Rohan reduced his borrowing costs by over $50,000

Meet Rohan

• Toronto resident mid 30’s who immigrated to Canada in 2008

• Masters degree

• Married to Saba who recently completed her PHD. She has secured a stable job with the government but will start in 12 months after taking unpaid maternity leave

• Parent to a new new, very cute baby boy who like all baby boys sleeps little and needs lots of cuddles and diaper changes

• Social entrepreneur, 18 months into starting his own business

• Personal income of under $40,000

• Debt consisting of student loans and credit card in $30 k range

• 3 words to describe money: necessity, trust, convenience

Rohan is an entrepreneur with a new baby who immigrated to Canada just over 10 years ago.  As you can imagine, his life is hectic and requires significant ball juggling. 

Growing up in Bangladesh, Rohan wasn’t rich but he also never felt poor.  His family always had enough money for the important things in life like education.

After completing his Master’s degree, Rohan came to Canada to further pursue his education.  It was here that money management became a critical part of his world.   Money was his “currency of independence”. 

Now in a foreign country, he had to figure out the banking system as well as how to pay for housing, food, clothes, education.  It was stressful to have to make all those decisions.  It also required a significant amount of discipline - every time he bought something, he had to think about the implications of the purchase. 

Upon completing his education, Rohan was very interested in the new and emerging space of social enterprise.  Feeling hopeful about the market opportunity and his ability to contribute to this area of work, Rohan did not look for a traditional job.  He began working independently and slowly built the strategy and foundation for his business. This means that at the beginning, it was mostly networking and volunteering, and then one day he got his first client.  Slowly but surely he has been meeting people and growing his client base, incorporating his own business in May 2015. 

What really keeps Rohan going is the success in the small steps; incremental growth in his clients and the macro vision of understanding the potential and seeing the market grow in this space. 

Rohan currently feels a bit of financial stress but it is softened by his hope for the future.  His greatest amount of stress is from being an entrepreneur, wearing a million different hats.  From marketing to service delivery, accounting to project management, Rohan is always juggling and switching gears.

This complexity of entrepreneurship has taken up the majority of Rohan’s brain space and time.  It has prevented him from pushing forward on some personal financial pieces.  In particular, Rohan was recently dealing with the high costs of credit card debt.  As self-employed and with no assets, he has had difficulty getting reasonably priced loans from traditional banks. 

The lack of good options and limited amount of time to look for solutions, led Rohan to focus on building his business instead of addressing the high cost of his credit.  

Rohan and his wife had a goal of buying a home and raising a family. After some coaching through Strive, Rohan began to look at the costs and to better understand the interest associated with his credit card debt. Using free amortization tools, Rohan realized that he would be paying over $65k in interest on a $30k credit card balance if he continued with minimum payments (he was paying $500 monthly with 19% interest). 

ARGH!!!!

Rohan started pushing for solutions, spoke to his bank, got a card at 12 % interest and was accepted for a $4,000 loan from Borrowell.  Over the lifetime of his loan, this is expected to save him over $50,000.  He also went through a review of his expenses and worked on reducing those cutting out cable and finding a new internet service provider. 

Through this process, Rohan realized that even though he had tried before and options did not seem available, he could make progress by continuing to push forward.  His work in pushing past the "no's" he had previously received and talking to different bank representatives at different institutions paid off. 

Overall, these are good steps forward in Rohan’s journey.  He still has more work to do but he is taking control and reducing the amount of money he is paying in fees.  This means more money for him and his family to spend on whatever they would like.

When I think about Rohan's experience, I see how difficult it is for newcomers with no credit history or assets to access capital at reasonable rates.  I also think about the importance and value of educating newcomers on our banking system, capital options and the process of seeking out viable solutions so that we are enabling new Canadians to succeed and help grow our economy. 

If you enjoyed this article and think it was helpful, please share it. If you have suggestions for others and or would like to tell your story, please comment or send Strive an email.

Avani's a single mother who went from minimum wage to $90,000 annually

As the saying goes, when life serves you lemons, you make lemonade.  Despite the challenges, that is what Avani a single mother of two managed to do.   Avani immigrated to Canada almost 15 years ago; she was driven by the opportunity to live in a country that offered economic growth, high standards of living, best in class education and peace of mind.

Meet Avani

• Early 40’s

• Specialized dialysis nurse

• Immigrated to Canada almost 15 years ago

• Studied nursing internationally and re-certified in Canada

• Started earning minimum wage

• Personal income of $90,000

Born and educated in India, Avani always believed that she deserved more than she was able to get in her country.  She was confident in her ability to put in the hard work needed for achieving success. Immediately after finishing her nursing school, Avani was offered a job in Dubai as a nurse. She worked in Dubai for a few years and eventually decided to immigrate to Canada.

In her late twenties, newly married Avani was excited about starting life in Canada, arriving with a small savings of $20,000.  Avani and her husband planned their life and thought carefully about how they were going to use their small savings to cover the all the expenses they were about to face.  They moved into a small basement and started hunting for jobs immediately.

Avani began working as a personal caregiver while her husband started working at KFC. Earning minimum wage, they brought in around $3,000 a month.  Barely able to make ends meet, they eventually exhausted their savings and were living paycheque to paycheque.   

As Avani  was unable to practice as a nurse until she passed the Canadian Registered Nursing exam, they saw the exam as the gateway to helping them live a more comfortable life. Given that hourly wages for nurses in Ontario start at $21.75 an hour and go as high as $40 an hour with benefits[1], passing the exam would help them leap frog into a significantly higher income bracket.

 Avani  was determined to pass the exam because she knew that being a Registered Nurse would more than double her income. For Avani , the exam became her only priority. She would work long hours and then study. “We had not even seen or visited the shops in our neighborhood yet, thinking we will have ample amount of time for that later.” With persistence and determination, she passed the exam in her first attempt and secured a full-time job at McKenzie Healthcare.

There was no looking back for her after that. It was just perfect and everything was finally falling into place. They moved into a bigger and better house, bought a car, and had two kids.  Within 3 years in Canada, Avani was once again happy and stable.

But destiny had other plans. Within a few months of working at McKenzie Health, her husband started to reject both his financial and emotional responsibilities.  Avani became the sole earner, covering all the rent and expenses. Things started to spiral downward quickly.  A frustrated Avani, thinking of the well being of the kids who were now 5, and 2 years old, decided to leave her husband.  She dreamed of a stress free and happier life.

