According to Rob Carrick, there are three strategies to get ahead financially: career growth, wealth management and prudent spending. This lesson plan examines each strategy in depth.

Appropriate Subject Area(s):

Personal finance, wealth management, career planning.

Key Questions to Explore:

• Why is it smart personal finance practice to invest in developing additional skills and knowledge in one’s field of expertise?
• What are the benefits associated with investing in financial assets?
• How can employees develop their skills and knowledge in their field of expertise?
• What are some effective strategies to cut household spending?
• Why is effective wealth management necessary to realize one’s personal finance goals?
• What factors cause regional differences in income?

New Terminology:

Financial assets, inflation

• Financial asset: an economic entity or investment that generates positive cash flow.
• Inflation: a persistent rise in the average price of goods and services over a given period of time.

Materials Needed:

A copy of the article.

Introduction to lesson and task:

In the past ten years, average household income in Canada has grown by 10.8% cumulatively (allowing for inflation) from $63,457 to $70,336.

In this article, Rob Carrick, lists three strategies to develop wealth, even with the minuscule income growth in todays economy. The strategies are:

• Invest in your career: Investments in developing skills and knowledge in your field of expertise could lead to promotions, better job prospects, and salary raises. This can be done through enrolling in continuing education courses, online courses, or attending industry workshops.
• Invest in your wealth: Investing one’s current income into promising financial assets is a dependable means of increasing net worth, above and beyond salary increases. This is true because the annual returns derived from these financial assets are often higher than average annual income growth.
• Make one significant cut in your household spending: While salary and wage raises are typically beyond the regular employee’s control, every individual has autonomy over how much they spend daily. Individuals should critically examine their spending patterns and make significant cuts to discretionary spending.

Action (lesson plan and task):

Ask your students to recap the three key strategies to get ahead financially.

• Career growth:
  • Ask your students to share their career aspirations.
  • Ask your students to think of ways they can develop the skills and knowledge that will enable them to become employable in their desired field of expertise.
• Wealth management:
  • Ask your students to share some of their current personal finance goals.
  • Ask your students to share their plans to achieve these goals.
  • Ask your students to state investment options available to them today, which will enable them to earn attractive results.
• Prudent spending
  • Ask your students to examine their personal spending habits.
  • Ask them to think of major expenses they could cut to increase their monthly savings and to state the benefit of cutting these expenses.

Consolidation of Learning:

• Ask your students to do some research to increase their understanding of why income growth has been sluggish in the past decade. Ask your them to share their findings with the class.

Success Criteria:

• After completing this lesson plan, students should have sufficient understanding of the practical road map for personal finance stability laid out in this article.

Confirming Activity:

• Ask your students to state the key reasons outlined in the article for regional differences in income.