Making sense of the markets this week: November 24, 2024
Nvidia doubles revenue in one year, Canadian inflation moves in the wrong direction, Target misses badly, Walmart beats earnings...
I came across this rather colorful chart showing how the average American paycheque gets spent.
I though it worthwhile to break out where Canadians spend their income. Here’s the most recent data available from Statistics Canada. The numbers are from 2007. As you might expect, the biggest expenses most of us have are taxes, housing costs and transportation.
Since these are averages for all Canadian households, a few of the numbers may not correspond to your own situation. For instance, if you’ve got young kids at home and both of you work, you’re spending a lot more on daycare than the $330 shown here.
Also, in the food category, StatsCan doesn’t break out spending on groceries and restaurants. But several other StatsCan studies have found that 30% of most food budgets is at restaurants. So I’ve gone ahead and done the math. I’ve also indicated the percentage of total spend for each category in brackets.
Total household spending – $69,943 (100%)
Personal taxes – $14,447 (20.6%)
Personal insurance/pension contributions – $3,946 (5.6)
Housing:
Shelter (includes mortgage/rent) – $11,440 (16.3)
Utilities – $2,203 (3.1)
Household furnishings/equipment – $1,964 (2.8)
Communications (phone, cellphone, cable, etc.) – $1,488 (2.1)
Pet expenses – $432 (0.6)
Child-care expenses $330 (0.5)
Other household costs – $1,037 (1.4)
Transportation:
Private transportation (car payments, gas, etc.) – $8,426 (12.4)
Public transportation – $969 (1.4)
Food:
Groceries – $5,114 (7.3)
Restaurants – $2,191 (3.1)
Other:
Recreation – $3,976 (5.7)
Clothing – $2,948 (4.2)
Health care – $1,932 (2.7)
Gifts of money/contributions – $1,788 (2.6)
Personal care – $1,167 (1.7)
Education – $1,017 (1.5)
Books, newspapers, magazines – $260 (0.3)
Miscellaneous expenditures – $1,081 (1.5)
Vices:
Alcoholic beverages – $915 (1.3)
Tobacco products and smokers’ supplies – $621 (0.9)
Games of chance (minus winnings) – $251 (0.4)
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