The divorce was messy with her husband refusing to take on any responsibility for the kids. After months of arguments and counter arguments, Avani agreed to forgo any alimony or child support in exchange for full custody of her kids. Now she had the responsibility of bringing up two kids all by herself. This gave her a sense of urgency and responsibility, which was a source of strength.

 She started working harder and was determined to excel in her career, move away from distractions, focus and find ways to save money!

Avani ’s salary now ranged from $40,000 to $50,000.   and her  kids’ education and well being took center stage. She decided to move to a smaller town to cut down on her rent and expenses. “Moving to a smaller town was one of the best decisions of my life.” She was able to reduce her rent by 20% and her other monthly expense like grocery and travel by 10-15%. Avani then thought of how she could fulfill her dreams of owning a house with this extra sum. She started setting small goals, and developed a focus on ways to earn more and spend less. Simple logic she says.

Once the kids were settled in with their new school, neighbourhood and studies, Avani started doing 10 hour shifts as this was the only way she could earn enough to realize her dreams. “The cost of living has more than doubled since I first moved to Canada. The expenses keep increasing but the pay remained the same.” Soon the 10 hr shifts increased to 12 hour shifts and shuttling between two hospitals. This took a toll on her ability to give time to her kids. 

Economic security was important to her and she did not see another way to get it. She asked her parents to come live with her from time to time and she had to fork out quite a sum on a nanny. She also worked hard to spend as much quality time with the kids on weekends and holidays.

Day to day, Avani worked on earning more and spending less. 

She made sure that she kept aside at least $100-$200 every paycheque. Being a self made independent mother she taught her kids from a very young age the importance and value of money. “Kids want lot of stuff, stuff which is not important. I would only buy things that were important and justified the money spent.” Every penny was carefully accounted for.  Avani was careful and deliberate about her expenses on everything from food and clothing to appliances and gadgets.

Within 5 years, she had put aside over $10,000 from her paycheque savings, and combined with all her tax benefits and bonuses, she was able to build savings of $50,000. This period was a time of extreme practicality, frugality and prudence.  She trained for specialized medical areas and became a highly recommended and sought after dialysis nurse, earning $90,000 annually.

Finally her long unfulfilled dream of becoming a homeowner was on the verge of realization. She was approved for a home loan.

Today Avani  is the proud owner of a beautiful 4 bedroom independent house with a monthly mortgage of $2,000.  A major chunk of her salary still goes towards the mortgage and other expenses but she believes it is worth it.  It gives her security, fulfills her need be independent and gives the children a good home and real life education on the importance of working hard for your goals and managing money.  She contributes regularly towards her RRSP to her permitted limit and has also invested in mutual funds. She showed good investment acumen and bought a few plots of land in India. She believes these will secure her retirement or prove to be a good asset to liquidate in case of an emergency.

 Having achieved her dream house and successfully raising her kids on her own, she is happy and proud of all she has accomplished. 

Avani ’s tips to manage your money!

• Try to earn more and spend less

• Put aside small amounts whenever you can

• Buy things you need not want

• Put yourself in environments that are less expensive

• Pre-authorize payments on all your bills

• Stick to the grocery list, don’t overspend

[1] Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, Retrieved April 26 from http://careersinnursing.ca/new-grads-and-job-seekers/find-nursing-job/dollars-and-sense-what-are-nurses-paid

Sam started stocking shelves and now owns his own business

Meet Sam:

• Mid 50’s

• Born in East Africa and immigrated to Canada in his teens

• Rents an apartment with his wife. Has one daughter and 2 grandchildren

• Has retirement savings invested the stock market

• Independently employed and so pension will be limited to Old Age Security and Canadian Pension Plan

• His wife will have a pension as she works in the public service

In all honesty, I have never met anyone like Sam before.  He is a hard work hustling grandfather entrepreneur who has done it all, loves yoga and is still dancing up a storm in Zumba.  Sam is a locksmith who saved me from the $300 key copying fee the Subaru dealership wanted to charge me. 

Sam immigrated to Canada in 1980 from East Africa.  He had just finished high school and his brother sponsored both him and his mother to come over.  Sam thought he was coming to Canada to go to school but living with his brother didn’t work out so Sam became responsible for supporting both himself and his mother. 

With no education, limited English and no Canadian experience, Sam got a full time job working at the Grand & Toy warehouse and a part time job working as an usher. Sam knew the drill and that he was not going to be able to live better at these wages so he was continuously looking for ways to get ahead.  He always dreamed of working for himself. 

He tried to find places where he could be more valued and earn more with his limited skill set. He decided to get his truck-driving license and used that to get a job driving Grand & Toy trucks.  This provided a bit of a small salary bump.

Around this time, Sam met a Lindsay – a beautiful young girl who was here from the UK as a nanny.  The next thing you know they got pregnant – damn how did that happen asks Sam?  Sam and Lindsay got married, got their own apartment and got through a tough first few years.  Sam was still earning little and was now supporting a new baby as well as giving his mother money to help support her. 

He thought being a mechanic would increase his prospects so he moved in that direction but the compensation was still so far from being what he wanted.  In 1990, in his late 20’s Sam got his cab driving license.  He continued to work full time as a mechanic but would drive cab 24 hours through the weekend.  He was making more money on the weekends than in the entire week as a mechanic. 

Weren’t you frustrated – I asked?  That’s life, said Sam. 

Sam went on to have 3 cabs.  He hired a manager to organize all the cabs and manage the administration.  Unfortunately she stole from him, he lost all the money he made and had to sell the two cabs.  He went back to just driving cab for himself. 

From here Sam went on to try his hand at a breadth of other areas from trying to get a job in an office to owning a balloon company, import / export business and then 3 hot dog stands in the Toronto area.  All this time Sam was busting his butt with 16-hour days.  He was making good money but the hours were crazy.

One day one of Sam’s employees was complaining about how he had to pay $300 for a locksmith to spend 30 minutes and let him into his house.  Sam thought – now there's a business model.

So Sam set off to learn more about the industry and opportunities within it.  Deciding that this might be a good fit, he started taking some courses– he did this while keeping the hot dog stands.  He found a job with a locksmith who was an expert and was willing to teach him.  It was poorly paid, probably just above minimum wage but Sam knew that if he learned the trade he could build a viable business.

