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Name, age: Brody, 31
Annual income: $54,000, plus about $8,000 a year from the Canada Child Benefit
Debt: $4,000 in credit-card debt
Savings: $300 in savings account
What she does: Carpenter
Where she lives: A village on the outskirts of Hamilton.
Top financial concern: “My credit-card debt … I would like to be at zero, and be saving money instead. I would like to be able to buy my own place again.”
Brody co-owned a mobile home in British Columbia before selling it to move east. Now, given today’s real estate prices, she’s wondering when she’ll be a homeowner again.
“I don’t really have a timeline for it, but I definitely want to get my schooling done and start looking into a town further north,” says the 31-year-old carpenter, currently in training to get her Red Seal, the national standard in the skilled trades. Where she works, a factory that makes prefabricated buildings, the Red Seal certification would boost her hourly wage to $45 from $26.30.
Brody is from a small town in B.C. and moved to Ontario a few years ago, so she feels like she’s still getting the lay of the land. She lives in a village that is technically part of Hamilton and has seen the sharp rise in housing prices in the rest of the municipality, where the average home cost was $755,953 in November, according to the Realtors Association of Hamilton-Burlington. That compares with around $548,913 in 2017, and $359,971 in 2012.
“I think I want to get back to a smaller town, where real estate would be cheaper.”
Brody got $9,000 from the sale of the mobile home, which she used to help fund the move to Ontario with a partner. They had a child together and have since separated. Brody lives off of her work income and the Canada Child Benefit, a tax-free federal monthly benefit meant to help lower-income families with the cost of raising kids.
It’s tough, but she says it’s way better than when she was on parental leave, where she only earned a portion of her income but was still sharing bills with her then-partner.
“I was in credit-card debt from having a baby,” says Brody, who lives in a one-bedroom apartment in a large house that she shares with her son, age 3, half of the time.
The federal childcare subsidy brought her daycare costs down recently, and her child’s grandparents look after him two days a week. She’s thankful to have a pension and benefits through her work, and says she’d like to get her credit card paid off so she can start saving for longer-term goals.
“The idea is to pay it off every pay period but it’s been a bit of a struggle more recently,” she said, noting her car, a 2003 model, needed several big-ticket repairs in the past year. “I’ve always tried to stay debt-free. That four grand [I owe] is always in the back of my mind.”
Her typical monthly expenses:
Investment and savings: $0-$100
$0-$100 to savings account
$0 to tax-free savings account (TFSA). “I do want to open up a TFSA … but honestly I don’t really think of retirement very much yet.”
Servicing debt: $200
$200 in credit-card payments
Household and transportation: $2,520
$1,200 in rent
$450 on gas. “I drive quite a bit.”
$100 to car insurance
$300 to car repairs. “The last couple months I had a couple breakdowns that probably cost around $1,000 total.”
$90 to cellphone
$30 to internet. “It’s shared with the other tenants.”
$350 in childcare. “He’s in three days a week.”
Food and drink: $580
$450 on groceries.
$40 at coffee shops
$20 on eating out. “I don’t splurge too much.”
$20 on concerts and going out
$50 on alcohol
Miscellaneous: $582
$10 on cannabis
$12 on Netflix
$40 on clothes. “Value Village isn’t so cheap anymore, but it’s still cheaper than brand new.”
$100 on sports.
$200 on pets. “I have a cat and dog but both live with my ex. I can’t have pets at my place.”
$20 on cosmetics
$200 on vacations. “Trips to visit family in B.C.”
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 or Gen Z who would like to participate in a Paycheque Project? Send us an e-mail.
