Living Well in the Big City

I live in Toronto, the capital city of the province of Ontario, the largest city in Canada, and a pretty cool city to live in. Because it’s the largest city in Canada (by population, around 5 million give or take), that means that there are more people people vying for fewer items, services, etc. It’s a simple rule of life, if there are only 10 items available and 18 people want them, 8 of them aren’t going to get one. Plus, the seller of the item can charge what he wants because if the first 10 don’t want to buy at the inflated price, there are 8 others that will. It’s a simple rule, and living in the big city means you often just accept it as a fact of life.

This also applies to housing too. Toronto typically has a low rental availability rate, as there are always people moving into the city. It’s actually gotten better over the last few years as a lot of people bought condos and houses, so that left openings for people like me who prefer to rent. Gone are the days where I need to take the first non-insect-infected apartment, regardless of price. I remember seeing much smaller and unclean apartments for about $300 more a month than I’m paying right now for my wonderful, clean apartment. It was always a dicey proposition, looking for a new place to live.

But just because I can afford my apartment doesn’t mean others can. There are a lot of people who are barely making ends meat with three part-time jobs because that’s all they can find. They live in a one bedroom apartment with 7 other family members, 4 of whom are also working, so that they can afford a roof over their  heads and some food to eat. It can be tough, that’s for sure. I’ve read a few reports over the last few months that talked about how the number of families in Toronto that are below the “poverty line” has increased by about 5%, whereas that number has decreased in the rest of the country. I’m not surprised, since the cost of living in Toronto is higher. Gas costs more, food costs more, rent is higher, there are more places to spend your disposable income–I’m not surprised at all. I’m sure this is pretty much the same as in other big cities around the world, like New York, London, Rome, and so on. With so many more people competing for the same number of apartments, houses, food items, jobs, etc., they’re bound to be more expensive.

I remember the day a number of years ago where I passed the annual salary that my father made. What’s impressive about that fact is that he owned his own house outright, and supported a family of four on that salary! I am in debt, and live by myself. Of course he lived in a small town in southwestern Ontario, where the cost of living is significantly lower. The price of the house I grew up in is 3 times lower than what I would pay for a one bedroom condo here in Toronto. So it’s not surprising, although I’m always impressed when I think about it.

So to live well in a big city you’ve got to have a good, steady job, and mad budgeting skills. This will allow you to stretch whatever your salary and ensure you can live well in the big city. It might be hard, it might be tough, you might not be able to afford a lot of the things you’d like, but unless you’re willing to move to a smaller town (I’m not), then you’ve got to make do with what you got.