Liza Akhvledziani Carew and her husband David Carew visited Kenya’s Masai Mara National Reserve on their honeymoon. The couple strategically use credit card points to help pay for their travel.Supplied
Driving through rolling savannah plains in Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Reserve on her honeymoon, Liza Akhvledziani Carew saw elephants, lions and giraffes. She was reminded of the sheer vastness of the world and felt her “own little life” put into context.
For Ms. Akhvledziani Carew, the chief executive officer of a startup that helps Canadians earn more credit card points, travel is a non-negotiable budget item.
“It’s a big part of our lifestyle. That’s probably what I would spend most of my money on,” she said, adding that the couple pays for part of their travel with a “sophisticated [credit card reward] points strategy.”
The cost of travelling has soared in recent years, driven by the postpandemic travel boom, inflation and new taxes imposed by destinations affected by overtourism.
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But for many Canadians, travel remains a high-priority spending area, regardless of rising costs. And it’s clashing with other financial goals.
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Kathleen Daunt, a financial adviser with the New School of Finance in Toronto, works with clients who are saving for a major financial milestone, most commonly to buy a home.
When she sits down with her clients and calculates the amount they’d need to save each month to reach that goal – which usuallymeans not spending on travel – they balk at the trade-off.
“People expect to have all the items on their list of priorities. If anything, it means you have to understand your priorities and have flexibility,” she said.
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She also said roughly two in five new clients will cite annual travel as one of their top financial goals.
Ms. Daunt said she sees the desire for travel as a mix of social media-induced fear of missing out, widespread burnout and a societal view of vacations as a right – all of which can make it easier to justify overspending.
“You have that same old expectation [of being able to take vacations] but everything just feels more pricey,” she said. “It’s so much money for a family of four or more to do an on-a-plane vacation.”
Canadians’ overseas trips were up 32 per cent in the July-to-September period last year from the same period a year earlier, and up 6.5 per cent from 2019, according to Statistics Canada’s most recent national travel survey. The amount they spent abroad also jumped, rising 20 per cent in 2024 from a year earlier and nearly 40 per cent from 2019.
Tourism operators anticipate a strong summer as more Canadians avoid U.S. travel
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Even the trade war with the United States and growing possibility of a recession have not dimmed Canadians’ vacation ambitions. While travel south of the border by plane and car is down, Transat A.T. Inc. chief executive officer Annick Guerard said on a conference call with analysts in March that Canadians’ spending on transatlantic flights has not been affected.
According to estimates by Barry Choi, a personal finance and travel expert at moneywehave.com and regular Globe and Mail contributor, a two-week European vacation costs about US$5,050 ($7,000), though he noted the estimate was for a solo traveller, so couples or families should expect to pay notably more. Timing can significantly affect costs, with June to August the most expensive months.
In contrast, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., Canadians’ average monthly mortgage payment at the end of 2024 was $2,042 (and much higher in Toronto, at $3,006, and Vancouver, at $3,053).
Rachel Dodds, a professor at Toronto Metropolitan University’s Ted Rogers School of Hospitality and Tourism Management who studies overtourism and consumer motivations for travel, said social media plays a huge role in stoking travel interest. According to data from TikTok,as of mid-2024 the app had seen a 410-per-cent increase in travel content views since 2021.
“Everyone has a phone, everyone consumes [travel content] – if you see a reel on Instagram you’re like, ‘Oh, I wanna go there,’” Prof. Dodds said. That goes both ways: While on vacation, people are much more likely to post photos for the “instant gratification” of likes and comments. “There’s an emotional and sharing aspect of it that didn’t exist before 15 years ago.”
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Relative to previous decades, travelling is now more affordable and is seen as a right rather than a privilege in Western countries, Prof. Dodds said. And that increasein affordability has come at a time when many people, particularly millennials and Gen Zers, have more disposable income but feel other large financial goals are out of reach.
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“Travel has become a substitute for those kinds of things,” she said.
Prof. Dodds said we are an increasingly lonely society, and many people are travelling to connect with others to have meaningful, authentic experiences of other cultures. That’s given rise to sustainable travel, and nature-based trips and community experiences, rather than the traditional resort-based vacations.
While Ms. Daunt said none of her clients have ultimately chosen travelling over other financial goals, some have opted to delay major purchases. She said she usually sees people negotiating within their new budgets to downgrade from a trip every year to once every two or three years, or from pricier international trips to smaller ones close to home.
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“It’s hard, because we have the push from feeling burnt out and I would argue expecting vacations. We live in a country where we feel like, ‘I deserve to be able to have vacations,’ and there’s this other push on the home-buying side where there’s so much FOMO when it comes to home purchasing despite a bonkers overpriced market,” she said. “We’re still putting those expectations on ourselves.”
A strategy of making small regular contributions to a dedicated travel savings account can be aneffective way to save for vacations without compromising other travel goals, she said.
For Ms. Akhvledziani Carew’s part, when she and her husband bought their home a few years ago after years of rigorous monthly savings goals that mimicked what they expected to spend on mortgage payments.
They also tapped their investments, and her husband sold a condo he previously owned. She said they did slightly less-elaborate trips, but their points strategy meant they didn’t have to cut back much.
“It was a different position we were starting from,” she acknowledged, but added later “you build your lifestyle around the thing that’s most important to you.”
Cornell University administrator Warren Petrofsky will serve as the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ new dean of administration and finance, charged with spearheading efforts to shore up the school’s finances as it faces a hefty budget deficit.
Petrofsky’s appointment, announced in a Friday email from FAS Dean Hopi E. Hoekstra to FAS affiliates, will begin April 20 — nearly a year after former FAS dean of administration and finance Scott A. Jordan stepped down. Petrofsky will replace interim dean Mary Ann Bradley, who helped shape the early stages of FAS cost-cutting initiatives.
