About
Stephanie Marie
Chauffeur by night, writer by morning. Paying off $131,000 in the open, one honest post at a time.
I live in Banff, Alberta. I drive a black GMC Yukon for a small chauffeur company I started myself, and I owe more money than most people my age make in two years. I'm not hiding either of those facts — they're the whole reason this site exists.
A few years ago I had about four thousand dollars in an S&P 500 index inside my Wealthsimple account. It felt like a lot. Then my GMC's engine started making a sound that no amount of hoping could fix, and I pulled every cent out to pay for the rebuild. The engine blew anyway — in the middle of Tennessee, hours from anyone I knew. That repair, that drive, and the decisions I made after are what turned into Bow Valley Chauffeur, and eventually into this.
The longer version
The engine in Tennessee wasn't really where it started. There's a harder story behind the decision to start the business in the first place — a childhood I planned around, a stretch of grief I don't skip anymore, and $150,000 of debt signed for in about ten weeks.
Read my full story →The current ledger
- · $31,000 on a Scotiabank line of credit
- · A Yukon loan I'm chipping away at every month
- · Five Visas, two I actually use, three I keep locked in a drawer
- · About $150 left in Wealthsimple, and a plan to grow it back honestly
Why I write this in public
Ninety percent of the Canadian personal finance advice online is written by people who've never had to choose between a truck repair and a grocery run. I have. If you're somewhere in that same middle — too much debt to feel calm, too much pride to quit — I think you'll find something here you can use.
Everything on Northern Debt is written by me. Some links to Canadian banks and fintechs are affiliate links; I only use them for services I actually pay for or would recommend to a friend at a dinner table.