It’s easy to think about all the things we’d like to buy, places we’d like to go and experiences we’d like to have. It’s easier to make a laundry list of reasons why these things are not possible than it is to create a plan to make things happen.
Everyone has hurdles, and we can all use these hurdles as excuses. I dream of one day being a homeowner, and I have been known to say that being a single mother who doesn’t receive child support makes it really difficult for me to imagine this dream becoming a reality.
Sharon Collier was a single mother with three children and she, too, had a dream of being a homeowner. To make this happen, Collier started a budget and began crunching numbers. At the time, she was an early childhood educator and earned about $16 an hour working full-time.
Her children were teens and had all started working part-time, and this is where the story gets inspirational.
“All my kids were working evenings and weekends and I didn’t need to take them to their activities anymore,” Collier said. “So I decided I would start working evenings and weekends, too.”
Collier was working seven days a week. She worked full-time at a daycare, she worked weekends and a couple of evenings a week at a children’s recreation centre and three evenings a week childminding at a local gym. In her downtime, she would babysit for families to make some additional money. With these jobs, Collier was earning between $12 and $16 per hour.
This is what makes this story so exceptional to me. There are so many people in that position who would say a low wage and single motherhood would make dreams impossible. Since that time, she has switched jobs and has been able to secure significantly better salaries.
“During this time, I wasn’t able to take my family on vacations and we didn’t have many extras,” Collier said. “There was no luxury.”
Collier was able to put a downpayment on her Langford home and continued to work this intense schedule to make her mortgage payments.
“I kept thinking: ‘What if something happens to me?’ I wanted to make sure that my kids would always have a place if they needed it. My kids were in school and I didn’t want them to ever have to quit school because they had to pay for a place to live.”
It was this motivation that kept Collier on her path. She drove an old car and stretched her paycheques by cooking at home, mostly casseroles, soups and stews.
“My kids would be embarrassed by my car and they were driving nicer cars than me. I told myself that once I paid off my mortgage I would start saving for a new car,” Collier said.
It took Collier 10.5 years to pay off a $335,000 mortgage, which was six months longer than she had hoped. Once the house was paid in full, Collier started saving for a new car, and last year she bought herself a Honda Civic and paid for it in cash.
Collier grew up in Cape Breton, N.S., living in a single-parent household with eight siblings. She grew up in a frugal house and learned money management at a young age.
“My mom used to give me an envelope of money and I would go pay our bills.” Collier said. “My mom also taught me to always pay my debt first.”
Each of Collier’s children started working at the age of 14, and Collier would sign the paper allowing them to work only if they brought her half of their paycheques so she could put it in savings. The money saved covered each child’s post-secondary education.
This is such an inspiring story because it proves that if you want something enough, there is a way. Over time, Collier has secured better-paying jobs, but she continues to work three jobs and ensures she is always living within her means.
Collier’s story inspired me to tighten my budget and make more soup. Maybe in a few years, I could be a homeowner, too.
Charla Huber is the director of communications and Indigenous relations for M’akola Group of Societies.
