5 ms·

You don't need to be single or a renter to save. You just need to make it a priority. I'm the sole breadwinner with a wife and two kids, and we pack away 20% o

You don't need to be single or a renter to save. You just need to make it a priority. I'm the sole breadwinner with a wife and two kids, and we pack away 20% out of every paycheck. We own our home and both cars. Do we live a garish lifestyle? Certainly not, but we travel a lot and adhere to our budget (thank goodness for remote jobs).

mistermann 11y ago
> We own our home and both cars. Whether that is possible depends a lot on where you live - from what I can tell, outside of a few major cities there are plenty of places in the US where you can buy a house for <$200k in the US, good luck with that anywhere in Canada.
- brianwawok 11y ago
  But you choose where you live. I do not live in SF, despite the nice weather, because I am not willing to spend a million bucks for a basic house.
  - mhurron 11y ago
    > But you choose where you live Given that it takes money to move, no, you do not always have a choice in where to live.
    - Killswitch 11y ago
      Bullshit. Nobody forces you to live in an expensive city. Nobody makes you buy a million dollar house. You chose your own destiny. Stop putting the blame on others. I lived in Chicago on a $800/mo salary for a year and a half. Yes eight hundred dollars a month, in the city of Chicago. I had no money, but I made it work, then I moved back home to small town Iowa and make a lot more now, and live a better life. Nobody made me do either of those things.
      - mhurron 11y ago
        > Nobody forces you to live in an expensive city. It takes money move, to or from any city. It's nice that you were able to make it work, and yes, it means others could as well but you wold look like a little less of an asshole if you would consider not everyone is in the same situation as you were. Were you single Did you have kids Did you have any medical conditions that needed care Did you use to have a better job before That's just a few things that are part of everyday, normal life that can make the cost of moving and living on very little somewhat difficult. > Nobody makes you buy a million dollar house I don't remember saying anything close to that.
        Killswitch 11y ago
        > Were you single No. > Did you have kids Yes. > Did you have any medical conditions that needed care Not that I know of. > Did you use to have a better job before I moved to the city with a $100 loan from my step-father so I could afford gas to do the 4 hour drive taking nothing with me but what I could fit in my car, which took a 3rd of that $800/mo just to pay. You know how I moved? I asked a friend, he came and helped me and packed his truck with what I couldn't fit in my car. Excuses, excuses, excuses.
        mhurron 11y ago
        You know that lack of empathy is a significant personality disorder. > Did you have any medical conditions that needed care > Not that I know of. Others do, it's often sort of important to handle them. It can also limit the cities you can live in. > Were you single > No. Right here I start thinking your now being disingenuous, second income? > car, which took a 3rd of that $800/mo So you lived in Chicago on 528 a month and saved enough to move. You are leaving things out. This was either 40 years ago, you were getting significant social assistance or something. Lets go ahead and throw out another perfectly, though unfortunate, normal situation. You had parents to even move back in with. Now then, I don't live in a particularly expensive city. The 'million dollar house' you want to keep throwing around as if everyone has is almost 10 times the cost of where I live. Yet I can still see that not every one is in the exact same situation I am in. Moving to another city would not be something I could do on a whim, though I've had to cover medical expenses this year that are more than what your supposed monthly income was.
  - mistermann 11y ago
    On an affordability (cost vs earning power) basis, houses are extremely expensive everywhere in Canada - we are on the same trajectory the US was with their housing bubble, but about 2 years behind - the difference is, ours never burst, and we have surpassed the peaks attained in the US.
- HeyLaughingBoy 11y ago
