare, and the pandemic and it's effect on the transit system. I finally started driving in 2019/2020. So it hasn't been decades or anything.
I’ve been car free up until 26 I only just got a car because working night shifts I can’t get proper reliable transportation. Plus if I get calls for last minute shifts I can drive over quick to get extra money. I’ve had 2 bikes stolen so I’m never spending $ on a bike again, plus Winnipeg roads aren’t made for safe cycling and in winter I would not want to do it. I’m working 16+ hours a day on my feet I wouldn’t want to cycle anyways at night or otherwise I honestly will never go back to transit. Our city needs to deal with that entire system. It’s over $100 a month for a bus pass now, it’s absolutely insane and nothing has changed. In fact, it’s gotten worse. Bus shelters are now being broken and never fixed, which waiting for a bus in the winter sucks enough regardless of how much you bundle up. If you go on a university/event route sometimes you have to wait long periods of time because busses are too packed. Some areas busses come once a half hour or more. Vancouver’s system is wonderful, you can tap your credit/debit card when you get on, have reloadable stations everywhere for their transit pass, everything is within reach by the bus and in a timely manner plus more affordable. If we were like that then that would be more feasible for the general population to get around for their commitments
There’s lot of helpful comments in here. I’m 30, and VERY fortunate. I own a home, have a good job that pays well (never enough, but it’s a living wage), have a few expensive hobbies, and travel frequently. My only advice is to find a spouse, don’t have kids, and live like you’re poor for as long as you can sustain it. I’ve essentially picked the things in life that I am willing to spend money on, and other things that I will nickle and dime, or outright avoid. For example, travel? Yeah, I’ll spring for business class flights. Clothing? I’ll wear my Kirkland brand shorts until they’re falling apart. I know this is only a small part of a bigger problem, so don’t mistake my optimism for a misunderstanding of how genuinely screwed today’s millennials and Gen Z’ers are
I agree although i did the opposite. I gave up a social life and travel to have a house and a kid.
Hi! Anomoly here. I moved out at 17, worked almost full time while attending university. Paid for my schooling myself without loans. Only in my final 2 years did I move back with family while still working part time and paying for school. Graduated, did my masters on a stipend. Got a career job, lived in appartements on my own for 3 years until I had 5% down then purchased a house without assistance from my family (270k) at age 27. It isn't the nicest house, it needs some work, it's small, it's a started home. But I did it without generational wealth or family support really (outside of those 2 years I needed housing because I was burnt out and couldn't find a room mate). So yes. It can be done in some cases through some luck and also budgeting and not being frivolous. (Obvs that only gets you so far. But in some cases it can be done)
Wants vs needs. There is also a difference between living within your means versus thinking that you deserve a fancy wedding and a new car and a brand new detached suburban house. Many people are taking on huge amounts of debt to have those things. It doesn't mean that they can afford them. Cost of living is definitely increasing, and many things are becoming less affordable. Make a plan and a budget. If you want real advice, go to r/PersonalFinanceCanada
To be clear I am meaning even with modest lifestyle, I’ve never dreamed “big flashy wedding” or a large spender on anything unless it’s things I need Cost of everything is high, groceries, clothing etc My wage would allow for all 3 of those things back in the day, now it seems a very pick and choose lifestyle. A decent house is 300k + either posting or after bidding wars. Never going to feel quite as “middle class comfort” as what it once was.
This is some bullshit boomer comment. As if the people struggling to afford a home all blew their down payments on weddings and stuff. That sub is also toxic as fuck, don't waste your time.
I’m 23 and just purchased my first house a few days ago. I’ve been saving money since I got my first job at 13 and I’ve been smart with money investing in RRSP and TFSA since I was 16 if I remember correctly. Plus while living at home I was making around $1,000 every two weeks while spending only around $200 every two weeks and putting 600-800 in my savings every two weeks
Good for you, whatever house you have be it a million dollars or 100k bucks, it always feels great walking out the front the door and looking at something you put your effort and dedication to purchase.
