Household Finances Archives

Household Finances

Canadians from coast to coast are falling in love with not having to pay their full rent on the 1st of the month. We call it RENT DAY BLISS!

We asked our members on Instagram why they ❤️ Zenbase and being able to split their single biggest monthly expense:

I love it because it takes away unnecessary stress. It helps you create and stick to a proper budget.
Megan D.

The communication and ease of paying rent at your convenience with customer support that gets back to you ASAP!
Cam T.

The relief of stress and having access to more of our paycheck to pay bills and get groceries. It’s truly taken a lot of stress away day to day.
Debora A.

Stress relief of not having to juggle so many competing financial needs at the beginning of each month. And the custom service!
Candice P.

Zenbase is awesome! I love it because it gives us the option to pay other bills and just makes life so much easier.
Layne L.

The ❤️ for flexible rent payments doesn’t end there. Here are some of our most recent Google Reviews:

Zenbase’s mission is to ensure that no one is ever behind on their rent payments or gets evicted. Our solution enables the affordability of the primary need of every person, housing, which is why we built a solution that offers the most flexible rent payments ever. We also offer other financial solutions that empower residents to better navigate financial challenges that life may throw at them.

Written by: Koray Can Oztekin

As the cost of living continues to rise, it’s important for households to have a budget in place to manage their expenses. One area where a lot of households are feeling the pinch is in their rent payments which increased by 12% nationwide in 2022.

According to the 2021 Census, almost 5 million households rented the home they lived in last year—up from 4.1 million a decade earlier, approximately 36% of the population in big cities are renting. Rent is a significant portion of most household budgets, often taking up a large chunk of monthly income. 1/3 of the renters are spending more than 30% of their income on rent and they are considered to be in core housing need.

How can households manage this rent burden and still stay within their budget? Since we are already 3.5M units short in the housing supply and renters are not moving anywhere it’s unlikely that moving to a more affordable home is an option. Luckily it is still possible to optimize for the rent payments while staying in the same residence and here are three tips:

Create a budget and stick to it by aligning the timing of your bills including rent payments with the paycheck days whenever possible. Take advantage of split rent payments if offered by your landlord like Avenue Living Communities or Mainstreet.
Reduce the cost of household loans by refinancing high interest rates loans. Rent reporting with credit bureaus can help with credit building thus and find better terms for refinancing.
Preserve cash buffer to be resilient for changes in other expenses and avoid overdrafts and late fees. A low interest line of credit or splitting rent payments could create that buffer if saving more is not an option.

In addition to the increasing ratio of renters, Canada is also expecting 500K newcomers in 2023 who will most likely rent which will likely increase rent prices further since only about 260K new units are built per year. This means that we will continue to need tips like above to optimize for rent payments and stay on top of household finances.

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