Financial aid guide for university and college students in Canada + MORE May 7th

Amidst the gyrations of mega-cap technology stocks and cryptocurrencies over the past year, a stodgy old standby has notched a number of new highs. Gold briefly hit USD$3,500 per ounce in April. It is up 44% over the last 12 months in U.S. dollars and more in Canadian dollars.

That, together with the fear of a stock-market crash, has prompted a lot of Canadians who never considered owning the precious metal before to wonder whether this age-old asset should be part of their portfolios. After all, Canada’s largest robo-advisor, Wealthsimple, allocates 2.5% of its clients’ accounts to gold—and 10% in its halal portfolios.

Should it be part of yours? Or would you just be buying in at the peak? There’s no way to know, except in hindsight. There will always be “gold bugs” out there urging you to sell everything and buy gold before the world goes to pot. Their advice is best avoided.

Here instead are some important facts around investing in gold that will help you make a better-informed decision…

For Canadian college and university students, the days of being able to rely on summer-job savings to cover the cost of tuition and rent, and maybe even have some extra cash for food and books, are long gone. About half of students graduate with debt, with their average amount owed approaching $28,000. 

Back in 1989, for example, Ontario’s minimum wage was $5 an hour. Assuming a university student clocked a 40-hour work week for all 16 weeks of their summer break, they would earn $3,200. At that time, the average cost of a full year of tuition was $1,185 (about $2,600 in today’s dollars), according to Statistics Canada—meaning university tuition would eat up just over a third of a student’s pre-tax income. 

Student minimum wage has grown to $16.20 an hour in Ontario (as of October 2024), but the average cost of one year of full-time undergrad studies for a Canadian student has increased to $7,662, for the 2024–2025 school year. Assuming that same working schedule, a student would earn $10,368, meaning tuition would account for nearly 74% of a student’s pre-tax earnings…

Financial aid is rarely an afterthought, but student debt is often a bigger problem than most university and college students in Canada anticipate. Rising tuition fees and expenses of going to college or university have become increasingly large burdens to bear for students—many of whom are already dealing with pressures from the cost of living on their own for the first time.

What is the cost of that help? A 2024 Canadian University Survey Consortium survey of graduating students found that 45% of students finished school with debt: “The average debt among all students is just under $13,000 but more than doubles to almost $29,000 when only those reporting debt are considered.” In addition, it noted, “Students required over $19,000 to finance their current year of education, most commonly relying on parents, family or spouse, current employment, and government loans.”

These numbers can be unsettling to hear as a student, or as a parent. This student financial aid guide can help you understand your options, how the programs work, and how to apply and qualify for them…