Can Young People Actually Afford a Fun Life in Vancouver? An Investigation

All photos by Jackie Dives.

Living in Vancouver, it's easy to feel like fun is always out of reach. Landlords gouge you in all the best neighbourhoods, the good venues are frequently forced to close, and unless you're the type who can convince yourself that exercise/camping/talking about Burning Man is actually fun, you are probably going to find yourself bored and alone on the semi-regular.

We've learned by now that there's an economic reason for this. According to a study by Vancity, young people living in Vancouver have the least "discretionary income" of any other Canadian city-dwellers. A "No Funds City" report the credit union put out last year found that Vancouverites under 34 make the second-least in the country, and when you factor in the city's super-inflated housing costs, average earners easily end up in the red, or with very little to spend on good times.

When I called up Sophie Salcito, a wealth advisor at Vancity, she told me not to feel defeated by the fact we have the least party money (about a quarter of what Edmontonians have handy). "I really believe people have the power to do the things they want to do," Salcito told VICE. "You just have to set a priority and a focus. You can do it, you just need to figure out how."

It turns out that pretending you don't spend $60 on weed every month helps precisely no one, so Salcito recommends drawing up a budget that includes line items for all your vices, your Portland getaways, that unfortunate but probable trip to Burning Man. "You need to be honest with yourself," Salcito told me. "If you can't be honest with yourself, who can you be honest with?"

This is something my colleague Allison Tierney recently did for single Torontonians. Because Vancity's study looked at couples, and this happens to be my situation, here's an honest (but still totally subjective) breakdown of how much it costs for two people to live a not-sad existence in Vancouver:

$1,900 to rent a one-bedroom apartment
$136 for your health cards (yes, BC charges a monthly fee for healthcare)
$248 for transit passes
$200 for phones and internets
$450 for groceries
$250 for clothes, house stuff
$70 to maintain your sweet, sweet bikes
$65 for utilities

Based on the median income for millennial couples, which comes to about $4,500 a month after tax in Vancouver, that leaves just over one grand for living our best lives:

$420 for craft beer, weed, vices for two
$150 for your cabs and carpools
$300 for those early-bird festival tickets and other shows
$120 for one (1) dinner date
$230 saved for long weekends in Portland or Whistler twice a year

This budget comes with some assumptions: many of your hangouts will be cover-free and possibly outdoors; you'll still have to harass all of your friends to get on guest lists; you'll likely still use borrowed Netflix/Spotify accounts; you might only smoke cigs or drink coffee when it's free; and you'll probably end up eating kale/granola/fucking Soylent for some non-budgeted meals. (While this may sound like a somewhat bleak interpretation of "fun" I'm just trying to be as honest as Sophie aspires for me to be).

Here's how that breaks down annually:

$22,800 (market rent)
$15,420 (essentials)
$14,640 (fun stuff)
+$1,632 (BC's not-quite-free healthcare)
= $54,492 in after-tax income, or $72,291 before tax

This is a decent equation to coast on, but obviously doesn't account for paying down your debts or saving for a condo. Though many of us have checked out of the property market, Salcito says the vast majority of young people apparently haven't given up. "Studies show millennials still want to own a property," Salcito said. "Our study actually found that 75 percent see that as a long-term goal for themselves."

So, how much above the average does a couple have to bring in to pay down debts and put money down on a property? If purchased at average 2016 prices, a condo down payment is going to double a couple's annual housing costs, from $22,800 to $44,354, according to the Vancity study. Add to that around $900 in monthly student loan repayment, and $400-a-month more on credit cards, and you're looking north of $117,000 for your combined before-tax income.

Here's how that breaks down:

$44,354 (condo mortgage)
$15,600 (other debts)
$15,420 (essentials)
$14,640 (fun! stuff!)
+$1,632 (health cards again)
= 91,646 after tax, or $117,306 before tax

Salicito assures me this kind of bank-making is within reach for millennial couples. She told me one of her clients, who works in marketing, makes about $63,000 on her own. With a partner raking in a comparable income, she could theoretically do all of the above and still spend a week at one of those luxury Burning Man camps.

So there you have it: it's not impossible to save money, buy a home, and have fun in Vancouver—you, uh, just need to be above-average wealthy and part of a couple to do it.

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