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“I use my credit card for everything to rack up points”: How a 31-year-old realtor and interior design student spends her money

By Roxy Kirshenbaum| Photography by Erin Leydon
“I use my credit card for everything to rack up points”: How a 31-year-old realtor and interior design student spends her money

Who: Amber Davis, 31 What she does: Realtor, administrator for a property management company and interior design student What she makes: $80,000 a year Where she lives: A one-bedroom condo near Yonge and Lakeshore

Regular expenses: Mortgage: $1,800 a month. Condo maintenance fees: $400 a month. Property taxes: $200 a month. Phone and Internet: $125 a month. Groceries: $350 a month. Eating out: $175 a month. Transportation: $235 a month. “I use a mix of TTC, GO Transit, Uber and Lyft. It’s a lot cheaper than having a car.” Real estate fees: $500 a month, for brokerage fees and Ontario and Canadian Real Estate Association memberships. Credit card payments: $600 a month. “I pay for everything with my credit card to rack up points. Over the holidays, I used points to fly to England.” Dogs: $20 a month, for her two Yorkshire terriers, Mooshi and Fancy. Subscriptions: $50 a month, for Netflix, Apple Music, Architectural Digest, Azure Magazine and Pooch Patch, a balcony-grass-patch delivery service. Course fees: $1,000 a semester. “I’ve always been interested in interior design, so I decided to enrol in the program at Ryerson.”

Recent splurges: Renovations: $1,800. “I help flip houses on the side and ran into some last-minute costs on my current project.” FitBit: $219, as a gift for her mom. Clothing: $328, for a sweater from Anthropologie and a new pair of Levi’s. Bridesmaid dress: $400, for her friend’s wedding next year. Night out: $350, for dinner at the Keg and VIP Cineplex tickets with her sister.

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