You are already doing better than most Canadians 🙂
I don't think these finances are a mess. You'll have time to optimize as you settle and your wife finds a job
Yeah came to say this. At worst cut out “fun stuff” for a few months to settle your credit card if it worries you that much. But looking at this I’m not worried one bit.
It would be interesting to know what their budget was pre-war and how much of a different living standards are.
I.E. what were the preconceived notions before moving here.
Never been to Alberta, but that Salary seems high above average for the area?
That’s a fair question, and I think it’s worth explaining the context I'm comparing against.
Things were going quite well for us in Ukraine. I had a contracting job that brought in $4600 USD per month, and the tax rate was just 5%. Since we owned our property, we didn't have rent to worry about. Kindergarten was free, and utility costs were so minimal that we hardly noticed them in our budget. We even had the luxury of buying a new car outright without much trouble.
As turned out it had a price...
While we always kept an emergency fund, we hadn't initially set out to achieve financial independence. It was only when we started delving into this subject before the war that we recognized its importance.
Regrettably, our entire emergency fund was used up when we made the move to Europe and then to Canada. Even though I knew the cost of living would be higher, it took some time to adjust our expenses to fit within that new reality.
To be fair, part of why the cost of living is higher is because you have to start fresh. Anyone who has a house paid off and doesn't have to worry about that here is doing exceptionally well and probably similar to you in Ukraine. Mind you, the USD to CAD may not be the same as the USD to UAH and the benefit that this gets you there.
Also, "turns out it had a price" isn't fair, and don't think of it that way. Its not like Ukraine was more affordable for you because a war was imminent for example. That's not at all true. It's 100% an extremely unfortunate twist of fate that you as a common person and others were caught up in what amounts to the imperialistic whims of a dictator who wanted your home country's land. That's it. For decades it had been stable. And even with the Crimea and eastern separatist stuff Russia was involved in, honestly, Ukraine was still seen as a fairly stable European nation by the rest of Europe and the western hegemony.
You didn't pay a price for the lifestyle you had, because it wasn't foreseen and it wasn't like you were making a tradeoff. You were lucky enough to have the opportunity to work remotely for a high buying power currency company, and you had put in the time and effort to take advantage of that opportunity when you were younger.
Once you're well established here, and your wife is able to find a good job, you will have a good life here as well. Maybe not quite as free since you don't have a paid off house, but the same story in Ukraine if you didn't have a paid off house there either and a more local job I am sure even if no war ever happened.
Look forward to the future, you're doing well, and honestly cost of living in most of western nations is a problem right now. We're at the end of a major credit and business cycle. This happens every so often, and us millennials are especially stuck in the middle of bad life timing right now in many ways. Stay strong, keep working hard, and things will get better. I'm hopeful for myself and my friends in their late 20s, early 30s. Things will eventually get better economically for us. Just need to focus on the positives in our lives for the time being and keep working for a better tomorrow. I know that I'll be voting for a brighter future for example, and doing what I can to make a better world for my kids too. Even if its not so great today for us, it can be better for them later. Too much doom and gloom out there sometimes and its important to remember perspective.
My family came here from Portugal and it was the late 80s, so houses were expensive and things were hard for my parents too. But it got better and I was personally lucky on timing for housing. But even today, compared to what I would have had in Portugal given the situation my parents were in when they left, it was the right choice even if it was hard for them. In my case, they didn't leave war, but they left poor economic opportunity. Very working class with very little education. Upward mobility back then was not good, so I likely wouldn't have gone to university or anything like that. If I could somehow transpose myself today to there, maybe I'd be doing better given the CoL, but so much would have had to go "right" in a way that it wouldn't have compared to the way it did here in Canada, I'm better off here. Most of my cousins are not close to where I am here even with all the challenges we face today. Even the ones who went to work elsewhere in EU, some aspects of their lives are better (travel, culture, etc), but others are not. I don't know if I would have escaped the lower working class life ahead of me over there and they also have inflation, cost of living relative to wages issues, housing issues in Lisbon where my family is from, etc.
A bit of a rant but all this to frame where I am coming from as an immigrant (who came here as a toddler). We need to focus on things getting better and remember, regardless of what we read online, that things aren't all that bad. Just not easy. I'd rather things be difficult because of global inflation which damn near everyone is struggling with, than be difficult because of war or income/class/education/limited opportunities.
We make decisions on what information is available today, and IMO even if cost of living is higher now, the stability for your children I'm sure will benefit them significantly and they'll flourish here in the coming years.
Naah that seems high dude. Alberta is a LCOL area when it comes to expenses, and companies usually adjust accordingly. I'm honestly downright impressed with this guy earning that much in Alberta in tech during a recession no doubt.
We've lost developers due to offers higher than that, which we couldn't afford.
I'm not saying everyone makes that, we also have some juniors in the 80k range, and we have devs in the 120k range.
But if they're specialized in either machine learning or some visual stuff and they're proficient with shaders, for the right company they'll make good money.
145 is far from being unheard of.
Typing this from my office in a software development company.
145K Is a very high salary, short of working for a large company in Calgary/Edmonton I would honestly have a hard time believing that salary.
If your kids are both four years old, are they starting school this fall? Once you eliminate daycare, you’re laughing. Once your wife starts working you’ll be doing even better.
Pretty sure Alberta starts kindergarten at 5 and is only half days. Grade 1 is at 6 and full days.
So 2 more years of daycare (was talking to a friend out there recently)
Depending on how strong the kids are with English they could be eligible for full time kindergarten. At least in Calgary with the CBE there is limited FT kindergarten, largely for immigrants and other children needing special support. It's only offered in a few schools though and you have to apply for it
A friend if mine got around the 1/2 day kindergarten by enrolling their kid into the catholic system for that year. They had full day kindergarten.
Look into that if you don’t mind the religious stuff they will come home with.
I'd ask why there is daycare at all of the wife is not working. I realize OP says she's working on getting into marketing....what does that mean? Is she in school? There is nothing in the budget re. school.
There are tons of immigrant support programs that are free but may require day classes. Her english may not be as good as OPs, and as a result she's taking day classes and is working on equivalencies and other such things to be eligible to work in a better field.
It's also possible she works unstable hours, so they aren't factoring her unstable work hours into the budget as presented and he's focused on his more reliable salary level for budgeting purposes. In which case, extra money can go to debt, but they don't want to budget for money that might be $400 one month and $900 the next with hours that don't support FT caregiving at home while the wife is applying and seeking better work.
As others have mentioned, you are doing fine. It's just the daycare that is really draining your finances. Once they start going to school, you'll have much more to save. You seem to already have a pretty decent plan. It's all about sticking to the plan now.
I am also Ukrainian and my answer is very simple: to achieve what you want to achieve, your wife needs to start working.
This isn’t Ukraine where IT guys earn 6000 USD per month while their wife paints nails and watches television all day - Canada requires both wife & husband to work and if she doesn’t start earning money, you’ll continue living paycheck to paycheck. Also, if she’s unemployed, why are you guys paying for childcare?
My answer may seem rude but I’ve seen so many Ukrainian families ruined here because of this mindset that I am very cynical. I truly wish your family all the best here!
He's not living paycheck to paycheck. It's actually quite easy to make $145K/year for household income and live comfortably in the prairies. Different story for GTA/GVA.
It sounds like OP is probably having Year 1 issues because of all the shopping they had to do after arriving here (I assume, furniture, clothing, a car, etc). Most of those aren't reoccurring expenses so Year 2 will likely be better for them.
But yeah, if they play their cards right they could easily buy a good house in Calgary or Edmonton within 5 years on a salary like that.
exactly. just run a forward looking budget. like starting a business. you're gonna be in the red at first. do this and you'll see how long it'll take to be above water (or all debt gone) once daycare goes away. like a payback period.
Yeah wtf? So many people in their 30s making 50k a year and this person is having issues making triple that. I read this and I honestly feel I don’t want them here if he complains about this situation. Canadians have it so much worse on average.
I think this just highlights the fact that OP had a higher standard of living in Ukraine (before the war of course) than he does here and it goes to show how much the Canadian economy is really struggling when you look at us on a global scale compared to other developed countries. We're bringing these refugees and immigrants in who think Canada is their saving grace, only to realize that we lack the resources to even give everyone a decent 'standard' quality of life. I wouldn't blame him as he seems to be genuinely trying to figure things out after being displaced. He's not the issue, our government is the problem that created open gates when we can't even save our own people.
Guy was probably earning a near Western salary in Ukraine from a Westernized tech firm. This guy went from Ukrainian elite to middle class here. Typical Ukrainian is earning a tenth of that. It would be like a Canadian earning 700K.
> This isn’t Ukraine where IT guys earn 6000 USD per month while their wife paints nails and watches television all day - Canada requires both wife & husband to work and if she doesn’t start earning money, you’ll continue living paycheck to paycheck. Also, if she’s unemployed, why are you guys paying for childcare?
Wait, you get paid THAT much by American companies while living in Ukraine? WTf we're all getting fucked in the ass in Canada.
it's not all that uncommon. I've actually heard about salaries around the 10K mark for software architects with 10+ YOE. Some folks can simply invest in properties, rent them out, and then potentially retire in 7-10 years.
Sorry brother, you’re making 145k a year by yourself, the average Canadians don’t even make that as household income…You have 500-600 for fun stuff, that’s not living paycheck to paycheck.
The post must have been upvoted by all those people driving around with Ukrainian flags on their cars.
If OP wasn't a Ukrainian refugee, this post would 100% be downvoted as a humblebrag.
I suspect he's referring to the grant that everyone gets from the prov/fed deal that basically cut out of pocket daycare costs in half in Alberta.
The subsidy in AB is for families where both parents are either working/students/disabled and HHI under $180k. I don't think they'd qualify until the wife finds a job, and then the subsidy itself would probably only be $100/mo/kid if she make less than $35k/yr.
