Life in Toronto?

Hey all -


East coast native my entire life. Have been in NYC for 6 years and counting. 
 

On the verge of receiving a potential offer from a Canada based firm. Anyone made the jump from NYC to Toronto / have experience living in Toronto from a work life, cost of living, salary, housing, entertainment standpoint, etc? 
 

Have been a few times both personally and professionally, enjoyed the city, and always saw it as a “cleaner” and “nicer” NYC. Any thoughts are appreciated. 
 

Thanks. 

 
Most Helpful

Happy to provide my thoughts as someone who has lived in Toronto for the majority of my life (but have only visited NYC on work trips and vacations - never lived there so take my comparisons with a grain of salt). Overall I think it is a great city with plenty to do, could definitely see it being similar to a smaller, cleaner, NYC as you mentioned. My thoughts on the topics you mentioned are:

Work Life / Salary: Obviously firm dependent, but have found that companies tend to be very collegial (but not too many work hard, play hard types). In general Canadians tend to be less direct than our American counterparts, which can mean firms seem more "polite" even when they are not. This is stylistic and can be frustrating to some. Salaries here are much lower than you would be used to in the US, but exceptions exist.  

Housing/Cost of Living: This is a hot topic at the moment as home prices have become very disconnected from incomes in Toronto. Still much lower than NYC but we earn significantly less as mentioned above. Coming from the US with USD savings should set you up well and things are still obtainable for those with a good finance job, but otherwise the math does not work out. A decent single family home in a good neighborhood (Little Italy, Davisville, Roncesvalles) would cost C$1.5-2.0 million. Cost would be significantly more in the very high income neighborhoods like Rosedale/Forest Hill, as you would expect. Rentals are more affordable with a nice 2 bedroom rental downtown being C$3k per month. Outside of housing, cost of living should be similar or slightly less than what you are used to in NYC.

Entertainment: The restaurant/bar scene here is fantastic, especially as you start to get to know the city outside of the main financial and entertainment district areas. There is also a ton of places to explore in the city (but it is harder as public transit sucks here). I am not a huge clubbing person, but I think there are a pretty good variety of decent options (I suspect the clubs here would not stack up to NYC though). Idk someone else is probably better positioned to speak to that. Sports teams receive a ton of support here, so great place to be if you are a hockey or basketball fan (not football though). Toronto struggles with good day/weekend trips. The wealthy here tend to have cottages in Muskoka and there are a few other big forest-type parks that can be nice to explore, as well as some small/cutesy rural options around, but most of the time you will be getting on a plane if you want to leave the city. Last thing to consider is that there is less "wow factor" to most of the entertainment around here just considering it is less of a tourist city compared to many US cities (even smaller ones) - if you like seeing A-list celebrities around town this is not the place for you.

This really turned into quite a long post so I hope this was helpful. I think the city is great (especially to balance having a family with the perks of big city living), but definitely need to keep your goals/tradeoffs in mind. 

 

Vel aut soluta reprehenderit minus. Magnam similique rerum consectetur dolores. Quia rerum consectetur eos asperiores. Fugiat repudiandae aut quidem nemo amet. Repudiandae aut cum nihil fuga. Sint similique eum vero dolores voluptatem. Sint quis harum accusantium iusto voluptatem quaerat.

Career Advancement Opportunities

March 2024 Hedge Fund

  • Point72 98.9%
  • D.E. Shaw 97.9%
  • Magnetar Capital 96.8%
  • Citadel Investment Group 95.8%
  • AQR Capital Management 94.7%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

March 2024 Hedge Fund

  • Magnetar Capital 98.9%
  • D.E. Shaw 97.8%
  • Blackstone Group 96.8%
  • Two Sigma Investments 95.7%
  • Citadel Investment Group 94.6%

Professional Growth Opportunities

March 2024 Hedge Fund

  • AQR Capital Management 99.0%
  • Point72 97.9%
  • D.E. Shaw 96.9%
  • Citadel Investment Group 95.8%
  • Magnetar Capital 94.8%

Total Avg Compensation

March 2024 Hedge Fund

  • Portfolio Manager (9) $1,648
  • Vice President (23) $474
  • Director/MD (12) $423
  • NA (6) $322
  • 3rd+ Year Associate (24) $287
  • Manager (4) $282
  • Engineer/Quant (71) $274
  • 2nd Year Associate (30) $251
  • 1st Year Associate (73) $190
  • Analysts (225) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (22) $131
  • Junior Trader (5) $102
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (249) $85
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
99.0
4
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
5
kanon's picture
kanon
98.9
6
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
7
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
8
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
9
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
10
numi's picture
numi
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”