{"id":706756,"date":"2026-06-01T00:15:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T00:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/706756\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T00:15:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T00:15:09","slug":"a-26-year-old-banker-earning-180000-worries-about-ai-and-how-it-changes-our-careers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/706756\/","title":{"rendered":"A 26-year-old banker earning $180,000 worries about \u2018AI and how it changes our careers\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

iStockPhoto \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Name, age: Jerome, 26<\/p>\n

Annual income: $180,000 ($140,000 with 20.5 per cent bonus, $3,000 stock-purchase matching, and 5-per-cent registered retirement savings plan, or RRSP, match)<\/p>\n

Debt: $0<\/p>\n

Savings: $46,000 in savings account, $56,000 in tax-free savings account, or TFSA, $88,500 in RRSP, $24,000 in first home savings account, or FHSA, $519,000 in other investments <\/p>\n

What he does: Banking<\/p>\n

Where he lives: Toronto<\/p>\n

Top financial concern: \u201cAI and how it changes our careers as a human race. We might all be automated out of a job at some point in the not so distant future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jerome grew up in an affluent part of Toronto, without any financial concerns. His parents wanted him to learn how to work and to save, so he was required to have a part-time job starting in Grade 10. <\/p>\n

He worked 20 hours a week at a pharmacy, and used his own money to pay for food while he was out of the house, or to take his girlfriend on dates.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was never just, \u2018You can have what you want,\u2019\u201d said Jerome, who is now 26 and still with his high school sweetheart. \u201cThey taught me the value of a dollar strongly.\u201d<\/p>\n

While his family did have a registered education savings plan, or RESP, set up, Jerome\u2019s mom also made him put half of each paycheque away to help pay for university. Between that and money he earned from jobs in his co-op program, he contributed about $60,000 of his own savings to his education and finished school debt-free. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents and the RESP paid for the rest,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s given me a step up, maybe two steps up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jerome says having no loan to pay back helped him move out of his family home earlier than some of his peers, three months after getting his first full-time job in banking. After Jerome\u2019s now-wife recently completed a master\u2019s degree, she owes about $30,000 in student debt, and also makes more than $100,000, sending their household income to about $300,000. <\/p>\n

He says they are very much on the same page when it comes to savings, and credits much of their success to her frugality. \u201cShe\u2019s a titan,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The couple puts a lot of their monthly income away with the goal of eventually buying a house. They have enough saved that they could probably do it now, but Jerome thinks it makes more sense to grow that money in the stock market until they are ready to settle down and possibly have children.<\/p>\n

Despite their early successes, he says he worries about artificial intelligence continuing to replace more and more jobs, and whether he could one day be out of work because of AI. <\/p>\n

\u201cI want to save as much as we can before that happens, if it is going to happen,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

His typical monthly expenses:<\/p>\n

Investment and savings: $4,765<\/p>\n

$583 to TFSA: \u201cMaxed my contributions at the beginning of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

$1,015 to RRSP<\/p>\n

$667 to FHSA<\/p>\n

$2,500 to non-registered investments<\/p>\n

Servicing debt: $0<\/p>\n

Household and transportation: $3,398<\/p>\n

$2,416 to rent: \u201cOne bedroom plus den with a parking space downtown.\u201d<\/p>\n

$33 to renter\u2019s insurance<\/p>\n

$60 to electricity<\/p>\n

$100 to gasoline <\/p>\n

$150 to car insurance<\/p>\n

$167 to car maintenance <\/p>\n

$200 on travel to work: \u201cI take the streetcar to work every day and my wife Ubers when she goes in.\u201d<\/p>\n

$75 on Ubers that aren\u2019t work-related<\/p>\n

$140 on cellphones: \u201cMy phone plus a plan for each of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

$57 on internet<\/p>\n

Food and drink: $825<\/p>\n

$350 on groceries: \u201cCreating meal plans out of what is on sale.\u201d<\/p>\n

$475 at restaurants: \u201cCombines our shared and personal budgets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miscellaneous: $5,511<\/p>\n

$3,131 to payroll deductions<\/p>\n

$200 combined entertainment budget<\/p>\n

$25 on cannabis: \u201cA rough estimate, likely a little high.\u201d<\/p>\n

$22 on streaming: \u201cDisney and Amazon Prime.\u201d<\/p>\n

$100 on clothing<\/p>\n

$320 for dog: \u201cPet insurance and expensive food. He has bowel disease.\u201d<\/p>\n

$30 for haircuts<\/p>\n

$13 for dentist: \u201cInsurance covers most of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

$21 for optometrist: \u201cAnnual checkup.\u201d<\/p>\n

$1,250 for vacations<\/p>\n

$67 to donations<\/p>\n

$200 on gifts<\/p>\n

$17 on life insurance<\/p>\n

$65 on long-term disability insurance<\/p>\n

$50 on dry cleaning and alterations.<\/p>\n

Some details may be changed to protect the privacy of the person profiled. <\/p>\n

Participate in the Paycheque Project<\/p>\n

\nWelcome to Paycheque Project, a regular series in The Globe and Mail that looks at how much young Canadians are earning \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

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.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: iStockPhoto \/ Getty Images Name, age: Jerome, 26 Annual income: $180,000 ($140,000 with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":706757,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,276,277,49,48,10526,61],"class_list":["post-706756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-paychequeproject","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/706757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}