Originally Posted by Nik G

I understand you need a lot of money to live downtown but does that extend to Burnaby, Surrey, Port Moody?

Originally Posted by Nik G

I'm boring though and married with pets. Prefer the outdoors to the city life.

Obviously i can have both in Vancouver but would prefer to save money then live downtown.

Originally Posted by Nik G

I'm boring though and married with pets. Prefer the outdoors to the city life.

Obviously i can have both in Vancouver but would prefer to save money then live downtown.

Originally Posted by Eager2bBC

I have to laugh at the $200-250k figures being thrown around as a 'decent' income!

Alan2005 and El_Rich, tell me where i'm going wrong with this monthly estimate (assuming you buy your vehicle in cash or don't own a vehicle)

Rent: $2300 (should get a nice apartment in Lonsdale)
Food: $600-800 (should cover some nice cheese and wine in there)
Clothing: $1000
Eating out: $600
Entertainment: $600
Car insurance: $150
Commuting/gas: $400
Contents cover: $50
Hydro: $25
Gym: $100
Phone: $150
Cable/net: $100
Tennis: $200
2 Long haul holidays: $15,000 a year
3 long weekends: $6,000 a year


Grand total = $100k (rounding up)

Pre tax income of $160k would net around $115,000, so there's a $15,000 comfort zone there for other expenses.

I'm sure there's a few items i've forgotten that could eat into the $15,000, but overall I'd say this is living a pretty damn comfortably, with tons of room to trim certain areas (main ones being rent and clothing budget, depending on how you like to live, and of course you could trim that vacation budget...).

So i'd say you could live well on $130k, live well with plenty of scope to save a reasonable chunk on $150k and live just fine on a good whack less!

Originally Posted by Alan2005

There's probably a few deductions you're missing.

I stand by what I said. An aspirational lifestyle like the OP wants is going to cost $200k a year min.

Originally Posted by Nik G

Just to confirm (and sorry to foreign girl if this counts as hijacking the thread)

Originally Posted by Nik G

I'm boring though and married with pets. Prefer the outdoors to the city life.

Obviously i can have both in Vancouver but would prefer to save money then live downtown.

Originally Posted by foreigngirl

We also prefer the outdoors to city life, but my partner has just returned from Van and said that the 'city' there is not like a proper 'city', i.e. it's not as busy, hectic, noisy, as other cities we know or the city I grew up in. Having said that, he loved Grouse mountain and the areas around it, so we're considering that now too. The commute (time and money) is something that would make us want to stay closer to downtown.

Originally Posted by foreigngirl

Not sure what you mean by 'aspirational'. This is the lifestyle I currently have and I don't intend to change that just because we have to move to Canada. I'm only going to agree to moving if I know that I'm not going to end up with a worse life. Why should I give up the things that I like and work hard for?

I already emmigrated once (to the UK) and the same applied to that move. I had to be certain that what I was getting was no worse than what I already had.

Originally Posted by Nik G

I've been too, the company I interviewed for insisted i take a look around and it isn't like other major cities I've been too. My work will not be downtown so the benefits decrease.

I also rode the sky train during rush hour and to me that's not a rush, quite pleasant and not remotely busy compared to equivalents in London or New York.

Originally Posted by el_richo

I agree. We think of it as a nice town with a chip on its shoulder.

In fact Vancouver is like a 13yr old kid. Thinks it's one of the big boys but in reality it's far from it.

Nice place to live though, if you have the money.

Originally Posted by Nik G

I've been too, the company I interviewed for insisted i take a look around and it isn't like other major cities I've been too. My work will not be downtown so the benefits decrease.

I also rode the sky train during rush hour and to me that's not a rush, quite pleasant and not remotely busy compared to equivalents in London or New York.