we went to bed at our usual 3am time. Since I had a break, I passed out and woke up at about 5:45am to do the cbi thing. I decided to read for a bit but I was feeling tired fast and I out the book away for later.

Charles was saying that he’s paying $650/month for a 1 bedroom apartment and it’s on the 2nd floor. It’s the building beside my old bachelor apartment that I had from 1985-1005 and it’s on the 2nd floor. It’s just him and his cat. I walked by there perhaps hundreds of times before he moved in. But $650/month? Yikes. When I moved into my little bachelor the rent there was $275/month. Everything is month by month. When I got evicted back in 1995 I was paying $320. I’d hate to think what it is now. I think it’s a boardwalk site as well. I’d speculate about $450. In 1995 I moved across the street to the Villa Maria, where Bridget & Jim live. If they still do that is. They are also on the 2nd floor and it doesn’t surprise me that their rent is about the same as well. I moved from the bachelor apartment to a 2nd floor apartment paying in Dec. 1995. That was the same month Adventure gaming supplies closed. I think I was paying $350. An opening for the top third floor apartment presented itself in the spring of 1996 and I seized the opportunity to move in. My rent was $380. I’d hate to see what it is now. My guess about $750. The basement suites to the top floors are separated by $100 in price range. Usually. 156th street from 99th St. and 95th Ave is often referred to as apartment row. Not much has changed in the area in the last 30 years. Most of those apartments were built in the early 1960’s when the City had a housing shortage then as it does now. The thing is a landlord can only increase the rent once/year but there are no controls as to how much they can increase it by. I heard a figure of 20% of the monthly rent at the time. Our 2 bedroom apartment will be going up to $815 in Dec. That’s $145 increase from our $670 we’re currently paying and I think that’s about the lowest for a 2 bedroom rent. It’s very nice out here. We’re close to everything. My wife doesn’t have to go far to the Superstore, Walmart is at the end of the street, we’ve got movies Future shop the only thing missing is a book store.

The thing is at 20% next year (and I don’t know if this is an accurate figure) Our landlord here can raise the rent January 1st up to $165. At that rate you can easily see in the next 5 years how much this place we’re in now will cost us. Charles was saying how in 1999 he and his wife bought a condo. Him and his wife are separated now but that’s another story. His wife and roommate share the condo. Charles said that in 1995 that condo cost them $50G. Right now that same condo today is $250G. If you can find one. At a 25 year mortgage I thin he said their mortgage works out to be about $1200/month. Then there are condo fees and that works out to be $145/year (I think) then he said there are property taxes and that works out to be about $85/month. The condo fees and taxes are the only variables. No wonder why the city loves condos. The thing though what is stable is their monthly mortgage and they can claim that against their taxes at the end of the year and get money back. It’s probably based upon the overall equity. I’ll get Charles to give me a brief tutorial on the topic. He used to be an investment broker.

The thing is rent will always go up. Sure there is rental subsidy as long as you hold down a job and that’s only $500/month as long as your yearly income doesn’t exceed $33,500. There are other factors involved of course but $500 is the maximum. If you qualify.

Even if the rent gets increased to $150/year and landlords can increase it to whatever they want to. They know that with this housing shortage and plenty of jobs here in Alberta and the Capital region, they’ll get it. So at $150 in just 5 short years this place will be $1,565/month. Even if we qualify for the full $500 supplement our rent will be $1,065/month. The thing is, it doesn’t stop there. Every year the rent goes up by $145 in 6 years the overall rent of this place even with the $500/month supplement will be $1,210. Meanwhile Charles’s x wife is still paying on a 25 year mortgage $1,200 ( I think that’s the figure he said.) Plus it builds equity and it’s a tax claim. Sure they have to pay the condo fees and the property taxes and I’m sure they go up every year as well but if what you get back can cover those fees then it’d be worth it to own a condo.

The $500 supplement will out pace our rent in 6 years and all we’re doing is just throwing good money after bad at this place. It’s not good for us that’s for sure. Meanwhile my hourly wage rate is being compromised by other people that have just started making more money then I am. If Rob could get away with it, I’d still be making $7 or min wage at best. There is no future for me where I’m working now even at $1/year more then what I’m currently getting. To get into the condo game I’d need to be working full time at least $15/hr. The only thing that I’ve got going for me is I’ve been there at Xl for a long time. I’m one of their top evening tap shooters. But quite often I see these new people come in like they own the place. Some of them they’ve been with the company way even before I’ve been there but come and go. Other then Darryl and Bud Boo-boo and I have been there steady the longest, The back wall taps are usually the big taps and the other side are the small and other taps. Even if I work 32.5 hrs/week this will get me $325/month gross. It boils down to about $270/week. I don’t think I can get a 25 year mortgage on that. That’s $13,000/year. Add my wife’s income into the picture and we’re barely making $25,000 between the both of us. But that’s net money. Gross, I’d be making $16,000> rounded off. Anne a bit less maybe $12,000> up to about $30G> between the both of us. Of course I’m not factoring bonus money GST credit rebates, vacation pay etc. Vacation pay goes to my crapy looking website and for my lodge dues and maybe (unless the computer goes down or a cat gets sick or any one of us) I might be able to get an upgrade on the computer or buy something for myself.

Right now, I like these hours. We’re going to be able to hold them until the bsm runs out in June. Then it’s. Then it’s back to the full time Xl run-around. Of course I go in from 1-9 and I’m going to insist my weekends off. The other thing here is the medical plan. That’s a big draw for me and I’m not getting medical coverage here. Alberta is the only province in Canada where we don’t get full medical coverage. We get Alberta health care and that’s last time I checked about $40/month. Anne and I are subsidized and that’s an annual headache I have to go through every spring. Anne’s on my heath care “plan.” Alberta health and Wellness won’t cover my insulin and that’s $60 out of pocket/month. It does cover some of my test strip coverage. A small portion but we went through this before.

If Anne and I want to get our rent under control then we’ve got to make some changes. She Won’t like them and neither would I. But we’re working on it.

The good news is we’ve got 2 days off and as long as I work the day before (Saturday) and the day after (Tuesday) I get paid for Monday. It translates into about $45 for me. Big deal the feds will get it anyway.

Meanwhile the Province is struggling with oil royalty rights. I say we leave it the way it is. Also, Oil is hovering around $80/barrel in October no less. Normally oil should be about the $60 range and dropping stabilizing at around $50 for the winter and climbing up around February. But to have it hover around $80 even in most cases is unheard of never around October. Something’s going on.

This afternoon I’m going to pop into Audrey’s and see if I can get a book. I placed a link to the store on my sidebar earlier this morning. After that I’m going to go into work and put my 3 hours in and home to watch some wrestling. Depending on what channel it’s on this week. Then I go in for my 4 hours for Saturday and let the weekend begin.

Anyway that’s all for now

e. Jim