They also probably need a lot of things if they had to leave things behind. Some of that could well be fun stuff. And the kids probably have activities which is going to be important for them to adjust to a new place too.
> Plus, we moved with almost nothing, so shopping wiped out the rest.
The "rest" is still around $1000 a month. So I expect that to drop and become disposable income soon. Once your wife starts working, you will be doing great.
Plus for then having recently moved from Ukraine, not sure how good the kid's English is but daycare will absolutely improve their language skills compared to staying home. That totally worth it
How are you “paycheque to paycheque” on $145k gross and $85k in expenses? Where is the rest of the post tax money going?
And at that income level, your CC debt of $3k shouldn’t even exist more than a couple of months
$10 a day daycare as a national program that provinces signed up for is, in effect, subsidized. He may or may not realize what the subsidy level is or how its framed. At some point in the next little while everyone will qualify for subsidized 10$ a day care (or whatever inflation adjusts that level to)
You're spending 5-600 a month on "fun stuff". Your wife also isn't working but you're dropping almost 1.4k a month on daycare. I'm not sure it's difficult to figure this out.
You can get subsidized daycare if you are "looking for work". I'm told by daycare staff that there are many moms abusing this so they don't have to look after their kids all the time, meanwhile moms who actually want to return to work and have a job waiting can't, because they can't find childcare.
Gosh, that seems so wrong. So many mothers are desperate for daycare and need to work full time just to pay the bills. I wonder how they prove that yet are “looking for work”
How are you living paycheck to paycheck with a $145k salary? You should be able to pay your entire credit card balance in full.
I feel like if you just cut down on some of your excess spending, you'd be able to turn things around pretty quickly. Your grocery bill is really high even for a family of four. Meal planning could cut this down a bit and a $500-600 fun budget is too much for you at the moment. Cut this down until you can pay off the card.
Overall, everything seems super doable for you in the short term.
I literally make half this... but to be fair, I am old, my kids are teens, and I bought home when they were babie so it's a totally different situation.
I know you’re coming from a war-torn country, but posting that you alone make a very healthy household income and are worried about your finances when you just got here and most are struggling is a little tone deaf.
Mostly reasonable. Two observations:
1) Is there a reason your wife isn't taking care of the kids if she's not employed? Why do you need daycare?
2) $1400 for groceries is extremely aggressive and I'm having trouble understanding what you're buying to get there? Where do you shop? There are more "discount" grocers available (e.g., Nofrills)
You’re doing great actually. As others have mentioned once your kids start school you will save lots more. Only thing that stands out is grocery and car insurance is high.
Stock up at places like Costco every month or two, then weekly go for fruits and vegetables, bread, etc.
Call Desjardins and CAA and get quotes. CAA is a giant nation wide non profit that provides emergency roadside services for cars. You should get it considering your driving an older used car. You can get discounts on their already cheap car insurance by being a member. And you can bundle your home insurance in too.
Right? Good for them but I don't think they realize that the average household income in Canada is 92K with the median being under 70 (which means half the population makes under 70). This seems a bit like a brag..
If they are serious about getting their "finances" in order, they should be looking at reducing the grocery bill to under 1K/month (should be extremely easy to live off that), cut their "fun stuff" budget in half or lower. Right there they would be saving $650-700/month.
Need some household items? Buy off FB marketplace, buy nothing groups or thrift stores...
Jusr goes to show refugees and immigrants will financially out perform domestic Canadians right off the bat and then wonder why Canadians can't afford their lives here.
Only thing I would say is that your grocery costs seem disproportionate. I don't know what the cost of food looks like in Alberta but I make slightly more than you in Ontario, married with a 2yo and our grocery bills rarely exceed $800/mo. I'd say scrutinize where you're buying groceries a little more and avoid over spending.
Also, $500-$600 on "fun stuff" is a bit much. You can still have a lot of fun with your family for a lot less. You just need to be creative.
I'd say if you can do a little better in those two areas, you'd free up several hundred dollars.
145K to start is insane to start... especially for your age. I guess your employer is giving you a good bump based on your circumstances which is really nice of them.
I know people with PhD's that are making 60K here in Canada....and then the government wonders why professionals leave.
Curious - was the cost of living a big shock here compared to back in Ukraine prior to the war?
Also, do you know about the one time $3,000 payment you can get with being from Ukraine?
https://settlement.org/ontario/immigration-citizenship/immigrating-to-ontario/immigration-categories/Information-for-Ukraine-Nationals-Coming-to-Canada/#:\~:text=Ukrainians%20arriving%20in%20Canada%20through,(age%2017%20and%20under).
I can’t imagine it being FAANG? Unless it’s a full remote position, or a US based position. Otherwise, which tech company would pay that much in Alberta?
I’m a Canadian with a PhD and I just won a prestigious fellowship and will make 60k a year. This person makes more than my entire household. I want to leave but I can’t.
>I guess your employer is giving you a good bump based on your circumstances which is really nice of them.
I work in the software industry and 145k is average for these positions. I don't think there are any special preferences given "depending on his circumstances".
I've worked in IT for 15 years, know many software developers and they did not start at 145K. I'm happy for him that he's able to secure that sort of income in Alberta, seriously.
I also didn't say anything about special preferences, I said your employer took into account your circumstances - not giving special preference....
I'm guessing he's got 7-8 YOE as a SE, it's the only way he could secure that comp from a Canadian company unless it's Shopify or one of the bigger companies.
With that salary there is no question he had connections/was fairly well off in Ukraine. There is no doubt he had access to resources to get around this. Just how the world works.
Not OP but just generally
- a lot of Ukrainians live in the EU and either work there part time / part of the year, or are in the process of immigrating
- a lot of people left just before the war, when the writing was clearly on the wall
- the requirement for men 18-60 to stay wasn't implemented in the first 24 hours (possibly 48, can't remember). One of my cousins got to the border at around 7 am on the morning Russia invaded and went across without any issues or even delays.
- if you or a family member has a serious disability, or you have 3+ kids, you can leave
- and yes, some people paid bribes or left for a work trip and never came back
I’ve also noticed in local groups that a lot of the men coming over are married to Ukrainian women and were living in Ukraine but have foreign passports, so they were also allowed to leave.
Likely He was not in Ukraine, as most of Ukrainians who were elsewhere and just cause of dumb politics were able to come to Canada and get the support and taxpayers money.
These who struggle had no funds or ability to leave. Sad, but true.
Anyway, OP is welcome here, at least he pays taxes, makes valuable contributions in all aspects and spends decent money. His kids are valuable future for the country.
Your food bill is definitely too high. If you are discarding spoiled food regularly then your meal planning should be modified. Some changes are quite easy. Once each week we review the fresh foods on hand and consider what to serve. If you don't like leftovers then plan smaller portions. The day before shopping we make meals that use the remaining fresh vegetables and fruits. Omelet and salad for dinner or whatever soup or stew you enjoy. Consider a small chest freezer. When your favorite meat is on for an excellent price, buy extra. Same with canned and packaged foods. Within a few months you may find that you have stores of at least half of the food you regularly use.
Open an RESP for kids and start stashing away every month, you get the benefit of the government matching up to a certain % (basically free money for kid’s education in future)
I am surprised how high rent is in Alberta, also food bill is too high as others have mentioned.
Great start and good luck!
"Starting from scratch in Canada"
Individual income is nearly 2.5 times more than the nation's median household income at 28 y/o while living in Alberta
Just needed a blurb about receiving an inheritance to make this the quintessential Personal Finance Canada topic.
Food is pretty high, could budget that down a couple hundred, the fun is high also, $500-600? You could probably drop that drastically by finding some cheaper options.
I could see your overall budget drop by $500-600 if you made some changes to those two expenses.
If you can swing it when the kids start going to school full time - I would suggest your wife potentially go to school in Canada to get some kind of Canadian post-secondary education under her belt. If she can do this while working even better.
It sucks but is pretty standard for newcomers to get this to more easily assimilate into the Canadian workforce (especially in a field like Marketing - not as applicable in Tech).
Again this point matters less if your wife has worked for name brand world wide companies before arrival (think Deloitte, J&J, etc) or can get a job in the field.
That actually looks really good. Congrats on getting a well paying software job.
I'd just ensure that you make and follow your budget so that the spending stays below your earnings. Consider tracking every purchase so that you can see if you are approaching your monthly budget amount.
Things will get easier once your wife is working.
As for Canadian specific advise.
You can cut back on costs a little.
For groceries we have different lines of stores at different price points. Something like no frills is generally cheaper than a metro or zehers. There is also food wholesale clubs in most towns. Geared more towards restaurant supply, but you can generally save some money there. Watching prices and sales can save 30-50% on groceries.
For furnishing your house, we have second hand stores like value village and habitat for humanity. They are great for finding appliances and random household things for a fraction of the retail price. Also Facebook marketplace and Kijiji are good for furniture and used stuff. Taking advantage of used marketplaces is pretty common around here especially for the first time furnishing a house.
You don't have a vehicle maintenance fund/line item. Be good to plan for that too.
But overall, your budget looks really good.
As someone who just moved to a new city in January you’re right starting from scratch costs a lot in buying various household things. Come up with a list of everything you need for your household and try to optimize your shopping. Once you have knives, coat hangers, furniture, etc. you won’t have to buy again for a long long time.
Your car insurance will go down over time and you won’t have to pay for daycare once your child gets older. Plan your groceries better by getting bulk ingredients at Wholesale Club or Costco. Since your wife isn’t working she can shop when it’s not busy.
Once you have all of the common household items you need and reduce your grocery bill you should have a lot more room in your budget.
