I'm from Canada. I make ~$100k/yr at the moment. It's considered a top 10% salary. I am content. Top 1% here is ~$200k/yr. It's a lot of money, but not a lot of money is needed frankly for the average Canadian. I don't think I'll ever reach $200k/yr+, so the $100k/yr I'm at I'm thankful for.

Mind you, I'm not including housing. Housing in Vancouver in Toronto require I make more than $200k/yr which further solidifies the fact that Vancouver and Toronto are owned by the wealthy elite. I am not the wealthy elite.

Our social healthcare has us covered in old age. I can live off $30k-40k/yr once retired. That's a 4% withdrawal rate off a 7% globally diversified ETF of $1m.

The problem with housing in Toronto and Vancouver is that like many other commonwealth countries, Canada isn't particularly strict about shady foreign money entering the country and driving up asset prices (in fact, it seems they welcome it).

This is similar to why London real estate is off the charts expensive for the people who live there... this still happens in the US, but it seems like a smaller deal relative to the size of the economy and banking regulations around things like proving source of income are a tad stricter.

There was a ban on foreign investors last year for two full years, but it's mainly a scapegoat. The real problem is realtor facing, with shadow bidding, cheap access to large mortgages, over zealous campaigning of the "Canadian/American dream", and my personal favorite: total lack of rail infrastructure. The GTA does it better than Vancouver, with it's Go Train system et al, but Vancouver is totally cramped with its encircling USA border and mountainous regions. On top of that, with what available land there is, homeowners and city workers petition to prevent construction of new homes. It's NIMBYism at it's finest, allowing homeowners to gladly rake in yearly appreciations at 10-30% while Vancouverites with "generational" down payments of 200-300k out-shadow-bid each other for East Van / Surrey / Coquitlam sloppy seconds.

The silver lining here is remote work. Both Vancouver and Toronto are in dire need of a physical brain drain. Allow remote workers to work from across Canada. The demand for in-city workers will lower and home prices will fall

In the bay area, a $500k annual salary is really not that much in the grand scheme of thngs.

It's literally an elite salary. It makes no sense to imply you're living a frugal, simple life if you need an elite salary to do it.

It's all relative to cost of living (including taxes) and asset prices... even in relative terms though, it is possible to save a lot in the Bay Area if you're not consuming at the high end or have your eyes set on real estate.

I mean, if you're living in an area with COL high enough to eat through $500k, you are splurging on location, which isn't really any less infrugal than it would be to splurge on travel or imported luxury goods.

I wasn't the one who said I was living a frugal life.

You hopped in to defend the point, but go ahead and take your exit then