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Name, age: Mary, 29
Annual income: $110,000
Debt: $0
Savings: $11,000 in savings account, $47,000 in tax-free savings account (TFSA), $26,000 in registered retirement savings plan (RRSP), $3,000 in first home savings account (FHSA)
What she does: Account director in public relations
Where she lives: Toronto
Top financial concern: “My emergency fund. Last year I had to get two dental surgeries and it drained it. With... layoffs happening, I worry about having enough money to keep myself afloat for six months without having to ask to borrow money.”
Mary started her career at age 20 with a two-year diploma program, and now she lives comfortably with an income of $110,000 at age 29. She credits her financial fortunes to getting through her 20s without student debt.
She hadn’t spent all the money she’d received from her Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) loan, and had also inherited $10,000 from her grandmother. That, combined with about $5,000 she’d earned through an internship, was enough for her to pay her whole student loan in a lump sum – something she wouldn’t have done without pressure.
Vancouver man, 28, says working from home contributed to his sizable savings
“I owe everything to my mom,” says Mary, who is an account director in public relations. “On the day I got my OSAP letter that said you owe $20,000 in debt, my mom said, ‘You have to pay it all.’”
She’s now thankful her mom insisted, saying she didn’t have the financial literacy then to understand how much money she would pay in interest over the years, or how making OSAP payments would prevent her from saving for other goals.
“I don’t know how diligent I would have been paying it off,” she says, recalling student loan sales pitches that positioned the loans as “free money. ... No one read the fine print. No one really understood what interest was.”
She says others she knew succumbed to the sales pitches and left postsecondary schooling with crushing debt.
“I dated someone who had $160,000 on a student line of credit,” Mary says. She recalls wondering about that: “‘How did you walk into the bank and walk out with your name on this debt?’ They almost celebrated it.”
Mary lives in Toronto in a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment she shares with her partner. Rent is $3,300, of which she pays $1,400.
The couple moved there last year, after spending three years living in Vancouver, from 2021 to 2024. Mary says they took advantage of pandemic rent discounts and remote-work policies to make a temporary life change, paying $2,500 monthly for their two-bedroom Vancouver apartment.
“Rent was cheap, but everything else was more expensive,” she says.
That said, she had a full life there, participating in a hiking club and doing pottery and art classes. Now that she’s back in Toronto, Mary says she feels “burnt out” and mostly stays home.
“I do nothing,” she says, before acknowledging she does have hobbies, but they are quiet things such as reading and making art at home. “I am so lame.”
Her typical monthly expenses:
Investment and savings: $1,350
$500 to savings account
$500 to TFSA. “Currently cash.”
$250 to RRSP. “50 per cent cash, 50 per cent in blue chips.”
$100 to FHSA. “I don’t always put in here. I prioritize maxing out the TFSA.”
Servicing debt: $0
Household and transportation: $1,757
$1,400 to rent. “Total rent is $3,300 for two bedrooms + den, two bath.”
$50 to utilities
$50 to parking space
$50 to gasoline
$25 to car insurance. “On the policy as a secondary driver.”
$25 to car maintenance. “We use it once a month to get out of the city, so basically an oil change once a year.”
$60 on transit
$30 on Uber or taxis
$67 on cell phone
Food and drink: $450
$200 to groceries
$50 at coffee shops
$200 at restaurants
Miscellaneous: $3,707
$2,650 to paycheque deductions
$100 on entertainment
$22 on Netflix
$13 on Spotify
$50 on clothes
$15 on haircuts. “Twice a year.”
$50 on manicures. “Once every three months as a treat.”
$90 on contact lenses
$667 on vacations. “Yearly I probably go on two vacations. Somewhere cheap and then somewhere not so cheap.”
$50 on gifts
Some details may be changed to protect the privacy of the person profiled. We want to thank them for sharing their story. Are you a millennial who would like to participate in a paycheque profile? Send us an e-mail.
Participate in the Paycheque Project
Welcome to Paycheque Project, a regular series in The Globe and Mail that looks at how much young Canadians are earning – and where that money is going. We'd like to hear from young adults from a diverse range of backgrounds, geographic locations, and earnings ranges.
If you're a millennial or Gen Z and would like to participate, fill out the form below or send an email to Roma Luciw at rluciw@globeandmail.com. Please include your name, age, where you live, occupation, your biggest financial concern and your email. And remember, Paycheque Project is a judgement-free zone.
