216 thoughts on “Young, rich and totally not buying a house”
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I’m 31 and make $130,000 per year. I could buy a house tomorrow if I wanted. I don’t. I’d rather travel, drink expensive wine and eat at the best restaurants. And I’m not alone
The night before my 30th birthday, my brother called me. “We’re going away for the weekend,” he said. “Get out of work.” I knew my boss was going to kill me, but I’ve always had trouble saying no to my brother. He’s two years my senior, and I look up to him. He told me that he and three of our friends were taking me to Montreal. It wasn’t as far-flung as some of our other weekend getaways—Miami, Las Vegas, New York—but I knew this one would be wild. We sipped complimentary glasses of wine on the flight and then settled into a penthouse suite at Le Place D’Armes Hotel, which cost $640 a night. We hit Joe Beef and tried the horse with artichokes and pecorino, plus just about everything else on the menu—a habit of ours when we can’t decide what not to get. Around 1 a.m., we rolled into New City Gas, a warehouse nightclub just outside the Old Port, totally obliterated. My cousin had booked us a booth, and we ordered bottle service—the Grey Goose, Hendricks, Patrón and Moët were flowing. We stayed until nearly 6 a.m., dancing to house music and trying to pick up girls (alas, none of us got lucky). We gorged and guzzled our way through the rest of the weekend, eating ridiculously decadent cronuts from a pâtisserie, smoked meat sandwiches from Schwartz’s, fondue from an amazing Old Montreal restaurant called Bistro Marché de la Villette. We uncorked bottle after bottle of Amarone as we went. The pinnacle of the weekend was two hours on a closed racetrack behind the wheel of a $200,000 dark blue Lamborghini Gallardo. I tried to redline it—it tops out around 310 kilometres per hour—but the rental guy talked me down around 220. We were gone for only 48 hours, but it felt like 10 weekends packed into one.Editor's Letter
I could say that this was a freak incident—a one-time blowout, but that would be a lie. Here’s what you need to know about me. I’m 31, single, and I live with my parents in a two-storey home in North York. I still sleep in my childhood bedroom, beneath my Mario Lemieux poster and framed picture of Jesus. My mom does my laundry and makes my meals. And, yes, I can already feel your contempt. But hear me out. I’m not lazy, dumb or deluded. I’m a pharmacist, and I work hard—sometimes six days a week. I sleep roughly five hours a night. I make $130,000 a year, and I spend the vast majority of it on experiences—wild, rare, unforgettable experiences. My guiding philosophy is that life is short and we should savour every moment. And, unlike just about everyone 25 and older in this city, I don’t want in on the real estate craze. It’s not that I can’t afford a house or a condo. I follow the market closely and could hitch myself to a $600,000 mortgage tomorrow if I wanted. But when I consider what I’d be giving up just to own a few hundred square feet, I am convinced: the Toronto real estate market is for suckers, and I want no part of it. Neither should you.
My main group of friends and I call ourselves the Core Four—I’m known as the Plus One—and for the most part, we’re philosophically aligned. First, there’s my older brother, who works in banking as a financial analyst. He’s our de facto hype man, the guy who goes from 0 to 100 in the time it takes to down two shots of tequila. Five years ago, for his birthday, we drank $130-an-ounce, 30-year-old Macallan scotch on the Park Hyatt rooftop. I’m convinced that’s what gold tastes like. My brother also lives at home with my parents and me. Next, there’s a criminal lawyer, whose wife runs a pharmacy. Could they afford to buy? Definitely. But it makes more sense for them to rent and write it off as a business expense. My cousin is our ringleader and the one who got me hooked on the living-large ethos in the first place. He’s a mid-30s Bay Street entrepreneur who runs a tech software company and rents a penthouse in a luxury hotel downtown with his fiancée. He’s the kind of guy who can get a reservation at Reds when they’re booked solid. My cousin started in banking right after finishing his economics degree, so he’s been making money for longer than the rest of us. He spends a hundred hours a week with his clients, so when he finds time to be out with his closest friends, he goes hard. His influence has rubbed off on me. When I’m out on a date, I’ll buy an $80 bottle of wine. But when I’m out with him, I just pick whatever I think is the best, which usually means a $200 bottle. And then there’s our group’s voice of reason. He’s a teacher who wants to own a house one day, and he gets anxious when we’re all out on a bender. He passed on the opportunity to buy a house for $350,000 some 12 years ago when he was a couple of years out of teachers’ college and has always regretted it. He tries to rein in some of our more excessive behaviour, but we tune him out. (I’ve kept all names out of this story to protect my buddies from your scorn.)
As a group, we travel whenever we want, wherever we want. In the last 12 months, I’ve partied in Brazil and backpacked through Guatemala and Mexico. I’ve been to Europe twice—once for a bachelor party in Ibiza and once to attend a friend’s wedding in a castle in Bordeaux. My friends and I decided to turn the latter jaunt into an epic European tour. We touched down in Barcelona (all-night beach party), Paris (foie gras, clubbing), Champagne (champagne)—then to the Loire Valley for the wedding, which was catered by a Michelin-starred chef—followed by Bordeaux (wine), Toulon (more wine), Monaco (cliffside villa, casino), Rome (pasta, pizza, prosecco), and then home—sunburnt, exhausted, pickled from booze, but euphoric.
My wildest trip in recent memory was in 2013: my cousin was in Asia on business, so a few of us decided on a whim to join him. First, we spent five days in Hong Kong, which is like New York City on crack. I had never seen people so excited to buy Louis Vuitton that they line up outside to get into the store. Once we finished shopping, we went to Thailand, booking our hotels just hours before arrival. We hired a guide to take us on a tour of Bangkok, visited a few Buddhist temples, went to the rooftop restaurant featured in The Hangover Part II and got the obligatory Thai massages. Then we hopped on a plane to Manila, where we stayed in the city’s most luxurious hotel. Our lawyer friend really wanted to swim with whale sharks, so we caught a flight to Bohol, a tiny island nearby. Next, we flew to Singapore, where we chugged Singapore slings at their birthplace, the famous hotel Raffles. We went to a speakeasy—there are no signs, and if you didn’t know about it, you’d never notice it—where my brother gulped down five $20 cocktails in a matter of minutes. The 17-day bacchanal cost each of us about $7,000, and I don’t regret a cent.
We’re not particularly restrained at home either. In Toronto, I eat anywhere, anytime. My friends and I don’t have regular spots so much as we like to try everything at least once: Splendido (RIP!), Valdez, Grand Electric, Buca, Patois, Union, Dandylion, Fabbrica, Figo. I haven’t been to Scaramouche yet, but only because I haven’t found that special person to take there.
I’ve tasted more than 170 different wines in the last year—I keep track through an app called Vivino. Lately, I’m finding there are downsides to education; back in the day, when I was a neophyte, I could drink just about anything. These days, I know exactly what I like and what I don’t. Tasting a Rothschild is on my bucket list.
Boy Meets World
Tony lives his life according to a simple rule: never say no. Here’s where it’s led him
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It’s in a public park under a sheer cliff just outside Rio, and it was the most calming place I’ve ever been.” |
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Our teacher friend, the relatively temperate one, misses out on our most extravagant outings. That’s because, like so many millennials (the official designation is someone born between 1981 and 1997), he believes a golden era of home ownership is just around the corner. He shares a fantasy of buying a stately detached in Leslieville, High Park or the Beach, of owning an Audi hatchback, weekending in P.E.C., vacationing in the Dominican and maybe snapping up a small cottage in the Kawarthas down the road. Now that’s deluded.
If you’re in your late 20s or early 30s, you’re looking at two options when it comes to real estate, and both come with serious downsides. The first is to leave the city and buy somewhere in the distant reaches of the GTA. One couple I know—he’s an engineer and she’s a support worker for children with autism—bought a brown-brick four-bedroom semi with a backyard in Ajax for $500,000. They can afford a vacation now and again (they went on an all-inclusive trip to Cuba a few years back), but their nights out are limited to what Ajax has to offer. For their anniversary, they went to a hole-in-the-wall Thai restaurant for a meal that cost $30, total. They have to drive absolutely everywhere, they go out on the town maybe once a month, and most of their disposable income goes toward saving for their kid’s education.
The alternative: buy downtown and scrimp. Another couple I know, a pharmacist and a physiotherapist, have been married two years and live in a condo in CityPlace. They’re shopping around for their dream home, with a budget of $800,000. I think they’re crazy—they’ll certainly have to pay more than that, and then they’re going to be shackled to a monstrous mortgage for the next 30 years, which will severely limit their ability to have any discernible amount of fun for the next two decades. I rarely see them now; once they’re ensconced in their new house, I wonder if I’ll ever see them again.
A detached home in the 416 costs on average $1.25 million, up 18.9 per cent from spring of last year. A semi costs $901,159, a townhouse $611,899 and a condo $436,545. Meanwhile, the number of active listings is down a staggering 27 per cent year over year, meaning more bidding wars and those obnoxious Sold Over Asking signs. Making matters worse is that millennials, myself included, suck at saving. More than half of us want to retire by the time we turn 60, but 78 per cent of us aren’t putting any money away for retirement. (Boomers are far more realistic—just a third of them think they’ll be able to afford their ideal retirement lifestyle.) A quarter of millennials hope to own a vacation home when they retire. Half don’t even know that cash in an RRSP can be used toward a down payment on a first home. Millennials are the second-most educated generation in history (Gen X beats us by a smidgen) and make up the largest share of the labour market, but 46 per cent are unemployed or working part-time. Our top priority, according to one Manulife survey, is maintaining our current lifestyle, something that should probably be lower on the list considering that millennials earn, per household, an average of $71,000. Debt is causing more than half of us to lose sleep, borrow cash from family and friends, fight with said family and friends about our debts, and feel ashamed about our finances. In short: we want it all, even though the evidence says that’s just not possible. I’ve accepted the truth.