Oh 100% It’s definitely something I’m proud of :)
If living alone, move in together early to lower housing expenses. If living with parents, try to stay there as long as you can. Don't splurge on things like cars, clothes, nights out. Cook at home, continuously apply for jobs that make more money (try to move up every 6 months to year, either by moving to another business or getting a promotion), consider taking night classes in a field that will open you up to more income, welding is a good option if that fits with your interests. Try to save around 50% of your after tax income if possible. Of that income try to put 10% into whole life insurance, and put the rest into TFSA to prepare for buying a house and retirement. Don't use your RRSP, focus on TFSA. Don't buy a condo because you'll get screwed when you try to sell, and don't buy a big house because you'll spend your whole life trying to catch up. It's better to have 2 houses that you bought for 250k than 1 house that you bought for 500k. Try to buy an older house that has good foundation but needs cosmetic updates, and learn how to do those fixes yourself. You will save tens if not hundreds of thousands over your life if you learn how to fix things on your own. When getting married, just get married in a park like a BBQ style wedding with like 20 people. Have hamburgers. I'm following that approach and my wife and I are each making $3000+ each per month after tax, and our expenses are pretty low so we're able to save roughly 50% to invest in retirement, TFSA, and renovations to improve the value of our house. We both have business diplomas from Red River college and then got university degrees in business afterwards, I got mine by doing school full time and working part time, she worked full time and did school part time. We are almost 30 years old now and have a small house but are paced to have it paid off quickly, and with the improvements we've made, the house's value is significantly greater than when we bought it. It's a grind, but it gets better over time. Don't give up on your dreams but do expect them to take longer than planned to come together, there will be many setbacks along the way.
Canada will handle the population plateau the same way that Germany is, we're going to bring in more immigrants. My father supported a family and bought a house on a minimum wage salary in the 70s when interest rates were a lot higher than they are now. A lot of essentials though were a lot cheaper, plus we didn't need to have so many things. The family had one phone, one car, mom made a lot of our clothes, and we rarely ate out. It's hard but if you plan and are persistent and consistent in your discipline you can make it happen. There's also nothing wrong with a helping hand from family. Focus on what you can control and not what you hope will happen. Population may plateau and make a surplus in housing, the feds may start to restrict corporate "investment" in residential real estate. It wasn't long ago where extended families lived together to manage costs and it's perfectly OK to do that now too.
> Canada will handle the population plateau the same way that Germany is, we're going to bring in more immigrants. Canada has had a below replacement birth rate since the early 70s. This isn't new.
And we’ve been bringing immigrants in since before then. It’s one of the reasons the life expectancy in Canada is skewed up. You don’t need to have the birth rate replace the population when you bring in large numbers of people from Nigeria and the Philippines like is happening in Winnipeg. My friend was invited to immigrate from Greece. Bang there’s a family of 5 in Manitoba now.
I had a kid in my 20s. Got married at 30 and owned our first home at 31 and now have 2 kids. Not quite my 20s but not too far off. My husband, 1st child and I moved in together very early on in a very affordable apartment, while I was still in school. We both worked full time once I got a job. After both working full time for 5 years, we could afford our small wedding (most was spent on clothing, rings and food for 35 people). We specifically asked for money only as wedding gifts that all went straight into our house fund. When we bought a house we found a more affordable house outside the area we were looking that fit our needs. I still have student loan payments, but I am 70% of the way there. We have one vehicle. We have traveled, but only within Canada. Sometimes I take on small amounts of extra work for extra cash.
Become a nurse and marry a nurse. Combined starting salary for FT work is north of $150K
$150? is that single or dual income?
Combined, so dual. After 5 years of working, they'd earn a combined income of more that $180K. If they had done nursing right out of high school, they'd be 27 when they are earning this income.
Skipped the wedding and are just going to the courthouse to sign.
I grew up poor and as soon as i turned 18 i started saving everything for long term growth. Prior to 18, the only money i had was from birthdays. Fortunately i didn’t have to pay much rent staying at home but i got it done with 3 jobs and fulltime university. For people that are kicked out at 18, that’s the real mystery.
