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Toronto

Toronto is a mining town. For this discussion, feel free to replace "mining town" with "lumber camp", "oilfield", "oilsands", etc. It's all the same.

Mining towns are places where people go to:

  1. Do the work
  2. Get paid high wages
  3. Spend through the nose for everything
  4. Leave after their bodies are worn out and can't do the high-pressure work anymore
This totally describes Toronto, NewYork, Seattle, etc. There's high-paying jobs, but all the money goes to the landlords. Congratulations, you are now part of the employer-to-landlord pipeline, while also being in a higher tax-bracket.

Problem

You break your body and your health, and have little to show for it at the end. Look up "Fort McMurray, Alberta cost of living" and you'll see how this works. Housing, food, and transportation cost more. Sure, you are making good money, but then you are spending extra too. Sounds like Toronto, doesn't it?

What's the point of working extra hard, making extra money, getting charged a higher tax rate, and then spending what's left on overpriced goods and services? Since everyone is keeping up appearances, they're spending money on overpriced alcohol at fancy restaurants, and expensive downtown offices, and downtown condos. Pointless.

Then they pair up and start families and move out to Etobicoke, and pat themselves on the back for reducing their housing costs. Idiots.

What's the point of a higher paycheck if you are still living paycheck-to-paycheck? Congratulations, you're just a faster hamster on the hamster wheel.

Solution

What people SHOULD do with mining towns, if they had discipline and common sense, is to:

  1. Do the work
  2. Get paid high wages
  3. Stack the cash
  4. Leave the mining town
  5. Go back to your hometown and live a comfortable life while you still have your health

All this extra money you saved up can earn you dividends from a dividend ETF. Then, you can get a more relaxed job in a smaller community, like Barrie, or Brantford, or Kingston. Now you have work-life balance too. You'll have lower monthly expenses also, since you aren't paying Toronto prices for everything. And you don't have to deal with Toronto traffic either, and Toronto parking fees, and Toronto car insurance rates. Instead, you can live in Cobourg and hang out by the water without having drug addicts pooping on the sidewalks.

The only reason to put up with Toronto prices is to make the Toronto income and stack the cash. If you aren't stacking cash in a mining town, you are doing it wrong. Don't be an idiot like I was. You only get one life; don't waste it in a mining town and have nothing to show for it in the end.