Steph Gordon, 24, makes $44,235 USD per year and Den Mathu, 24, makes $42,765 USD per year. They work at "Big Four" accounting firms and live in Toronto, Ontario. Since Canada suspended student loan payments during the pandemic, the two have been able to save more. Den, who used to put nearly $1,000 a month toward his student debt, is now putting all of that money toward an emergency fund.
This is an installment of CNBC Make It's Millennial Money series, which profiles how subjects earn, spend and save their money.
Read more about their budget breakdown here: cnb.cx/3dQLO6l
Check out Steph and Den on KZfaq here: / stephden
Steph Gordon, 24, and Den Mathu, 24, had their first conversation about money before they even started dating. The couple, who met in 2017 while interning at the same company the summer before their last year at the University of Ottawa, remember discussing salary transparency with their peers and sharing what they each earned.
After they started dating, about three years ago, one of their first money talks as a couple was about their different backgrounds and early relationships with money: Den, who was born in Kenya and came to the U.S. with his family when he was six, "didn't really have much" growing up, he tells CNBC Make It. "We struggled a lot." From an early age, "I associated money with a better future and a better life for your family."
While Den didn't learn much about money management as a kid, he knew that he wanted to earn a lot one day. That's part of the reason he chose to get a business degree and pursue consulting after graduating university. He's not making nearly as much as he eventually wants to - he earns $42,765 USD* (CNBC Make It converted all the figures from CAD to USD) as a consultant at a "Big Four" accounting firm - but that's standard for someone just starting out in his industry, he explains: "I knew what I was signing up for. You don't necessarily make a lot in the beginning, but hopefully, as you gain experience over time, that translates into more income."
Steph, whose dad is an accountant, had more guidance as a kid when it came to money management. Her father is very savings-focused and impressed on her specific financial principles that she still lives by today, she says: "You save more than you spend. You live within your means. You pay off any debt you have right away."
She's been saving since she was 14, when she got her first job working at the front desk at a gym. Even then, "I didn't see half of my paycheck," she recalls. "It went right into my savings that I used when I went to school."
Today, she earns a lot more working as a strategy and operations coordinator also at a Big Four firm - $44,235 - but she still saves about half of her income and has built up about $17,000 in savings. Part of the reason she's able to save so much is because her parents helped fund her education and she graduated debt-free from the University of Ottawa in 2018 with a business degree.
Den, on the other hand, who also earned a business degree at the same university, graduated with about $30,000 in student debt. While he makes roughly the same amount as his girlfriend and has the same fixed costs, he doesn't have nearly as much in savings: closer to $5,000. Before the pandemic, he was putting all of his extra money at the end of the month toward his loans and barely anything in a savings account.
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Living Together On $87K A Year In Toronto | Millennial Money