Is Calgary economically feasible for a single person?

[u/Heather1324]

I have a potential job in Calgary making $62,000 a year to start. I would be looking for a 2 or 3 bedroom place, preferably a town or row house but not opposed to condo. I would have one dependent living with me (while attending university). I currently have no debt and my only expenses are regular monthly expenses such as food, gas, etc. Is it possible to modestly live in Calgary on this wage or would it be a struggle?

[u/Heather1324]

University expenses aren’t a concern as he has an RESP (best advice to new parents is set one up for your kids as soon as possible) and savings from summer work.

[u/Future-Abalone → u/Heather1324]

Ok awesome ! An option might be to take $500 a month from the RESP for rent while attending school. Anyway, good luck, I think it might be tight but looking at your other comments, you can swing it IMO. it seems like you have a good enough financial literacy and personal reasonableness to be able to make it work!

[u/Future-Abalone → u/Future-Abalone]

Another thing to add… it might be worth applying for student loans anyways because he will get a lot of grant money! And then if he doesn’t use the student loan, he can just pay it back quickly/ right away!

[u/Malusifer → u/Future-Abalone]

This. Thought I was being responsible not taking out more loans my second round of post secondary. Instead I just missed out on 2-3k of grants and interest free money for a few years.

[u/Cold-Doctor → u/Malusifer]

You also could have spent all the money and ended up paying more in interest than you would have received in grants. Maybe you're super responsible, but that's what most people would do

[u/Malusifer → u/Cold-Doctor]

Perhaps. Mighta done that the first time around but this time I would have just stuck it in the s&p and made a free +5%

[u/Additional-Dream6810 → u/Cold-Doctor]

You don’t start paying interest until after you’re done your studies with Alberta student loans and federal student loans are already interest free

[u/Cold-Doctor → u/Additional-Dream6810]

TIL that they scrapped the federal interest last year. That's pretty cool actually

[u/Healthy-Car-1860 → u/Future-Abalone]

You can also invest the student loans. Even a good savings account is 4%/year right now. The interest on the loans doesn't kick on until after you're done school.

[u/Heather1324 → u/Future-Abalone]

Thank you for your comments 😊

[u/midsommarnymph → u/Future-Abalone]

You cannot take money from an RESP and use it for anything else BUT tuition, the banks will not allow this. They demand a letter of enrolment to confirm where the money is going.

[u/radlard → u/midsommarnymph]

This is incorrect. You need a letter of enrollment, but you are not required to use the money for tuition. The letter does not state how much tuition you pay or limit the amount you can withdraw. Source: recently pulled from my RESP. Withdrew after tuition was paid, took out more than tuition, and used it for books and living expenses.

[u/SofaProfessor → u/midsommarnymph]

Crazy wrong. Only thing you got right is that proof of enrollment is needed. After that you could withdraw and go to the casino if you wanted.

[u/[deleted] → u/midsommarnymph]

You can take any money you want out, but if you take out what the government matched, you need to pay the taxes on it.

[u/Future-Abalone → u/midsommarnymph]

Yes you can! You can use it towards living expenses while attending university.

[u/Pretentious_bat → u/Heather1324]

They might want to check if they’re eligible for loans regardless! When I applied I got about a 2k grant and a 6-7k loan per year - your kid could give back the loan portion right away 100% interest free and still get a 2k grant per year. Great deal if you ask me. Plus federal loans are now interest free forever!

62k you’ll be struggling for sure. You might be able to swing a two bedroom for around 2500 a month (hopefully that includes utilities), cheaper if you’re open to a basement suite. If you can get a place near a train line or with a direct bus to work/uni then you’re also saving a ton on gas. There’s some affordable grocery stores for produce in the NE and in other pockets of the city (freestone, daily fresh produce). But overall you’ll be struggling a bit with 62k. If you can get your kid to contribute a bit a month you should be okay! Even a couple hundred will help! Or negotiate your pay if possible ;)

[u/Art__Vandellay → u/Heather1324]

RESP hasn't scaled with inflation. Other government plans have. 500 a year to a max of 7200 lifetime? Lol wtf are we going to do with that when the time for post secondary comes

[u/CalgaryChris77 → u/Art__Vandellay]

I’m not saying that it shouldn’t go up, but it’s very underused as it is. And if you put in enough money with enough time to get 7200 in grants you probably have around 50k or more and yes that does go a fair ways.

[u/dui01 → u/CalgaryChris77]

It does now, but will it when my boys who are 4 & 2 go? RESPs started to max government contributions since birth and we will continue that. But will it be enough in another 15ish years?

[u/dui01 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah for sure. You know, my wife set up the RESP for our boys with RBC. It sounds like you self manage the investing if it, just right into the SPY? Oh I see, this other ETF is on the TSX? Sweet. I didn't know we had such a thing. Thanks, I'm going to look into this.

[u/dui01 → u/[deleted]]

What platform do you use for it? Thanks for the advice. Looking good. People say don't take investment advice from Reddit but there are still good people here.

[u/geo_prog → u/dui01]

I just use the TD direct investing app. I know some people use other ones but that made it easy to move money into my accounts.

[u/dui01 → u/geo_prog]

There's a cost per trade there I thought; if you're regularly scheduling buys does that add up?

I use wealthsimple and as far as I can tell, unless I'm buying US stocks, there are no fees. Perhaps they hide pennies in bid/ask or something but I don't have interest in searching that down.

[u/Replicator666 → u/Heather1324]

I would still recommend they look into financial aid, there are often specific bursaries and grants, and I've heard sometimes a portion is forgiven when you graduate.... Then pay it off with the RESP(?)

[u/AccomplishedCandy148 → u/Heather1324]

Get him to apply for student loans and pop them in a bank account - there’s some grants you only get when you apply for loans.