Getting on the Road to Financial Wellness with Enriched Academy

Getting on the Road to Financial Wellness with Enriched Academy

Financial wellness is not about being rich, having a certain net worth, or achieving a specific financial goal. Rather, it is about having a sense of security and confidence in your financial situation and managing financial challenges and opportunities as they arise.

While financial freedom is a goal for many, most of us struggle with money, A significant portion of Canadians live paycheque to paycheque, with financial stress contributing to 47% of divorces. A staggering 70% of us lack a retirement plan, feeling unprepared for their financial future.

FP Canada’s 2024 Financial Stress Index found 44% of Canadians citing finances as their top stressor, up from 40% in 2023. The survey revealed we continue to worry about covering daily expenses, retirement savings, and planning for major purchases like a home, car, or children’s education.

Poor financial wellness has significant costs with stress and anxiety topping the list by a mile. It also affects your job performance, personal or family relationships, and limit opportunities for education, career advancement, and other life goals.

What is making Canadians so financially unwell?

01 High levels of debt: Canadians have some of the highest levels of household debt in the world. This includes a large amount of mortgage debt. However, Canadians also carry significant amounts of credit card debt, car loans, lines of credit (often secured by home equity), and student loans. The average Canadian non-mortgage debt in 2024 is over $20,000.

02 Housing affordability and inflation: Housing affordability is a major concern in almost every Canadian city regardless of whether you own or rent. Although the inflation rate has declined since the start of 2024, many households are still struggling with elevated costs for food, gas, and other necessities.

03 Lack of financial literacy: The majority of Canadians lack basic money management skills and fail to budget, save, and properly invest to secure their future. This makes it difficult to effectively manage their financial life and leads to plenty of stress and financial instability. 

Financial wellness is obviously a function of your ability to earn money, but how well you manage those earnings plays an even bigger role. Critical skills include budgeting, saving, debt management, investing, and retirement planning. Successfully mastering these tasks will put you on the right track. 

Financial wellness is crucial because unbiased support is often lacking, especially tailored to different life stages. We need varying support depending on where we are in life:

• New career
• Paying down debt
• Beginning investing
• Having a family
• Will/estate creation
• Tax reduction
• Advanced investing
• Retirement planning

Life also throws us a few curveballs along the way — divorce, children, sickness or disability, buying a home, children’s education, buying an investment property, selling a home, purchasing a car — there are lots of unexpected issues! 

There’s a huge opportunity to create financial impact in a brand-new way, but we don’t usually have anywhere to go for unbiased support to learn the skill of how to make money, and the skill of how to manage money.

Introducing the Enriched Academy Financial Wellness Program

The Enriched Academy Financial Wellness Program is structured around our online Financial Wellness Platform, training events, and personalized financial coaching. This combination of approaches appeals to a wide variety of learning styles, schedules, and user preferences. Our goal is to give you the support and tools you need to empower yourself with the skills and knowledge to earn and manage money effectively.

A recent RBC Workplace Realities Poll found that 25 to 30% of employees consider themselves “very” or “extremely” stressed, with increasing costs and trying to meet everyday financial needs. The same poll found that 20% of respondents are looking to employers for access to financial wellbeing resources.

Although improved financial literacy by itself will not solve all your money issues, we have seen over and over again how a little pre-emptive knowledge can make a huge difference. For example, understanding the benefits of the Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA) and the importance of getting started with one at an early age will make a massive difference in the size of your retirement fund. Investing in high-fee mutual funds instead of low-fee ETFs (or not investing at all and letting cash pile up in a bank savings account) is another common mistake.

Where do I start with improving my financial wellness?

Improving your financial wellness will require some changes and a lot of dedication. Bettering you skills and knowledge with our Financial Wellness Platform is the first place to start, but our training will also help you adjust your mental outlook and attitude toward money. Our mission is to make financial freedom accessible to everyone.

Achieving financial wellness isn’t a sprint and it will likely take years to succeed. Staying focused and motivated as you work towards long-term financial goals is key. 

For more information, contact our support team. Your health and financial well-being are our top priorities, and we are here to help you every step of the way.

This article was provided by Enriched Academy. The Enriched Academy Employee Financial Wellness Program (EFWP) equips employees with essential skills to alleviate financial stress, the leading cause of stress for Canadians. With over 15 years of expertise in financial education, the program is designed to be seamlessly integrated into organizations, ensuring the financial health and overall wellbeing of employees. Continuously updated to meet current financial literacy needs, the comprehensive program is fully supported and tailored to benefit teams.