Financial Consumer Agency of Canada
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Financial Consumer Agency of Canada

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Save for your own your post-secondary education

Despite the high cost, a post-secondary education is a solid investment in your future.  And remember, the more you're able to put away before you begin your post-secondary studies, the less you will owe in student loans when you graduate.

Ways to build your savings:

Work before post-secondary school

  • Every dollar that you can save from a part-time or summer job in high-school is one less dollar that you'll have to borrow for your studies.

  • For example, if you were to work just one 7.5 hour shift a week for two years in high school (earning the average minimum wage of $9.72 per hour in 2011), you could earn $7,581.6 (not taking into account taxes and deductions, however for students, they are generally low). And that's assuming that during the summer you don't increase the number of hours you work.

  • Saving even half of that would go a long way to towards helping pay for your tuition.

  • A good habit to develop early is to ‘pay yourself first'. Speak to your financial institution about having a percentage of your pay automatically deposited into a savings account for school.

Work during post-secondary school

  • Many post-secondary students choose to work part-time during the school year, but depending on your program and course load this might not be practical for you.  If this is the case, focus on working during the summer.

  • If you're in a 4 year degree program and you work a full-time (37.5 hours a week) summer job for 3 months of every year earning the average minimum wage ($9.72 per hour in 2011) you could earn $13,122 (not taking into account taxes and deductions, however for students, they are generally low) for 3 summers of work.

  • Saving even half of that would go a long way to towards helping pay for your tuition.

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Date Modified:
2012-12-05