Young people don\u2019t need another slew of statistics telling them their financial lives will be different from their parents\u2019 generation. They need a plan.<\/p>\n
Education is expensive, homeownership is delayed, careers have evolved. There\u2019s a new set of milestones for financial adulthood, and timelines have changed. The first goal for young people starts when they land a job, according to Chris Merrick, principal at Merrick Financial and a fee-only financial planner in Toronto.<\/p>\n
As soon as you get a paycheque, you need to draft a budget.<\/p>\n
\u201cBudgeting is more of a tool than a chore,\u201d Merrick said. \u201cThe new normal is that a budget is less of a sign of financial struggle, it is more like financial literacy, because cost of living, housing is higher. Just winging it is much harder.\u201d<\/p>\n
You can use an app or just draft up an Excel spreadsheet, he said. Your method doesn\u2019t matter as much as what the budget represents \u2014 restrained spending. For that reason, Merrick said this first milestone is likely the hardest.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you are earning and spending, and still saving a chunk, [a budget is] less important, but that\u2019s not the vast majority of people,\u201d Merrick said. \u201cIt\u2019s not buying those concert tickets, not doing that trip, not going out for dinner twice a week, not going for a few drinks.<\/p>\n
\u201cA budget essentially means lifestyle constraints. That\u2019s often the hardest one, especially when you\u2019re young, when you want to have a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next milestone should start immediately after the budget, and should land in your early to mid-20s: an emergency fund.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of saving for a house or a wedding, you need a three-to-six month emergency fund,\u201d Merrick said. \u201cEven before paying back all of your debt, just because [an emergency fund] makes you feel good too. It\u2019s psychological.\u201d<\/p>\n
After these first two goals, the typical ones that follow \u2014 paying down student debt, saving for a wedding or home, investing, saving for retirement \u2014 should not necessarily be linear, said Tony Capotosto, vice-president of Canadian banking at Scotiabank.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not like it was in the past where they would focus on one goal,\u201d Capotosto said. \u201cNow, a lot of Canadians have multiple goals, and it\u2019s having that balance. What I would say is: focus on consistency over perfection.\u201d<\/p>\n
One potential early milestone before tackling your 30s could include getting professional advice and developing a multi-goal financial plan.<\/p>\n
Capotosto said that gen Z is already ahead of earlier generations \u2014 a Scotiabank poll from February showed 47 per cent of gen Z sought advice from a financial adviser, compared with millennials at 38 per cent.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnderstanding your financial picture earlier on, and not just focusing on one goal in isolation \u2014 and how that fits into managing your debt, your savings, your investing, and also your day-to-day spending \u2014 is important,\u201d Capotosto said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can help you be more confident about your decisions as your priorities shift over time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Merrick said figuring out a budget and saving an emergency fund can be done solo with some research online, but agreed that the next few goals would benefit from advice. Becoming debt-free as soon as possible is a big win, he said, but you can pursue two wins at once.<\/p>\n
Merrick favours paying down student loans at the same time as early investing, depending on interest rates on the debt, among other factors.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of the more difficult things \u2014 which accounts to put the money to invest in \u2014 that\u2019s a little bit more complicated,\u201d Merrick said. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to be rich to talk to a financial planner.\u201d<\/p>\n
It’s more normal now for student debt to last deep into your 30s, Merrick noted, and for some, homeownership might land in your 40s.<\/p>\n
Purchasing a home is a major milestone for many Canadians, but it\u2019s not necessarily a mandatory one. \u201cRent and invest the difference\u201d is still a viable alternative to build net worth over a lifetime, Merrick said, noting how common that strategy is in the rest of the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s how they fund retirement. Here, everyone\u2019s real estate obsessed. Buying a house is kind of a measure of success in society.\u201d<\/p>\n
More broadly, Merrick believes the biggest shift for young Canadians will be to reduce their focus on assets, and instead measure their financial well-being on their habits. Do they have a plan, are they contributing to multiple priorities, are they following the budget?<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got a system, right? You\u2019ve got an emergency fund. You contribute a set amount each month, you put it into the right accounts, you\u2019re building toward these things,\u201d Merrick said, \u201cas opposed to just buying a house at a certain age.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having a plan and following it is the ultimate aim, with the individual goals mattering less, Capotosto said. The same Scotiabank poll found that more than half of gen Z Canadians financially struggle to balance wants with needs.<\/p>\n
\u201cCompared to other generations, it\u2019s more about finding consistent behaviours,\u201d Capotosto said.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 15, 2026.<\/p>\n
Nina Dragicevic, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Young people don\u2019t need another slew of statistics telling them their financial lives will be different from their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":706735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[28,305136,741,18682,140206,86584,305139,305140,147,530,305138,30333,59291,305137],"class_list":["post-706734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-chris-merrick","tag-emergency-fund","tag-financial-literacy","tag-financial-plan","tag-financial-planner","tag-financial-struggle","tag-merrick-financial","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-scotiabank","tag-student-debt","tag-the-canadian-press","tag-tony-capotosto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/706735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}