I’m not from Canada originally and so every year I make the journey back to Europe to visit my parents. My father lives in Moscow, Russia and that’s where I am right now. While I’m here I decided to make a video about what life is like to be a young adult in Russia and how 18-30 year olds get by financially in Russia’s capital. I’ve learned a lot this past week that I found fascinating so I wanted to write up some of the things I found and my video will be posted on here next Tuesday so be sure to check it out!

This year I just got back to Canada and I have also been slowly transitioning into independence from my parents (not entirely by choice!). All of this has changed the way that I think in relation to money and for me to return back to Europe and to see how people my age in Russia view and use money was fascinating to say the least.

The financial situation in Russia right now is hard to describe in one blog and so I decided to mention just a few things that might be of interest to you.

Last week I went to go pick something up from some friends of my dads who work for a large American oil company. They have a very nice four bedroom home in a secured community on the outskirts of Moscow. The house is attached and has four bedrooms and I would estimate was about 2,500 sq ft. While I was talking with them I found out that they had to move to a smaller home down the street because the rent of their house was being raised. When they told me that their rent was being raised to $23,000 USD a month I nearly jumped! That’s just one example of the astronomical housing prices that Moscow has. It is a true sign that prices are out of control when an oil company can’t afford to pay its expatriate employees' rent! Don’t be mistaken that this is a purely foreigners property phenomenon; the situation for the average Russian seems impossible with rising food and rental prices in the worlds third most expensive city.

This situation makes renting in a central location unfathomable with one bedrooms renting as high as 10,000 USD a month downtown which makes buying property more than impossible! The cause of this insanity is the demand to live in Moscow with its higher wages and better education it is worth the struggle for some Russians. The massive disparity between rich and poor in Moscow doesn't help the situation either. Moscow is said to have the second highest number of billionaires as residents in a single city after New York and with a population of 12 million it doesn't take much to imagine the poverty that must exist in the city. With high fashion stores such as Tiffany’s, Bentley and Gucci lining the streets downtown and the outskirts of the city a jungle of derelict concrete high rises, it only takes a brief look to see the extremes in Moscow.

In order to live in Moscow you either have to be born there, be a foreigner with a visa, or “register” as a resident in the city. Registering is something that all Russians and foreigners have to do and it’s a way that the government controls the populations in the desirable cities. If someone from Chelyabinsk wishes to move to Moscow for work they must pay and register to do so and even then may be denied. It’s a sort of immigration control within a countries own borders. Imagine if you had to register every time you made a trip to Ottawa from Toronto or if you moved from Vancouver to Montreal. This registration process forces a lot of young people to make the move illegally so that they can make a better living. Life without registration isn't easy however and makes getting a bank account impossible and getting other benefits such as healthcare and education complicated.

I knew about most of these issues while I was living here and attending high school but it wasn't till I recently came back here from Canada that I thought about how different life and money must be for young people here. When I heard that only about 30% of Russians had bank accounts I decided that I wanted to make a short movie about “despicable metal” (what Russians call money) and young adults. So check out my video next Tuesday and the similarities and differences between Katya, Oleysa, Andrei and Lena’s experiences with money and yours.