Average Monthly Student Expenses During Student Life in Canada

Managing money is one of the most important task when you are living all by yourself in a completely new country. It is very likely that you will find it hard to manage your expenses in your first couple of months. You will also be making money with part time jobs and this might make you think you are dependent enough to spend money on unnecessary things. Here is a list of expenses you will have to bear during your student life.

1. Accommodation – There are four different options for accommodation. A basement, an apartment, a condo and a house. Basements are usually cheapest, apartments cost little more while houses and condos have high cost. The cost of basement usually starts from $180 - $250 per month when you are sharing it with 4-5 other people. A two-bedroom apartment can cost you $250 - $400. Condos are way more expensive and ranges from $400-$650 per month depending on location. Houses have varied cost based on location and usually costs $300-$450 per month on a shared basis.

2. Transportation – It is always affordable to buy a monthly pass. If you are living in Toronto, you can get a post-secondary TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) monthly pass for $116.75. We can take an average of $120 per month for all over Canada. Note – a post-secondary pass is different from a student pass. If you are over 19 and studying in a college, you should always go for a post-secondary pass.

3. Internet and Phone Charges – Internet data is very expensive in Canada. A basic phone plan usually costs $25 per month without any internet or data. If you want 2 - 4 GB of data per month, you can expect a charge of $55 including taxes. Although this are rates for the cheapest carriers which might not give you good network range. Some of the top carriers in Canada are Bell and Rogers. You can check the plans of some good networks here: Bell Plans, Rogers Plans, Freedom plans, Chatr plans. Apart from these, you will also have to pay for the home wifi plan. They are also very expensive but since you will be sharing it with your friends or roommates, it is not something to be concerned about. We can expect $10-$20  per month per person for this.

4. Food and Groceries – This is largely depending on how well you can cook and how much you eat at home. You can save lot of money cooking by yourself. If you are eating 5 days a week at home and say twice outside, you can expect a cost of around $150/month including everything. If you eat everyday at home, you can bring it down to $100/month or even lower.

5. Miscellaneous expenses – Do not forget to have fun in life while taking responsibility of everything. A movie twice a week, a club once a month or any other leisure spending is not really an expense but a way to experience different things and have some fun. It also largely depends on you, but we can keep $100 per month for this. Don’t spend more than that in your student life. Otherwise, credit card debt will make your life more stressful.

So, here’s the summary of all the expenses:

a.       Accomodation - $300/month

b.       Transportation - $120/month

c.       Internet and Phone Charges - $100/month

d.       Food and Groceries - $150/month

e.       Miscellaneous expenses - $100/month

Total – around $800/month

Hopefully, this article will help you manage your expenses and you will be able to save good amount of money keeping everything in mind. Do not forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel – Ravi ThakoR to know more about life in Canada.

Toronto Eaton Centre - One of the Biggest Mall in Canada

Toronto is not only the biggest Canadian city, but also extremely multicultural. The diversity is celebrated by not only those that reside there, but also by many visitors who are looking for a varied shopping and restaurant experience. In downtown Toronto, visitors from Canada and all over the world flock to visit The Toronto Eaton Centre. This popular mall that attracts 50 million visitors annually is one of the busiest in North America and among the most visited tourist attraction in the whole city!

The huge complex features over 250 stores from the most notable including the Apple Store, Sephora and the Disney Store but also less known stores that have a treasure trove of one of a kind items from clothing to jewelry and much more. With so many stores under one roof it really does have everything you could possibly want wherever in the world you are from. As well as being huge the mall is the first in Canada to have both Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom.  Taking the whole family for a trip to a mall usually ends with someone leaving disappointed, but as there is something for everyone it’s a great place for all ages and tastes. In 2011 the Urban Eatery food court opened seating 980 people who can choose from a multitude of fast foods from all over the world including Greek eateries and even sushi! While eating your chosen food you can sit and enjoy it right by the fountain which amazingly sprays water 85 feet into the sky.

Not only is the mall full of the biggest choice of shops and eateries you could ever wish for, but it also gains a lot of interest from architecture enthusiasts. It was modeled after the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, a world renowned building in Milan. The mall’s roof has an amazing glass ceiling which if you look upwards houses 60 breath-taking life sized Canadian geese sculptures and that’s before you go wild in the multiple levels of shops and boutiques to explore. Whether you’re looking for high end fashion, jewelry or the latest tech, this is the place to be.

You can access the Toronto Eaton Centre by heading to centre of downtown Toronto. Two subway stations take you nearby if you are not travelling by car, or you can take your own (or hired vehicle) and park in one of the 1,300 available spaces. One of the favored ways to get there by food is to take the underground walkway. You can head to numerous destinations through the numerous tunnels specifically for pedestrians for a totally different experience.

The Toronto Eaton Centre stays open all year around with the exception of Christmas Day. It doesn't close for weekends, however closes earlier on Sundays as well as public holidays. To enjoy tasty food, fancy clothes, technology, and explore other great stores, this is the place on earth that has something for everyone no matter their taste, cultural of shopping preferences. 