Sam's mobile workshop

Close to two decades later and Sam has built a nice business for himself.  He finally gets to have a good lifestyle.  He gets up, does yoga, and starts his workday. He enjoys the work and connecting with people he meets along the way.  He loves the flexibility and the control and he finally makes good money.

Sam comes home at normal hours and gets to Zumba in the evening.  He does not own a house because his wife never wanted to buy one but he does have a reserve of funds stashed away for retirement and his wife is in the public sector so will have a pension.   He is not worried about retirement and feels that everything will work out. 

In talking to Sam, I can immediately see 3 things that have made him successful:

• Attitude; Sam has an attitude that is all about moving ahead. His thinking is really focused on “you are where you are and you have to figure out the best way to move forward”. There is no doubt that it sucked to not have an education and was extremely difficult to support his mother and soon after a wife and baby. It was frustrating and depressing to have his employee steal from him. And he was very pissed when he lost a chunk of stocks to the Nortel collapse. But through all this, Sam's attitude and focus was to keep going, to look for something that would get him to the next step, something he would like and that would value his time and effort
  

• Openness; Sam probably sampled close to 15 different careers before hitting on locksmithing. Although, he was very challenged by entry barriers, he continuously engaged and learned from people from all walks of life. He was open to new ideas and opportunities. He researched and used common sense to evaluate opportunities
  

• Commitment to learning; Sam has an unbelievable commitment to learning. He takes a piece of learning out of each experience. When he was at Grand & Toy, there was profit sharing in the warehouse and he realized the incentive it had on him. Learning from this, he was probably one of the only hot dog stand owners to allocate a percentage of profits to his workers and to invest in providing a breadth of different employee benefits. His commitment to learning means that he was never too proud to start at the bottom. His focus is always on moving forward

When I think about Sam’s experience, I can’t help but admire Sam's resilience.  I think about how Sam's learning and risks were all at his own expense.  He spent decades independently figuring out how to increase his success with very limited opportunities and examples of success.  This was costly, forcing him to lose his money and have to restart more than once. 

Most importantly, I think about how much more our society would have benefited from his intellect, commitment and entrepreneurial spirit if we had managed to leverage his skills earlier. I can easily envision how many jobs he would have created and how much others would have learned from him had he not been stuck working 16 hour days just to make ends meet. 

*If you enjoyed this article and think it was helpful, please share it. If you have suggestions for others and or would like to tell your story, please comment or send Strive an email.

Delyse self advocates her way from immigrant to a university student

Meet Delyse

● Mother of 12-year-old daughter

● Newcomer to Canada

● Bachelor of Arts in Communications

● Student debt of $40 - $45,000

● Emergency savings of 2,000 that she will dip into when OSAP funds are low

 Saying that Delyse has overcome many challenges is an understatement. Delyse was born in a country where violence against women is still prevalent; in that country nearly 1 in 5 women experience sexual violence perpetrated by someone other than a partner and intimate partner violence is even higher. Delyse herself faced sexual violence as a child and young teenager. Delyse was committed to finishing school, breaking the cycle of violence and building a good life for herself and later for her baby daughter.

Delyse was raised by a combination of relatives and although her family struggled financially, her father was able to send money home from the US to pay for her school. At 18 she started volunteering at a local radio station and immediately loved it. Working without compensation presented challenges and while Delyse sometimes had difficulty finding bus fare, she still chose to go as she enjoyed having something to focus on.   When she finished high school, the radio station hired her.

After 7 years of working, Delyse’s boss resigned and Delyse became the interim manager.  Two years into her role as interim manager, the station hired a manager with more education but less experience. They asked Delyse to train the new manager even though they were paying Delyse less than the new person. Delyse felt cheated, undervalued and disrespected.

Delyse came to Canada to make a better life for herself and her young daughter. Delyse left her daughter with a family member back home while Delyse tried to get settled in Canada. It was overwhelming to arrive in Canada with nothing and to face such limited job options, but Delyse never lost sight of her goals to earn enough to go back to school and to bring her daughter up in Canada.

Her first job was as a weekend babysitter. She was initially told she was going to be paid $160 but when she finally received her pay, the family had paid her only $100. Delyse felt that she had no power to complain. She soon left the family and got a job as a cleaning lady, in which she would work from 5:30 am to 5:30 pm 5 days a week. At the end of the first month, she was paid only $350 which was barely enough to pay for her rent and significantly less than she needed to make to be able to afford to go back to school

In the meantime, Delyse started having issues with her landlord. After about 3 years of living in the basement with her aunt, collectively paying $700 a month, they started to have no heat. The landlord started to say the hydro bill was too high and the heat and hot water started to break through the winters.

But Delyse was learning how to advocate for herself and learned how to process a complaint. It was then that she heard a bridging program at a nearby university. She used her self-advocacy skills to learn more about the requirements, the value and benefits for her. She also spent time thinking about whether or not this was the right move.

As she had been thrown into new situations her entire life, Delyse, very much valued the transition supports offered in the bridging program. She applied for OSAP, quit her job as a cleaner, moved close to campus, started the process of moving her daughter here. In September of that year, Delyse began her university career at the age of 29.

Delyse was finally reunited with her daughter in Canada and began the process of dealing with the challenges of introducing a 12 year old into Canadian culture.

Delyse finished her undergraduate degree with just over $40,000 in OSAP debt. Now her next big challenge is to decide whether to continue her education and apply for a Master’s degree or work for a while before applying to do post-graduate studies.

Looking at Delyse’s story, you can really see how 3 things made her successful: 1) a focus on her dream of being economically independent and building a better life, 2) a commitment to building her capacity which enabled her to advocate for herself, push her dreams forward, and recognize what levers were available to her, and 3) an ability to problem solve the myriad of challenges that came her way.

From a systems perspective, when I listen to Delyse, I sadly realize she is not alone. There countless other women in similar a position with no power and no clarity on how to get out. They are facing a “ Whack-A–Mole” series of problems.

Unfortunately lack of financial resources exacerbates these challenges. Without alternatives, many women get stuck in relationships with intimate partner violence.  Without the knowledge of how to advocate for themselves, many youth may be vulnerable to abuses in the workplace and in the home.

