Head Tale

A few months back, I was speaking to someone who'd done a bunch of demographic research on Regina.  The topic of wealthy areas of the city came up and I said that I suspected one of our suburban branches, with a high percentage of doctors, lawyers, University professors and other white collar professionals living nearby, likely had the richest patrons. 

The person responded that this was probably the case if you were looking purely at household gross income but the question really depended on how you defined “rich”. 

They went on to say that their research had actually shown that the richest area of the city, at least in terms of net worth (which most would consider a better indicator of wealth than income) was a working class neighbourhood I never would've guessed in a million years.

But it makes sense once you think about it – many of the people in this area are tradespeople who make very good incomes, often as self-employed workers with low overhead.  Many work from their homes which they can write-off as a business expense.  They have skills that allow them to do their own home repairs rather than hiring expensive…you guessed it…tradespeople.  Their homes tend to be modest (at least in comparison to the McMansions in the area where many white collar folks live) and therefore, are paid off earlier rather than carrying a larger mortgage for a longer term (how many people in the suburbs are “house rich but cash poor” after their gi-normous mortgage payment each month?) 

Same with vehicles and other status items – instead of purchasing this year's new model to replace last year's new model, many working class folks tend to own older vehicles that they keep for a longer time which means they're owned outright as well and when needed, repaired in their own backyard rather than an expensive garage.  And for the skills they don't have, their network of contacts often means that they know people who can do any needed work at a discount and/or under the table.  They save money in other ways too.  Instead of expensive vacations to Europe and the Caribbean, they might take a family trip to the Rockies or the West Edmonton Mall. 

I'm not speaking of my own neighbourhood in this post but the similarities are striking – the area where Shea and I live is also one that would be termed a working class neighbourhood with a high percentage of tradespeople living here.   

In fact, the house that Shea and I live in was built by a cooperative of tradespeople in the late 1970's – one carpenter, one plumber, one electrician, one bricklayer and one or two others banded together to buy six lots and built each others' homes.  (When we had our house checked over as part of our offer to buy, the contractor couldn't help but comment on the sturdy construction.)

What's my point?  I guess that it's foolish to make assumptions about a neighbourhood or an area of the city based on who lives there or what they do for a living (he says having just done an entire post with some pretty broad generalizations about a couple different types of neighbourhoods! )

But obviously I was wrong when I assumed that simply having wealthy, white collar-type workers in an area meant everybody was “rich” just as many others look at “poorer” working class neighbourhoods and don't recognize the real wealth contained within them. 

(I hasten to add that I'm not one of these people with a secret net
worth of millions because of my “salt o' the earth” lifestyle and
skills!  My leaking bathroom faucet is covered with duct tape as I type this and Shea and I regularly spend way more money than we should on cars, vacations, dining out and all kinds of other un-necessities of life!  We fight hard not to get caught up in the “Keeping Up With the Joneses” mentality – sometimes successfully, sometimes not.

But overall, by choosing to live in a “poorer” neighbourhood of the city, we gain some pretty sweet advantages compared to many people who are otherwise similar to us.  Shea is able to work only three days a week instead of full-time and we're still able to dedicate a large percentage of our income to savings or other things we want than many of our friends who have similar incomes but chose to live in more expensive areas of the city. 

I always think of the horror story of one of Shea's former co-workers being told by her husband that she *had* to work full-time rather than dropping down to lower hours to spend more time with their two young children like she wanted.  In the driveway of the bungalow in a “nice” area of the city?  A brand new BMW and a two-year old VW Passat. )

For more reading: “The Millionaire Next Door“

(Since it's sort of on the same subject, I'll post a link to Kent's recent entry about the supposed differences between Regina and Saskatoon NDP members.)