Six Best IT Companies in Canada

The tech industry in Canada is huge and its growth continues to accelerate as the years pass. In 2007 the tech industry was responsible for 4.4% of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP). The Canadian tech industry saw a huge acceleration in growth throughout 2016 increasing almost twice that of the rest of the economy. The whole Canadian ICT (Information and Communication Technology) sector makes up 3.3% of nationwide employment employing around 594,871 jobs. This big growth in employment during 2016 was mainly due to computer services and software with the services shares of employment increasing from 56% to a staggering 63.4% over the year. The 6 best IT companies in Canada are as follows:

1. SAP

SAP which stands for Systems Applications and Products in Data Processing is a multinational corporation offering business management and customer relations software. The headquarters are in Walldorf, Germany with a huge customer base of more than 335,000! In 2015 SAP brought out SAP S/4HANA business suite which offers customers the latest deployment options including hybrid, on premises and cloud. This has enabled customers to speed up their access to data, reduce their data footprint and get access to faster analytics. As of 2016 an express edition was released for personal computers and cloud computer platforms. This has been hailed the best company launched since its founding. It has an annual revenue of between €6.8 billion to €7 billion which has risen in 2017 by 10% thanks to cloud subscriptions.

2. Paysafe group

Paysafe Group was originally owned by Optimal Payments and Neovia Financial PLC and is a company that specialises in online payments. The headquarters are in the UK in the Isle of Man. The services offered to their customers include Neteller, Skrill, Paysafecard, Payolution and income access which allow customers to make online payments without divulging their personal details to merchants via online payment platforms, pre-paid cards, online money transfers and buy now pay later services. The revenue as of 2016 was $1 billion with a net income of $142 million rising to $538.7 in 2017. They have over 2200 employees worldwide spread over 12 locations.

3. Shopify

Shopify is a company that offers online stores, an alternative e-commerce platform to enable customers to pay for goods and services without having to give their personal and financial details. This Canadian company’s headquarter is based in Ottawa, Ontario. In 2012 it was listed as one of the most innovative companies by fast companies as well as winning the 2014 CEO of the year by Globe and Mail. With over 500,000 merchants since its founding in 2004, Shopify is growing fast and as of 2017 announced they were to integrate with Amazon allowing sellers to use their Shopify stores to sell there. Since this announcement the stock rose very high! The company also has introduced a debit and credit card for their customers to use in traditional brick stores that features Bluetooth facilities for a faster transaction in store. Shopify’s revenue as of 2017 was $580.9 Million thanks to the 1930 employees hard work and dedication.

4. Microsoft

Microsoft has been a popular and trusted company by many businesses and residential customers thanks to their innovative software, electronics, computers, gaming including the Xbox console and additional services including the well-known Microsoft Windows operating system, Internet Explorer and the Edge web browser. By revenue the company was announced as one of the top valuable companies in the world. Founded in 1975 the company developed MS-DOS which allowed them to provide computer operators with a simple programming language. Windows was their next big release creating 3 billionaires and around 12,000 millionaires due to their employee shares in the company. Nowadays the company is more diverse and has acquired numerous corporations including LinkedIn and Skype. Microsoft also offers a huge range of enterprise software including internet search, online chat, cloud computing and software development products like Visual Studio.  The company’s revenue in 2017 was $89.95 billion and they currently have over 124,000 employees’worldwide working on their innovative products and services.

5. Salesforce

In 2016, Salesforce joined very few others by being announced as a highly valued cloud computing company by capitalization. In 2017 they were proud to announce that they were the first cloud company enterprise to get to the $10 billion revenue target. Their current products include cloud services including marketing and commerce as well as cloud platforms computing and social enterprise. The company started out just before the millennium offering software as a service.  At the latter end of 2014 they made an announcement that they had developed a customer success platform as an addition to their services including analytics and mobile applications. Salesforce also have a business to business marketing analytics tool for Facebook. As of 2017 their revenue was announced as $8.39 billion and a workforce of 25,178 employees.

6. Apple

Apple have been around since 1976 as Apple computer company, which was changed to Apple Computer Inc in 1977 until more recently when it became Apple Inc to cover their vast products under the same name including software, online services and technology from computers to tablets and mobile phones. Most notable recent products include iPhones, iPad tablets, iPods and the Apple smartwatch. New innovative products are being released regularly like the HomePod which is a smart speaker and Apple TV allowing you to turn your conventional television into a smart TV. Their devices have the Apple software pre-installed allowing users to download apps, music, software and other services via the App and iTunes stores. The iCloud technology they provide allows users to store information in their cloud storage rather than on their devices. As soon as the company began selling their computers publically their designs and were a hit and as just a few years later came the graphical user interfaces. Of course today they have more competition; however their innovative products and services are still extremely popular. The annual revenue for 2017 alone was $229 billion and they now have a workforce of 123,000 worldwide.