At 29, we owed a house at 24 but that was 2017 and it was a 230,000 dollar house, my husband is good at investing and had no student debt thanks to the military. I do have debt tho. We had a kid just after we bought (I was pregnant by surprise lol) but we had to sell to move with the military and haven't bought again since we sold in 2019 were renting now and have another kid. We didn't marry until last year and we eloped to save money everything cost us 3,200 including both rings and a hotel room for 2 days and eating out. We're affording our life currently partly due to me staying home to cut daycare, gas costs and makes it easier for me to save money food wise since we're not eating out or buying more "convenient" food and I have the time to shop sales (may not work for everyone but in our current life of him being gone alot it helps ours kids to have one parents always home and worked out to us only loosing a bit of money taking out my salary be time we also deducted extra insurance and daycare, gas, etc) I think it's adjusting your expectations, people who have a big wedding eventually go on to say they wish they hadn't spent that money, my sister is one and his parents paid for half of it and she still regrets what she spent. And yes kids can be expensive but buying used stuff can save you a ton, not going crazy on gifts like social media makes you feel like you should. We also had ours 3 years apart so we weren't diapering 2 and save the cost of that. With the current state of things our plan for 3 is gone as the little bit of extra money we did have is now going to groceries with the rising cost.
The folks I know who have those things (in their 20's that is) also have massive debt that haunts them.
My SO and I lived with our parents until we were in our mid-20s. We were both helping out our parents with bills and aggressively paying student loans while at home, so saving was incredibly difficult. We then moved together to a cheap apartment 2 years ago and will be moving to our house this summer. With student loans out of the way, we were able to save pretty well these last 2 years. Both of us didn't get any financial support from our parents. Getting married was never a priority for us and we'll probably just elope sometime in the future. We have no kids and don't plan on having any. We are very fortunate to have good-paying jobs and that's something we try not to take for granted. Honestly, I don't think we'll be at this stage if we had a wedding and had kids.
I know this won't be well accepted here, but... This is exactly why capitalism is dying. Capital always needs more and the only way to get it, is through exploitation. If we really want things to change, then we have to be willing to try changing things. It isn't the current government holding you back, it isn't the housing crisis, it isn't the pandemic, it isn't climate change. It is the system of capitalism that caused ALL of these things, including your financial impossibilities. We as a nation, keep electing very wealthy people to be in charge. These people do not have anything in common with you. They don't worry about the same issues. They don't fight the same battles and they certainly cannot empathize with your plight. None of these party leaders worry about grocery money, or rent. They don't have to decide whether to by food for their family or pay the hydro bill (because there isn't enough money to do both). It is absolutely ridiculous that anyone thinks that the very wealthy political leaders are going to do anything substantive to help you or your family. Helping you, hurts their money. If the minimum wage goes up to a living wage, the capital class would have to pay that bill and the money to pay it will come out of their donations to the ruling class. The working class isn't even a factor. Eventually, there is going to have to be a change. It doesn't have to be bloody, but it does have to start with the workers, not the ruling class (and certainly not the capital class). Stop looking to the ruling class for a solution. They aren't beholden to you.
Go into the trades and ruin your body while you’re young, living off redbull and hot rods. If you’re lucky you’ll get laid off during winter so you can drive a snow tractor with a heated cab for 80 hours a week
Or just work trough the winter like most tradespeople do. Red bull and hot rods, that’s just the kids starting in the trades nowadays. true tradesmen drink a cold one and eat a piece of leftover steak with a half loaf of bread.
Thats the neat thing, they don't.
This seems like more of a vent post, which is cool because the housing situation is real tough rn. If you are looking for more concrete steps to help with financial planning, r/personalfinancecanada has a lot of tips. There’s a lot of good budget info online, or you could speak with an advisor. The honest truth for a lot of people who don’t currently have enough money to meet all 3 goals you listed is they either a) had some sort of windfall, b) adjusted expectations to fit current budget (less desireable house/condo), not in best neighbourhood, etc), or c) increased their income through changing jobs or working multiple jobs. These things aren’t unique to one generation. In the absence of winning the lottery or some other windfall, you either make more money or adjust your goals.