How might we create a society where individuals have the economic resiliency necessary to problem solve their way through life’s many challenges?  How might we create a society where all individuals have access to meaningful work, the ability to earn a living wage and pay for investments in education and individual advancement?

Fiona graduated & went from unemployment to a goal of being mortgage free

Fiona is unbelievably successful.  You would not know it right away. She does not sport the traditional symbols of expensive clothes and lavish travel we often use to distinguish the successful from the not.  Instead, she makes you understand what true success is.

Fiona was born in the Scotland to a middle class family.  Her mother was a nurse who worked nightshifts and tried to sleep during the day and her father was an independent house painter.   Given the working hours of her parents, Fiona was a latch key kid, spending lots of time with grandparents, neighbours and playing in a nearby forest with her sister.

Meet Fiona

●      Late 30’s

●      Immigrated to Canada from Scotland with her family when she was 11

●      Completed a Masters of Information Studies

●      Works in the not for profit sector

●      Personal income in the range of $45,000 to $60,000

Canada was recruiting nurses in the early 90’s, so her parents, driven by the opportunity for a better life, decided to immigrate.  Fiona was 11.  They moved into the basement of a friend’s house for a couple of months until they found a nearby rental home.  They then lived frugally with 2nd hand clothes for Fiona and her sister.  It took them two years to get settled, get jobs and save up a small down payment.  They bought their first house in Pickering in 1993 when Fiona was 13.

High school was a difficult time to enter a new school.  Kids can be mean, especially to new people who aren’t from the same cookie cutter.  Fiona loved reading, being outdoors and hanging out with her best friend Madeleine.  She was not interested in stuff, not interested in the same Roots sweatshirt everyone was wearing and certainly not interested in going to these “weird, immaculate, giant malls” that seemed to be everywhere.  Because she loved no cost activities and had distaste for consumption, Fiona did not see a reason to have a part time job in high school. 

Fiona was very fortunate that her parents agreed to pay for her undergrad degree and her 1st year of living expenses.  She recognizes the enormous impact of their investment.  With their support, Fiona went off to pursue a general arts degree at York University in Toronto.  There she met Andrew who was 6 years older and doing his PHD in philosophy. 

At the beginning of her second year of university, they moved into a 400 square foot bachelor apartment at Queen & Dufferin and paid $600 monthly in rent.  They had 2 small chests for drawers, a coat rack and a hot plate.  Fiona got a job at the information booth at the local mall and worked 20 hours a week for $10.00 an hour in addition to going to school.   Andrew paid the rent as he was a TA and was earning more.  Fiona paid all the groceries and house bills. They lived there for four years.

During this period, Fiona had become interested in religious studies and thought she would like to be an academic like Andrew.  She applied for her Masters at Laurier and off they went.  Rent in Kitchener was more affordable so they were able to get a nicer apartment with a balcony and paid $50 less a month. 

Fiona quickly realized that she had no interest in being an academic “spending years on researching something to get it into a journal that no one was going to read”. She was paying for a degree that was not going to take her anywhere she wanted to be. 

The silver lining was that through her research she realized that she loved organizing information and finding core insights that had meaningful value.  She knew this was a skill that had job opportunities and so she finished up her Masters in religion and applied to the University of Toronto for a Master of Information Studies. 

Andrew and Fiona returned to Toronto to find that they could barely afford a place to live – everything was at least $250 higher than what they had been paying in Kitchener.  They moved into a horrendous apartment at St.Clair and Dufferin. where she had to call the police on neighbours because she thought they were going to kill each other.  They lived there for 2 years.

Fiona completed her degree in 2009 and began looking for work during a period of significant recession.  She struggled.  She secured an 8-month contract with the government fixing a program database.  After that contract she was unemployed again.  It was the most stressful time in her life; financially and emotionally. 

Fiona met an old friend at a conference and he introduced her to a small not for profit looking for some database support.  Fiona began providing volunteer database support 2 days a week. Through this, she learned about another not for profit looking for a full time database manager.  Fiona applied and started full time in 2012.  She loves the work, the people, the cause and she is happy. 

In this role, she has earned between $45,000 & $60,000 annually.  She knows she could earn significantly more in the private sector where the average salary for the work she does is between $70,000 & $90,000 annually.  She chooses to stay where she is because she understands the difficulty in finding an organization consistent with her values, including being part of a small team.

In 2011, her partner inherited $1 million after his grandfather had passed away.  Andrew decided to buy a house.  Given they both had distaste for consumerism, they looked for something he could afford to buy outright and that would leave him with money for his future.   He spent $200k on a small 2-bedroom bungalow in Scarborough.  In 2014, after being common law for 15 years, Andrew decided he wanted to live a more off the grid lifestyle and moved to northern Ontario.  They had the house appraised for $380 k and Fiona secured a mortgage of $190k to buy out his half. 

Fiona has a goal of being mortgage free.  She has been focused on paying down as much of her mortgage as possible and has shaved 12 years off her payment period.  She is conservative from a financial perspective and so has also maxed out her TFSA’s and has a healthy RRSP account. 

Fiona is values driven in all her efforts making sure her decisions are consistent with who she is and what she wants. 

• She is a meticulous and frugal budgeter

• She tracks everything she spends on a master spreadsheet

• She cooks vegetarian spending less than $100 a month on groceries and $30 a month on entertainment

• Everything she purchases is purposeful and frequently second hand

The biggest symbol of her values is how she spends her time.  She enjoys spending time with her boyfriend, friends, traveling (she was in Florida and Europe this year) and volunteering in her community.  She is part of 6 community groups and has fun participating in and organizing everything from cycling events to not for profit data management groups. This is great – it provides her with endless opportunities to socialize without spending money. 

Most importantly of all Fiona is happy.  She is living the life she wants and enjoys her success.

Marina is a student budget master

Meet Marina:

• Early 30’s

• Immigrated to Canada as a child

• A true global nomad calling Toronto the closest place to home there is

• Currently a full time student pursuing her Masters degree in Europe

• Single

• Personal income under $20 k annually

I have known Marina for years and I have found her openness to the world, learning and new experiences, inspiring.  She is smart, dedicated and knows that she wants to live a life with strong community, openness, sustainable ways of living and intellectual engagement.

