“I make more money now than I ever have,” 37-year-old researcher and university lecturer Linda says. With an annual income of $120,000 a year — which includes her side-hustles for teaching and speaking engagements — she’s thriving.

Her rent is under $1,000 a month because she’s renting from her parents (she’s staying in their west end property), and she has aspirational goals to buy land in the Caribbean for future investments and retirement.

But her biggest challenge right now is that she’s a millennial going through a divorce.

Linda admits she’s spending a lot more money on self-care while dealing with this difficult period in her life. This includes massages, manicures or acupuncture on the weekends. “My weekends are about total relaxation and splurging with regards to meals. This means I don’t and won’t cook, and sometimes I’ll order Uber Eats several times between Friday night and Sunday,” she says.

Following her separation, she moved back to Toronto after spending eight years abroad in the Caribbean. As many major factors in her life are changing — some of them painful — her income situation is at an all-time high. “I make more money now than I ever have but also spend a lot more as a result. I have some serious savings goals to achieve ... and I would really benefit from some financial guidance.”

Her typical workday consists of eating breakfast at home from her weekly grocery haul. In a week, she’ll meal prep for three days and spend the other two eating lunch with colleagues or friends at a salad bar. It’s the after work hunger that brings her the most challenges. “Dinner is where I can really go off the rails thanks to Uber Eats,” adding that she orders dinner from the app about two days a week.

Linda says she’s “fortunate” to have “no OSAP or credit card debt” after paying it all off in 2014 while she was in graduate school, but she wants a financial adviser to help her with her long-term goal of buying land in the Caribbean. “A good piece of land on the island I’d like to live on is $50,000 to $75,000. My goal is to pay that in cash and then save up and build the homes on the land piece by piece.”

Her second savings goal is to have at least six months of savings in her emergency fund.

We asked Linda to show us a typical week of spending. Then, we got an expert to analyze it.

The advice: Jason Heath, managing director at Objective Financial Partners, says Linda is actually doing quite well.

“Most recent divorcees aren’t such diligent savers, so Linda seems to be in great shape from that perspective. She’s in a fairly high tax bracket, so RRSP contributions are a good way for her to save. Regular saving — saving first and spending second — is a great strategy. I like the way she has emergency fund and TFSA savings on the go as well. She’s organized and that’s great.”

Since the Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA) savings are meant for a land purchase, as the timeline to buying closes in, she should take a less aggressive approach with her TFSA investments. Her RRSP can be more aggressive, given it’s a long time before she needs that money.

She should be sure she’s claiming all available tax deductions for her side-hustle — teaching and speaking engagements. She may be eligible to claim some of her rent, transportation and cellphone costs as well.

The Uber Eats costs add up fast. Eating out can be expensive as it is, but an extra $5 or more for delivery adds insult to budgeting injury.

The more than $4,000-per-year budgeted for acupuncture, massage and personal training is pretty generous, but there are worse vices than self-care and healthy living.

The $6,000-per-year travel fund is quite generous as well for a single person, but with a goal to buy land, build a home and retire abroad, obviously it’s something meaningful to Linda.

As a recent divorcee, there are things that could change in Linda’s future, like meeting someone else. Single people are probably best to budget on the basis they will stay single, and if they get into a relationship, revisit their plans at that time.

Heath also says that some of these discretionary expenses may be OK as long as Linda is hitting her savings targets and on track for the long run. “You shouldn’t just budget for minimizing spending, you should budget based on what you need to save long-term to stay on track for retirement and other goals.”

The results: She actually spent more! Spending in week 1: $456.37. Spending in week 2: $726.59

What she thought: Linda recognizes she spent more in the second week when she was trying to follow Heath’s advice, but she says, all things considered, she still did pretty well. “I had the weekend trip to New York City planned with a friend for about a month, and while preparing for it I knew that I was going to take advantage of their post-Black Friday deals. Instead of being completely reckless with my spending, which is tempting, I made a list of things I really needed and wanted, and then narrowed it down.”

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She says she was pleased with the stuff she found, including a new winter jacket which was a “top need,” sunglasses which were a “top want,” and overall shared many fun memories with her friend on the trip. Also, because she knew she would be spending more on her weekend getaway, she said she only bought one latte and one coffee because she was more conscious of her added expenses.

Take-aways: “The financial adviser gave me some really good insight on long-term saving, and wasn’t too hard on my spending habits. I really thought he would scorn me for my latte spending!” Linda says. The one comment that really stuck with her was: “You shouldn’t just budget for the minimizing of spending, you should budget based on what you need to save long-term to stay on track for retirement and other goals.”

A few days after Linda started calculating her week 1 spending, she also happened to have a talk with her father about mutual funds. “I’ve been wanting to open a mutual fund for about a year now, and I’ve decided that in early 2020 I’d like to open two.” One that is low-risk and will be for long-term and retirement saving, and another that is more aggressive for the short-term which she can use for her Caribbean land and building project.

Other goals for 2020? Taking Heath’s advice on Uber Eats and its expensive delivery fees. “I’m a great cook anyway so I’ll be doing more home-cooking moving forward.” Also, when it comes to tax time, Linda will be a lot more meticulous in 2020 — especially with her side gigs.

“I think getting into the mindset that saving money is as fun as spending money, especially in the long run, is a good lesson for any millennial,” she says.

Correction: Income tax in the first graphic has been corrected from $1,500 to $2,800.