Yearly salary to live "comfortably" in Vancouver

[UnhappyPerson]

How much does one have to make a year to live alone comfortably at the expenses of:


-rent
-food
-gas/insurance for 1 car
-internet/tv/cellphone
-entertainment

Sorry if this was posted before, but I'm just curious.

[gizmo8]

My buddy been living in Vancouver for the last 10 years and he makes less than $40k...He loves the outdoors so he doesnt own a expensive car,he cooks all his own meals,his friends arent superficial so they play more sports and camp than going to bars and clubs.Rents a $1100 a month apartment in a Surrey....never heard him once complain about how expensive Vancouver is...most of the stories you hear about asian money flooding into real estate doesnt affect the working blue collars that much,just they cant afford to buy a house or condo but still able to rent at a reasonable price.

[Buggy166]

cheaper than living in Toronto, slightly. owning real estate during the bubble is a hard proposition for the actual locals who are the younger generation, 30s and lower. 40-50k is what ur looking at.

[HandsomeRob]

Rent - $1000
Gas/ICantBelieveTheCost - $400
Food - $300
Hydo/TV/Internet/Cell - $200
Entertainment - $250

$2150 x 12 = $25,800

I guess thats round $33-35,000 gross?

[sandikosh]

My buddy been living in Vancouver for the last 10 years and he makes less than $40k...He loves the outdoors so he doesnt own a expensive car,he cooks all his own meals,his friends arent superficial so they play more sports and camp than going to bars and clubs.Rents a $1100 a month apartment in a Surrey....never heard him once complain about how expensive Vancouver is...most of the stories you hear about asian money flooding into real estate doesnt affect the working blue collars that much,just they cant afford to buy a house or condo but still able to rent at a reasonable price.

Girlfriends? Boyfriends? Or lonely?

[stuntman]

as alluded too comfortably at 20 is different than at 25, 30 , 40........

[yao416]

Id say $100k for an unhappy person.

[Drew87]

How much does one have to make a year to live alone comfortably at the expenses of:


-rent
-food
-gas/insurance for 1 car
-internet/tv/cellphone
-entertainment

Sorry if this was posted before, but I'm just curious.

I'd say it's subjective........It depends how materialistic you are, what your interests are, what your hobbies are, what you enjoy doing, etc.......

Personally, after rent/mortgage and food everything in life is optional.....

[92gsr]

If you want to live a typical yuppie urban lifestyle, here's a rough breakdown:

Rent: 1200-1500 for a 1 bedroom apartment in the downtown core. The lower end will get you a place in an older building in the West End; the higher range will get you a place closer to Yaletown.

Food: If you're living downtown, food won't be cheap. Expect to spend around 400-500, especially if you eat out a couple of times a week.

Car: If you don't plan on spending much time outside downtown, you can probably get away with a budget of around $300 if you drive an older Japanese car with a 4-banger. Or, you could do without a car altogether and use car-sharing services like Zip car, or Car2Go for those rare instances you need a set of wheels. On the other hand if you want to escape the city and truly live a west coast lifestyle, you better have a good set of friends with wheels...

Utilities: Many rental properties include heat, so all you'll need to pay for is cable, internet and phone. I'd say $150.

Entertainment: It all depends what you do for fun. Most people who live here enjoy the outdoors and depending on what you like doing, it could be fairly cheap (hiking) or expensive (skiing or snowboarding.)

So, excluding entertainment, you're looking at a minimum of $2100 per month to live here. Basically, you should be making in the mid-50's to live comfortably here (and if you have no intention of settling down here.)

[HandsomeRob]

Downtown Vancouver < $1000



Rent just doesn't cost that much unless it's a coal harbor penthouse. Richmond costs more.

[92gsr]

^ You have "rooms/shares" checked off. Most people would be hard-pressed to find a 1 bedroom apartment in the downtown core for less than $1000 unless it's a piece of crap, bed bug infested dwelling. You can find studios in that range however.

Now if you're not opposed to having a roommate, you can easily find places to rent for less than $600 a month...

[DVDManiac]

I guess many of you don't buy clothes. If you plan to rent for the rest of your life, $40,000 is a good number but if you want to own any property, I would think easily $100,000+ unless you had help for a down payment for an apartment. The real estate prices are crazy, recently heard that a person with a 2 bed and den on the fourth floor was asking $1,250,000 near our City Centre but not downtown core.

[manixc]

I would say $40k for the bare minimum; $45k if you want to save some money.

[Rainne]

If you don't want to own property, eat out, or buy clothes, let alone raise a family, I guess $40k/yr would be okay.

This is like Toronto too LOL

[Supercooled]

Live within your means. Sure, I can get a nice $1000 apt. in a nice neighbourhood but that accounts for almost 50% of my income, or I can make sacrifices and get one for $500 and drastically reduce my cost to 25%. Save that other 25% and within a few years, you're looking at something quite substantive allowing you the freedom o invest, home or stocks.

You would be lucky to be making $2000 net in this economy if you're a blue collar worker. If you're a white collar worker and clearing $3-4,000 a month and still complain bout not able to save for a home, then clearly you're doing something wrong.