35, Toronto
Katherine Wong Too Yen
Like a lot of people, when she was in her early 20s, Katherine Wong Too Yen says she found herself in an all-encompassing “what am I supposed to do with my life?” haze. It was the mid-2010s, and she had just pivoted from sports entertainment to a career in banking. She was excited about her new gig but there was one big problem: She knew nothing about personal finance.
35, Toronto
Katherine Wong Too Yen
Like a lot of people, when she was in her early 20s, Katherine Wong Too Yen says she found herself in an all-encompassing “what am I supposed to do with my life?” haze. It was the mid-2010s, and she had just pivoted from sports entertainment to a career in banking. She was excited about her new gig but there was one big problem: She knew nothing about personal finance.
u/KatWongTY
“When you work at a bank, all of your colleagues will know things like what a TFSA is, what a GIC is. And I had zero knowledge. At the time, it was kind of like, who do I ask?”
So, she did what a lot of people do when they don’t want to look clueless: She turned to the internet. But this was before it was easy to privately ask a chatbot such as ChatGPT for under-the-table advice. Instead, she made a Reddit account and joined r/PersonalFinanceCanada, a resource she knew was for learning about money.
At first, she just lurked the subreddit (she looked but never contributed) and learned from posts. Then, she built up the courage to start posting herself.
This is a dramatized example, not a real Reddit post
I just reached my first $25k in savings. I’m 25 years old, what should I be doing next? I don’t want my funds to be sitting in a savings account doing nothing.
I finally crossed $25,000 in savings and I am proud of it, but I also feel stuck now that I hit this milestone. What should be my next step?
Edit to add: My approach has mostly been to save aggressively while I figured out my career transition, and that got me here. I do not have consumer debt, and my monthly expenses are stable enough that I can keep saving.
What I do not have is a clear plan for what this money should do next. I am not trying to gamble with it, but I also know leaving everything in a regular savings account is probably not the best long-term move.
How would you split this between emergency fund, TFSA investing, and shorter-term flexibility if you were 25 and still learning the basics?
u/KatWongTY
“I remember being really nervous making that post, and kind of being curious about how people would interpret that. But a lot of people were very empathetic. ... The community felt super welcoming. And that’s the initial reason why I stuck around for so long.”
More than a decade later, Ms. Wong is now a chief marketing officer at a U.S.-based fintech company. She credits a lot of her early confidence around money to what she learned on the subreddit.
But over the course of those 10 years, the vibe on the subreddit has changed, she says. Instead of remaining a place focused on help with financial literacy, she’s noticed it now seems more like a space for people to express their concerns and compare how their financial situations stack up against others’ in Canada.
u/KatWongTY
“It does seem like there’s been an increase in anxiety. ... Affording a first home. The cost of living. Salaries not keeping up. That feels more common.”
She’s also noticed a lot more troll-like posts on the subreddit, where people appear to inflate their financial situations in an effort to make others feel left behind. Or worse, users who make fun of people who post about actually being behind.
u/KatWongTY
“When I initially joined, it was a community that felt safe to post. ... As the subreddit has grown, you will see more people who are more judgmental. You will have some answers that are more sarcastic, people who are trolling, and you will see people make posts where you’re like, okay, all of this was clearly ChatGPT-generated.”
A major attraction for users is the community-driven nature of Reddit. On other social-media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, there’s been a proliferation of accounts selling investment schemes and financial products within personal finance content that people may not even be aware is an advertisement.
Plus, on Reddit, there are moderators for each subreddit who review posts and outline rules for the community, such as bans on soliciting.
“People are not on Reddit necessarily to sell things,” says Daniel Richards, an associate professor at York University who specializes in behavioural finance and investment decision-making. “Reddit seems to be more about people just wanting to find out more and share information.”
The top conversation topics on the subreddit in 2025 were related to navigating financial hardships such as layoffs and debt; investment strategies and retirement planning; housing affordability and mortgages; economic uncertainties; and financial scams, according to Reddit.
Because of Reddit users’ anonymity, people can ask questions that they would be afraid to ask in person, Mr. Richards says. “But the flip side of that is, the quality of information you’re getting back is hard to know,” he says.
He’s right. Of course, in general, most people know they shouldn’t take the advice they see on the internet as gospel. But that’s especially true for personal finance advice, which should be tied to an individual’s specific circumstances. There has been an increase of AI-generated content flooding the subreddit, despite the community rules banning these types of posts.
