dbd33

I think you're looking for some different Canada than this one, money is vitally important here. Are you thinking of a specifically religious community, somewhere like Waterloo ON ?

Tangram

Don't people need money in Canada ? My cousins, who are Canadian, certainly seem to think so and would certainly like some more. They are also concerned with house value inflation against wages - perhaps not on the UK scale at the moment but it still exists.

Paul.

JezHarper

Money is only as important as you make it. If you are jealous of others having more than you then it will be important. As long as you have enough to live the life you want there is no need for more.

JezHarper

I never said people don't need money, the point I made was that people struggle to adapt when they don't get what they had in the UK.

I expect to earn a wage that will be high enough to live the life that I want, somewhere around the CDN$85k mark. Nowhere near what I am earning here, but not as important as the gains in quality of life.

Life is what you make it.

flashman

If you are basing your earning expectation on the exchange rate it is misleading. The more appropriate method is Purchasing Power and what you get for your money.

dbd33

That sounds like a truism, I wondered where there's

"an environment where how much you earn isn't as important as the sort of person you are"

I don't think that's true of Canada generally, at least, no more so than it is of the US or the UK. In all countries there are people who are comfortable with what they have. Where there's an "environment" in the sense of a village or town of such people I think it's often because they're united by something other than money; hence I wondered if you were concerned to live among people of a particular religion.

dbd33

What sort of gains are you hoping for ?

JezHarper

I am basing my earning expectations on average market value for my skills and experience and known expat achievements.

I'm not sure what you mean by purchasing power? If you mean that 'I want to be able to afford x, y & z so I should expect a salary of n' then I think that is the wrong way to think. I have probably misunderstood you.

JezHarper

OK,

I want my kids to be able to play out on the street in relative safety.
I want my kids to 'grow up' later than they would in the UK.
We want the outdoor lifestyle as a family (mountains and lakes, rather than hills and puddles )
We want four seasons.
We want to escape the 'must have' mentality
I want my kids to be able to get a career when they leave school.
I want my kids to be able to afford a house when they finish school (or reasonably soon afterwards)

Basically, I want my kids to have a future that I don't believe can be achieved in the UK.

dbd33

Based on life in Toronto:

I want my kids to be able to play out on the street in relative safety.

Yes. There's always ball hockey in the street outside my house, last night the kids were in shorts. I've learned to bellow "car" as I drive along.

I want my kids to 'grow up' later than they would in the UK.

My brother lives in the UK. His daughter was pregnant at 14. I know that one of my daughters was sexually active at that age but here contraception is taught constantly from a young age. I don't think kids here particularly grow up more slowly, but they might be better warned. I see very young kids hooking on this block most days, I know they smoke Marlboro and, from the pipes and needles in the park, I assume many of them are on crack. Of course, some will say that, it's only this block, one doesn't have to live here, but that's about money.

We want the outdoor lifestyle as a family (mountains and lakes, rather than hills and puddles )

Depends on location, of course, it's hills and puddles in Ontario. Still, we do ride horses, camp, sail, stuff like that.

We want four seasons.

We don't get that here, just winter and summer. They also have autumn up north.

We want to escape the 'must have' mentality

Granted there isn't fashion in clothing in Canada but I suppose I pass half a dozen Hummers a day. Lesser SUVs are everywhere. They're exactly about conspicuous consumption. Kids want dirt bikes, skidoos, ponies; greed is a human condition not a British one.

I want my kids to be able to get a career when they leave school.

Then you'll need them to be competitively educated, maybe they can get into an Ivy, if you can afford it.

I want my kids to be able to afford a house when they finish school

That's a nice idea. Two of mine are coming the end of degree courses, with house buying in mind, one intends to work in Europe, the other to go to the US. Property is cheap in Toronto but not especially so when you take salary into account.

As I see it, the idea that "how much you earn isn't as important as the sort of person you are" doesn't very much apply here. I think a Saturday morning among the catty mothers waiting at a ballet or riding lesson would shatter that illusion pretty quickly.

Tangram

I worked out when i was over there that i would need just slightly less than i earn here, with a smaller mortgage, to be reasonably the same standard of living wise.... so no great difference apart from the lack of mortgage.

JezHarper

Do you mean 'Standard of living'? or do you mean 'the things you can afford'?

To me, the quality of life (standard of living) is not about the things that cost money.

AnyaT

I am truly curious as to why people say this so often on here. I grew up here and never experienced a real spring until I went to the UK. In the eastern half of Canada you have winter, mud, summer and fall; in the western half you have winter, summer and some odd crossover season where you try to get the harvest in before the hail kills it all. At least that's how it always seemed to me?

JezHarper

Would all of your answers be the same if you were somewhere like Collingwood (ON), Blue Mountain (ON), Canmore (AB), Cochrane (AB)?

hot wasabi peas

Me too. I know what you mean. Or I figure maybe people mean Frankie Valli and the ....