The trouble is, this is often at odds with our society’s standard out of the box offering.  Let’s be honest, the ability to make a decent living, using your brain in a meaningful manner for an organization that positively contributes to society is pretty rare. 

Marina could get an everyday administrative job in research for low to average pay but she would probably still struggle financially and this does not give her what she needs.  Courageously, she has chosen to problem solve her way towards her desired life. She is currently pursuing her master’s degree in a conservation field.  Knowing she wanted greater education yet cost was a barrier (the Ontario government had not yet introduced free tuition for students from low income families), she looked beyond Canada to countries that provide free education to international students.  

She identified Germany, Finland, and Norway as free options and France as an option with nominal cost.  Learn more about European tuition costs

As a full time student, she then works systematically and with an intense focus to manage her budget.  This means a number of strong lifestyle choices including:

• Shared living; In Europe she lives in student housing and in Toronto, she has been a long time renter of a room. She has built a strong relationship with the homeowner, often contributing to the care of the house and is the only person the owner rents to. This has kept her costs at $600 and provides her with the flexibility to study in Europe and then come to work in Toronto for 6 – 12 months at a time

• Intense knowledge & management of her finances combined with efforts to seek out alternatives that work for her;

  • She regularly looks and applies for scholarship and grant opportunities. She has engaged in 3 separate exchanges across Europe

  • She takes advantage of a breadth of free festivals and entertainment. In Toronto, she is a lover of art and frequently takes advantage of the free passes provided by the Toronto Library and Museum Art Pass program. In her school town, she found a retailer that sold foodstuffs that were about to expire but were most often perfectly fine

  • Marina lives with the material goods she has. When moving to Europe, she visibly saw how much money she had spent on accumulating things and how they had no long term value. She now works to refrain from buying things

  • Stays away from recurring costs; In Europe she uses a pay as you go phone and outside of Europe she manages just fine with skype and WhatsApp

• Investing in periodic breaks from her studies to focus on earning money to advance her life

  • Right now Marina is taking a break from her Masters to earn funds for living expenses. Although tuition is free, she is required to have a bank account with sufficient funds for living expenses during her studies. She is working to save up $8,500 to finish up her academic work

• Working during her studies; Marina earns supplemental income during the school year by providing editing, proof reading and translation services

This frugal approach to finances is enabling her to slowly but surely build the experience needed to advance her career. She recently pitched an international conservation organization on a free 10-week internship and has translated that into a paid consulting project.

When talking about how she priced her consulting project, she indicated that is was more important for her to do the work than to get the money.  Given this, she looked at the costs of existing consultants and wages for similar work.  She knew that their education and experience were greater than hers, so she priced her work in a way that was beneficial for her but also provided a cost savings to the organization. She also built in expenses for travel, which has enabled her to save additional money.

This lifestyle choice is not easy.  Marina has to live with intention in everything she does, always calculating, planning and finagling her way to where she wants to go.  There is no auto-pilot, no getting paid when you’re sick, no just having someone tell you what to do.  This takes a lot of effort and because of that Marina is very conscious to know her limits and not to over-extend herself.  

Marina is part of a large cohort of Canadians struggling to make ends meet and build a life with meaning.   It is frustrating that we have collectively built a society with such limited options and ridiculously high barriers for meaningful work and employment.  How might we rethink our spending and investments to create better opportunities for us collectively?

If you enjoyed this article and think it was helpful, please share it. If you have suggestions for others and or would like to tell your story, please comment or send Strive an email.

Diyon's a student living at home & working part time to fund his education

Meet Diyon

• Early 20’s

• 4th year university student studying business

• Lives with his family

• Works 10 – 15 hours a week as a lifeguard

• Earns $17.00 per hour

• Expected to graduate with $20,000 - $30,000 in OSAP debt

Diyon is a practical focused student working towards his goal of having a good quality life.  He defines a good quality of life as one where he is engaged in work he likes, has time to spend with family and to give back to his community.

Diyon is currently a 4th year university student studying business in Toronto.  His parents emigrated from South Asia before he was born and like most immigrants, Diyon’s parents who did not speak English, started at the bottom.  His father started by working odd jobs including washing dishes at a university cafeteria.  He slowly worked his way to other roles including cook, chef, bartender and he now owns a small restaurant.  His mother worked in a factory for a while and now works at a McDonald’s restaurant. 

Despite his family’s financial situation, Diyon lived in an environment where money did not seem to be challenging.  His parents worked hard, lived within their means and spent time encouraging and helping to build Diyon’s financial capacity. 

Diyon remembers hanging out at his Dad’s restaurant in the summer of Grade 5 and occasionally helping out.  At the end of the summer, his father took him to the bank and gave him $250 to deposit in a bank account.  This recognized the work he had helped with and also got him to think about saving.  The money was his but it was clear that its purpose was savings - Diyon did not get a bank card to withdraw it from the bank.

Diyon’s father was instrumental in gently pushing him towards lifeguarding as a community member had suggested it would be a good opportunity.  Diyon has been a lifeguard since he was 16, and now works as a swim instructor 10 – 15 hours a week earning $17.00 an hour.

Finally, Diyon’s parents pushed him towards academics.  His mother wanted him to be a doctor or lawyer. Given Diyon did not enjoy sciences and was looking for something practical that would give him a good quality of life, he netted out choosing business.

With a good understanding of finances, Diyon considered costs when selecting a university, choosing to live at home and comparing the tuition costs across schools. Diyon has taken out OSAP to enable him to pursue his education and is expecting to graduate with $20 - $30 k in debt.  He uses his work income to cover his living expenses.

Diyon considers himself to have good money management skills.  The biggest challenges he struggles with include unexpected expenses like conferences that he likes to attend to help build his network and knowledge as well as social pressures around going out. 

He knows that when he is focused on a goal he can be very effective at saving.  When he was planning for exchange, he was focused on saving the majority of the money from his part time job and eliminating spending where possible – for example he remembers delaying the upgrade on his phone until after he returned from Europe.  This helped him to save $10k to pay for his semester in Spain. 

Diyon has two bank accounts, one for savings and investing and a separate account for his monthly spending activities. Whenever he gets paid, he always puts a small amount into the savings account and that sometimes forces him to reorganize and trim down his spending to accommodate his other bills. He sees it as a way to pay himself first.  Once Diyon has $1,000 in his monthly use account he moves it to his investing account.

