This rant is a little tough to sustain when you look at how far indebted older, adult Canadians are... I am not just talking about millennials - I am talking about all those "hard working and virtuous" yuppies that are nearing retirement and have a mortgage that is too big, they have bought too many expensive cars, have a cottage they can't really afford, lots of revolving credit, closets full of clothes they don't wear, yearly trips they can't afford. Give me a break about millennials. If there is a financial crisis in Canada the lion's share of the damage will be done by the over-spending and idiotic financial decisions of Canadians 40 and up. They grew up while the welfare state was healthy and enjoyed those "entitlements" and faced far healthier job markets than younger folk do today. Now they turn around and demand tax cuts while kicking millennial to the curb. Pathetic.
The old indebted person is loaded. They may or may not be cash flow rich, but no doubt asset rich.
Home prices have skyrocketed so much in the past 10 years, anyone who bought a home in 2016 or before is up. Only people buying in 2017 or this year have been burned with stagnant home prices.
Cottages have skyrocketed too. It's a lot different now. Decades ago, nobody cared about cottages. You could probably score a decent one for $100,000. Now, many people treat them like a second home and good ones can go for $500,000+. Money to be made.
Anyone on this board who bought a home 20 years ago, or had parents who bought a home in the 1970s or 80s for $100,000-150,000 is sitting on a property worth probably a minimum of $800,000. If it is a nice area, easily $1M+.
These kinds of gains are in the big cities, but even in smaller cities, real estate appreciation is everywhere. It's almost impossible to go broke when you buy real estate. Only if someone is on the fringe of payments and losing their job and home. I don't see too many home owners the past 10 years going broke. All I see is big dollars and big winners.
But all the young people wasting money on depreciating assets like Audis A4s and BMW 3-series cars when they are in their 20s is putting their dimwitted money into money losing assets. If you want to manage money well, stop wasting money renting, put the funds towards a property, keep expenses low so the mortgage approved maxes out as high as possible, get the home...... THEN, get the nice car years later.
Young people are doing the reverse. Paying landlords like me (when I was a landlord as I sold out) over $2,000/mth paying off my mortgage. They make good money too. Save your money, save money on eating out and entry level Mercedes cars and get that condo that is affordable.
Does a single person really need to rent out a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom unit from me for $2,400/mth??? When a more reasonable approach might be to find a 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom unit for $1,700. Bank the $700/mth and put that towards a mortgage. Does a young single person really need to buy a nice SUV costing $500/mth vs. Honda Civic at half the price? There's another $250/mth..... right there, an easy $1,000/mth savings by cutting back.
Savings for the bank account. Cash flow buffer to calculate a higher mortgage. Not that hard to figure out. Since the internet came around all someone has to do is use an online mortgage calculator tool. You didn't get that in the old days.
When someone builds up money and owns a home that goes up in value..... then buy the nice stuff later when the salary goes up.
Welfare state decades ago? What country are you living in? There are so many more government handouts, tax deductions now than ever before.
Jobs are easy to come by. Unemployment rates are as low as 50 years ago. If you want to see a time period when jobs were tough to get....... the 80s when the unemployment rate swung from 8-12%..... which is around the same time period that "nearing retirement yuppies" you mentioned were in their 20s trying to score and hold onto jobs.
On the other hand, the unemployment rate now is among the best in half a century at 6%.
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/75-005-m/75-005-m2016001-eng.htm
At the same time, mortgage rates were about 12%.
Now you understand why 60 year olds or people like my parents who are even older focused on a home first, a shitty station wagon for 10+ years, and then bought a cottage and fancy cars later in life (mid-life toys). And it paid off as home prices rose a lot.
Young people are doing the opposite and will never play catch up.
Young people complaining about 3% mortgages have nothing to complain about.
