Exploring Credits and Loans x RBC: A Reflection

 As a Community Leader at Illuminate Universe, I had the opportunity to review their work-integrated learning experience in collaboration with RBC bank, Credits and Loans.

Like most people’s experience, my financial literacy education received from high school courses was subpar. The best bet for learning finances was to learn on the go yourself through your resources or by trial and error. Neither of these is an ideal method of education, especially the latter! As the doom of economic struggles seems ever-threatening for the younger generations, navigating the turbulent waters of the rivers named Loans, Credits, and Mortgages is increasingly important. Here are the reviews of the learning experience and my leadership journey!

Personal Learnings

Sitting down one afternoon, I chose to not procrastinate with trivial activities and instead dedicate the time to something beneficial that I knew would be important for personal development. The learning experience had three key modules of material that each covered separate topics within them. Each module is bookended with a short quiz to help understand the material and check your understanding. 

The third and final module in the learning experience helped me create a detailed and effective spending budget to allow for a healthy amount of savings to be grown. I had the opportunity to learn how to create a personal budget, which is one of the key takeaways of my learning experience. This budget that I made during my journey toward improved financial well-being has continued to be beneficial, as I use it to this day to rein in any excessive spending, making sure that I can continuously save for my first car. Without a budget, it is much more difficult to have any control of financial spending and overspending. The personal budget allows me to stay on track and achieve my goals. For anyone wishing to save up for that trip to the Maldives, the shiny new iPhone, or a car (just like me), a financial budget is essential.    

Navigating the learning experience, I was inspired by the wealth of information I was obtaining. We are taught that credit debt is “oh so dangerous” and the horrors of a low credit score, but no one seems to know just how to improve it most optimally. The learning experience helped me learn that information and share it with my social circle, reaching more people than just myself.

The Value of the Learning Experience

 Part of the reason for the learning experience’s importance is the benefits it provides to communities. According to the 2019 Canadian Financial Capability Survey, 29% of Canadians have outstanding credit card debt and only 40% create a budget for their personal finances. 

This shows a real knowledge gap in the education and financial literacy levels of Canadians that certainly hinders their success.

 By educating individuals to manage their finances better, make the right choices, open the right accounts and create a personal budget, families and individuals alike can improve their lives and gain the much-needed opportunity to become financially successful and afford a home.

Key Takeaways

1. Separating between personal wants and needs and changing spending habits. For example, it helped me understand that eating out is a want not a need. Though food is a need, this need can be satisfied by going to a grocery store and cooking, rather than visiting upscale eateries. 

2. Effectively create a budget to progress personal finances. As mentioned earlier, this is paramount to set oneself up for financial discipline and future success. 

3. Understanding how a credit score is calculated, and how to improve it. By improving and actively progressing towards its improvement, this allows for better interest rates for line of credits and mortgages, as well as other benefits such as access to higher tier credit cards that offer greater rewards and bonuses for cardholders.

4. Learning the key use cases for a credit card to prevent negative effects on the credit score. Occasional late payments led to a decrease in my credit score. Learning to be mindful and set calendar reminders to pay off the card led to the problem being resolved. 

Personally, this is exactly what benefited me the most as I learned just how to best improve my credit score and avoid the pitfalls of bad financial habits. Through this work-integrated learning experience, I have acquired key insights and my credit score has now been steadily climbing ever since after remaining stagnant. 

Final Thoughts

If you are someone who cares about your financial well-being, wants to progress your financial success, or feels that what you know is just a little inadequate and you know deep down you need to improve, then this advice is for you. Start by going through similar learning experiences and actively completing all the quizzes and materials. Set aside just 15 minutes each day to read material to strengthen your financial knowledge. Small healthy habits are more important than rushing through everything. This reflection process and learning journey has helped me improve my spending habits, my credit score, and my overall knowledge of the monetary systems! Take the time to review your own understanding and work towards enhancing your own learning and leadership. The first step to building a house is to create the foundation. On your journey to owning a house, start by having the financial foundation to make that dream a reality…today.