Since coming back from exchange, Diyon recognizes that he has been more careless with money – the urgency does not seem to be there, he says.   

Right now he is focused on preparing for graduation and getting a first job.  He is taking advantage of school resources like the career centre and working hard to build a network through extracurricular activities and upper year friends.

Currently, Diyon has a few goals in the back of his mind including a conference in Hamilton, a grad trip, paying off OSAP and getting a car within a couple of years after graduation.  Diyon is expecting to be able to secure a job earning in the $40,000 range.  Given the living costs in Toronto, Diyon plans to live at home for the first few years after graduation. 

Overall, Diyon is happy with where he is, the habits he has built up, the education he has invested in.  He is also very grateful for the support of his family.  They have made his journey easier through their guidance, encouragement as well as contentment to have him live at home so he could save money while attending school. 

From a systems perspective, I wonder how we might ensure the resiliency of all students, equipping them with the guidance, supports and encouragement they need to reach their goals. 

Ozias' problem solving super power enables him to support himself and his education

Although only 27, Ozias approaches life and finances like a wise elder.  He knows he has to make them work to build the life he wants but he is in no way driven by money. Ozias is able to focus on his passions through the development of what I would call fierce problem solving and hustling skills.

Meet Ozias

• Single 27 year old living independently in a 1 bedroom apartment

• 1st year university student

• Monthly living expenses of $1,800 including rent, food and transport

• Monthly earnings of $1,500

• Working 25 hours part time per week

• Expected OSAP upon completion of university: $30,000

Ozias was born in a country facing significant civil unrest.  His parents were not rich although they did invest in his education. Ozias went to university to study journalism and became an active voice speaking up against human rights violations and corruption.  His advocacy work made him a target putting both himself and his family at risk.  Fearing his life, Ozias went into hiding and his parents used up a large portion of their financial reserve paying bribes to hide Ozias and get him out of the country.

Ozias arrived in Canada in 2012.  He had no family or friends here.  He ultimately ended up living in a shelter for the first 5 months of his life in Toronto and then was able to secure supportive transitional housing for the following 10 months. To say his life was difficult is a gross understatement.

Since being given the opportunity to come to Canada, Ozias has demonstrated unwavering commitment to succeed.  With a deep understanding of the costs that his family bore to support him and a passion for human rights, Ozias started by doing volunteer work at a non-profit organization.  Given his journalistic background, he worked on communications and expanded to helping wherever he could, eventually becoming part of the youth network at the centre. 

Ozias worked hard and built great relationships with the team.  When funding was available, he was hired as an events coordinator part time and then as an art coordinator and in research development. Through these positions, Ozias began to understand how the organization was funded and how grants could support innovative work.  Inspired, he developed ideas for arts and youth programming, collaborated with the internal team to write grants and secure funding for new contracts for himself.   

Ozias says that his work with the social service organization was a blessing.  He met a breadth of people, made connections, learned about opportunities and it was really a home away from home. 

He worked at the centre for 5 years.  Given the non-profit nature of his employer and his work being part time, Ozias was earning $20 - $30 k annually, definitely not enough to live on.  Given this, he supplemented his income with a series of side hustles.  He says he has probably done everything.  Ozias would get any license he could to make him as attractive as possible to part time employment.  If you need heavy machinery operated on Saturday and someone to bartend at an event on Sunday, Ozias is your man. 

The side hustles combined with his job at the centre meant he was working 15-18 hours a day.  Given how hard it was for Ozias to earn money, he became very clear about what was and was not important to him.  He says now he has developed a habit of only spending on things that are necessary. 

After the transitional housing, Ozias was able to rent an apartment independently in a not so great area of Toronto.  Throughout this entire time period, Ozias was dreaming about going back to school.  He was more and more passionate about helping people and the field of social work.  His only barrier was cost.

Ozias started looking at funding opportunities for school and found a scholarship that would cover two years of education.  Realizing the importance of this opportunity, he called the organization, arranged a meeting, sought to understand what they were looking for, invested heavily in his application and then had friends review it.  I think it was all the hard work he put in that made Ozias successful and enabled him to start at York University 6 years after arriving in Canada.

 Right now Ozias goes to school full time and is studying human rights. In addition he continues his hustles.  He organizes social and cultural events on the weekends.  He very much enjoys going out but realizes that it is a costly activity. Given his commitment to his goals, the need to sustain himself financially on low income while going to school and his ability to problem solve, he realized that if he was involved in organizing social activities hew would not have to pay for them.  He also drives part time with Uber and makes sure to invest time in what he is passionate about.  He has created and is running an all-volunteer drop in program for youth in his neighbourhood.

Ozias, has a long term vision of doing meaningful work that he is passionate about, helping send money to his family back home and sharing his success with others.  He sees finances as a tool to enabling that and is adept at making them work for him.  He is currently juggling many balls he cares about and is thinking about pursuing a law degree.   

There is no doubt that Ozias is exceptional at developing strategies that enable him to secure the money he needs to get to his goals. There is also no questioning the amount of hard work Ozias has put in.  From a systems perspective, I can’t help but think how we might make Ozias’ level of success possible for a greater number of students passionate about doing good work for society.

Kristina is a part-time freelancer feeling stable and secure

I first met Kristina at a local Toronto community center; our kids were in a swim class together, which means we could have a few bursts of uninterrupted conversation.   Kristina was excited about having secured a childcare subsidy.  This meant she could increase the focus on her small business.  Curious as I am about financial finagling, I twisted Kristina’s arm into an interview.   

About Kristina

• Late 30's

• Mother of 2 kids, 3 years apart

• Freelance graphic designer

• Husband Richard works for a charity

• Household income ranging from $80,000 - $100,000

• Personal income ranging from $15,000 - $20,000

It turns out that securing a childcare subsidy was no small feat; the process and accessibility lines can be murky at best.  As Kristina describes it, she had to make sure that she was within this invisible unknown boundary of earning enough to demonstrate she had a viable business and not so much that she did not need a subsidy.

Through the process she realized that the subsidy was calculated for a household and not on a per child basis.  The municipality calculates how much a family can afford for childcare for a household, and the subsidy covers everything over and above that.  This means that she was also able to get after school care for her oldest child. 