I do understand the appeal of owning property. In fact, a few years ago, I almost succumbed. I set myself a maximum of $750,000 and found a spacious, three-bedroom semi on a quiet, tree-lined street near Don Mills and York Mills. It was listed at $550,000. I did the math. If I put 10 per cent down—a large chunk of my $80,000 savings—I’d be paying close to $2,400 a month in mortgage payments, including mortgage default insurance. Bills and household expenses would take that number up to around $3,500 a month. I figured that if I kept working 60-hour weeks, barring any emergencies or unforeseen expenses, I’d have roughly $2,200 a month left over, after tax, in disposable income, instead of the $5,000 to $7,500 per month I have now. I agonized over it. I talked to my friends and my parents. Frankly, my mom didn’t love the house—she envisions me moving into a mansion but doesn’t really grasp the state of the market. Then I thought about what I’d have to sacrifice. Even if I didn’t want to travel like I do—even if I just wanted to go for a fancy dinner or on a date and not worry about the expense—I wouldn’t be able to do that anymore. I’d have to say no a lot more often and, frankly, I like saying yes. I’d be taking my dates to Kelsey’s and going on the occasional all-inclusive resort vacation when I could afford it. I didn’t want that life. I decided not to make an offer. The house ended up selling for $675,000, some $125,000 over asking.
It was the best call I’ve ever made. I’m seeing the world, plunging into rich, diverse experiences head-first. Would I be better off chained to a mortgage? Who am I hurting by living this way? I’m not contributing to this country’s out-of-control household debt levels or helping heat up an already too-hot real estate market. You could argue that I’m a much more responsible contributor to the economy by being such a conspicuous consumer. I’m also happy. At 31, I’ve checked off 75 per cent of my bucket list. How many homeowners with 2.5 kids, a dog, a fish and a broken furnace can say that?
I haven’t always felt this way. My parents immigrated here from the Middle East in the mid-1970s, with professional degrees, five years before they had my brother. They worked low-end retail jobs while going through equivalency processes for the education they already had. When I was 5, my dad got his qualifications and was able to work in his field again, which allowed us a slightly more comfortable life. We grew up going to church a couple of times a week. On Saturday mornings, we’d all go grocery shopping together, and we’d eat every meal around the dinner table as a family—casseroles, stews and the like. Birthdays meant trips to Chuck E. Cheese’s or pizza lunches in the backyard. In our culture, dining out was considered an extravagance. My parents raised us to understand that money was something to be guarded. They’d do funny little things like unscrew the light bulb in the microwave to save on the hydro bill. They were always preparing for the worst-case scenario—layoffs, catastrophic injury, storm of the century—and it was a good thing they did. There were times when my dad was out of work, but my parents had money saved. A few months later, he’d get another job, and my brother and I were none the wiser. In the ’80s, as soon as they had the cash, they bought a house. They considered it the smartest, most stable investment they could make.
Even so, my brother developed an impulse for wanton spending. Part of it was influence from his friends, but it was also just the way he’s wired. For as long as I can remember, if he had a dollar, he wanted to spend it. As kids, we were given an allowance of $5 a week in grade school, $10 in middle school, $20 in high school. I’d save mine, the way my parents wanted me to, except in the rare instances when I’d splurge on a Michael Jordan or Robbie Alomar trading card. My brother’s was gone in a matter of hours, and he’d then pester me to float him a loan. Almost always, I complied. He’s family. Plus, he always stuck up for me when I got picked on at school or church.
In my teens, an exciting Friday night would be getting together to play video games with my friends and ordering Chinese food or pizza. I never really went out for dinner. But, after I graduated from U of T and began my pharmacology degree in the States (I didn’t get into U of T’s program), everything changed. It all started one summer night with an innocuous dinner at a Brazilian barbecue joint on the Danforth called the Red Violin. I was out with a cousin and his girlfriend. He did the ordering, and when the bill came, it was roughly $150. I thought he was certifiable. A few months later, I went to the Keg with my brother and five friends, and I remember watching the waiters deliver baseball steaks and bottles of wine, my eyes growing wider and wider as the bill climbed to $600. I’d never seen anything like this. We were insane, I thought. When I returned to the cafeteria slop at school, I couldn’t wait to get back to Toronto. It became a pattern: I’d come home from university for a visit, and my cousins would treat me to expensive dinners out. By the time I was in third year, one cousin was running a nightclub on King Street West. We went every Friday I was in town—we walked in and were treated like royalty. He’d reserve the best booth for us, and the servers knew exactly what we liked to drink. For a kid from a humble background, the feeling was intoxicating. People looked at us, wondering who we were. It was as if I’d found the key to an alternate reality where I could have whatever I wanted. I was hooked.
When I finished school, I moved back to Toronto and started making money. We went to Morton’s and had a blowout steak dinner, and I stepped up and covered a big chunk of the bill. I didn’t realize it at the time, but after that, there was no turning back. At first, it was funny how reckless we were. Wow, did we just do that? I’d think, until I found myself doing it three nights in a row. Gradually, I became desensitized, except for the split second when the bill would arrive—that momentary twinge of guilt doesn’t ever totally go away. But the Core Four and I (the schoolteacher’s hand-wringing notwithstanding) don’t judge or guilt-trip each other; we just do it.
Research shows that we millennials can’t begin to think about saving for retirement because we’re so overwhelmed by student loans and finding full-time employment. The job market is a barren wasteland, and for those who can find work, it’s usually on contract, without benefits. In the absence of workplace stability, emotional fulfilment helps us cope.
My parents are often disappointed in my choices, but they’re from another era. Yes, there are drawbacks to living at home. My folks are devout Christians, and they don’t condone sex before marriage. I’ve had girls over, but they rarely stay the night. If they do, my mom makes them sleep in the basement, and she keeps one eye open all night. Do they love when I come home at four in the morning? No. But they get over it. To make it work, my date and I will go to a hotel or her place, or wait until my parents go out. But I save about $1,500 in rent alone by living at home. My parents don’t accept money from me for expenses, although I occasionally chip in for groceries. And I hear what you’re saying: of course you live this crazy lifestyle—your parents support you. That’s true. But I’d be making the same philosophical choices if I rented. I’d just have to save a little more before heading out on big trips. And maybe I’d buy an $80 instead of a $200 bottle of wine. My lifestyle choice would remain the same.
So what happens next? Things are changing. For the last two summers, the Core Four and I had a weekend tradition: on Saturdays, we’d drink in the sun at Cabana Pool Bar and then hit the restaurants on King West at night. Sundays were for Fabbrica, where we’d order just about the entire menu and eat like kings—three appetizers, three pizzas, steak, fish, a pile of sides, five desserts and a few bottles of wine. But the guys are less reliably available this year. The lawyer and the teacher both got married recently, my cousin is engaged (his wedding is in Tuscany this summer), and a few of my other buddies are in serious long-term relationships. I know that in the coming years, they’re going to start having kids. Do I want to follow their lead? Eventually. I don’t want to be living paycheque to paycheque when I’m 40. I want to keep travelling, even if it’s not extravagant jaunts across the world. For now, I’m going to wait and focus on investing in myself: I want to buy into a pharmacy partnership, an endeavour that’s going to drain $50,000 from my savings and take years to get off the ground.
As for real estate, if the options are to flee the GTA or stay and scrimp, I’d rather rent indefinitely. It’s a smart way of looking at real estate in a city that’s transforming overnight. Like Manhattan, Paris and Tokyo, Toronto is becoming a capital of excess, humming with incredible nightlife, fabulous food, high fashion. If I’m going to live here, I want to enjoy it. I’m seeing more and more of my peers contemplating the same path. One day, I hope to raise a family, but I can do it in a beautiful rented condo in a good neighbourhood. With our leftover cash, we’ll travel to Disneyland and take occasional excursions to Europe and Asia. For the time being, I’m content. There’s a new restaurant to try, a new cocktail bar to check out and that Rothschild to uncork.
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Hey, Big Spender, I enjoyed reading your story and it is a good idea to enjoy your life and spend money on the experiences that you value. At one point, Tony says that he was better off NOT buying the house for $675,000 (5 years ago). What he could have done is invested his $85,000 and in fact buy that house and rent it out. The rental income would have most likely covered 90% of all the expenses, Tony could go on enjoying his life with minimal stress from the investment. In today’s value that house would be close to $975,000, based on values from the last 5 years of growth in real estate. Then he would have his money to invest in the pharmacy partnership. There is a way to invest, while still enjoying your life and indulging in unforgettable experiences, and you would be better off from it. – SB
This reads like a Toronto hipster version of Peter Pan. “I spend all my money on self-gratification and live in my parent’s house. It makes me happy. Can you believe it?” I’d love to see the follow-up interview in 10 years.
Sorry I stopped reading at ‘ Here’s what you need to know about me. I’m 31, single, and I live with my parents in a two-storey home in North York” nuff said!
God damn this dude is such a d bag
You sound like experiences are based on how expensive your wine is rather than the culture, people you meet or places you go. No offense but high fashion, humming nightlife and extravagant trips seem like you’ve been suckered into the narcissistic lifestyle that rappers and Hollywood has painted for you. Although to each their own I’m happy for you but reading this article is painful to get through. I suppose it’s exactly what Toronto life likes to promote, excess consumption for no reason other than to brag about it.
I love the idea of travel, eating and drinking well. But not to this excess. And really, dude, move out of your parent’s home.
This is deeply disturbing
Not to mention extremely nausea-inducing. Who IS this guy? D-bag is a major understatement. I can barely believe Toronto Life saw fit to print this word vomit, and they paid him how much?!
Bingo. This magazine has become a total joke.
HARDO!!! I love how this reads like he is bragging and feels bad for people who own a place. 100% all the ‘Core 4’ were hacks growing up and are trying to recreate the lost experiences or feelings they think they deserved from that time period. If I was living with my parents at 31 I would take a hard look in the mirror. That’s not cool no matter how hard you try to justify it. If Toronto Life has any sense of humor there will be a follow-up interview when this guy is 40 still living with his parents, no savings, no pharmacy partnership, all his friends married with families, and him just clinging to his Chateau Lafite wine corks.
31 making $130K with only $80K in savings. That’s pathetic.
Unfortunately these experiences won’t cover rent/mortgage payments and other costs of living when your 60 and wanting to retire. Average life expectancy in this country is approx. 82, life ain’t THAT short.
Sorry to say but you are not better or smarter than the group of people you described chaining themselves to a 30 year mortgage.
“Debt is causing more than half of us to lose sleep, borrow cash from family and friends, fight with said family and friends about our debts, and feel ashamed about our finances.”
…Lack of appropriate savings for later in life will cause the same things.
