Griffintown And Nuns Island: A Case Study

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The family type from the monthly budget exercise that will be reflected in this paper consists of two parents with two children, a six year old daughter and a nine year old son, living in Montreal with a monthly income of $9456—an income source that is twice the median income. In the selection of the housing location, there was a debate between Griffintown and Nuns Island. Ultimately, Griffintown was chosen as it is more centrally located near downtown and the district is a newly developing urban neighbourhood which would be better suited for the children. It was decided that renting a condo would be the optimal choice being that it would be easier to move locations to a newer area, if desired to do so, without having any economic worries if …show more content…

For example, the more notable difference would be the amount spent on children’s education—in comparing with the same family type as mine, the family with a full-time minimum wage pays $47.89/month for their children’s education while the family with a median income pays $400/month, both at a public school. Whereas, my family type spent a more significantly amount due to the fact that both children are enrolled in a private school. This shows that family’s earning more than the median, are more likely to have their children go to a private education. Moreover, a similarity I found across all family types were the main expenses where money would be primarily dedicated to—specifically, housing, food, utilities, clothing, and having a mobile device and internet. For transportation, I noticed that the majority of family types had OPUS cards—with the exception of individuals on social assistance and full-time minimum wage having bicycles—and the family types of four with a median income, or twice the median income (including my own family type), owned up to two vehicles. This illustrates the difference in terms of costs being distributed for this category as OPUS cards cost about a tenth of what all the expenses would be in owning a car. What’s more, the amount of money set aside for “other” expenses were highly variable across the different family types, with some who could not afford to put any amount at all—such as, the single mother with 2 children on social assistance and on a full-time minimum wage—to a family of two parents and two teenage children making twice the median income who could spend $1431.54/month. Ultimately, I have learnt that for many people, despite having a minimum wage, it is very difficult for an individual to live (and survive) with

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