23, Victoria
Miller Kriese
Miller Kriese, a political science undergraduate student at the University of Victoria, came to the subreddit on a well-trodden path: He was a young person looking for answers he didn’t get in school about how to manage his money.
23, Victoria
Miller Kriese
Miller Kriese, a political science undergraduate student at the University of Victoria, came to the subreddit on a well-trodden path: He was a young person looking for answers he didn’t get in school about how to manage his money.
He began paying close attention to personal finance content after landing a summer job with the B.C. Wildlife Service, allowing him to start saving for the first time. Unsure what to do with the extra income, he turned to r/PersonalFinanceCanada for guidance.
Even though anyone can post on Reddit, he noticed that good advice usually prevails. And anyone giving bad advice gets called out quickly by other community members, he says.
u/MillerKriese
“The advice that sort of succeeds and gets to the top is generally quite sound and less polarized, which I think you compare to a platform like TikTok, where a really big percentage of personal finance content is essentially directly affiliate promoted content.”
Mr. Kriese says there is a “schadenfreude” element to the subreddit, though – meaning many people love to take pleasure in other people’s mistakes. If people are posting about their financial misgivings, it’s going to get a lot of engagement. Similarly, on the flip side, if someone posts about an absurd amount of money they have, it’s going to receive attention.
u/MillerKriese
“It kind of provides the entertainment value that brings people into the subreddit, right?”
For all the good things about Reddit, a big issue is that social comparison aspect.
When it comes to money, people don’t want to feel like they are behind their peers, says Mr. Richards, the personal finance professor. But “Reddit is bringing that to life,” he says.
29, Toronto
Lienke Abdeen
Lienke Abdeen started browsing the subreddit when she began working full-time as a project manager, trying to see how her salary compared to those who were at a similar career stage. Instead of giving her reassurance, scrolling through the posts made her feel less successful.
29, Toronto
Lienke Abdeen
Lienke Abdeen started browsing the subreddit when she began working full-time as a project manager, trying to see how her salary compared to those who were at a similar career stage. Instead of giving her reassurance, scrolling through the posts made her feel less successful.
u/LienkeAbdeen
“It made me feel really shitty. ... I’m working so hard, and my salary is maybe 10 per cent of what these people seem to be making.”
Many of the posts she encountered featured young professionals reporting unusually high salaries or six-figure investment accounts, alongside others in severe financial distress.
She wonders if many of the people on the forum are just trolling when they post things such as: “I’m 25 and I have three properties. Am I doing okay?”
u/LienkeAbdeen
“I think a lot more of them are fake than maybe people realize, or maybe they’re exaggerated. Maybe people are getting wealth from their parents, and they’re pretending that they’re earning it at these high paying jobs. But really, they’re not.”
Ms. Abdeen is a student in Humber College’s comedy program. She turned her observations about the subreddit into viral comedic videos, poking fun at what she sees as the subreddit’s tendency to spotlight either the ultra-wealthy or the financially desperate.
40, Hamilton
Allison Dubé
Allison Dubé began lurking on the subreddit during the economic uncertainty brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. She initially wanted to see how others were thinking about their financial decisions at the time, but something else stuck out to her: how much widespread confusion there was about basic financial concepts.
40, Hamilton
Allison Dubé
Allison Dubé began lurking on the subreddit during the economic uncertainty brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. She initially wanted to see how others were thinking about their financial decisions at the time, but something else stuck out to her: how much widespread confusion there was about basic financial concepts.
u/AllisonDubé
“I think it’s a really interesting reflection of how poor our knowledge of financial issues is in Canada. And it’s funny, because I wouldn’t say mine was great, but it’s definitely better than some people.”
At the same time, she noticed a strong distrust of financial institutions among users, many of whom seemed more comfortable asking strangers for advice rather than turning to banks or advisers.
u/AllisonDubé
“I think it reflects kind of our relationship with financial institutions, because we don’t view them as a trusted source entirely, because we do recognize that they’re selling a product, right?”
r/PersonalFinanceReddit started as a place where everyday people could ask the money questions they might be too embarrassed to bring up in real life.
Over time, it’s evolved to become a window into the financial anxieties of Canadians across the country. In mid-July, some trending posts looked at how to navigate a layoff, while others detailed an increase in financial scams targeting Canadians.
Even as more people turn to artificial intelligence for financial advice, the subreddit hasn’t lost its relevance.
If anything, it continues to grow, offering something AI can’t always provide: A community of people sharing their own experiences, reassurance and hard-earned advice (even if the occasional troll comes with the territory).
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