Shannon Lee Simmons

I'm so happy to be here.

Thanks for having me.

Well, I mean, besides the obvious that the cost of living has gone up and things are more expensive and all that kind of economic stuff, I think the big thing is that money is how we afford our lives.

You want to go on a family vacation?

That costs money.

You want to go back to school and retrain?

That costs money.

You want to get married one day?

You want to retire one day?

Money, money, money.

So if you don't know whether that's all going to work out for yourself, then you're worried about it because you're worried about life not happening the way you want it to.

People feel broke.

I see this a lot.

I deal with a lot of middle-class, upper-class Canadians who feel broke, even though they have good incomes, like on paper, they are not numerically broke.

I think the feeling of broke is a feeling that you can't get the life that you want, even with the resources you have.

I hear this often, I make good money,

but I still can't X. Because the cost of living has gone up so much, there's been a sort of whiplash around if I thought I made this money and had these assets even six years ago, I would have had these things in my life.

And now I've reached those goals and I still can't do it or I can never save enough to get there.

It feels personal.

It feels like I'm doing something wrong.