Median, not average. Teachers start at roughly $58,000 and it can top out at around $120,000 for the most senior teachers. That's really not that much over an entire career.
It's an honorable profession and a good salary but you aren't breaking bank on a teachers wage.
Still well above the average wage. This is isn’t America where it can be a poverty wage.
Yes you aren’t making ridiculous money, but very few people actually do. It certainly is better than the majority of Canadians.
So cost of living is a definite problem but...... I think there is a lack of individual accountability and just a lack of ambition overall these days. I wasn't a particularly gifted student or master of anything really. What I did was I acquired skills and moved where opportunities were. I've moved 7 times in the past decade and 4 times in the past 6 years. There were risks involved and nobody told me how it was going to work out... I just did it because I've got confidence and some ambition.
Want to be a Millionaire as a Millenial? Pretty simple, for starters don't live in super expensive CMAs like Toronto or Vancouver. Second of all, if everyone else is doing it, it's probably not a very good way to make $$$.
I have chased assignments outside the major metropolitan areas. My wife and I have one child and a second one on the way. I am turning 40 this year and my wife is 34.
I worked in Military, Transportation and now Metals & Mining. It's at the point now where we are able to live on one income. I own a house and make a substantial amount of $$$. Enough to own multiple vehicles, support a family of four, own our own home, have substantial investments, etc.
My wife worked but now she doesn't for the time being. We want kids and she wants 18 months off, which she already took for our last child so we made the decision for her to not work. She likes working but I would say since having children, her priorities have changed, she doesn't care so much about her career anymore and wants to focus on our kids. We are fortunate that I make the kind of $$$ I do for her to be able to do that.
That's my situation and I know it's not the norm though. I have an incredibly obscure CV with a bunch of difficult to obtain certifications that can't really be recreated easily. Some of them I acquired by luck, a lot of them I got by grinding from the time I was 18 until now.
I sometimes think we aren't doing that well because I compare it to what my parents were able to have at our age but then I realize that's also not realistic. The average person can't afford anything near what I can afford or live the life I live. The workforce and government systems are also not designed to support hard work, because Canada has a serious case of tall-poppy syndrome. My wife isn't working so I am supporting my entire family.... Do I get a tax break? Nope. We actually get taxed more than if my wife and I were both working and making the same amount collectively. Can I access any Govt programs my $$$ pays for? Nope.
I am anti-big Govt for the most part. I want them involved as little as possible in my life. I also want to keep as much of my $$$ for my family as possible.
I know a few and they are all in my friends circle. They of course all have high paying jobs, own houses, married, etc.
If you want to be successful, you also need to associate yourself with other successful people.
I got a right place right time situation as well, odds are I am younger than 95% of people on here, I am just turning 32 this year.
You are right that living in a low cost of living area is key, but that isn’t great advice as if everyone did it, those areas wouldn’t be low cost of living.
I personally lucked into the skilled trades right when everyone was seeking apprentices, meanwhile when I started college I was literally laughed at by a few people as there was ‘no jobs in the trades’. Since then through hard work and a ton of effort even when not required I have honed skillsets that lots of people lack (was running a vertical lathe from 1891 yesterday and saving my company about 390k on a job because of it).
Very similar boat to you, own a house, single income household (not by choice, severely disabled child which makes that mandatory, even though my wife has a 38$ a hour certification), married (income splitting should be a thing for all married couples), low cost of living area, a couple vehicles paid off, etc.
That being said I understand the benefits of having a safety net due to that disabled child. I used to think in individual terms but now I have moved more collective in the fact that without the supports available we would not be able to take care of him, or at least not to the full extent of his needs (I say this as we prepare to head to sick kids for the 4th time this year at the end of the month).
There is 100% a individual component to societal woes, but there is also a system rigged against the majority.
My parents bought a new home on a security guard/army reserve officer salary and a part time teacher salary. They had kids by 25 (early 90s). It was very achievable.
My friends parents afforded houses on a warehouse managers salary and a minimum wage job.
Now it isn’t for the majority of the population to achieve that. The costs are way out of feasibility. That isn’t a good thing. Just saying move elsewhere doesn’t solve that and discredits the current struggles most people face:
