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Name, age: Tish, 43
Annual income: $70,370 from two jobs, $5,760 from child support, $5,801 from Canada Child Benefit
Debt: $6,877 student debt, $3,025 consumer proposal, around $19,000 car loan
Savings: $21,581 in registered education savings plan (RESP)
What she does: Audiometric technician, newborn hearing screener
Where she lives: Burnaby, B.C.
Top financial concern: “Keeping up with bills and not being able to save.”
Tish, a single mother of two teenagers, keeps her household afloat by working two jobs, testing people’s hearing. She will soon work even harder, driven by the desire to pay off her debts.
“I just got a full-time job, and will also keep my weekend job,” says Tish, who is paying off a consumer proposal. “I fully intend to work seven days a week until I can’t.”
Tish grew up in British Columbia and travelled around the region working different jobs after high school, before going to college for film studies. She met her ex-husband at age 20, got married at 22, and had two children – who are now teenagers – in her late twenties.
They separated in 2016 and she has been a single parent since then, which she says she prefers.
During the relationship, Tish cleaned houses while juggling childcare, but her husband had been the main breadwinner. Their break-up came around the time of her father’s death, which left her with an inheritance of about $200,000 that covered her expenses for several years and helped her go back to school to become a hearing instrument practitioner.
She graduated in 2020, and was just launching her career when the pandemic hit. She went on Employment Insurance, and further upgraded her skills with a course on testing hearing on construction sites.
As things opened up, that extra qualification helped her cobble together a pastiche of part-time and casual jobs testing hearing, both on job sites and for newborn babies. She will continue testing newborns on weekends going forward, while her full-time job will have a wider range of hearing-test-related tasks.
Winnipeg geologist earning $117,000 is getting ready to sell his first home
Tish’s debt began mounting once her inheritance ran out and they moved to a more expensive apartment closer to the kids’ school.
Her consumer debt was $50,000 in 2023, negotiated down to $16,000 through the consumer proposal system. She has about $3,000 remaining and says it will be a “relief” to soon pay it off.
It will mean “one less bill, a little more breathing room,” Tish says. “Everything, expense-wise, slowly goes up and up, so it will be very nice to have one thing go down.”
Tish says she is used to working hard, but wishes she had more time to be with her kids.
“I’ve had to sacrifice a lot of time with my kids to keep us afloat,” she says. “That’s really the hardest thing for me. We have a very close relationship.”
Her typical monthly expenses:
Investment and savings: $505
$505 to work pension
Servicing debt: $776
$275 to consumer proposal. “I had really good credit before and now my credit is really bad.”
$501 to car payment. “Selling it and going back to transit and car-share programs is always an option if needed.”
Household and transportation: $3,107
$2,200 to rent
$28 to renter’s insurance
$280 to gasoline
$170 to car insurance
$200 to car maintenance. “Including oil changes, brake pads, tires, and other maintenance.”
$64 for transit. “Monthly pass for one child. Their dad pays for the other.”
$165 on two cell phones and plans
Food and drink: $1,050
$800 for groceries
$50 at coffee shops
$200 at restaurants. “Very little eating out, but definitely some ordering in.”
Miscellaneous: $2,045
$1,011 to income tax, Canada Pension Plan and Employment Insurance
$114 to union dues
$21 on streaming services
$24 on Spotify
$50 on clothes
$200 on pets. “Two cats, two guinea pigs, one bearded dragon (he is the least expensive to keep).”
$50 on kids’ hobbies. “Son builds model kits, daughter often comes up with different creative endeavours.”
$25 on haircuts
$100 on vacations. “A two-week road trip in the summer.”
$120 in donations
$50 on gifts. “Kids and close family at Christmas.”
$28 on life insurance
$52 on car loan insurance. “Will make sure my loan gets paid off in full in the event of a write-off accident.”
$100 to dentist. “I need a crown that my benefits won’t cover.”
$100 to prescriptions. “In addition to what benefits pay.”
Some details may be changed to protect the privacy of the person profiled.
Participate in the Paycheque Project
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.
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 [email protected]. 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.
