Eh I'm not gonna play if you're gonna throw insults around like a kid again. Shared some numbers before but I'll do it again for those interested:
All dollars I'll talk about are Canadian dollars. Now if you're some 23 year old kid who's never been out of school let alone his/her country, you can stop reading here now; because what I'll share is not necessarily a concern for 25- year olds since they are still kids who wouldn't mind sleeping under a bridge calling it "yo dude I crashed somewhere so weeeiiiirrdddd".
Adults and young adults aged 25+ who are actually looking for "skilled immigration" or "professional immigration" to build more upon their existing careers, read on.
My lab mates and I are kinda on the better end of the grad student pay in BC. There are some very slight variations but let's average them to $1800 / month. You gotta put aside about $700 / mo to pay the next instalment of your tuition. $75 / mo is mandatory for government insurance thingy. So you're essentially getting paid $1025/ mo.
All you can do with this kind of money is rent a single room in a shared house where you probably have 5+ other tenants to share the kitchen and bathroom(s) with. I can't even begin to discuss how shitty of a situation house sharing is for an adult, but that's for another talk. An okay room in an okay house that's not a complete dump is about $800 / mo. --> $225 left
Your phone bill is probably $50 something but I'll cheat and say you're paying $25 / mo for phone. --> $200 left
Your shampoo, soap, tooth paste, deodorant and various other hygiene expenses will be about $100 / mo actually but let's assume you're a stinky piece of shit and get away with $50 / mo spending on hygiene. --> $150 left
Feeling hungry? You haven't spent on food yet. Eating properly at home like a human and not like a rat usually costs about $250 / mo, but you don't have that kind of money. See? As a grad student you don't get to eat as much as you like, but as much as $150 / mo allows you and that means you are never trully full after a meal and have to count your bites and embrace the stress inbetween those bites.
Oh you wanted to have a social life in Canada? Go to bars? Events? Pick up a hobby? Do something with friends? Maybe buy new clothes? Electronics? Just stuff you need? Dude you're barely not starving; you cannot have a social life, hobbies, or any sort of entertainment in Canada as a grad student.
"Kangaroo I can work as a teaching assistant and make life a bit easier how about that?" Yes you can. I'll do the math for you. For TAs, 1 standard course with standard hours and standard pay gets you $200 / mo if you divide it by 12 (all months of that year). So now add that $200 to the last $150 / mo you had in your pocket after spending on hygiene; you have $350 / mo if you TA once every single year. With $350 / mo, you can afford to eat okay for $250 and have $100 left for social life, hobbies, entertainment. Now you're at least not starving but $100 is not enough for social life. A typical Saturday night out at the local bar is $25 if you wanna go cheap and 2-3 student beers and leave. So all social life you get is you go out to the local bar once a week and drink 3 glasses of that piss called student beer (lager with a lot of water in it). I personally put down 3 glasses in an hour or two; so your "night out" is limited to 2 hours unless people are buying you drinks (lol). So forget about dating, events, hobbies, just keep drinking that piss at the local bar once a week and go back home half tipsy (trust me it has a lot of water in it) at fucking 10 PM (you went out at 8 and have only 2 hours in the bar).
This story ignores so many unexpected, unforeseen expenses, especially unexpected medical expenses.
I could go on and give more details but yeah that's the idea.
