Making Enough Money to Support Yourself
Working as a technical writer I am fortunate to make a good salary that allows me to live decently in a big urban city like Toronto. I always wonder when I hear stories of immigrants new to Canada who settle in Toronto. How are they able to survive on the low wages they must be earning? I remember when I first graduated from university and moved to Toronto, I was working a telemarketing job making $12 an hour. That’s more than minimum wage, but still, I found I was struggling. I had to live with a roommate, didn’t have a car, and couldn’t go out as much as I wanted to, forget about buying all the shiny things that were advertised to me on tv or in the magazines (don’t get all judgemental on me now, I’ve already spoken about how I’m one of those gullible people who get sucked in by ads).
But living in Toronto, one of the more expensive cities in the world and making minimum wage as your only source of income? That’s gotta be tough. I’m not sure I could do that, so I definitely give props to those who do. There have been a few rumblings of increasing the minimum wage here in Ontario, and in fact, I think it might have gone up a few more cents in the last couple of years, but it’s still not enough to live “comfortably”. The UK is going to be increasing their minimum wage, which is nice to hear. Of course given that the amounts are in pounds, it sounds like a pittance, until I convert it to Canadian dollars, and then it sounds wonderful! haha. Hmm, and now that I look it up, it looks like both the UK and Ontario will have roughly the same minimum wage, around $10 an hour. Not sure if that means that we’re progressive here in Ontario, or if the UK’s just finally catching up to us though.
Like I said, working as a technical writer I’m lucky to make enough money to support myself, and support myself well. I think I actually make more than my father did at his highest salary, and he supported a family of 4, a house and two cars! Granted that was in Small Town Ontario, so the cost of living was lower, but still, it’s impressive when I think about it. Of course I also suffer from the “I want it so I buy it” syndrome, which is why I’m in the mess that I’m in right now. But that’s another story…or rather another blog…oh wait, that’s the story on THIS blog! 
