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Name, age: Sarah, 37
Annual income: $63,700
Debt: $3,790 on credit card, $6,016 bank loan and $22,000 on line of credit
Savings: $16,300 in registered retirement savings plan (RRSP)
What she does: Dental assistant
Where she lives: Winnipeg
Top financial concern: “The future. I don’t have a pension. My partner doesn’t have a pension. We’ve seen our parents struggle, and I don’t want to do that.”
Sarah and her partner were high-school sweethearts and have spent more than 20 years together. They live in a two-bedroom apartment in central Winnipeg, and both have decent jobs: She is a dental assistant, and he is a seasonal concrete worker.
Sarah describes their financial situation as having enough money to live but barely any left for savings – especially after paying down their debt.
“I haven’t put money in my RRSP for a while as there’s little wiggle room,” said Sarah, who lived with her parents until she was 31. “The savings I have mostly came from before I moved out.”
While she was still at home, she had a deal with her mom: She promised to put $400 from each paycheque into savings, and her mom wouldn’t charge her rent.
“Either I paid her or I paid myself,” she said. “When I moved out, I probably had close to $14,000 saved. Since I have been out, I have only saved $2,000.”
Sarah’s partner has a seasonal job, which means his income swings drastically between the warmer months and the cold Winnipeg winter, when he collects employment insurance. Sarah said last winter might be his final one on EI because everything has become so expensive.
“Financially, we can’t keep him working in a seasonal position,” she said, noting he has stayed in the job a long time despite the seasonality because he loves the team he works with.
“Next winter, come hell or high water, he will be working. I don’t care if it’s at the Nike store or working as a bartender.”
Their tight budget keeps them from moving, even though they’d prefer a home that allows pets and has en-suite laundry.
“Those are the two things on our next-place list, but to get those, we are probably looking at close to $600 or $700 more in rent, and then utilities on top,” Sarah said, adding that utilities are included at her current place. “We’re very grateful for where we live, for what we pay.”
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Despite their comfortable day-to-day life, she says it’s hard to imagine what their future will look like as neither has a work pension.
“We’re in debt now, and I know it’s not a ton, but it will take five or six years to get out of that and start saving,” she said. “We want to buy a house.”
Their typical monthly expenses:
Investment and savings: $0
$0 to savings. “Trying to pay debt first.”
Servicing debt: $816
$200 to credit-card debt
$316 to bank loan. “This is for my car.”
$300 to line of credit. “The LOC and credit card is kind of just accumulations of everything I needed money for.”
Household and transportation: $1,342
$787 to rent. “My half.”
$0 on utilities. “They are all included. It’s the main reason we stay where we are.”
$175 on gasoline
$160 on car insurance
$160 on cellphone. “Service and the phone.”
$60 on internet. “My half.”
Food and drink: $535
$400 on groceries. “My portion. We try to budget $800 a month.”
$25 at coffee shops
$50 at restaurants
$60 on alcohol. “I definitely drink more in the summer.”
Miscellaneous: $1,543
$40 on going out
$50 on cannabis. “Edibles for sleep aid.”
$25 on streaming services
$40 on app subscriptions
$33 on sports. “I play slow pitch in the summer and handball in the winter.”
$34 on gym membership
$50 on haircuts
$70 on manicures
$140 on prescription. “That is after what my coverage pays.”
$200 on vacations
$29 on donations
$40 on life insurance
$35 on long-term disability insurance
$110 on extended medical coverage
$625 to income tax
$22 to professional association
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.