This guy is a huge clown. Question is did TO life publish this knowing he was a huge clown
It’s fine if you want to spend rather than tie your finances up in real estate – it’s your life, do what you want. If you don’t want to plan for your future, that’s on you. But get the F out of your parents house!! You can rent a place with one of your “Core 4” for $625 inclusive each in Toronto. That’s hardly a drop in the bucket for someone making 130k, and you won’t be so awfully co-dependent on your poor mother.
It’s children like this that make me SO happy I had my tubes tied. I can’t imagine living in my golden years and still have some kid mooching off of me for no damn reason other than it’s “easy” for them.
Speaking as a stepmother of someone younger than you that keeps having to return home for a litany of reasons, let me tell you that is unbelievably unfair to your parents. Be responsible for yourself.
Bruh .. renting for life… you’ll be forced to move for various reasons so many times over the course of the next 50+ years. Good luck with that
I think you mistake hipster for yuppie. Despite this joker not owning a thing, he’s a yuppie through and through.
Hipsters don’t go to King West and do bottle service…he’s a total bro. I’m surprised women give him a chance but I guess he’s got the spending money. I enjoy experiences over things too but he sounds like a bit of a jackass who drinks too much and takes advantage of his family. My idea of travel is immersing myself in the culture, not hitting the most expensive hotels.
Due credit to the subject of this article on achieving career success at a young age. However the premise of this article is completely disingenuous. The true reason he is able to enjoy the extravagant lifestyle that he does is because he has no living expenses, not because he has foregone home ownership. Living off of one’s parents forever while treating every penny of their own income as discretionary simply isn’t considered an option or an achievement for most people.
There’s some validity to having life experiences rather than strangling yourself with a huge mortgage, but this guy just pissing money away on the stupidest stuff while living at home with his parents is ridiculous. What a poser I’d feel like throwing money around at bars while leeching off my parents. He vastly overestimates how high his income is for a big city like Toronto as well.
TO life published this knowing it would elicit a lot of reaction and therefore a lot of comments, clicks, shares and traffic.
Ya I paused when I wrote hipster. But the hat and glasses on the guy in the picture…
well, that was exhausting. some “failure to launch” wanker’s brag list presented as a “lifestyle”. it’s okay to do your own thing without pushing it onto other people or writing a “think”piece about it that’s so unaware it doesn’t even mention the writer’s privilege once
and everyone knows macallan is for too-rich idiots who don’t know anything about scotch.
This is what trying too hard looks like!
Wow.
I don’t know if I am more disappointed in this individual who thinks his life is something to brag about, in Toronto Life for publishing this crap or in society in general.
After forcing my way through reading this article (only because my friend bullied me into reading it so she’d have someone to complain to about it), I do find my decision to cancel my long time subscription to Toronto Life reinforced. At least that is a positive. I’m not missing much I see, there isn’t a empty hole left from not knowing about some famous person’s fav leather satchel brand they just can’t live without.
Oh, I thought of someone else specifically that disappoints me in this situation… the editor of the story who could not get this guy to a point. Was the point to leave me with this pukey taste in my mouth? Was the point to list expensive brand names in all major consumer good categories? Was the point to throw subtle support behind bringing back cock fighting? Oh, perhaps it was that one sentence at the end about not choosing to buy overpriced real estate in Toronto right now. Still confused as to how the other 99.999% of the article had anything to do with that.
Shame Toronto Life… shame.
Bingo.
This article is satire right? So the metric for determining fulfillment in life is how many boxes you’ve been able to check off? Riiiiiight.
Worst. If you want to rent and just have experiences, I have no problem with that. It’s your life, live it! But the name and $$$ dropping? Gross.
This guy has so much opportunity to do something meaningful, and instead is more concerned with how much he spent on how much wine he drank.
Hipsters are more likely to drink Pabst Blue Ribbon in the park and build their bicycles out of recycled bamboo frames. Glasses or no glasses, this guy isn’t a hipster. And he’s definitely not hip.
If my parents had it their way I’d be living with them up until their death or until I got married. They wanted us to stay at home and save our money to buy rather than waste it on rent. I would have still had my freedom. I chose to move out at 22 instead, much to their dismay. I think it’s a cultural thing more than anything. I’m 1st generation Cdn of Greek origin. I know many Greek parents don’t want their kids out unless they are getting married. Many middle easterners, Indians, Asians have the same values when it comes to their kids living with them. It’s just not the same mindset as most North Americans and what we’re accustomed to here. If this goofball wants to waste his money like that, fine, but my only beef is that they should be pitching in financially at home.
Vomitous.
Wow. The point about renting and not buying in this current market is valid, but it’s all negated by the fact that this guy is a total douche, makes $130k a year but only has $80k in savings, and lives in his parents basement. There is nothing “wrong” with renting to be mobile and have more disposable income, but dude…get the heck out of your parent’s basement & plan further than next weekend.
The follow-up article may be based on his life in Sunnyvale Trailer Park and the new ‘Core 4’
You can’t buy bottles with Canadian Tire dollars!
This is either fake as fuck or this guy is a living cliche *cringes*
so what happens to this guy (and his brother) when his parents embrace his life philosophy and decide ‘to savour every moment’ and quit doing their laundry and cooking, and kick them out on their own where they should be…?
Yes, this guy is the perfect stereotype of King West. Brodudes who live in the suburbs with their parents.
$100+ on scotch?? Personally, I prefer to use my $100 bills for toilet paper. Charmin? That shits for peasants.
This guy is not cool. First of all he has a suburban mindset. He may party downtown, but he is definitely from the burbs. He’s a pharmacist? Don’t get your drugs from his store. He is probably hung over and dreaming of his next big adventure where he acts like a poorer version of Donald Trump on acid. I have two sons a few years older than this dude. One is a successful chef at a downtown restaurant, The Gabardine, and he works very hard. The other is a woodworker who makes amazing stuff and is a brilliant artist as well. He also works hard. Both are in long term relationships, both rent in the west end – Dufferin/Dundas area. I am very proud of them. This guy, who doesn’t even pay rent to his parents, is a joke. My sons appreciate good food and wine (obviously) but this guy is just immature and selfish beyond belief. His parents should give him the boot and enjoy their lives not being saddled with a user like him. His mom does his laundry and cooks? My kids where doing their own laundry and cooking since they were pre-teens. He can’t bring ‘girls’ home for sex because his parents don’t approve. Guess he doesn’t get laid much. Not that any woman of substance would want to be with this guy, except for an expensive dinner, and then she probably gets her friend to text her with a fake emergency so she doesn’t have to listen to his bragging anymore.
This guy is actually really cool. I live downtown and I idolize him.
With Right to Die legislation in place…he can!
Barfaloticus
Yes and you failed.
I can appreciate not wanting to pay through the nose for a shoebox condo as much as the next renter (I am one, myself) but this guy comes off a lazy and selfish. He can trot off on all these fabulous experiences because he’s off-setting the not-so-fun costs like housing, food, utilities, internet, cable, etc. (things the rest of us normal poors have to pay for ourselves) onto his parents. They even cook and clean for him and it’s really pathetic that he doesn’t seem to consider that they might like to enjoy their golden years (perhaps even have their own “experiences”) without having to care for their grown son’s odyssey of self-indulgence. Sounds like he doesn’t even consider pitching in around the house in any capacity which is just rude and entitled on his part.
Exactly! Years from now what will this man child be like? I cringe for his future wife and children.
While I am all for not buying in Toronto, his flip side expenditures are INSANE. When I think of the possible savings… I want to bash my head into a wall.
This is a spoiled brat.
What happens when his mom and dad die? I guess he inherits the house and his shallow life continues.
Urgh, I just wanna puke.
This guy is like the worst sort of name dropper, except he drops prices (I paid $41,000 for an appetizer!!). It’s kinda gross. Also, living with your parents costs them an average of $8000 more per year. So he and his brother are costing their parents an additional $16,000 while taking themselves on vacations and overpaying for fancy meals. Again, kinda gross.
He saves so much money on milk by suckling from his mother’s teat every day, no wonder he can spend so much money on booze!
And who wants to bet that this bro turns into will ferrell’s character from wedding crashes in less than 10 years?
Let’s take a look at two quotes from this article:
“Toronto real estate market is for suckers”
“I’m a pharmacist, and I work hard—sometimes six days a week. I sleep roughly five hours a night. I make $130,000 a year…”
$130K/yr for 6 days of work per week? Not bad i suppose. BUT not nearly as good as earning $199K last year tax free (this is the amount the average detached house increased in value Y/Y). So tell us again who’s the sucker? And other than some phone pics with you and your buddies and liver disease what else do you have to show for all your hardwork?
This is what happens when you don’t force children to read books.
…. What is this fuckery?
I hope this guy gets eaten by a crocodile while on safari or whatever. The parents should be ashamed, they’ve done a terrible job raising these pigs.
This guy makes me want to carve both my eyeballs out with a fork.
Just as my name implies, I’m a medium spender. I’m 24 and earn $82k a year. I rented for 3 years and just bought a condo.
I’m happy with my balance between spending on experiences vs saving. Everyone probably feels like they could save more – I know I can, but I refuse to give up my habits of eating out, drinking, or traveling. I can splurge occasionally to “feel like a king” while, fortunately, having leeway for a mortgage. Sure, I might have to fly economy instead of first class, but as a business traveler the extra inches and free booze are meaning less and less to me anyways.
I find that I have less fun at swanky hotels while traveling and meet more interesting people at hostels or on cheap cruises. I eat wherever my friends want to eat, travel wherever my friends want to go, and rarely worry about lines or having enough drinks while out. I will admit, however, that entertainment is cheaper as a girl and that my preferences (of hostels over hotels, etc.) might change when I hit my 30’s.
My point in commenting is that it is possible to have both. By being thoughtful about the way I travel (flight deals, credit card points, hotel/air status) and spend (oyster buck a shuck anyone?), I’m experiencing everything I want to whilst still being a home owner. It might mean that I can’t go to Africa AND Europe this year, but as a pharmacist or young professional – how much time can you really take off anyways?
Renting vs buying is a difficult decision and I respect the author’s to continue renting to retain more discretionary income. I chose to buy not to flip the property, but for peace of mind/security, and to live on my own. If the market crashes, it crashes – but I still have my own home to live in.
What I love is that the author thinks he’s better than us. He’s figured it out and he’s beating the system!
