This article was written in 2008, just before the financial crisis detonated and proved exactly how fragile many households were. Back then, Canadian debt levels were high, but not astronomical. Today, we’re dealing with soaring housing costs, higher interest rates, and record consumer debt. The message from 2008 didn’t age; it intensified. We now know that many Canadians aren’t three paycheques from homeless … some are one.
TL:DR
Those were the happy thoughts told to me one day at Church. The minister giving the sermon worked with homeless people and such, so his view might be a little stunted, but that was the point of his statement.
“We are all three pay cheques away from living on the street“.
Unknown Minister and Many Financial Pundits
Is this really the case? Well, that all depends on the debt burden that you carry. If you suddenly had no means of income, but you didn’t have any debt to pay off, you’d need money to pay your day-to-day expenses, which may be manageable or controllable. If you are carrying a large credit card debt load, and have minimum payments to make, then your issues are far more complicated and you must find ways to pay spiralling debt as well.
Are We Really?
Am I three pay cheques from living on the streets? I don't think so, I have a fair amount in RRSPs and such, and I also have some savings, but I also have a debt load that does worry me, and given the renewed vigour I have been given from reading good books like: Smoke and Mirrors , I think that is my goal is to kill my debt load while I can.
Three Paycheques from Homeless Redux 2025
Being “three paycheques from the street” isn’t meant to scare people, OK it is, from my perspective. Debt reduces our options. Without debt, a job loss becomes a painful inconvenience. With debt, it becomes a ticking time bomb.
The trick is not to build a perfect budget or become one of those “no-spend influencers” 🤮 who brag about reusing toilet paper. The fundamental strategy is boring: automate payments, trim creeping expenses, and deposit something into savings every month. Ten bucks is better than zero. Your future self won’t care where you started.
The ride gets smoother when debt disappears. Every payment you go without is another paycheque you keep. Every debt you eliminate gives you more time if life throws a punch (most likely in the lower abdomen).
FAQ Three Paycheques from Homeless
It suggests many people have so little savings and so much debt that losing income for even a short period can cause financial collapse.
Yes, minimum payments continue even when income stops, turning a temporary setback into a spiral. If you are asking this question, you really might be in trouble.
Pay down high-interest debt, build an emergency fund, and avoid lifestyle creep. Then, in general, pay down low-interest debt.
My list of debt commentary articles is quite long, so let's stick with the basics.
- Three Solid Ideas For Your HeLOC is a misdirection title. With interest rates going up, home equity lines of credit are becoming heavier anchors on your financial life.
- Pay Day Loans? Absolutely, positively NO! Go talk to a licensed insolvency professional before you do this.
- Surreal Paragraphs Found in Credit Card Bills, if you carry balances on your credit cards, you are in trouble. Look at their estimate for how long it will take to pay off the debt on minimum payments.
- A Mortgage Changes You, which is very accurate. When you get a mortgage, your life changes, and it will be a major element of your financial decision-making process.
- Make More by Reducing Debt with some elementary (maybe naive) arithmetic.
- Straight Talk on Your Money is not just a good book (and podcast). It explains how debt can get out of control quickly.
- Debt-shaming: Debt is Bad, but You Aren't having a poke at the "influencers" who say my commentaries about Debt being BAD is debt shaming.
- My coup de grace There is No Such Thing as good debt. Debt is a tool, like a chainsaw, and must be respected.
Not to diminish what your minister was saying, but I think he’s probably wrong. Seems like a lot of homeless people suffer from mental illness and/or addictions. I think this makes the situation even more tragic.
I also think most people have some safety net to keep them off the street. If my family were in dire straits, we could move in with a whole host of relatives.
Agreed, maybe that was also his message, that families mus stick together as well.
His point was more to pity those living on the streets because they are not that different from you and I, however, he did comment about the rampant consumerism in today’s culture.
I can’t imagine what it’s like to spend stupidly and live in constant fear of getting dumped onto the street. I hope the minister wasn’t fatalistic about it and suggested changing spending habits.