Here’s how some young Canadians are seeing their financial future: MoneySense

Wait until everything works out

After a few hours out with friends in downtown Toronto, 19-year-old Eleni Koumoundouros has to make a choice. Does she end the evening early and start the hour-long journey to Oakville, where she lives with her parents? Or does she enjoy the evening a little longer and does night-time public transport and walking home in the dark bother her? It’s a recurring question for the third-year student at the University of Toronto, who says the commute puts a damper on her social life.

Koumoundouros works 30 hours a week in addition to her studies, but rent in downtown Toronto is unaffordable. “I work so hard to earn this money, even though it feels like the money isn’t going anywhere.”

Koumoundouros says her generation is upset about scarce employment opportunities. The political science student has long hoped for a career in government so she can help pass laws that improve people’s lives, and she hopes current policymakers realize the magnitude of Canada’s affordability crisis. “I think I could be happier. But right now I’m not completely disappointed. I’m just trudging along, waiting for everything to work out.”

Haunted by employers, ‘the worst.’

Recent graduate Lauren Hood thought she would now have her first real job and live independently. But things haven’t gone as planned for the 21-year-old, who completed a bachelor’s degree in political studies, philosophy and a certificate in law from Queen’s University in June.

Hood has been looking for a job for months and although she has found work in a retail store, there are no prospects in sight in her field. “It’s very difficult to get into the job market right now,” she says.

Hood lives with her parents in Aurora, Ontario, as she continues her job search while paying bills with her DJ gig. Her job search was not easy. Hood remembers walking into a restaurant where open interviews were held weekly. “At the end of the interview they said this would be a hire for April of next year,” she says. “I thought, ‘What do you mean next April? It’s September!’

Hood says she has applied for more than 50 jobs related to her studies and has only had two interviews since graduating. Dealing with rejection was daunting. Hood says she’s wary of applying for certain jobs because it’s hard for her to deal with the disappointment. “Being ghosted by employers is, I think, one of the worst feelings.”

Hood says the search has disrupted her plan to save money, pay off her debts and eventually take exams for law school. “I feel behind,” she says. “In my head I imagined myself working and ideally it would be nice to move and not live at home anymore. But I can’t do that without a job.”

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Those dreams are out of reach

Taylor Arnt, 27, says the high cost of living means many young people are unable to reach traditional milestones, such as getting married or buying a home, as quickly as previous generations. Arnt, who lives in Winnipeg, says her parents’ and grandparents’ achievements felt linear across her parents’ and grandparents’ generations. But that is no longer the case. “You went to school, you got a job, you got married, you had children,” Arnt says. “Many of those dreams, if we want to realize them, are beyond our reach.”

Arnt recently lost her job as a policy analyst due to government cuts and now works as a consultant and group fitness instructor on a contract basis.

Arnt lives with family and says she will “soon give up on the idea of ​​having her own home.” Moving seems far-fetched given the high costs and her lack of stable work, she says.

Arnt also says she had to come to terms with the fact that she might never get married or have children. “It’s very difficult to plan for the future and think about those goals when you’re struggling to meet your basic daily needs,” says Arnt. “Feeling frustrated that no matter how hard you work you can’t get to the same places I think filters a lot into how young people experience things and perhaps why they are so unhappy right now.”

I don’t want to spend on unnecessary things

25-year-old Thivian Varnacumaaran needed more than 400 job applications before he found work as an electrical designer in July. The recent graduate of York University in Toronto says he has enough money to pay his phone bills and other expenses, but there isn’t much left. “I still struggle, even with the amount of money I make now, because it is a starting salary,” says Varnacumaaran. “It’s going to take time to obviously increase that and put it into a wage where I can live comfortably.”

He currently lives with his family in Markham, Ontario, something he calls a “privilege.” “I don’t want to spend on unnecessary things, so I do my best.” Varnacumaaran says he knows many other young graduates who are finding it difficult to make ends meet. The minimum wage in Ontario is $17.60 per hour. Varnacumaaran says there is an urgent need to increase it to better reflect the cost of living.

Still, he is hopeful for his future. He says his grandparents survived colonialism and the civil war in Sri Lanka. When his family moved to Canada, they had to rely on charities like the Salvation Army, but are now in a pretty good position.

Varnacumaaran says he hopes to one day have a family and children of his own. Work hard enough, he says, and “you’ll get what you want.”