Meanwhile he’s so insufferable that he has no girlfriend and all his other friends are growing up.
this reads like “as far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster …”
when i was 31, i knew how to do laundry and cook. also, i had an xbox, ps3, wii, and a pretty kickass pc.
The namedropping is kind of hilarious though…Schwartz’s, Grand Electric, Reds, Cabana, Valdez? Are those supposed to be impressive? I just checked and I could get in to Reds in 15 minutes if I wanted.
Hitting King Street with your Entourage and thinking that’s the pinnacle of life…yikes. He’s got a very suburban attitude.
Low self esteem: Exhibit A. The dude is an empty soul fueled by fleeting fantasy. I feel sorry for him.
With the amount this guy supposedly eats and drinks…he could be dead tomorrow.
I am comforted to know there is an endless supply of utterly vapid,
ridiculous self-indulgent drivel swirling around the bowl waiting to be
chosen for publication in toronto life…
I so very desperately want
to say this is the most ridiculous nonsense i have seen from Toronto
Life, but it would be fibbing.
It’s funny what this guy thinks qualifies as “high-end” booze . . . Grey Goose? Okay, kid.
This is begging to be a feature film, or maybe even an HBO series! What to call it though…
Nontourage?
I’m going to guess this article is fake, or wildly exaggerated. I know pharmacists and there is no way he’s making 130k early in his career. Also, it’d be great if he were rich and could help his parents (who got you there) to pay their mortgage, or donate a chunk to his community. I’m all for experiences and I travel very often, but I keep my ego in check. You gotta give back to your community/parents/friends even if you don’t buy a house in TO.
hahahahahahahahaha — that’s EXACTLY where I stopped, too …
haha exactly! “hipsters” are not rich, generally. Sorry Mark….you’re looking at a dudebro here. Dudebro.
it’s cosssss he’s a dudebro!
So, basically you’re a d bag?
what a dick. get the fuck out of your parent’s house. they hate having you there – or i would if i sired a kid like you.
I wouldn’t want to hang out with the guy for more than 2 minutes, but I don’t understand the hate. Who really cares what he does with his money? He studied and worked to earn it. His parents were classic struggling immigrants. He’s right in a lot of ways… The frenzied obsession with home ownership is ridiculous, for starters. The thing is: one day you’ll be dead, and so it is generally better to spend your life doing what YOU want and not what others want, to spend on experiences not things (cheesy instagram pic alert). Now he is also blind to his own brand of frivolity as well, and also guilty of rubbing his lifestyle in others faces. Makes him rather hypocritical and arrogant. His bragging about experiences sounds a lot like a virgin’s exultations after their first ‘morning after’. You’ve done a McEurotrip, whoopty-freakin’-do. It takes me 4-5 years to make what he does in one, but I dare say that I am still (for example) better travelled than he is.
Got any sisters, paesan? Are they at home getting their laundry done? Buying Hermes bags? Yeah. I thought so.
You are just jealous you don’t live that lifestyle,I hit same bars not a big deal, striaght up haha.
Boringgg.
Makes good money, but still mooching off mom & dad. Man into his 30’s still staying in parents’ house. “Mom cooks his meals & does his laundry”. Millennial man/boy has no shame.
when was the last time this parasite bought his parents an overseas trip, or a bottle of wine, or gee… maybe a housekeeper?! there’s little to be proud of, let alone boastful, in this life of ungrateful indulgence. i would say i’ll feel sorry for him and his ilk when mommy and daddy cark it from overwork and broken hearts, but i would be lieing. rein it in, be nicer (much, much nicer!) to your parents and donate half of what you currently spend on yourself, you’ll find a greater and better sense of satisfaction.
This is the kind of c*nt practically everyone hates.
The best part of this article is that the author is going to read these comments. You can just see his brain trying to reconcile the almost universal disgust at his spendthrift lifestyle made possible by mooching off his parents, with his apparent self image of someone people admire. Although, the whole article comes across as trying too hard to convince people that his choices make sense, so maybe he already knows this.
This is by far the dumbest article I’ve scimmed through.
Back in the late seventies and early eighties (in my early 20’s), I thought nothing of blowing my tip money (waitressing and bartending was lucrative when I was a university student) on fancy dinners out and expensive wines – except then it was places like Fenton’s and Scaramouche (yes it was around back then too), and then I dated a guy for a short time who was a school teacher a few years older than me who still lived at home so he could live a similar lifestyle to this guy. It was not an impressive CV – in fact we referred to guys like that as “momma’s boys”. Most women knew that getting seriously involved with this type of guy would not end well. He would eventually just trade his momma for you and expect the same mothering – ugh! I dumped Mr. Irresponsible Moocher around the same time I realized I did not want to end up with an empty bank account and liver disease. Back then we called it “growing up”. Time this loser does the same. Oh, and while he’s at it, he may want to develop some sort of depth and consider what is really meaningful in life. Hint. HInt. It’s not “things”. Is it just me or did anyone else just find this sad?
Yes, jeangenie, but I bet you’d only order the $80 wine instead of the $200 bottle.
We have a term for young man like him in Japan:parasite single. They have a good job and make good money, but live with parents so they can spend all their disposal income on themselves. Thus the parasite metaphors.
“But I save about $1,500 in rent alone by living at home. My parents don’t accept money from me for expenses, although I occasionally chip in for groceries. ”
ZERO LIVING EXPENSES
MOMMY COOKS HIS MEALS
What a coddled little boy man who loves his shallow existence without a shred of self-awareness.
dude is so gross. I’m the same age and I agree that buying a house in Toronto is a shite idea…but otherwise this is straight up embarrassing. so douchey.
I honestly see no issue with staying at home, especially since he is successful. It’s pretty common outside of North America. But taking the 1500 a month in savings and blowing it on 7 bottles of wine? Monthly? Uhmmm…screw that. And please spare me your “I’d be stuck living paycheque to paycheque” garbage on 130K A BLOODY YEAR. No having 2.5k a month in disposable income after housing expenses are covered is not paycheque to paycheque. You should have toned it down even by a third and have a few grand a month to put into savings. Then you wouldn’t be sitting on 80k perpetually whining about how if you want to do anything more in your career or move out, you’d have to blow all/most of it. Making me sick with this classist entitled bullshit.
Owning that house would have gotten him a huge profit by now with equity. He could retire young. As it is, he’s spending it all on a lifestyle presently beyond his means. When you have to live in your parent’s home to party hard you’re living beyond your means. Sadly, it’s on his parent’s back. I hope he pays decent room and board.
This was longest the version of stating, “I secretly feel inadequate” that I’ve ever read. Most of us don’t care about how much money you have, and even still some of us still want to know more about who it is you are inside and what drives you to feel the way you feel. With all your privileges, what about the pressures and expectations of your immigrant parents? How do you navigate the world having to have a romantic partner stay in the basement at 31 when you don’t get a hotel? Why does your brother still live at home as well? Can you marry outside of your religion/culture and what’s involved in that? For what reasons (other than what your parents never had) do you feel spending money equates to a good quality life?
If you’re gonna take up our time and make us read an article, write a fucking article versus listing your food and travel resume.
Such intolerance on this thread. Has no one considered that this poor schmuck works long hours mixing dangerous, toxic and unbalanced pharmaceuticals? He likely breathes in enough of this crud to put him in the Hunter S. Thompson Hall of Flameouts before he turns 35.
Give brodude a break. Not cool to riff on bra’s brain damage.
COOL BRO, YOU ARE SO COOL AND RELATABLE
This is a terribly written article. I read it half way through and realized this guy isn’t focused on living life to the fullest: it is to judge others for their life choices and to destroy his body as often as he can by drinking, eating out all the time and acting like a fool. Why would a magazine such as Toronto Life allow such a poorly written piece to be published? Are they out of people who want to contribute? Did he get paid to write this rubbish? I live a lifestyle where I travel often and eat well etc but this dude is getting a free ride off his parents (pathetic), telling us he is super successful (I bet he pops some of the pills he distributes) and trying to convince us that his lifestyle (which will lead to early aging and liver disease) is the way to go. Give us a break buddy! and why isn’t his name published? oh …cuz he knows he is pathetic
he isn’t even making that much money… he is abusing his parents and then using the $$ he makes to spend it on stupidity
It’s true. :( I’m frugal like that.
Im 26, I own a condo in the heart of downtown Toronto, and I’ve spent the last 6 months travelling the globe. You can do both, its possible. I don’t seem to understand this guy’s point that getting a mortgage suddenly means you are trapped into an ordinary life. At the very least the guy should move out of his parents place and rent, how pathetic of him to live at home at 31.
Homeboy isn’t living the life, he’s renting it. One of his hallmark moments is RENTING a nice car? LOL.
What a poser.
Enjoy throwing all that money down a hole and accumulating 0 wealth. 100K USD isn’t even that much money but there comes a point in MOST intelligent quasi wealthy people where their annual salary is less important than their net worth.
SO enjoy laughing at your friends now, then sulk when they refi their house to 1/2 the payment and have half a million in equity in 10 years and you’re living paycheck to paycheck.
re: the bro’s friends who rent and write it off as a tax expense….I don’t understand, how do you that? Is that legal?
I don’t make close to $130K and that’s a great income for Toronto (look at the stats)…but I’ve afforded my own home and also have “fun money” to travel as well as save.
You get outta here with your sound financial logic. I’ve got expensive scotch and bar receipts to Instagram!
WTF is this bullshit … I should fight you just because you’re a dick head
Looks like we found one of the other “Core 4” bros
What makes this sad to me is it doesn’t sound like these guys get girls, specifically the author anyway
I don’t really post much here but since I am sure this guy bragged to his friends on Facebook etc. about this article featuring here and did not show his face or name it is obvious he has self esteem issues.
FIrstly, you should be ashamed of yourself for not helping your immigrant parents. Being the son of immigrant parents myself, I am sure they struggled most of their lives like all immigrant parents and of course they will not kick you out because they came to Canada for a better life for you and your brother. The fact that you are not spending at least some of your income to pay for the lease of a better car for your parents or pay off their mortgage shows me your character.
Success is not just about throwing money in the best of clubs and partying it up. It is about SHARING and taking care of those you love first and foremost. Just imagine that 17,000 you spent on the euro tour had you spent it getting something nice for your parents or taking them with you – how proud they would have been of you and how happy you would have been for years, not just days.