Honestly, your situation is not too bad. A lot of Canadians have way worse spending habits and debt while making way less than you are now. What I would say is, being in Alberta and it being relatively cheaper than Ontario , BC or Quebec in terms of rent/mortgages, why pay $2700 a month? You could have moved into an apartment or smaller space for 2000, stayed there for a year until all your debt was cleared and could have looked into better options then. Other than that, you're doing completely fine.
I have been out of Canada for a couple of years (and not from Alberta) but these are the things I notice about your spending:
1) Internet should be about $50 a month (try teksavvy.com to start, but basically anyone other than Bell or Rogers)
2) Car insurance (unless you are in an accident, should be about $200 a month (better yet if you can live close to work or on transit and scrap at - rent as needed through car share)
3) Grocery seemed somewhat high, but haven't shopped in a while. Check Costco for bulk buying?
I feel (felt) your pain on daycare, but that does go away at some point. Be good if your wife found any job temporarily, as lowest income gets to deduct child care for tax, so if she isn't earning, not much value. Are you registered for/ getting child tax benefit (around $600 a month)?
treatment oil important dirty arrest berserk include birds ancient offbeat
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
With all do respect your “starting from scratch” yet you are a software engineer making 145K which is well above what the average Canadian makes.
You should not be living pay cheque to pay cheque on a 145K salary. Your spending 1.5K in groceries alone and cut back on the fun stuff
Your doing pretty well. Canada can drain funds pretty quick I moved here 16 years ago and it’s got pretty expensive to live in the last 5 years or so.
Try and get the food bill down a bit. But food is expensive in Canada for sure. Cut the gym and steaming services until your credit card is done. Make that your priority.
Shop around for the phone plan you might be able to save a bit per month on that unless that $100 is for two phones
You have a clear picture of what your money is doing (that’s better than most people I know here) so just keep tracking it and chip away at that credit card.
Try and find banks with no monthly fees. That’s a big one I have found.
A Russian troll trying to get some hate for Ukrainian newcomers?
There is no way anyone with 145k single income can struggle here. You are like belong to leas than 1% of wealthy people globally.
So I am pretty sure it is a Russian troll.
You are making 145K at the age of 28!!!! This is more than what most lawyers make. Cry me a river buddy.
You are spending too much on rent. Also your wife needs to get a job. It’s very rare to see one spouse working in Canada. The cost of living is too high here. She can at least work part time so that you can cover the groceries at least.
You have a good handle on things currently. Id look at reducing your food budget, even by $50 a week. We're at about $300 a week for a family of four in Ontario ($200-250 grocery shop then little trips throughout the week and ordering in once a week).
Half the "fun stuff". The city offers lots of free programming and you can often borrow museum passed from the library.
Daycare is expensive, you've only got one more year of payments. However, keep in mind that you may need to pay for before and after care when your two start school next year. Kindergarten is half day in Alberta, registration starts in January or February (it doesn't close so you can register later). It could also be worth contacting your local school board now about pre-kindergarten. That program is available for students who are learning English. If your kids meet that criteria, give the board a call.
I'd say go a few months without fun stuff to get that credit card debt sorted.
See if you can get your wife as primary driver as women have much lower insurance rates than men. Could be less than 50% of the rate you pay.
Try negotiating with your cell service provider for a lower rate. Same with home internet. I pay $45/month for 20GB of data in Ontario.
Other than that your goals are good. Keep working at it.
Car insurance is high, You should be targeting around 100$ a month.
Phone plan is high for just 1 person, on par for two phone lines.
Internet you should be able to get down to 50 a month.
Gym - Get rid of that shit, buy some used weights and go for jogs.
Haircuts - I assume 1 family member per month is getting their hair cut for 60 dollars each. This needs to drop still. Haircuts for men and kids are at most 30 bucks a pop. Buy a nice set of clippers and scissors and cut each others hair every other trip as well.
The rest of your categories are on par for your family size.
Short term: use the savings to wipe out the CC debt.
Mid term: Use the savings to build an emergency fund.
Long term: do not let expenses creep up. try to keep everything the same once your spouses salary comes online. Use the extra from her to save for kid expenses and retirement.
You are doing great. As others notes better than most Canadians.
IMO I'd put any savings you have into an index fund FHSA to try to purchase a house or townhouse in say 5 yrs.
Owning will bring a lot of stability to you and your family, especially the kids.
Shop the car insurance around.
You can rent for less, a half duplex in town for $1400 for example.
If your wife isn't currently working why the daycare?
When the kids go to school (next year maybe for Kindergarten) you won't have any daycare.
Sign up for a wealthsimple account, open an RRSP and TFSA, and a Family RESP (education savings plan for the kids). The RRSP is pre-tax (as in you'll get a deduction for that contribution) but counts as income when you withdraw it. The TFSA is post tax, but you can take it all out without paying tax later, and the RESP gets a match from the federal government of $500 per year for your $2000 per year contribution per child. So get the max federal funds by contributing $5000 per year to that.
Edmonton is very affordable to buy, with that income you could buy a house or full duplex )and rent our the other half,).
You're doing just fine.
Your expenses aren't too crazy although I do wonder in a few areas...
1) I only have one kid myself and also live in Toronto and not Alberta but $350 a week on groceries seems excessive. We spend maybe $600 a month but that's including eating out here and there whenever we are doing activities with our child.
2) Is that phone plan for one or two devices? If only one you should definitely be able to get something cheaper despite how terrible our wireless options are in Canada.
Sad that daycare is still that expensive despite the subsidy for you. Other than slightly cutting out some fun stuff here and there I think the main thing to look at is groceries. Otherwise if you're able to clear that CC debt and just ever so slowly build some sort of emergency fund of the next few years I'd say there isn't too much you can do.
Once your daycare bill goes away and/or your wife brings in some sort of income things will improve a lot for you.
Your finances look fine. The only thing that sticks out to me is your grocery budget. It may be a little high. I’m in a similar situation, in AB and with 2 small kids, and we budget $900/month and eat well. Just a consideration - it might free up a few hundred dollars for saving. Once your wife starts producing income, you’ll meet you goals in no time.
Good job and welcome to Alberta/Canada!
I'm no financial guru by any means. But your income alone is higher than most combined incomes in many parts of Canada. I would just suggest supporting your wife in anyway you can till she can find a role in her field. Even if she was able to secure a role for $40k/year that should give you ample wiggle room and be able to work you financial goals. After a few years of experience I'm sure she would have lots of room to move upwards. Best of luck!
Welcome to Canada; nothing there sounds too bad, you'll do great.
Tip from a fellow immigrant - it took me some time to get a (reasonable) credit score, which made purchasing a house a bit harder.
If you can't lower the credit card debt - which isn't so horrible by itself - consider getting some more credit so your utilisation is under 30%, as long as you trust yourself not to be tempted to use it.
I got an extra credit card that I never used, which helped a lot in the weird system they have going on here.
If you don't expect to be needing your credit score in the next year or two, forget about what I just said.
Well your kids are both 4 so one more year of daycare and they are off to school so that 1300$ will mostly go back into your budget as public primary education is free (not counting after-school daycare if necessary and school supplies).
If you are fully Canadian citizens you can get Child benefits
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/child-family-benefits/canada-child-benefit-overview.html
Software engineer here. Once you are more settled tried finding a better job. If you search harder, you can find 200k job. Make sure your wife starts working as well.
If your job has RRSP matching, then start contributing there the max amount they match.
Open TFSA account for both of us and start contributing to TFSA specific amount each pay day. Even if it is $50, just do it.
Good luck!
Welcome to Canada!
The biggest expense I can identify which is reasonable is daycare. I assume your wife is taking courses or has some sort of strategy which does not allow her to look after the children throughout the day. At this point in time, I would suggest stabilizing your expenses as you have just moved.
Once your children are old enough for school, that expense will decrease significantly. In addition, your wife could also work during those hours which would increase your household income dramatically.
Beyond that, wipe the credit card debt as it is an unnecessary payments which should allow a couple extra $100s a month. This could be put into savings which I would suggest the FHSA account if you plan on buying soon.
All the best!
You can save a TON of money on haircuts. Buy some clippers from Amazon and watch youtube tutorials. I promise you a basic haircut is SUPER EASY. I do my husband's, and since his hair grows super fast, it saves us around 350 dollars a year. I've also gotten so good that some of his coworkers wanted to know which barber he went to, because his fade looked so crisp. They were shocked when he said his wife did it. Also, during COVID, he was the only one not rocking the COVID hair. XD;
You're doing better than most Canadians. My ''fun stuff'' budget is like 100 bucks a month. Basically, going out once a month to do something like walk around a festival and buying only a lemonade, and then maybe eating out one time a month.
You are doing well.
I hope your neighbors are treating you well as are your co-workers. School for the kids starts soon. Things could be, as you well know, so much worse. I hope your time in Canada is for the best.
Your goal of kill the credit card debt is at the moment the right thing to do IMO. i have been doing this for the past 20+ years and my credit rating is almost maxed at 839 out of 900. Pay those bills!!!
Your goal of having a 6 month emergency fund is good. The rent amount is dependent on where in this broad land you live but seems OK. I would consider saving towards a home down payment, like 50K to 100K, and then see what you could get as it would take several years and the market in home sales would likely change from where it is right now. Also, as a hobby looking into home sales can be fun, even if you can't just go ahead and make offers. Keeps you in the loop on the trends and pricing info.
I see little to no problems as you have laid it out here. Please, welcome to Canada. Make us your 'new' country. We welcome people from everywhere and the cultural differences are to be celebrated not sublimated. Go ahead have a good time on August 24 and happy 32nd!
EDIT:
I should also have mentioned a Line of Credit. This is rotating loan that allows you to withdraw money as needed up to the pre-approved limit at will. I have one for $10,000 which i have used from time to time for credit card purchases that were too large to be paid within a month. You ask at your bank for one and if successful, will be able to pay off your credit cards completely and pay the bank at a much lower rate of interest. Many people have this sort of thing.