In terms of the subsidy, she felt the entire process was unclear, confusing and stressful.  She was unaware of the different levels of support, what was required and what she could earn.  More clarity on the level of support and access would have significantly reduced her stress, perhaps encouraged her to apply earlier and to increase the amount of hours she can work.

Kristina is a hardworking designer who is a jack-of-all-trades.  She has been an independent freelancer for 7 years.  She decided to try and work for herself after years of working for a breadth of different employers and never having a boss she respected.

When pressed on what was so bad in her previous employment, she describes the gradual but consistent decline in the work environment, the toxic small and large offices with jaded employees and individuals focused on currying favor with management, as well as the often misogynistic business leaders who did not listen, engage or value their people.  She says she needed to get out before she became an “ugly, angry person”. 

Kristina recognizes that she is not alone; others experience the same situation and frustrations.  She thinks that what made her leave and others stay is that she and her partner are more quality of life driven (a short while ago, Richard turned down a job offer that paid significantly more because he loves his work), and they have the security of owning a small semi-detached fixer upper with fixed mortgage payments. “Individuals who are financially driven will put up with more in order to grow their incomes”. 

Once resigning from her job, Kristina began to try to drum up business with part time clients.  Through a friend she was hired by a large company and that became her biggest client for the past 6 years, with 70% of her revenue coming from that client.  Not having maternity leave covered, Kristina hired a nanny 2 mornings a week and then worked in the evenings to keep client work moving and earn an income.  Kristina liked having the combined stability (having a large client) and flexibility (having the ability to control her time, schedule and work), so she did not focus on growing or building her business.  

In the last year, her large client made a decision to bring their design work in-house and so Kristina was left to figure out how to make up a large portion of her income.  This feast or famine world caused quite a bit of stress. The challenge is she likes to do the actual work and not the networking and promotion that enables her to drum up business. That is a barrier that certainly keeps her income lower than it could be and creates more risk for her. 

Kristina knows she should spend more time on diversifying her clients.  Her major client has since come back and so she no longer has a sense of urgency pushing her out of her comfort zone.  That being said, she recognizes she could benefit from increasing her focus on business development and that there are a breadth of meaningful strategies that could help her (joining design related industry groups, attending meet-ups or learning sessions on issues she is interested in, sharing her successes and work). 

Kristina’s decision to work independently and reduce her hours has decreased her income by an estimate of 50%.  This means that her lifestyle has to be managed to fit her income.  This works for her because it fits with her personal priorities of valuing relationships, time and the process of creation over money. 

Kristina is a do-it-yourselfer all the way.  She grew up in what she says felt like an underprivileged family with 4 kids and learned everything from her father (at 72, he recently finished taking a college course on septic systems so he can install his own in order to save money). 

She is always thinking about how she can fix or make things cheaper.  She drywalls, frames, fixes and builds.  She also has a little hobby business on the side where she converts vintage jewelry into beautiful bridal items. Kristina is a value village shopper, frugal bargain hunter and grateful to be part of her community’s hand me down circles. 

Her kids have predominantly second hand everything, wear value village shoes and receive quirky inexpensive birthday gifts that can be enjoyed on family adventures.  Her little boy just got a headlamp for his second birthday.  It isn’t the easiest to answer questions like “why is this shoe darker than the other” but she figures out a way to make it a values lesson – “you won’t believe how much we saved”.  At the dollar store, the kids get to pick out one item and play with it while in the store and she picks out the necessities.  They then put it back and go about the rest of the day.

In exchange for working independently and working half time, there is a 50% in salary cut, an increase in the share of household work, and a commitment to a low-cost lifestyle.  Kristina feels that it is definitely worth it as she gets to spend more time with her children, have control over her day and be a greater part of her community. 

Kristina is now starting a new chapter in her life.  With full time child care and more space to dedicate to her business she is thinking about what to do next.  Although she likes design, she may not want to do it forever.  She feels fortunate to have had this time to work independently while the kids are young and is open to either growing her business or going back to the workforce full time if she could find the right employer. 

No matter what happens next, Kristina knows she will be ok.  She has built a lifestyle she can afford that is based on her values. Above all, she feels that no matter what happens she will be able to figure it out. 

What has been the secret to Kristina’s success?

1.     A strong values based approach to decision-making. Kristina knows what is important to her and makes her money decisions based on her values.   She enjoys living a lower cost lifestyle so that she can have more control, flexibility and time with her family.

2.     An incredible ability and joy in problem solving.  Kristina loves the process of making and creating.  When she or the family needs something that is an extra or unexpected cost, Kristina will automatically think about options for lower cost solutions.  In need of a new lamp, Kristina will look at the second hand stores and see how she can remake one to fit her aesthetic.  This inevitably is a small portion of the cost. 

3.     A commitment and joy in hard work.  There is no doubt that Kristina works hard in all areas.  She makes sure to deliver on client commitments.  She takes care of the children and maintains the house.  And critically important, she invests time to find or create economic solutions.  Spending less money on something, inevitably means that you have to spend more time to find or create the solution. 

As a positive outlier, Kristina is doing well.  She is financially stable and enjoys her life.  How might we help other Canadians succeed in what is important to them?

Recognizing the value of childcare subsidies for lower income families, can we more effectively spend our taxpayer resources by making the access and process clearer?

Would we benefit from challenging and questioning the value that consumption provides to our lives?

And most importantly, would we benefit from better building problem solving skills into our education so that a greater number of individuals are able to craft and benefit from their own solutions?

Shalini went back to school to build bridges to a new career

This story is a little different.  It is more about the human push for connection and how money can enable it.  Shalini is a passionate, driven and highly educated woman from Toronto. 

Originally growing up in Montreal in an upper middle class family with two sisters and a father who owned his own business, Shalini saw every day that you had to hustle for money if you wanted it.  She went to her father’s factory to help and overheard her mother’s business conversations.  As such she was very aware of how money was made – the engagement with others, the need to understand their wants, the process of negotiating, making commitments and then delivering on those. 

With this awareness and the financial support of her parents for schooling, she navigated her way through higher education, completing private college in Montreal, a certificate in management, and a BA in English.  Shalini then pursued a BEd programme with a focus on urban diversity in Vancouver, BC.  This added to her costs but she was able to reduce the burden by living with her sister and sharing the rent.  Her intellectual, volunteer and part time employment gave her a sense of connection to others and Shalini enjoyed her 20’s without making money a core factor in her decision-making. 