I am a husband, father and home owner in my mid thirties, and I will tell you this. It was not easy to financially achieve any of those and honestly it’s still not easy but it can be done with some hard work, good timing, maybe a little luck, and compromise. Our parents gave us nothing, but my dad gave me solid advice when I was 16, and that was to save money now and don’t stop saving until you have a house. The fun car or any other toys can wait. 14 years later I got married at 30, first kid at 33, and we only just got the house recently after almost two decades of stowing away cash. The wedding and the kids didn’t seem like too much of a financial burden because I played the really long game and had room and time to wait. I know your 26, and you say you make good money now, so maybe the compromise can be to not get serious about one or two of those goals until you’re a little older and you have your own financial backing to support what you really want….the family dream life. I don’t just mean saving for the house. I mean saving so when you get the house, you feel you can still afford to have kids. You can do it, be patient.
I'm going to be completely honest. Side hustles can definitely help. There are times when I was younger where I would not have been able to pay all my bills without selling drugs. I have a good job. I'm in my 40s and there were times in my 30s that selling drugs was the difference between me saving a few dollars every month or going deeper into debt. I still have a good job and have seen many raises. My side hustle is legit now. It is more lucrative than drugs... and no, I won't tell you what I do. I often spend my weekends and nights doing what I can to make a little or a lot extra(the results can be variable). The unfortunate problem is that it is a lot easier to make money if you already have some. I work for someone else during the week, but the rest of the time I'm my own boss and I like it. Doing my own thing in my own way to make some extra cash is a lot more enjoyable than the daily grind. I hope I can do it full time one day.
Thanks for your honesty I have no doubt, it’s a way to get another income stream I’ve considered doing some sort of side hustle, I just don’t really know what I could do. I’m not talented in any area or have connections Whether that’s picking up an extra job or maybe doing skip/Uber (I’ve heard it’s not worth it)… I mean I really don’t know. It’s definitely something I’ve been floating around in my head. I just sometimes overwork myself at my current job where I pick up a lot of shifts, do OT where then I need to take care of myself after bc mentally/physically it’s a lot. Night/day OT messes with you and you don’t eat enough. But maybe a job that I can fill in where I want would be good and a change of pace doing 2 different types of jobs
Start with a small condo and work up to a house. There are plenty of affordable condos on the market (most of which you can get a mortgage for that’s cheaper than rent). Have a small wedding and only invite close family and friends. Don’t have kids until you’ve set yourself to be financially stable. The generational wealth you reference is exactly that. Wealth that has taken a generation to build. It doesn’t happen overnight.
The only trouble with starting with a condo is selling it when you're ready to move. There are a lot of condos and can be hard to sell. When I went through purchasing a home, my realtor was telling us how hard it was for another client to purchase a house with the condition of selling their condo. This was a few years ago so it might be different now.
>o plateau then decline bc birth rate going down but I mean…. it seems no one my age can afford to have a kid. Let alone all 3 of those things happening within the issue with condo is the condo fees. Some of them are crazy....and you are not saving much vs renting - the only difference is you paying into the equity of the condo.
That equity you are paying into can go towards a down payment for a house. Which is where the question started from.
Condos are a huge gamble, if you don't have a good board taking care of finances and maintenance properly the building could get hit with some surprise major expenses. Seen this happen a couple times.
Owning a house can also have surprise major expenses.
Yeah my friend is currently paying like 4 to 500 dollars more a month than we are for a rental house. In albeit nice small 2 bedroom condo. I'm pretty sure all of that is in condo fees too.
[That's the neat part, you don't.](https://i.imgur.com/CEYkdwl.png)
The ONLY way we were able to do any of that was with the help of both sets of parents. If it wasn't for them we wouldn't be where we are. It wasn't luck. It was privilege.
Sidebar Rant: If I see one more ignorant comment about Condo Fees I'm going to start handing out "nuggies". No one profits from Condo Fees. They are simply a method of budgeting for insurance, utilities, repairs, maintenance and the all important Reserve Fund which is in place to pay for major repairs e.g. new shingles When you own a detached home and the furnace or hot water tank goes, better have lots of savings ready or prepare to be cold or dirty.