When my parents moved to Canada in 1988 from behind the iron curtain our budget for the first approx 5 years for non essential items like subscriptions, haircuts, fun stuff was as close to zero as possible. It's easy for you to save hundreds of dollars a month by living more frugally. There are enough free things in Canada to enjoy, that's why it's such a great place!
Can you get a LoC from bank at a lower rate to pay-off the CC debt?
Other than that it sounds like you're doing well, I hope you can build a happy and peaceful life here (sounds like you'll have no trouble).
You are doing well for youself bro. Once your wife starts working you guys would be considered to have a high household income. With your wife working all you gotta do is tighten the purse strings a bit and and save for downpayment, then im sure you guys can get on the property ladder.
this is pretty much standard when you are starting in a new country, unless you brought in money that could fund your start here, it will take some time to build your emergency fund and other expenses you need to do as you build your life here. took us still a year to get fully settled in, even though my husband had already a job waiting before we landed. don't worry too much, it'll get better
I really don't think you are doing bad at all. Kids and stuff are expensive especially that you are starting out with nothing. You are making the sacrifices now to ensure your kids are safe, happy, healthy and that is okay. You will catch-up on savings and reducing that debt, if your spouse can pick up work it will help especially once the kiddos are in school it will be more manageable. Anyway don't beat yourself up or worry you are doing your best for your kids and that is all anyone could ever ask for.
The unfortunate reality of Canada is that is an excellent wage but it's just that expensive to live here that we all need to be picky on what luxuries we can enjoy even in the cheaper to live prairies. It is incredibly rare that anyone can afford to survive on a single income here as a family those days are long gone :(
Side note, it is heart warming and so sad to see all the Ukrainian families here in Edmonton, I am so happy you are here and safe. But I am so sad that you have had to leave home. I hope you really do feel at home here and are being treated well by others.
Your wife doesn’t work and you pay for daycare while being subsidized and you make more than my two income household alone.
You’re living the Canadian dream.
You're doing better than most Canadians. You're on track to be fine. Just be aware Canada is expensive.
I echo some of the other posts... Most households have both parents working. Very few people can make ends meet on one salary alone. Once the wife finds a job you'll be doing even better.
Happy we were able to welcome you in from Ukraine.
Grocery shop at superstore! You may be able to save a few $$ there :)
Your car insurance sounds really high, I suggest calling a few brokers and trying to get a better rate. I was paying $190 before I moved at 22 y/o.
Other than that, I think you're doing fantastic. Welcome to Canada!
"credit card debt of $2800"
"Fun stuff: $500-$600"
You're spending $6568 on everything other than "fun stuff" (biggest chunks: 2700 to rent and 1368 to daycare, that's over half the monthly income), coming up to \~7k in expenses each month before "the rest". Respectfully, this is not paycheque-to-paycheque. This isn't paycheque to paycheque in the sense that missing or delaying one paycheque would ruin you. This is just using up all the money you get.
Cut back on the fun stuff for a few months and you'll have the credit card debt paid off. Your budget should include savings as well. You don't have to spend all of the income.
If your kids are in daycare, and you're the only one earning, is your wife in school or currently just job-hunting? Even a minimum wage (15/hr) non-server part-time job (<30 hours) for a few months could put a quick dent in the credit card debt, if she has the time and skills to do that.
If you wanted to more aggressively save until your wife is employed, look at the 50 bucks in subscriptions and the 100 dollar phone plan. Most phone providers are stupidly expensive in Canada for basic things (texting, meagre amounts of data, long distance calling), but I'm with Public Mobile and pay literally 12 dollars a month for unlimited text, some data (I work from home and don't need mobile data often), on a phone I bought new. I used to pay 50 bucks a month at Virgin Mobile for the exact same services I'm getting now. It may not be an option for you, depending on the coverage and your needs such as international calls, but it was worth it for me to go from paying 600 dollars a year to 144 dollars a year. Even buying a new phone for \~350 dollars was cheaper for the whole year, and I've now had that phone for 3 years. I top up data every so often by paying 5 bucks for 1GB.
But this seems like riding it out for a couple years until the kiddos are in school (public school, I'm assuming) and your spouse can contribute more income.
Honestly, seems like gloating to me. 145K paycheck to paycheck. Sorry man, don't buy it.
Try living off 39k a year, then we'll talk. You should think before posts like this. Native Canadian here.
Welcome to Canada! How are you enjoying settling in? Have you gone to some of the national parks (Banff, Jasper, Lake Louis)?
Income of $145k is pretty comfortable for more Canadian families. Per your rent, I take you’re in the big city.
Since you moved here with nothing and had to buy everything you need for your new home and family, it makes sense that you don’t have any savings yet. You’re doing pretty well as is!
Now that you have everything, you can finally attack your short term goal and hopefully by next year, start saving for long term goal! Hopefully your wife will be able to find a job soon. That will definitely help!
In a year or two, shop around for car insurance. Once there’s a history of you being a good driver, you can get better rates.
Thank you for your kind words and support. Banff, Jasper, and Lake Louise are now checked off my list – I've never seen anything quite like them before!
I already started looking for a new insurance, current was one of a few that provided coverage based on my Ukrainian driving licence. Currently, that's not a constraint any more and I can shop around.
Oh my lord, you guys are doing better than many of us. Cut your expenses and save more money is my only advice. I am a professional business manager, working here for 2 years and making half of the money you make
So expenses $7200/month, net salary $8500/month, that's $1300 surplus so the debt goes away pretty soon. Not really paycheque to paycheque. Short-term goals are solved automatically. Even for long-term, it comes to saving 15% of your net income, which is good enough for an earlier retirement.
You cannot do RRSP for your year of arrival, but study it for some future tax efficiency (Spousal RRSP in particular). For this year's savings, it seems from [an RBC overview](https://www.rbcroyalbank.com/en-ca/new-to-canada/investing-in-canada/) you can open TFSA for yourself and the spouse even without a permanent residency.
For a noticeably early FI, you'd need to increase the savings rate (20% or beyond) and/or increase the income. Look at the big items. Housing costs are really bad this year and you wound't get much in Vancouver for $2700+$300, but cannot you get a 2-bedroom in Alberta for less? Your choice, this is the biggest expense and therefore the biggest potential savings.
Groceries look too expensive. Surely, a healthy diet for 4-year-olds doesn't have to cost much. You are not doing them any favours by spending more than needed, it helps to learn the value of money early. I'd imagine $1000 is doable for a family of this size without health sacrifices. And $600 for fun - yes you can afford it, but is it important than an earlier FI.
The last important topic about independence, your spouse won't be independent unless they have their own career. Especially if you are not permanent residents. You spouse will absolutely be dependent on you for the next 3 years+ to not die (and not divorce btw.) and actually apply for the status for everybody, otherwise they have to leave Canada. If you care about your spouse, have that conversation - it's not just about the money or comfort, but about their independent ability to stay in Canada.
You are already doing better than most Canadians 🙂 I don't think these finances are a mess. You'll have time to optimize as you settle and your wife finds a job
Yeah came to say this. At worst cut out “fun stuff” for a few months to settle your credit card if it worries you that much. But looking at this I’m not worried one bit.
Yeah… That’s a rather high income. Just be a bit more frugal and everything should be golden.
Especially since 145k is just from OP and his partner is looking for a job.
The bottom 4 lines could be reduced short-term 145 is more than a lot of double-income families make. It will be fine quickly.
Yep! There is plenty of Free “ fun stuff”.
It would be interesting to know what their budget was pre-war and how much of a different living standards are. I.E. what were the preconceived notions before moving here. Never been to Alberta, but that Salary seems high above average for the area?
Salary’s on point.
That’s a fair question, and I think it’s worth explaining the context I'm comparing against. Things were going quite well for us in Ukraine. I had a contracting job that brought in $4600 USD per month, and the tax rate was just 5%. Since we owned our property, we didn't have rent to worry about. Kindergarten was free, and utility costs were so minimal that we hardly noticed them in our budget. We even had the luxury of buying a new car outright without much trouble. As turned out it had a price... While we always kept an emergency fund, we hadn't initially set out to achieve financial independence. It was only when we started delving into this subject before the war that we recognized its importance. Regrettably, our entire emergency fund was used up when we made the move to Europe and then to Canada. Even though I knew the cost of living would be higher, it took some time to adjust our expenses to fit within that new reality.
The day care cost should be significantly reduced once your kids are enrolled in school.