At the end of her 20’s, Shalini maneuvered towards a career in education, driven by the potential to have an impact, continuously learn, raise social consciousness, address the larger questions of life, be mobile and travel within her career.  She moved to Toronto to go pursue her Masters in Education in 2003.  She was starting off with close to $12,000 in debt and ended her graduate degree owing $25,000.

Shalini worked as substitute teacher part-time for the TDSB while completing her masters and secured full time employment with the board in 2005.  As someone who leaned towards spending, Shalini enjoyed the next few years with a stable income and the building up of her savings and teacher’s pension contributions.  She worked to pay down her debt and enjoy life, treating family and friends whenever possible.  During this period she was able to save $20,000, not nearly enough she says.

In 2011, after 8 years teaching and acting as a social justice advocate, nominated for a number of internal and external awards, Shalini was looking for something more entrepreneurial in nature as well as the opportunity to travel. She took an unpaid leave of absence to teach at international schools in the UK and then Bangladesh.  She was able to save an additional $20,000 during this period and continued to grow her skills with new work planning and developing curriculum for a new middle school.

With the death of her father, Shalini returned to Toronto after 2 years abroad.  She once again started educating but after two months realized that she had completely outgrown public school teaching and wanted to explore other options.  Despite the stability, security of her job, and defined benefit pension plan, she felt compelled to find something that enabled her to be more entrepreneurial, work on a wider platform and better connect.   She was also burnt out by the work and just could not imagine herself teaching every day for the rest of her career.

Knowing that something is missing, but not knowing exactly what that was, Shalini entered a 4-year period of heavy exploration.  Shalini knew she wanted to continue to engage on critical social issues but wanted to extend to a wider platform, with adults in a cross-sector fashion.  She liked building bridges as an educator and as such enrolled in the MSc Sustainable Development with a focus on climate change.

During this period she hustled to sustain herself, using the knowledge she had built from watching her parents.  She supply taught an average of 3 days a week while building bridges including overseas as she was interested in continuing to work abroad.  The cost of her international interest was an expensive one.  She had to pay for travel and some accommodations.   With limited networks and no work visa, Shalni had less opportunities to secure paid for contract work and spent about $10,000 of her savings in 2.5 months. 

Returning to Canada, Shalini continued to pursue her studies in sustainability, pioneered an international student representative system with colleagues, and continued to secure some paid contract work.  Shalini also volunteered with a breadth of organizations in the not for profit sector namely working on sustainability issues.  To enable her to do this, Shalini, once again moved in with her sister and reduced her accommodation costs.  Through this period, Shalini eroded her savings and took on a total debt of $5,000.

Shalini is not stressed about retirement because she has a strong belief in her capacity to earn and "pull it together".  She also expects to work a few more decades and the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan she has earned would amount to $600 a month.  This is obviously not sufficient for a comfortable retirement but it is at least a good start. 

Shalini is now starting in on a focused period with clearer goals.  She is fixed on a career that will give her the opportunity to engage in cross sector work that enables her to lead social and political action.  Shalini has identified that the best way to her goals, given a breadth of work-study options and a deep network, is via the pursuit of a MA in Educational Technology.  This full time program will give her the foundation to use her skills in a manner that provides greater meaning for her.

Shalini will rely on provincial loans and bursaries, substitute teaching, university work opportunities and other career related contracts to complete her studies.  She will then work on finally settling down and building a “home to call her own – a place for her books, dresses and self to rest”.  Ultimately she is hoping this will bring her the connection she desires, enable her to leave a legacy and make her family proud.

Listening to Shalini and understanding her journey provided three great insights:

1. Success in the area of finances has much more to do with the focus on money and the degree to which it is important to a person than the intellect, drive, or strategic approach of an individual.

   • Shalini is very much driven by finding a way to use her time and skills to advance social causes that resonate with her. As this has been her focus, she has grown and succeeded in this area. She has not been driven by money and so she has not dedicated energies to saving for retirement or buying a house.

   • This brings to light a great opportunity. Even if money is not a driver, it is important to think about its role and the access or benefits it can provide in enabling personal drivers. Money has certainly helped Shalini engage in intellectual pursuits and enjoy life.

   • Figuring out ways to keep a focus on money and setting specific financial goals will be key to her success both in finances an in her career. Quantifying what she will need financially, the value of her pension well as what she needs to save on a monthly basis to get to her goals will help her get a home of her own and a comfortable retirement.
     

2. Exploratory work is critically needed but very time consuming. Transitioning industries, shifting roles, finding new employment, launching a new career are all significant efforts that require a deep understanding of individual skill sets, knowledge of specific opportunity areas where they can be valuable and a heavy investment in relationship building and skill demonstration to make the transition.

We should not avoid this work. Individuals critically need to engage and we as a society need this work to be completed.  It is what leads to new success pathways. 

Instead, we need to figure out how to create mechanisms to make these investments accessible.  From an individual perspective, there are opportunities to invest in this work while pursuing paid employment – this is how transitions are often accomplished.  Netowrking lunches, coffees, scouring glassdoor for an understanding of salaries and linkedin for an understanding of career pathways.  We can also bound our exploratory work by establishing criteria of what we are looking for and ensuring we are focused. 

Shalni spent $10,000 of her savings because her exploration involved both new fields and new geographies.  She had been successful at transitioning internationally within her existing field but it proved more costly to transition both into a new field and new geography. 

This will only work for those individuals who are not struggling to make ends meet or have enough time to invest.  From a community perspective, how do we create mechanisms for all Canadians to invest in exploration and build bridges towards meaningful employment with fair living wages that enable our communities to thrive?

3.  We design roles around tasks and not people.  From a systemic perspective, I can’t help but think that our design of jobs is preventing us from taking advantage of the passion of people.  What would it look like if employees had the ability to use their full intellect, initiative and passions to grow their work and impact?

How much happier would Shalini have been if she could have worked in the classroom half the time and set up regional programs for student activism the rest of the time.  How much would our students and communities have benefited?

How much would we as tax payers have saved by leveraging her skills, making full use of them and not having to train new people into the profession?

How can we design our jobs to earn and make wise use of the enthusiasm, initiative, loyalty and passion of individuals?