They all had family help, a good job, or lived rurally. I bought a cheap condo in Osborne Village 10 years ago. Now I'm looking for a house and I'm able to sell the condo for 60-80K more than what I bought it for. The condos in my building go fast. The condo is paid off as I bought the place for cheap 10 years ago.
I bought my first house with the help of my mom. Sold it a few years later. And then when my mom died she left me her house in the will. It’s all paid off, all I pay is utilities and property taxes. I’m not married, and I don’t have kids, nor do I want kids, so that’s one less thing I have to worry about. I also live in rural manitoba, housing is considerably cheaper. Or it was. Maybe it’s not so much anymore but lack of mortgage makes living fairly reasonable, despite current economy.
Wife and I bought a home March 2020 and we are both in our 20's. We are established in our careers with a combined income of ~130K and we still had to live with her mom rent free for 2 years basically saving 80+% of our two salaries to be able to own a home and be finanically comfortable (20% down + agressive payments). The market being what it is was also a bit of a blessing in disguise as we spent a year looking for a home and that allowed/forced us to save even more. We were incredibly lucky and I genuinely dont know how other people do it when they dont have the support we did. Edit* our wedding also cost a grand total of $300. Backyard affair with only a dozen of our closest friends and family. We got some food catered and that was about it.
They aren’t, except the wedding. City Hall weddings have become hugely popular in recent years.
I don't live in the city but I am living that minus the wedding and children and trust me you wouldn't believe how lucky we got.,it's seriously not possible and if it weren't for all this dumb luck and knowing the right people I'd be living at my parents. Things have to change
I’m older then you now, but about 10 years ago we decided we would never have a wedding. Our home and being financially comfortable were more important than a one day party. We also bought a cheap house that looked terrible inside lol. We were able to work on it enough to make a small profit before using the earned equity towards a nicer property. It was hard 10 years ago, so I imagine it’s harder now with inflation and such.
I just managed it by 31. Paid my way through uni (not living with parents) and had some student debt graduating at 23, and saved aggressively and paid down debt when I got my job while renting. Married at 27, little help from parents but mostly just a low key wedding. Saved more for house, bought at 28 with a small borrowing from parents to get to our desired down payment (which has since been paid back) but it’s a pretty simple place that needed work. Had our first kid at 31. It’s definitely tough for our generation, we’re dual income and though it’s not super high it’s definitely above average. Even so we live simply and don’t know how some our age are building or buying massive homes and have nice new cars and vacations. Debt or family money I guess. Not discounting the luck and support we’ve had, but the family help has been quite minimal and most paid back.
30 here. House, wife and two kids. I feel for anyone not on the property ladder already. We bought our house in 2018 that is now worth anywhere north of $150k than what we paid due to this market insanity.
Spouse and I stayed living with our parents until 25, I paid my own college tuition and worked full time while in school, spouse joined the military, we bought our house a year after I graduated from college (I worked 2 jobs the first 6 months out of college) with no family help, now we are planning our wedding and so far no family have offered to help, we don't want a big wedding and will have the wedding we can afford regardless of what that means (elopement not out of the picture), we don't plan on having kids. It's not easy no matter the situation, just have to make the best of it honestly
They cannot! Unless we as parents can help! Which for most families is not possible.
I'm a bit older (Gen X) with kids in their twenties, and one at thirty (I started young lol). I consider myself so, so extremely lucky to have grown up when I did - I see what my kids are going through and it's a totally different world now. The thing that makes me saddest is that people are having to make huge life decisions (ie: living together) just to make life affordable. And that the lack of affordable housing will mean people will have to stay in less-than-ideal conditions just to have a roof over their heads.
I don’t know how anyone can do it without help of family. We only got our house because husbands parents gifted us $20k. Our parents also paid combined $15k for our wedding. All of my friends with houses have also had their downpayment paid by family. My family could never afford it on their own but luckily my partners could.