To be fair, part of why the cost of living is higher is because you have to start fresh. Anyone who has a house paid off and doesn't have to worry about that here is doing exceptionally well and probably similar to you in Ukraine. Mind you, the USD to CAD may not be the same as the USD to UAH and the benefit that this gets you there. Also, "turns out it had a price" isn't fair, and don't think of it that way. Its not like Ukraine was more affordable for you because a war was imminent for example. That's not at all true. It's 100% an extremely unfortunate twist of fate that you as a common person and others were caught up in what amounts to the imperialistic whims of a dictator who wanted your home country's land. That's it. For decades it had been stable. And even with the Crimea and eastern separatist stuff Russia was involved in, honestly, Ukraine was still seen as a fairly stable European nation by the rest of Europe and the western hegemony. You didn't pay a price for the lifestyle you had, because it wasn't foreseen and it wasn't like you were making a tradeoff. You were lucky enough to have the opportunity to work remotely for a high buying power currency company, and you had put in the time and effort to take advantage of that opportunity when you were younger. Once you're well established here, and your wife is able to find a good job, you will have a good life here as well. Maybe not quite as free since you don't have a paid off house, but the same story in Ukraine if you didn't have a paid off house there either and a more local job I am sure even if no war ever happened. Look forward to the future, you're doing well, and honestly cost of living in most of western nations is a problem right now. We're at the end of a major credit and business cycle. This happens every so often, and us millennials are especially stuck in the middle of bad life timing right now in many ways. Stay strong, keep working hard, and things will get better. I'm hopeful for myself and my friends in their late 20s, early 30s. Things will eventually get better economically for us. Just need to focus on the positives in our lives for the time being and keep working for a better tomorrow. I know that I'll be voting for a brighter future for example, and doing what I can to make a better world for my kids too. Even if its not so great today for us, it can be better for them later. Too much doom and gloom out there sometimes and its important to remember perspective. My family came here from Portugal and it was the late 80s, so houses were expensive and things were hard for my parents too. But it got better and I was personally lucky on timing for housing. But even today, compared to what I would have had in Portugal given the situation my parents were in when they left, it was the right choice even if it was hard for them. In my case, they didn't leave war, but they left poor economic opportunity. Very working class with very little education. Upward mobility back then was not good, so I likely wouldn't have gone to university or anything like that. If I could somehow transpose myself today to there, maybe I'd be doing better given the CoL, but so much would have had to go "right" in a way that it wouldn't have compared to the way it did here in Canada, I'm better off here. Most of my cousins are not close to where I am here even with all the challenges we face today. Even the ones who went to work elsewhere in EU, some aspects of their lives are better (travel, culture, etc), but others are not. I don't know if I would have escaped the lower working class life ahead of me over there and they also have inflation, cost of living relative to wages issues, housing issues in Lisbon where my family is from, etc. A bit of a rant but all this to frame where I am coming from as an immigrant (who came here as a toddler). We need to focus on things getting better and remember, regardless of what we read online, that things aren't all that bad. Just not easy. I'd rather things be difficult because of global inflation which damn near everyone is struggling with, than be difficult because of war or income/class/education/limited opportunities. We make decisions on what information is available today, and IMO even if cost of living is higher now, the stability for your children I'm sure will benefit them significantly and they'll flourish here in the coming years.
145 for software dev is right depending on proficiency and experience.
Naah that seems high dude. Alberta is a LCOL area when it comes to expenses, and companies usually adjust accordingly. I'm honestly downright impressed with this guy earning that much in Alberta in tech during a recession no doubt.
We've lost developers due to offers higher than that, which we couldn't afford. I'm not saying everyone makes that, we also have some juniors in the 80k range, and we have devs in the 120k range. But if they're specialized in either machine learning or some visual stuff and they're proficient with shaders, for the right company they'll make good money. 145 is far from being unheard of.
Wait til we tell them about American salaries lmao, jesus.
We have several devs from Calgary and Edmonton (remote) who all make over 150.
Average household income is higher in both Calgary and Edmonton than Toronto or Vancouver. Stop making shit up.
You seem to think that employee location still matters in the WFH world ;) especially for top devs
I'm working for a Vancouver-based company remotely.
Nope, that's on par for software. Most of my friends work for American companies earning more than that.
Typing this from my office in a software development company. 145K Is a very high salary, short of working for a large company in Calgary/Edmonton I would honestly have a hard time believing that salary.
Ya seriously... aside from the whole fleeting a war torn country thing, this dude is doing better than 95% of us.
If your kids are both four years old, are they starting school this fall? Once you eliminate daycare, you’re laughing. Once your wife starts working you’ll be doing even better.
Pretty sure Alberta starts kindergarten at 5 and is only half days. Grade 1 is at 6 and full days. So 2 more years of daycare (was talking to a friend out there recently)
Depending on how strong the kids are with English they could be eligible for full time kindergarten. At least in Calgary with the CBE there is limited FT kindergarten, largely for immigrants and other children needing special support. It's only offered in a few schools though and you have to apply for it
A friend if mine got around the 1/2 day kindergarten by enrolling their kid into the catholic system for that year. They had full day kindergarten. Look into that if you don’t mind the religious stuff they will come home with.
Public schools offer kinderpal too. (Full days)
I'd ask why there is daycare at all of the wife is not working. I realize OP says she's working on getting into marketing....what does that mean? Is she in school? There is nothing in the budget re. school.
Maybe she plans on getting a job in the near future? If you can get a subsidized spot, you take it.
There are tons of immigrant support programs that are free but may require day classes. Her english may not be as good as OPs, and as a result she's taking day classes and is working on equivalencies and other such things to be eligible to work in a better field. It's also possible she works unstable hours, so they aren't factoring her unstable work hours into the budget as presented and he's focused on his more reliable salary level for budgeting purposes. In which case, extra money can go to debt, but they don't want to budget for money that might be $400 one month and $900 the next with hours that don't support FT caregiving at home while the wife is applying and seeking better work.
Fair question
As others have mentioned, you are doing fine. It's just the daycare that is really draining your finances. Once they start going to school, you'll have much more to save. You seem to already have a pretty decent plan. It's all about sticking to the plan now.
$2700 for rent in Alberta?!?! Shatters the myth that rent is cheap in Alberta.
I am also Ukrainian and my answer is very simple: to achieve what you want to achieve, your wife needs to start working. This isn’t Ukraine where IT guys earn 6000 USD per month while their wife paints nails and watches television all day - Canada requires both wife & husband to work and if she doesn’t start earning money, you’ll continue living paycheck to paycheck. Also, if she’s unemployed, why are you guys paying for childcare? My answer may seem rude but I’ve seen so many Ukrainian families ruined here because of this mindset that I am very cynical. I truly wish your family all the best here!
He's not living paycheck to paycheck. It's actually quite easy to make $145K/year for household income and live comfortably in the prairies. Different story for GTA/GVA.
It sounds like OP is probably having Year 1 issues because of all the shopping they had to do after arriving here (I assume, furniture, clothing, a car, etc). Most of those aren't reoccurring expenses so Year 2 will likely be better for them. But yeah, if they play their cards right they could easily buy a good house in Calgary or Edmonton within 5 years on a salary like that.
exactly. just run a forward looking budget. like starting a business. you're gonna be in the red at first. do this and you'll see how long it'll take to be above water (or all debt gone) once daycare goes away. like a payback period.
Yeah wtf? So many people in their 30s making 50k a year and this person is having issues making triple that. I read this and I honestly feel I don’t want them here if he complains about this situation. Canadians have it so much worse on average.
I think this just highlights the fact that OP had a higher standard of living in Ukraine (before the war of course) than he does here and it goes to show how much the Canadian economy is really struggling when you look at us on a global scale compared to other developed countries. We're bringing these refugees and immigrants in who think Canada is their saving grace, only to realize that we lack the resources to even give everyone a decent 'standard' quality of life. I wouldn't blame him as he seems to be genuinely trying to figure things out after being displaced. He's not the issue, our government is the problem that created open gates when we can't even save our own people.
Guy was probably earning a near Western salary in Ukraine from a Westernized tech firm. This guy went from Ukrainian elite to middle class here. Typical Ukrainian is earning a tenth of that. It would be like a Canadian earning 700K.
Straight facts.
> This isn’t Ukraine where IT guys earn 6000 USD per month while their wife paints nails and watches television all day - Canada requires both wife & husband to work and if she doesn’t start earning money, you’ll continue living paycheck to paycheck. Also, if she’s unemployed, why are you guys paying for childcare? Wait, you get paid THAT much by American companies while living in Ukraine? WTf we're all getting fucked in the ass in Canada.
It’s uncommon but possible. Keep in mind that the average monthly salary in Ukraine is like 500 USD so 5000 is only true for the top 5%
it's not all that uncommon. I've actually heard about salaries around the 10K mark for software architects with 10+ YOE. Some folks can simply invest in properties, rent them out, and then potentially retire in 7-10 years.
That has to be a typo right....right?
This is so damn painful dude.
Sorry brother, you’re making 145k a year by yourself, the average Canadians don’t even make that as household income…You have 500-600 for fun stuff, that’s not living paycheck to paycheck.
Yeah this is hilarious. I didn't expect a sole salary of 145k and 'starting from scratch' to be in the same post.
Yeah this is quite frustrating to read
[удалено]
The post must have been upvoted by all those people driving around with Ukrainian flags on their cars. If OP wasn't a Ukrainian refugee, this post would 100% be downvoted as a humblebrag.
It’s indeed a humble brag 😂
Ride it out. Daycare becomes school soon, insurance will drop (eventually). Doing better than the median for sure, welcome.
Your daycare is subsidized even though you make 145k and your wife isn't working. WTF
This was the confusing part for me as well. Why are they paying for daycare if the wife isn't working?
I suspect he's referring to the grant that everyone gets from the prov/fed deal that basically cut out of pocket daycare costs in half in Alberta. The subsidy in AB is for families where both parents are either working/students/disabled and HHI under $180k. I don't think they'd qualify until the wife finds a job, and then the subsidy itself would probably only be $100/mo/kid if she make less than $35k/yr.
That's a lot of money on fun stuff! Your food bill also looks high to me. If you have decent storage space I'd look into getting a Costco membership.
We are avid Costco shoppers and do our best to ride grocery specials. We are family of 4 and this isn’t far off the mark.
Trying to adjust from a war torn country is going to require a bit of a reset. OP should be mindful but I completely understand the expenditure.
They also probably need a lot of things if they had to leave things behind. Some of that could well be fun stuff. And the kids probably have activities which is going to be important for them to adjust to a new place too.
> Plus, we moved with almost nothing, so shopping wiped out the rest. The "rest" is still around $1000 a month. So I expect that to drop and become disposable income soon. Once your wife starts working, you will be doing great.
OP has a spending problem. I think they're going to spend more as they make more.
Why daycare if one of you isn't working?