Petrofsky currently serves as associate dean of administration at Cornell University’s College of Arts and Sciences.
As dean, he oversaw a budget cut of nearly $11 million to the institution’s College of Arts and Sciences after the federal government slashed at least $250 million in stop-work orders and frozen grants, according to the Cornell Daily Sun.
He also serves on a work group established in November 2025 to streamline the school’s administrative systems.
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Earlier, at the University of Pennsylvania, Petrofsky managed capital initiatives and organizational redesigns in a number of administrative roles.
Petrofsky is poised to lead similar efforts at the FAS, which relaunched its Resources Committee in spring 2025 and created a committee to consolidate staff positions amid massive federal funding cuts.
As part of its planning process, the committee has quietly brought on external help. Over several months, consultants from McKinsey & Company have been interviewing dozens of administrators and staff across the FAS.
Petrofsky will also likely have a hand in other cost-cutting measures across the FAS, which is facing a $365 million budget deficit. The school has already announced it will keep spending flat for the 2026 fiscal year, and it has dramatically reduced Ph.D. admissions.
In her email, Hoekstra praised Petrofsky’s performance across his career.
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“Warren has emphasized transparency, clarity in communication, and investment in staff development,” she wrote. “He approaches change with steadiness and purpose, and with deep respect for the mission that unites our faculty, researchers, staff, and students. I am confident that he will be a strong partner to me and to our community.”
—Staff writer Amann S. Mahajan can be reached at [email protected] and on Signal at amannsm.38. Follow her on X @amannmahajan.
My spreadsheet reviewed a WalletHub ranking of financial distress for the residents of 100 U.S. cities, including 17 in California. The analysis compared local credit scores, late bill payments, bankruptcy filings and online searches for debt or loans to quantify where individuals had the largest money challenges.
When California cities were divided into three geographic regions – Southern California, the Bay Area, and anything inland – the most challenges were often found far from the coast.
The average national ranking of the six inland cities was 39th worst for distress, the most troubled grade among the state’s slices.
Bakersfield received the inland region’s worst score, ranking No. 24 highest nationally for financial distress. That was followed by Sacramento (30th), San Bernardino (39th), Stockton (43rd), Fresno (45th), and Riverside (52nd).
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Southern California’s seven cities overall fared better, with an average national ranking of 56th largest financial problems.
However, Los Angeles had the state’s ugliest grade, ranking fifth-worst nationally for monetary distress. Then came San Diego at 22nd-worst, then Long Beach (48th), Irvine (70th), Anaheim (71st), Santa Ana (85th), and Chula Vista (89th).
Monetary challenges were limited in the Bay Area. Its four cities average rank was 69th worst nationally.
San Jose had the region’s most distressed finances, with a No. 50 worst ranking. That was followed by Oakland (69th), San Francisco (72nd), and Fremont (83rd).
The results remind us that inland California’s affordability – it’s home to the state’s cheapest housing, for example – doesn’t fully compensate for wages that typically decline the farther one works from the Pacific Ocean.
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A peek inside the scorecard’s grades shows where trouble exists within California.
Credit scores were the lowest inland, with little difference elsewhere. Late payments were also more common inland. Tardy bills were most difficult to find in Northern California.
Bankruptcy problems also were bubbling inland, but grew the slowest in Southern California. And worrisome online searches were more frequent inland, while varying only slightly closer to the Pacific.
Note: Across the state’s 17 cities in the study, the No. 53 average rank is a middle-of-the-pack grade on the 100-city national scale for monetary woes.
Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com
The up-and-coming fintech scored a pair of fourth-quarter beats.
Diversified fintech Chime Financial(CHYM +12.88%) was playing a satisfying tune to investors on Thursday. The company’s stock flew almost 14% higher that trading session, thanks mostly to a fourth quarter that featured notably higher-than-expected revenue guidance.
Sweet music
Chime published its fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results just after market close on Wednesday. For the former period, the company’s revenue was $596 million, bettering the same quarter of 2024 by 25%. The company’s strongest revenue stream, payments, rose 17% to $396 million. Its take from platform-related activity rose more precipitously, advancing 47% to $200 million.
Image source: Getty Images.
Meanwhile, Chime’s net loss under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) more than doubled. It was $45 million, or $0.12 per share, compared with a fourth-quarter 2024 deficit of $19.6 million.
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On average, analysts tracking the stock were modeling revenue below $578 million and a deeper bottom-line loss of $0.20 per share.
In its earnings release, Chime pointed to the take-up of its Chime Card as a particular catalyst for growth. Regarding the product, the company said, “Among new member cohorts, over half are adopting Chime Card, and those members are putting over 70% of their Chime spend on the product, which earns materially higher take rates compared to debit.”
Today’s Change
(12.88%) $2.72
Current Price
$23.83
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Key Data Points
Market Cap
$7.9B
Day’s Range
$22.30 – $24.63
52wk Range
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$16.17 – $44.94
Volume
562K
Avg Vol
3.3M
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Gross Margin
86.34%
Double-digit growth expected
Chime management proffered revenue and non-GAAP (adjusted) earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) guidance for full-year 2026. The company expects to post a top line of $627 million to $637 million, which would represent at least 21% growth over the 2024 result. Adjusted EBITDA should be $380 million to $400 million. No net income forecasts were provided in the earnings release.
It isn’t easy to find a niche in the financial industry, which is crowded with companies offering every imaginable type of service to clients. Yet Chime seems to be achieving that, as the Chime Card is clearly a hit among the company’s target demographic of clientele underserved by mainstream banks. This growth stock is definitely worth considering as a buy.