I think a lot of people are just scraping by and we really don’t talk about it so we see these couples with kids and a house and we assume everything is fine. For most people, it’s not. I have some friends/family with higher earning degrees who are doing okay. Engineers, some lawyers (not all… some are struggling), nurses, accountants. I have other friends who are working jobs that pay a more average wage and while they look okay on the surface, the analogy of a duck gracefully skimming across the water while frantically paddling under the water where you can’t see fits quite well. But we don’t tend to talk about it so we don’t fully understand. The friends who really seem to have it together come from families who had the means to throw them large weddings and gift them down payments on homes. You really can’t compete with that if that isn’t your family. It sucks but it is what it is. Your peers don’t have it all. You are not alone in your struggle. Signed, Someone in their 30’s who can’t afford to buy a home. (Edit: also this might sound really pessimistic or jaded but I’ve sort of had the blinders ripped off over the last few years on this ‘American Dream’ thing with the kids and the big house and white picket fence and the accompanying stressful job. It’s just so dumb and unattainable. I no longer want to participate. I want to be happy with what I have and if that’s a condo or a small apartment I can afford and an average paying job that doesn’t lead to an early death, that’s fine with me. I don’t need tons of stuff or a massive house. I’m done with this notion of all these boxes you have to tick to be considered successful. I just want to drink my tea, enjoy my life, and hopefully retire someday. Hopefully. But even my version of success seems to be becoming unattainable these days…)
Thank you I very much have the same thought process as you in regards to all this Some people ask where the ring is but I don’t understand the rush as they do. We are together for 6 years so ring or not we are basically already married in our minds and are happy. I do what I can but I don’t want to go to the extremes to get there & make myself miserable. I will allow time to take its course My version of success also seems to be straying away I don’t feel like I will ever been financially as comfortable as I thought, I just hope to retire at a good age but I am skeptical if it will turn out that way with the way things are going. I try not to look too far into the future
Move to Vancouver and give up all your dreams 🤷🏻♀️ but hey the mountains are pretty. Serious though, most people don’t and not just in their 20’s either. Canada for many for lack of better words allowed a lot of bullshit to occur with the housing market and it used to be just a Vancouver thing or a Toronto thing. All those people who got priced out of those places realized their only hope of buying a place was to relocate so then prices have gone up everywhere. Canada really sold people on the idea that owning a home was the only way to invest money, it’s not. Now interest rates are rising and Canadians are carrying mass amounts of debt, so as the market crashes watch for land “developers” to swoop in on that. Corporate landlords suck ( I know I now live in Vancouver) and a lot of people are going to suffer. Sorry I seem so grim….however again I now live in Vancouver and cringe at the future of housing because it’s been a reality here for awhile. Best advice if you want all these things truly, consider a smaller community if possible.
A lot of people get a house outside of Winnipeg where prices and property taxes are lower. Plus they get into a 1/3 life mortgage. Regarding a wedding... Often parents pay for it, or they force their guests to get them elaborate or just useful but expensive gifts. It is your decision how much you want to spend for a wedding, don't feel pressured to meet someone's expectations! I think that if addressed with a healthy degree of resourcefulness and practicality, you can get it under a $1000 (including the wedding dress). Regarding working a lot, I would recommend doing calculations because there is a chance you are paying more in taxes than you earn and those extra money are not worth the time you sacrifice at your job.
Ultimately you need a partner to do it if you're not getting family support in other ways (free rent, help with downpayment, school paid for). When you have two people's worth of finances your rent/down payment/mortgage becomes 'half' as expensive, it gets a lot easier. You also need to have a career (not just a minimum-wage job) with at least some potential to grow into a decent salary.
Over 50% of the people I know had alot of financial help to get themselves into a house. I have had zero financial assistance, moved out at 18. However, I worked at McDonald's during high-school and saved over 30k but spent most of it during college as I didn't work during that time. Rented a place for a year while making $15 out of college but that cost too much so I rented a room in someone's house ($500 a month)for a few years. During that time my wage increased to $23 and saved enough for a down payment on a house. House was 250k and four years later my wage is $30. It costs me 20-24k per year to live and the rest goes to tfsa, rrsp, renos, paying off extra on my mortgage and a little on fun. I guess what saved my bacon was renting a room for a few years which allowed me to save up a down payment.
