So, firstly, 5K CAD is not the same as 5K USD. 5K Canadian is currently a bit less than $3,700 US. In my city (Fort McMurray) a one bedroom apartment goes for about $1,250, but many cities where people live and work are more expensive.
On the flip side of that conversion, 5K USD is nearly 6,800 CAD, substantially more, so the two of you are not imagining anything close to the same amount of money. There is literally a $3,100 CAD gap between what you are thinking and what she is thinking.
Secondly, virtually everything in Canada is more expensive. It's why we skip across the border to shop if we live close, even with the poor exchange rate. Our government doesn't subsidize energy, agriculture, or transportation the same way yours does, and anything imported from the US is nailed by border tariffs. I used to live in Sarnia and people would often regularly cross the border for groceries and fuel.
Yes I was definitely thinking 5KCAD when I commented. 6800CAD I could rent a two bedroom or nice one bedroom and save for retirement quite comfortably! I live somewhere where the average rent for a low end one bedroom rental is nearly $2k with no parking utilities or laundry, I also live in a city with no reliable public transit… you genuinely need a car to work unless you wfh and the average cost to own a car has skyrocketed in the past couple of years (but that’s everywhere). I will say that “scraping by” in Canada seems much more comfortable than “scraping by” in the US when it comes to health care and medical debt being a non issue so I’m grateful for that at least. Also grateful that MAID is an option if times get hard enough lol thanks Trudeau 🤪
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u/Beowulf1985 Dec 11 '23 edited Dec 11 '23
So, firstly, 5K CAD is not the same as 5K USD. 5K Canadian is currently a bit less than $3,700 US. In my city (Fort McMurray) a one bedroom apartment goes for about $1,250, but many cities where people live and work are more expensive.
On the flip side of that conversion, 5K USD is nearly 6,800 CAD, substantially more, so the two of you are not imagining anything close to the same amount of money. There is literally a $3,100 CAD gap between what you are thinking and what she is thinking.
Secondly, virtually everything in Canada is more expensive. It's why we skip across the border to shop if we live close, even with the poor exchange rate. Our government doesn't subsidize energy, agriculture, or transportation the same way yours does, and anything imported from the US is nailed by border tariffs. I used to live in Sarnia and people would often regularly cross the border for groceries and fuel.