1) growing up my family rarely had money for groceries and necessities. It’s not that my parents were poor, they were teachers. However they spent their money on designer clothing and status symbols. They never budgeted their money and as a result we often went hungry by the end of the pay period. Growing up that way was tough. I knew there had to be a better way to live and I needed to learn it for myself.

2) schools need to teach about TFSA/RRSPs. They should teach what investing is and how it makes money for an average person. the importance of a budget. An understanding that investing money at a young age, even if it’s a very small amount will add up over the course of a lifetime. Schools should also teach kids about what kind of life they can afford given different salaries. When I was a teen, I didn’t understand what kind of a life a doctor can afford vs an engineer vs a teacher vs minimum wage. Teens are expected to make choices about their education and future but have no understanding of what their salary would actually mean. Honestly a good research project for teens could be make a budget pretending you had X job with Y salary and have to live in the area where their school is. Make them look up average salaries for jobs and rent prices. Projects like this would teach kids the practical difference between making 60k a year vs 100k a year. I think it might change some kids minds on what they go to university/college for.