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Back in 2003, when I began my career as a young sales manager in the hospitality industry, I earned an annual salary of $26,000. Little did I know at the time that my human capital – as in, the present value of my expected future income throughout my working lifetime – would be worth nearly $3,000,000!
I did some back-of-the-napkin calculations and was surprised to learn I’ve already earned a million dollars over my 15-year career. I find that incredible, given that I’ve never earned a six-figure salary and, in fact, my wages have been stagnant for the past four years.
Projecting my income forward using a modest 3 per cent annual growth rate reveals the potential to earn another $2 million by the time I turn 55.
Human Capital vs. Financial Capital
Put in different terms, however, and you can see that my human capital is shrinking each year. That’s because the value of my human capital peaked the day I started my career (back in 2003) with my entire lifetime of earnings ahead of me. Since then I’ve steadily used up my earning power and the value of my human capital has gradually declined.
The idea of eroding capital doesn’t sit well with me, but that’s where the second form of wealth building – your financial capital – comes into play. See, I’ve been a diligent saver for most of my career, which means converting my human capital (earnings) into financial capital (investments).
At the age of 38 I’ve managed to turn my $1 million in human capital into long-term savings, or financial capital, of $175,000 (ignoring the equity in our home).
I can estimate my financial capital into the future by adding my annual savings rate and multiplying it by the expected rate of return on my investments. So when I do that projection I add annual savings of $18,000 to my existing financial capital and multiply that by an expected 6 per cent return on investment. The result?
By age 55 I’ll have converted $3 million worth of human capital into more than $1 million in financial capital.
Interestingly, the two forms of wealth building don’t intersect until age 51 – the point when I’ll have just $667,000 worth of human capital left (assuming age 55 retirement) and my financial capital eclipses the $700,000 mark.
Is Your Career a Stock or a Bond?
Another way to look at the concept of human capital vs. financial capital is to determine the volatility of your career. A teacher or civil servant likely has rock-solid job security and a relatively known earnings schedule throughout their working lifetime. Their human capital could be considered more bond-like, meaning they can likely afford to invest more of their financial capital in riskier assets like stocks.
Contrast this with someone who works in a boom-or-bust industry like oil & gas, or whose income relies mainly on commissions and bonuses. Their human capital could be considered more stock-like and therefore they can ill-afford to take on much risk in their financial capital and should hold more cash and guaranteed investments to hedge against a volatile profession.
You also can’t discuss human capital without talking about protecting your lifetime earnings with disability insurance, whether that’s through your employer, a private plan, or some combination of the two. One-third of working Canadians will experience a period of disability lasting longer than 90 days during their working lives.
Final thoughts
The concept of human capital is interesting when you consider your lifetime earnings and how to convert that into financial capital to provide for you in retirement.
You begin your career with perhaps several million in human capital and likely nothing in financial capital. The goal is for the two to intersect at some point during your working life, hopefully early enough so that your financial capital can provide you with your desired lifestyle in retirement.
$3 million sounds like a LOT of money to earn in a lifetime. But here’s the thing: if you don’t convert even a small portion of your earnings into financial capital then your human capital will eventually run out and you’ll end up with nothing.
As Charles Dickens once wrote,
“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery.”
In addition to running the Boomer & Echo website, Robb Engen is a fee-only financial planner. This article originally ran on his site on Oct. 22 and is republished here with his permission.
