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Name, age: Russ, 38
Annual income: $157,920 base salary plus frequent overtime, $15,600 from rental property
Debt: $106,000 in line of credit, $116,000 on condo
Savings: $45,000 in savings account, $160,000 in tax-free savings account (TFSA), $285,000 in registered retirement savings plan (RRSP), $40,000 in first-home savings account, $305,000 in other investments
What he does: Health care manager
Where he lives: Nunavut
Top financial concern: Making sure he saves enough to care for his brother, who has cerebral palsy. “The amount I might need is an unknown black box.”
Russ grew up in a trailer house in rural Alberta, the child of new immigrants who didn’t have a lot of money.
But his parents worked hard to give their three children a good upbringing, including regular trips overseas to maintain their connection with family and the culture of their home country.
He went to university with dreams of being a doctor, but internal pressure to succeed and mental health challenges weighed heavily on him.
“University was not a good experience for me, unfortunately,” says Russ. “It took me six years. I was thinking of going to med school and it didn’t work out.”
Instead, he pursued a different field in health care, and moved to Nunavut for work. What he discovered is that he loves the people and landscape of the Arctic.
He has enjoyed learning about Inuit culture and hearing stories from elders, and has also met people from all over Canada and the world who have moved there to take jobs.
“There’s many people here from Western African countries, a big francophone population and a lot of people from Newfoundland,” he said, describing his hospital colleagues as multicultural and collaborative.
“We have this mutual respect and understanding of what we do and how important it is – like, ‘let’s improve health care up here’ – and that’s been the most rewarding part of my career.”
Health care worker earning $143,000 can’t imagine 26 more years in such a stressful field
Russ left school $100,000 in debt, but gets paid well in his field in the North.
“I was only planning to stay a few years, but it became a career,” said Russ, who’s now a manager in his department. “I’ve worked my way out of debt and started building up my savings and investments.
“My pay is over double what an average person in my profession makes,” he said. “I am afraid I won’t be able to find equivalent work when I do move back to Alberta.”
Russ has a 47-year-old brother in Alberta with cerebral palsy, and expects to eventually be his main caregiver. His parents, who are 73, are starting to struggle with certain physical tasks in that role.
Russ bought a condo in Alberta to give his brother a secure place to live and is saving as much as he can because he doesn’t know when his brother, who is currently healthy, may need expensive long-term care.
“We’re trying to aggressively save in his RDSP,” said Russ, who will spend his seven-week vacation this year working in another northern hospital to make extra money. “Private facilities could be $2,000 to 4,000 a month.”
His typical monthly expenses:
Investment and savings: $4,653
$803 to work pension. “Federal public service pension.”
$100 to savings account
$583 to TFSA. “Stocks and exchange-traded funds.”
$1,100 to RRSP. “Saskatchewan Pension Plan, ETFs and stocks.”
$667 to FHSA. “I didn’t use my FHSA for the condo as it’s a rental for my brother.”
$400 to registered disability savings plan. “Periodic transfers to my brother’s RDSP.)
$1,000 to other investments. “Using income from these to pay off the line of credit.”
Servicing debt: $2,210
$505 to line of credit. “I borrowed to invest in non-registered investments.”
$1,705 to mortgage. “I own the condo where my brother lives. He’s not allowed to build assets because he’s on disability.”
Household and transportation: $1,597
$1,122 to rent. “The Department of Health provides an apartment. It comes right off my paycheque.”
$68 to home insurance. “My apartment and my brother’s condo.”
$160 for utilities
$50 to gasoline. “I don’t own a car, but use a friend’s.”
$50 to car maintenance. “Share maintenance for friend’s car.”
$32 to cellphone
$115 on internet. “Starlink dish.”
Food and drink: $930
$800 to groceries.
$100 at restaurants. “Not a lot of options here. Mostly pizza from the local place. We are very big on potlucks here.”
$30 on alcohol. “I drink very infrequently. It’s expensive at the Beer and Wine Store.”
Miscellaneous: $7,975
$3,900 to payroll deductions
$482 to condo fees
$159 to condo property tax
$7 on CBC Gem
$30 on apps. “Music, fitness tracking, audiobooks.”
$150 on clothing
$200 to contact lenses
$1,250 to vacations. “Air travel is expensive.”
$300 to donations. “A few charities monthly.”
$300 to gifts.
$1,150 to life insurance. “Paying extra to universal life insurance to maximize the cash value.”
$30 to long-term disability insurance
$17 to credit-card fees. “AMEX Cobalt. The points help subsidize my vacations.”
Some details may be changed to protect the privacy of the person profiled. We want to thank them for sharing their story.
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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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