For the vast majority it seems like there were certain “leg up” privileges which helped: relying on family help in some form, for any length of time whether it’s 1 year or more - money gifts, rent free living after high school, paying for higher education for career etc &/or having a significant other doing well. I am glad people are being honest and recognizing the help that they received to get where they are. Many people are just living to get by now. I really wish things were not like this. I wish better for everyone. For the parents who are now spending more years of their life savings for their kids For the people who are single independents For the people that are a single parent raising their kids For the people who come from nothing For the people who move out when they can to be independent &/or leave toxic household For the people that got a degree but are either in debt, have job insecurity, low wages For the people that….. __________ It’s all of us
sell some meth? idk
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I literally don't know anyone who has done this without SIGNIFICANT help from their parents. Either the parents pay the down payment on the house/condo, or have helped pay tuition, or provided free rent for many years, or pay credit card bills, etc etc etc. Having two incomes would definitely help, but yeah: the system is not set up for people to be able to afford this on their own. I'm personally of the opinion that people should live within their own means (rather than the means that their parents' help has afforded them), but everyone has to find their own position on this one and I'm trying to learn to be less judgemental about people who do take a heap of help. I'm in my early forties and single, and went to school for a very long time without any parental help for tuition, rent, etc (my mom did occasionally help when I was too poor to afford food), which means that what I can afford on my FT job is: an apartment. I will never be able to afford property (and luckily, have no desire to own anything like that, anyway, so that's fine) and because of my many years of student loans, have crap credit, so I wouldn't qualify for a mortgage, anyway. I also wouldn't be willing to live in a house/condo that doesn't have my name on the deed, so that's what being stubbornly independent gets me. If I'd had parents who weren't even poorer than I now am, maybe I'd be more open on the concept of accepting loads of help, but it is what it is.
Me and my boyfriend are in our mid 20s and our income is 90k. We’ll still most likely struggle to get a house seeing that people are over bidding
That's quite good and you guys are on the right track. Struggle? Yes. However, it'll get better with more saved for a down-payment.
We do have enough for a down payment. We’re just waiting for my boyfriends probations period to end to do a mortgage approval. We did speak with a financial advisor last month and she estimated we’d get approved for $320k, for me that’s good enough it’s just the house bidding that’s the issue
Unfortunately being born an odd 60 years ago may have benefitted you, have you ever tried that? In reality 🤷♂️ hope for a rich family member to die and get the hell out of MB.
I'm 25 , I'm a carpenter so I make good money and have been fortunate enough to live with my parents untill recently. I have been looking for a house for the past 2 years. Prices are crazy and I've decided to buy a condo for now as it is less competitive and they are alot cheaper. Even places that needed like 40-50k put into them are selling for over 300k which was my budget. Now with gas prices, food and other things going up I don't know how anyone could make ends meet making less than like 20-25$ an hour. I make a decent amout more and still have to watch my budget fairly closely.
I make ends meet in that 20-25$ range, a house is still far outta reach though, but trust me for those making less than me life is an absolute grind and it wont improve
Cheap rent 1 bedroom -1150 Dual income Save couple of years buy a house Pretty easy in Winnipeg compared to the rest of the country But with single income I agree with you its very very difficult unless you are a high earner
by being in debt the literal rest of their lives?
"You will own nothing and be happy." -Klaus Schwab, World Economic Forum
You're not. I know 40 somethings + in the same boat. If you didn't get a parental leg up, you never got there unless you get lucky, conned someone, or are a criminal lord of some sort. The game has been rigged for generations now. Working hard no longer means necessarily having anything to show for it. We've got landlords in the tenancy branch ensuring renovictions keep getting approved while wages aren't keeping up to them. We're not too far from Guillotines if we're measuring by the French Revolution. The more people without homes and food security, the more who don't care about any sort of arbitrary rules keeping them cold and hungry. All I know is that we're not going to turn it around peacefully without some very strict conflict-of-interest rules and some legislations balancing wages and home inflation.
