Both 25 years old, this Toronto couple makes more than $250,000 collectively, working in tech for two downtown companies. Ace is a senior product manager who works in an office and Ada is a software developer who works from home.

They know they make a lot money, especially for people so young, but they put in their “sweat and tears” — following in the footsteps of their immigrant parents who sacrificed much for their children’s future.

“Our parents have brought us a long way from where we started in Canada 20 years ago. We lived in subsidized housing, with cockroaches and not to mention awful landlords,” Ada shares. “We know that there is still much more to learn and we are hustling hard to be better! At the end of the day, we want to inspire and not come off as people who are out of touch with today’s reality.”

Because of their hustle attitude, they’ve been able to purchase two properties — one that they live in and another they rent out. With their additional savings, they share a passion for extracurriculars, like Krav Maga fighting or cooking classes at George Brown during their jam-packed weekends.

“Many of our peers think we don’t sleep. That we work way too much and juggle too many side hustles. To us, it’s a lot of fun though we wouldn’t say it’s easy,” Ada says.

Another interesting part of their relationship, and a cost they allocate in their annual spending is their “Think Weekend” activities — where the two rent out an Airbnb every couple months for a financial review and “next quarter planning” session to determine what they’ll commit to in terms of savings and activities and what they’ll say no to.

Day to day, the two enjoy cooking at home. This means breakfast is typically made at home, lunches are mostly meal prepped other than an occasional team outing, and dinner is homemade five out of seven days of the week. But that doesn’t mean they don’t like to indulge in a bubble tea or ice cap twice a week for a snack.

On most weeknights, they’ll be running errands, exercising, watching movies or looking into future planning. Occasionally, because of their industry, they’ll attend professional development events around the city.

Their overall savings goals? Well firstly, it’s to pay off the mortgage debt — around $1.5 million on the downtown properties they own. Other than that, it’s to save up money for vacations to the U.K., India, Hawaii and Vancouver in 2020 and to take another life skills course. They’re hoping that with advice from a financial planner, they can see what to prioritize first.

We asked Ace and Ada to track all their spending in a week.

The advice: Jason Heath, managing director at Objective Financial Partners, says the key for a couple in their position is to set goals with foresight. In other words, don’t just pay down debt or minimize expenses for the sake of doing it. Whether on their own, or with a professional, they should set some short-term debt repayment and investing targets based on their long-term goals.

> They have high incomes, and would probably benefit from contributing to their RRSPs. I find some young people believe real estate is the only way to prosperity in Toronto and forgo traditional savings methods — and I worry about that approach.

> RRSP contributions would give them tax refunds of about 50 cents on the dollar, and with many years to retirement, they could compound their investments and hopefully withdraw them in retirement at a lower tax rate.

> As they are repaying debt, I’d be focused on their home mortgage, given their rental property debt is likely fully tax deductible (assuming it was all used for the purchase of that property). If they wanted to get fancy, they could even push out the amortization on their rental property mortgage to reduce their payments, and that would free up cash flow to pay down their home mortgage more aggressively. That way, they are paying down the non tax-deductible debt faster, and leaving the tax-deductible debt for last.

> Ada can work from home, so she’ll want to make sure she has a form T2200 from her employer to permit her to deduct home office expenses on her tax return. She can claim a portion of her electricity, heat, water, condo fees, internet, and home office supplies.

> Their expenses are pretty lean relative to their income. There’s not much to pick on. Travel expenses are high, but hey, they’ve done pretty well for themselves at 25 and are spending fairly modestly.

> Given they have $1.5 million in debt, a rise in interest rates is going to hit their spending. Interest rates will go up at some point, and if rates were 5% instead of 3%, that could mean an incremental $30,000 per year in interest costs.

The results: They actually spent more in the second week. Spending in week 1: $420.11. Spending in week 2: $569.86.

What they thought: The two really tried to save more money compared to last week, but because of the holiday season, it was a little difficult. “We don’t celebrate Christmas, but there’s still some gift-giving involved!” Ada said. To make up for those costs, Ace tried to save more by biking to work this week, but because it was extremely cold, it was a little difficult. Ada took an Uber more often because she was given a $4.00 off promo code from the app. It ended up saving more time, but the transportation costs went up from their normal spending.

“I think for our weekly day-to-day expenses, Coach mentioned we are pretty lean. We revisited some areas and noticed that we can cut back a little more on monthly fixed expenses.” That includes cancelling Netflix and switching it up for Amazon Prime, which they found out comes with free Amazon TV, and Bell, which comes with Crave and Alt TV channels.

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Take-aways: With Heath’s advice, they’re hoping to cut back on the expensive courses in the next quarter and invest in vacations before they start a family. They’re still continuing the Think Weekend activities, but with a more focused goal on paying off their mortgages and looking into other expenses they can claim.

“This year we will claim what we can. Our condo actually embeds the utility fees inside of it already so that helps. We’re going to file more expenses this year! We took a taxes course last year to ensure we know the savings of personal taxes.”

The advice also opened their eyes to renegotiate mortgage debt to a longer amortization period and insurance for their future. In terms of investment and savings, they’ve decided it would be more valuable in the next 2-3 years to commit to investing in themselves by participating in more courses and travels.

What they learned about themselves: The two have been together for the last decade, through high school, university, their first jobs, and it has helped them grow and learn as a couple. Doing the #MillennialMoney challenge gave them more talking points to move forward and reminded themselves of why they made the choices they did.

“For us, making decisions together is pivotal. Whether that be financial, family, or career decisions. If we’re both aligned then we feel heard, understood, and respected,” Ada says.

“The thought process behind each person’s wants and needs is a story — it’s a negotiation.”