Best value location, 5 OK budgets

[Hermes]

Imagine you are 65. Try to set aside all non-financial aspects - friends, micro-climate, entertainment, neighbours, int'l airport, full-service hospital. All you care about is what you can afford. Which town, city or neighbourhoods of city/town do you recommend in the Okanagan? This is presuming being a bachelor, with zero debt and no dependents. Tweak the factors if you like! I suggest separate threads for those, and I will join them, albeit as an outsider.

Five budgets (these do not refer to social or educational 'class' but only financial habits and situation)...

1. LOW - $1200 or less
1a. home: rent a room in somebody else's place
1b. food: grow your own food, food bank, discount groceries
1c. transport: cycle, walk, bus
1d. savings: none
1e. income: GIS and reduced OAS, insignificant CPP = $1200
1f. job: none

2. LOWER MIDDLE - $1600-1800
2a. home: rent an apartment or house
2b. food: careful shopping, eat seasonal
2c. transport: old second-hand car used sparingly, mostly bus and walk
2d. savings: $5,000 emergency fund
2e. income: OAS, some CPP $1000 (*see end note)
2f. job: part-time (10 hrs per week) which brings in an additional $600+ per month

3. MIDDLE MIDDLE - $2000-2500
3a. home: rent a modest apartment or house
3b. food: groceries, eat out once a week and carefully
3c. transport: second-hand car
3d. savings: $20,000
3e. income: OAS, CPP, union pension = $2000+
3f. job: none

4. UPPER MIDDLE - $3000-3500
4a. home: own modest apartment or house
4b. food: groceries, occasional eating out
4c. transport: own car
4d. savings: $100,000
4e. income: OAS, CPP, union pension = $2000
4f. job: job (20 hrs per week) which brings in an additional $1200ish per month

5. UPPER - $4000ish
5a. home: own a million dollar house
5b. food: groceries, always eat at home
5c. transport: newish car
5d. savings: $250,000
5e. income: OAS, CPP, + corporate pension = $2500
5f. job: operate a small business which brings in an additional $1800 per month

2e* This is not a typo. As I speculate it to be (correct me if I am wrong according to your experience), being working poor is a worse situation income-wise than being poor. My grandfather told me that he was disappointed that although having worked all his life as a pre-union tradesman, bought a house etc - it was better financially to be on welfare or 'rich', but that being working poor was the worst. He gave away his assets to his daughters in order to qualify for Kiwanis housing in North Vancouver (perhaps then assets not income were factored in). BTW, this is not primarily a politically-motivated comment, I am just trying to deal with financial reality -- not my strong suit. And I am quite out of touch with economic realities in Canada -- I really have no idea what it costs to live due to my unique situation (that's another post).

[Hermes]

Good post.You forgot the lower and very low...persons that are on social assistance-$600 bucks /month,and person living with a disability (pwd)@$ 1000 bucks /month.

Old Trucker, very good point. I meant to add those and more, but felt that the middle and upper middle people on this forum wouldn't relate to it. You refer to the $610 a single employable person gets on Social Assistance (Welfare in realspeak), and two steps up -- Disabilities (Handicapped in realspeak) at $900 I thought it was actually. Hmm, I think I read somewhere that recently it went up. Persons with 'Persistent Multiple Barriers' (unemployables on Welfare in realspeak) is in between at $700.

But the very first sentence I wrote 'imagine you are 65'. My understanding is that no one gets any of the standard hand-outs at retirement age, a new system of handouts begins! But I suppose if one hasn't been resident long enough/wasn't born here one could end up old and very poor. Imagine being 70 years of age and broke! The ultimate nightmare - old, sick, poor. Maybe add alone, and mentally not the strongest.

The truth is I will likely be among those bottom three: very low, lower and low.

Even when I had savings from my work I lived in GVRD in the last five years for between $900 and $1200 as a single non-party person. So, I don't really relate to it when people here in metro Vancouver talk about needing 4X+ that amount per month to live. The other day a woman was complaining about how as a couple, with a house and a car, and two kids in university it is a struggle for them to live on $6000 per month. Perhaps I am totally out of touch with cost of living for normal (family) people in Canada. I thought for decades that earning $2500 was a lot of money.

All I know is that when I worked as an ESL teacher in Vietnam and Cambodia when I worked hard I saved 50-60% of my expat income, and at another job I saved 80%. But in Vancouver, even when I was earning $3000 per month in the early 1990s as a tradesman-entrepreneur I never had more than 30%. So, the ultimate goal (and question) is not how much one spends but how much one spends relative to income/savings.

I would be curious to learn how much purchase power we actually have versus 1965. My fisherman grandfather bought his modest house with cash. But now, my friends with mortgages and straight jobs -- they seem like slaves to the bank. They live in a fancy house, drive nice vehicles and eventually they will be able to sell their homes at a healthy profit. But at what cost? I live much simpler (except for travel) as a semi-geezer than when I was in my 30s on my gerbil wheel trying to impress the ladies with my stunning outfits and furnished bachelor pad.

I see no sense spending in Canada on anything than absolute essentials to stay healthy and reasonably happy. I save whenever I have excess and go spend it in the second and third world where it goes 3 to 10 times further. I am not criticizing others who live differently. Whatever works! But I live like a monk in Canada. Intentionally and happily.