Financial education can transform your life to wandering through your bank account to empower and make intentional choices with your resources. Despite the crucial importance of financial education, we never learned it in school and often stumbled across it after deciding there has to be a better way. Here’s some valuable insight for millenials as you budget paying for your first home.

Are you overspending on housing? The general rule of thumb is not to spend more than 50% of your gross monthly take-home pay on essential expenses, including housing, utilities, and related bills. That isn’t always possible when you live in cities with a sky-high cost of living like Toronto or Vancouver or have high fees and rising debt in other areas of your budget. Although it’s taking longer for Canadian millennials to save for housing, if you currently live in an area with a reasonable cost of living, you can also aim for a lower housing cost to bolster the rest of your budget.

If you can’t reach that coveted 50% rule, work towards finding as much balance as possible with the rest of your budget. Ditching the car for public transportation or a bike can score additional savings and slash miscellaneous expenses like gym memberships, and multiple big-ticket purchases or vacations every year.

Start with a budget and slowly add in these financial strategies to lay a foundation for success. Want to learn about more budgeting for mortgage strategies? Email us today at: info@giveaheck.com