Secondly, you do not have a single girl to show for after all this spending in clubs or a quality girl for that matter. I know your types, Toronto is filled with you, the kind of guys who are on Cabana or any night club on a Friday night and throwing money on buying girls drinks and bottle services etc and in the end not getting anything in return. So in frustration you make yourself believe that you had a good time because you already spend $600 on bottle service for 2 hours and got the red carpet treatment for 15 minutes. There is a reason most good guys and quality girls stopped going to the big clubs in cities like Toronto because of guys like you who feel throwing money gets things handed to you.
Finally, if you really are so smart in thinking living with your parents is saving you about $2,000 a month minimum, then you should be using that money to get a head start on your pharmacy partnership or career advancement. That is real success. You are not 21 years old anymore, you will turn 40 before you know it and at that time if you have no savings to show for and your money will be the ONLY thing girls will care for after your youth has fleeted, you will truly understand what you missed.
And you are not even a millionaire and with the mindset you have you probably won’t be one because spending money and throwing it is fine and great but doing so to brag shows me that you want to justify to yourself that you are having fun when probably you aren’t. Someone who truly has fun and success, and I know many millionaires personally, does not have to brag about the caviar he ate last tuesday but rather gives the VIBE of abundance and happiness. They radiate it through their acts, not words.
Anyway wish you good luck but as a fellow immigrant son of similar conservative origins as yours, I am ashamed of people like you who do not provide the same experiences to their parents who deserve it for all the hardwork they put in for you.
Awww…the poor guy I’m sure is hoping he will inherit his parents house when they sign out.
Guessing he doesn’t have a car either. Essentially cash and pity from his parents and girls.
This guy reminds me of the two characters from the ‘Night at the Roxbury’.
I wonder if this crowd has a serious alcohol and cocaine addiction?
Try to show a modicum of adult behaviour by renting your own apartment.
i never post but this such a sad article not to speak out to its subjects hypocrisy. if his parents hadn’t done the one thing he constantly rails against he would no be able to perpetuate his lifestyle. i am one for living and experiencing life. i have had many fortunate circumstances including profiting off of home ownership. it just seems that the strategy he pursues is doomed to fail and littered with shortcomings and loneliness. it is hard to buy oneself out of insecurities. if you are spending this much on a regular basis i hope you use that Canadian Tire credit card to use your points to give your parents things for around the house! Peter Pan may never get old but he sure gets tired.
After reading the article, I’m not even remotely interested in knowing more about this guy or what makes him tick. I don’t really think there’s any further depth to his character to what’s shown here. Just an another shallow narcissist product of consumer culture.
I’m not saying this in a mean way: but if you are into experiences – and I am too: living on your own is right up there. it isn’t something to be missed.
This is invalid! The only reason this guy can pursue this lifestyle is because he lives with his parents. He has no living expenses… no rent, no utilities, no grocery bills. It has nothing to do with owning a house or not. Even if he rented he wouldn’t be able to do the things he does. Good for him for living the way he pleases and enjoys his life but this isn’t realistic for a lot of us. We cant all live at home till we are 30. So what is his real achievement that he can party and mooch of his parents??? This whole article is invalid and outlines and unrealistic lifestyle for many of us
You said: “You can just see his brain trying to reconcile the almost universal disgust at his spendthrift lifestyle made possible by mooching off his parents”
I say: Are you kidding? He’s going to read the comments and say awww you’re just jealous.
Home business? You can never write off a residential home in it’s entirety, just part of it.
The only thing I’d say is to use the rule of 100.
$200,000 house = $2000 in rent = great deal as an investment.
$675,000 house = $6750 in rent? Can he get that? If not, it will be an investment, but not a GREAT deal.
Rental income covering 90% of expenses, means you have to shell out 10% of the rest, consider that your mortgage is also interest going to the bank, set aside 2% -3% for maintenance, machine repairs, (yes, even tenants deserve to have their dwellings maintained), taxes….
Could just stick it in index funds and wait as well. Nothing wrong with that.
Actual income = $86,666.67
$130,000 / 3000 hours a year (60-hour work weeks, 2 weeks vacation) = $43.33/hour
$43.33 /hour x 2000 hours a year (40-hour work week, 2 weeks vacation) = $86,666.67
Also it is only that he doesn’t pay rent to his parents that he gets supplemented an extra $18,000 a year in income not to mention household expenses that they must also cover.
How flashy and exciting!!! He ordered FIVE desserts?! His brother drank FIVE $20 cocktails?!?!?! That’s like ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS. What a lavish and exciting life. You know someone has money when they take a picture of the tab to post on instagram.
At least he found three other delusional idiots to hang out with so he’s not lonely on top of being an obnoxious broke douchebag.
I make about the same, and in the twelve years since I bought my house, I have doubled my money. Do let us know when you grow up, dear boy.
The author sounds like a real dick.
God bless mindless materialistic people! He also forgot the hooker and blow budget…oh wait, he’s a pharmacist…ok…hookers…
…like anyone’s palate can discern the difference….
Or from Step Brothers…
This is so pathetic. His parents must be so embarrassed.
Wow what a douche… Enjoy bragging about your fancy scotch I will enjoy sunning myself in my backyard with the birds chirping and my wife at my side.
lert see famale version of tony
This is why giving EVERY kid a trophy just for joining a soccer team is a HORRIBLE idea. They grow up to be self absorbed, naive, delusional morons like this guy.
All I can say is wow! Kudos to him for living his life on his terms. The only problem is his delusion that he can continue doing this indefinitely. He obviously does not understand that if he is not paying off his own house, he would be paying off his landlords house instead if and when he decides to move out on his own and rent a place. That said, he does have some very good options to maintaining and even bettering his already extravagant lifestyle. All it would take is for him to become a landlord. He can buy great cash flow positive properties in areas within commuting distance of Toronto for less than the cost of a 1 bedroom Toronto condo. He would then be able to participate in the Toronto real estate market indirectly while at the same time actually having his tenants pay for all his property expenses and leave him with a few hundred dollars to boot each and every month. With this money he can then subsidize his Toronto lifestyle while he rents a condo in the city that will cost his landlord more money to carry than what he will be paying in rent. And once his tenants finish paying off his own property years later, his cash flow will increase substantially more once the mortgage on his property is paid off, thereby leaving him with a cash cow that can easily be used to fund his retirement. So it really is true – he can have his cake and eat it too!
This man has it figured out…
ALBANY IS NOT A REAL SCHOOL
Is the basement at least finished?
I get renting instead of buying in this housing market but dude, you’re 31 and make great money. Get your own place and stop letting your mom do your laundry. That is pathetic. Also maybe you’re still single because girls don’t want to date a guy who’s 31 and still lives in his parent’s basement with hockey posters on the wall like when he was a little boy.
If you don’t contribute to the household by giving money to your parents or buying groceries and fixing things in tne home or paying for upgrades, you’re a leach. It doesn’t matter how much money you earn. So you go and spend a few thousand dollars on a ski weekend with your friends. Do you give a few thousand dollars to your parents so they can have a surprise vacation? What a poor person you are.
Yeah this guy could probably buy a house if he wanted, but at $130,000. a year it wouldn’t get him that much. Oh and he would actually have to pay for other things, like doing his own laundry and making meals. etc. etc. etc. So hey Mr. Pharmacist welcome to the heart of Scarborough.
follow me on insta! https://www.instagram.com/tonythepharmacist/?hl=en
Agreed, what a loser. 31 and stays with mommy and daddy, but doesn’t have to you know… he can take his blanket and move out anytime he wants.
This guy is 100% Brampton Battalion. Why is this even a story?
Hmmm…. Good idea! Maybe I should move back in with my parents. Oh no, wait. I can’t, because I actually care about my parents and their feelings. Nuts.
my parents were able to get a house with a combined income of under 50k, albeit that was when property was half the price.
this guy sounds like a bunch of fun. sir if youre reading this lets party
He’s reckless. It wouldn’t be so bad if he was at least honest and told us that 3/4 of his earnings is spent on escorts and hookers. That’s at least understandable.
He makes it sound like his life choices are harmless, but what about his parents? Flash forward x years. Will he and his brother be helping them through their last few years, with the $8000/month rent they will be paying at the private retirement residence because they are still on the waiting list for govt Long Term Care after two years? Maybe they could have paid that bill themselves, if they werent supporting two adult sons. Or will the folks be living a much more frugal life, with meals-on-wheels and CCAC coming in to their home? Sure, these services provide the necessities they need to live on, but if the son feels he is slumming with $30 restaurant meals, then using the excuse that his folks have a different mindset, and prefer spending their money on the kids than securing their own future, sounds more like selfish justification.
N
Wow this guy is such a winner. Congratulations on being 31, spending money in a completely wasteful and frivolous manner, and living off your parents entirely. Maybe it’s time to grow up. And if you have all this ‘extra’ cash on hand I hope you’re donating some of it to charity
MISSION FAILED!!! This is a perfect example of bad parenting. The object was to raise children that are independent and contributors to society. The best thing the parents can do now is ensure their wills decree their assets go to a charity so their hard earned life savings don’t fund their leaching children’s boos addiction. Also, he’s an embarrassment to the Pharmacist profession.
I don’t get all the hatorade here. Here’s how I see it:
1) It’s his money–he can spend it as he wishes
2) It’s his parents’ money–if they want to, they can kick him and his brother out of the house, but they didn’t. Not because they can’t, but because they don’t want to.
3) Why the hell should he spend his money on ‘better things’ like charities/friends/(other) family? People should just get off their butts and help themselves.
4) $130k is good but not great: Lots of people make that much and much, much more. Also, keep in mind that he works for 60 hours per week. That translates to 2/3 of what he makes for a normal 40 hour workweek. But he’s still making in the top 5% or so given the rest of society.
You’re all such a sorry bunch of haters.
I’ll admit: I would not date someone like Tony NOT because he’s ‘d*ouchey’ or stupid, it would be because he has a drastically different lifestyle than me. But, we live in a capitalistic society so, who are you folks to tell other people what they should or shouldn’t do with their lives and hard-earned money?
Additionally: people of different cultures rear children differently, and it’s normal for many cultures to have children living at home until marriage or even until afterwards as a blended family. It’s normal for many in my South Asian culture. And here’s the flip side, we don’t shove our parents, who took care of us our whole lives into some depressing retirement home.
meh. I couldn’t read to the end, it got a little dull. But one of the nights that made the “bragging cut” came to $200 per person. That’s barely a good lunch. He also seems to think $200 is a good bottle of wine …..