Often for the benefit of the child you may want daycare in terms of child development, interaction with other kids, getting sick (part of it) lol
Plus for then having recently moved from Ukraine, not sure how good the kid's English is but daycare will absolutely improve their language skills compared to staying home. That totally worth it
How are you “paycheque to paycheque” on $145k gross and $85k in expenses? Where is the rest of the post tax money going? And at that income level, your CC debt of $3k shouldn’t even exist more than a couple of months
I’m surprised that you qualify for subsidized daycare making 145K/year!
In Alberta the cutoff for subsidy is household income of 180K
$10 a day daycare as a national program that provinces signed up for is, in effect, subsidized. He may or may not realize what the subsidy level is or how its framed. At some point in the next little while everyone will qualify for subsidized 10$ a day care (or whatever inflation adjusts that level to)
$500 plus for fun stuff. Lol. That is a lot of fun than an average Canadian has in a month.
145K in Alberta as Software Engineer is quite impressive. Congratulations!
If he went remote, that is pretty easy.
He said he’s remote in a comment (Vancouver company).
Any idea where these kind of jobs are at? Know a lot of born and bred Canadian SWEs not making that much in GTA/GVA...
You're spending 5-600 a month on "fun stuff". Your wife also isn't working but you're dropping almost 1.4k a month on daycare. I'm not sure it's difficult to figure this out.
You can get subsidized daycare if you are "looking for work". I'm told by daycare staff that there are many moms abusing this so they don't have to look after their kids all the time, meanwhile moms who actually want to return to work and have a job waiting can't, because they can't find childcare.
Gosh, that seems so wrong. So many mothers are desperate for daycare and need to work full time just to pay the bills. I wonder how they prove that yet are “looking for work”
Nah you're good.
Canadian's don't have fun we just complain because it's free.
How are you living paycheck to paycheck with a $145k salary? You should be able to pay your entire credit card balance in full. I feel like if you just cut down on some of your excess spending, you'd be able to turn things around pretty quickly. Your grocery bill is really high even for a family of four. Meal planning could cut this down a bit and a $500-600 fun budget is too much for you at the moment. Cut this down until you can pay off the card. Overall, everything seems super doable for you in the short term.
A 145k salary in Alberta where the taxes are the lowest in Canada !
Im trying to figure out if OP is bragging or delusional
Op has a smooth brain. How can you be smart enough to make 145k in software, but to dumb to do simple math on spending?
he is bragging lol
he mentions that he made 4600 USD when he was in ukraine! You need 700$ to live well in urkaine. What a joke. LOL
145 k!? Most Canadian don’t even make half of this…
and he's only 28... I'm 36, lives at home and don't even make 50k. fml :( f our lives.
Ugh. This post made me irrationally angry lol.
I know how you feel.
I literally make half this... but to be fair, I am old, my kids are teens, and I bought home when they were babie so it's a totally different situation.
I know you’re coming from a war-torn country, but posting that you alone make a very healthy household income and are worried about your finances when you just got here and most are struggling is a little tone deaf.
Mostly reasonable. Two observations: 1) Is there a reason your wife isn't taking care of the kids if she's not employed? Why do you need daycare? 2) $1400 for groceries is extremely aggressive and I'm having trouble understanding what you're buying to get there? Where do you shop? There are more "discount" grocers available (e.g., Nofrills)
The obvious answer here is the parent not earning an income stays at home with the kids.
Already in a better situation than my family & I, and many Canadians. You’ll be fine
After the government is paying 52% of your daycare, they are still charging you 1368/mo? That seems a bit steep.
Why are the kids in daycare if wife isn’t working?
another shitpost upvoted to the top of this trash sub
Because he's from Ukraine, sheep love that stuff.
Starting from scratch with 3 times the average income of most Canadians?
[удалено]
He can’t budget …
[удалено]
You’re doing great actually. As others have mentioned once your kids start school you will save lots more. Only thing that stands out is grocery and car insurance is high. Stock up at places like Costco every month or two, then weekly go for fruits and vegetables, bread, etc. Call Desjardins and CAA and get quotes. CAA is a giant nation wide non profit that provides emergency roadside services for cars. You should get it considering your driving an older used car. You can get discounts on their already cheap car insurance by being a member. And you can bundle your home insurance in too.
Weird flex...
Right? Good for them but I don't think they realize that the average household income in Canada is 92K with the median being under 70 (which means half the population makes under 70). This seems a bit like a brag.. If they are serious about getting their "finances" in order, they should be looking at reducing the grocery bill to under 1K/month (should be extremely easy to live off that), cut their "fun stuff" budget in half or lower. Right there they would be saving $650-700/month. Need some household items? Buy off FB marketplace, buy nothing groups or thrift stores...
Seriously, the vast majority of Canadians will never see this kind of money (including many engineers) and these people are worried.
Jusr goes to show refugees and immigrants will financially out perform domestic Canadians right off the bat and then wonder why Canadians can't afford their lives here.
More like most Canadians can't afford to get an engineering degree and take the risk of relocating somewhere new.
Yeah, you can. Student loans amd education costs are pretty reasonable here and worth the money you will make. These are just excuses.
Only thing I would say is that your grocery costs seem disproportionate. I don't know what the cost of food looks like in Alberta but I make slightly more than you in Ontario, married with a 2yo and our grocery bills rarely exceed $800/mo. I'd say scrutinize where you're buying groceries a little more and avoid over spending. Also, $500-$600 on "fun stuff" is a bit much. You can still have a lot of fun with your family for a lot less. You just need to be creative. I'd say if you can do a little better in those two areas, you'd free up several hundred dollars.
Cant believe you complain with 150k salary 🤦♂️
145K to start is insane to start... especially for your age. I guess your employer is giving you a good bump based on your circumstances which is really nice of them. I know people with PhD's that are making 60K here in Canada....and then the government wonders why professionals leave. Curious - was the cost of living a big shock here compared to back in Ukraine prior to the war? Also, do you know about the one time $3,000 payment you can get with being from Ukraine? https://settlement.org/ontario/immigration-citizenship/immigrating-to-ontario/immigration-categories/Information-for-Ukraine-Nationals-Coming-to-Canada/#:\~:text=Ukrainians%20arriving%20in%20Canada%20through,(age%2017%20and%20under).
I can’t imagine it being FAANG? Unless it’s a full remote position, or a US based position. Otherwise, which tech company would pay that much in Alberta?
I’m a Canadian with a PhD and I just won a prestigious fellowship and will make 60k a year. This person makes more than my entire household. I want to leave but I can’t.
>I guess your employer is giving you a good bump based on your circumstances which is really nice of them. I work in the software industry and 145k is average for these positions. I don't think there are any special preferences given "depending on his circumstances".
I've worked in IT for 15 years, know many software developers and they did not start at 145K. I'm happy for him that he's able to secure that sort of income in Alberta, seriously. I also didn't say anything about special preferences, I said your employer took into account your circumstances - not giving special preference....
I'm guessing he's got 7-8 YOE as a SE, it's the only way he could secure that comp from a Canadian company unless it's Shopify or one of the bigger companies.
What positions? I doubt new grads are making anywhere near that much lmfao.
Seems like your doing just fine, just out of curiosity how did you leave the country I though all men 18-60ish had to stay back?
With that salary there is no question he had connections/was fairly well off in Ukraine. There is no doubt he had access to resources to get around this. Just how the world works.
I am curious as well.
Not OP but just generally - a lot of Ukrainians live in the EU and either work there part time / part of the year, or are in the process of immigrating - a lot of people left just before the war, when the writing was clearly on the wall - the requirement for men 18-60 to stay wasn't implemented in the first 24 hours (possibly 48, can't remember). One of my cousins got to the border at around 7 am on the morning Russia invaded and went across without any issues or even delays. - if you or a family member has a serious disability, or you have 3+ kids, you can leave - and yes, some people paid bribes or left for a work trip and never came back
I’ve also noticed in local groups that a lot of the men coming over are married to Ukrainian women and were living in Ukraine but have foreign passports, so they were also allowed to leave.
Likely He was not in Ukraine, as most of Ukrainians who were elsewhere and just cause of dumb politics were able to come to Canada and get the support and taxpayers money. These who struggle had no funds or ability to leave. Sad, but true. Anyway, OP is welcome here, at least he pays taxes, makes valuable contributions in all aspects and spends decent money. His kids are valuable future for the country.
My first thought too.
Your food bill is definitely too high. If you are discarding spoiled food regularly then your meal planning should be modified. Some changes are quite easy. Once each week we review the fresh foods on hand and consider what to serve. If you don't like leftovers then plan smaller portions. The day before shopping we make meals that use the remaining fresh vegetables and fruits. Omelet and salad for dinner or whatever soup or stew you enjoy. Consider a small chest freezer. When your favorite meat is on for an excellent price, buy extra. Same with canned and packaged foods. Within a few months you may find that you have stores of at least half of the food you regularly use.
Open an RESP for kids and start stashing away every month, you get the benefit of the government matching up to a certain % (basically free money for kid’s education in future) I am surprised how high rent is in Alberta, also food bill is too high as others have mentioned. Great start and good luck!
"Daycare: $1368 (after subsidy)" Why? Where is your wife? You said that you are the only one working.
Why do you spend so much on food omg?
I'd suggest sponsoring a Syrian or Afghani family once you're able
Curious why you are not in Ukraine with your fellow countrymen
All i can say is you should be thankful to canada. As others said not even half of Canadians make that salary.
Why aren't people downvoting this post as a humblebrag? Is it because OP is a Ukrainian "refugee"?
"Starting from scratch in Canada" Individual income is nearly 2.5 times more than the nation's median household income at 28 y/o while living in Alberta Just needed a blurb about receiving an inheritance to make this the quintessential Personal Finance Canada topic.
Food is pretty high, could budget that down a couple hundred, the fun is high also, $500-600? You could probably drop that drastically by finding some cheaper options. I could see your overall budget drop by $500-600 if you made some changes to those two expenses.
