I'm doing fine, I have slowly growing savings and spend a small portion of my income on housing. As I mentioned, this is mostly because I opted to live with other people and I do not own a vehicle. I am definitely underpaid but willingly take that in exchange for the freedom my job grants me.

Unfortunately for the majority of people in this city (or even province in general, BC is expensive), housing is often >50% of income. A one bedroom apartment where I live goes for about $800-1200 on average right now (and are in extremely short supply), and minimum wage is $10.50. There are not a lot of high paying jobs here either; a large number of people are forced to work multiple jobs.

Our entire province is struggling with a housing crisis right now. Things are complicated unfortunately and conventional wisdom doesn't always match up with reality.