.
but who cares … if he’s enjoying himself, and convinced he knows better than anyone else, let him be. He’ll either be happy or sad later (or a bit of both), but then again who isn’t?
.
And if his type really bothers you, simply walk away when you encounter them. It’s not that difficult.
forward to your local cra office …. they’re looking for money everywhere these days
Seems to be the trend lately to refuse to grow up. It’s going to catch up with these man/woman-children eventually. Wait until they realize their life sucks and most of their friends have moved on with life.
I doubt much of this article is true. $130k, even with living expenses covered, wouldn’t support this kind of lifestyle once income taxes are paid out.
And 17 days in Asia for $7k? I don’t think so. I just did two weeks in Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok flying economy, staying at higher-end chain hotels (not Raffles, etc) and eating reasonably well but not crazily, and spent nearly $10,000 (US dollars too, not Canadian play money).
As for the introductory anecdote in which these guys failed to score in Montreal, I’m not surprised. Eating like that means this guy is probably way overweight and, most likely, unattractive. A homeless guy can score in Montreal.
This douche had me going until he admitted he still lives in his childhood bed and has his mommy doing this laundry. If you’ve worked hard to earn that degree or put in the time to move up the ranks and make that coin, hats off. Want to spend that hard-earned cash? It’s yours to spend. However if you’re a man-child and you’re still with mommy and daddy, you need to man-up and move out.
So enjoy forking out your hard-earned cash to paying for those extravagant meals. Unlike you, at the end of the day, those who have a house will have something to show for unlike you.
Millennial turds like these make me want to hurl.
Living paycheque to paycheque with no responsibilities and a 6 figure salary? This mismanagement of money will definitely catch up. It is certainly not a lifestyle I envy. It is the equivalent of a story on people who love to go on drug binges and try to justify it as “expanding their minds”. In the real world it is both irresponsible and dangerous. To bring this in as a generational debate is just bad journalism. Most people in this age range do not live like this. My husband and I (early 30s) are completely financially independent, live below our means, and use much of our surplus income to pay off our student loans. Home ownership is not a top priority, but we save at least 10 percent of our paycheque for our “future financial freedom fund”. I have been saving for three years for a trip to Italy — our first vacation since our honeymoon seven years ago. We will be staying in an Air B&B.
I get pretty fascinated by people I can’t relate to. I like to know why and how they work.
Heck, I’ll make a show of support for Tony. If you boil down his main point to: “There’s no reason to own a home, ever.”, he’s right. A lot of very rich people understand that as an investment, a house is for suckers. And that’s why they rent houses all over the world, and keep their money in other asset classes.
We’ve come to believe in home ownership because for the vast majority of middle-class workers, mortgage-backed real estate is the only asset class we can ever invest in (Not that debt-leveraging a house should really be treated as a valid investment strategy, but we do).
We’ve also come to believe that you’re supposed to get out of the family home and start your own, quickly. Why? Is he defending the family lineage? So what if he’s thirty-one and lives at home? It’s a smarter financial strategy than taking on debt he has no need for.
This lifestyle may very well mean he’ll wind up lonely, as his friends drift off into their expected roles of middle management and parenthood. That’s too bad, but it’s not really anyone else’s problem, and from a strictly financial standpoint, it’s cheaper.
I think a lot of the griping comes from that place in your brain that asks “Why didn’t I think of that?”
You guys are so “cool”!!! OMG living at home with mommy and daddy? Like an adult dream come true.
Not to mention, nothing you guys do that was mentioned in this article is all that spectacular, really. You think you guys are ballin’ out but really, this is just “average”. Real ballers will laugh in your face for calling these so-called “experiences”. Come on guys.
And all these ordinary meals/trips at the expense of not owning a house. Nice try at making yourself feel better. I know plenty of people, myself included, that have your so called “experiences” and we don’t feel anything about it. If we Oh yeah, my wife and I own a nice 4 bedroom house with 2-car garage in Toronto and have rental condos as well, probably to some of your peers who are equally smart with their money. Good job.
Keep spending dude! Our economy needs a healthy % of idiots like you! Oh and have fun working until you’re 90, unless you are getting a big inheritance in which case congratulations to your parents for working hard and SACRIFICING… Before they die though, it would be nice if you did something great for them, because if they knew they sacrificed so that you could live like a douchebag celebrity and not feel the need to save, then maybe they would have lived it up a little better themselves or taken another vacation.
Oh gawd, what a narcissistic fuck.
Nope…. you’re an obnoxious, materialist, entitled brat – the ONLY reason you live the way you do is because your parents are taking care of you. You could at least rent your own damn apartment. And you don’t see how all the “fancy” things you are spending your money on are more wasteful, distasteful and fleeting than a simple home and furniture? Soon you will tire of your vapid ways. You aren’t really enriching your life, you’re just partying. Which is fine, I guess. But it’s gross to hear you brag about it. Have some REAL experiences that aren’t so materialistic and wasteful. Stop being gross. Get your own place and stop being a burden on your parents. You can have your own place and be a responsible adult and still travel and have amazing experiences, you foolish, foolish child.
Exactly!
Nailed it. What he’s doing is more shallow and materialistic than being responsible, renting or owning your own place, and gasp, you can still travel! And do it in a more enriching way than bro-partying.
He chose to share his obnoxious story on the internet, probably hoping for praise and more fodder for his ego. Instead, he’s getting what he deserves – scorn. I actually think people are being pretty respectful and thoughtful in their criticisms of him. His story deserves to be criticized, as you said, it’s frivolous and hypocritical.
Not once has he mentioned a single thing he has done for his parents?
Quelle douche magnifique!
yeah, that’s exactly the word that came to my mind as well. Spending a day drinking at Cabana Pool Bar, bottle service with your entourage… dudebro all the way.
Yeah, you basically shot your credibility to shreds when you resorted to using a racial slur to make your point… even if you drop the “-er” at the end. The writer is of Middle Eastern ancestry and no one else’s race is mentioned in the article. How about we leave black people out of this mess, since they hold no responsibility for this guy’s spendthrift ways.
I’d put the blame on Toronto Life for producing clickbait, not him for to accept writing this tosh. He is full of himself, but he does make some very valid points. On my social media streams, those who complained about him did so to say what a privileged short-sighted fool he is.
Has anyone had the heart to tell him about the concept of “rent” and how that enables one to be “adult” and “independent” and not mooching off one’s parents.
Heaven forbid that mom and dad ever get old and need his help. He’ll be a hopeless wreck.
Sounds fattening.
He still lives with his mom and dad. Gag me with a spoon–he’s a douche-bro.
Man, are you people gullible. This pure fiction.
This guy is an absolute jerk and I can’t believe that Toronto Life would give him a venue for his absurdity and privilege. Disgraceful.
Not even just having a home to live in. Read carefully, he couldn’t get in to pharmacy school in Canada, so he had to go to the States. Meaning mommy and daddy paid for his ass to be there. This man is on the verge of a lonely life as he hasn’t learned sacrifice. No matter what seemingly ‘amazing’ thing that happens in my life and career as a ‘millennial’ nothing compares to my family, friends, partner and puppy. It’s a shame he’ll never know that.
Exactly! Show me the man who can find happiness in simplicity and I’ll consider him a champ. This guy is a fearful loser. ?
Toronto Life has gone full troll on us.
Read this back on the day it went live, and listened to some of the short-lived “outrage” it provided to local radio phone-in shows, but honestly I only have ONE problem with anything this guy is doing (well, in addition to the overall douche-chills he gives off), and that’s his living with his parents at 31 years old.
I realize it’s not uncommon behaviour nowadays, but the majority of millennials who do it aren’t making his level of income and jetting around the world while their parents clean their sheets and feed them, and they probably view it as temporary (or at least they should). Beyond a setback in life or career, a delayed start getting into the working world for health or other reasons, or suffering the humility of being born to one of the backwards cultures that all but demands children live at home until marriage or — ugh! — arranged marriage (regardless of whether they’re fit for it or even want it), there is NO excuse not to be living on your own by the time you’re 31.
No matter how awesome “Tony’s” life is (TL claims that’s his real first name, but I strongly suspect it’s not the name he uses around friends, family and pharmacy customers, just so people won’t be able to find him so easily via pharmicist’s registries and the like), he will ONLY be a pathetic moocher — and an fiscally UNNECESSARY one at that — until he grows up and learns to pay for his own way entirely on his own dime.
The saddest part of his whole story is that he appears to have no idea how much it actually costs to rent a decent one- or two-bedroom apartment in this city. Compared to home ownership and all of its associated drains on both one’s wallet, time and sanity, it’s a absolute bargain. He’s already in North York, so it’s not like he’s living right down in the core where the “action” supposedly is. One- to two-bedroom apartments in older but well-built and well-maintained apartment towers (as opposed to someone’s dingy basement conversion or someone’s insanely overpriced condo rental) in perfectly decent areas of North York (where I live) cost between $1000 and $1500 a month, maybe a bit more depending on other quality factors,, utilities included and NO nauseating and unpredictable condo fees. For someone making $130,000 a year, that’s a fucking PITTANCE to have a decent place to call home and people on-site to fix any problems that arise while you jet around the world sipping ancient scotch and urinating on poor people. If that’s your thing.
I’m technically a Gen-X-er — proof that this isn’t just about millennials — but the smartest thing I ever did when I moved to Toronto a decade ago (a bit later in life, admittedly) was to rent a decent, clean apartment in a building near the 401/404 interchange (and also on the subway, of course) and never so much as entertain the thought of buying a house full of someone else’s unreported or undiscovered hand-me-down problems. Sure, I might have been able flip that house by now and move into an even nicer one, but I DON’T want to be tied down, I DON’T want a two hour commute, I DON’T want to have a house full of STUFF that I’ll only have to get rid of later in life, and I DON’T want to LIVE FOR A HOUSE, which is exactly what most millennial homeowners are doing now whether they can admit or not.
