Welcome to your Youth Corner
The earlier you understand how money really works, the more options you create for yourself later on.
Youth Corner is for teens and young adults who want to build strong financial habits, ask better questions, and understand the fundamentals before they need them. No jargon — just practical ideas and real-world thinking to help you get started with confidence.
New Youth Corner articles published every Tuesday.
The Financial Future Isn’t Broken—But It Is Optional
Is the financial system failing Gen Z, or does it just depend on whether we choose to participate? If you’re Gen Z in Canada, economic pessimism doesn’t feel like a dramatic overreaction. It feels entirely earned. Rent in Toronto and Vancouver borders on the absurd. Homeownership has taken on the status of a myth. Student loans linger for years, and every few months, another headline asks whether markets, capitalism, or the economy itself still work for anyone under the age of 30. Against that backdrop, being financially optimistic can sound naïve—or worse, completely out of touch. But here is a claim worth…
How Banking Actually Works (And How to Set Up Your First Accounts)
Let’s make money make sense. Let’s be honest for a second… Nobody really cares about banking—until that first real paycheck hits. Whether it’s from a part-time job, tutoring, lifeguarding, or just money coming in more regularly, suddenly you’ve got cash. But just as quickly as it arrives, it’s gone. Between your phone bill, Spotify, Uber rides, and grabbing food with friends, it adds up fast. At some point, you catch yourself thinking: “Wait… where did all my money go?” That’s where banking comes in. Not to make life complicated, but to give you a system so your money doesn’t just disappear on…
Why Feeling Behind Is Normal (And What It Means for Your Money, Investing, and Financial Plan)
One of the most common things I hear from people (especially young adults) when they first sit down with me is some version of this: “I feel behind.” Behind financially. Behind in their career. Behind compared to friends, colleagues, or people they went to school with. Sometimes they don’t say those exact words, but the feeling is there. After more than thirty years working in financial planning, I’ve learned that this feeling is incredibly common. And most of the time, it has far more to do with comparison and expectations than with someone’s actual financial situation. Usually, when people say they feel…
A calm guide who takes you seriously—and remembers what it felt like not to know yet.
If you’re reading this because you feel uncertain about money, work, or what you’re supposed to have figured out by now, let’s start here: That feeling is normal—far more normal than most people admit. Early adulthood comes with a lot of quiet pressure. Pressure to know what you’re doing, to move quickly, to make the “right” decisions before it’s too late. What often gets missed is that very little is actually explained clearly at this stage, and almost nothing comes with context. That’s why this corner exists. What This Space Is Meant to Be The Youth Corner is a place to slow…