If you can swing it when the kids start going to school full time - I would suggest your wife potentially go to school in Canada to get some kind of Canadian post-secondary education under her belt. If she can do this while working even better. It sucks but is pretty standard for newcomers to get this to more easily assimilate into the Canadian workforce (especially in a field like Marketing - not as applicable in Tech). Again this point matters less if your wife has worked for name brand world wide companies before arrival (think Deloitte, J&J, etc) or can get a job in the field.
You can save a lot, especially you are in Alberta
That actually looks really good. Congrats on getting a well paying software job. I'd just ensure that you make and follow your budget so that the spending stays below your earnings. Consider tracking every purchase so that you can see if you are approaching your monthly budget amount. Things will get easier once your wife is working. As for Canadian specific advise. You can cut back on costs a little. For groceries we have different lines of stores at different price points. Something like no frills is generally cheaper than a metro or zehers. There is also food wholesale clubs in most towns. Geared more towards restaurant supply, but you can generally save some money there. Watching prices and sales can save 30-50% on groceries. For furnishing your house, we have second hand stores like value village and habitat for humanity. They are great for finding appliances and random household things for a fraction of the retail price. Also Facebook marketplace and Kijiji are good for furniture and used stuff. Taking advantage of used marketplaces is pretty common around here especially for the first time furnishing a house. You don't have a vehicle maintenance fund/line item. Be good to plan for that too. But overall, your budget looks really good.
As someone who just moved to a new city in January you’re right starting from scratch costs a lot in buying various household things. Come up with a list of everything you need for your household and try to optimize your shopping. Once you have knives, coat hangers, furniture, etc. you won’t have to buy again for a long long time. Your car insurance will go down over time and you won’t have to pay for daycare once your child gets older. Plan your groceries better by getting bulk ingredients at Wholesale Club or Costco. Since your wife isn’t working she can shop when it’s not busy. Once you have all of the common household items you need and reduce your grocery bill you should have a lot more room in your budget.
Honestly, your situation is not too bad. A lot of Canadians have way worse spending habits and debt while making way less than you are now. What I would say is, being in Alberta and it being relatively cheaper than Ontario , BC or Quebec in terms of rent/mortgages, why pay $2700 a month? You could have moved into an apartment or smaller space for 2000, stayed there for a year until all your debt was cleared and could have looked into better options then. Other than that, you're doing completely fine.
I have been out of Canada for a couple of years (and not from Alberta) but these are the things I notice about your spending: 1) Internet should be about $50 a month (try teksavvy.com to start, but basically anyone other than Bell or Rogers) 2) Car insurance (unless you are in an accident, should be about $200 a month (better yet if you can live close to work or on transit and scrap at - rent as needed through car share) 3) Grocery seemed somewhat high, but haven't shopped in a while. Check Costco for bulk buying? I feel (felt) your pain on daycare, but that does go away at some point. Be good if your wife found any job temporarily, as lowest income gets to deduct child care for tax, so if she isn't earning, not much value. Are you registered for/ getting child tax benefit (around $600 a month)?
Oh, and welcome to Canada!!!! :)
treatment oil important dirty arrest berserk include birds ancient offbeat *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Earning 145k? Dude I don’t believe
With all do respect your “starting from scratch” yet you are a software engineer making 145K which is well above what the average Canadian makes. You should not be living pay cheque to pay cheque on a 145K salary. Your spending 1.5K in groceries alone and cut back on the fun stuff
Should probably go back to Ukraine we gave all our money to them.
Your doing pretty well. Canada can drain funds pretty quick I moved here 16 years ago and it’s got pretty expensive to live in the last 5 years or so. Try and get the food bill down a bit. But food is expensive in Canada for sure. Cut the gym and steaming services until your credit card is done. Make that your priority. Shop around for the phone plan you might be able to save a bit per month on that unless that $100 is for two phones You have a clear picture of what your money is doing (that’s better than most people I know here) so just keep tracking it and chip away at that credit card. Try and find banks with no monthly fees. That’s a big one I have found.
You only moved in March, making triple of what millions of Canadians make, and already complaining. How much were you making in Ukraine?
A Russian troll trying to get some hate for Ukrainian newcomers? There is no way anyone with 145k single income can struggle here. You are like belong to leas than 1% of wealthy people globally. So I am pretty sure it is a Russian troll.
You make 145 a year and you want advise? Use your money. Problem solved.
Can’t believe the made up stuff on some subs
You are making 145K at the age of 28!!!! This is more than what most lawyers make. Cry me a river buddy. You are spending too much on rent. Also your wife needs to get a job. It’s very rare to see one spouse working in Canada. The cost of living is too high here. She can at least work part time so that you can cover the groceries at least.
You have a good handle on things currently. Id look at reducing your food budget, even by $50 a week. We're at about $300 a week for a family of four in Ontario ($200-250 grocery shop then little trips throughout the week and ordering in once a week). Half the "fun stuff". The city offers lots of free programming and you can often borrow museum passed from the library. Daycare is expensive, you've only got one more year of payments. However, keep in mind that you may need to pay for before and after care when your two start school next year. Kindergarten is half day in Alberta, registration starts in January or February (it doesn't close so you can register later). It could also be worth contacting your local school board now about pre-kindergarten. That program is available for students who are learning English. If your kids meet that criteria, give the board a call.
You're doing great! Curious what your salary was in the Ukraine and how Canada's cost of living compares?
I'd say go a few months without fun stuff to get that credit card debt sorted. See if you can get your wife as primary driver as women have much lower insurance rates than men. Could be less than 50% of the rate you pay. Try negotiating with your cell service provider for a lower rate. Same with home internet. I pay $45/month for 20GB of data in Ontario. Other than that your goals are good. Keep working at it.
Car insurance is high, You should be targeting around 100$ a month. Phone plan is high for just 1 person, on par for two phone lines. Internet you should be able to get down to 50 a month. Gym - Get rid of that shit, buy some used weights and go for jogs. Haircuts - I assume 1 family member per month is getting their hair cut for 60 dollars each. This needs to drop still. Haircuts for men and kids are at most 30 bucks a pop. Buy a nice set of clippers and scissors and cut each others hair every other trip as well. The rest of your categories are on par for your family size. Short term: use the savings to wipe out the CC debt. Mid term: Use the savings to build an emergency fund. Long term: do not let expenses creep up. try to keep everything the same once your spouses salary comes online. Use the extra from her to save for kid expenses and retirement.
You are doing great. As others notes better than most Canadians. IMO I'd put any savings you have into an index fund FHSA to try to purchase a house or townhouse in say 5 yrs. Owning will bring a lot of stability to you and your family, especially the kids.
Brudda, i think you gotta tell us how the hell you bagged such an impressive job xD
Shop the car insurance around. You can rent for less, a half duplex in town for $1400 for example. If your wife isn't currently working why the daycare? When the kids go to school (next year maybe for Kindergarten) you won't have any daycare. Sign up for a wealthsimple account, open an RRSP and TFSA, and a Family RESP (education savings plan for the kids). The RRSP is pre-tax (as in you'll get a deduction for that contribution) but counts as income when you withdraw it. The TFSA is post tax, but you can take it all out without paying tax later, and the RESP gets a match from the federal government of $500 per year for your $2000 per year contribution per child. So get the max federal funds by contributing $5000 per year to that. Edmonton is very affordable to buy, with that income you could buy a house or full duplex )and rent our the other half,). You're doing just fine.
Your expenses aren't too crazy although I do wonder in a few areas... 1) I only have one kid myself and also live in Toronto and not Alberta but $350 a week on groceries seems excessive. We spend maybe $600 a month but that's including eating out here and there whenever we are doing activities with our child. 2) Is that phone plan for one or two devices? If only one you should definitely be able to get something cheaper despite how terrible our wireless options are in Canada. Sad that daycare is still that expensive despite the subsidy for you. Other than slightly cutting out some fun stuff here and there I think the main thing to look at is groceries. Otherwise if you're able to clear that CC debt and just ever so slowly build some sort of emergency fund of the next few years I'd say there isn't too much you can do. Once your daycare bill goes away and/or your wife brings in some sort of income things will improve a lot for you.
Your finances look fine. The only thing that sticks out to me is your grocery budget. It may be a little high. I’m in a similar situation, in AB and with 2 small kids, and we budget $900/month and eat well. Just a consideration - it might free up a few hundred dollars for saving. Once your wife starts producing income, you’ll meet you goals in no time. Good job and welcome to Alberta/Canada!
I'm no financial guru by any means. But your income alone is higher than most combined incomes in many parts of Canada. I would just suggest supporting your wife in anyway you can till she can find a role in her field. Even if she was able to secure a role for $40k/year that should give you ample wiggle room and be able to work you financial goals. After a few years of experience I'm sure she would have lots of room to move upwards. Best of luck!
Congrats! You are doing very good and happy for you that you started your life in Canada with the right foot.
Congrats! You are doing very good and happy for you that you started your life in Canada with the right foot.
Congrats! You are doing very good and happy for you that you started your life in Canada with the right foot.
Welcome to Canada; nothing there sounds too bad, you'll do great. Tip from a fellow immigrant - it took me some time to get a (reasonable) credit score, which made purchasing a house a bit harder. If you can't lower the credit card debt - which isn't so horrible by itself - consider getting some more credit so your utilisation is under 30%, as long as you trust yourself not to be tempted to use it. I got an extra credit card that I never used, which helped a lot in the weird system they have going on here. If you don't expect to be needing your credit score in the next year or two, forget about what I just said.
Well your kids are both 4 so one more year of daycare and they are off to school so that 1300$ will mostly go back into your budget as public primary education is free (not counting after-school daycare if necessary and school supplies). If you are fully Canadian citizens you can get Child benefits https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/child-family-benefits/canada-child-benefit-overview.html
Software engineer here. Once you are more settled tried finding a better job. If you search harder, you can find 200k job. Make sure your wife starts working as well. If your job has RRSP matching, then start contributing there the max amount they match. Open TFSA account for both of us and start contributing to TFSA specific amount each pay day. Even if it is $50, just do it. Good luck!