Like this guy — momma’s boy though he is — I want to enjoy the things I enjoy, buy the things and visit the places I enjoy, invest my remaining money wisely, and come and go as I please — and for as long as I please — without worrying about something as vulnerable as a house or its upkeep while I’m away. I’ll admit my income isn’t as high as “Tony’s” allegedly is, but jet-setting was never my thing anyway. As it stands, I still enjoy the comparatively stress-free lifestyle and freedoms I always have — with the added ability to save and invest my money — that many housebound colleagues can no longer experience as they defer enjoying life while shoveling money into every new house problem that arises.
So while “Tony” is the textbook definition of a scumbag for taking advantage of his evidently love-blind parents, he’s actually onto something in other ways.
Here’s the thing: “Tony” doesn’t want to own a home, and he’s absolutely right in that regard. BUT, renting a decent apartment in Toronto — in a proper tower and not someone’s grungy basement or overpriced condo — would barely impact his bottom line based on his stated income, and he’d at least have a place of his own without mommy and daddy wiping his ass for him. Everything else he does with his money is perfectly fine (even if he comes off as a total douche for bragging about it), but living with his parents at 31, when he doesn’t need to, is just pathetic. Being a lifelong renter has MASSIVE advantages, even moreso for someone in his income bracket.
There’s only ONE thing wrong with anything this guy is doing (besides his laughable bragging about it all), and that’s his living at home at 31. There’s nothing wrong with jet-setting and NOT wanting to own a home, and in this city it’s a wise decision for people who don’t want to be tied down, ever. However, since he is not the homeowner type, and possibly not even the marrying kind (nothing wrong with that, either), “Tony” could easily afford a decent apartment (in a decent building, not someone’s basement or overpriced condo rental) and not have to give up much of his lifestyle at all. And he’d shake the stigma of being a pathetic, 31-year-old mamma’s boy almost immediately.
I seriously doubt he’ll ever have “no savings” With that level of income, which will only rise if he’s telling the truth about it and his profession, he could START saving in his 40’s, once all his friends have presumably fallen into the home ownership or marriage trap, and still enjoy a lively retirement. And it’s not like pharmacists have such physically stressful jobs that they can’t work past the age of 55. He’s a complete douche, admittedly, but he’s not entirely doomed unless he lives with mommy and daddy forever.
Nailed it. ;)
“I rarely see them now; once they’re ensconced in their new house, I wonder if I’ll ever see them again.”
You’re an asshole who mooches off your parents and treats them like crap. The only people who want to see you are going to be other assholes, especially as y’all move further into your 30s and your friends who actually mature will no longer put up with your BS out of some misguided loyalty from having known you in college.
“Tony’ wouldn’t seem nearly as douchey or stupid if he’d simply RENT an apartment. It’s obvious he doesn’t want a home — and who can blame him? — or possibly even marriage, but there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the anything else he does EXCEPT for living with his indulgent parents. In essences, I agree with nearly everything you said, but it’s clear he doesn’t need to live at home from a fiscal standpoint when a simple “home base” apartment wouldn’t cost more than a FRACTION of his current income and would remove the stigma of being a momma’s boy almost immediately. And whether his remaining in the nest is a cultural thing or not, HE certainly doesn’t seem like he’s doing it for that reason at all.
The options for parents like yours are not just the either/or scenarios of live with your kids until you die OR move into a retirement home. There are plentiful services available nowadays that help seniors (even widowed ones) stay in their homes as long as humanly possible, and any child that didn’t at least make regular visits to their parents’ home for a little visitation and to do a few helpful chores is a complete ass. But sadly, cultural expectations usually trump common sense in these communities, often to the detriment of a senior’s true health and well-being.
Plenty of hookers! Oh, I’m sorry … “dates” he takes to hotels or has to mooch off of THEM by going to their house.
I can’t even with a “man” who can’t bring his lady back to his home/apartment … what a joke.
Alright, but if his parents want to kick him out, they would’ve. Who are you to judge THEIR actions? It’s not as if Tony and his brother are putting a gun to their heads.
At the end of the day, it’s his parents’ money, and his. Not yours. And certainly not the dumb posters’ on this thread who believe that they’re entitled to have a say in how OTHER, more affluent people should spend their money.
I guarantee this guy looks like Jonah Hill in “40-Year-Old Virgin.” All he and his Core 4 do is eat. And drink. A ton. One side of the menu? That’s 10,000 calories just for the appetizers. What a fucktard. And he wonders why he doesn’t get lucky with girls. Get a life, you moron. Read a book. Take a walk in the woods. But he won’t. He’s too self-absorbed to comprehend that he has no soul. And too stupid to realize what’s missing.
I feel sorry for your parents.
I on the other hand agree with the core4+1. Sure culture is not defined by merely staying at posh hotels and drinking the most expensive wine but I gotta admit I always wanted to have that carefree attitude. You see his path is the one I did not take and I’m kind of jealous of him now. I got my Bachelor’s degree and went on to have a career, got married and yep we bought that house we can call home. I was over the moon happy to finally be securing our piece of real estate. I am GenX and I was always taught that this is the natural order of things. I am truly questioning that now even if we are mortgage-free and have fully paid the house. The kids are bigger and we want to travel more so lately I have been thinking that having a house is kind of a burden (airbnb and house sitters can only solve so much) and the cost, wow, the cost of updates, upgrades and maintaining a house. What the heck were we thinking! I should have listened to Napoleon Hill when he said that it is not an investment if you live and spend on it. I hope I read this article a long time ago. I was smiling the whole time I was reading this. It’s as if you’re living the life I truly want but did not know it yet. While living with parents is not my thing, it is only now I realized that renting – and consequently having fun is more appealing :) although we may have varying definitions of fun I suppose. A very welcome alternative than being hinged. So, I hope to sell my 2storey house soon, rent and just be … FREE!! :D So I feel you! What’s more, my spouse agrees too!
Congratulations on achieving the 100K club at the age of 31 and thank you for contributing to the society through taxes as well as spending to keep the economic market alive. However, I too am immigrant and have lived through the tough Canadian life and can confidently say that it’s probably about time that you set your parents free from the mental agony of supporting you so that they can also be little bit free from having to take care of you. Grow up and stand on your own two feet. Whether you choose to invest to build your equity vs. experience is your choice, but not at the expense of mooching off of your hard working parents…….child.
Lol “only 81” thousand?? Wish I had that saved.
There is one very important thing that I took away from this article:
17 days of living large in Southeast Asia only costs seven thousand dollars! That’s incredible!!!
PS you’re all bein’ haters. Guy made a choice and is sticking to it. Sure he got lucky by having parents in Toronto and a rent-free place to stay, but that’s not his fault. Stop being so bitter.
It’s sad reading the article. No problems in understanding living life after working hard. But no reason, to have his parents continue their grind to do his laundry, etc. And him not pay rent/food.
This sounds creepingly like someone I knew…an immigrant Armenian parent who had a son in pharmacy.. both parents university educated and good people.
I feel saddest for the parents..who clearly will need their son’s care and money in the later years.
I don’t care about what this man-child is doing with his life. Good for him I guess.What I care about is that Toronto Life published his diary entry. How embarrassing for the people on your staff who have a semblance of journalistic professionalism. The cover story too?…Get your sh*the together. This city has more interesting stories to be discussed than a guy who lives in his parent’s basement to eat a $50 burger. The editorial meeting where this was approved may actually be the more compelling story.
Dude get your stuff together and get the heck out into your own place. You are just taking advantage of your parents!!! Be a man! Be an adult!
Smart kid. Figure out what you want to do with your life, then do it. Many of us will end up back our parents basement anyway after 2.5 kids and a nasty divorce.
Big spender, I won’t knock you at all. Everyone should watch the movie “Me, before you” and I know you will see things differently. I do however, hope that you will change your spending habits soon but continue to enjoy your life, whether you are single or married…living at home with your parents or on your own. Don’t follow the crowd with the big mortgage….house rich and money poor! I bought a 4 bedroom brick house in Bowmanville for $329k 3 yrs ago with my husband and 2 young boys and I now owe $297K and it’s worth about $500k so buy smart and make smart decisions but enjoy your life! You are doing a great job making $130K at 31 yrs old…but remember things can change..so plan for the future
Ugh. No, really. UGH. If I had that much income, I’d be saving the shit out of it… Are you kidding me!? You can find exceptional alcohol for a fraction of the cost. THIS is one of those mythical entitled millennials I hear about. STOP GIVING MY GENERATION A BAD NAME, DUDEBRO….
What massive advantages are you talking about RexS?
Maybe instead of the picture of Jesus on the wall you should read God’s word.
Honestly nothing but what I want when I want, and self gratification. Waste of my time reading this.
Oh, too many to list! ;)
And who are YOU to be lead the cheerleading squad for freeloaders? You don’t need to put a gun to someone’s head to TAKE ADVANTAGE of them, especially if they’re immigrant parents too old school to think their offspring could possibly BE taking advantage of them.
And lay off with the “other dumb posters” bullshit. It’s a PUBLIC FORUM, and frankly, TL probably KNEW most of the response to this piece would be negative, both towards its author and his lifestyle (which I largely don’t disagree with, believe it or not) and toward their own publication for giving him a pulpit, which is why, unlike many of their articles, they left the comments section open.
Sadly, though, this whole thing literally fizzled out within, like, A DAY, and didn’t really turn into the Big Deal they probably thought it might. Perhaps its failure might inspire them to go back to something more closely resembling INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM rather than letting wannabes and nobodies do their jobs for them.
Property, property, property? Did you ever think that MANY people don’t actually want to get into that rat race? That maximizing their enjoyment of life DOESNT involve owning a house and all the headaches that go along with it? (like being someone else’s landlord, for example? Ugh!). He may blow more dough than SOME people here agree with (or frankly could afford because they’re just so happy living their boring old domestic status quo existences), but if he stays the course and continues making his current income and maybe more, he’d be just as wise to RENT (for the simplicity and MOBILITY of lifestyle he so clearly illustrates in the article) and INVEST a reasonable chunk of his leftover money toward a perfectly comfortable retirement without all the drudgery of home ownership.
Following your method just means he’d have to waste more of his time looking after all these magical properties providing income he frankly doesn’t really need. You make it sound like being a landlord — well, a decent one, anyway — doesn’t involve any work or use up any of your free time, which is far from reality.