Understanding Canadian Geography

The Canadian state is an embodiment of beauty. A naturally gifted place of gorgeous landscapes and sceneries. Being the second largest country in the world, Canada is naturally blessed with diverse geography. This concise article is aimed to serve as a guide to better understand the state’s geography. You should be able to understand its land markings plus other exciting facts about Canadaafter reading it.

About Canada:

Canada was coined from the word ‘Kanata’ which translates to ‘village settlement’. Although, it is scarcely populated, Canada is however the second of the largest countries in the world occupying nearly two-fifth of the entire North America. The country is positioned within the North Atlantic and the North Pacific Oceans occupying the landed area in-between. To the South, it shares boundaries with the United States and also to the Northwest.

Brief History:

About Two Thousand Indians were the foremost settlers of the present-day Canada. However, the Europeans started moving in around the 16^th Century and this resulted to mixed population up until 1950. Today, the status and non-status Indians can be found living in the country alongside the Inuit, within their respective formed territories.

Main Cities:

Ottawa is the capital of Canada. Though, Toronto is the largest city followed by Montreal while Vancouver is the third largest city in Canada. This means that Ottawa is the fourth largest city in relation to population, culture, economy and resources, compared to the aforementioned. To the Northwest of Toronto lies Ottawa at a distance of approximately 250 miles, and 125 miles to West of Montreal. Winnipeg, Alberta, Quebec City, Calgary, Manitoba and Edmonton are also major cities and areas in Canada.

Toronto, the main city of Canada, covers approx. 630 sq.km and has a 46-km long waterfront shoreline. Toronto Harbor is formed by the Toronto islands and Port lands. Lake Ontario & Etobicoke Creek form the borders of the city along with Rouge River & Steele’s Avenue.

Climate:

The climate of the Canadian state is diverse and temperatures varies depending on the region. Snows can be found towards the far North while warm summer exists in the summer continental climatic zones. In a 1937-1947 estimation recorded, the temperature varies from 45^◦C in Midale to -63^◦C in Snag, Yukon.

Main Languages and Population:

Canada is a bilingual country. It uses English and French, both as the country’s official languages. This indicates its history with the two greats of Europe. 

In the April of 2015, Canada’s populationwas estimated to be around 35,794,600. It has a population density of about 3.5 people per square kilometer, majorly concentrated towards its Southern border.

Natural Resources and Hazards:

Canada holds some of the biggest industries in fishing, agricultural products, mining, petroleum products and forestry. Fishery can be historically referred to as the its strongest resources. Forestry has equally been itsmajor resources over the years and lately, the discovery of fossil fuels, oil and coal deposits has greatly added to its natural resources explorations.

There is also large deposition of mineral resources in the country and its large concentration of precious metals and stones like diamonds is noteworthy.

The continuous permafrost is a natural hazard 

Business Immigration in Canada

The government of Canada offers the selection of immigrants who are business class. The selection of these immigrants is in accordance with ability to be economically established and stable and help the Canadian economy. Business immigrants are actually people who start up their own business in Canada or invest in some business to help the Canadian economy. In this way the Canadian economy will become strong and prosperous.

Categories in this program:

This program is actually divided into two classes:

1. Start-up visa
2. Self-employed persons

1-   Start-up visa Program:

The start-up visa program requires that you follow the eligibility criteria given below:

·         A support commitment given by a Canadian venture capital fund which is designated, an angel investor group or some business incubator.

·         You must have lingual skills in either English or French.

·         You must have enough money to provide the living cost and settlement prior to your earning of an income.

2-   Self-employed Persons:

You must have 1 of the following to be eligible for this category:

·         Any experiences that will contribute to culture or aesthetic in Canada significantly

·         Experienced in management of farms or must be intending to buy a farm in Canada and managing it.

Canadian Business Class:

                This is a category that comes under the Canadian Immigration. In this category, individuals with business management experience and high net work may be considered qualified for permanent visa. It is divided into three further sub-classes within Business Class:

1. Immigration Investors

2. Self-Employed Persons

3. Entrepreneurs

The net worth requirement for people who are self-employed persons varies considerably depending on the location and nature of the venture being proposed. These individuals are made for the province of Quebec, having a net worth as high as CAD $100,000 at the very least, which is obtained lawfully.

Documents needed:

                Refuges and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) application forms, along with immigration, educational and status relative documents (passports, marriage certificates and birth certificates). You will need to perform submission of documents proving your business and managerial experience along with documents that show your net worth.

Processing fees and times:

By processing times, we mean the total time it takes for the documents to be prepared and shipped to you in a complete package. Usually, the processing times vary from 45 to 50 months for federal self-employed persons. If you already applied for the program, you can check the status of your application online at the official website at cic.gc.ca. However, depending on the location and the number of applications received by the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, the application can possibly be delayed.

As for the processing fees, they depend upon the location and method of payment, but the general processing fees vary from $1,050 CAD to $1,750 CAD, depending on whether you have a spouse and child. Besides that, you need a right for permanent residence, which costs $500. So, all in all, the entire cost of the program is somewhere between $1,550 to 2,250 CAD.