“If you still lived with your parents when you were 20, people looked at you like you were from a different planet.” — Mike Martins Do you remember when being 19 or 20 years old and still living with your parents was embarrassing? If you're around my age, you probably remember exactly what I'm talking about. You'd be talking to your friends and somebody would find out you still lived at home: “Wait... you STILL live with your parents?” People would look at you like you came from another planet. When I was 19, I was living in Toronto without some big professional career behind me. I was basically winging it. You got your paycheck, paid your rent, bought a little furniture when you could, bought your food and somehow made the numbers work. My rent was around $400. Fast-forward to today and the affordability equation has completely changed. The headline I'm discussing in this segment of Mike in the Night E670 says that most Canadian parents are now subsidizing the basic living expenses of their adult children. And that's what really got me. We're not necessarily talking about parents simply allowing their 19-year-old kid to stay in the basement anymore. We're talking about adult children who have moved out but still need financial help from Mom and Dad to maintain an independent household. Some are well beyond their teenage years. Housing is at the centre of this discussion. I compare what I remember paying when I was young with today's rents and condominium prices and ask a very simple question: How did we get to the point where working adults can't afford the basic independence previous generations took for granted? And wages matter too. If housing and everyday living expenses increase dramatically while people's earnings don't increase at anything close to the same pace, something eventually has to give. For some families, Mom and Dad become the difference. That's the generational change I'm talking about in this video. If you're old enough to remember moving out at 18, 19 or 20, tell me what you paid for your first apartment, what year it was, and how much you were earning. I think those stories are going to tell us a lot about how much Canada has changed. #canada #costofliving #affordability #rent #rentcrisis #toronto #vancouver #adultchildren #livingathome #millennials #genz #wages #costoflivingcanada #housingaffordability #canadianeconomy #workingclass #mikemartins #mikeinthenight