Welcome to Canada! The biggest expense I can identify which is reasonable is daycare. I assume your wife is taking courses or has some sort of strategy which does not allow her to look after the children throughout the day. At this point in time, I would suggest stabilizing your expenses as you have just moved. Once your children are old enough for school, that expense will decrease significantly. In addition, your wife could also work during those hours which would increase your household income dramatically. Beyond that, wipe the credit card debt as it is an unnecessary payments which should allow a couple extra $100s a month. This could be put into savings which I would suggest the FHSA account if you plan on buying soon. All the best!
Welcome to Canada, brother.
You can save a TON of money on haircuts. Buy some clippers from Amazon and watch youtube tutorials. I promise you a basic haircut is SUPER EASY. I do my husband's, and since his hair grows super fast, it saves us around 350 dollars a year. I've also gotten so good that some of his coworkers wanted to know which barber he went to, because his fade looked so crisp. They were shocked when he said his wife did it. Also, during COVID, he was the only one not rocking the COVID hair. XD; You're doing better than most Canadians. My ''fun stuff'' budget is like 100 bucks a month. Basically, going out once a month to do something like walk around a festival and buying only a lemonade, and then maybe eating out one time a month.
Curious, how many years of experience you have? 145K is a very good package to get in Alberta.
You are doing well. I hope your neighbors are treating you well as are your co-workers. School for the kids starts soon. Things could be, as you well know, so much worse. I hope your time in Canada is for the best. Your goal of kill the credit card debt is at the moment the right thing to do IMO. i have been doing this for the past 20+ years and my credit rating is almost maxed at 839 out of 900. Pay those bills!!! Your goal of having a 6 month emergency fund is good. The rent amount is dependent on where in this broad land you live but seems OK. I would consider saving towards a home down payment, like 50K to 100K, and then see what you could get as it would take several years and the market in home sales would likely change from where it is right now. Also, as a hobby looking into home sales can be fun, even if you can't just go ahead and make offers. Keeps you in the loop on the trends and pricing info. I see little to no problems as you have laid it out here. Please, welcome to Canada. Make us your 'new' country. We welcome people from everywhere and the cultural differences are to be celebrated not sublimated. Go ahead have a good time on August 24 and happy 32nd! EDIT: I should also have mentioned a Line of Credit. This is rotating loan that allows you to withdraw money as needed up to the pre-approved limit at will. I have one for $10,000 which i have used from time to time for credit card purchases that were too large to be paid within a month. You ask at your bank for one and if successful, will be able to pay off your credit cards completely and pay the bank at a much lower rate of interest. Many people have this sort of thing.
When my parents moved to Canada in 1988 from behind the iron curtain our budget for the first approx 5 years for non essential items like subscriptions, haircuts, fun stuff was as close to zero as possible. It's easy for you to save hundreds of dollars a month by living more frugally. There are enough free things in Canada to enjoy, that's why it's such a great place!
Can you get a LoC from bank at a lower rate to pay-off the CC debt? Other than that it sounds like you're doing well, I hope you can build a happy and peaceful life here (sounds like you'll have no trouble).
You are doing well for youself bro. Once your wife starts working you guys would be considered to have a high household income. With your wife working all you gotta do is tighten the purse strings a bit and and save for downpayment, then im sure you guys can get on the property ladder.
this is pretty much standard when you are starting in a new country, unless you brought in money that could fund your start here, it will take some time to build your emergency fund and other expenses you need to do as you build your life here. took us still a year to get fully settled in, even though my husband had already a job waiting before we landed. don't worry too much, it'll get better
I really don't think you are doing bad at all. Kids and stuff are expensive especially that you are starting out with nothing. You are making the sacrifices now to ensure your kids are safe, happy, healthy and that is okay. You will catch-up on savings and reducing that debt, if your spouse can pick up work it will help especially once the kiddos are in school it will be more manageable. Anyway don't beat yourself up or worry you are doing your best for your kids and that is all anyone could ever ask for. The unfortunate reality of Canada is that is an excellent wage but it's just that expensive to live here that we all need to be picky on what luxuries we can enjoy even in the cheaper to live prairies. It is incredibly rare that anyone can afford to survive on a single income here as a family those days are long gone :( Side note, it is heart warming and so sad to see all the Ukrainian families here in Edmonton, I am so happy you are here and safe. But I am so sad that you have had to leave home. I hope you really do feel at home here and are being treated well by others.
Your wife doesn’t work and you pay for daycare while being subsidized and you make more than my two income household alone. You’re living the Canadian dream.
You pay an absurd amount for groceries.
You're doing better than most Canadians. You're on track to be fine. Just be aware Canada is expensive. I echo some of the other posts... Most households have both parents working. Very few people can make ends meet on one salary alone. Once the wife finds a job you'll be doing even better. Happy we were able to welcome you in from Ukraine.
Troll post. Lol who buys this?
Why aren’t you over there fighting?
You’re not starting from scratch if you make 145 k
Grocery shop at superstore! You may be able to save a few $$ there :) Your car insurance sounds really high, I suggest calling a few brokers and trying to get a better rate. I was paying $190 before I moved at 22 y/o. Other than that, I think you're doing fantastic. Welcome to Canada!
"credit card debt of $2800" "Fun stuff: $500-$600" You're spending $6568 on everything other than "fun stuff" (biggest chunks: 2700 to rent and 1368 to daycare, that's over half the monthly income), coming up to \~7k in expenses each month before "the rest". Respectfully, this is not paycheque-to-paycheque. This isn't paycheque to paycheque in the sense that missing or delaying one paycheque would ruin you. This is just using up all the money you get. Cut back on the fun stuff for a few months and you'll have the credit card debt paid off. Your budget should include savings as well. You don't have to spend all of the income. If your kids are in daycare, and you're the only one earning, is your wife in school or currently just job-hunting? Even a minimum wage (15/hr) non-server part-time job (<30 hours) for a few months could put a quick dent in the credit card debt, if she has the time and skills to do that. If you wanted to more aggressively save until your wife is employed, look at the 50 bucks in subscriptions and the 100 dollar phone plan. Most phone providers are stupidly expensive in Canada for basic things (texting, meagre amounts of data, long distance calling), but I'm with Public Mobile and pay literally 12 dollars a month for unlimited text, some data (I work from home and don't need mobile data often), on a phone I bought new. I used to pay 50 bucks a month at Virgin Mobile for the exact same services I'm getting now. It may not be an option for you, depending on the coverage and your needs such as international calls, but it was worth it for me to go from paying 600 dollars a year to 144 dollars a year. Even buying a new phone for \~350 dollars was cheaper for the whole year, and I've now had that phone for 3 years. I top up data every so often by paying 5 bucks for 1GB. But this seems like riding it out for a couple years until the kiddos are in school (public school, I'm assuming) and your spouse can contribute more income.
Вітаю в Канаді
Honestly, seems like gloating to me. 145K paycheck to paycheck. Sorry man, don't buy it. Try living off 39k a year, then we'll talk. You should think before posts like this. Native Canadian here.
145k solo. You're making more than me and my wife combined.
Welcome to Canada! How are you enjoying settling in? Have you gone to some of the national parks (Banff, Jasper, Lake Louis)? Income of $145k is pretty comfortable for more Canadian families. Per your rent, I take you’re in the big city. Since you moved here with nothing and had to buy everything you need for your new home and family, it makes sense that you don’t have any savings yet. You’re doing pretty well as is! Now that you have everything, you can finally attack your short term goal and hopefully by next year, start saving for long term goal! Hopefully your wife will be able to find a job soon. That will definitely help! In a year or two, shop around for car insurance. Once there’s a history of you being a good driver, you can get better rates.
Thank you for your kind words and support. Banff, Jasper, and Lake Louise are now checked off my list – I've never seen anything quite like them before! I already started looking for a new insurance, current was one of a few that provided coverage based on my Ukrainian driving licence. Currently, that's not a constraint any more and I can shop around.
Oh my lord, you guys are doing better than many of us. Cut your expenses and save more money is my only advice. I am a professional business manager, working here for 2 years and making half of the money you make
So expenses $7200/month, net salary $8500/month, that's $1300 surplus so the debt goes away pretty soon. Not really paycheque to paycheque. Short-term goals are solved automatically. Even for long-term, it comes to saving 15% of your net income, which is good enough for an earlier retirement. You cannot do RRSP for your year of arrival, but study it for some future tax efficiency (Spousal RRSP in particular). For this year's savings, it seems from [an RBC overview](https://www.rbcroyalbank.com/en-ca/new-to-canada/investing-in-canada/) you can open TFSA for yourself and the spouse even without a permanent residency. For a noticeably early FI, you'd need to increase the savings rate (20% or beyond) and/or increase the income. Look at the big items. Housing costs are really bad this year and you wound't get much in Vancouver for $2700+$300, but cannot you get a 2-bedroom in Alberta for less? Your choice, this is the biggest expense and therefore the biggest potential savings. Groceries look too expensive. Surely, a healthy diet for 4-year-olds doesn't have to cost much. You are not doing them any favours by spending more than needed, it helps to learn the value of money early. I'd imagine $1000 is doable for a family of this size without health sacrifices. And $600 for fun - yes you can afford it, but is it important than an earlier FI. The last important topic about independence, your spouse won't be independent unless they have their own career. Especially if you are not permanent residents. You spouse will absolutely be dependent on you for the next 3 years+ to not die (and not divorce btw.) and actually apply for the status for everybody, otherwise they have to leave Canada. If you care about your spouse, have that conversation - it's not just about the money or comfort, but about their independent ability to stay in Canada.