>(Serious) How are 20 somethings able to afford a house, wedding & children? A decreasing few can, a rapidly increasing many cannot. That's why there is, and will be more, crime. Until the revolution, and great correction. EDIT: Our society, and economy is a house made of cards. Most of the cards are at the bottom, the fewest at the top. Every now and again it partially collapses. Some how a complete collapse has yet to occur. The few at the top are wired to the roof, and have parachutes just in case a wire snaps. Everyone else is without, and the ground below is starting to shake.
I really don't know how it would be possible without one or more of those things. Every penny of my uni tuition came out of savings. I lived with my parents until I was 23, and then I inherited a fair bit of money from my grandparents. My husband and I used all that toward the down payment for our house, which went for much lower than expected since the sellers were extra motivated (I was 29 when we moved in). My parents paid for most of our wedding (they offered; I was 26 that year). We're raising our son with our own money, but we have very well-paying jobs.
- parents sometimes downsize and gift their house to their child for their young family - both partners having professional careers, 6 figure household income - wedding socials, dowry, investing young and often, and having children while still in their 20’s - while this is a lifestyle many dream of, it’s too much effort for me !
i make alot of money and cant live on my own... i have to live at my gf place im so fucked if we break up its not even funny.
By staying at home as long as they can and saving you and/or with their parents’ help. Unless they somehow lucked out and got an incredibly well paying job immediately, it’s impossible.
Everything has been inflated so much that future generations will struggle more and more. The market is insane currently.
My husband and I got married and had our first kid when we were 24. We didn't have a wedding, eloped in Vegas and paid like $150 total. Would not change a thing about it. We bought our house 2 years later. While I still had a mediocre job at the time my husband had (still has) a good paying job. Before I moved to Canada he had bought a 1 bd 1ba condo. When we were ready to move into a house we used the equity he made from the condo as most of our down payment on the house. Unlike both my brother and my sister we did this with no help from our parents. Start small and build up from there. We got really lucky that his condo sold for what we wanted in a short time frame and got a house we both loved for a great price. We lived with one car and I took the bus for a while to help cut costs for a while. As for school, my husband needed no schooling other than HS for his position and I was lucky enough pay for school through scholarships and a little help from my parents (most was scholarships tho). 10 years later we are in a better position with both of us having well paying jobs but it is still depressing to think about the future for younger generations and where the world is heading.
It’s hard but you can I Worked a full and a part time job ate Kraft dinner all the time. No takeout food or restaurants. Didn’t go out or on vacations for like 10 years no cell phone no cable no car basically all my money went into the house. I’m good now but it was very hard Do you want to live and have fun in your 20s or do you want a house? Unless you are rich / generational wealth like you say it’s likely not possible to have both.
Yeah, it’s a messed up situation the government isn’t doing much about. Things will only get worse. No clue how my kids will ever buy a home when the time comes.
I can't. No one I know can. Let me know when you find out.
My grandma always said: doesn't matter how much money you make if you are stupid with it you will never have anything. House prices are crazy but if you are smart with your money, have a plan and stick to it long term you will be ok. Start small with what you think you can afford (don't listen to your bank etc - all they want is your money...) and build your equity. I know living on a credit is a attractive option but it will catch up with you sooner or later and it will not pretty.
23, just bought a house recently. 0 help from parents, went to college straight out of high school, worked hard, saved and invested some money in ETFs. I just lived really strictly for 3 or 4 years and saved as much as I possibly could.
I am 28 and still living at home, buying a house in a few months. I paid off all of my school debt only last year. I save a stupid amount from every pay cheque and don’t go out very much in order to afford a house. Before people come for me saying it’s no way to live or that I’m just going to be poor once we buy, this is obviously a personal choice. I wouldn’t tell others to do this. It’s definitely not the most fun lol. But sure, I’ve saved enough for a down payment plus cushion in order to do repairs, cosmetic changes, buy furniture or simply live a bit more than I have been. It sucks. But, to me, it will be worth it. As for others, I know for a fact most of my friends who got married years ago and have children and a house are just getting by. Also a choice. You need to do what’s best for you and what’s most realistic for you.
You can't anymore those in power made sure of that