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Name, age: Charleen, 53
Annual income: $115,000 from job, $3,600 from Canada Child Benefit, $5,080 from Employment Insurance (while unemployed)
Debt: $58,586 line of credit, $457,401 mortgage, $16,000 car loan
Savings: $190,000 in registered retirement savings plan (RRSP), $40,000 in registered education savings plan (RESP), $9,000 in registered disability savings plan (RDSP)
What she does: Business analyst
Where she lives: Mississauga
Top financial concern: “My son and his wellbeing. I’m just worried about having a safety net for him.”
Charleen, 53, was unemployed from June until late October after her former employer – a major bank – laid off 2,000 people after costly legal troubles related to its operations in the United States. She’d worked there for 13 years and thought it would be her lifelong employer, so she was crushed.
“I’m bipolar and I went into a bit of depression,” said Charlene, who lives in a townhouse in Mississauga with her teenage son, who has special needs.
She got severance pay for a couple months and also qualified for Employment Insurance, so she still had money coming in before starting her new job, at another bank, in late October. Her new salary is lower than before, $115,000 compared to $150,000 at the last job, and she is no longer a manager.
Charlene owes nearly $60,000 on a line of credit, but says that is not atypical. She’s used to debt and says she vacillates between paying it all off, racking up more and then paying it all off again.
“Even though I budget, I don’t stick to it,” she says. Her son, who has autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, receives expensive tutoring and is a picky eater, so she often orders takeout for him. She also says she likely overspends on vacations.
“I’ve always made a good living,” says Charlene, who studied mathematics and computer science before starting her career. “I’ve always been able to pay it off.”
Charlene is a single mother by choice, after deciding in her late thirties that time was running out for her to conceive. She got pregnant in 2009, and immediately began feeling the financial impacts of having a second person to care for. Her job at the time didn’t top up her parental leave pay, and she went into debt during her leave.
When she returned to work, she soon found that “daycare costs were almost double my mortgage. It was a really hard time financially.”
Her son is now 15. Charlene worries about his future, a fear that is pronounced because her own mother died at age 44.
“I don’t know how well he’s going to cope with getting a job,” she says, noting she’s focused her resources on things that will help her son if anything happens, such as life insurance.
She also recently opened a registered disability savings plan, allowing her to access federal government grants. “I’m just worried about having a safety net for him.”
Her typical monthly expenses:
Servicing debt: $3,500
$350 to line of credit. “My debt has always been around $50,000. I pay it off, it goes back up.”
$3,150 to mortgage. “A variable mortgage. The rates went way up and I wasn’t even paying the interest.”
Household and transportation: $2,716
$137 on property insurance
$470 on property tax
$300 on utilities
$70 to gasoline
$225 on car insurance
$543 to car payment. “Will be paid off in January.”
$400 on car repairs. “I don’t know what it is about me and cars, they always cost me a fortune.”
$75 on transit. “I work two days a week in downtown Toronto.”
$96 on Uber and toll highway
$400 on cellphones, cable and internet
Food and drink: $1,345
$520 on groceries
$575 at restaurants. “Takeout three to four times a week.”
$250 on drinks. “Mostly nonalcoholic beer.”
Miscellaneous: $3,753
$500 on entertainment. “Concerts, sporting events, streaming services.”
$40 on apps. “Google Music and Audible.”
$570 on electronics. “Two computers replaced this year.”
$70 on clothing
$385 on dog.
$410 on child’s tutoring. “It’s been really tough to keep him engaged.”
$115 on photo books. “Digital scrapbooking. I put photos in and get them printed out.”
$50 on haircuts
$50 on cosmetics
$80 on personal services
$100 on dentist and $150 on prescriptions (while unemployed)
$25 on glasses
$458 on vacations. “One major vacation a year. Boarding for the dog. Summer vacations are staycations.”
$20 on donations
$50 on gifts
$180 on life insurance
$500 on home services. “A cleaner. Lightbulbs. Yard maintenance twice a year. Snow removal.”
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.
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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.
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