The only thing “Tony” is doing wrong is USING his parents as a base of operations. He could rent a decent apartment in lots of areas in town (why bother with an overpriced condo that only pays another INDIVIDUAL’S mortgage off?), live his carefre lifestyle until the cows come home and STILL tuck away a substantial amount of cash for retirement. Property ownership just means more WORK and living for and accumulating the STUFF you don’t need, in the hopes that you can have fun when you’re OLD and RETIRED, just because society’s sheep can’t see beyond the status quo. Tony’s a big douche for mooching of mommy and daddy, but his lifestyle choices will in NO WAY leave him high and dry when he’s older, once he starts sticking more into savings and investments (which he will once his pallies fall in to the marriage and ‘white picket fence’ trap).
To sum it up he advocates for choosing to spend his discretionary money (embedded in which is his parents’ favour) on fun rather than investment.
Previous middle class generations like Toronto’s boomers added a lot to their net worth because houses were good investments whereby the cost (interest on mortgage, mortgage insurance) of borrowing the money needed to purchase them was less than renting similar accommodation, plus the robust appreciation over the decades. Now, many young Toronto people believe that home ownership is always a good investment because of their parents’ positive experience (like the author’s teacher friend). It isn’t, because it is overvalued, I believe. For the Toronto boomers it was the best investment vehicle and frankly, the only one available. The bank wasn’t gonna lend you $300K in 1985 for ETFs or blue chip shares! It isn’t gonna lend you 900K for the same thing now either! Yes they’ll lend you 30K if you want, but you are not gonna double your net worth on the dividends and appreciation over 25 years with that 30K. I think he would be wise to invest, but if he thinks Toronto housing is overvalued (which it is, I believe) then he should invest half his discretionary income in something else. That’s what I would recommend, instead of blowing all of it. His pharmacy business is a good plan; it will be a way better investment than a Toronto house (also he’s a pharmacist, so…). But I stress that his “spend it all now” lifestyle is not a smart alternative to home ownership. It’s just a different life choice. Spend vs Invest. He’s not going to have the earning energy when he’s babied and wifed up in a few years time. My plan is: get the customary giant Canadian low interest mortgage. Buy a house elsewhere that is not ridiculous Toronto prices but a healthy rental market that can cover or exceed your borrowing costs. Live there at first to satisfy CMHC mortgage insurance rules (owner occupy). GO transit to Toronto or your job. Later (year or two) you can rent it out and use that money to rent in Toronto. You now have borrowed 500% of your annual income and are using it to invest in a safeish vehicle with a return of somewhere between 1% – 8%. Make sure you can afford the payments when the Toronto real estate market does a big correction and/or interest rates are higher. Anybody educated in finance feel free to pick my plan apart so that I don’t go ahead.
i bet the ladies are super impressed by his Mario Lemieux poster :P
Honestly, fuck this dude. You live with your parents at 31? Where is your pride, shit is embarrassing. Oh look my parents haven’t stepped up and kicked me out so I still act like I’m in college! Douchebag moron. Why is this story even written?
The worst part is the author’s tone, like this guy is just on an elevated plane of existence, better than everyone reading this trash. Awful.
A few? : )
I get where he’s coming from with not wanting to buy a house and that not being the only option. But that doesn’t mean you should use it as an excuse to blow all your money for no reason either. You can get lots of amazing experiences without spending crazy amounts of money. All this article does is make the older generation indignant about ‘kids today’.
http://flimsylion.wordpress.com
All that travel sounds great, but all the partying and drinking might be great at 30, but if he’s still living that way at 45, it gets kind of sad. He should be doing more than chipping in occasionally for groceries.
52.5% percent rate of tax and he’s only 30, $80 000 seems like a huge achivement.
Are you kidding me?
I could ask the same: Who are YOU to judge how random strangers live their financial lives?
Get off your high horse and shut up.
Wow, you just don’t give up, do you?
Let’s see, the VAST MAJORITY of comments on this article here AND elsewhere (back when it was actually relevant for 15 minutes) were firmly against this freeloader sponging off mommy and daddy, but you roll in as Tony the Douchebag’s number one fangirl, evidently believing that fawning praise like yours is the only acceptable opinion on the issue, and proclaiming that anyone who disagrees with you (which is pretty much EVERYONE) is “dumb” and spewing “hatorade” and has no right to judge! Says who, YOU? We judge one guy and his dim parents on a FREE PUBLIC FORUM; you judge a majority of HUNDREDS who don’t share you drooling love of the guy and would love nothing better than to remove their ability to criticize. Fascist.
If anyone’s on a high horse it’s you, dummy. Too high to realize you’re in a minority while being clearly in favour of grown adults living at home when and taking advantage of old-country parents who are more than happy to be DOORMATS. But hey, Tony would love to SETTLE for someone like you since all of his other marks clue in pretty quick to his leechy home life. Hope you don’t mind climbing out his window at 5:00 in the morning.
Really, it shouldn’t be that hard for dipshits like Tony and you to fathom how spending a reasonable amount of money on rent and a place of your own when you’re a GROWN-UP can completely erase any ill-will regarding how you live the rest of your life, but frankly, TL never would’ve published this article if Tony lived on his own. Because then he’d just be a typical self-involved 30-something, only with money to spare.
Here’s a thought, if you really rich, you can afford a house + whatever experiences you’re into. Since he needed to choose between his lifestyle vs a house, I can only conclude he isn’t really that rich and just a loser with no sense of self worth.
You need to take a chill pill: Do you have a job? You’re spending way too much time and energy hating on some random stranger on the internet.
This article is framed as a piece about why rejecting owning a home is the right way to go, but the problem is the article adds nothing of value to that discussion, because rejecting home ownership appears to be just a small part of Mr. Big Spender’s lifestyle. Instead, his lifestyle is about rejecting marriage, kids, financial responsibility, etc. Big Spender grew up going to church so he should know his philosophy on life is nothing new – see the prodigal son.
Don’t hate you at all, but you seem to hate pretty much everyone on this forum because they dare to think your new boyfriend is a fool. You DO realize you’re in a very tiny minority, right?
I do, mind you, think you’re bereft of the skills needed for a thoughtful debate since all you can do is reach for the lamest putdowns anyone could possibly throw at someone who disagrees with them. “Do you have a job?”? “Way too much time and energy hating”?? Seriously, that’s the best you can do to defend your pathetic position?
Stop replying. You’re wasting both of our time now.
Entitled insufferable pansy poseur manchild. Everything about this story screams “overcompensating for tiny little sex organ”. I wonder how “I live with my mom” goes over with the ladies who are hunting a sponsor on King West. No character, no depth, no humility, no intelligence, no originality, no beauty, no art. Viva la consumerism.
You accused me of being his girlfriend and started calling me names. You wouldn’t be replying if you thought that you were wasting your time. Apparently you have a lot of time on your hands to keep replying to me: Asking whether you have a job is a serious question. Not only do you seem to have a lot of time, but you seem to be bitter and broke. I bet you’re single, too.
Sorry that life is really hard for you…
Sorry, did you say something? I didn’t hear you until now because I was working. You should look into it. Good way to get out of mom and dad’s house and be a grown-up.
You do realize, of course, that accusing me of not having a job solely because I take A FEW MINUTES to reply to your remarkably feeble posts applies in equal measure to YOU, right? Because you keep blowing back in here to defend the indefensible long after this silly (and possibly phony) story passed the 15-minute mark. Mind you, I’ve yet to assume you don’t have a job because it’s just such a lazy, tired, half-assed way of engaging in an argument, but if that’s what works for you, then so be it.
Anyway, not bitter, not single, and definitely not broke.
Also not living at home with mommy, unlike your boyfriend.
Oh, and by the way, regarding the calling of names, do you recall this line from YOUR VERY FIRST POST?
“You’re all such a sorry bunch of haters.”
Clearly you can dish it out . . .
Dummy.
LOL. Looks like having a small penis will make anyone angry over the interwebs. I don’t blame you, you poor, sexually repressed little boy…
Also, this took a ‘few minutes’ to write?
Judging from your posts elsewhere, it’s clear you’re a sexually repressed guy as evident by your over-the-top analytical, opinionated, and irritated contents.
Seriously, you need to meditate.
Well, looks like i’ve picked up a STALKER! Trolling old posts, Joyce? What a colossal waste of time. Up to now I simply thought you were incapable of debating the issue at hand like a sensible adult, but now I realize I’ve been attempting to debate with a fanatic this whole time. Spoooooky.
Seriously, you need to get laid. Give ‘Tony’ a call. You won’t have to worry about commitment and his mom will make you breakfast.
Oh, by the way, I wrote that post in about 10 minutes. It IS possible, though maybe not with just the grade school education you seem to have. Best to stick to trolling, I suppose.
HILARIOUS!!! Honestly, I really did laugh out loud at that one! And you actually read ‘anger’ into my posts! HAH! You’re such a silly, lonely, barren old cat lady, aren’tcha? Back to your reality shows, silly dummy.
Haha, you think of yourself so highly don’t you?
I get the feeling that even though you hide behind a computer to talk so much crap about random people whom you’ve never met due to jealousy (it is what it is), if you were part of their group in real life, you’d be kissing their butt like no tomorrow.
You’re one of those vapid and unattractive Nice Guys who do all the ‘right things’ and then seethe in rage when they lose out on pussy.
No, Joyce, I just agree with EVERYONE ELSE HERE. Unlike you.
Now go back and read your ORIGINAL POST up above, dummy, and see how stupid you sound when you accuse other people of talking crap about random people you’ve never met, after DOING IT YOURSELF to get this whole ball rolling. (i.e. “You’re all such a sorry bunch of haters.” and on and
on…)
You’re pretty thick, sweetcheeks. Hope you’re good-looking
to compensate when it comes time for your arranged marriage so your hubby’s parents don’t end up in some “depressing retirement home”
Yeah, and everyone else don’t take issue as personally as you do, Mr. High Horse.
How small is your dick for you to feel such a gross sense of self-righteousness?
Actually, pretty much EVERYONE else here took the issue personally, just like I did. Try reading their posts some time. I just felt like challenging the one dimwit who couldn’t see anything wrong with what “Tony” was doing.
Interesting how keen you are (repeatedly!) to discover my dick size, though. It’s a shame the only one you’ll ever see will be attached to whatever man your parents choose for you. That is, when you’re not spoon-feeding his parents, of course.
Oh well, I’m sure it’s quite a kick to indulge your “naughty” side online when cultural norms surely forbid such things.