  I realize that things have changed, but around 15 years ago, a friend of mine sold her ~$30,000 house in a city in Saskatchewan to move to a ~$20,000 house in the country. Hard to imagine that housing prices have gone up 10x in that time.
  - a-priori 11y ago
    Here's a chart of housing prices over time in Canada, adjusted for inflation: http://www.macleans.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Rabidoux_house_chart.png http://www.macleans.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Rabidoux_h... In their index, housing prices were about 100 in 2000 and about 180 in 2013, so houses were about 80% more expensive in 2013 versus 2000. That is in real terms. You'd expect it to be more like 103% more expensive in nominal terms (assuming 2%/year inflation). Here's a good source for recent housing prices in Canada: http://crea.ca/content/national-average-price-map http://crea.ca/content/national-average-price-map It shows that the average sale price in Canada was $433k in August 2015. But there's tremendous variation within Canada. Vancouver was around $900k; PEI was $158k. It looks like Saskatchewan was around $253k, so a bit over half the national average, with Regina and Saskatoon being more expensive in the $310-320k range. About 15 years ago you would have expected prices to be about half that in Saskatchewan, or maybe $125k. So no, house prices have not gone up 10x in the last 15 years and $20-30k were not typical house prices in Saskatchewan at the time.
  - mistermann 11y ago
    If you're retired or can work remotely, and don't mind missing out on all the culture and activities available in a city, sure you can move to a cheap house in rural Canada. The difference is, in the US you don't have to, you can have both in many places. Low affordability, like in San Fransisco, is an anomaly in the US, in Canada it is the norm.
bluedino 11y ago
> 20% Is that including retirement savings or not?
- mathgeek 11y ago
  That's out of net, after IRA contributions.
johnward 11y ago
Not to be a dick but it sounds like you just make a lot of money. I'd consider owning a house and 2 cars to be pretty garish compared to the average middle class family. The luxury of being able to travel is something not many people have. Plus if you have ever had a parent help you with any significant expense you are much luckier than the majority of people. This sounds like one of those /r/personalfinance threads where the op finally paid off debt by cutting expenses, cooking at home, getting $200k windfall from a grandparent dying, etc.
- mathgeek 11y ago
  > Not to be a dick but it sounds like you just make a lot of money. I do not. I make just over $70k a year now (a lot more than a few years ago) and before we had kids, we cut back so that my wife's income at the time went entirely to paying off debts. Our home is worth ~135k (three bedroom in a nice cheaper US city), and our cars are nothing to write home about but they get us where we need to go. My total income now is higher than our combined income was then. Like I said before, planning goes a long way. Your comment does come off as a bit dickish, by the way. You made a lot of assumptions about me that are not true.
  - johnward 11y ago
    Just for the record when someone says "not to be x" they are almost always about to be X. I was wrong. You are in a situation similar to me though. About the same income/housing price with a wife and first child on the way. There is no way I'm saving 20% in the foreseeable future though. I have two car payments though. One that will be paid off this year and the other I'd like to get rid of but I'm too upside down right now.
    - mathgeek 11y ago
      > There is no way I'm saving 20% in the foreseeable future though. Absolutely understandable. We certainly went through a few years where we were just happy that we didn't have debt and could live off my income. Good luck with your own journey!
    - 11y ago
lovich 11y ago
How are you supporting 4 people with roughly 56k a year and own a house and 2 cars at the same time? Its not unbelievable if youve paid off those expenses over a long time and didnt have student loans. But even one bad car repair could be a couple percent of your total budget for the year. My student loans would be 8.5% of your 70k paycheck alone

