This is Vanese Ferguson with Coffee Talk. For a person to live as in pay rent and buy a few groceries, gas, pay for a vehicle, I’d say $50,000 a year wage is needed if you’re on your own. I was looking at apartment rental costs in Saskatoon. About a thousand bucks a month for just a studio – so no real bedroom. Two bedroom – these apartments – in multi-unit buildings run as high as $1,900 a month. You could start looking at a mortgage if you’re going to shell almost two grand a month for rent. But then does one do that? You have to save the money while you’re still paying to live. I think the days of saying a young person needs to leave home, may be waning. And not to be regarded with derision – that don’t have the gumption to get off their parent’s couch and do without the comforts of home because it is just not feasible. And this is the ever-increasing reality for someone who is gainfully employed. That will likely mean tough choices for some as in they don’t follow their dream job or career if it isn’t going to pay big. Multi-generational mortgages have been on the rise for a half a dozen years in the U.K. and in Japan to promote home ownership is the creation of a 100-year mortgage term. The home becomes an ancestral property and is passed on from grandparent to grandchild with the responsibility of the mortgage being passed down as well. We may have that actually not structured into our lending system, but you can already see it happening. If people are going to be able to live a life, they have to be paid.
The realities of trying to live in 2026
By Vanese M. Ferguson
May 4, 2026 | 9:23 AM
Saskatoon Weather
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If you plant a garden of any kind or put out pots, when do you plan to plant this year?
May long weekend like always
First weekend of June
When I see a long term forecast where I don't have to cover plants because there might be frost
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