mistermann 11y ago

> We own our home and both cars. Whether that is possible depends a lot on where you live - from what I can tell, outside of a few major cities there are plenty of places in the US where you can buy a house for <$200k in the US, good luck with that anywhere in Canada.

brianwawok 11y ago
But you choose where you live. I do not live in SF, despite the nice weather, because I am not willing to spend a million bucks for a basic house.
- mhurron 11y ago
  > But you choose where you live Given that it takes money to move, no, you do not always have a choice in where to live.
  - Killswitch 11y ago
    Bullshit. Nobody forces you to live in an expensive city. Nobody makes you buy a million dollar house. You chose your own destiny. Stop putting the blame on others. I lived in Chicago on a $800/mo salary for a year and a half. Yes eight hundred dollars a month, in the city of Chicago. I had no money, but I made it work, then I moved back home to small town Iowa and make a lot more now, and live a better life. Nobody made me do either of those things.
    - mhurron 11y ago
      > Nobody forces you to live in an expensive city. It takes money move, to or from any city. It's nice that you were able to make it work, and yes, it means others could as well but you wold look like a little less of an asshole if you would consider not everyone is in the same situation as you were. Were you single Did you have kids Did you have any medical conditions that needed care Did you use to have a better job before That's just a few things that are part of everyday, normal life that can make the cost of moving and living on very little somewhat difficult. > Nobody makes you buy a million dollar house I don't remember saying anything close to that.
      - Killswitch 11y ago
        > Were you single No. > Did you have kids Yes. > Did you have any medical conditions that needed care Not that I know of. > Did you use to have a better job before I moved to the city with a $100 loan from my step-father so I could afford gas to do the 4 hour drive taking nothing with me but what I could fit in my car, which took a 3rd of that $800/mo just to pay. You know how I moved? I asked a friend, he came and helped me and packed his truck with what I couldn't fit in my car. Excuses, excuses, excuses.
        mhurron 11y ago
        You know that lack of empathy is a significant personality disorder. > Did you have any medical conditions that needed care > Not that I know of. Others do, it's often sort of important to handle them. It can also limit the cities you can live in. > Were you single > No. Right here I start thinking your now being disingenuous, second income? > car, which took a 3rd of that $800/mo So you lived in Chicago on 528 a month and saved enough to move. You are leaving things out. This was either 40 years ago, you were getting significant social assistance or something. Lets go ahead and throw out another perfectly, though unfortunate, normal situation. You had parents to even move back in with. Now then, I don't live in a particularly expensive city. The 'million dollar house' you want to keep throwing around as if everyone has is almost 10 times the cost of where I live. Yet I can still see that not every one is in the exact same situation I am in. Moving to another city would not be something I could do on a whim, though I've had to cover medical expenses this year that are more than what your supposed monthly income was.
- mistermann 11y ago
  On an affordability (cost vs earning power) basis, houses are extremely expensive everywhere in Canada - we are on the same trajectory the US was with their housing bubble, but about 2 years behind - the difference is, ours never burst, and we have surpassed the peaks attained in the US.
HeyLaughingBoy 11y ago
I realize that things have changed, but around 15 years ago, a friend of mine sold her ~$30,000 house in a city in Saskatchewan to move to a ~$20,000 house in the country. Hard to imagine that housing prices have gone up 10x in that time.
- a-priori 11y ago
  Here's a chart of housing prices over time in Canada, adjusted for inflation: http://www.macleans.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Rabidoux_house_chart.png http://www.macleans.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Rabidoux_h... In their index, housing prices were about 100 in 2000 and about 180 in 2013, so houses were about 80% more expensive in 2013 versus 2000. That is in real terms. You'd expect it to be more like 103% more expensive in nominal terms (assuming 2%/year inflation). Here's a good source for recent housing prices in Canada: http://crea.ca/content/national-average-price-map http://crea.ca/content/national-average-price-map It shows that the average sale price in Canada was $433k in August 2015. But there's tremendous variation within Canada. Vancouver was around $900k; PEI was $158k. It looks like Saskatchewan was around $253k, so a bit over half the national average, with Regina and Saskatoon being more expensive in the $310-320k range. About 15 years ago you would have expected prices to be about half that in Saskatchewan, or maybe $125k. So no, house prices have not gone up 10x in the last 15 years and $20-30k were not typical house prices in Saskatchewan at the time.
- mistermann 11y ago
  If you're retired or can work remotely, and don't mind missing out on all the culture and activities available in a city, sure you can move to a cheap house in rural Canada. The difference is, in the US you don't have to, you can have both in many places. Low affordability, like in San Fransisco, is an anomaly in the US, in Canada it is the norm.

bluedino 11y ago

> 20% Is that including retirement savings or not?

mathgeek 11y ago
That's out of net, after IRA contributions.

johnward 11y ago

Not to be a dick but it sounds like you just make a lot of money. I'd consider owning a house and 2 cars to be pretty garish compared to the average middle class family. The luxury of being able to travel is something not many people have. Plus if you have ever had a parent help you with any significant expense you are much luckier than the majority of people. This sounds like one of those /r/personalfinance threads where the op finally paid off debt by cutting expenses, cooking at home, getting $200k windfall from a grandparent dying, etc.

mathgeek 11y ago
> Not to be a dick but it sounds like you just make a lot of money. I do not. I make just over $70k a year now (a lot more than a few years ago) and before we had kids, we cut back so that my wife's income at the time went entirely to paying off debts. Our home is worth ~135k (three bedroom in a nice cheaper US city), and our cars are nothing to write home about but they get us where we need to go. My total income now is higher than our combined income was then. Like I said before, planning goes a long way. Your comment does come off as a bit dickish, by the way. You made a lot of assumptions about me that are not true.
- johnward 11y ago
  Just for the record when someone says "not to be x" they are almost always about to be X. I was wrong. You are in a situation similar to me though. About the same income/housing price with a wife and first child on the way. There is no way I'm saving 20% in the foreseeable future though. I have two car payments though. One that will be paid off this year and the other I'd like to get rid of but I'm too upside down right now.
  - mathgeek 11y ago
    > There is no way I'm saving 20% in the foreseeable future though. Absolutely understandable. We certainly went through a few years where we were just happy that we didn't have debt and could live off my income. Good luck with your own journey!
  - 11y ago

lovich 11y ago

How are you supporting 4 people with roughly 56k a year and own a house and 2 cars at the same time? Its not unbelievable if youve paid off those expenses over a long time and didnt have student loans. But even one bad car repair could be a couple percent of your total budget for the year. My student loans would be 8.5% of your 70k paycheck alone